Low intensity conflict
The BBC has a story on bird sized drone planes. They are touted for "flying through windows" and snapping pictures. I remember a Sci-Fi flick many moons ago that had a fly on the wall that buzzed around and followed people from room to room. How far off can those days be?

Online Gambling
Internet gambling is a fuzzy industry in the US. The World Trade Organization wants the US to open up the market to allow foreign casinos to compete in the US market. The trouble is, that would allow any one any where in the US to gamble. There are many "dry" states (like Texas) where there is basically no gambling. Texas has a horse track, but that is about it. I know a couple of people who have made wagers online.

X-43A
I just caught this article on CNN about the X-43A. NASA will have a real test flight soon. This is the one that uses scramjets. This is cool because they are an old idea that's time has finally come. NASA has pictures on their site. This thing might make it possible to travel from New York to Tokyo in an hour or so.

Crazy fiction
I wrote a little set of fictional rules of gravity. Some of the rules conflict with each other. I also drew up a chart (with many misspelled words) diagramming why the jump to warp is bumpy one, two and three. I hope those links work, they are tiff files. I was very tired when I wrote this, so take it with a grain of salt.

Crazy reality
The funny thing is there are some news stories popping up about gravity and experiments to use gravity to move things around. It is an interesting time. The last time things were so poised to jump forward in the recent history of humans was just after World War II. I've always thought that war speeds innovation. It forces the sacrifice to move forward. People die when corners are cut, but the survivors learn. Of course, the Right brothers flew for the first time well in between wars. We just celebrated the hundredth anniversary of their flight. It would be appropriate to go from props to jets, to anti-gravity in such a timely manor. The atlatl comes to mind. I remember reading that the atlatl rushed South from the Baring Straight to the tip of South America in a couple thousand years or so. That was miraculous for the expansion. It was the spread of a better idea. The atlatl was such a great improvement over the spear that the old ways all but died out. The bow and arrow come to mind as well. The canoe turned into the sailing ship. Which, turned into the battleship. From the first ape that caved in the head of a rival with a rock to nuklear weapons we have come a long way. I say we have a long way to go.