randomness

[Lithium]

The first one was hilarious. The second two were meh.

[Da6onet]

The pokeman video led me to this.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fuHzC9aTik&feature=youtube_gdata_player

[Sared]

If you liked that...

Etymology nerds, fasten yer seatbelts.

Why Are Bad Words Bad?

[Lithium]

This guy is pretty nuts--in a good way.

[Sared]

Vsauce (1) covers a whole lot of everything. Michael (the host) has a degree in Neuropsychology and English lit, and has a great way of breaking down and explaining pretty high-level concepts. Vsauce 2 covers more on people, while Vsauce 3 is focused primarily on video game culture. The three channels cross over from time to time but all offer interesting, regularly-updated, and educational entertainment. Honestly, it's content creators like these guys that are the reason I would rather watch YouTube than regular television.

On an unrelated note, I had an itch when I got off of work this morning to buy a $20 scratch-off. Woman behind me started joking with me about it and I offered her half if she wanted to split the cost. She politely declined, then proceeded to swear like a sailor when I scratched off $500.

Sometimes life sucks, but right now, everything is alright.

[Da6onet]

On an unrelated note, I had an itch when I got off of work this morning to buy a $20 scratch-off. Woman behind me started joking with me about it and I offered her half if she wanted to split the cost. She politely declined, then proceeded to swear like a sailor when I scratched off $500.

Maybe her copy would do it differently :-p

http://youtu.be/8GEebx72-qs

[Lithium]

Amazon is taking to the sky.

http://mashable.com/2013/12/01/amazon-unveils-flying-robot-delivery-drones/?utm_cid=mash-com-fb-main-link

[Subb]

Does it mean that Amazon can break airspace laws, too?

Plus, easy christmas presents; seeing as you lot have a gun fetish you could just shoot them down...

[Lithium]

Does it mean that Amazon can break airspace laws, too?

Plus, easy christmas presents; seeing as you lot have a gun fetish you could just shoot them down...

Playing devil's advocate...

If this were 1900 you'd be saying the same thing about truck delivery vs horse drawn carriage delivery.

Similar issue of traffic laws and just like how people don't shoot at UPS vehicles (too often).

[Subb]

Does it mean that Amazon can break airspace laws, too?

Plus, easy christmas presents; seeing as you lot have a gun fetish you could just shoot them down...

Playing devil's advocate...

If this were 1900 you'd be saying the same thing about truck delivery vs horse drawn carriage delivery.

Similar issue of traffic laws and just like how people don't shoot at UPS vehicles (too often).

If it was 1900, I would be hanging someone and declaring witchcraft upon the little white shiny box and has words in it.

No, the airspace joke was regarding the US' hard on for drones and just waltzing into anyone's back garden,who'd also whinge if anybody else who had drones did the same.

The shooting down joke was just a trending joke; it was an attempt at being humorous.

[Sared]

I want anti-drone drones for home defense. Can I do that?

Much like a fisherman, I'm waiting with baited fucking breath to hear Mharz weigh in on some of this.

[Tecknik]

UPS wants to use drones too.

[Mharz]

Much like a fisherman, I'm waiting with baited fucking breath to hear Mharz weigh in on some of this.

And since I hate to disappoint I'll paste a portion of a conversation I'm involved in for professional reasons on the topic. 

"While I'm excited that one of the world's largest retailers is coming into our space to help advance domestic operations we have to consider a couple of practical things.

1. Drone delivery security. I hack the drone or otherwise bring it down prior to delivery destination and steal the cargo. After losing a couple of pieces of cargo with high price tags this suddenly becomes a lot less attractive of a delivery solution.

2. Flight times. Currently flight times are limited by battery capacity. Nominal times for exceptional systems are 30 minutes but most are less. This would allow a 10 minute flight out, a 10 minute flight back, and some reserve for emergency. Is this useful?

3. Cargo capacity. Current lifting weights are modest making this method only suitable for the lighter loads. This limitation restricts the usefulness of the device to a small subset of potential deliveries.

4. Operational costs. Assuming some clever folks could automate the process as Jeff is famous for doing, what metrics could be used to justify the operational costs of a UAS compared to a delivery truck? If you use cost/pound of package delivered I'm not sure the UAS will hold up well.

Please don't take these comments as rain on the Amazon parade but more as constructive questions that need to be answered before we move forward."

In short, we're a number of major technology hurdles away from Jeff's ideal delivery solution, or anyone else's to be very frank.  On the surface it looks great but if you look a little deeper the idea totally falls flat until some challenges are met.

Beyond what I mentioned there are a number of regulatory issues that are currently in place thanks to the FAA (perhaps the most worthless branch of the government in existence) that prevent this or any other domestic UAV operations.  The industry is estimated to be a multi-billion dollar high tech field (estimates are nearly 100 billion in the first 5 years) that will bring thousands of high skill, good paying jobs to Americans during one of our country's worst economic periods.

Thank goodness we have Washington protecting us from innovation, doing business, and being successful.

[Tecknik]

The proposed plan is to only deliver packages that weigh under 5 lbs and only deliver to a 10-mile radius of take-off point.

[Manic Velocity]

If I order something that is under 5 pounds and available within a ten mile radius, I'll just go get it myself.