Monday, April 20, 2015

Fowl Holiday Weekend?

"Smartie" was bird napped from Swartz Family Farm on Meadow Street Saturday afternoon

With the long holiday weekend providing the best spring weather thus far this year, two concerts and a car show at the Mullins Center, Extravaganja on the Town Common, Spring Football at UMass with tailgating, the stage was certainly set for an epic (bad) newsworthy weekend.

 Empty UMass McGuirk Stadium Friday 7:00 PM
Packed tailgating outside the Stadium 6:15 PM


 Extravaganja Saturday afternoon:  6,000 people, zero problems

And yes APD was busy handling noise complaints all over town.   And AFD had their usual share of substance abuse runs -- mostly alcohol related.

But the story that seemed to resonate the most via my Twitter and Facebook live coverage was that of "Smartie" the stolen chicken.


Around 3:30 PM Saturday afternoon with the western quad area of Townhouse Apartments filling to capacity, a college aged blond woman grabbed Smartie while walking past Swartz Family Farm heading west.


Townhouse eastern quad Sunday the following day, not nearly as packed with party goers

Another concerned young woman alerted Sarah Swartz to the theft, who then marched over to Townhouse Apartments in search of Smartie.

The kids she talked to expressed genuine concern and took her to see the "Godfather" of Townhouse, a well-dressed, articulate, tall young man who asked her a bevy of questions, while texting on his smartphone, and then assured her Smartie would be returned.

Sure enough, three hours later, Smartie was back on the farm.  Fair is foul, and foul is fair.


 Fade
 So yes, I'm having one of my genius friends fabricate a protective Kevlar skin for my baby


22 comments:

  1. The Godfather of Townhouse???

    What on God's green earth is going on over there? Lord of the Flies???

    No, THEY have too much time on their hands.

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  2. Larry, do you have any idea what happens when rope gets into a propeller?

    Forget barrage balloons, I'm thinking that the string of a basic kite would bring your drone to the ground...

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  3. Well I think I would be able to see the kite coming.

    The drone is wicked quick.

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  4. If smart chicken is free range and often on a public sidewalk at a busy downtown intersection, it wrong or life saving to take it to a lawn party? ;)

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  5. You don't just have one kite, Larry.

    The principle of the Barrage Balloons (and the cables strung across valleys) was to have enough wires up there to snag anything and everything that went through.

    You are moving a lot of air, more than you might think, and hence anything above it will be sucked into the props.

    Of course bouncing a model rocket off a drone would probably bring it down - backyard anti-aircraft artillery... I'm not convinced that's illegal, either -- if you own property then you own the space above it.

    Or what I am really waiting for: Birds of Prey. A trained Falcon or Hawk could easily take out a drone, these birds are naturally inclined to do this, and have on their own.

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  6. If said smart chicken decided to cross the road and caused an accident, who would be responsible?

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  7. Ed is always wishing for the impossible to happen. Your drone is clearly in no danger. Ed's sanity is another thing.

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  8. "In an insane society, the sane man must appear insane."

    http://eagnews.org/school-under-fire-for-kindergarten-lesson-on-transgenderism/

    http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/apr/21/army-rotc-program-allegedly-pushed-men-wear-high-h/

    Enough said?

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  9. There was a guy i saw on youtube who simply shot down a drone over hi property. Good target practice.

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  10. On a serious note Larry, there is an ethical issue that you really need to think about.

    I presume it is possible to stream video from a drone -- or at least to stream recorded video from the drone once it has landed. While I don't know how many drones you would need, it is theoretically possible to have a drone aloft over a specific location 24/7 -- indefinitely.

    (Just like the "Doomsday" plane the USAF had aloft during the Cold War -- multiple planes, one always flying.)

    How would you feel if a few intrepid undergrads were to set up a "Larry Cam" -- if they were to "park" a drone over your house and not only stream the video but have accessible archives of it?

    This is theoretically possible to do, and hence I ask: How would you feel were they to do it?

    Do you want to live in a society where one *can* do this?

    One doesn't understand the value of privacy until one has experienced being without it -- I have and hence do. Even if you don't have anything to hide, it still is a violation and I ask if you want to live in a society where others can do similar things to what you are doing with your drone.

    Maybe I am the only one, but I am queasy with taking pictures of people in the back quad of Townhouse...

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  11. My theory is if multiple Amherst police officers are on scene then your private property is no longer private.

    And that goes for my residence as well.

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  12. Drones can drop paint balls, now Larry is armed, but only for self-drone defense.

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  13. "My theory is if multiple Amherst police officers are on scene then your private property is no longer private."

    Larry, respectfully, that's asinine.

    If there are multiple police officers on your property, does that mean that I can walk in and use your bathroom because it is "no longer private"?

    Let's go one step further: It's not unheard of for cops to help deliver a baby in the back seat of a cruiser -- I don't know about you, but I consider that private.

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  14. If Amherst PD ever delivers a baby in the back of a cruiser I promise not to film it with my drone (or iPhone).

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  15. Larry, you are missing my point: The mere presence of police officers does not convert a private space into a public one.

    Exactly what is preventing, say, the "Babetown Boys from "parking" a drone over your house 24/7 and having a "LarryCam"?

    Answer: Only a combination of (a) the fact that they haven't thought of it and (b) a sense of decency (both their own and collectively of society) that such things ought not be done. As you define down propriety and chip away at what little expectation of privacy we have left, you need to remember that you are going to have to live in the society that you've created.

    You don't like what these kids are doing in what is, legally, their private residence. They don't like what you are doing, and it eventually will occur to them to target you in your residence -- as is suggested in "Rules for Radicals."

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  16. Am I the only one that thinks this "Godfather of the Townhouse" thing is amazing?

    Some mysterious figure sends a few texts, and recovers a chicken from a presumable stranger? What a time to be alive.

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  17. Let's make Ed an offer he can't refuse.
    Somebody call the "Godfather" quick. Who knows maybe it's the day of his daughters wedding or something???

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  18. Maybe, Luca Brasi got the chicken back!

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  19. Give me what I want and I will go away...

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  20. Again with the Storm of the Century" riff.

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