On Nicknaming Predators

I have heard the term “rape” used as slang to imply that someone was going to put forth great effort to defeat or accomplish a task. I first think of the nickname in this context. By nicknaming a drone “Sky Raper,” operators—who are actors of the State—own the use of rape for domination and to defeat a target, while simultaneously participating in the normalization of rape as a larger systemic issue. The drone that takes this name is literally a weapon of war, operated by US persons in the War on Terror.

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Guest Post: Is it ethical to use data from Nazi medical experiments?

During World War II, Nazi doctors had unfettered access to human beings they could use in medical experiments in any way they chose. In one way, these experiments were just another form of mass torture and murder so our moral judgement of them is clear. But they also pose an uncomfortable moral challenge: what if some of the medical experiments yielded scientifically sound data that could be put to good use? Would it be justifiable to use that knowledge?

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As Stress Drives Off Drone Operators, Air Force Must Cut Flights

The Air Force also has tried to ease the stress by creating a human performance team, led by a psychologist and including doctors and chaplains who have been granted top-secret clearances so they can meet with pilots and camera operators anywhere in the facility if they are troubled.

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RT @the_intercept: Air Force forced to cut back on drone flights as its operators burn out (NYT)

The biggest problem is that a significant number of the 1,200 pilots are completing their obligation to the Air Force and are opting to leave, while a training program is producing only about half of the new pilots that the service needs, Colonel Cluff said in a recent interview.

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RT @the_intercept: Negotiations for voluntary code of conduct on use of facial recognition technology implode:

“At a base minimum, people should be able to walk down a public street without fear that companies they’ve never heard of are tracking their every movement — and identifying them by name — using facial recognition technology,” the privacy advocates wrote in a joint statement. “Unfortunately, we have been unable to obtain agreement even with that basic, specific premise.”

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