*Hides under desk.*

Wired/Danger Room notes that almost a third of our military's air power is being carried out by drones. In other words: robots. 31% of our airborne military is robot-controlled.

By the numbers, via Wired:

In 2005, only five percent of military aircraft were robots, a report by the Congressional Research Service notes. Barely seven years later, the military has 7,494 drones. Total number of old school, manned aircraft: 10,767 planes.

Wired's report is extensive and terrifying. Why terrifying? you ask. It's not like they're coming from the future to kill our children/future leaders, you might say.

Well, in that case, maybe you should educate yourself on this stuff called malware that can get inside computers and make them do crazy things, like break, or use your credit card number to order a bunch of helium tanks, or maybe rain down fury and hell from the sky into your nice little cul de sac. Sometimes, this malware can get inside drones. No big deal, right?

Wrong. Excuse us; Betabeat is taking the rest of the evening off to work on our Hellfire-From-The-Sky-Shelter. Nice knowing you.

fkamer@observer.com | @weareyourfek

1. 'Silicon' Anything.

2. 'Silicon' Anything But 'Alley' Or 'Valley'. The R Train is the 'Silicon Subway'? We'd call it debatable, if we had the brain cells to waste debating something so patently stupid.

3. Young Computer People: They Work On Robots! and

4. Young Computer People: They're flannel-wearing, thick-rimmed glasses-sporting hipsters!

5. Young Computer People: They Sit On Progressive Chairs, Like Bouncy Balls!

6. 'e'-Anything That Isn't 'Mail' Or 'Commerce':

New York has its own version of Sand Hill Road: A subway line that powers the city’s burgeoning e-scene.

And really, that's just from reading, like, the first three paragraphs. See any more? Which of these lame tech reporting sins have we committed? Etc. Whoever finds the most cliches gets the award belonging to someone who has read way too many bad stories like this, which is a stern reccomendation that they stop doing so at once against the possibility of cringing their face into ungainliness.

fkamer@observer.com | @weareyourfek