Los Angeles, CA —Before I share my thoughts I want you to see what a seemingly thoughtful journalist, Matt Waite has to say about the use of drones for Electronic News Gathering or ENG .  It’s important that you first watch his video presentation. My response is below the video. Okay, Waite made a really melodramatic example of anecdote from his reporting past to make a point.  It was a really unfair and simplistic overstatement of a highly unusual situation he once encountered.  Waite’s dramatic example is one we all can resolve by simply keeping enough distance between the drone and the grieving woman that Waite described. Only the most soulless bastard would dare to bring a buzzing drone into that poor woman’s face!  Additionally, Waite unleashed his little drone inside the theater where he’s speaking and the natural acoustics there exaggerated the multi-rotor drone’s noise substantially.    At 40 or 50 feet outdoors that noise is barely n...

Phoenix, AZ —My spies at the FAA insist that they will very quickly authorize the commercial use of multi-rotor, mini-drones weighing in at less than three pounds for among other things, newsgathering. Any TV station news department that has not made plans for this new technology will be left in the dirt.  The very day the drones are authorized is when the promotions departments should be heralding their new newsdronie correspondents. They all should be up and running with two or three of these prime time ready “newsdronies” to cover routine accidents, crimes and fires.  Sending a helicopter to a school lockdown for example is foolish when you can use a drone and only pony up a fraction of the price.   That FAA weight constraint will limit the size of the cameras that of the GoPro types.  But they can really capture epic and stunning imagery. What that means is the local television markets can dispatch a drone pilot that’s able to operate the device, cam...

Berlin, Germany —I can only wish I were writing this in beautiful City of Berlin .  The German people have not diminished or even denounced this great holiday as too many American’s have.  Instead I’m in Los Angeles at the moment.   As many of you know I’ve become thrilled and addicted to using a camera drone to acquire amazing video.   I even earned an IMDB screen credit as aerial photographer for the Pablo Lewin short film production, The Roommate . The word “drone” became a dirty term because of those infamous military weapon-laden killing machines.   The multi-rotor camera drone users like me have now clamed that term and redefined it as a tool for art and many exciting humanitarian purposes. I hope to see the FAA end their ban on commercial use of drones to grow our stagnant economy and create new jobs. We saw a racial divide like we’ve not had in this nation since the 1950’s.   I blame almost all of it all on high profile race baiting ...

New York, NY —Cops here like everywhere are being targeted for violence.  Cops are not the cause of government tyranny.  They are the ones forced by politicians to enable tyranny. Cops once existed to keep the peace and to stop criminal bullying.  However the politicians have perverted the mission of police into their evil extortion mission. Politicians hate running for reelection and want others to fund guaranteed eternal employment for them. Those in power have found clever ways of converting taxes, fines and government ATM style programs to fund their reelections. The only way to stop this is with strict term limits for politicians.  If they can’t run for reelection they lose motivation for extorting cash to fund expensive reelection campaigns. Switzerland has a smarter idea for their Presidents.  The President there only serves a single two-year term.  Incumbency does not help anyone and if they elect a bad politician the pain fr...

Breaking news update: I'm pleased to report that this was a bizarre but somewhat understandable mistake involving a caregiver and miscommunication.  It's not a criminal matter.  Little Audrey has happily been reunited with her father.  Case closed!   Los Angeles, CA — The Grove is one of the better shopping centers in the world.  Movie stars shop here along with some of the wealthiest people anywhere. It’s so close to Christmas and the Grove has one of the biggest Christmas trees anywhere.  The decorations are beautiful and every child is brought here promised a special visit from Santa Claus. Little Audrey was abandoned here yesterday.  Now she has nobody.  Santa does not know where she lives to deliver her exciting toys like he does for the other children.  I never had any children of my own and find this story incredibly heartbreaking.  Right now there will be no Christmas for Audrey. She is in...

L Locations in order of appearance:   Lake Sherwood in Westlake Villiage, CA Sunset Blvd and Pacific Coast Highway in Pacific Palisades, CA Sunset Blvd in Hollywood behind Sunset Plaza  Carmel By The Sea, CA  (That gorgous white beach) Pescar Drive in The Town of Paradise Valley, CA Theater Palisades in the Pierson Playhouse, in Pacific Palisades, CA

Los Angeles, CA —Free speech is dead in America.   Political correctness has an evil twin.   It’s call deception.   It’s one thing to hide your feelings about religion, cultures, politics or sexual preferences.   It’s another to pretend you don’t have some negative thoughts. Fear of being hated and attacked drives Americans to deceive as they lie to each other about their true feelings.   We will never come together as a nation if we can’t truthfully express ourselves.   It’s far better that people control offensive culturally based conduct than their feelings. There are stereotypes everywhere in reality.   Most are not offensive and others are downright evil.   It’s not about skin color but culture.   Some cultures are bankrupt, destructive and even violent. If refined, educated and law abiding people pretend to accept bad behavior, rudeness and excuse others for culturally based evil deeds nobody is being served. Children learn...

Los Angeles, CA —Last week’s fire at the downtown Da Vinci Apartments under construction seemed to me to be an obvious case of arson.  Motives in significant arson cases are nearly always financial.  The fact that the fire engulfed the entire, well over one million square feet evenly and suddenly indicates, at least to me a very large amount of accelerant like gasoline or paint thinner was used. Arsonists often mistakenly believe that fires will consume all the evidence of their crime.  The reality is gravity preserves arson evidence.  The temperatures of fires are the coolest on the bottom of structures conserving precious clues. Investigators are being understandably tight lipped about the things they know.  I also suspect that because the vast amount of real estate involved this crime involved multiple arsonists. In this case the first arsonist that can get to a lawyer, contact authorities and snitch on everyone else wins!  With...

Los Angeles, CA —I really looked forward to the first ever L.A. Drone Expo .  It happened today at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena.  The exhibitors came with products and displays.   Hundreds of drone enthusiasts stormed the venue and there was real excitement. It was terrific to talk with many of the engineers and inventors that have made contributions to this specialized technology.   Products were for sale everywhere and for the attendees it seemed like their first trip to Disneyland.   Additionally there were speakers on all of the creative and regulatory issues.   Speaking of regulatory issues there are those that want cumbersome regulations and those like me that don’t.   It’s seems so un-American to use regulation as a way to reduce competition by making things difficult for the unwashed newbies. This country was number one in technology, design and innovation.   Somehow we made a Left turn and fell behind. ...