Artist's Catcopter Causes a Stir 360
derekmead writes "I'm not sure that Dutch artist Bart Jansen had political commentary in mind when he created the Orvillecopter — combining a stuffed cat with a quadrotor, and naming it after Orville Wright — but indeed it's art, whose meaning will lie in the eye of the beholder. And for those that say stitching up a dead animal around the guts of a helicopter and flying it around is 'sick,' what of the massive drone industry, which, more than just producing a symbol, actually is creating flying death?"
Re:heavy (Score:4, Informative)
Because in general you want to avoid putting on extra unneeded weight.
The airstream from the rotors itself already hits barely anything (i.e. the struts). I'd guess you could get some better airflow depending on the shape of those struts, but adding a skin between the struts wouldn't help much..in fact, it would make it easier for the wind to 'catch' it.
Toy quadcopters that you can get off-the-shelf for cheap (but usually have poor gyros and are too small to handle themselves in even a slight breeze) do typically have more of a a body, though.
Re:art? (Score:4, Informative)
If you want to comment on something from TFS, make a new comment, don't reply to the first, completely unrelated comment. It's obnoxious and it completely destroys the flow of conversation.
Re:I can't decide... (Score:4, Informative)
try another article for some perspective (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2154283/Cats-away-Artist-turns-dead-pet-flying-helicopter-killed-car.html?ITO=1490 [dailymail.co.uk]
this isn't some mad scientist-type murdering strays to build controversial art. this is an artist who taxidermied his pet after it was hit and killed by a car. the cat was already named 'orville' and the artist thought it befitting to send his pet to play with the birds it so loved in life. the article posted with the /. story tells none of the real info and offers only inflammatory and barely-relevant commentary.
Re:Leather belt/jacket/shoes (Score:5, Informative)
This is because they might have consumed something making them unfit for food. No one knows what medicines or pollution those stray animals consumed. I also doubt that it would be worth it cost wise. The one off butchering of such an animal would probably cost more than buying commercial meat for the starving. I know that when I have an animal butchered after hunting or when my family buys live animals and has them slaughtered and butchered the cost just for that service is often more than the cost of low quality meat at the market.
Re:Leather belt/jacket/shoes (Score:4, Informative)
Actually, you fail. It was both roadkill and the artists beloved pet. It was his pet cat, he had it for several years, then it got hit by a car and died, then he turned it into an RC copter. The article from TFS only mentions "roadkill" while not commenting on the pet status, though the articles it links to explicitly mention that it was his cat.
Re:actually... (Score:5, Informative)
O.K. then, I'll pick the ball back up and run by pointing out PRIOR ART. http://srl.org/machines/oldmachines/rabotrecent.jpg [srl.org] The folks over at Survival Research Laboratories added dead animals to machines for entertainment decades ago. http://srl.org/machines.html [srl.org] shows us some of their robotic triumphs. But before you write it off as geek driven entertainment, check out their R&D. http://www.srl.org/lab.html [srl.org] . Really deserves a story of it's own on /. as these are definitely Supergeeks deluxe with a rich history. http://www.srl.org/ [srl.org]