The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said in a recent annual report that drones are not often used to smuggle drugs from Mexico because they can only carry small loads, though it said they may become more common. In 2015, two people pleaded guilty to dropping 28 pounds (62 kilograms) of heroin from a drone in the border town of Calexico, California. That same year, Border Patrol agents in San Luis, Arizona, spotted a drone dropping bundles with 30 pounds (66 kilograms) of marijuana.

When the sun disappears behind the moon on Monday, scientists will be ready. The astrophysics of the eclipse are known, so for space watchers it will be a time to relax and partake in the strange beauty of day gone suddenly dark. For the atmospheric scientist however, the eclipse provides a shining opportunity to directly study how the sun influences weather patterns by heating the atmosphere. To that end, a team of researchers from Oklahoma State University and the University of Nebraska is going to spend Monday tracking changes in the atmosphere in the path of the eclipse. And to get just how the eclipse changes the weather in the low sky, the team will fly drones during the totality.

A bizarre drone designed to take the hassle out of walking your dog is being advertised by an online retailer. Drones Direct say that they have modified a popular automated aerial vehicle to allow owners to take their pet for a stroll completely hands free. The device uses GPS to lead dogs along a programmed route. Their DJI Phantom 4 Dog Drone, which the firm insists is a genuine product, costs twice the price of the regular model at £1,999 ($2,590). A bizarre drone designed to take the hassle out of walking your dog is being advertised by an online retailer.

With threats, bribes, diplomacy and sanctions, American presidents of both parties have sought for 25 years to try to halt, or at least slow, North Korea's quest for a nuclear arsenal -- to no avail. Though the brinksmanship of the last few weeks has subsided, President Trump still faces the prospect of a madman -- Kim Jong Un -- in control of a nuclear arsenal. What the United States and its allies must now do is find options between conventional war, or even nuclear holocaust, on the one hand, and appeasement on the other. The answer could be robotic, cyber, and space weapons -- if we have the will to deploy them. They already have been used for pinpoint strikes on terrorist leaders and insurgent forces in the Mideast.

IONIA, MICHIGAN – Michigan prison officials say three people have been arrested after trying to use a drone to smuggle a cellphone and drugs into a prison. Michigan Department of Corrections says two guards at the Richard A. Handlon Correctional Facility in the western Michigan city of Ionia heard the drone in the prison yard shortly before 4 a.m. Moments later, the drone dropped a package near a housing unit. The Corrections Department says that as officers responded to the scene, the drone dropped a second package. Department spokesman Chris Gautz says local law enforcement officers detained three people in a vehicle near the prison about 110 miles (175 km) northwest of Detroit.

Amazon has patented a way for its delivery drones to drop off packages without ever having to land. The new patent describes an accordion-like tube that would extend from the drone to a drop-off point such as a porch and let the package slide through to a safe landing. Additionally, the technology could make it easier to deliver packages when conditions aren't optimal for landing and also cut down on noise pollution. The new patent describes an accordion-like tube that would extend from the drone to a drop-off point such as a porch and let the package slide through to a safe landing. Amazon has patented a way for its delivery drones to drop off packages without ever having to land.

UAV designs are a perpetual compromise between the ability to fly long distances efficiently with payloads (fixed-wing) and the ability to maneuver, hover, and land easily (rotorcraft). With a very few rather bizarre exceptions, any aircraft that try to offer the best of both worlds end up relatively complicated, inefficient, and expensive. The ideal fantasy UAV would be a fixed-wing aircraft with the magical ability to land on a dime, and a group of researchers from the University of Sherbrooke in Canada have come very close to making that happen, with a little airplane that uses legs and claws to reliably perch on walls. The majority of the perching robots that we've seen are quadrotors. Perching with a quadrotor is significantly easier than perching with a fixed-wing aircraft, because you have many more degrees of control, and you're not obligated to keep the vehicle moving forward all the time.

Looking to ever expand ways to deliver goods to its customers, Amazon has patented a way to allow its drones to deliver packages without ever having to land. The patent would not only provide a safe distance between the UAVs and the people receiving the packages, but also cut down on noise pollution, BizJournals noted. Bezos, now the world's third-richest man with an estimated fortune of $83.3 billion according to Forbes, first showed off Amazon's drone delivery unit in a Dec. 2013 interview on "60 Minutes." It recently filed patents for a beehive-like structure that would allow drones to pick up and drop off packages.

Machine learning, deep learning and the connected home have reached the peak of the Hype Cycle, while blockchain and commercial drones have begun the slide into the'trough of disillusionment'. According to Gartner's 2017 Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies, augmented reality and virtual reality have begun to climb the'plateau of productivity' as they approach mainstream adoption. The Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies report is the longest-running annual Gartner Hype Cycle, providing a cross-industry perspective on the technologies and trends and how long it will take for them to reach mainstream adoption. Gartner is tipping artificial intelligence technologies will be the most disruptive class of technologies over the next decade, giving organisations the ability to harness data insights to adapt to new situations and solve problems. But for certain areas mainstream adoption of AI is still a decade away.

Digital media entrepreneur Jessica Naziri recently made waves when she shared photos of her technology-themed wedding, complete with bouquets made of USB cables and portable charging packs for guests instead of sugar coated almonds. She wasn't the first bride to garner media attention for eccentric nuptials fueled by mobile apps and gadgets. Guests watched through headsets as a community manager from the San Francisco startup AltspaceVR officiated the ceremony. Time reported the couple spent $2,531 a piece on their headsets and computer. New technologies and social networks are completely revamping the wedding industry. Today, there are dozens of popular apps taking the place of wedding planners, while couples are registering for bitcoin or Airbnb bookings instead of fine china.