Fly High WiFi

It was the mid-1980’s, the Communist era of Poland was drawing to a close as the Solidarity movement began to take a tighter hold on the reigns of a more democratic state.  One of the most significant contributions to the end of the communist movement came from the US and other allied nations, spreading anti-communist leaflets through the air but also providing them a voice through the mass distribution of printing presses and radio transmitters to spread the word of democracy through the land.

Today, despite all of the methods of electronic and mobile communication like Twitter, Facebook, SMS and the millions of blogs out there, a country such as Iran can maintain an extremely tight firewall against any dissent toward the current Ahmadinejad regime, the wannabe North Korea like isolationist accused of stealing the last presidential election.

In a brilliant and ingenious attempt that even reaches across the isle, Republican Senator John McCain is proposing attaching a long range WiFi transmitter to an unmanned Predator Drone Aircraft.  The idea is amazingly simple:  Since the drones already have a satellite link-up, it’s just a matter of attaching the transmitter.  This technology is readily available and is probably easily configurable. This isn’t your typical Starbucks hotspot however.  Long range WiFi is used commonly in many rural regions of the US where Cable Internet or Satellite is either inaccessible or too expensive.  The only two words that come to mind which could pose a problem with this solution is, “Bang Bang.” It wouldn’t take much effort to blow these things out of the sky.  However, I believe if you fly high enough, you can avoid most ballistic hostility.  Regardless, you can’t help but feel all warm inside that a few of these drones are being sacrificed so that the people can speak their minds, inform the world and watch hilarious videos of cats slamming into walls.