QueQue: Slowing CPS solar rebates hurting installers, EFF cracks window on Texas drone surveillance

Hardy's UAV, for instance, has already aided the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department in a rescue mission … for fish. The team used the device to locate Guadalupe bass that had been stranded in pools along drought-depleted stretches of river during last year's monstrous dryness. And a second UAV is on the way. "Our version two going through field trials now will weigh 17 pounds and be able to fly longer. It has a heavier instrument package. One version could be used for sampling ozone and particulates," Hardy said.

That'll come in handy for sniffing oil and gas development across the state, something they're already exploring with the battery-powered 8-pounder, as well as tracking how habitat destruction that goes along with new drilling pads and oil roads affects native wildlife. But our fight — like that of the EFF — should be able to shed more light on the military and military-contractor side of the jet stream. About that there's still scant information. Wrote the EFF recently: "drones pose serious implications for privacy, and the public should have all the information necessary to engage in informed debate over the incorporation of these devices into our daily lives." •

San Antonio Coalition of Reason's attention-grabbing billboard popped up last week on the west side of I-10 at Crossroads Boulevard. "We're not trying to convert people or anything," says coalition coordinator Jim Parker. Instead, it's aimed at comforting the non-believers among us. "It's so religious down here that people can be afraid of getting blacklisted, it's like being closeted."