Drony and Nils: The New Guardians of the Sky

What happens when high-tech precision meets the wisdom of nature? Join Drony and Nils in a breathtaking adventure that explores the thin line between digital progress and the heartbeat of our planet.

In this video, a modern drone and a legendary boy on a goose collide in the sky, sparking a powerful conversation about what it truly means to "see" the world. Are we just mapping the Earth, or are we protecting our home?

What’s inside:

An epic encounter between technology and tradition.

Stunning visuals of the world from above.

A deep, moving message about environmental conservation and our connection to the ground.

Drony and Nils: The New Guardians of the Sky

Drony and Nils: A Journey Beyond the Lens 🌍✨

What happens when high-tech precision meets the wisdom of nature? Join Drony and Nils in a breathtaking adventure that explores the thin line between digital progress and the heartbeat of our planet.

In this video, a modern drone and a legendary boy on a goose collide in the sky, sparking a powerful conversation about what it truly means to "see" the world. Are we just mapping the Earth, or are we protecting our home?

What’s inside:

An epic encounter between technology and tradition.

Stunning visuals of the world from above.

A deep, moving message about environmental conservation and our connection to the ground.

Drony and the Radio | The Hidden Power of Sound: How Radio Changed Film ...

Drony, the little drone, embarks on a fascinating journey to examine the power of radio and the art of storytelling.

This Short analyzes how the invention of the radio and the soundtrack taught humanity to convey emotion without an image, and how oral (internal) communication led to the revolution of visual (external) media. Watch the comparison between the controlling logic of the drone's computed "litany" and the liberating, authentic force of music that transcends mathematical rules!

Key Moments:

The hidden impact of radio on culture and cinema

The gap between "true" music and the drone's mathematical logic

The speed of sound vs. the speed of light in communication

Drony the Storyteller Monolouge - the Secret of the One Word: "LIGHT"! ✨...

🎶 DRONY'S Official Song: You Won't BELIEVE What This Childish Drone Can ...

The Evolution of Music and Cinematic Soundtracks

During the second half of the 20th century, music underwent a dynamic evolution that profoundly influenced its styles, techniques, and broader cultural landscape. 

In the 1950s, classical pop dominated with catchy, simple melodies that captivated a wide audience, offering an accessible and delightful listening experience. 

In the 1960s and 1970s, rock 'n' roll emerged, bringing vibrant energy, bold expressions of personal identity, and innovative elements like electric guitars, becoming a symbol of counterculture and social movements of the era. 

In the 1980s and 1990s, hip-hop rose to prominence, blending unique rhythms, rap, and socio-political themes, serving as a leading voice for a diverse generation and a platform for expressing struggles and life experiences. 

By the early 2000s, innovative ambient music emerged, breaking traditional structures with electronic and experimental elements, emphasizing emotional and aesthetic experiences while offering creative freedom for deep, unrestrained expression, While eliminating the musical keys.

Concurrently, cinematic soundtracks evolved, particularly in science fiction films depicting the futuristic city as a central human space integrating history, society, and art. The city, transitioning from a spontaneous human image to sophisticated planning that incorporates technology and anatomical models, is expected to become a dynamic organism in the future, merging human and artificial systems. 

Film soundtracks adapted to these changes: from complex classical music in the early 20th century, through aggressive sounds reflecting urban density, to today’s quiet ambient music, which expresses environmental awareness.

Three science fiction films—"Metropolis" (1927), "Blade Runner" (1982), and "Ghost in the Shell" (2017)—reflect this evolution through similar narrative structures. They share similar narratives: a beautiful and rebellious artificial woman, created by the elite but rebelling against it alongside the lower class, with a moral conflict and love between a human man and an artificial woman, against the backdrop of a central urban setting that divides the upper and lower city.

In "Metropolis", rich symphonic music accompanies the silent film, substituting for dialogue and effects while mirroring machinery and drama. 

In "Blade Runner", a diverse soundtrack combines synthesizers, blues, and street noises, with silence as a backdrop to dialogues, creating a somber atmosphere. 

In "Ghost in the Shell", minimalist sounds, nearly devoid of melody, blend with harmonious visual settings, highlighting the cyborg’s superiority, for whom traditional music is deemed unnecessary and even dangerous.

ASIA elephant morphing

 

Asia, the Giant Elephant

 

Human Shape of the Holy Land

The Land of Israel has a Shape Similar to the Human Body.

