#but that doesnt make it any less frustrating to watch these dynamics play out on such a massive scale

[biblicalhorror]

The most frustrating part of engaging in any of this discourse with pro-Israel people is that they claim there's just something ineffable about "seeing and understanding" how supporting Palestinian liberation is directly calling for the eradication of Jewish people (as if that type of rhetoric isn't exactly how actual antisemitism often manifests in online spaces but that's a topic for another day)

They get through people debunking the "the land belongs to the people of Israel anyway" argument and the "LGBTQ Palestinians are safe in Israel" argument and the "Genocide isn't what's happening here so you should educate yourself" argument and when all of those points are meticulously disproven over and over they still stand with "Well, myself and your Jewish friends see the hate you have in your heart for us" and it truly doesn't matter what you say at that point because even if you yourself are Jewish they will claim that refusing to support the state, government and military of Israel is inherently hateful and bigoted, as if a religious ethnostate is some inherent human right that is being taken away from them. I know many of them are blinded by the relentless propaganda that's been around their whole lives and how hard it is to break free from a belief system that is so tied to your core identity as a human being but it is so frustrating watching people being led straight to the point over and over again and just turning around and refusing to see it.

It's also so frustrating to see people using the momentum of this movement to casually tack on actual antisemitism to these discussions, as if having Jewish people in positions of power is why the US bends over backwards to excuse the actions of Israel and not, yknow, the fact that our government directly benefits from having a military stronghold in the middle east. I've talked to some well-meaning pro-Palestine friends irl who casually use antisemetic talking points because they've ALSO bought into the narrative that Israeli = Jewish and so they blame the actions of Israel and the IDF on Jewish people's "religious values" and ignore the fact that this conflict really has almost nothing to do with religion itself and everything to do with capitalism, imperialism and maintaining the US's status as a so-called "global power".

[maybeonedayillfindout]

As a former mcu fan, and as someone still partially invested in some characters, marvel's fall from grace is not so much funny as it would be to an outsider but it's just kinda frustrating and sad. like. they had this whole amazing concept, all these comics to go off of, and for a while they were really good at it. hate them or love them, marvel has produced some genuinely good content, especially in it's early run when quality still mattered. they had well developed characters and just generally a really cool universe where each of them got their own seperate plotlines but also it all connected and it was just. genuinely good.

in phase 1/2 even the worst movies had some good to them. thor 1 was kinda shitty but loki was an amazing character (don't get me started on him, holy shit im so mad about the tv show, yes half my most popular posts are about it) and it was a good introduction to the extended world. tom hiddleston and chris hemsworth had a great dynamic and both got to be invested in the characters they were playing and made them feel more human. it was a joint effort.

and then, things started to suck. producers stopped giving the actors any sort of creative license, and they started focusing on money, and phase four fucking sucks. i used to be obsessed with every new marvel movie, and now im shocked that there has been over a dozen new movies/shows released. i have watched five, and can only remember one with any sort of real fondness. Loki the tv show i outright hated and he was my favorite character. it was actually, no joke, sad to me.

and now everyone gets to laugh and be like "oh yeah we all knew this was coming" and the thing is that they're right. they're right. but that doesnt make it less frustrating because it could have been so good. it could have been great but now they're putting out products that are retroactively making everything before it suck and now the only watchable movies are the ones that have a real arc outside of the setup/payoff of other movies, and those are almost always the work of individual directors and actors. here are the movies/ tv shows i like and would rewatch, even with all this new shit: Thor Ragnarok, it is one of my favorite movies and i want to scream and laugh about how the new thor movie turned out; both Guardians of the galaxy's, james gunn is a genius and it was so much better when they were completely detached from the rest of the universe; no way home, the only new thing i have genuinely really enjoyed, but that was because of the amazing actors; Agent carter, in my opinion very underrated and i look back on it fondly, it is completely unattached to the rest of the universe; ant man i think was good but i cant remember. thats it. i have not watched moon night and i dont plan to but from what i've heard its pretty good.

