Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

People are complicated. Love is not.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

T R E 4 5 O N

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

He really is that stupid.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

A consequence of cucumbers

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Sunday Post-Xmas Open Thread: #DroneCrashMas

Sunday Post-Xmas Open Thread: #DroneCrashMas

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“Accidentally destroying the much-begged-for gifts within hours” is a humor trope that probably goes back as far as every other seasonal gift-giving ritual, but DRONEZ have that extra layer of technical fragility + (mostly) public display…

Reader Interactions

44Comments

  1. 1.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    I managed to crash my drone for the first time on Christmas Eve*.  I got a DJI Mini2 about a week before Thanksgiving.

    *Trying to land it manually and it moved over, hit the hose real, I pulled up to gain altitude, hit the roof and it landed in a window box which dislodged the battery,  The drone didn’t seem to have sustained any lasting damage.

  4. 4.

    NeenerNeener

    I bought several little Doctor Who TARDIS drones from ThinkGeek five or six years ago. They flew once and pretty much disintegrated after that.

  9. 9.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Baud:

    Some of the videos I’ve seen of master drone operaters are really nice. 

    As long as they don’t fly them into an erupting volcano!  Oopsy!

  15. 15.

    scav

    Apparently we’ve been gifted with an immersive electrical yoyo chez scav.  We’ve lost power at least four times since last night.

     

    The neighborhood owes the repair team a generous round of very stiff drinks.

  16. 16.

    Suzanne

    Last year, SuzMom got this really cheap thing that barely qualifies as a drone for Spawn the Younger. Like, it only flies in the house or yard. Anyway, she didn’t have it for 24 hours before it got tangled in her hair. Tears, shrieking, freakout. I hate the gifts my mom buys.

  17. 17.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Baud: The problem with a drone, here in LA, is there aren’t many places you can fly it.  Glendale and LA City parks don’t allow take-offs or landings nor does LA County parks.  State parks don’t have a blanket prohibition, but many do prohibit drones.

  18. 18.

    mrmoshpotato

    @scav:

    The neighborhood owes the repair team a generous round of very stiff drinks. 

    Just bottles of booze, mixers and an ice machine. ?

  21. 21.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Just finished watching “Don’t Look Up.” It has drones. But because I want to avoid spoilers, I’ll say no more about them.

  26. 26.

    Rob

    I have seen a couple of videos of eagles or hawks intercepting drones and knocking them to the ground.

  27. 27.

    BretH

    Been flying FPV ( First Person View) racing/freestyle drones for years, never an expert but it is the closest I will ever get to being a real pilot. It’s absolute fun and I’m lucky in that I like building and fixing them as much as flying.

  30. 30.

    Rand Careaga

    Animals biting drones is all ha-ha-ha until the lithium battery is punctured, at which point the laughter ought to cease. I readily acknowledge that alligators are not among the cuddliest or most charismatic of God’s creatures, but this one didn’t deserve what happened to it, and neither does the family dog.

  32. 32.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Baud: Heh.

    The problem is the mishmash of local and state regulation and that those never make it into any of the apps telling you where you CAN fly.  The Feds are pretty straight forward, you can’t fly in National Parks, don’t fly within 5 miles of an airport without getting clearance, and don’t fly where the military does.   National wilderness areas are no-go zones as well and most of the apps that tell you where you can fly don’t have them, so that’s a bit of a  problem.  But the biggest  problem is local regulations, every damn city thinks that before you fly your drone in their fair town, everyone’s going to look at their municipal code.  It’s nuts.

  33. 33.

    Patricia Kayden

    On 3/9/92, William Schmeck pleaded guilty to fed firearms possession, a felony & rec'd a sentence of 3yrs probation (SDCA, 91 CR 357). He can thank his son Jared for the whole world now learning of this case. Now, let's have an investigation of his PPP loan forgiveness. @SBAgov— Richard Signorelli (@richsignorelli) December 26, 2021

  36. 36.

    Grumpy Old Railroader

    Back in the olde days, I spent secret time (I worked nights and kids were in school) building a 2 foot wing span aero glider out of balsa wood and rice paper as a xmas present to youngest son. He loved it. On its maiden flight it flew straight, level and 75 feet before hitting the wooden fence and breaking beyond repair. We both cried. Now we laugh about it.  Fun times.

    ETA. I launched that maiden flight to show the little boy how it is supposed to be done. I figured it would go about 30-40 feet before landing on the lawn LOL

  39. 39.

    StringOnAStick

    @Patricia Kayden: Yes, let’s see what happens when some enterprising investigator digs into that PPP loan forgiveness.  If he has nothing to hide, he should welcome it to clear his name.  I say this knowing full well that the chances of ‘nothing to hide’ are very close to zero.  Should be fun!

  40. 40.

    Another Scott

    Kids these days… Why back in my day, I had to build a control line model airplane from a balsa kit, paint it, attach the 0.049 cubic inch engine, get the mixture adjusted to stay running, and then wait until dad had a free Saturday to take me to a park to show me how to fly it.

    And I got to watch him successfully make a couple of circuits around and then crash it just as he was about to let me try.

    (sigh)

    I’m sure he felt worse about it than I did. ;-)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  44. 44.

    206inKY

    Eight years ago, my mom gave me—her grown son—a toy drone that terrified my old dog to the point that he crapped the whole floor. This year my wife said fuck it and bought a drone that our kiddo had been begging for. So far no poop has been crapped by doggo, so I’m calling it a success.

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