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Found: A Drug Catapult at the U.S.-Mexico Border
- nv-vn 10y agoI wonder if they had a catapult to send the money over to the other side.
- cm2187 10y agoAnd what happens when the drug and the money collide just above the border?
- Waterluvian 10y agoHiggs Boson?
- UlyssesSKrunk 10y agoShenanigans, that's what.
- djsumdog 10y agoNo, the CIA takes care of that part
- poisonarena 10y agoWestern Union does that
- std_throwaway 10y agoThe Mexicans should educate themselves about siege weapons. There is a much superior design that could launch heavier projectiles over a greater distance without sacrificing firing rate.
- wyager 10y agoFrom what I understand, the latest in non-chemical ballistic drug delivery mechanisms are capable of launching a 90kg brick of cocaine over 300 meters. Outdated drug catapults can't really compare.
- tim333 10y agoOld school tech can do more than 90kg. Here's a car being launched by trebuchet https://youtu.be/-wVADKznOhY?t=1m48s https://youtu.be/-wVADKznOhY?t=1m48s Not sure it make 300m though
- Spare_account 10y agoThe blend of Reddit meme and HackerNews fact-based replies is just right in this thread.
- TOMDM 10y agoFor anyone out of the loop, lots of references are being made to the https://www.reddit.com/r/trebuchetmemes/ https://www.reddit.com/r/trebuchetmemes/ sub. The culture change on hackernews is certainly speeding up, references like this used to be attacked nearly immediately by the hackernews community.
- toast0 10y agoI'm guessing these didn't get modded down, because they're actually relevant and maybe interesting. Even if it's not interesting, it's certainly bikeshedding which is generally popular here :)
- 10y ago
- jimjimjim 10y agoI was expecting a trebuchet
- rb666 10y agoMaking Trump's wall even more pointless!
- frozenport 10y agoQuite the opposite. He claims to want to secure the border. Anybody who has had their gentiles fondled by TSA might be suprised that you can get stuff over the border but not on a plane. The point is that the border could be a lot stronger.
- scrollaway 10y agoIs it really that surprising that it's harder to secure thousands of miles than it is to secure a few airport gates?
- jsjohnst 10y agoOnce we see actual "security" (rather than a theater production) at an airport gate in the US we can more intelligently answer that question.
- jazoom 10y agoI wonder how the gentiles feel about being fondled.
- frozenport 10y agoProbably the same way my phone felt!
- cm2187 10y agoTrump's wall reminds me the Maginot Line https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maginot_Line https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maginot_Line The Germans simply flew over it...
- rangibaby 10y ago
- slacka 10y agoI wonder how much is moved by drones?
- Chilinot 10y agoNot much I would reckon. The catapult is probably a more efficient device for getting the drugs to the other side. Having to fly a drone back and forth takes time. Unless they have a very large drone capable of carrying large quantities of drugs, I don't see the benefit.
- prodmerc 10y agoMultiple small drones, single control point, flying in formation? Would be a sight to see heh
- shard972 10y ago> Having to fly a drone back and forth takes time Time by whom? Self driving drones already exist right? Just set up a flight plan, get about 20 of them and you now have a fleet of carrier drones.
- rtkwe 10y agoThe problem is weight. The heaviest thing there's really a market for are cameras and those still have pretty short flight times so any narco-drone would have to be a custom build so it's more expensive. That still would only get them a pretty short distance from the border because of battery capacity and power draws.
- ntelson1s 10y agoTHE WALL JUST GOT TEN FEET HIGHER
- pingou 10y agoI love the ingenuity of drug dealers. Not as sophisticated as the drug submarine though https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narco-submarine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narco-submarine
- zkms 10y agoThere's lots of money to be made thanks to prohibition, which means that the criminal organizations involved can afford illicit submarines and tunnels and aircraft.