the rest is just. completely spoiled by the other movies and it sucks. thor ragnarok should be ruined by its ending but i just. i love it too much to give it up. like it was good, it was genuinely good, and then they ruined it. fuck you corporations, go suck my dick

[mollymockiing]

Cadcly beetch

meme.

let me love u assholes

*✶｡  @cadcly​   .ﾟ☆ﾟ.  literally always accepting ! *✶｡

MY OPINION ON;

CHARACTER IN GENERAL: I was not prepared for how thoroughly Caduceus Clay would Kool Aid Man his way into my cold, dead, desiccated heart, but he did. Not easily, either. I was fucking devastated by Molly’s death, and I wasn’t sad about losing him, I was defiant. Like, I deadass refused to accept that shit, and it almost felt like a challenge to even accept Tal’s new character. But this asshole rabbit punched me in the emotions (right in the cockles of my heart, and even in the sub-cockle area), and I was fucking smitten. 

HOW THEY PLAY THEM: JESUS TAPDANCING CHRIST, LET ME HAVE A FUCKING MOMENT. I’ve not been writing for very long, but I’ve written a fuck ton, on a fuck ton of muses, and in a fuck ton of fandoms. I do not think I have ever been that shitpost about “my muse sees your muse and goes I WANT THAT ONE.” But that was exactly what happened with you?? I’m going to be honest, I don’t get intimidated easily. It just doesn’t cross my mind to be. If I want to write with someone, I’ll hit them up, it isn’t fucking prom. But holy shit, did it feel like that when I stumbled into your IMs apologizing for being a slow loras piece of marsupial shit. I remember telling you how excited I was that you liked my starter call then apologized profusely for how long it would take me to get shit to you, and you were so ganbatte :fist emoji: and so sweet to my dumbass from jumpstreet that I ended up getting so hype to write with u I slammed something out that night. And there was Molly, fucking already fucking sprung like a real scrub over Caduceus, telling him he smells like the light of the stars or some shit. And then it was all downhill from there. 

But for how much my muse adored yours immediately, you always played Cad so sweetly with Molly, and that destroyed me. The way you write Caduceus is nothing less than phenomenal (I’ll get to more on why that is later, this is an all day event, fucker). I always thought Caduceus was an unusual complement to Molly, with both of them exhibiting very different personality traits, but sharing a very important core of morals. But that was never a dynamic that I ever wanted to try to push on you or expect from you. It just sort of bloomed in this beautifully organic symbiosis between them, and that’s so fucking dope I honestly can’t get over it. I love when muses get together based on pure fucking chemistry, and these assholes did it. AND THEY DIDNT EVEN SHIP AT FIRST. THEY WERE JUST … the most wholesome fucking bromance, holding hands under the table and twining tails to keep track of each other in the dark like wot in tarnation in this. And then they got nasti. 

I’m highly particular about portrayals. I respect everyone’s writing, but I won’t lie, there are some people whose shit just resonates with me and those are the ones I crave to write with. The level of detail, the exploration, the logic of their backstory and how that comes to inform who they are, and the ability of that writer to manifest the nuances of that shit in their writing …. I analyze the shit out of people’s writing. And yours blows me away with an invariable systematicity, from your lengthy, beautifully composed headcanons to the way you craft his reactions to Molly and Fjord in little situations. You allow him this vulnerability that destroys me, and this crystalline innocence, and you strike this really extraordinary balance of that low INT/high WIS that I adore? It’s one of my favorite personality tropes, and it’s not always a simple one to portray, but you crush it. Every time. 

There’s a rare depth of his emotional makeup that you write. And the way you introduce that emotion, that journey to how Caduceus arrives at that sensation or sentiment always keeps me rapt. Like, even the way you color the way he blushes and why is always a new punch in the gut. And this asshole blushes a lot. You have a way of writing that brings a real profundity to even mundane things, and that’s a magic that not a lot of people posses.

