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A fascinating short audio clip from a former drone pilot talking about a few aspects of the day to day business of piloting drones in war zones.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-24522150[DOUBLEPOST=1381771954,1381771743][/DOUBLEPOST]One part of this made me think that our soldiers and others who fly drones are less involved and can more effectively be kept in the dark due to the way they are handled.

One pilot could be briefed enough to get the plane to the target, then they could switch out while the next takes the shot, then they could be switched out for the return journey. The first and last don't need to know there was a strike. The middle doesn't need to know where the strike was placed, they were just handed a plane already hanging above a target.

Unlike a fighter pilot who was involved from start to finish, there's no lead up to the strike that might cause them to question the validity of the strike.

stienman said:

Unlike a fighter pilot who was involved from start to finish, there's no lead up to the strike that might cause them to question the validity of the strike.

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Which is irrelevant to the strike itself since I'm pretty sure most of the time they're going to follow orders unless something comes in to disrupt those orders. That's what you're trained for, according to the military men in my family. It's not like in movies.

YOU CHANGED YOUR USERNAME!?!

stienman said:

YOU CHANGED YOUR USERNAME!?!

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Now instead of looking at my pokemon friends list and wondering who the fuck Zero Esc is because he doesn't use his halforums handle, I'll look at both pokemon -and- halforums and wonder who the fuck the guy with quotemander's avatar is.

And that's not even counting how long it took me to get used to him changing to quotemander to begin with...

stienman said:

YOU CHANGED YOUR USERNAME!?!

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Again. I can't even remember who he was last time.

Ravenpoe said:

Now instead of looking at my pokemon friends list and wondering who the fuck Zero Esc is because he doesn't use his halforums handle, I'll look at both pokemon -and- halforums and wonder who the fuck the guy with quotemander's avatar is.

And that's not even counting how long it took me to get used to him changing to quotemander to begin with...

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Now just wait until I change my avatar.

CHANGE IT BAAAAAAACK!

Who's the kitty? I don't recognize that image.

--Patrick

PatrThom said:

Who's the kitty? I don't recognize that image.

--Patrick

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That's the evil Yzma in The Emporer's New Groove (Disney, 2000), turned into a cat in the final scenes as she is still attempting to take over ruling the kingdom.

stienman said:

That's the evil Yzma in The Emporer's New Groove (Disney, 2000), turned into a cat in the final scenes as she is still attempting to take over ruling the kingdom.

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Ah, that explains it. Haven't seen it yet.

--Patrick

I...don't understand the disagree?
I mean, I haven't seen the movie yet, and that's a fact. How do you disagree with a fact?
Or are you disagreeing with the explanation provided by @stienman?
I'm confused.

--Patrick

PatrThom said:

I...don't understand the disagree?
I mean, I haven't seen the movie yet, and that's a fact. How do you disagree with a fact?
Or are you disagreeing with the explanation provided by @stienman?
I'm confused.

--Patrick

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I think he's trying to express disapproval for your having not seen The Emperor's New Groove.

"Pull the lever, Kronk!"

*chtunk*
w
r
o
n
g

l
e
v
e
e
e
r
r
r
r
!

(splash)


... "Why do we even HAVE that lever?"

PatrThom said:

I'm confused.

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I haven't seen it because I haven't had the opportunity to see it.

I might as well have just been censured for being poor.

--Patrick

PatrThom said:

I haven't seen it because I haven't had the opportunity to see it.

I might as well have just been censured for being poor.

--Patrick

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Would you like me to send you an IPTorrents invite?

GasBandit said:

Would you like me to send you an IPTorrents invite?

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You can if you like, but I doubt I would use it all that much. I'm all ethical and stuff, would probably only torrent stuff I already legally own or that isn't copyrighted.
The opportunity will present itself in the future, I'm sure of it. I *think* we have a copy around here, though I might be confusing it with The Prince of Egypt (which I also haven't seen yet), or else we have both. We have a LOT of movies around here we haven't seen yet. I've accumulated a lot of 'gotta see this some day," so has she, we're getting lots of donations of kids' movies, and her dad works for the library and gets to take home all the discards. In all honesty, we accumulate more hours of content than we have the time to watch right now.

--Patrick

PatrThom said:

You can if you like, but I doubt I would use it all that much. I'm all ethical and stuff, would probably only torrent stuff I already legally own or that isn't copyrighted.
The opportunity will present itself in the future, I'm sure of it. I *think* we have a copy around here, though I might be confusing it with The Prince of Egypt (which I also haven't seen yet), or else we have both. We have a LOT of movies around here we haven't seen yet. I've accumulated a lot of 'gotta see this some day," so has she, we're getting lots of donations of kids' movies, and her dad works for the library and gets to take home all the discards. In all honesty, we accumulate more hours of content than we have the time to watch right now.

--Patrick

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All of Disney's stuff is streaming on Netflix.

Ravenpoe said:

All of Disney's stuff is streaming on Netflix.

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...which we don't have.

--Patrick

PatrThom said:

You can if you like, but I doubt I would use it all that much. I'm all ethical and stuff, would probably only torrent stuff I already legally own or that isn't copyrighted.

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Pat, I detest you less than I do most people, but if you're going to sail these waters, you're going to need to know your way around a cutlass.

GasBandit said:

Pat, I detest you less than I do most people, but if you're going to sail these waters, you're going to need to know your way around a cutlass.

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If ever my fortunes fall so far that I must needs join a private tier, you'd only be fooling yourself to underestimate my skills, but I have not yet reached the end of my rope.

--Patrick

AAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Wow, this thread was wrecked from post 2. Jesus.

Frank said:

Wow, this thread was wrecked from post 2. Jesus.

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It's all !⎋'s fault.

--Patrick

Usernames are more important than drones.