DIY Cruise Missile Grounded 690
PSaltyDS writes "The DIY Cruise Missile project from New Zealand has been previously covered on /., but the BBC now reports that Bruce Simpson has been forced to shutdown by his government. His project web site says 'The New Zealand government has moved aggressively to shut down this project -- and by using quite unscrupulous methods which appear to be in breach of the law.'"
Never So Simple (Score:4, Interesting)
I can't speak for this gentleman, but I can speak for myself. In the US, even if you believe you are an employee of a company, and you believe they are witholding your taxes as they should be, you are personally liable if they didn't.
That's the situation I found myself in, and thus, the reason I ended up owing 5 figures. I'm sure if the government had something personally against me, they could work that debt into something criminal.
Interesting Comparison (Score:5, Interesting)
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?thes
Horse shit. (Score:1, Interesting)
In this world, the government takes taxes, and not only does it not protect its people, it actively harms them.
The taxation system in the West is not even a protection racket anymore. It's little more than an intraveneous feeding system for the elite.
I wouldn't mind paying taxes if they were A) Fairly exacted, and B) Spent on projects I bloody-well agree with. These days tax evasion is almost your duty as a responsible human being! Allowing yourself to be fed on by evil is no different than agreeing to participate in evil.
Robin Hood, where are you. . ?
-FL
Re:You could say.... (Score:5, Interesting)
Eventuality (Score:3, Interesting)
Still, there's no magic. There's no reason any other intelligent, motivated person or group couldn't do the same project. Killing this project will have no positive long term effect. It may stop some "bad" people from buying these, but it sure won't stop bad people from building their own.
This is like every other technology. You can attempt to stop it, but it will continue to develop. So we (the US) happily agree there should be no more nuclear testing, but that's really only because we can afford to buy/build supercomputers to do nuke sims. It's all so... hypocritical.
I just want to know (Score:5, Interesting)
The New Zealand government has moved aggressively to shut down this project -- and by using quite unscrupulous methods which appear to be in breach of the law.
Oh, wow, really? Even though it's not technically illegal, I wouldn't be too shocked to find out that the authorities wanted to have a word or two with me if I was building a V2 in my backyard:
"Oh, no, officer, this rocket is for humanitarian purposes only! And as a gift to all mankind, I've posted the plans online so that other humanitarians can build rockets of their own! What could be wrong with that?"
It was a really cool project, but come on. Who didn't see this coming?
Rules 1, 1a, and 2 (Score:2, Interesting)
1) Pay your taxes.
1A) Don't break other laws - particulary obscure ones.
2) Do not work for the government or a government contractor.
Are we even sure he really built it? (Score:5, Interesting)
However, he's built a lot of those cool jet engines, which means his claim to have built a cruise missile is definitely credible. The New Zealand...ian government clearly thinks his claims are credible (unless they really are just prosecuting him for tax evasion, which is always a possibility people.) They might be going persecuting him for talking to the Iranians rather than because they think his missile works, and they'd still refuse to comment for Security reasons.
If you read his web page he says he's finished the missile except for some trivial details (not his exact phrasing.) My experience working with engineers (I am a Scientist, not any sort of MBA, before any of you start) leads me to believe that these "trivial details" may be less of a paint job and more of a profound deficiency that would prevent the thing from actually working. Of course, I'm just speculating here.
If they really are trying to squelch his right to free speech with the tax charge - he should give all his missile design documents to some outfit that will distribute them far and wide, raisethefist.com or something. That'll show the guv'mint what for.
New Zeland acts really disappointing (Score:4, Interesting)
How a government could to that?
There seems to be some kind of plot in it
(from Bruce Simpson's [interestingprojects.com] page):
The strange thing is that just a matter of months ago, they told me I could export the very same technology to Iran -- despite the fact that it is widely considered to be a terrorist sponsor and similar exports are prohibited in the USA.
And then the government decided shut it down.
Note also that israeli x prize team recruits [xprize.org] serious brainpower.
If things are not about money (or sex) then politics [haaretz.com] must be involved.
I hope that such a genius person as Bruce [aardvark.co.nz] will either join Xprize [xprize.org] or find another way to continue his very important for science work on rocket engines.
Re:Never So Simple (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Always pay your taxes! (Score:3, Interesting)
You could put down 'Bank Robbery', they don't care, as long as they get the money.
Re:Never So Simple (Score:5, Interesting)
But a former insurance company owner from Houston Texas named Blaine Ferguson (or Fergusen?) was the person who lied to me about the taxes and my employment status.
He's also the person who:
- illegally had Bank of America freeze the corporate bank accounts
- illegally opened a corporate business account using the company name (but without legal articles of incorporation, since he wasn't an officer)
- instructed EPX, our credit card processing company, to send all settlements to his illegal account
If he weren't already old and frail I might have been inclined to "visit" him.
Re:Never So Simple (Score:4, Interesting)
Since it was a company with a high risk of failure in my opinion, I had required the up front pay. Obviously the method of payment was a bad idea because it left me with no proof of the situation. That's why I ate the issue and am now paying those taxes.
Re:Always pay your taxes! (Score:5, Interesting)
This is not to say that certain authorities won't watch you very, very closely afterwards though. Saying that something is not admisable in court isn't at all the same thing as saying that inadmissable evidence can't be used as leverage to gain admisable evidence. Many have been convicted of crimes for not paying attention to this fact.
