The dawn of the age of the drones: an Australian privacy law perspective

Examines Australia\u27s privacy laws in relation to unmanned aerial vehicles, to identify deficiencies that may need to be addressed. Introduction Suppose a homeowner habitually enjoys sunbathing in his or her backyard, protected by a high fence from prying eyes, including those of an adolescent neighbour. In times past such homeowners could be assured that they might go about their activities without a threat to their privacy. However, recent years have seen technological advances in the development of unmanned aerial vehicles (‘UAVs’), also known colloquially as drones, that have allowed them to become reduced in size, complexity and price. UAVs today include models retailing to the public for less than $350 and with an ease of operation that enables them to serve as mobile platforms for miniature cameras. These machines now mean that for individuals like the posited homeowner’s adolescent neighbour, barriers such as high fences no longer constitute insuperable obstacles to their voyeuristic endeavours. Moreover, ease of access to the internet and video sharing websites provides a ready means of sharing any recordings made with such cameras with a wide audience. Persons in the homeowner’s position might understandably seek some form of redress for such egregious invasions of their privacy. Other than some form of self-help, what alternative measures may be available? Under Australian law this problem yields no easy answer. In this country, a fractured landscape of common law, Commonwealth and state/territory legislation provides piecemeal protection against invasions of privacy by cameras mounted on UAVs. It is timely, at what may be regarded as the early days of the drone age, to consider these laws and to identify deficiencies that may need to be addressed lest, to quote words that are as apt today as they were when written over 120 years ago, ‘modern enterprise and invention … through invasions upon [their] privacy, [subject victims] to mental pain and distress, far greater than could be inflicted by mere bodily injury.

Aristippus and Xenophon as Plato’s contemporary literary rivals and the role of gymnastikè (γυμναστική)

Plato was a Socrates’ friend and disciple, but he wasn’t the only one. No doubt, Socrates had many followers, however, the majority of their work is lost. Was there any antagonism among his followers? Who succeeded in interpreting Socrates? Who could be considered as his successor? Of course, we don’t know if these questions emerged after the death of Socrates, but the Greek doxography suggests that there was a literary rivalry. As we underlined earlier, most unfortunately, we can’t examine all of them thoroughly due to the lack of their work, but we can scrutinize Xenophon’s and Aristippus’ work. All of them, Plato, Xenophon and Aristippus, presented to a certain extent their ideas concerning education. Furthermore, they have not neglected the matter of gymnastikè, but what is exactly the role of physical education in their work? Are there any similarities or any differences between them? Since, Xenophon and Aristippus (as well as Plato) seem to be in favor of gymnastikè, it is necessary to understand its role

Human Well-being: Concepts and Conceptualizations

well-being, welfare, happiness, objective, subjective, measurement

3D model of hydrogen atmospheric escape from HD209458b and HD189733b: radiative blow-out and stellar wind interactions

Transit observations in Ly-alpha of HD209458b and HD189733b revealed signatures of neutral hydrogen escaping the planets. We present a 3D particle model of the dynamics of the escaping atoms, and calculate theoretical Ly-alpha absorption line profiles, which can be directly compared with the absorption observed in the blue wing of the line. For HD209458b the observed velocities of the escaping atoms up to -130km/s are naturally explained by radiation-pressure acceleration. The observations are well-fitted with an ionizing flux of about 3-4 times solar and a hydrogen escape rate in the range 10^9-10^11g/s, in agreement with theoretical predictions. For HD189733b absorption by neutral hydrogen was observed in 2011 in the velocity range -230 to -140km/s. These velocities are higher than for HD209458b and require an additional acceleration mechanism for the escaping hydrogen atoms, which could be interactions with stellar wind protons. We constrain the stellar wind (temperature ~3x10^4K, velocity 200+-20km/s and density in the range 10^3-10^7/cm3) as well as the escape rate (4x10^8-10^11g/s) and ionizing flux (6-23 times solar). We also reveal the existence of an 'escape-limited' saturation regime in which most of the escaping gas interacts with the stellar protons. In this regime, which occurs at proton densities above ~3x10^5/cm3, the amplitude of the absorption signature is limited by the escape rate and does not depend on the wind density. The non-detection of escaping hydrogen in earlier observations in 2010 can be explained by the suppression of the stellar wind at that time, or an escape rate of about an order of magnitude lower than in 2011. For both planets, best-fit simulations show that the escaping atmosphere has the shape of a cometary tail.Comment: 21 pages, 26 figures, accepted for publication in A&

Searching for Evidence of Life in Deep Time and Space

Cyanobacterial mats provide insights into ancient benthic microbial communities and their biosignatures. Thick mats occupy hypersaline saltern ponds at Guerrero Negro, Baja California, Mexico. Mat biota maintains rapid rates of biogeochemical processes under steep and rapidly changing environmental gradients. Cycling of C, O, and S all increased identically with temperature, indicating the tight coupling of these cycles. An enormous microbial diversity exhibits a highly structured spatial distribution of populations. Combined universal clone libraries from all mat layers indicated Bacteria/Archaea/Eukarya ratios of 57:7:1. More than 10,000 unique bacterial sequences were present. The relative abundance of Archaea increased with depth - below 10 cm, solvent-extractable archaeal lipids were twice as abundant as bacterial lipids. Only 15 species of Eukarya were found among 890 clones analyzed. Degradation of the mats insoluble macromolecular organic fraction (IMOM) by hydropyrolysis released a complex variety of linear, branched and polycyclic alkane structures, e.g., hopanes, methylhopanes and steranes. Covalent binding of these biosignatures into IMOM aids their long-term geological preservation. Mars rover missions revealed evidence of long-lived fluvial lacustrine systems and organics in associated mudstones. NASAs Mars 2020 rover mission will examine sediments in Jezero crater, including a delta and shoreline carbonate deposits, environments that on Earth have sustained microbial mats