In a move regarded as unusual by the media, the French research group refused to provide copies of the journal paper to reporters in advance of its publication, unless they signed non-disclosure agreements. The NDAs would have prevented the journalists from approaching third-party researchers for comment.

- "Group Promoting Rat Study of Engineered Corn Forced Coverage Rush", The New York Times, Andrew C. Revkin.

I'm not a fan of GMOs, but I don't believe in pursuing lesser evils for a greater good, either. This kind of behaviour harms the credibility of journalists as well as scientists for a public whose interests are already so fractured that they're quick to find reasons to write things off as bullshit.

Disrupting Spaces: A Robotic Homebuilding Spider.

MIT's developed CNSILK, a robot-slash-silkworm that, in the near future, will be able to sense its structural environment and build around it. Here is that same spiderbot constructing a living space out of thread (which will eventually be replaced by a nylon that's flexy when wet, then hardens once dry).

Earlier today I also read about Narrative Science, a company that uses algos to take raw data and spin stories out of it. Some people are optimistic about this tech's capacity to replace journalism.

When increasingly complex systems are being developed to replace complex human work that traditionally required sharp eyes, a sense of intuition and constructive creativity on-the-fly, I wonder two things:

• How do the people who once did these jobs naturally evolve into a more useful position?
• What kind of advertising, what kind of media, could be produced as a result?

Constructing a living space around an existing environment isn't that different from building a social network. (That's why books like this are so popular with software architects.) Would robots do this better than we have?

Posted on AdVerveBlog and Disruptomatic.

AdVerve Episode 13: Bloggers Suck

It’s harder for us to title these things anymore since we go off in so many different directions in each show now. The timestamp breakdown gives you a semblance of what we covered, from dudes who love cars a little too much to my new giggity-giggity* gigs.

The topics we spend the most time on include how blogs are still not taken seriously by “real” journalists (or some ad agencies), and the fear about being too open on them. The show devolves into a cultural ceviche from there.

We also have back a regular feature, 5 Minutes With..., featuring Matt McDermott of Renegade. (Follow him on Twitter as well as on the agency's blog.)

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