The idea of the correlation human body and the geography of Israel was developed according to the principle that there is continous dialogue between mankind and landscape, as a dynamic sublimation process, and as an image in practice.

The revolutionary description of the Land of Israel as a human figure is a clear correlation. The landscape can almost serve for anatomy lessons.

The figure includes: The land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea as face, the Negev Plateau as neck, Sinai Peninsula as the torso.

Elephant shape of Asia

Air and Screen - Combined History of Aviation and the Media

 

Aerial View in Cinema

 

Aerial View as a Cinematic Tool

Panoramic landscapes in cinema are an essential part of filmmaking. They can create a sense of beauty, vastness, depth, grandeur, and magic. 

The panoramic aerial view is a powerful cinematic tool, enabling filmmakers to create a wide range of visual and narrative effects. It can be used to create a sense of space, depth, movement, and drama.

For instance, an aerial shot can emphasize the size and power of a natural landscape, expose social disparities within a large city, or create a sense of threat and danger in a chase scene.

Through the aerial view, filmmakers can manipulate the audience's perception of perspective. They can play with relative size, camera angles, and depth of field to create optical illusions and evoke specific emotions.

For example, an aerial shot of a small figure walking alone in the desert can create a sense of loneliness and helplessness, while an aerial shot of a vast crowd at a demonstration can create a sense of power and solidarity.

The aerial view can also serve as an important narrative tool. It can be used to present the plot from a broader perspective, reveal crucial information inaccessible to the characters, or create dramatic effects of surprise and discovery.

For example, in Alfred Hitchcock's film "Psycho", the aerial view is used to reveal the isolated location of the motel and the danger lurking for the protagonist.

The aerial view is particularly prevalent in certain film genres, such as war films, Westerns, and science fiction films. It allows filmmakers to create spectacular and breathtaking scenes, transporting viewers to imaginary worlds. 

"2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968) and many other science fiction films dealing with space flight incorporate panoramic views of Earth as seen from space, landscapes used to create a sense of immense scale and to emphasize the smallness of humanity within the universe. In the "Star Wars" films, the aerial view is used to create impressive and action-packed space battles.

The development of cinematic technology, especially the invention of drones and digital cameras, has expanded the creative possibilities of the aerial view in cinema. Today, filmmakers can create more complex and sophisticated aerial shots than ever before.

"2001: A Space Odyssey" - Earth seen from a distance 

History of Aerial View in Cinema

The aerial view in cinema is more than just a matter of vision; it's also a matter of sensation. The feeling of flight is central to the aerial view, as is the pleasure derived from observing the Earth from an unusual perspective. The particular pleasure of the cinematic gaze, concerning the aerial view, lies in the oscillation between static visual perception and dynamic perception.

Cameras abroad Balloons Sensation:

The modern aerial view is the result of two technological processes: The automation of vision and the expansion of human visual range. The automation of vision began with the invention of the camera in the mid-19th century. The camera allowed people to capture images of the world from a new perspective, that of a detached observer. The expansion of human visual range began with the invention of the balloon in the late 18th century. The balloon allowed people to see the world from a higher vantage point, providing new insights into space.

The aerial view in cinema is a combination of these two processes. The movie camera allows for the creation of cinematic images of the world from a high perspective, similar to that obtained from an airplane.

Cinema emerged during a time of great focus on conquering the skies and liberating the human gaze from its physical limitations. As early as 1898, the Lumière brothers filmed a short film from a balloon tethered to the ground. The film was shot from a vertical perspective, allowing the viewer to see the landscape in a very different way than they usually would. The film shows movement both inside and outside the gondola. The movement inside the gondola is created by the passengers, and the movement outside is created by the people and vehicles moving on the ground. The film also illustrates how space looks from a vertical perspective. The horizon line disappears, and the world appears flatter and more organized. The film reveals, probably for the first time, the concrete kinetic and static dimensions of the aerial experience in space.

Cinema, thanks to its unprecedented freedom of possibilities and mobility, became the accepted way to convey the aerial experience, along with the inherent instability of perspective. The verticality of the viewpoint is originally a strange kind of visual effect, a unique fusion of macroscopic vision and microscopic observation. Observing the world from above allows for an unprecedented expansion of the field of vision but also makes the world seem smaller and more distant. Early cinema maintained a combination of "I see" with "I fly''. The field was far from being limited to cinematic representation and was connected to the broader question of visual culture.

