That’s It. I’m Going Back To Bed.

February 28th, 2007 | researchmaterial

Seriously. Cyborg pigeons. I give up for the day. Who’s coming? We can huddle together against the evil stomping onslaught of The Future.

16 Responses to “That’s It. I’m Going Back To Bed.”

  1. Just think of the possible military applications: we could use these to fly covert missions to crap on the enemies’ cars.

  2. I for one…

    Oh, what’s the point. We’re all doomed.

    Dooooooooooomed.

  3. R U GUD?

  4. you have been blinded. BY SCIENCE!

  5. Does this mean BIRD FLU as a countermeasure?

  6. “CH1RP CH1RP, 2 FIND S33D…324324″

  7. come on people its obvious it`s a “Borg” Sneak attack, after all London`s over run with them what better way to infiltrate and then take over the capital cities.
    ooooopppppsssss……….. did I just say that outloud???????????

  8. […] Via Ellis. […]

  9. As someone who does animal surgery in the course of everyday work, that wound does not look good. It looks like necrotic tissue around the edges. The resolution isn’t good enough for me to assess the situation more clearly, but that animal may not last long enough to make it a truly useful cyborg. The surgery that has been done is a craniotomy, and the resulting modification makes the animal very susceptible to infection. Furthermore, it looks like I see significant bare skull in the closeup, although it is hard to tell, suggesting the wound was not closed well by the surgeon.

  10. I’m taken by the first direct electric link between neurons and light-sensitive nanoparticle films. They blather about a replacement retina, but the skin is transparent to a wide variety of em, implying that properly applied nanoparticle film would allow an em-emitting device to send signals directly to the nervous system.

  11. I can see it now the Military will be using cyborg attack pigoens as it’s new super weapon. Or maybe as spys. Maybe we should all be worried about this.

  12. First, the Great Ten, now this? Grant Morrison is obviously working with the Chinese!

  13. Sériously?!? Poor, póór animal!

  14. Horrible chinese people. Always looking for horrible ways to enslave nature. They should stuck that thing in their own ass and pray for someone to turn it off.

  15. […] warrenellis.com » Blog Archive » That’s It. I’m Going Back To Bed. […]

  16. I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you down the road!

Miss Piggy?s Teaches of Peaches

Coilhouse - 20 Nov 09

Every time an issue of the magazine goes to print, things somehow turn Highly Inappropriate here at Coilhouse. This is apparent to anyone who was there on Twitter during the hours of our final revision deadline last night. And it’s only going to get worse before Issue 04’s out. So to celebrate, a video of Miss Piggy singing “Fuck the Pain Away” by Peaches. It’s that kind of day.

[via Shannon]


Post tags: Madness, Music, Puppetry

claytoncubitt: Will Blanche, ?The Newly Constructed Towers of...

Brian Wood - 20 Nov 09



claytoncubitt:

Will Blanche, ?The Newly Constructed Towers of the World Trade Center Seen From the South Side on West Street, May, 1973? (via These Americans)

See also: Mitch Epstein, ?West Side Highway, New York City? [looking towards World Trade Center] 1977

Percy Jackson trailer

Kung Fu Monkey - 20 Nov 09

Seriously, if I were 12, this would have melted my brain. I love this trailer.

JOURNAL: How to Break and Open Source Insurgency

John Robb - 20 Nov 09

Short Answer:  divide it.

It's long been my contention that Iraq was stabilized at an acceptable level of controlled chaos due to a happy accident by al Qaeda (in an attempt to expand/lead the loose insurgency in a new direction).  What did they do?   They blew up the Golden Mosque in Samara in 2006.  This act of symbolic terrorism did indeed disrupt social networks as anticipated, however the consequences were ultimately disastrous for the Iraqi open source insurgency.  

Baghdad_Ethnic_2007_late_smThe reason for this is it broke the dynamics of the open source insurgency in ways the US and Iraqi government's COIN efforts could not.  First, it created a permanent split between Sunni and Shiite insurgent groups/militias.  Coopetition ended.  Second, it motivated large Shiite militias to start an ethnic cleansing of Sunni areas.  This put acute pressure on Sunni guerrilla groups who were too small (by design to avoid US counter-pressure) to defend themselves against large militias operating in the open.  The result was an opening, very close to the one I described in my 2005 NYTimes OpEd, that allowed the US to convert Sunni guerrilla groups into militias that were not loyal to the central government (in direct contradiction to its COIN manual).   

It's a nice example of the dynamics of many to many conflict, social network disruption, and the development open source counterinsurgency.

See this excellent description at the blog, "Musings on Iraq" for more detail on the ethnic cleansing operations.  It also includes this money quote: "the majority of the Sunni insurgency gave up and switched sides to align with the Americans rather than face annihilation at the hands of the Shiite militias, Al Qaeda in Iraq, or the United States."

NOTE:  it's pretty clear from the above that social network disruption (either through attacks on symbolic targets or blood and guts terrorism) is like playing horseshoes with live hand grenades.  It's ultimately a losing strategy for advancing an open source insurgency.  Social network disruption is very likely to break standing order 6:  don't fork the insurgency.

Twitter Updates for 2009-11-20

Girl Farts - 20 Nov 09

LINKS: 20 NOV 09

John Robb - 20 Nov 09

Some random items of interest:

  • Vigilante militias in Rio are displacing the drug gangs -- favelas under the control of militias has grown from 108 in 2005 to 400 in 2008 (out of 965).  Why?  They have a better (albeit parasitic) conflict/business model than the drug gangs since they act as a substitute for missing public goods/services normally supplied by the government.  First, they provide a minimal level of security and conflict adjudication.  Second, they make more money than the drug gangs by "taxing" everything from propane to cable TV to the gray market.  
  • US gray economy estimated at $1 Trillion (not including criminal, outside of the evasion of taxes and regulation, activities) and growing faster than the "legal" economy.  
  • Proposal and wiki for an open source fabrication lab.
  • Somali pirates are expanding operations into the Indian ocean.  The combination of positive feedback loops (maritime insurance + rapid payoffs by crisis negotiators) and legal ambiguity (the biggest fear of a western navy and governments is that they might arrest a pirate -- prompting a massive/expensive legal tussle with few certain penalties and the forced extension of a visa to the former pirate once he is released from his short incarceration).  Is a franchise model for other locales possible?
  • Yes-we-can-secede
  • A business group in Ciudad Juarez asks for UN peacekeepers.  Hilarious. "Ciudad Juarez, population 1.5 million, has an average of seven homicides a day, with the total at 1,986 for this year through mid-October."
  • Seccession.net.  County based secession effort.  

Untitled Post

blissblog - 20 Nov 09

Yume no Byouin Project

Jean Snow - 20 Nov 09

Yume no Byouin Project

Beautiful (and simple) site design featuring the illustrative work of Yorifuji Bunpei. Via Paul Baron.

Kodai

Jean Snow - 20 Nov 09

Kodai

Coming up at the Kakitsubata gallery in Nakameguro is the show “Kodai,” running from November 25 until December 6.

Kodai

Kap Bambino

jwz - 20 Nov 09