Flying Under the Influence - A Drone Speaks

[ORAC]

HT to Ares for the link. :ok:

Flying Under the Influence (http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/07/20/flying_under_the_influence?page=full)

I've had it up to my synthetic aperture radar with the lawsuits and the criticism. This is why I drink and drone.

[oxenos]

Someone just programmed him to say that.

[BEagle]

Yet somehow, us drones -- yes, we prefer the term "drone" over the alphabet soup of UAV, RPA, or UAS -- have been pressed into unwilling service as the bugaboo for a host of disparate interest groups.

Oooh dear, the PPRuNe drone operators won't like that....:ooh:

[TEEEJ]

The protest camp is back at RAF Waddington. I defend her right to protest but she is mad as a box of frogs!

Peace campaigner protests outside RAF Waddington over use of Reaper drones | This is Lincolnshire (http://www.thisislincolnshire.co.uk/Peace-campaigner-protests-outside-RAF-Waddington/story-16559317-detail/story.html)

[Grumpy106]

Saw her walking down the A15 towards Lincoln this morning. Was tempted to clip her with my door mirror but thought better of it. Before I read this I thought Waddington Assassins were an ice hockey team she supported, or that the Sentry guys had been eating so many pies that they were responsible for a cull of beef cattle.;)

[L J R]

..From the article:

Grim reaper drones smash flesh and bones in oil rich lands far away, guided by geeks, computer freaks.

I'm sure that those who I have protected by silencing/eliminating the opposing forces with the use of lethal force from RPAS will not agree, and I will be the first to admit that I am NOT a computer freak...:ooh:

I wasn't aware that afghanistan had oil or was rich, but....:oh:

Everyone has a right to their opinion though, and I respect her right that I have fought to protect.:yuk:

[Tankertrashnav]

On the face of it the use of drones seems a great idea. Eliminate the bad guys with no risk to friendly forces, little collateral damage and at relatively low financial cost.

The trouble is every time one mission goes slightly wrong, and the collateral damage includes women and children (maybe the target's family, maybe just his neighbours) the incident acts as a powerful recruiting sergeant for Al Quaeda and the like.

Overall is their use ultimately counter-productive, particularly in Pakistan, where a moderate politician (in Pakistani terms) like Imran Khan has come out vociferously against them? It's no good trying to win the hearts and minds war in the area if a misguided Reaper strike undoes all the good done.

[fltlt]

One has to wonder if the political requirement to remove the possible international incident(s)/embarrasement (person) in the plane has/will cost more in the long run in international goodwill.
Not to mention the by product of ease of use of deadly force, video game style.
Unfortunately we have/are learning lessons in permissive battlespace, I fear we will have our rear ends handed to us in anything other than.

Have to chuckle, Drones. What goes around comes around. Just think all those project offices that renamed to justify their existence along the way, most gone now. Oh well.

[stevef]

"I lived through the Second World War and it was not unusual to have a friend not turn up after an air raid.
Fantastic memory for someone born in 1938...

[soddim]

She needs to be told that we do not want people dying for our country again - we want the enemy dying for theirs - if they have one.

[GOLF_BRAVO_ZULU]

stevef. Not detracting from the point that the woman is, however well meaning, totally barking, can you really have no recallection from the age of 10-15? Even after Christ knows how many CZ of beer, I can still remember my first day at school. It isn't that difficult this side of brain damage.

Anyway, I'm pleased that the Waddington Model Aero Club has been given some distinguished Sqn numbers.

[stevef]

Well, WWII started in 1939 and finished in 1945 so that makes her seven years old on VE day by my reckoning. :)

[500N]

If it was a V1 or V2 air raid from 1944 onwards then she could well have memories of it.

Do you think she would remember anything up to the end of 1941, making her 3
when the last of the big bomber raids occurred on London ?

That is if she was in London.

[Prop Fwd]

GBZ,
back on 13 as an operator,not a fairy hadn't thought of that.

(Wad Model flying Club Member):ok:

[Tankertrashnav]

Because we moved around a lot when I was a child I can pin down memories quite accurately to the places we were living at any particular age. I have several distinct memories of the place we were living in when I was 2-3 years old. I am always surprised at people who say that they can remember nothing from their infancy. I'm sure if I had been 3 during the London Blitz I would have many memories of it.

[Dunky]

I agree with the above, I well remember my first bike accident and smashing my top two front teeth back in to the gum, at two years old.

[orionsbelt]

Google it...........

I quote from the Film via wikipedia

Thermostellar Bomb #20, which, on arrival at their target planet, becomes belligerent and refuses to obey orders and drop from the bomb bay.

While stuck in the bomb bay, Bomb #20 refuses to disarm itself - its detonation countdown is in progress and it refuses to abort the countdown sequence. The other crew members attempt to talk the bomb out of blowing up. Doolittle revives Commander Powell, who advises them to teach the bomb the rudiments of phenomenology, resulting in a memorable philosophical conversation between Doolittle and the bomb. Bomb #20 aborts its countdown and retreats to the bomb bay for contemplation, and disaster appears to have been averted. Pinback addresses the bomb over the intercom in an attempt to finally disarm it.

Doolittle has mistakenly taught the bomb Cartesian doubt, the bomb determines itself to be God, states "Let there be light," and promptly detonates.

One day some prat from accross the pond will load a Nuke onto one of those beasts, after all its name is General Atomics MQ-1 Predator.




***

[Dunky]

I have that film on DVD, also Silent Running.