#engineering!

Somebody in Connecticut got creative with their holiday bird this year. Instead of setting his turkey, himself and his house on fire via more traditional routes like the deep-fryer, this guy upgraded a drone to set fire to it.

I am both terrified and impresssed by this feat of enginerring and may have giggled like an idiot at the sheer wildness of it. But, once I got control of myself, what’s left is real concern. Even if it’s just for fun, there are some serious problems with arming drones, and for this guy, it really is drones plural. This wasn’t his first: last summer he armed a drone with a shot gun. And this opens some concerns about how anyone could build fly and hurt people. 

And only adds to the concerns surrounding drones in general, like how some people are using them to invade people’s privacy (not just the government, but everyday stalkers harassing enough people in Calif. to for the state to consider legislation about flying them on other people’s property). And problems with people flying drones into restricted airspace endangering planes.

So, this was some pretty awesome news this past week. Engineers at the University of Singapore developed a personal flying machine they call the Snowstorm. 

May I be the first to say that I would love to see this take off. But I do kind of wonder, like I do with drones: Should you need a pilot’s licence?