Slashdot Mirror
The Demise of Model Rocketry?
Mark Lytle writes "Due to restrictions imposed by the rather broad Homeland Security Act, the hobby I suspect many Slashdotters, being technology buffs, grew up with, the Estes Model Rocket is now firmly on the endangered species list. The little cardboard rockets I learned science with in high school are evidently suspected of being potential weapons of mass destruction. Go figure. Perhaps by getting involved, we can stop this sillyness... Anyway, i hope so...."
Next thing I know my model plane will be considered a spyplane if I mount a video camera on it. Actually, I shouldn't give them ideas.
Wait until they realize what happens when you mix those two together and strike a match!
Little chance of gasoline being outlawed (if it were this whole war business would be out the window), so I guess soap has to go.
Maybe it's for the best, what with the future of the space program in jeopardy and all. Why turn children's eyes to the heavens when they have no chance of ever making it there. Still it's sad that millions of young people will never know the joy of sending live crickets hurtling into the wild blue yonder.
Richard Simmons Videos - obviously a terrorist, have you see all those fat people "suffering to the oldies". Excercise is unamerican.
Chess Boards - Obviously the game of chess is nothing more than a war-game simulation with black and white pieces, obviously increasing racial tension.
Linux Operating System and all GNU Products - If I didn't know any better I'd suspect that someone must be funding these "free" projects, obviously since it's not American to give things out for free, it must be terrorism funding.
PokeMon - it's anime, obviously unamerican.
Honorable Mentions Include:
Duke Nuke Um Forever ... silly putty (ain't nothing silly about it)
The Flying/Electric Car
The True OJ Story
And
Ignore the "p2p is theft" trolls, they're just uninformed
The nuns in my elementary school outlawed paper planes, spitballs, match flipping and other various incendiaries and projectiles decades ago. I hope Sister Mary Discipline claims prior art and stops this madness.
Instead of using the nasty word "Rocket" we should rename the hobby the Vertical Paper Propulsion Game.
But really now, you'd need like, 50 Estes E engines to launch a hand grenade a few feet away. I think a terrorist is more likly to use a pickup truck to get a bomb around.
Outdoor digital photography, mostly in New Engl
It's because, on radar, they look just like stealth nuclear missles - at least until the little parachute pops open, but by then it's DEFCON5 anyway....
I imagine it's because they might be used to disperse chemical agents, though the best I was ever capable of was dispering little model rocket parts.
weapon of mass panic (WMP)
is that related to Windows Media Player in any way ?
What they don't want is rocket powered box cutters, imagine the damage they could do.
I for one am glad to see the US government taking such a positive stance on potential problem substances and technologies.
expect to receive a long "all expenses-paid" stay in a state or federal prison!
a.k.a.: Pound me in the ass prison.
Never argue with an idiot. They will just bring you down to their level and beat you with experience.
My dad, fed up with the noise of approaching planes to Minneapolis-St.Paul International Airport, told my brothers and I that if we hit a plane with a model rocket, he'd buy us a new one.
And believe me, we tried.
The damn things flew right over our house. These were the days of the low-bypass-engined 727s which are very loud.
We never hit one, though. The best effort we had was the "KILLER", a rocket with a single D engine, with fins and a nosecone glued to it. Talk about power to weight ratio. It wasn't designed to be recovered. It was like a Mosquito on steroids.
Yeah, it was irresponsible. If we knew what we were doing, we COULD have hit a plane (they're hard to lead).
We had much better success with flying kites really high in the flight path and tying the strings to tall trees. Suited airport security dudes would then come around and have to climb messy, sappy pine trees to get them down. We got at least a two hour reprieve from noise while the flights were diverted.
So, it's probably my family's fault that rockets are getting outlawed. Don't all mod me down at once!
in the hands of the right person, they could certainly be used as a "weapons delivery system". They can reach altitudes high enough to distribute chemical or biological agents
I hate to be the one to point this out, but if you have produced chemical or biological agents and you are still using a 12-year-old's toy as a weapons delivery system, you are such an incompetent terrorist that you deserve the misfire your under-powered, chemical-agent-laden hobby rocket is going to produce shortly before those chemical agents are sitributed to a very small area surrounding your person.
-----[0_o]-----
We are not amused.
What the fuck: I can purchase 1,000 rounds of 30-06 ammunition, along with a few pounds of power for reloading, but they think that a few Estes model rocket engines are dangerous.
[sarcasm]
Outlawing boxcutters I could understand, but this?
[\sarcasm]
Ok, so now the terrorists will just call the FAA and tell them they're taking their sun out to the park to launch some model rockets when they launch their stolen Hellfire missles at passing commuter planes.
I've done simular things in my past, but to do what you did you had to go beyound what a simple model rocket engine can do. Adding black power to the nose of a rocket isn't in NAR regs last time I checked.
When I was a teen we got into a war with the local model airplane group. I shot down one plane(it was cool but really it was a damn lucky shot) with my home made missle. Wasn't able to repeat the act as they were able to easily dodge the missles. We were just wasting black power.
My friends and I ended up designing a semi-wire gide missle using fishing line and a hand held launcher. It wasn't easy to guide(sic) the rocket. You had to fire across the path of the plane and if you ran like hell while trying to drag the wire in the path of the plane you could take it out, if you were lucky and fast enough. It wasn't explosive it used the wire to rip the plane in half. Odd enough the guys flying the planes never called the law on us. I think they just took it as a challenge. They only lost 3 more planes, all repaired, while we must of shot off nearly 30 attempts over that summer and lost or destroyed most of the rockets. As "wars" go I'd say we lost.
Slashdot, home of supporters of free software, free music, and free speech.Except for Moderators that disagree with you.
Does this mean I'm gonna get busted for stockpiling the little card board tubes from paper towel and toilet paper rolls?
I just went out and bought some estes engines, I guess I should go buy some more quick.
"You never know when some crazed rodent with cold feet might be running loose in your pants."
-Calvin
"I for one am glad to see the US government taking such a positive stance on potential problem substances and technologies."
Spoken like a true coward.
"Oh help me government, save me from the potential dangers in life! Please, for God sake! Ban shit now, before it's too late! But please, for the Love of God, don't stop doing all the jacked up things you've done to make me a target. Please don't! I just want to be less free, I don't really want you to do anything that could make me less a target."
Show me an effect without cause and then I'll believe in chaos.
When I was young, my preferred place to set off model rockets was in a field across the street from the Isreali embassy in DC. In retrospect, probably not such a good idea, and definately not such a good idea now...
spreer
If rocket-propelled explosive warheads are outlawed, only outlaws will have rocket-propelled explosive warheads.
taken! (by Davidleeroth) Thanks Bingo Foo!
Model railroaders can tell you that rail fanning (the act of watching trains do train-things in their natural habitats such as yards) is in danger, too.
Many railfans are being harassed by police who have a lot of pointed questions when they see a sixty-year old man in a Casey Jones hat pointing binoculars at empty boxcars.
I love the taste of napalm in the morning... part of a balanced breakfast!
-- Tim Buchheim