That "Bee-sting"? It Could Be A Drone-Installed Tracking Chip

I know what you're thinking.  Well, not exactly, but I'm pretty sure it involves phrases like "deep end", "round the bend", "drank the koolaid" (oddly inapposite), etc. 

The thing is, I don't make this stuff up.  I just see things other people don't see, and sometimes, they're really there.  (image © Autonomous Nonprofit Organization “TV-Novosti”, 2005–2012, included under "fair use doctrine" pursuant to authority of 17 U.S.C. 107 for educational purposes)

So why do I bring this up on a blog about Goldfinger?  If you have to ask, I probably can't explain.  But I'll try.


Money.  Lots of it.

DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, has long been making grants for researh into "robot-insect" surveillance (as well as A LOT of other stuff that would scare the **** out of you).  Although I've read about this type of research repeatedly over the last decade or more, and I've given speeches about it (and watch eyes glaze-over, mere nano-seconds before they rolled), I decided to conduct some quick research for this post.

I'd have to go through years' worth of Scientific American and other publications (yes, I still have them) to find some of what I recall, but without much effort, I was able to find a reference to an article by a Stephen Cole, titled, "Robots in the sky", as far back as November, 2000.  A reference; the link that would supposedly take you to a summary "can't be found".

Then there's the article by Jimming Cheng, Winston Cheng, Nagpal, "Robust and Self-repairing Formation Control For Swarms Of Mobile Agents", National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI '05), July 2005.(pdf)  The pdf "can't be found" either.

Here's one blog reference from 6 years ago http://politech.wordpress.com/2006/03/20/cyborg-insect-soldiers-in-the-future/, linking to an actual, available article: http://www.theage.com.au/news/breaking/insect-cybug-plan-hatched/2006/03/20/1142703251984.html.  (Note the blog's closing comment re: "smart ants with bad attitudes. Or worse yet smart bees … or wasps!")

Wasn't published here, of course.

The next one is about a "seed", rather than an insect,

http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=1208, but the concept holds.

And this one's about a "robot bird": http://www.sciencebuzz.org/blog/bursts/look-sky-its-bird-its-plane-its-robot. 

Most of us know, by now, about RFID chips, and how they can be implanted in humans, for a variety of reasons.  Were  even being programmed to accept that:

("Law and Order Special Victims Unit" © NBC; included under "fair use doctrine" pursuant to authority of 17 U.S.C. 107 for educational purposes)

Some of us know that RFID chips can be a small as a period on this blog (smaller, by the time I finish it).  There is no technological reason why my headline can't be, or isn't already, possible.

In fact, you can even find another reference (remember the '06 blog reference, above) to a video of "nanobees" here
http://futureoftech-discuss.msnbc.msn.com/featured, but don't expect to actually see the video.  And, apparently, you won't find it anywhere on msnbc.com.

But an example of "swarmbots" appeared on an episode of CBS' "Numb3rs":  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciPpEVK62k0

And they don't have to crawl:  See:

http://www.maximizingprogress.org/2012/02/quadrotor-swarms-upenns-grasp-lab-flies.html

Sleep well.

Goldfinger Issues Edict

GOLDFINGER HAS SPOKEN.  "The Fed" will "ease monetary policy".  Of course, being Goldfinger, they "hedged", saying "most likely", but the message clear; “We would be quite surprised..." (read that "Somebody's head's gonna roll...) "if we saw no easing this week,” said a Goldfinger puppet.  

Goldfinger wants its wholly-owned subsidiary to "buy assets such as mortgage-backed securities and U.S. Treasurys" because, of course, you can't do better than "government-guaranteed" (barrel-of-a-gun) investments, especially when you "wrote" those "investment" on "flash paper".

Robert Heller, former governor of the U.S. central bank, disagrees.  But, he is "former governor", and really doesn't have any authority; not even the illusion of authority that we allow the DCNY vortex-dwellers. 

Janet Yellen, on the other hand (in the other pocket, as it were) is Vice Chairman of the Fed, apparently agrees with here Master(s), also making a case for more "easing" (sounds erotic, doesn't it?)

Ironically, Heller (the guy who's no longer there), blames all of this on us.  “[Goldfinger has] plenty of liquidity, there’s a dearth of demand for good credit,” says Heller.  “There are not enough credit-worthy borrowers around at the present time in the United States, so people got to continue to repair their balance sheet.”

In case you're wondering, those would be the "balance sheets" that Goldfinger & Ass' shredded through the process of "funding" (with other people's money) the "easy credit" (non-existing) of people who honestly coudn't afford a house; creating a "housing boom" (blowing so much hot air up our ...), and then graciously allowing us to continue to pay for through Capital Hill (and don't comment on my spelling; at least 533/535 are all about "capital"); putting actual "credit-worthy borrowers" into the same "tent-cities" as the (insultingly designated) "subprimes".

His answer?  Government has to make it easier for the corporate sector to invest.  (I know! Talk about balls!) "If ... regulations are eased a bit, then the U.S. economy really has the potential to grow much faster, snap back...".

Didn't it already "snap back" when we finally heard housing "boom"?