Slashdot Mirror
DIY Cruise Missile Grounded
PSaltyDS writes "The DIY Cruise Missile project from New Zealand has been previously covered on /., but the BBC now reports that Bruce Simpson has been forced to shutdown by his government. His project web site says 'The New Zealand government has moved aggressively to shut down this project -- and by using quite unscrupulous methods which appear to be in breach of the law.'"
"The authorities here finally decided to bankrupt me over a tax debt and I have now had to give the missile to a friend for safe keeping."
You would think that people would learn. If you're going to skirt the edge of the legal system, always pay your taxes!
Remember, Al Capone was jailed for tax evasion, not organized criminal activity. His claim that "The government can't collect legal taxes from illegal money." (1) held no more water than Simpson's claim that the government is trying to "bankrupt" him.
And speaking of Simpsons...
Lisa: Bart. Bart! What are you doing? We've got to get out of here.
Bart: Target sighted. Launching air-to-nerd missile!
[launches a missile model, hitting Lisa]
Lisa: Owww!
- Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming
Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
Well, scratch the cruise missle off of my list of things to build...guess I'll just have to move straight to the ICBM. sigh.
.... his cruise missle project was shot down *budump bum ching*
Reminds me of the days when we were kids and used to strap on cans filled with a mix of sodium chlorate and sugar to our skateboards.
Fucking cops had no sense of humor.
He proclaims he doesn't want "nefarious types" to get ahold of the development information, but he doesn't say how he screens the subscriber list to weed out these people.
Open source software == good
Open source flying cylinder of death == bad
The New Zealand government has been pretty agressive about exploiting the success of the LOTR movies to make millions of dollars in tourism revenues.
I guess they don't want those befuddled tourists who knock on doors aking where Frodo lives to accidentally stumble upon a homemade cruise missile silo instead.
Bruce Simpson runs a daily on-line column called the "Daily Aardvark", which gave lots of details on the bankrupting in installments last week. (Normally it is commentry on New Zealand internet related stuff - see this week for a taste of what it is normally like.)
Dec 1
Dec 2
Dec 3
Dec 4
Dec 5
I believe that Bruce appears on Slashdot as "NewtonsLaw" - I expect he'll put in an appearance.
From my understanding, it is an IRD vendetta that has bankrupted him, unrelated to the "cruise missile" project.
Quattuor res in hoc mundo sanctae sunt: libri, liberi, libertas et liberalitas.
No, then they'd arrest you for building a weapon of math destruction.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
From the BBC site:
he believes he has proved his point - "that by using off-the-shelf technology in a suburban garage a terrorist can create a weapon against which there is no effective defence.
One would think a simple hand-delivered bomb would suffice.
Grr! Arg!
... or does it seem like a bad idea to piss off someone who is building a missile?
However, there have also been a number of people who claim I'm overstating the case and that it's not possible to build a real cruise missile without access to sophisticated gear, specialist tools and information not readily available outside the military.
You don't need a *real* cruise missile, you just need a model aircraft. In fact, I've been thinking about getting one (not to build a missile, of course, but just to play with). There are even ones with gas turbines. Hell, do you really need a lot of explosives to terrorize someone/some group? You could even just load a model aircraft up with some colored gas, dump it over a group of people, and probably someone would get trampled to death in the rush to escape. I'm not a chemist, but I'm sure there's a heavier than air colored gas that's nonlethal that can be easily obtained. Even a model helicopter would be fine.
Here's an article that was in the NZ Herald (our main newspaper) a few days ago. Interesting to see the differences in wording between this article and the BBC one, even in his comments.
e ct ion=news&thesubsection=&storyID=3537971
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?thes
You mean like 'guns'? Oh, but those are self-defense tools. Right. Let's take the NRA stance 'Homebuilt Cruise Missles don't kill people, people with homebuilt cruise missles kill people!'. Guns exist to kill/maim/destroy things ( be they other people, animals, or else ). Should they be likewise prohibited from possesion? ( Note there is a distinction between having the plans for how a gun works and possessing a gun ).
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Segmentation Fault ( core dumped )
That if a privateer can build a cruise missile then all the billions the US is spending on Anti ICBM technology is money down the drain.
If either terrorists or a foreign power want the strike the US then holing up in the Ozarks and building a cruise missile out of a combination of publically available and smuggled components seems a pretty plausible way to do it.
I'm sorry to say it because I don't have a solution either, but making us take off our shoes at the airport etc. is an utter waste of time - terrorism is way too easy, just look at Iraq currently with GI checkpoints and patrols everywhere, even martial law doesn't fix the problem.
Politics is the only answer, coming up with some final solutions in the middle east...
The New Zealand government has moved aggressively to shut down this project -- and by using quite unscrupulous methods which appear to be in breach of the law.
Oh, wow, really? Even though it's not technically illegal, I wouldn't be too shocked to find out that the authorities wanted to have a word or two with me if I was building a V2 in my backyard:
"Oh, no, officer, this rocket is for humanitarian purposes only! And as a gift to all mankind, I've posted the plans online so that other humanitarians can build rockets of their own! What could be wrong with that?"
It was a really cool project, but come on. Who didn't see this coming?
Ph-nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn.
Bruce has put together a specification and built some bits for a device that could theoretically fly some distance in a controlled manner.
But a device to cruise some distance carrying enough ordanance to make a difference at point of impact it is not.
A pickup full of diesel and fertiliser would pose much more of a risk to the Govt of NZ and such a device is legal here, as long as intent to do harm is absent.
Tech point: How autonomous is this thing? What's the guidance system? Where did this guy get his maps and images? Or, did he?
Political point: On his web site he says he won't try to understand how politicians think. If he can't be bothered to understand why politicians want to eliminate independent sources of military weapons, he needs tocheck his grip on reality.
He sounds like one more presumptious and arrogant loon who thinks his moral dilletantism is reason to put others at risk. Good for NZ.
-- Slashdot: When Public Access TV Says "No"
Star Wars only protects against ICBMs. Anybody that has the capacity to lauch ICBMs won't, because it would be obvious where they come from, and they fear retaliation. The real threat is from low-flying vehicles, not ICBMs. Drones, cruise missles, RC planes, even Cessna 180s could be used to deliver a payload -- and the "missile defense sheild" wouldn't help at all. We don't need to protect ourselves from weapon systems flying 10 miles up -- we need to protect ourselves from weapon systems flying 10 feet over the waves.
"Freedom means freedom for everybody" -- Dick Cheney
Instead of calling it a "cruise missle", why not call it an "automated in-flight mail carrier" or "hobby hover-craft". Then the military would not get their panties in bundle over it. Typical of us nerds to open our big mouths without realizing how the rest of the world will interpret it.
Table-ized A.I.