Comments on: Criminals and terrorists can fly drones too

By: Gorden Russell

Gorden Russell — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 21:50:54 +0000

Hey Matthew, look at this, from the Wikipedia entry for the de Havilland Tiger Moth:

“A radio-controlled gunnery target version of Tiger Moth appeared in 1935 called the DH.82 Queen Bee; it used a wooden fuselage based on that of the DH.60 Gipsy Moth (with appropriate structural changes related to cabane strut placement) with the wings of the Tiger Moth II.[7] There were nearly 300 in service at the start of the Second World War. It is believed the name “Drone” derived from “Queen Bee”. These aircraft retained a normal front cockpit for test-flying or ferry flights, but had a radio-control system in the rear cockpit that operated the controls using pneumatically driven servos. Four-hundred were built by de Havilland at Hatfield, and a further 70 by Scottish Aviation.[8]“

By: Gorden Russell

Gorden Russell — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 21:13:41 +0000

Can you see a penis sticking right out of Trump’s forehead? Well, he is such a dickhead.

By: Khannea Suntzu

Khannea Suntzu — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 15:57:03 +0000

Well actually, (onion) http://blog.khanneasuntzu.com/?p=3719

By: Khannea Suntzu

Khannea Suntzu — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 15:55:43 +0000

Ok thanks for that mental image.

By: Khannea Suntzu

Khannea Suntzu — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 15:54:35 +0000

Make me an offer.

By: Ken

Ken — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 08:14:36 +0000

Suntzu,
this is MGM and NSA. We both like your thinking.

By: Bri

Bri — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 02:36:06 +0000

I seem to remember that bee brain research and everyone wasthinking how good it would be as a killer be. This issue is the Sam for all of the promise and peril technologies. The issue is morals and ethics. Humanbeings need to get their act together, otherwise your just giving VIKKI a good reason to write us off. I hear Elvis Costrllo in the background again( what’s so funny bout peace love and understanding). Strange game the only winning move is not to play. I hope we muster the initiative to think and discuss morals, but I’m not holding my breath. I like my thoughts on this matter. Sorry that I can’t talk about it. Nobody seems to want to explore what to me seems obvious. Just think of me as that druggie New Age guy with all that wishful thinking. I’ll say one thing,,,,, I bet I’m right.

By: Bri

Bri — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 02:21:47 +0000

Are you inferring that his shlock of hair is an example of penis extention?

By: Walter Baltzley

Walter Baltzley — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 18:57:13 +0000

The solution that will be proposed by government will be an all-pervasive surveillance network to monitor our every move…for our own protection of course.

By: Locke

Locke — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 18:48:18 +0000

From the article:

“The tool itself is thus not the problem; it is its use and application. Instead of banning fire — or, in this case, drones — we should proactively anticipate its misuse and defend against its dangers to preserve the forthcoming benefits.”

I guess the reasoning that the object is to blame only applies to firearms in today’s society. Political affiliation is such a fickle mistress.

By: David

David — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 18:36:08 +0000

http://openchannel.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/04/16843014-exclusive-justice-department-memo-reveals-legal-case-for-drone-strikes-on-americans?lite

By: David

David — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 18:32:14 +0000

the line between “criminal” and “good guy” is very blurry. the president can assasinate us citizens in secret, without a trial or justification. a memo “prepared by the Obama Department of Justice that effectively justifies the president’s power to target even Americans for assassination without due process.

By: MatthewQ

MatthewQ — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 16:57:21 +0000

Online etymology site says the use of drone for unmanned aircraft comes from circa 1946. It’s probably always been a military term since then but has only recently been added to the public vernacular. That’s my assumption. The military has its own specific names for many items that are sometimes different than what the general public commonly calls something.

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=drone

By: Khannea Suntzu

Khannea Suntzu — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 16:46:59 +0000

Cheap, easily replaced saturation of things to do as you want them to do.

