Two fork, one cup - toothpick trick

Void your warranty, violate a user agreement, fry a circuit, blow a fuse, poke an eye out... Welcome to the Make Blog!

Where I've Been

Last May I was invited by Mark Gibbs to begin blogging with him on Network World's Gibbsblog. It's gotten me a lot more exposure, and I've been given pretty much the same freedoms I have here. I don't get into rants as easily on Gibbsblog, and I avoid politics... well, mostly. So, if you have been reading my stuff here and wondered what happened to me, you've got your explanation.

The Network World Community includes a large number of blogs, all searchable. If you are interested in techie conversations, I suggest checking it out.

MQ-9 Reaper, revisited

The first unmanned attack squadron in aviation history will arrive in Iraq today looking to deliver 500-pound bombs and Hellfire missiles to the enemy - all from the comfort of a US Air Force base in Nevada.

Go to war without leaving home.

We are no longer on top

The National Academies of Science produces regular reports on the state of scientific research in the US... The report identifies six key questions that will represent the grand challenges that materials science will face over the coming decade, the ones most likely to produce the next revolution. But it also raises fears that those challenges will be met by researchers outside of the US. It highlights the fact that government funding has not kept up with the rising costs of research at the same time that the corporate-funded research lab system has collapsed. As a result, US scientific productivity has stagnated at a time when funding and output are booming overseas. The report makes a series of recommendations that it hopes will get US physics research booming again.

"booming again"... I think it's time for a regime change.

Climate change: A guide for the perplexed

...the world is warming, this warming is due to human activity increasing levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and if emissions continue unabated the warming will too, with increasingly serious consequences.

So for those who are not sure what to believe, here is our round-up of the 26 most common climate myths and misconceptions.

There is also a guide to assessing the evidence. In the articles we've included lots of links to primary research and major reports for those who want to follow through to the original sources.

MQ-9 Reaper

The availability of high performance sensors and large capacity of precision guided weapons enable the new Predator to operate as an efficient "Hunter-Killer" platform, seeking and engaging targets at high probability of success.

You can run, but you can't hide. This weapon requires human operators, but the next version can operate autonomously. Anyone remember Terminator 3?

[ADDED 16/05/2007]      To make it even more apocalyptic the control system is called SkyNet.

Recognizing "Hinky" vs. Citizen Informants

This kind of thing isn't easy to train. (Much has been written about it, though; Malcolm Gladwell's Blink discusses this in detail.) You can't learn it from watching a seven-minute video. But the more we focus on this -- the more we stop wasting our airport security resources on screeners who confiscate rocks and snow globes, and instead focus them on well-trained screeners walking through the airport looking for hinky -- the more secure we will be.