ATHENS, Greece (AP) — A big, round, 4,000-year-old stone building discovered on a Cretan hilltop is puzzling archaeologists and threatening to disrupt a major airport project on the Greek tourist island.
Experts said the FAA and other authorities could do more. They suggested creating a system similar to speed cameras on roadways that could capture a drone’s transponder code and send its pilots a ticket in the mail.They also said the FAA should consider regulations that require all manufacturers to program a drone’s GPS unit to prevent it from flying near airports and other sensitive areas, a method called “geofencing.”
DJI, a leading drone maker, used such geofencing restrictions for years. However, itin January, replacing it with an alert to drone pilots when they approach restricted areas.Adam Welsh, head of global policy at DJI, said managing requests from authorized users to temporarily disable the geofencing became an increasingly time-consuming task. More than one million such requests were processed last year.
“We had around-the-clock service, but the number of applications coming in were becoming really hard to handle,” Welsh said. “They all had to be reviewed individually.”With no other manufacturers enabling geofencing, and without government rules requiring it, DJI decided to end the practice, he said.
The FAA declined to say if it is considering whether to mandate geofencing.
Experts said authorities should take more aggressive action to hold drone users accountable for violating restricted airspace — to highlight the problem and deter others from breaking the rules, pointing to recent arrests that they hoped might send such a message.Madonna, whose family hails from Italy’s Abruzzo region, has been in Italy for several days, reportedly as a guest of designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana.
On Tuesday evening, she was filmed taking an evening walk in the Ligurian resort of Portofino wearing black lace and carrying an umbrella. She later dined with her two daughters and entourage at Portofino’s famous Puny Restaurant on the main piazza.Madonna ended her respective “Celebration Tour” in May with a free concert on Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro.
An email to Madonna’s publicist was not immediately returned.MADRID (AP) — It’s the eyes peering from the canvases that get him, their gaze piercing the boundary between art and life.