AND IT DOESNT FUCKING HELP THAT YOU WRITE SO MAGNIFICENTLY THAT IT MAKES ME WANT TO SUPLEX MY OWN ASS BECAUSE I PHYSICALLY CANNOT DEAL WITH THE AESTHETIC ARREST OF YOUR WRITING. LIKE. I love challenges. I love people who challenge me to fucking up my shit, and you inspire me to write, and to want to fucking get better. Like I stare and study at the shit you write and I’m like how did this dick pull this out his ass like that. GET GOOD, MINT YOU LITERARY TROGLODYTE, YOU HEAVING, HUMPING HUNK OF SHIT, YOU GOTTA UP YOUR GAME FOR MOLLY’S BOYFRIEND.

And I fucking love the way you write him, wow, the end.

THE MUN: Sometimes I think of you and go, ‘this asshole has no right.’ But like, in a good way. Like I’d Beau punch you in the arm to display my confused frustration at how incredible you are? Like, I can talk about how incredibly talented you are (your art and your cosplay get me right in the kokoro), but also I really admire the fuck out of you as a person. When you told me you were an old man, believe me I’ve heard that one before. You’re an old soul. In the most brilliant way possible.

Part of the reason that I love RP so much is that for me it’s an exercise in understanding the human condition. I’ve studied and worked as a social scientist, and I am greatly attuned to learning about people and their characters based on the way they write. I’m sure you’ve heard that fucking classic adage “write what you know” but in all actually most people can only write what they know. Because it’s within the scope of our understanding. Muses always echo in some way an aspect of their mun. And it always spoke well to me of the integrity and the reason Cad always displayed. Turns out that’s the shit that really resonated with you. Turns out that’s shit i really admire about you and Cad both.

Emotional insight like that isn’t something a person just knows. It takes a lot of reflection and consideration and contemplation and meditation and observation and imagination to understand that shit, much less bring it to light in the context of fleshing out a character in a way that augments and enhances them. And in a way that makes sense. That’s really the core of what I love about your writing and interpretation. You write integrity with the insight of someone who is determined to embody it. And that’s admirable. And the level of intricate creativity you always bring is endlessly fascinating. 

You’re a good fucking person. You’re an extraordinarily uncommon sort of person. And I count it as a fucking windfall that I get to fraternize with your ass and your heart-destroying firbolg.

DO I;

FOLLOW THEM: bro yesRP WITH THEM: CRIES BRO YESWANT TO RP WITH THEM: dude, I would write with you on any of your muses ever, with any of my muses. Honestly, I’d follow your ass on any muse you write even if we don’t write, just to watch you fucking craft them. That’s how much I admire and respect your ass.SHIP THEIR CHARACTER WITH MINE: It’s the Titanic of my emotional loins

WHAT IS MY;

OVERALL OPINION: Literally, if you’re not crying about Seb or Seb’s Cad, have you really fucking lived today? 

**note: mun’s answer are all to be completely honest. don’t send url if you don’t want brutal honesty.

[idontneedasymbol]

Sam & Dean, leadership, control, obedience, and choice

Spinning this off into a new post because this got so long -- I love this topic, so I have many Thoughts! (Most of this is focused on the psychological side of it as explored through fictional tropes -- the mythological side of their chosen roles is also fascinating and deserving of its own post!)

@zmediaoutlet​ wrote:

I really do feel quite strongly about this, which makes those metas where people insist on calling Dean ‘controlling’ actually a bit infuriating to read. Sam makes decisions; Dean follows. It’s not that way 100% of the time, but it is true way more often than the reverse. It’s part of the deepest core of their natures–which is explained by the archangels they were meant for. Dean is loyal, and Sam rebels. I watched ‘The Vessel’ a few nights ago and was struck so hard by how Dean announces that he shall be the one who goes back to the past. He will be the one who puts himself in danger, because he’s expendable. He states it as a fact, almost bullish… and then still waits for Sam’s permission before he and ‘Castiel’ actually go. It’s just such a fascinating dynamic, made more so by the change-up of roles.

