Eye In the Sky For City Crime Fighting 389
Tiger4 writes "The mayor of the City of Lancaster in the Antelope Valley of southern California is considering a high-definition video flying platform to aid in crime fighting. The aircraft, would circle the city constantly, able to zoom in on activity spots instantly. 'You never know when you are being watched or followed. It would be stupid to commit a crime. You see it with such detail,' said Mayor R. Rex Parris, who took a ride last week in a camera-equipped airplane with pilot Dick Rutan. 'I have every hope that Lancaster will be the first city to deploy it. I've never been so excited about anything.' Dick Rutan is the same pilot who flew around the world non-stop in the Voyager, custom built by his brother Burt Rutan at Scaled Composites in Mojave." The aircraft is nothing special, a garden-variety Cessna or the like, but "the camera is an example of technology developed for and used by the military making a transition to civilian applications, Rutan said."
Next step (Score:5, Funny)
City of Lancaster? (Score:5, Funny)
I've never been so excited about anything (Score:2, Funny)
Oblig. Judas Priest (Score:1, Funny)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=TopkgGxGzQs [youtube.com]
In a world where umbrellas are outlawed... (Score:3, Funny)
Crowbar (Score:3, Funny)
As demonstrated by one Gordon Freeman as he fled City 21 during the unrest in the early 2000s, these surveillance drones are particularly susceptible to blunt force attacks. Alternatively, subway tunnels and fast waterborne craft also make it difficult for the drones to follow and/or record.
If people stopped acting all crazy, this sort of thing wouldn't be suggested in the first place. As usual, it's the group of kids in the corner of the playground who ruin it for the rest of us.
Warning shot: a shot directly at center of mass (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Worst idea ever (Score:3, Funny)
>> But hey, when someone asks you to make a robot to do X, how many engineers will step back and ask "Are you SURE X is what you want to do?"
I'll go out on a limb and say, the answer is Y engineers.
-dZ.
The Secret History of Lancaster, CA (Score:3, Funny)
I was stationed at Edwards Air Force Base from 2001 - 2003. After the burgs of Rosamond, Mojave and the tragic-comedy of California City, Lancaster-Palmdale was the closest form of civilization to the base - just a 35-mile drive from the back gate!
While there I formed the theory that Lancaster was used as a checkpoint during the Okie migration of the Great Depression (see "The Grapes of Wrath" for further details). If you were halfway decent-looking, you were allowed to cross the San Gabriel mountains. If you were a freak of nature, you stayed in Lancaster.
Seriously - I never saw so many ugly people in one place in my life.
Re:Next step (Score:3, Funny)
With a strong helping of facism throne in.
I thought for a moment you should have wrote "thrown" but I decided "throne" is more fitting.