'Guardian Spirit of the Waters', by Odilon Redon (1878). Wikimedia Commons.
The Guardian and The Telegraph newspapers ran stories this weekend reporting that UK police are planning to use unmanned ‘spy drones’, originally developed for surveillance in military contexts, to monitor antisocial motorists, protesters, agricultural thieves, and fly-tippers. According to the reports, an arms manufacturer is currently developing the so-called Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) – capable of taking high-resolution images from heights of up to 20,000ft – for civilian deployment, and that the drones could be in use by local forces in time for the London Olympics in 2012. For the full reports, see here (Guardian [includes video and comments]) and here (Telegraph).
A one-day workshop on ‘Immigration and National Identity in British History: Europe, Empire, and Commonwealth’ will take place in the Dahrendorf Room of St Antony’s College, Oxford from 10am–5pm on Monday 18 January 2010. Sponsored by the 
any of the city’s permanent residents over the age of 16 in possession of a valid passport will be able to apply to the Home Office’s 
A new report on the ‘Database State’ has argued that many of Britain’s public sector databases are inefficient, invasive of privacy and vulnerable to legal challenge. The study was commissioned by the 
An Upper House report on ‘Surveillance: Citizens and the State’ has warned that Britain risks becoming a ‘surveillance state’. The report, published today by the 
A new technique for recovering fingerprints invented by a British forensic scientist is being implemented in the US. The method was developed by 