Again yes to all of this. Dean as "controlling" I take as a misinterpretation (--alternative interpretation, though this is a case that I feel strongly enough about the characterizations that I struggle to see the alternatives) of their communication styles -- and Dean's style in particular is molded, not just by John's militaristic upbringing, but by his relationship with Sam.

Dean can be controlling -- especially with innocents in supernatural-emergency situations, it's vital to give orders forcefully enough that you can expect them to be followed. But with Sam, that's rarely what it's about. Dean gives statements of intent to Sam knowing they're not going to be blindly followed -- since he was a little kid, Sam hasn't obeyed him without question. Moreover, Sam has always known that Dean won't actually act without his say-so. (e.g. "After School Special”, in which at 14 Sam is fully capable of letting Dean know what he wants -- Dean is raging "I'll rip his lungs out" about the bully, but he doesn't actually do anything, lets Sam handle it on his own. And it's not played as a "big brother finally lets his little brother out on his own" moment -- Sam is talking to Dean with confidence that he can handle it himself and that Dean won't intervene. He knows Dean has his back if needed, but he doesn't expect Dean to do anything without his agreement.)

Some of the reason this can be misinterpreted is because of their differences in communication and thinking styles. Sam is the kind of person who likes to go into a discussion or argument informed, fully armed -- he doesn't like to talk about anything until he's had time to think it out, to come to a conclusion and come up with counter-arguments, etc. While as Dean is less of a thinker, more of a doer; he wants to talk about what he's thinking/feeling because verbalizing it out loud is how he understands it himself. (Or by acting it, hence him being way more prone to expressing himself through physical violence than Sam.)

The reason this works is because they both understand this about each other.

A lot of their conversations start with Dean making a statement of opinion phrased as an absolute, and then Sam presents his side, softening that absolute. One of my favorite examples is at the end of 11x08:

SAM Dean, we need to seriously discuss me going to the Cage.

DEAN Okay. Not happening. Good talk. ...Sam, even if these visions are real...

Which on its surface can look like Dean is ending the conversation, shutting Sam down. Except that's not what's happening -- that's clearly not how Dean means it, because he immediately continues the discussion. He's not issuing an order to Sam that he expects to be followed -- he's stating his position, clearly telling Sam where his own opinion stands, giving Sam a starting point for his own argument. Which Dean is counting on getting from Sam, because Sam nearly always does.

This isn't perfect communication; it can lead to misunderstandings, and especially when they were younger, Sam could take it as Dean not respecting or listening to him. But they’ve worked like this for a while, mostly effectively. Dean can speak his mind so bluntly, figure out what he’s feeling, with the confidence that Sam will stand up to it. And in the end, Dean usually comes around, unless he can convince Sam otherwise, such as by coming up with an alternative plan.

The one area that this does completely break down is in regards to Sam himself -- the one time Dean will unilaterally go against Sam's "command" is when Sam's own life is at stake, in which case Dean's loyalty to saving Sam comes above obeying him.

And even then, it causes massive cognitive dissonance for Dean. One of the worst tailspins Dean has is in s7, after going against Sam's decision and killing Amy. Dean believes it's the right thing to do, and the right thing to do for Sam; but disobeying Sam and then lying to him about it makes Dean so guilty he can barely function. While as Sam can lie to Dean about the Book of the Damned for weeks without any obvious signs -- Sam feels guilt incredibly strongly, but not about disobedience, not when he thinks he's doing the right thing. Rebellion in itself isn't a sin for Sam -- as you say, it's one of his defining characteristics.