The infamous New York City madam who made millions from her house of considerable repute was caught and convicted, of promoting prostitution. A fairly minor charge. As I recal she served something like 18 months.
Why? She learned the lesson of Al Capone and payed her taxes scrupulously. Had business permits, Workman's Comp insurance for her employees, in fact ran it as a completely legitimate business, except, of course, for the fact that her trade was itself illegal.
When they finally got her it was only for that illegality that they could prosecute.
Number one rule. Never violate any law except those you explicitly set out to violate. It's daft to get nailed for an otherwise successful robbery because you sped away from the scene with a taillight out and an expired vehicle registration.
KFG
Re:Darn! (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Not really a cruise missile (Score:4, Interesting)
Also, range is a big issue. Cruise missles have 100s of miles of range. A little DIY might get 100 tops, nothign to worry about.
Re:Not really a cruise missile (Score:5, Interesting)
a V1 (generally considered the first cruise missile) had nothing like what you're talking about.
light aircraft have ranges heading into many hundreds of miles.
and if launched in time of peace (as per terrorist attack) and kept in unregulated airspace could get within seconds of it's target without radar being an issue.
New York and Washington in time of high alert might be able to respond in time, but off the top of my head i can't think of another city in the world (baghdad?) that would be protected.
Willie Nelson (Score:2, Interesting)
Guess what? Willie had to pay it all anyway, and the CPA got off without penalty. He be broke, and the IRS wanted to jail Willie.
And Willie is still a Democrat.
SET A PAYPAL DONATION ACCOUNT -- let /. help you (Score:3, Interesting)
I may be crazy, but I think that you should set up a paypal account and let the community help you. I'm sure that many people would donate whatever's been lost between the couch's cushions and it could add up to a helpful amount. I've said it before; small donations are the way of the future!
Re:Not really a cruise missile (Score:3, Interesting)
You want the routes to be variable, if you just fly in a bunch of missiles using the same routes ala the 1991 Gulf Conflict, you'll get some smart arse planting a great big wire mesh across a street and net them. Quite an exciting catch I'd imagine though .. "Ma, it was |---this---| big - honest!"
Range also doesn't mean much when I can launch one from my garage just down the street from the target or from my local airfield. Admittedly, that'd be a bit of a waste of a cruise missile, but you get the point. One of the reasons you want a long range on cruise missiles if that you don't want the hugely expensive launch and control platform being anywhere near anything remotely dangerous.
DIY cruise missile an old idea (Score:4, Interesting)
In any case, a small team of talented individuals could put something impressive together these days for less than the cost of a luxury car, and it would easily penetrate current US air defenses. Why do you think Lockheed is hard at work on the high-altitude blimp/advanced radar platform?
Re:Full, first hand story (Score:1, Interesting)
Here's an idea Bruce. Put a banner up on your web site allowing a media organisation to bid to buy the missile (to cover your debts) and employ you to test it (extra pocket money). Given that they will own it, they will have exclusive rights to the story and can conduct the test in secrecy. It would be the most spectacular news story of the month, especially if it worked. The payoff in advertising/onselling revenue (and publicity) for the media organisaion would be HUGE. Many time what they paid you, making it an irresistable commercial deal. Given their legal muscle and financial resources, tey might even want to equip the missile wth a crude warhead to provide some *really* spectaclar TV pictues.
Note: Don't sell the missile IP, just the missile.
Can't you see the missile buzzing along, resplendent in 'FOX' livery, finishing up with a huge fireball and bang. (Maybe even make the target a ton of high explosive! Claim it is a simulated oil tank!)
Re:Never So Simple (Score:2, Interesting)
Thankfully, he was also foolish enough to have given out fully qualified pay-stubs declaring the amount withheld on multiple occaisions.
I was fortunate. I'm truly sorry you weren't so fortunate. Shit like this really pisses me off.
Re:Not really a cruise missile (Score:4, Interesting)
a cessna with gps, autopilot, and GPRS mobile phone data link would be far superior.
You want to give your gov't the finger? (Score:3, Interesting)
With that said, what you need to do now is put in some kind of deadman's escrow the plans, etc for the missle, as well as for the pulsejet. This way - should you be "disappeared", these plans would be distributed far and wide (torrent files, p2p systems, freenet, usenet, etc) - spread the info.
I would try to immediately put up and have mirrored any and all ideas you have on the "building a pulsejet using parts from auto parts stores" or whatever it is called. No government can stop the flow of information - they can only stop the people. Look at things like DeCSS - enough people wanted it, now it is everywhere (and actually better stuff has superceeded it), the genie can't be stuffed back. You need to make your stuff the same.
I realize that you wanted to make a business out of this - and I sincerely wish you could. But in the here and now, you have two choices: let the secrets be silenced and/or die with you - or distribute them far and wide. Personally, I would rather give away something that I knew how to do, than to keep it in the hopes of profiting on it later - especially if the government has already shown me it doesn't care about my welfare by taking my house, etc - who says they won't take your life to take your ideas and knowledge from the world away?
Re:Ah! Oops.. Here's the URL: (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm also truly humbled by the number of supportive emails I've received and I thank all those who have taken the time to send their words of support. I'll try to answer all of them -- since time is one of the few commodities I appear to have plenty of right now.
Terrorist Ground-Following Cruise Missile (Score:1, Interesting)