Word: aerials
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...Though aerial firefighting is effective, especially in rugged areas, it's also extremely expensive. The U.S. Forest Service spent nearly $300 million battling blazes from the sky in 2007. According to a report by the Los Angeles Times, it cost $368,645 to operate a single heavy-lift helicopter for one week during a recent fire (though choppers have a smaller capacity than large tanker planes, they're more maneuverable and can also ferry personnel and equipment). The cost of the retardant itself adds up as well; the Phos-Chek slurry used by Cal Fire costs about $2 per gallon...
...Aerial firefighting is also risky, as it often requires flying at low altitude through poor visibility. Nine people died in a helicopter crash during the Buckhorn fire in northern California last year, and last month a pilot died in the crash of a single-engine tanker near Reno, Nevada. (The Station fire has so far claimed the lives of two ground-based firefighters after their fire truck fell down a hillside.) Yet, as we're again reminded this year, tanker flights are favorite action shot of television news shows - California fire officials have dubbed them "CNN drops" - and that makes...
Though slurry doesn't look particularly eco-friendly, aerial firefighting is not environmentally harmful, Upton says - though planes avoid dumps near lakes, streams and other waterways (in especially sensitive areas, tankers drop plain water instead). The Forest Service also advises against allowing pets to swallow the stuff, as with other fertilizers. Still, the retardant poses another, less-publicized hazard, Upton says: to fashion. She's been on the ground as a rain of colored fertilizer falls from the sky: "I've had plenty of pink t-shirts...
...report's figures are startling. The U.N. agency's staff, made up of expatriates and Afghans, have been monitoring the country's poppy fields on the ground and from aerial surveillance cameras and they have found that farmers this year planted far fewer poppies - an estimated drop from last year of about 79,000 acres (about 32,000 hectares), or 22% of the country's entire opium crop. Afghanistan's output usually accounts for more than 90% of the world's heroin. The price that Afghan farmers get for their opium has also crashed, dropping by a third since last...
...targets don’t turn the drones back on us—more than 40 countries are working right now to develop drone technology—the robots themselves may have their way. The Air Force just released its Unmanned Aircraft System Flight Plan, which estimates that autonomous aerial bots will replace all manned aircraft in the country by 2047. And in June, leading figures in the artificial intelligence community convened at the Asilomar Conference Grounds in Monterey Bay to discuss the dangers of technologies like drones for humans. Sitting on the oceanfront, surrounded by pristine forests and sandy...