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Freedom (TM) by Daniel Suarez

Remember those augmented reality glasses that the daemon operatives like Loki used to connect to the Darknet? Well, DARPA did…

DARPA Designing Augmented Reality Goggles to Fight Friendly Fire 
 

Remember how the Beastmaster could see through the eyes of his pet eagle? DARPA does. And it’s pursuing augmented reality goggles tech that’ll let troops see through the eyes of a nearby unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in order to more accurately target its weapons.

The issue of accurate targeting and weapons-fire has a renewed interest in the wake of NATO mistakenly destroying rebel armor in Libya rather than Gadhaffi’s hardware, but it’s never been an easy task. One of the very best ways to deliver today’s smartest weapons is to have an “eyes-on” soldier in the field near the target relaying real time data up to the aircraft that’s about to drop a bomb–but this situation is not often practical or desirable and can be dangerous for both the soldier and the incoming aircraft.

Read the rest here. 

Very cool. If John was not so busy with his new company, he probably could tell his readers how to combine this off-the-shelf modified tech with DIY drones.

An always fun thought experiment is to figure out how far ahead DARPA really is in the lab compared to whatever toy they feel comfortable giving a press release. And then there’s what exists on the drawing board that is technically feasible but not particularly economical at the present time to pursue seriously. Imagination usually far outstrips budgets

On an article TBA soon. Normal blogging will resume shortly….

Done. Heh.

[ by Charles Cameron ]

*

How things stay the same, and change!

The first book cover is that of Abdullah Azzam‘s account of miraculous events associated with shahids / martyrs among the mujahideen in Afghanistan during the fight against the Soviets, while the second is a Dar al-Murabiteen Publications compilation of stories of jihadist martyrdom. In effect, they are both devotional propaganda items, using the deaths of the fallen to inspire the actions of the living:

And call not those who are slain in the way of Allah “dead.” Nay, they are living, only ye perceive not.

Qur’an, 2. 154.

Two shifts are worth noting between the two of them:

First, the Dar al-Murabiteen cover design betrays an awareness of the pop-cultural ubiquity of the undead meme – whether it’s applied in books, games or films, to vampires or zombies… as exemplified here:

Second, the shift from a classic Islamic to a pop cultural title is accompanied by a shift from a local to a lunar graphic background and from a contemporary armored vehicle silhouette to a silhouette of a mythic horseman-warrior…

The Dar al-Murabiteen effort is thus both more contemporary and more archaic — hip and contemporary to catch the attention of western youth, archaic and mythic to give resonance to the idea that the glorious past, the past of Saladdin, the past of Ali, is lived again in present reality.

That’s master narrative in the form of imagery.

Infinity Journal has added a more “blog-like” or “column-like” section to cover events within a contemporaneous frame in addition to their peer-review articles which come out quarterly (or perhaps bimonthly) more contemporaneous peer reviewed articles, oriented toward current events, in addition to their quarterly publication of the journal . Dr. Patrick Porter of Offshore Balancer ( and King’s College) has the maiden post with a provocative piece:

Exclusive: Lost in Libya: The UK does not understand strategy

The limited war of 2011 would refuse to be quarantined. After all other options were exhausted, it could culminate in a land war against Tripoli. Distressingly, we would shoulder the burden of invading, pacifying and administering this country. Occupation would probably lead to resistance – and Libya propelled more foreign-born jihadi volunteers into Iraq than any other nation. A new front in the War on Terror would open up. Idealists now calling for humanitarian rescue would discover that all along they opposed Western imperial hubris….

Free registration required. 

Admittedly, I stole the excerpt above from SWJ Blog – the online format of IJ makes it difficult for bloggers to quote sections of articles by copying and pasting into blog posts. This probably cuts down on the velocity and extent of IJ articles circulating in the .mil/strategy/foreign policy online world (blogosphere, twitter, listservs). OTOH the editors may not care as it probably reduces the amount of inane vs. informed criticism as well 🙂

In any event. Dr. Porter’s article is worth reading.

[ by Charles Cameron — cross-posted from ChicagoBoyz ]