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AMA and aeromodelers everywhere outraged at terrorist’s plan to attack Pentagon, Capi — Parallax Forums

AMA and aeromodelers everywhere outraged at terrorist’s plan to attack Pentagon, Capi

RonPRonP Posts: 384
edited 2011-10-04 08:27 in General Discussion
This might be of interest to future quad flyers, everyone for that matter.

http://www.modelaircraft.org/news/RCPlot.aspx

Ron
«1

Comments

  • ctwardellctwardell Posts: 1,716
    edited 2011-09-29 18:58
    Nice how the innocent have to run out an condemn the behavior of idiots lest they fall under suspicion.
    Soon anyone with a half decent IQ will come under suspicion because the media always paints it as somehow the terrorists are "smart" and only "smart" people could pull of terrorists attacks. The world will only be safe after we are all dumbed down and just sit around the TV watching American Idol eating non-fat, low sodium, no sugar added tofu chips. So....I'm going to the farm this weekend to exercise my God given rights and blow the heck out of some inanimate objects, just for fun, and to make 'em sweat.
  • DmashekDmashek Posts: 49
    edited 2011-09-29 19:20
    ctwardell wrote: »
    ...The world will only be safe after we are all dumbed down and just sit around the TV watching American Idol eating non-fat, low sodium, no sugar added tofu chips...

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiocracy
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2011-09-30 01:15
    Dmashek,

    From that Idiocracy link:
    ...future society emphasizes anti-intellectualism, popularity, sexual attraction, and hedonism.
    Every morning I walk through a gigantic local shopping center here. It totally convince me that the mentioned "future society" is already here.

    Of course straying off the Parallax forums into the great wide Word Wide Web or paying any attention to a lot of the mail I receive only reinforces that feeling.

    Yep, we could all end up in deep doo just like this guy:

    http://www.interestingprojects.com/cruisemissile/
  • Peter KG6LSEPeter KG6LSE Posts: 1,383
    edited 2011-09-30 06:01
    RIP . RC ..

    You were a fun hobby ...............



    Peter
  • ratronicratronic Posts: 1,451
    edited 2011-09-30 08:09
    Tower Hobbies sent me an email yesterday asking me to send an email to the DOT because they are getting ready to reclassify hobby rocket engines as "explosives' for shipping. I've never flown a rocket before but I sent the email requesting that they please not reclassify them. Pretty soon they will reclassify the Propeller as a terrorist weapon!
  • Martin_HMartin_H Posts: 4,051
    edited 2011-09-30 08:35
    Argh not again. The rocket engine battle was fought back in the naughts, eventually saner heads prevailed as the lift capacity of most engines is negligible. I mean really this guy was an idiot and his plot was ludicrous.
  • ElectricAyeElectricAye Posts: 4,561
    edited 2011-09-30 08:48
    Over the past 10 years, while there have been increasingly ridiculous restrictions placed on access to items that budding brains might use, there have also been fewer and fewer restrictions on what you can do with guns. Consider this: in Yellowstone National Park you can carry guns around now even though hunting is not allowed. There are no age restrictions on this for the Wyoming side. On the Montana side, though, you have to be 14 to carry your gun around. Smart, eh? And, by contrast, in the great state of Texas, in order to buy or own a boiling flask or any other such lab ware, you need a permit. And don't even think of buying chemicals of any kind for those kitchen table experiments or DIY anything. While some congressmen have suggested that all school teachers be armed with hand guns, school science experiments have been dumbed down to virtual nonexistence. In fact some schools now do their science labs in virtual reality on computers. And my local school does Science Fairs by telling the kids they must do their experiments at home, record the information, then bring only the results to school - not the experiments or apparatus itself where people can look at it. They don't want anyone to get hurt on school property.
  • GadgetmanGadgetman Posts: 2,436
    edited 2011-09-30 08:50
    I've seen the pictures of the models he wanted to use.

    There's no way any of those could have carried a large enough amount of explosives to do much damage, unless he set it off in the middle of a group of people.
    Smacking a RC-plane against a building and setting it off just won't do much beyond breaking a few windows as there's nothing to contain the explosion.

    As for his supposed plans to make them fly by GPS, yeah...
    First of all, most GPS units will have problems updating the course and position fast enough to be usable at the speeds those machines fly at. (Especially as he would need very high accuracy to do any damage with the models. )
    Some commercial units will actually stop outputting if they're in an 'airplane environment'
    (Altitude/speed calculations in the 'wrong range')

    The idea that it can be done, though, is why new users gets heavily frowned upon here if they start asking about autonomous aircraft, especially if there's any indication of long range or substantial carrying capacity.
    And I believe that's the general consensus in most RC clubs, too.
    The same with fitting rockets to RC planes, too.
  • GordonMcCombGordonMcComb Posts: 3,366
    edited 2015-07-01 22:56
    Re Tower's email: Without comment on the proposed DOT regulations, the reclassification has less to do with the amount of material needed to produce an effective weapon as it does the new scanning machinery being introduced to detect it during transit to a customer. It's not really possible to isolate each package going down the conveyor of the local post office sorting facility. If labeled as an "explosive" it can be re-routed down another chute, in a different (controlled) part of the building, for more careful scanning.