The history of the aerial view in cinema can be divided into three stages:

The Experimental Stage (1898-1914): During this phase, filmmakers experimented with various aerial filming techniques. They used balloons, airships, and airplanes to capture the world from new and surprising perspectives.

The Developmental Stage (1914-1939): In this stage, aerial filming techniques became more sophisticated. Filmmakers used these techniques to create special effects and tell new stories.

The Cinematic Focus Stage (1939-present): The aerial view has become an integral part of cinema. It is used in a wide variety of films, from documentaries to feature films.

The development of aerial photography in cinema until 1914 led to spectacular and highly significant presentations. Even before the First World War, some photographers began equipping airships, and later airplanes, with movie cameras to explore the feeling of free flight in space. An article from 1911 recounts the filming of an aerial tour in agricultural France, aboard various aircraft. The footage presented was excellent in terms of its image quality components, such as clarity and sharpness. It was also good in terms of its documentary quality, for observation, topography, and touring purposes. A second article from 1912 focuses on the technical aspects of aerial photography. One of the main challenges in aerial photography is the need to use a wide-angle lens to capture the entire picture. It is also important to use a camera with a fast shutter speed to prevent blurring due to the aircraft's movements.

In the first decades of the 20th century, an almost blind faith in the objectivity of mechanical reproduction methods, such as photography and cinema, only emphasized the purposeful tendency that saw in the vast images obtained from the air the natural replacement for cartographic maps. However, these images often proved less "readable" than a conventional map. For example, when examining large structures from a completely vertical view, it is impossible to identify them because they appear as two-dimensional geometric shapes.

In an Airship Over the Battlefields:

In 1918, after the end of the First World War, aerial films began to appear more widely in cinema. One of the most significant projects in this field was the series of short films "In an Airship Over the Battlefields", produced by the French military cinema. The series, filmed between 1918 and 1919, documents the destruction caused in France during the war. The first film in the series depicts the journey of an airship over France, starting in Paris and ending in the front-line areas. The second film depicts the battlefields of the Somme, while the third film depicts the battlefields of Ypres. The fourth and final film depicts the process of France's reconstruction after the war. The films in the series use an aerial perspective to present the destruction caused in France dramatically. The footage shows destroyed houses, ruined churches, and neglected fields. They also show the bodies of soldiers killed in battles. The films were an essential historical document and were also used for propaganda purposes. They emphasized the extent of the destruction caused by the war and the need for the country's reconstruction. The films in the series were shot using special movie cameras developed for aerial photography. The cameras had a wide angle and a fast shutter speed. The filming in the series was technically challenging. The airship was limited in its movements, and the photographers had to deal with strong winds and its vibrations.

This series of short films significantly impacted developing aerial photography in cinema. They showed the potential of aerial photography to create dramatic and accurate images of historical events. They also influenced the development of aerial photography for propaganda purposes, demonstrating how aerial photography could be used to present reality dramatically and manipulatively. From a specifically cinematic perspective, these short films represent an important milestone in developing aerial photography in cinema. They were the first to make extensive use of aerial tracking shots. The aerial tracking shots in them are unique in that they manage to create a sense of free and energetic movement. The shots pass over vast areas, emphasizing the damage caused to the space. The use of aerial tracking shots allowed the camera to create a sense of intimacy with the viewer. The viewer feels as if they are flying with the airship and observing the destruction from a bird's-eye view. The films were also a source of fantasy. Aerial photography allows the viewer to see the world from a new perspective. The viewer can see the world as they do not usually see it, from a viewpoint above and beyond the human world. The films illustrated the potential of aerial photography to create a sense of freedom and transcendence. The shots allowed the viewer to feel as if they could fly above the world and see it from a bird's-eye view. 

"In an Airship Over the Battlefields" (1918-19)

The "In an Airship Over the Battlefields" films also significantly impacted avant-garde cinema. Avant-gardists saw in these films the potential of aerial photography to create new forms of cinematic art. They used aerial tracking shots to create a sense of free and energetic movement. They also used aerial tracking shots to create a sense of intimacy with the viewer.

The City as Aerial View

The cinematic focus on aerial photography solidified in the 1920s, particularly with the "city" as a central theme. Many filmmakers saw the city as a challenging and innovative place for filming, and aerial footage allowed them to see the city from a new angle.

