FBI Confiscates Six Drones Near Super Bowl Stadium (reuters.com)

The FBI confiscated six drones in Atlanta for flying too close to the football stadium where the Super Bowl will be played Sunday, Reuters reports: Drone flight was prohibited on Saturday and from 10 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. EST on Sunday for one nautical mile (2 km) around the Mercedes-Benz Stadium and up to an altitude of 1,000 feet (305 meters), the Federal Aviation Administration said. The FAA will establish temporary flight restriction that prohibits drones within a 30-nautical-mile radius of the stadium and up to 17,999 feet in altitude from 5:30 p.m. to 11:59 p.m. EST on Sunday, the agency said. ..

Drones "are a big concern," said Nick Annan, Homeland Security Investigations special agent in charge. "There are a few other things that are in place to mitigate drones," he added without elaborating. Operators who send drones into restricted areas around the Mercedes-Benz Stadium could face more than $20,000 in civil penalties and criminal prosecution, according to the FAA.
Drone pilots are advised to check the FAA's B4UFly app to check when and where they can fly -- and the aviation agency has also produced a slick 20-second video "encouraging Super Bowl fans to bring their lucky jerseys, face paint and team spirit to the game -- but leave their drones at home -- because the stadium and the area around it is a No Drone Zone."

Comments

Super Bowl?

[110010001000]

What is this Super Bowl thing you are talking about? You mean the handegg game? You shouldn't call it football!

-- Insufferable Eurosnob

Re:Super Bowl?

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

You are saying that nautical miles and knots are silly? What about feet and yards?

As an American, I admit that I'm regularly embarrassed by the fact that on the entire planet, only America, Liberia, and Myanmar still use Imperial measurements. Some people I know refer to Imperial as "Barbarian Units".

Feet, yards, inches, pints, quarts- it's impossible to deny that the whole damn thing is blitheringly idiotic.

Now, I remember literally about 50 fuckin years ago hearing this excited buzz about how the US was going to switch to the metric system "in phases". Woo hoo!

And of course, a bunch of good ol' American goobers and numbnuts instantly came out of the woodwork against it and screamed bloody murder as if it would lead to nuclear war.

And this is weird, but some of the strongest, most strident opposition came from churches and clergy, the holy god-fearin' folk. WTF? Why?

I never did figure that one out. I mean, what was it about the metric system was it that scared the bejeesus out of them? Of all things, the metric system? I repeat: WTF?

Anyway, the furthest we've gotten is that we're now printing both measurement systems on the labels of most consumer goods (and that awe-inspiring milestone was reached like goddamn 30 years ago).

So yeah at this pace my great grandchildren might grow up under the much more rational metric system but I myself wouldn't bet 5 bucks on it.

Re:Super Bowl?

[goose-incarnated]

Of course, they prefer "futbol" AKA "kicking the ball and pretending to be hurt" over real football - despite never having played either.

American football is a girls game. I played Rugby once upon a time. No protective gear, no 20m breaks every 10m of play.

This may come as a shock to you, but over the pond American football and baseball (rounders) are girls games.

Re:Super Bowl?

[dk20]

As a Canadian who spent several years in the US i found the imperial system messed up, and the fact many americans are "proud" of it weird. It is almost like metric suffers from "not invented here" syndrome.

Several Americans i worked with would ask me stupid questions about the metric system (how many metres in a kilometre?)
What i found far more humourous was when i asked a simple question like "What is zero fahrenheit?" They were unable to answer. This is a system they were tought in school and seemed odd they dont know.

Canada went metric, the US was scheduled to go as well but did not. This has left Canada in a weird state as well.. Many things here are still imperial, for example you buy 2x4's and 4x8's. On top of this, my generation still measures their weight in pounds?

Re:Super Bowl?

[Hognoxious]

If you played rugby with the typical fast, mobile, 300-lb NFL linemen, people would *die*.

Perhaps. But it's a one platoon game and runs continuously unless there's a score or an infringement. So you might be surprised about who gets carted off to the glue factory, Mr Internet Tough-Guy.

Thank God

[Patent Lover]

Thank God the U.S. military and FBI are protecting the most important institution this country has.

Re:Thank God

[Noishkel]

Yeah, no kidding. And look at the level of control the propose to exert. They want to lock down 30 nautical miles around a single commercial event. And they're going to just seize property without charge within that area for an extended period. And what are they looking to find? Are they expect a fleet of Slaughterbots to show up?

Re:Thank God

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

Are they expect a fleet of Slaughterbots to show up?

I mean, honestly, that would be kinda cool.

WTF FAA

[AndyKron]

A 30 mile radius? A little overkill I think.

Re:WTF FAA

[djinn6]

Maybe they'll increase it to 3000 nm and start telling people "why are you flying drones instead of watching football?"

Re:WTF FAA

[91degrees]

Yes. I think the restriction for airports is 5 miles. But that's only protecting lives, not copyright.

So kite flying isn't allowed either?

[mark-t]

What's the difference, really? And if the tether makes a difference, then if one is flying only on their own property, is that still prohibited?

Re: #freedumbs #concealedcarry

[dunkelfalke]

The world wildlife fund?