{"id":16918,"date":"2024-05-26T07:33:15","date_gmt":"2024-05-26T06:33:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/the-drone\/"},"modified":"2024-05-26T07:33:15","modified_gmt":"2024-05-26T06:33:15","slug":"the-drone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/the-drone\/","title":{"rendered":"the drone"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-16913\" src=\"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/263f3cc125c740b54e297e7713380083.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/263f3cc125c740b54e297e7713380083.jpg 1280w, https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/263f3cc125c740b54e297e7713380083-600x338.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/263f3cc125c740b54e297e7713380083-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/263f3cc125c740b54e297e7713380083-441x248.jpg 441w, https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/263f3cc125c740b54e297e7713380083-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/263f3cc125c740b54e297e7713380083-1x1.jpg 1w, https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/263f3cc125c740b54e297e7713380083-10x6.jpg 10w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>the drone<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>by Martin Hayes<\/em><\/p>\n<p>first it came in the idea of a big balloon<br \/>the way the wind could pick it up<br \/>move it across the battlefield<br \/>before its cargo being suddenly dropped<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-16914\" src=\"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/First_World_War_Baloon_Armed_With_Incendiary_Bombs.jpg\" alt=\"First World War Baloon Armed With Incendiary Bombs\" width=\"279\" height=\"389\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/First_World_War_Baloon_Armed_With_Incendiary_Bombs.jpg 522w, https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/First_World_War_Baloon_Armed_With_Incendiary_Bombs-215x300.jpg 215w, https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/First_World_War_Baloon_Armed_With_Incendiary_Bombs-317x441.jpg 317w, https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/First_World_War_Baloon_Armed_With_Incendiary_Bombs-1x1.jpg 1w, https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/First_World_War_Baloon_Armed_With_Incendiary_Bombs-7x10.jpg 7w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 279px) 100vw, 279px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><em>First World War Balloon Armed With Incendiary Bombs<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>then when the wind <br \/>got so infuriating and too unpredictable to live with<br \/>the propeller was invented <br \/>and attached to it, it was easier to guide the balloon <br \/>over where it needed to drop its cargo<\/p>\n<p>(a lot of progress tends to happen <br \/>so that cargo can be dropped, propelled or deposited)<\/p>\n<p>but the propeller could only make the ballon go forwards<br \/>something else needed to be done<br \/>if only for when there was still cargo left <br \/>and all the creatures on the board game below <br \/>hadn\u2019t been killed yet<br \/>you could back-track<br \/>or swing in a wide arc back around to the target again<br \/>to finish them off<br \/>and win!<\/p>\n<p>so thrust was invented, I don\u2019t know either<br \/>it was something like a big powerful fart <br \/>that you could keep coming out of your arse for hours<br \/>that\u2019d eventually lift you up off your couch<br \/>then spin you uncontrollably around your front room<br \/>without needing to use your legs <\/p>\n<p>obviously this wasn\u2019t helpful for the depositing of cargo<br \/>or to win a board game match<br \/>it needed to be contained and attached to something <br \/>which wouldn\u2019t fly around the world depositing its cargo <br \/>on just anyone<\/p>\n<p>so the balloon was turned into an aeroplane<br \/>that had wings instead of a dumb flat oval like surface like a face <br \/>with a basket case of cargo attached to it<br \/>which just glided wherever the wind decided to take it<br \/>with no care or consideration of the cargo it held<br \/>which, let\u2019s face it, was holding everyone up who wanted to get on with the game<br \/>and finally fucking end it!<\/p>\n<p>the wings were aerodynamically only 4% less efficent than a pigeon\u2019s<br \/>who were well known for being able to deposit their cargo<br \/>but the best thing about them<br \/>was that they could hold these big round barrels of whirring fire <br \/>which could contain then direct the thrust<br \/>taking the aeroplane around the world wherever it was needed<br \/>before dropping its cargo all over the place<\/p>\n<p>the trouble was<br \/>the people on the ground <br \/>were getting pretty pissed off with having all of this cargo dropped on them<br \/>so why the balloons were being turned into aeroplanes <br \/>they were also turning their catapults into rockets<br \/>with their own idea of thrust<br \/>which normally took around 48,000 of them to die along one strip<br \/>before they could launch even one<\/p>\n<p>then one day <br \/>after they\u2019d managed to launch one amongst all of the blood and dust<br \/>it hit an aeroplane and split it apart in the sky<br \/>4 creatures died, one from New Jersey, one from Connecticut, one from New England and one from Alabama<br \/>this caused a major news tsunami on the tv channels <br \/>and outrage in the provinces<\/p>\n<p>\u2018men, our men, are being blown out of the sky!\u2019 <\/p>\n<p>everyone started to buy all of the bottled water, toilet paper and microwave meals from the supermarkets<br \/>in Wisconsin a crowd of people turned up at the local Costco <br \/>stole all of their pre-cooked chickens<br \/>then torched the gaff<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-16917\" src=\"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/The_Reaper_Drone_Dropping_Off_Its_Cargo_Of_A_Hellfire_Missile.jpg\" alt=\"The Reaper Drone Dropping Off Its Cargo Of A Hellfire Missile\" width=\"365\" height=\"205\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/The_Reaper_Drone_Dropping_Off_Its_Cargo_Of_A_Hellfire_Missile.jpg 1280w, https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/The_Reaper_Drone_Dropping_Off_Its_Cargo_Of_A_Hellfire_Missile-600x338.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/The_Reaper_Drone_Dropping_Off_Its_Cargo_Of_A_Hellfire_Missile-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/The_Reaper_Drone_Dropping_Off_Its_Cargo_Of_A_Hellfire_Missile-441x248.jpg 441w, https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/The_Reaper_Drone_Dropping_Off_Its_Cargo_Of_A_Hellfire_Missile-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/The_Reaper_Drone_Dropping_Off_Its_Cargo_Of_A_Hellfire_Missile-1x1.jpg 1w, https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/The_Reaper_Drone_Dropping_Off_Its_Cargo_Of_A_Hellfire_Missile-10x6.jpg 10w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 365px) 100vw, 365px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">The Reaper Drone Dropping Off Its Cargo Of A Hellfire Missile<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p>and that\u2019s why we now have drones<br \/>because the fewer creatures who die on one side<br \/>the more creatures you can get away with killing on the other<br \/>without risking riots, poll-swings, assassination attempts<br \/>or anything else generally considered <br \/>as bad publicity<\/p>\n<p>BOOM!<br \/>BOOM!<\/p>\n<p>WIN!<br \/>WIN!<\/p>\n<p>who knows what the next level of progress will bring<\/p>\n<p><em>This poem is from a new collection of Martin&#8217;s poems called <\/em>Machine Language<em>, published soon by <a href=\"https:\/\/smokestack-books.co.uk\/\">Smokestack Books<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>the drone by Martin Hayes first it came in the idea of a big balloonthe way the wind could pick it upmove it across the battlefieldbefore its&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":484,"featured_media":16913,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1660],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/484"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}