WHERE’S MY LASER CANNON? RIGHT HERE. SIR...

ITEM: Raytheon unveils an anti-aircraft laser at a UK airshow that can shoot down unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

Yes. We can now shoot down drones with FRICKIN’ LASERS.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I am against war in principle. But I am also a military veteran trained to shoot down aircraft with a 20mm M61 Vulcan gun (it’s like the General Electric XM134 Minigun, only too big even for Jesse Ventura to carry around). I am also a first-gen Star Wars nerd.

So you understand my goofy enthusiams about this.

Pew pew pew,

This is dF

GREAT MOMENTS IN MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKING: EVERYTHING’S AMAZING AND NOBODY’S HAPPY

I’m not familiar with Louis CK, but I like this riff with Coco on how we live in an age of kick-ass technology and how that’s still not good enough for some people.

Which isn’t to say that we shouldn’t complain when things go wrong or stop working. Dissastisfaction with the present is a prerequisite for future progress, and that’s a good thing, because The Future can’t get here soon enough for the likes of me.

But I do think one way to appreciate the present is to remember how far we’ve come from the past, so that we at least complain about things worth complaining about.

Or am I sounding too much like that Dr Phil character?

Whatever. All I can say is Louis CK is dead on target about rotary phones.

Future tense,

This is dF

LISTEN TO IT #13: THE POLITICS OF DANCING

M.I.A. is one of those artists that, on paper, should be right up my alley: born in the UK, raised on the rebel side of the Sri Lankan civil war, now mixing art, agit-prop and global politics with long-form controversial music videos too frightening for YouTube and a confrontational relationship with the press.

If Lady Gaga was political and grew up in the Third World, etc.

But – like Lady Gaga – it’s taken time for me to warm up to M.I.A., partly because of the media hype, and partly because the musical style of the singles getting all the attention wasn’t anything particularly special.

But with her third album out now (called /\/\/\y/\, or Maya, if you like), I may be coming around.

Ironically, it’s the album that’s gone over the least with some critics, possibly because it’s her most experimental-sounding album yet, dripping with technology that almost drowns out her vocals. And I admit sometimes it’s not an easy listen.

On the other hand, that’s not always a bad thing. And whereas M.I.A.’s first two albums played a little more towards the usual hip-hop audience expectations (albeit with a World Music twist), /\/\/\y/\ goes a lot further in letting her music, rather than her cultural background, set her apart from the pack.

If nothing else, I have to respect anyone who goes on Letterman with a Suicide sample a dozen clones of herself onstage.

Copy that,

This is dF