Prominent examples of the use of aerial photography in cinema of that period include the following films:

"Berlin: Symphony of a Metropolis" (1927) is a film by Walter Ruttmann that uses aerial views to present the German city from a new angle and includes an avant-garde perspective.

"Skyscrapers" (1929) is a newsreel film by the Gaumont company, presenting aerial photography of the skyscrapers in Chicago.

"Flying Over New York" (1932) and "Beneath the Snow" (1934) are two more newsreel films by the Pathé company, presenting aerial shots of New York.

"Flying Over New York" (1932)

The Natural Amphitheater of Haifa Bay

The amphitheater offers an oblique design compromise between the horizontal and vertical dimensions of space. It is a structure built in the shape of a semicircle or a complete circle, with seats on a downward slope toward a stage in the lower center.

In the Hellenistic era, amphitheaters were an important part of life. They served as social and cultural centers, providing entertainment and enjoyment for people from all backgrounds, through gladiatorial combats, sporting events, and theatrical performances. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the many amphitheater structures built in every city were neglected.

The ancient amphitheater in Epidauros, Greece

In the modern city, ancient amphitheaters, like in Caesarea, have been renovated and have become a symbol of history, culture, and community. Today they are used to host cultural performances such as music, dance, and theater.

Nowadays, new amphitheaters are also being built for various purposes. The football stadium is the largest, most common, and most important of these.

Port cities that spill into a bay, like Rio de Janeiro and Haifa, have a topographical structure of a natural amphitheater. In Haifa, the stands are the hills of the Galilee and Carmel, and the stage in the lower center is the Zvulun Valley, the bay, and the ports. Metropolitan planning must be based on this principle.

Rio de Janeiro

The natural continuation of the natural amphitheater is from the seashore towards the underwater world. The underwater world is a mirror image of the world above ground. Coral reefs are underwater amphitheaters, where colorful fish swarm in spectacular landscapes.

Diver above a coral reef

Haifa is a natural amphitheatre metropolis, and may thrive as an international cultural, commercial and tourist center, if it makes the best use of its unique natural resources, of harmony between the sea, the mountain and the valley.

A vision for the development of the Haifa

Perdix - The Story of Icarus's Nephew

 

Perdix was the name of Icarus's nephew and Daedalus's apprentice. The word "Perdix" has meaning in Greek, and it has influenced words in various languages, including the international language. In Greek, the word "Perdix" (Περδίκκας) is composed of two words: "peri" (περί) meaning "around" or "concerning," and "dike" (δίκη) meaning "justice" or "judgment." Therefore, the meaning of the name "Perdix" is "he who cares for justice" or "he who surrounds justice." The name "Perdix" was common in ancient Greece.

From the Greek word "Perdix," words in various languages have been derived, such as Perdrix in French and English, where it is the name of the partridge bird, which runs on the ground but is unable to fly.

In these languages, the word "prediction" is also derived from the word "Perdix," meaning prophecy or forecasting.

In philosophy and literature, the word "prediction" is used to describe the process of predicting or forecasting future events based on existing knowledge. The word also symbolizes the search for justice and truth, the desire to understand the world and act morally.

Perdix was the son of Daedalus's sister, and he learned the art of construction and engineering from his uncle. He was a very talented young man, a brilliant student, and even invented innovative tools like the saw. Unfortunately, his story ended in tragedy: Daedalus, who felt jealous of his nephew's talent and feared that he would take the place of his beloved but slower natural son, Icarus, pushed Perdix from the roof of the temple of Athena. The goddess of wisdom took pity on Perdix and turned him into the bird named after him - the partridge. Afterward, Daedalus and Icarus fled to Crete. As punishment for the murder, Daedalus was ultimately condemned to witness the death of Icarus falling from the sky with the wings he had built for him.

Sometimes parents want their children to fulfill at all costs the dreams that they themselves failed to achieve. The father wants his son to continue the marathon race that he started but failed to finish. Now it is the son's turn to continue from that point and win. There is a significant difference between the desire for the son to fulfill the father's dreams at all costs and the desire for the son to conservatively take his place. Continuing the path at all costs reflects an expectation that the son will fulfill the father's hidden dreams and desires, which is what Daedalus sought for his natural son Icarus to fulfill. The worldview that reflects an expectation that the son will conservatively fill the role that the father filled and inherit his profession and status is similar to the role that Perdix filled. Both approaches, if not balanced, can lead to a tragic end. The story of Daedalus, Perdix, and Icarus may serve as a warning sign and illuminate the complexity of transferring legacy and expectations between generations.