Then @chiisana-sukima​ had a related but different angle:

I would say that mythically, Sam is a King and Dean is his Minister of War. And I also agree that doesnt invalidate what Jared is saying because I think Sam rightfully doesn’t trust what he’s King of. And that a big part of Sam and Dean’s relationship is that Sam trusts Dean- and uses Dean- to be a check on Sam’s power, and a lot of their conflict is about that issue. Sam only wants and needs a check when he’s wrong, and he’s not always wrong. Sometimes he’s right and Dean is wrong (for example: MoC), so Sam can’t just lie down and do whatever Dean says, but he also can’t trust himself. It’s a hard position to negotiate.

I think this is all true -- and yeah, Sam gets very frustrated when he believes he's right and Dean still isn't coming around. Especially because Dean generally digs his heels in hardest when it has to do with Sam’s life/sanity rather than a moral question, which Sam does not believe is a valid argument (s9 got into this some, but as that argument happens perpendicular to the mostly-unspoken one about Dean violating Sam's bodily autonomy to save his life, it doesn't fully get resolved? And then the Mark temporarily upends their dynamic -- Dean starts giving orders actually expecting to be obeyed, and Sam flips from mission statement: saving the world to saving Dean.)

Dean sort of does double-duty as "Minister of War" and also Sam's bodyguard? Along with comparing it to Maiden Rose (which I would love to hear more about! maybe to discuss in person, as @owehimeverything​ has actually read it but prefers talking to writing meta) -- we've compared it ourselves to the even-less-known manga G-defend, in which the central (m/m) ship is between a commander of a sort of SF SWAT-team garrison and his bodyguard. The bodyguard is out of the main chain-of-command; he reports directly to the commander and obeys him in everything except matters pertaining to the commander's own safety, in which as bodyguard he has the authority to decide whether a given action is too dangerous for the commander to take. It's the source of some conflict (not a lot, because G-defend is one of the fluffiest BL series to exist, but...)

Sam and Dean's relationship doesn't map perfectly to these examples (in part because all the writers have a somewhat different take on their dynamic, so it can be inconsistent between eps; and I also think it's because this kind of power positioning is really common in Japanese fiction but less so in American fiction -- like, it's fundamental enough that we respond to it really strongly, e.g. Kirk & Spock; but especially without a clear command structure like the military to justify it, that kind of relationship can feel weird to Americans -- like there's something wrong about Dean being 'subordinate' to Sam when they don't have actual ranks, that it's an imbalance that must be corrected, rather than a mutually satisfying and stable arrangement.) But I have some hopes that if the story starts exploring “Sam as leader” more intentionally, it might drift more in this direction (even if by accident!)

My own view is that I do think people who say Sam is submissive to Dean are right. He lets Dean control a huge proportion of the relationship imo (for example: Dean has Baby/Sam has no car. For another example: Dean uses physical violence on Sam way more often than Sam does on Dean, and generally Sam just pretty much takes it). But power is complicated, and my view is that the operative word is let, and that they are both aware that Sam is delegating something that is his onto Dean.

On the one hand, I don't totally disagree? But on the other, neither of these specific examples seem to me like Sam ceding control. Sam doesn't own a car, but he has full access to transportation. If Dean isn't chauffeuring him, then Sam usually can take the Impala -- but if he can't, he simply steals another vehicle (or possibly they have extra vehicles in the bunker?) We've seen Sam driving multiple cars whenever he wants to go somewhere but Dean is out/Sam doesn't want Dean to know.  I take Sam's not having a car of his own as him not having much interest in personal possessions (e.g. not personalizing his room in the bunker)(and maybe mixed with a little of feeling "unfaithful" to Baby, given that the only time he ever got a car of his own he was soulless? Sam's relationship with Baby as compared to Dean's is fascinating in its own right...)