- ra1n85 10y agoSo cool. Love the following engineering problem and fix: "The newer models pipe their exhaust along the bottom to cool it before venting it, making the boat even less susceptible to infrared detection"
- yourapostasy 10y agoThe cat and mouse between these guys and the naval/Coast Guard units of the involved nations might in the far future see the introduction of full-blown diesel-electric, liquefied oxygen-bearing, water-cooled exhaust submersibles. Battery-powered and make the legs of the run only at night. Diesel plant is fed stored oxygen, gas expansion powers compressor-free air conditioning. Metal-oxide-based CO2 scrubber is regenerated from diesel generator heat while engine is run during day-time to recharge, as the smugglers stop and snorkel stationary to avoid wake-detection. Noise-isolating mounts reduce detectable range of running diesel generator. At or near the destination port, a disguised tender trans-loads the shipment, and resupplies diesel/food/reverse-shipment-goods. Between those technologies and operational discipline, it would be a big PITA to detect. It's a good thing these future submarines would be immensely more expensive, and narcos are not known as good employers guaranteeing solid operational secrecy, as such an unusual setup would bound to get disgruntled/prideful operatives blabbing/boasting. By the time they get around to it, involved nations will probably litter the nearby ocean floors with a SOSUS-style dragnet, and that will likely put this smuggling route out of reach of all but nation-state-grade narco-cartels willing to spend about multiple billions in R&D and $1B US per construction unit to upgrade to military-grade diesel-electric submarines with their more advanced acoustic signature mitigation systems and protocols.
- dispo001 10y agoThe technology question should probably be: Would it work with people?
- stephengillie 10y agoWould you put your brain inside a robotic trebuchet?
- KON_Air 10y agoWouldn't a ballista with hollow projectile filled with the stuff work better and be mobile or should I stop giving them ideas?
- masklinn 10y agoBallistas are no more (or less) mobile than catapults, are harder to maintain and have a lower payload if you use them for transport. They have a good precision and piercing power, but much less payload, even if you include the entire bolt.
- enimodas 10y agoMakes me wonder how a modern catapult or spear thrower would look like and be able to do with our current material science and engineering.
- humanrebar 10y agoModern mass launchers are canons, guns, and rail guns.
- Mithaldu 10y agoRail guns maybe, but cannons and guns rely on explosives and play in a very different field than the things mentioned by OP.
- Sharlin 10y agoIs being propelled by the release chemical potential energy qualitatively that much different than by gravitational or elastic potential energy?
- eigenvalue 10y agoIt's certainly much louder, which matters a lot in this application!
- arrosenberg 10y agoEnergy is energy at the point of impact, but the ballistics are definitely way different.
- motoboi 10y agoI think rockets are the real modern mass launchers. They can throw thing so far they'll never fall again.
- noselasd 10y agoYou can shoot pumpkins almost a mile with air cannons https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmSyrGsqmg8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmSyrGsqmg8 .Trebuchets doesn't go quite as far, around 2000-2500 feet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mv3yhlQOAWY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mv3yhlQOAWY
- Pica_soO 10y agoWouldnt a Lastensegler drone design be far more efficient?
- hungrygs 10y agoIt's going to take quite a wall to stop people from catapulting over it, onto an airbed-like structure.
- isaac_is_goat 10y agoThe wall just got 100 feet higher.
- 6stringmerc 10y agoLocal child with protractor assists re-calibration...
- loeg 10y agoShoot, trial and error would be fine.
- hogrammer 10y agoWell, guess that proves walls are bad and we shouldn't have borders. Or something.
- ChuckMcM 10y agoClearly the cartels need to set up a "punkin chunkin"[1] contest where the winner takes home some cash and the cartel gets their device. Then every year they get an additional 'chunking' machine and they can drive them back and forth along the border periodically sending their payloads several thousand feet inland. [1] https://www.punkinchunkin.com/ https://www.punkinchunkin.com/
- failrate 10y agoWalls don't work to stop contraband; good economic policy does.
- williamle8300 10y agoI disagree. Walls stop physical objects from passing through it. Good economic policy has the primary function of building the national economy––economic policy has no role in curtailing contraband.
- failrate 10y agoCounterexample: the lack of regulations around pharmaceutical prices in the US leads to illegal imports of identical pharmaceuticals from Canada.
- williamle8300 10y agoIt's not lack of regulating prices that causes it... it's the proliferation of intellectual property laws in America that were written to protect corporations. This is what creates the need to get knock-off drugs.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- failrate 10y agoCanada has intellectual property laws as well.
- tlow 10y agoI just hope that I'm never kidnapped by a cartel because I think there are a lot of rather low tech (but tech) means for them to circumvent border control. I'd never ever want to associate with these groups, but I imagine it's a bit of a nightmare trying to prevent movement of desirable and valuable goods (drugs, objectively have value according to most news reports on seizures, street value estimates are quoted). Seems like decreasing demand might be a higher ROI investment than trying to prevent said smuggling. One thing that worries me is the potential for wildlife to be abused as a means of smuggling.
- coss 10y agoJust wait till they hear about drones.