The dawn of the age of the drones: an Australian privacy law perspective

Examines Australia\u27s privacy laws in relation to unmanned aerial vehicles, to identify deficiencies that may need to be addressed. Introduction Suppose a homeowner habitually enjoys sunbathing in his or her backyard, protected by a high fence from prying eyes, including those of an adolescent neighbour. In times past such homeowners could be assured that they might go about their activities without a threat to their privacy. However, recent years have seen technological advances in the development of unmanned aerial vehicles (‘UAVs’), also known colloquially as drones, that have allowed them to become reduced in size, complexity and price. UAVs today include models retailing to the public for less than $350 and with an ease of operation that enables them to serve as mobile platforms for miniature cameras. These machines now mean that for individuals like the posited homeowner’s adolescent neighbour, barriers such as high fences no longer constitute insuperable obstacles to their voyeuristic endeavours. Moreover, ease of access to the internet and video sharing websites provides a ready means of sharing any recordings made with such cameras with a wide audience. Persons in the homeowner’s position might understandably seek some form of redress for such egregious invasions of their privacy. Other than some form of self-help, what alternative measures may be available? Under Australian law this problem yields no easy answer. In this country, a fractured landscape of common law, Commonwealth and state/territory legislation provides piecemeal protection against invasions of privacy by cameras mounted on UAVs. It is timely, at what may be regarded as the early days of the drone age, to consider these laws and to identify deficiencies that may need to be addressed lest, to quote words that are as apt today as they were when written over 120 years ago, ‘modern enterprise and invention … through invasions upon [their] privacy, [subject victims] to mental pain and distress, far greater than could be inflicted by mere bodily injury.

Embodying life-long learning: Transition and capstone experiences

This paper discusses the principle of Transition as it has been conceptualised by the Curriculum Renewal in Legal Education project. The project sought to develop a principled framework for renewing the final year of tertiary legal education in Australia. Capstone experiences were chosen as the most appropriate mechanism for assisting final year students to manage the transition process. Thoughtfully designed capstones assist students to integrate and synthesize their learning over their entire degree program, facilitate closure on the undergraduate experience, and assist students to transition from student to emerging professional. We discuss the importance of addressing final year students’ transitional needs and explain how the principle facilitates this process. Although the framework has been developed specifically for legal education in Australia its approach enables transferability across disciplines and institutions. The framework addresses criticisms that universities and law schools are not meeting the needs of final year students by preparing them for the transition to graduate life in a complex and uncertain world

Narrative, machinima and cognitive realism: Constructing an authentic real-world learning experience for law students

In Australia law schools didactic pedagogies such as lectures devoted to the transmission of theory and knowledge to a largely passive audience still predominate. However, curriculum design embedding authentic learning pedagogies has been shown to be supportive of student learning. The challenge in adopting such curriculum design is how to offer situated cognitive learning opportunities on a large scale to increasingly diverse cohorts. This paper is a case study of a blended learning approach introduced into a second year undergraduate law unit to teach negotiation theory and practice to a large cohort of students studying in full-time, part-time and distance external modes. This innovation was situated in an authentic simulated learning environment created through careful design of a high-fidelity scenario, utilising a narrative depicted by Second Life machinima video and simulated documentation. This approach resulted in greater student engagement and improved learning outcomes

HST/STIS Lyman-alpha observations of the quiet M dwarf GJ436: Predictions for the exospheric transit signature of the hot neptune GJ436b

Lyman-alpha (Lya) emission of neutral hydrogen (1215.67 Angstr\"om) is the main contributor to the ultraviolet flux of low-mass stars such as M dwarfs. It is also the main light source used in studies of the evaporating upper atmospheres of transiting extrasolar planets with ultraviolet transmission spectroscopy. However, there are very few observations of the Lya emissions of quiet M dwarfs, and none exist for those hosting exoplanets. Here, we present Lya observations of the hot-neptune host star GJ436 with the Hubble Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (HST/STIS). We detect bright emission in the first resolved and high quality spectrum of a quiet M dwarf at Lya. Using an energy diagram for exoplanets and an N-body particle simulation, this detection enables the possible exospheric signature of the hot neptune to be estimated as a ~11% absorption in the Lya stellar emission, for a typical mass-loss rate of 10^10 g/s. The atmosphere of the planet GJ436b is found to be stable to evaporation, and should be readily observable with HST. We also derive a correlation between X-ray and Lya emissions for M dwarfs. This correlation will be useful for predicting the evaporation signatures of planets transiting other quiet M dwarfs.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables. Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic

Accurate Spitzer infrared radius measurement for the hot Neptune GJ 436b

We present Spitzer Space Telescope infrared photometry of a primary transit of the hot Neptune GJ 436b. The observations were obtained using the 8 microns band of the InfraRed Array Camera (IRAC). The high accuracy of the transit data and the weak limb-darkening in the 8 microns IRAC band allow us to derive (assuming M = 0.44 +- 0.04 Msun for the primary) a precise value for the planetary radius (4.19 +0.21-0.16 Rearth), the stellar radius (0.463 +0.022-0.017 Rsun), the orbital inclination (85.90 +0.19-0.18 degrees) and transit timing (2454280.78186 +0.00015-0.00008 HJD). Assuming current planet models, an internal structure similar to that of Neptune with a small H/He envelope is necessary to account for the measured radius of GJ 436b.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A on 21/07/2007; 5 pages, 3 figure

Hot-Jupiters and hot-Neptunes: a common origin?

We compare evolutionary models for close-in exoplanets coupling irradiation and evaporation due respectively to the thermal and high energy flux of the parent star with observations of recently discovered new transiting planets. The models provide an overall good agreement with observations, although at the very limit of the quoted error bars of OGLE-TR-10, depending on its age. Using the same general theory, we show that the three recently detected hot-Neptune planets (GJ436, $\rho$ Cancri, $\mu$ Ara) may originate from more massive gas giants which have undergone significant evaporation. We thus suggest that hot-Neptunes and hot-Jupiters may share the same origin and evolution history. Our scenario provides testable predictions in terms of the mass-radius relationships of these hot-Neptunes.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, accepted in A&A Lette

The Search for Other Planets and Life

This Les Houches School offers students a wide ranging view of the field of exoplanets and the search for life beyond the solar system. Observational and theoretical opportunities abound in a new field of astronomy that will be growing for decades to come. I give a brief introduction and overview to the many detailed talks that will be presented in this volume

Interior structure models of GJ 436b

GJ 436b is the first extrasolar planet discovered that resembles Neptune in mass and radius. The particularly interesting property of Neptune-sized planets is that their mass Mp and radius Rp are close to theoretical M-R relations of water planets. Given Mp, Rp, and equilibrium temperature, however, various internal compositions are possible. A broad set of interior structure models is presented here that illustrates the dependence of internal composition and possible phases of water occurring in presumably water-rich planets, such as GJ 436b on the uncertainty in atmospheric temperature profile and mean density. We show how the set of solutions can be narrowed down if theoretical constraints from formation and model atmospheres are applied or potentially observational constraints for the atmospheric metallicity Z1 and the tidal Love number k2. We model the interior by assuming either three layers (hydrogen-helium envelope, water layer, rock core) or two layers (H/He/H2O envelope, rocky core). For water, we use the equation of state H2O-REOS based on FT-DFT-MD simulations. Some admixture of H/He appears mandatory for explaining the measured radius. For the warmest considered models, the H/He mass fraction can reduce to 10^-3, still extending over ~0.7 REarth. If water occurs, it will be essentially in the plasma phase or in the superionic phase, but not in an ice phase. Metal-free envelope models have 0.02<k2<0.2, and the core mass cannot be determined from a measurement of k2. In contrast, models with 0.3<k2<0.82 require high metallicities Z1<0.89 in the outer envelope. The uncertainty in core mass decreases to 0.4 Mp, if k2>0.3, and further to 0.2 Mp, if k2>0.5, and core mass and Z1 become sensitive functions of k2. To further narrow the set of solutions, a proper treatment of the atmosphere and the evolution is necessary.Comment: 9 pages, accepted to A&