And Dean's physical violence is problematic for sure, but I have a hard time seeing it as controlling when it never seems to influence Sam? I can think of three times Dean has punched Sam when both were in their right mind (other than sucker punches or getting into a full fight) (in 2x03, 4x04, and (uggggh) 7x03...season starts are rough times?) and Sam doesn't actually agree to what Dean wants any of those times, or seem more than mildly annoyed by it. (I could go on a long tangent here too, the short version is that I think these moments are the show getting confused about what level of violence it operates at. Sam & Dean are rough-and-tumble sorts such that if we actually saw them hitting each other more -- in anger or in sparring -- it would come across as less significant?)

All that being said, Sam does let Dean take the wheel on smaller things (like choosing music) in part because he doesn't have strong opinions on a lot of it (really, given the scope of the issues Sam often is grappling with, he likely has such constant decision fatigue that he vastly prefers Dean to make the basic choices like where to go for dinner.) And I think a key thing here is the "let" -- Sam could get his way (often with just a word; Dean rarely refuses anything Sam asks for outright) but doesn't feel the need to. So I guess I see it as Sam sometimes agrees to submit to Dean, but I hesitate to call him “submissive”? (Or maybe that’s just a matter of definition?)

Meanwhile, when Sam starts working for the BMOL, he's directing their hunts for two weeks and Dean doesn't see anything amiss in it -- Dean is swinging the machete, but Sam is picking the target; Dean is driving, but Sam is the one telling them where to go. And that's how they both like it, and while it's not perfect (especially if their communication breaks down otherwise -- their biggest issues happen when one of them is keeping a secret and so the other is working with incomplete information), it's largely functional, a mutually satisfying and effective personal and professional partnership.

(And yes, this is one interpretation and there is plenty of room for others! But it's one I see strongly enough that I find it kind of baffling when I come across meta holding that Sam not choosing the music shows that Dean is controlling, or that Dean agreeing to work with the BMOL is Sam overriding Dean's will, when I see both as mutually willing choices, not signs of dysfunctionality.)

[mavwrekmarketing]

UK biomimetic engineering startupAnimal Dynamicsis buildinga microdrone with wings inspired by the flapping flight of a dragonfly. The project, which started in June 2015 with a feasibility study, isbeing funded with 1.5 million from theUK Ministry of Defence, via DSTL, the Defence Science and Technology Lab.

Last fall the companyswitchedfrom researching the feasibility ofthe concept into phase two: actually trying to build the thing.They now saytheyre confident theyll havea flying prototype of their Skeeter drone to demo by this summer with the tech potentially deployed in the field bythe endof next year.

To be clear this microdrone hasnot yet got off the ground. At this point all theyreshowing publicly is the bug-like modelon a stick, pictured above. But Animal Dynamics co-founder and CEO Alex Caccia says hesconfident it will take to theair in two to three months time. One of the challenges with something that flies is that everything has to work for it to work at all but were pretty close to it now. The ah-ha moment of it flying is almost the last thing that happens,he adds.

The team is also lookingto raise around 4 million in Series A funding in the next few months for continueddevelopment of Skeeter but also to fund some potential spin-out technologies theyve created along the way such as a high efficiency linear actuator designed for the drone which they reckon could also be used for other use-cases, such as in medical pumps and for road vehicle propulsion.

Were fundamentally interested in developing commercial products from studies and understanding of how nature reaches these tricks that allow greater performance and efficiency, saysCaccia.

Drones with flapping wings do exist including a DARPA-backed drone that resembles a hummingbird, built by US company Aeroenviroment back in 2010 but its fair to say that flapping dronesare the exception not the rule. A far more typical animal in this space is the buzzing quadcopter.

Yet rotary blades have drawbacks. They dont support stable flight in windy conditions. Theyre noisy. They can even be dangerous. And they can require a lot of power to stay airborne. Hencethe MoDs hope of driving development of amorerobust flight techniquethat can withstand tough in-the-fieldenvironmental conditions.

Its a very extreme challenge, set down from them DSTL came up with the requirements which is can you make something at this scale operate in high wind and difficult environmental conditions, says Caccia, discussing the MoDs requirements for the Skeeter drone.

