Driving Blind: Afghanistan, Bombs, and Streaming Music

Adm. William McRaven, the head of U.S. Special Operations Command, believes,  “We are achieving in the SOF world probably the best results we’ve seen in many, many years.” That’s after, as Noah Shachtman reports, “the local government accused an American special operator of torturing an Afghan civilian…the Hamid Karzai administration insisted that U.S. warplanes killed 17 women and children…three more U.S. troops were killed by an improvised bomb, bringing the total to 17 slain in this awful month alone.”

And exploration of bombs and urbicide regarding the topic of “Weaponized Architecture.”

On a lighter note, /Film has curated some of the best fan-made alternate Star Trek: Into Darkness movie posters. As you would expect, each is significantly better than the market tested one the studio finally decided on.

D.B. Weiss and David Benioff, co-writers on HBO’s Game of Thrones, will be writing an episode of It’s Always Sunny. The show hasn’t been at its best for a while, but no matter how it turns out this will be awesome.

Matt Peckham lists five ways Google can beat Spotify at the streaming music game. First up:  “Fair compensation for artists,” whatever that means.

Ernest Hemingway’s Cuban archives are now available in the U.S.

Don Boudreaux points out the holes in Jaron Lanier’s logic regarding the relationship of new technology to displaced labor.

If you didn’t already know, Disney has given EA exclusive rights to publish all Star Wars-related video games. As a result, EA is opening a new branch of in-house developer DICE in Los Angeles to tackle new projects in a universe far, far way.

It’s also Brian Eno’s birthday today.