No, no, and a million times no. The USA has not manufactured the monsters it deserves. Perhaps the government of the US has, but the problem is that when terrorists attack they don't attack the government they attack people, and in quite a few situations attack totally innocent people that have nothing to do with the government that has wronged them and their countries. Say that these guys get released, they obviously hate the united states, and they fly into a building that I work at... how can you claim that I have manufactured a monster that I deserve? I didn't open gitmo, I hate the idea of it, and I sure as hell didn't send a bunch of planes to the middle east to bomb the shit out of civilians. I didn't even vote for the government that did. This is the problem, the government pisses people off but they aren't the ones that take heat for it, the citizens are.

This is actually one thing I have noticed. I'm not sure if it is a reaction to there being so much bullshit propagated by the "real" news-media and the police wanting to make sure some actual facts slipped through, or simply police realizing that transparency can help an investigation, but I've seen more information much sooner than I would expect in an investigation such as this. The fact that the FLIR imagery from the suspect in the boat was released to the public at all, and especially so soon, seemed shocking to me. The police announcing over the radio that they had captured the suspect, and that he was the suspect wanted for the bombings immediately after they captured him also seems abnormal to me, especially since they were very clearly aware that their radio chatter was being broadcast worldwide over the internet.

Let's name other things that could deliver bombs: RC cars, normal cars, those little foam gliders you get from the dollar store, a Frisbee, and tennis balls. So what point were you trying to make?

Ummm... I was responding to a comment that was basically saying rotary wing is useless because fixed wing exists. You appear to be unable to read context of a discussion before picking your own nits. So, kindly GFY

I'm guessing your entire comment was written sarcastically because I could not do anything but laugh as I read it. I sure hope so at least, otherwise I am truly worried about you. I also like how Tea Party is the new hip insult. Do you know what the Tea Party is, or do you just suggest anyone you don't like must be a member? Not a thing in my comments would have suggested any sort of alignment with the ideals of the Tea Party, so I must assume you are also just an idiot. The final hilarious part of your comment is you suggesting that I am defending Facebook or something, despite me not mentioning the company even once in my post. Actually, come to think of it, I am not convinced you read either my post or the one i was responding to. That makes more sense to me.

Step 1) Google warthox. Step 2) Watch videos Step 3) Stand (or sit, I don't care) corrected. I can hit almost 20 mph with my $40 Chinese micro quad, hitting 50 is relatively trivial for a more expensive/powerful machine. Efficiency begins to matter less when you are trying to potentially save a life, especially when your aircraft is unmanned and expendable.

I offer a challenge: fly a fixed wing aircraft to a man in water. Stop the plane, throw down life preservers, and stay exactly above the swimmer with a beacon light to guide rescue swimmers in. I bet at the beginning of the second sentence fuel efficiency stops mattering as you fall out of the sky and the quad copter begins laughing maniacally. Rotary wing aircraft exist, and are used because despite the small disadvantages they also offer one huge advantage as well. There is a reason rotary wing is used over fixed wing in rescue operations, and it isn't because they forgot to ask your opinion.

I'm not really scared for my privacy at all, whoever is wiretapping me has the most boring job ever. I am active on RCGroups, somewhat active here, and spend a lot of time looking at tower hobbies, xheli, nitroplanes, banggood, and tmart. I call and text my parents, my fiancee, and various people from work. I almost exclusively email people from work, and I travel to and from Syracuse as needed for medical treatment for my son. Hopefully I just saved the FBI some time and resources. There's little they couldn't just find on my Facebook if they wanted to know any of that. I understand why other would be concerned about privacy but I quite simply couldn't care less. I don't believe government invading my privacy has made me safer or anything, but it truly has no effect on my life.

You're not wrong, but losing a $1,000 quadcopter, to me, is preferable to losing either the man in the water or sending out a manned helicopter. It will work better than sitting there going "I hope that guy doesn't drown."

I find this hilarious. I am picturing some 1's and 0's threatening some other 1's and 0's.

*DRONES No more /. before coffee :(

They're going to kill us all (but not from drowning apparently). I'm scared, civil liberties, Obama, predator, privacy etc. Am I /. correctly?

Are you stupid or just stupid? You're saying because less kids are kidnapped now nobody should worry about their kid being kidnapped. Less people die of dysentery then they used to, I think I'll go ahead and stick with clean water though. If your child gets kidnapped statistics don't mean a damn thing. To anyone with a life worth living there are more important things than "keeping democracy intact" by going on angry diatribes over the internet. Hell, even us "mindless parent[s]" are smart enough to realize you can't keep a democracy intact when you live in a republic. Some more of us are even active members of our communities, maybe even local governments, and I promise you that does a lot more good for the country than going on brainless rants about how mindless parents are for caring about their children when there are legitimate fears like The Man spying on your every move. Also, since you are stupid: the comment you were originally replying to was sarcasm. If you're not intelligent enough to recognize obvious sarcasm then maybe the comments section of Slashdot isn't the best place for you. Judging by how twisted you got your panties over this the best place for you is likely either to stay in your mom's basement, or a straight jacket.

I suspect they continue to hold shears. Where do people that are holding shears come into this article in the first place?

There's actually, AFAIK, companies doing this to avoid this "law." Basically you pay a guy for unrelated consulting services, he then flies just because he wants to and gives you the video. By law there is nothing wrong with that, as the flight was for fun and not for commercial purposes and is unrelated to a separate business contract.