Theyd been using small drones in Afghanistan and Iraq with quite a lot of success because when the environmental conditions are right they are extremely useful for soldiers on the ground to go out and see whats round the corner they need to be small so that they cant be seen, so that theyre easily carried and so that theyre quiet. However as soon as theres a slight wind anything above5 meters per second they get blown out of the sky So theyve got a frustration.

As Caccia tells it, theusual suspect defence suppliers werent at all confident theycould build anythingto meetthe MoDs microdrone challenge. But Animal Dynamics other co-founder,Adrian Thomas, a professor of biomechanics in the Zoology Department of Oxford, suggested the answer could lie in looking to nature for inspiration given that birds and insects are able to achieve stable flight in turbulent conditions. And, ultimately, Animal Dynamicspitch securedthe DSTL funds.

Adrian was doing some work in his garden during Storm Doris andthere were 50 mile an hour winds and there were bumblebees happily buzzing around the lawns, completely unfussed by the high winds. Which is something insects have solved for a very long time, says Caccia. Its very, very difficult to do but the interesting things is that flapping wing propulsion lends itself to solving this problem very well. Rotary blade propulsion doesnt.

Asked for anopinionon the engineering challenges of flapping, Dr Mirko Kovac, director of the Aerial Robotics Lab at Imperial College London, tellsus: Flapping wing flight has several advantages compared to propeller based solutions, including the ability for highmanoeuvrability and potentially low energy consumption during forward flight. The challenge however is significant and includes the need for a thorough understanding of the aerodynamics involved, as well as the development of the mechanics and wing transmission mechanisms as well as the controller for successful flight.

Commenting onthe Skeeter project specifically, Kovac adds: The mentioned timeline seems possible but it will depend on the size and weight of the vehicle. Bird-sized flapping wing vehicles are partially already available on the toy-market while bee-sized flying robots are still the topic of intense university research. However, I do believe that it is possible to build a flapping micro drone that can provide value in environmental monitoring, smart farming and search and rescue applications.

Cacciasays the biggest remaining challenge to getting Skeeter off the ground at this point is the mechanical design. Flapping, as youd expect, is a lot more complex in engineering terms than spinning especially if you also have relatively littlepower to play with, as its a lightweight, battery-operated device.

The challenge is really around producing a very low friction mechanism. So the wings weve built, the flight control system has been solved, its actually the mechnical design thats very difficult. So were doing some work with some people in the Swiss watch industry to help us out Its really about friction. You need to get the mechanism to be very, very low friction, he says.

Even the slightest friction will cause resistance, and create heat and stop the thing from working properly. Most mechanical systems get around it by putting an unreasonable amount of power in. We dont have that so we have to make things run very, very smoothly.

Thomas also points tofriction and inertial load as the hard problems. The high leverage at the wing hinge means that the motors see about 50 times the wing weight, so driving the wing weight down has huge benefits. Similarly, apart from the aerodynamic loads, almost all the work done by the motors is work against friction in the flapping system, driving the friction in the system down pays huge dividends, he says.

The stability and control systems may seem challenging, but there has been a lot of work done on control and stability in birds and insects, and our vehicle has a huge advantage over any of the other current drones that can hover turn the motor off and it glides, with good passive stability, down to a relatively gentle landing.

On the plus side, the team says its benefiting from the easy availability of electronic components spilling over from the mobileindustry.

The extraordinary thing and one of the factors that has made a project like this possible is availability of components from the mobile phone industry. The access to very low costs MEMS and sensors and tiny antenna and a whole array of electronics is really one of the key factors, says Caccia. Ive noticed that a whole bunch of components have come onto the markets as development boards literally in the last two to three years I think partly also driven by the wearables market Which anyone can have access to. And certainly were using that.

