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...."

Comments

That is silly

[Neophytus]

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.

Re:That is silly

[jkrise]

No - what happens next is "Slashdotters" will be considered potential terrorists!! Simple reasoning: why would a website help you build personal submarines and personal rockets?? I see a new slashdot-race developing - everyone who values personal security - better start reading slashdot.

Why? Because nobody is trustworthy anymore! What if my BOFH sysadmin builds a personal submarine and threatens me (the boss)? Can you see it now? We all need peronal submarines, rockets, nuclear reactors and personal 1024-bit encryption to our grey cells. Till then we can't be secure.

Gasoline and Soap?

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:Gasoline and Soap?

[trash eighty]

so I guess soap has to go.

excellent! a plan with no drawbacks! oh yes i am european.

Also being banned ...

[SuperDuG]

Toy weapons (IE: Guns and Swords), as obviously these will be used for terrorist training devices. Why use the real thing, when you can go plastic.

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
The Flying/Electric Car
The True OJ Story
And ... silly putty (ain't nothing silly about it)

Reasons

[Root Down]

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.

Re:What?

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:What?

[Anonamused Cow-herd]

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.