At the risk of convincing people that this is the blog for a serious virtual research group cum think tank, I wanted to post one of the most important finds of the day here. My own Managing Editor will probably kick my ass for not explaining the theoretical implications or practical relevance to readers, but seriously, I would think that it’s pretty obvious: with this, who needs those pesky, high maintenance, prone-to-getting-shot-down UAVs? And if it was good enough to get Solo there, back and around again, then it’s good enough for the troops.

H/t Wired How-To Wiki

It would have happened sooner or later. It’s already happened to lesser bloggers.

That’s right. Drezner has sold out.

He explains what it means here. Errrr… except for one liiiittttle detail: what’s he getting paid to do this?

…except maybe another password…

H/t MIT Media Lab

One of the great neglects of my relatively short blogging career has been the, err… failure to communicate with John Robb. And one of our characteristic eclecticisms here at CTlab is the war and architecture nexus. So when I stumble across a John Robb op-ed at Archinect, on “Global Systems vs. Local Platforms”, I take notice. Go read it.

This interview is remarkably short on interview material, the reasons for which become obvious by the end of it. I hesitate to reference any specific details, including tags, for the same reasons. I want to address how its subject interfaces with the science as art debate (or at least artistic visualization of scientific output); I want to suggest something about the frustrated megalomania of hack artists with a power grudge; I want to mention something along of the lines of “this is what happens when stupid people have enough money to act out…”.

But basically, this is too bizarre for critical commentary. I’m even  a bit surprised that Seed carried it – but I guess it’s more important to expose this sort of nonsense, the kind that  conveys “meaning” on a grand scale while thumbing its nose at reality.