He also suggests this liberal availability of electronic components is providing an added incentive for the MoD to fund projects such as Skeeter.They need to try and keep one step ahead, but also engage with the tech developer world far more to understand how these technologies are being used, he adds.

The dragonfly-esque Skeeter is planned tobe 120mm at its largest; weigh less than 20 grams (packing a camera and the other necessary comms and navigation sensors); and have a top speed of around 45km per hour. In terms of flight time Cacciasays it will be useful qualifying that as not quite an hour though he also notes it depends on wind conditions, andpoints outthat adrone with wings can also glide thereby saving on battery power.

Range will be most limited by the radio signal which he says might be up to 1,000 meters. While the per unit price theyre aiming foris the low thousands so the microdronecan be widely used andin effect almost thrown away though it remains to see if they can keep costs down.

One thing is certain: should Skeeterget off the ground, this is going to be a very bespoke animal indeed a drone made to measure for its military masters. But, while youre in no dangerof receiving an airfreighted Amazon package to your doorstep conveyed via an industrious team of Skeeter dragonflies,Caccia does reckon flapping wing tech holds promise for more than just stealthy surveillance microdrones. Especially as the form factor need not be so small. And its certainly true that military-funded technology has a habit of filtering down to the consumer space after the expensive R&D work isdone as indeed isthe case with drone tech itself.

I think theres a market for it not just in the military but also elsewhere too, and also at different scales. Theres been a very clear focus requirement to make it at this scale, because theyve been using something at this scale but the technology can be scaled up. So one of the reasons were looking to raise funding is wed like to make a bigger one, he says.

Theres all sorts of advantages you can have with a larger, flapping drone. Far, far more efficient flying from A to B. Can still hover. Much less dangerous. You can put your finger in the flapping wings as they flap and it wont hurt you And also with a quadcopter drone, if any of the mechanism fails it falls out of the sky like a brick. Whereas the things that were making glide in their neutral position.

Could a larger flapping wing drone be capable of taking payloads sayfor adelivery use-case?Caccia reckonsit could, though hesaysit wouldneed to have half a meter to a meter wingspan.Which, sadly, suggests theres also little prospectof urban drone delivery via giant dragonflies. Maybe just for some edge cases such as delivering humanitarian aid to remoter areas.

I think delivery drones is a laughable idea, adds Caccia. I dont think its really going to happen. Its a sort of fantasy. But I think there are uses [for a larger-scaleSkeeter] for instance agriculture, for instance surveying large field areas.

A quadcopter type thing is pretty nigh useless for that because the flight times so low. So I think its something thats definitely worth exploring.

Even at the microdrone scale, the team sees potential agricultural use-cases for flapping propulsion.One area Id like to explore is precision agriculture inside greenhouses, saysThomas. Using the drones to deliver precise tiny doses of nutrients or pesticides to the plants that need them rather than dosing the whole greenhouse, that might be a good use for the existing drones once we have them in mass production and have the cost down to sensible numbers.

It is also investigating the potential of flapping in water, for propulsion and hydropower-generation. And is on its third prototype of a human-powered boat, also animal-inspired of course, with Caccia pointing out thatfish swim with far greater efficiency than propeller-based water crafts. He describes the craftas looking kind of like a recumbent bicycle with a dolphin fin behind it.

This isthe activity that Adrian and I first got excited about, he tells TechCrunch. Its something were hoping to be able to get out this summer and have a go at breaking the world speed record. Just as a demonstrator of how you can make something flapping go very fast.

Propeller design efficiency has basically reached an asymptote, theres been no real, materialimprovement in the efficiency of propellers in the last 20 years, Cacciaadds. Of course everyone thinks flapping is a completely ridiculous thing to do but natures way of telling you youre wasting energy in water is a stream of bubbles. And fish dont produce a stream of bubbles when theyre going about So were interested in all sorts of areas. Were making an out-board motor that uses it. Its also very, very quiet And were making our human-powered boat. And it would be wonderful to see larger vessels using it too.

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