In the news

https://www.theverge.com/2018/12/18/18146083/facial-recognition-police-london-uk-met-christmas-shopping

We've got a match, Sarge: bloke called Santa, from up north somewhere.

unconfirmed reports suggest this piece of human garbage is currently in ICU fighting for his worthless life having picked a fight with the wrong people, hopefully for the last time.

also - this is in accordance with twitter's ToS.

https://twitter.com/GenocideJimmy/status/1071404768143130624

#thoughtsandprayers

Keenly following Twitter for all things ‘Gatwick airport’ as I am stuck in a plane waiting to take off. Some muppets flying drones across the airstrips. We’we been delayed for hours and incoming flights have been diverted all over the place.
There was a point when we were allowed to take off, but then supposedly the drones turned up again. So it looks like a fairly deliberate effort, not just some kids who lost control over their devices.

Because he's a wealthy, white, upper class male?

Kind of surprised it doesn't happen more often, if any fucker can cause that level of chaos without getting into that much trouble (ie not terrorism charges) if caught.

false flag mate - brexwhat?

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/dec/19/gatwick-flights-halted-after-drone-sighting

Are none of the 3500-brexit troops snipers?

Following the Flynn sentencing court appearance,
i wonder if it means Mueller needs more time to further interview these two
to gain evidence of further crimes.

I met Toby Young recently. He came to my school open evening as his daughter is interested in applying. Which is interesting, as his daughter currently goes to the school he set up.

Funny thing is, I have a vested interest in the perpetrator being labeled ‘any fucker’. My travel insurance doesn’t cover terrorism.

I think there is some offence of endangering safety at an aerodrome that can carry a fairly hefty sentence. Some protesters at Stansted got hit with it recently.

I assume that I am one of many drone owners who are fuming today. It was always going to be the actions of a minority of twats who ruin it for everybody else.

Something that is interesting is that my drone won't even take off it is in restricted airspace. Sure, I could disable that, but that is the setting out of the box.

Are all drones restricted like that? I can't imagine that this is not a deliberate attack so I guess the drones would have been de-restricted anyway. That leaves the questions of what the purpose of the attack was, did airport security have plan in place for these events and if they did why has it failed?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-europe-35750816/eagles-trained-to-take-down-drones

No, and the setting can be overridden with a check box. There is a general movement for the industry to implement code changes that would prevent drones from flying into restricted airspace though. Drone pilot licenses are being introduced in a year or two for any drones that are not kids toys.

My point is that if you own a drone, the drone manufacturer and the vendor put a lot of warnings in front of you about what you can and shouldn't do.

My drone is only small, but easily enough weight to kill a jet engine. In the UK you are not permitted to fly within certain airspace and never out of sight or above 130m in altitude. That said, my drone can fly 7km away at 500m so its easy to break the rules if you aren't responsible. The idea of putting my drone even close enough to make somebody nervous on the ground, let alone near an airport, is horrifying.

Not all but most of the ones sold here seem to be.

Of course, reading Twitter fills your head with all sorts of weird ideas. But people are suggesting one, two, four or seven drones. And then there is the nerd’s discussion of battery times, how you have to plan things quite well to keep the continuity, and spend top dorrah for something that can perform so well for so many hours.

Most high end drones have less than 30 minutes battery life. You need to spend quite a few thousand pounds (as opposed to a thousand pounds) to get something that does more.

EDIT: In fact, I think you'd be spending more than £7.5k for a drone that can last more than 30 minutes, unless you build your own.

I'd assumed it/they were not constantly present but that a drone was sighted and until they can find it and who was flying it they cannot rule it out as a threat.

Sounds like a nice easy way to cause total chaos if your were that way inclined... Why wouldn't you if you had an agenda to do just that? When will the first 'terrorist' drone strike happen?*

* Not counting the USA or any of its allies, obvs...

If seemingly not terrorist, but obviously more than kids doing it for lulz, presumably someone will claim responsibility / give a reason at some point.

Police spokeswoman on Radio 4 just said they had "intelligence" of malicious intent - whatever that means

Great way of stopping deportation flights now peaceful protesters are being charged with acts of terrorism.