The character of Perdix, in the context of the invention of the saw, teaches about the preference for systematicity and immediacy over the aspiration to fulfill dreams. Daedalus was the son of the king of Athens, and it is possible that his true desire was to be the heir to the throne. Perdix, on the other hand, represented a more practical and rational approach, aimed at achieving control and order in the world. His character can be interpreted as representing the practical and rational side of human nature. Unlike Daedalus, he is not drawn to big dreams or long-term plans. He prefers the immediate, the obvious, what can be achieved here and now. The saw, as a working tool, symbolizes dismantling and cutting. Icarus, on the other hand, following his father's desire, represents the desire for freedom and breaking boundaries. He prefers the dramatic experience, even at the cost of risk and self-destruction.

Organizations constantly face the need to make decisions, both small and large. Often, these decisions involve a dilemma between maintaining the status quo and innovating and taking risks. The characters of Perdix and Icarus are suitable to serve as different metaphors for the ways in which organizations approach the decision-making process:

Perdix represents the analytical approach, the attempt to predict the future. Organizations that operate like Perdix invest significant resources in collecting and analyzing data to make informed and rational decisions. This approach can lead to growth and innovation, but also to paralysis and slow decision-making. These organizations prefer to stay in their comfort zone and make decisions based on prior knowledge and experience. This approach can be effective in the short term, but it can lead to stagnation and lack of development in the long run.

Icarus, on the other hand, represents the innovative approach, the desire to fulfill dreams and break boundaries. Organizations that operate like Icarus encourage creativity, initiative, and risk-taking. This approach can lead to breakthroughs and the creation of significant value, but also to failures and painful falls. Like Icarus, these organizations strive for innovation and are not afraid to take risks. This approach can lead to dazzling success, but it also carries the risk of failure.

Despite their revolutionary contribution, inventions like the jet plane and the video cassette can also be seen as examples of the preference for immediacy. Similar to the saw, which allows for quick cutting and dismantling, the video cassette and the jet plane offer quick and efficient solutions to human needs. These inventions allow people to control time and space, streamline processes, and shape reality according to their wishes. Both inventions contributed to the rise of consumer culture, where the immediate satisfaction of desires becomes a central value.

Before the invention of the video cassette, watching movies was limited to screening times in cinemas or television broadcasts. The video cassette made it possible to watch movies anytime, anywhere, immediately, without dependence on an external schedule. It gave the viewer complete control over the content, with the ability to pause, rewind, and jump between different segments.

The jet plane dramatically shortened flight times and made it possible to reach distant destinations quickly and easily. It allowed people to overcome the limitations of time and space and experience the world immediately and in the present, and it significantly contributed to the processes of globalization, which are characterized, among other things, by the rapid pace of information and goods exchange.

Daedalus pushes Perdix from the roof to his death, 

and the goddess transforms him into a partridge during his fall.

Beautiful girls in a swimsuit with the inscription Sharm el-Sheikh

The Airplane - Dream and Reality

The Dream of Flight

The concept and aspiration of flight have captivated humanity since the dawn of history. Bound to the earth, humans gazed enviously at the birds soaring above, dreaming of the day they could join them and conquer the skies. Numerous attempts were made to imitate the flight of birds, from mythological tales like Icarus and Daedalus to the daring experiments of inventors throughout the ages. Yet, despite these earnest endeavors, most attempts ended in disappointment and failure. Successes were few, flights were short and unstable, and the dream of safe and efficient flight seemed further away than ever. Humanity realized that conquering the skies required a significant technological breakthrough.

False Dawns

This breakthrough arrived in the form of three remarkable inventions that promised to revolutionize the world of aviation: the hot air balloon, the airship, and the glider. Each sparked great excitement and curiosity, and it seemed that humanity had finally found the way to conquer the air. However, despite their initial promise, within a relatively short period of a few decades, these three inventions proved unsuitable for realizing the full vision. The hot air balloon was at the mercy of the winds, the airship was cumbersome and vulnerable, and the glider had limited control over its flight path. These inventions became resounding failures, leaving humanity disappointed that the technology capable of carrying masses of people into the skies had not yet been found.