Aha. Force projection supremacy allowing the investor with the deepest pockets maximum manifestation of his deepest, most dark ego desires. Imagine Donald Trump spending a few billion on millions and millions of 100E drones, no single drone completely identical to the next one, all “point & click” manifestations of his psychosexual edifice complex, swarming his massive ivory towers as cybertrump sperm cells.

By: Khannea Suntzu

Khannea Suntzu — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 16:42:31 +0000

No its a marketing slogan.

By: Khannea Suntzu

Khannea Suntzu — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 16:42:11 +0000

The war against drug is dead. Soon clients will order drugs online, paying with bit coin and a 10$ rice board printed drone will make the deliveries.

Let me correct myself – ATF will lobby for a radical increase of budget. “we can ill afford a drone delivery system gap!!”

By: Khannea Suntzu

Khannea Suntzu — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 16:40:04 +0000

Diseases scare me, rogue government laboratories that churn out dozens of disease strains with narrow objectives (“this stuff decreases the functional IQ of 97% of Palestinians by an average of 20 points”) scare me a lot more.

By: Khannea Suntzu

Khannea Suntzu — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 16:38:00 +0000

The only thing that stops a bad guy with a highly addictive mind alteration nanoid infector swarm is a good guy working for the DHS controlling a fine granular full coverage homeland defense mind resilience & reprogramming nanonet to protect citizens from teh terrists.

By: Khannea Suntzu

Khannea Suntzu — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 16:35:47 +0000

Yah well I do recall bringing this up a few years ago.

http://blog.khanneasuntzu.com/?p=3297

By: Boristabby

Boristabby — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 16:06:07 +0000

Wow. How neat. The bad guys and the good guys doing dog-fighting overhead.
It is like a remake of Dawn Patrol.
Who will emerge as the Red Baron?
Maybe Snoopy will prevail this time?

By: Mr.X

Mr.X — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 15:58:43 +0000

“The only thing that stops a bad guy with a drone is a good guy with a drone.”

By: Gorden Russell

Gorden Russell — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 15:19:36 +0000

You’re right, Pike. Biological terrorism will be a much greater problem than a model airplane with a few ounces of homemade explosive…but don’t disregard the little planes either. They could still fly in and explode against a tank of gas at a refinery. A small bomb can still do a great harm.

By: Gorden Russell

Gorden Russell — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 15:13:32 +0000

That’s a great question, Rob. There was a time when unpiloted aircraft were just used as target drones, and I guess the name just stuck. But it really is a misnomer today. In a bee hive, the drones do no work and have no stingers to protect the colony. They are only there to mate with a new princess and then they are driven off to die.

Now the aircraft that are still called drones are real workhorses that carry a big sting. They should be called worker bees, or even killer bees.

By: Robert H. Pike

Robert H. Pike — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 15:11:37 +0000

It seems to me that after watching movies like “Contagion” and “Outbreak” that terrorists real threat is in the realm of biomedical terrorism. Watching the news about boat-loads of people getting sick from just contaminated food makes me think twice about cruises….and in “Contagion” they talked about a terrorist simply walking through a crowded casino knowing (s)he had a very contagious, high mortality disease. Drones don’t scare me; diseases do.

By: ErikSMeyer

ErikSMeyer — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 14:57:07 +0000

They used a remote controlled car to do this in The Dead Pool (1988); it wasn’t particularly shocking, because the idea is obvious. I’m sure this guy was some goofball who probably got his “plastic explosives” from an FBI agent, but even so, putting explosives on a remote controlled car of airplane is not exactly something out of Neuromancer. Of course, the planes and cars are better now, but it’s the same idea.

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 14:25:32 +0000

Doesn’t the term “drone” imply some sort of autonomy?

By: Andy

Andy — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 14:22:08 +0000

It’s the difference between hobby and killing people. Not sure if there’s a difference when it comes to the U.S. government.

By: David

David — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 14:11:16 +0000

Easy to do. I used to build and fly model airplanes, so know all too well how they could be used.

By: Rob

Rob — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 11:37:14 +0000

We had these for years and they were called RC planes. Fun to build, fun to fly and to repair. Now they are “drones”. Why?