    Retailers like Tower may also be required to institute much tighter security in their shipping departments, to prevent mixing controlled and non-controlled items in one shipment. Obviously this can add significant costs to their business. It may also mean controlled items may have to ship separately, adding to freight charges for consumers.

    And yet the public would be royally ticked if the government had the means to stop some bomb going through the mail, but didn't.

    -- Gordon
  • ratronicratronic Posts: 1,451
    edited 2011-09-30 12:09
    To bad this world we live in now has to have such protections in place it really hampers all of us experimenter's. Like I said the Propeller can be used to make a weapon, I hope it never gets to the point of having to pay outrages shipping charges to order one.
  • ctwardellctwardell Posts: 1,716
    edited 2011-09-30 12:49
    ratronic wrote: »
    To bad this world we live in now has to have such protections in place it really hampers all of us experimenter's

    The powers that be would have you believe the "has to have" portion of that statement. We are at a tipping point were we need to decide if we want to be a nation of free people or animals in a cage. If we want to stay free we need to start demanding that government deal with those that want to do evil and cause harm to others instead of banning everything that *might* be used as a weapon and basically punishing the whole class for the misdeeds of one student.

    C.W.
  • Luis DigitalLuis Digital Posts: 371
    edited 2011-09-30 12:55
    Common Sense:
    A huge plane crashed into the Pentagon, loaded with fuel, and just open a hole (official history).

    What will make a toy airplane?

    Does not seem like a stupid story?
    Pretty soon they will reclassify the Propeller as a terrorist weapon!

    ratronic,

    In newark.com refused to sell ARM micros, because these would be exported to the Dominican Republic. I bought them somewhere else, but I must answer several questions stupid.

    I do not know why we signed a free trade agreement, it seems a breach and an insult.
  • sylvie369sylvie369 Posts: 1,622
    edited 2011-09-30 14:44
    Martin_H wrote: »
    Argh not again. The rocket engine battle was fought back in the naughts, eventually saner heads prevailed as the lift capacity of most engines is negligible. I mean really this guy was an idiot and his plot was ludicrous.

    Actually, the National Association of Rocketry and the Tripoli Rocketry Assocation (the two national organizations in the United States) sued to have Ammonium Perchlorate removed from the BATF list of regulated explosives. I'm no chemist, but at least in rocket motors - even ones with some pretty hefting lifting ability - AP composite propellant is not explosive.

    About 2-1/2 years ago the rocketry community won that lawsuit, and our propellant is currently unregulated.

    Shipping, however, is an entirely different matter. I can legally possess motors that I cannot ship. The proposed change in regulations will be a big financial burden, but it's (mostly) unrelated to the lawsuit we won a few years back.
    =============
    The model aircraft story is utterly asinine. Obviously.
  • W9GFOW9GFO Posts: 4,010
    edited 2011-09-30 14:47
    ctwardell wrote: »
    If we want to stay free we need to start demanding that government deal with those that want to do evil and cause harm to others instead of banning everything that *might* be used as a weapon and basically punishing the whole class for the misdeeds of one student.

    +1
  • LoopyBytelooseLoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537
    edited 2011-10-02 01:53
    Whatever happened to the right to bear arms? Why can't I have my very own F35 with a full array of fire power? Then and only then would elected officials listen to the voters. "We have seen the enemy and they are us" - Pogo

    From what I read, this terrorist was trying to deploy 11 kilos of C4. That is quite a bit to life by model R/C. But as Richard Nixon said, "Even the paranoid have real enemies."

    Frankly, I am more concerned that the price of rare earths is going to destroy the model R/C airplane market more than government control. Model rocketry is quite a limited market.

    Here in Taiwan, ownership of one bullet is a felony and there seems not to be any habeas corpus. China goes even further with thugs and kidnapping political opposition. And yet, the USA still seems to want to abdicate world leadership.

    It seems to me that the USA either has to control the electronics or control the chemistry involved in the delivery of a terrorist bomb. I'd prefer they control the chemistry of explosives, munitions, and propellant.
  • PJAllenPJAllen Banned Posts: 5,065
    edited 2011-10-02 07:20
    "I do not know why we signed a free trade agreement, it seems a breach and an insult."

    It's pretty simple.
    Free trade is not free.
    Such arrangements do not eliminate government involvement in trade but they do create multinational entities to regulate it.
  • kwinnkwinn Posts: 8,697
    edited 2011-10-02 22:40

    It seems to me that the USA either has to control the electronics or control the chemistry involved in the delivery of a terrorist bomb. I'd prefer they control the chemistry of explosives, munitions, and propellant.