The Wright Brothers' Triumph

But then, with the invention of the airplane by the Wright brothers at the beginning of the 20th century, the picture changed completely. The airplane, with its innovative design, efficient wings, and sophisticated control system, finally proved that the skies could be conquered safely and efficiently. It ushered in a new era of possibilities, revolutionizing transportation, commerce, military, and culture. Unlike the failed flying machines that preceded it, the airplane has proven to be a promising invention for over a century, continuing to evolve at a dizzying pace, from piston-engine aircraft to jet aircraft and sophisticated unmanned aerial vehicles.

Taking Flight and Expanding Minds

The invention of the airplane not only fulfilled humanity's dream of flight but also opened up new possibilities for spatial thinking and perception of the world. The airplane's complete control over movement in the air fulfilled another long-held dream of humanity: the unlimited expression of perspective, the three-dimensional thinking that deepens our understanding of spatial relationships, a cognitive tool of the highest order. The ability to move freely in three-dimensional space changed the way we perceive the world and the relationships between objects within it.

Dreamers and Doers

Throughout the development of modern aviation, those involved were divided into two types: dreamers and doers. The dreamers envisioned fantastic visions of effortlessly conquering the air, imagining floating cities and fantastical flying machines. But alongside the dreamers were the doers, the engineers, inventors, and pilots who progressed step by step, experiencing failures and losses along the way. Progress in aviation was the result of a combination of bold vision and meticulous work, of wild imagination and complex engineering reality.

Aviation as Ideology or Tool

In parallel to technological development, two social and political approaches to the idea of aviation emerged: aviation as consciousness and aviation as awareness. Societies that championed aviation as consciousness saw it as a dreamlike vision, capable of uniting their underdeveloped nations and propelling them to the forefront of modernity. Aviation served as an ideological tool for shaping national consciousness and fostering pride and patriotism. Societies that championed aviation as awareness saw it merely as a means to advance the individual and society, carefully avoiding its transformation into an ideological tool. Aviation was perceived as a useful tool for transportation, commerce, and research, but not as a defining factor of national identity. This difference in approach highlighted the distinction between dictatorships and democracies in the 20th century, with dictatorships advocating aviation as consciousness and democracies advocating aviation as awareness.

Anthropomorphism:

Aviation's Third Way

Between the world of dreamers and the world of doers, between aviation as consciousness or awareness, exists a third perspective that allows us to understand the significance of aviation and its unique place in the human experience: the perspective of anthropomorphism. While dreamers aspire to transcend the limitations of physical reality and fly on the wings of imagination, and doers focus on realizing dreams through technology and development, anthropomorphism bridges the two worlds. It allows us to perceive the airplane not just as a flying machine, but as an entity with human qualities, a kind of "flying human" that fulfills the dreams of both worlds.

Holistic Experience

Aviation, as perceived from this perspective, is not just physical movement through space, but also a journey of consciousness and spirit. It allows us to experience the world from a new perspective, to rise above the limitations of everyday life, and to feel a sense of freedom and liberation. The anthropomorphism of the airplane allows us to understand aviation as a holistic experience, combining dream and reality, consciousness and action, and the human being with the world. It gives a deeper meaning to the experience of flight, transforming it into a meaningful human journey.

Enduring Power of Anthropomorphism

Anthropomorphism is a powerful tool that enables us to understand human history. Through it, we perceive historical events as the result of human actions, decisions, and their consequences. This approach allows us to understand motives, identify with the past, take responsibility, prevent dehumanization, and understand history as a human creation. Anthropomorphism, despite being an ancient source, remains important today, especially in light of the increasing emphasis on personal development at the expense of social development, which leads to a growing need for people to rely on their immediate tangible environment and seek meaning and support in sources like anthropomorphism, as a response to the social disconnect created by technology.

The Airplane as Icarus

The airplane, with its nose resembling a head, wings spread like arms, and a rear body and tail simulating legs, becomes an anthropomorphism of the human body. This image, echoing "Jesus on the cross" or "a man spreading his wings" against the backdrop of the clouds – a central source of inspiration for anthropomorphism – evokes deep religious and spiritual associations. It reinforces the idea that aviation, as an intense and personal experience reminiscent of spiritual flight, may contribute to the rise of extremist regimes. However, it is important to remember that the rise of such regimes is influenced by many other factors, and aviation and the anthropomorphism of the airplane are only one contributing factor to this phenomenon, alongside other social, economic, and political factors.

