• The Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) Block 1A Quick Reaction Unitary Missile gets even more accurate
• High Mobility Artillery Rocket System production approved
• The networked battlefield moves a step closer
• First-of-its-kind dual missile test intercepts targets in space
• Lockheed Martin tests guided missile impervious to GPS jamming
• PAC-3 Missile Receives NDIA Gold Medal For Exemplary Performance

• Volvo starts project with hybrid-drive garbage vehicles
• QinetiQ and NexxtDrive to co-operate on hybrid electric drives
• X-Net arrest system stops cars quickly and safely.
• Military fast jet pilot directs multiple UAVs
• X-45A Unmanned Combat Aircraft graduate with flying colours
• New kit converts earthmovers to full remote control

About the essay's contents, Mr. Larratt says, "Karl Rove's father was not only gay, but a part of the early body piercing scene and a regular at 70s piercing parties... There are pictures of him on BME."

Here is an excerpt from the essay. It is published in entirety on BMEzine with detailed photos said to depict the elder Mr. Rove's numerous genital piercings.

I have no way of verifying the claims in this essay, or the source of the photos, but I do know that Mr. Larratt is familiar with the author (a known participant in the body modification community), and with the story.

- - - - - - - - - -

Louie loved his piercings, they made him smile. People who are pierced will understand.

So there on the floor in his library, amid teaching videos on piercings and piles of [Piercing Fans International Quarterly], I listened to one man’s account of his travels through the Los Angeles piercing community in the 70’s and 80’s — the “piercing parties” with folks getting pierced on coffee tables in private homes, nurses that helped, and a guy named Jim. I knew about Jim. I had both my nipples pierced at The Gauntlet.

Louie also knew about play piercing; I wanted to learn and so he taught me. And so between splashing in the pool, brunches, visiting his volunteer list of AIDS patients, eating at all numbers of restaurants, visiting friends who lived around the area, birding at the Salton Sea and eating TV dinners, we explored needles and the effect they have on you.

During the day I was told the names of piercings ... I hated the words but I wanted to know about each kind. To this day I’ve never gotten a dydoe because Louie told me it was a hard heal. I never copied Louie’s piercings but I never got them out of my mind. Some years after I last saw him, I found another friend, a professional piercer name Sque3z who took me on another journey recounted here on BME. Louie would be proud.

Louie and I exchanged gifts over the years. He really liked those stainless ball weights and I like gold jewelry ... so I have a 14 karat gold cock ring that once belonged to Louie, and he had a bunch of ball weights that belonged to me.

So who cares about one man’s journey into piercing? For me it is not about a gossipy story, though some people will take it that way. It is not about telling secrets or things left best unsaid; it is about a little piece of history. Perhaps in telling this story someone else will be able to tell a better one another day.

The “Jim” in this story is the Jim Ward who started the piercing industry. Louie is Louis Claude Rove whose adopted son’s first name is Karl. Louie died quietly in Palm Springs as his very secular, not-believing son ran President Bush’s campaign for President of the United States that energized the Christian evangelical base around the wedge issue of gay marriage...

As I watched the news this week, I saw a Karl Rove standing beside the President, his voice crocking, talking about his love for Bush and his country but over that “noise,” I heard the memory of Joe Koons whispering in my ear.

“You do know who his son is?”

     ... Oh My God!

And now I wondered if that son ever cried for the man who raised him and watched him grow up? I’d be curious as to how Karl Rove would ever explain his pierced, gay father? He never told the people in Louis’ phone book that he had died, nor invited them to a service if there was one. No one even knows where he is buried.

As for me? Well, I am the proud owner of Karl Rove’s father’s pure, solid gold cock ring! I’ve put it away with a few memories and pictures of his father. And in my garden grows a nasty, prickly little cactus from Louie’s backyard ... alive and well.

- - - - - - - -

Link to full text. NSFW advisory: Contains links to photographs of the pierced genitals of Karl Rove's father, with a "modesty mosaic" imposed over the thumbnail images at that main link.

FWIW, Wikipedia has this to say about Mr. Rove's father:

Rove was born the second of three children in Denver, Colorado, and later raised in Sparks, Nevada. His biological father abandoned the family early on and his mother remarried. His new adoptive father, Louis Claude Rove Jr., was a mineral geologist, and his mother, Reba Wood, was a gift shop manager. His older brother is Eric P. Rove, and his younger sister is Reba A. Rove-Hammond. His adoptive father is of Norwegian descent.

Turns out there’s a trend of giving babies unique names to increase their "Googleability":

In the age of Google, being special increasingly requires standing out from the crowd online. Many people aspire for themselves — or their offspring — to command prominent placement in the top few links on search engines or social networking sites’ member lookup functions. But, as more people flood the Web, that’s becoming an especially tall order for those with common names. Type "John Smith" into Google’s search engine and it estimates it has 158 million results. (See search results.)

For people prone to vanity searching — punching their own names into search engines — absence from the first pages of search results can bring disappointment. On top of that, some of the "un-Googleables" say being crowded out of search results actually carries a professional and financial price.

Link - via collision detection

Link (Yes, it’ll be readily apparent that Elias is a "Search Engine Marketing Specialist")

Till Nowak has created “Salad” - a digital image of the Alien movie monster made out of vegetables.

Link - via Boing Boing

Last month, the streets of San Francisco saw its share of robot mayhem with the 2007 Cardboard Robot Rumble!

The Cardboard Robot Rumble began at Mission Dolores Park. After scoping out territory within the Mission, the two cardboard robot armies (Valencia v. Mission) clashed on Clarion Alley. The humans eventually rose up against the robot overlords and the day was saved.

Link | More Photos: atp_tyreseus [Flickr]

A pre-Matrix Keanu from his correspondent days on “Going Great.” (1984)

Click play or go to Link [YouTube].