SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Gatwick drones pair 'no longer suspects'
A man and woman arrested in connection with drone sightings that grounded flights at Gatwick Airport have been released without charge. The 47-year-old man and 54-year-old woman, from Crawley, West Sussex, had been arrested on Friday night.
Sussex Police said there had been 67 reports of drone sightings - having earlier cast doubt on "genuine drove activity". Det Ch Supt Jason Tingley said no footage of a drone had been obtained. And he said there was "always a possibility" the reported sightings of drones were mistaken. However, he later confirmed the reported sightings made by the public, police and airport staff from December 19 to 21 were being "actively investigated".
"We are interviewing those who have reported these sightings, are carrying out extensive house-to-house inquiries, and carrying out a forensic examination of a damaged drone found near the perimeter of the airport." Det Ch Supt Tingley said it was "a working assumption" the device could be connected to their investigation, but officers were keeping "an open mind".
Sounds like they're about ready to blame aliens, the original drone champions.
Previously: Army Called in Amid UK Drone Chaos (Updated)
Two People Arrested for Gatwick Airport Drone Incident
(Score: 5, Informative) by Oakenshield on Monday December 24 2018, @02:17PM (2 children)
Drone are male bees. Worker bees are female and are the only ones obeying orders and working in the hive. The only job a drone bee has is to inseminate the queen (in mid flight), an act which costs him his life. His junk literally explodes into the queen. The queen mates only once in her life, but with multiple drones. Drones are easily identified in the hive as they are larger and wider than the workers. The drones have no stingers, do not protect the hive and generally sit around and are waited on by the workers. There are only a handful in any given hive.
Their lives are not all fun and games though. As they are generally useless, particularly after the queen has mated, they are kicked out of the hive at the onset of winter and left to die on their own, only to be replaced the following year. The hive does not raise queens or swarm over winter and has no need of drones.
Bees are cool as hell and fascinating to raise. And as one apiarist to the rest of the world, please learn the difference between bees and yellow jackets! Bees do not harass you at fall picnics. Those are yellow jackets, a type of wasp. There is usually no reason to fear European bees as they rarely sting or bother anyone. Africanized bees are another story.
(Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Monday December 24 2018, @08:33PM (1 child)
Yes, obviously. I didn't mean "working" in the sense of "worker bee" -- though sorry for using a bad phrase and creating confusion.
Regardless of all the bee talk, my point seems to have been lost -- the drones are fairly "mindless" and don't do much (as you say) except serve the queen. Hence all the figurative uses of the word, including modern flying drones, with no pilot, only serving the user on the ground. Whether or not drones "obey" or "serve" the queen in actual beehives, etymologically, that's the interpretation of the word that stuck. (Perhaps due to a historical misunderstanding of the role of drones in hives?)
But definitely good point about the yellow jackets being wasps... Something too few people seem to realize (until they discover different allergic reactions to different things...).
(Score: 2) by Oakenshield on Tuesday December 25 2018, @01:15AM
I confess I sometimes get carried away discussing bees.
As for bee drones, it's most likely 99% of people have never seen one. They are pretty rare as they have very limited purpose and none unless the hive raises new queens. When you open a hive, they are only slightly easier to find than the queen herself. You will never seen one leaving the hive in search of pollen or nectar.