Shared Wings of Aviation and Cinema

Feature films, like airplanes, are a clear expression of anthropomorphism. Both are technologies that allow us to experience the world in a new and powerful way, and both use anthropomorphism to create a deeper emotional experience. The airplane, in its human-like form, evokes feelings of freedom and liberation reminiscent of spiritual experiences. Cinema breathes life into characters and stories through a variety of techniques, creating imaginary worlds that feel real. Both create an illusion of reality, use movement, evoke emotions, and enhance the human experience. Cinema, in addition, turns human stories into a collective dream and uses symbols and metaphors to convey complex messages and ideas.

The Domino Effect That Led to World War I

Only ten years and 226 days separated the Wright brothers' first flight in 1903 from the outbreak of World War I, yet the connection between them runs deeper than expected. This decade, which witnessed the birth of the aviation age, was saturated with rising geopolitical tensions, extreme nationalism, arms races, and imperialist competition. These factors, coupled with a complex alliance system and recurring international crises, created fertile ground for the eruption of a global war. The assassination of the Austrian Archduke was merely the spark that ignited the flames of war already smoldering beneath the surface. The Balkan Wars, which preceded World War I by a few years, further exacerbated tensions, influenced the alliance system, and served as a "dress rehearsal" for the great conflict.

World War I erupted as a result of a "domino effect," a chain reaction of events where each event triggers the next, similar to dominoes falling one after another. Both the invention of the airplane and the invention of cinema were based on the understanding of continuous motion, and can be seen as expressions of the domino effect. In both cases, a chain of small, sequential events creates a significant outcome: the airplane depends on constant motion in the air for flight, and in cinema, a sequence of still images creates the illusion of motion and life on screen.

The domino effect that led to World War I was exacerbated by the invention of the airplane, which heightened political instability and impacted the global balance of power. The airplane influenced the military aspect, increased the potential for escalation, and altered the balance of power. Similar to the airplane, cinema also contributed to the domino effect: it reinforced nationalism and shaped public perception of war. Furthermore, both the airplane and cinema, which emerged and developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, stood in stark contrast to the prevailing spirit of the era dominated by absolute monarchies. These regimes emphasized obedience, conformity, and centralized control, while the airplane and cinema symbolized freedom, independence, and critical thinking.

This connection between technology, consciousness, and war is also emphasized in Giulio Douhet's book "The Command of the Air," which predicted the central role of air power in future wars. The inspiration for writing the book stemmed from the author's participation in the Italo-Turkish War of 1911-1912. During this war, the author witnessed firsthand the aerial bombings carried out by Italian forces, a first in history. They profoundly influenced his perception of the future of warfare, which he envisioned as based on the subjugation of the civilian rear in cities through strategic bombing.

Today's drone and missile attacks, coupled with the growing use of the internet, are not merely a continuation of Douhet's theory, but also a contemporary manifestation of the enduring influence of the airplane and cinema on the nature of warfare. They underscore how technology and visual media are employed to achieve military and political objectives, and the complex challenges confronting societies grappling with these threats.

Drones as Litany

The word "Litany" has a few different meanings, but the most common one is:

A long and repetitive list or series of something, usually complaints or problems.

For example:

“The customer service representative had to listen to a litany of complaints about the faulty product.”

“The politician’s speech was just a litany of empty promises.”

The word originates in a religious context:

‘’Litany’’ is a prayer that includes a series of requests or supplications from the worshipper or the prayer leader, followed by repetitive responses from the congregation or group of worshippers.

For example, in a traditional prayer, the cantor might say "God! Please have mercy" and the congregation would respond "Have mercy, please have mercy." This repetition creates a sense of call and response, or a dialogue between the leader and the congregation.

The word's origin is in ancient Greek, λιτανεία (litaneía), which means "prayer, supplication." From there it passed into Latin (litania) and finally into English.

Although its religious origin is still in use, today the word litany is mostly used in a broader context to describe any long and repetitive list, usually of complaints or problems.

So, when someone says "a litany of..." they are emphasizing the length and repetitiveness of the list, often with a slightly negative connotation.

In the context of ‘’Drones’’ as the nickname inspired by the meaning of the word "refrain" for UAVs or unmanned aerial vehicles, the word "litany" can be used to describe: a list of negative claims or concerns about drones.

In these days of reciting the Selichot prayers in preparation for the eve of Rosh Hashanah, the supplications uttered in the wee hours of the night chillingly echo the harsh reality of the military conflict unfolding on the banks of the Litani River.