    Good luck with that. It`s a big and very profitable business and with the number of folks they have in Washington it will never happen regardless of who gets elected.
  • lanternfishlanternfish Posts: 366
    edited 2011-10-03 01:21
    Heater. wrote: »
    ...... Yep, we could all end up in deep doo just like this guy:

    http://www.interestingprojects.com/cruisemissile/

    I had bookmarked this guy years ago and nothing more came of the project or the govt. 'conspiracy' to silence him. (I sense a paradox coming on).

    And our local library has book titled 'The Forever Airplane - ?? Rankin' which I read many years ago before GPS and inertial guidance systems could be bought at hobbyist prices, if at all. Now it is so within reach of any learned backyard boffin!
  • PJAllenPJAllen Banned Posts: 5,065
    edited 2011-10-03 16:03
    Having a moment at work before I started this morning I tried to read this Subject but the server bounced back that access had been blocked - "Reason: Weapons"
  • ElectricAyeElectricAye Posts: 4,561
    edited 2011-10-03 16:24
    PJ Allen wrote: »
    Having a moment at work before I started this morning I tried to read this Subject but the server bounced back that access had been blocked - "Reason: Weapons"

    It was probably my allusion to boiling flasks that set off all the alarms. Fer sho we all tagged now.

    ...in the great state of Texas, in order to buy or own a boiling flask or any other such lab ware, you need a permit.....
  • Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) Posts: 23,514
    edited 2011-10-03 16:39
    It's almost gotten to the point that if one is not on a list somewhere, he's probably shirking his duty as an active citizen. :)

    -Phil
  • ElectricAyeElectricAye Posts: 4,561
    edited 2011-10-03 18:52
    It's almost gotten to the point that if one is not on a list somewhere, he's probably shirking his duty as an active citizen. :)

    -Phil


    Active Citizen, eh?

    Now.... uh... Mr. Pilgrim... that wouldn't happen to be some kindha code words wouldit? I mean.... such as... code words fer some kindha terrorist pinko remote-controlled ultrasonically-imaged flask-boiler brotherhood, now, wouldit?

    Speak into the microphone, Mr. Pilgrim, so all America can hee-arh what you, and all your pointy-earred cat-lovin comrades and DV8 or ELEV8 or whatchamacallit forumistas, have to say for yourselves....

    081201_mccarthy_glass.jpg
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism
  • Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) Posts: 23,514
    edited 2011-10-03 18:59
    How do you know my real name is Pilgrim, pilgrim?

    -Phil (or for that matter, Phil?)

    P.S. Cat's real name is Browser, and he's a proud, card-carrying Felinista.
  • Martin_HMartin_H Posts: 4,051
    edited 2011-10-03 19:01
    Holy smoke, I missed the Texas lab glassware law the first time through this thread. I Googled it and sure enough Texas has that law. I am just stunned as criminals are not going to care about breaking a state permit law, as they are already in deep with the Federal drug laws.

    Things really seems to be going nuts the past ten years.
  • lanternfishlanternfish Posts: 366
    edited 2011-10-03 19:09
    Thread Hijack Alert - While here in NZ we don't have quite the same draconian govt response to terrorism (removal of personal freedoms) they are still being eroded. And the poli's absolutely believe they are protecting the law abiding citizens from the non-law abiding denizens. The poli's are as deluded as various -ists they oppose.
  • ElectricAyeElectricAye Posts: 4,561
    edited 2011-10-03 19:09
    Martin_H wrote: »
    Holy smoke...sure enough Texas has that law. I am just stunned....

    Intelligence Test For those planning to move their research facilities to Texas. For which of the following do you need a permit to purchase?

    Pyrex_boiling_flask.jpg

    Stag2wi.jpg

    Hint: you can use it for a goldfish bowl.
  • sylvie369sylvie369 Posts: 1,622
    edited 2011-10-03 20:08
    Intelligence Test For those planning to move their research facilities to Texas. For which of the following do you need a permit to purchase?

    Hint: you can use it for a goldfish bowl.

    Well of course it's the Pyrex glassware that needs a permit in Texas. You can't commit science with those firearms.
  • Luis DigitalLuis Digital Posts: 371
    edited 2011-10-03 20:25
    Intelligence Test For those planning to move their research facilities to Texas. For which of the following do you need a permit to purchase?


    Hint: you can use it for a goldfish bowl.

    Now I understand why killings occur in U.S. schools every year: they change the glassware for weapons.

    Is it really possible to buy automatic weapons without a permit?
  • potatoheadpotatohead Posts: 10,261
    edited 2011-10-03 20:36
    Great thread. I share many of the frustrations.

    I second the +1 above. Nicely said.

    Fear based policy doesn't have any good ends.
  • ElectricAyeElectricAye Posts: 4,561
    edited 2011-10-03 20:51
    ...

    Is it really possible to buy automatic weapons without a permit?

    The AR-15 shown above is not automatic. It is semi-automatic, which means it can shoot only as fast as you can pull the trigger.
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