Nectar

SECRET CODEWORDS OF THE NSA: NECTAR
woodblock print (mokuhanga)
6" x 6" (152.4 x 152.4 mm)
8 layers of color plus blind emboss on Kochi Kozo paper
edition: 20

N is for NECTAR. NECTAR is a designation applied to certain information (we don't know what kind of information) that marks it as being shareable with other countries. The NSA routinely shares information with the governments of our "second party" friends: Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. But some information is shared more widely than that, with third and fourth party nations, which might include NATO countries or others. NECTAR is one of several designators that allows the data tagged with that name to be shared more widely. Just think, little bits of your very own personal information could be making their way anywhere in the world, like pollen scattered in the wind.

Bees love nectar. And bees pollinate. And bees are dying. But here in America, we believe in the power of technology to cure our ills. Enter robobees. Robobees are being developed at Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, with funding from the National Science Foundation. They're pretty cool, and they can be used in all sorts of ways. It's possible that if we lost all our honeybees, robobees could save us from agricultural disaster by autonomously pollinating fields of crops. Or robobees could be used for search and rescue reconnaissance in dangerous situations. And, of course, robobees could be used for spying. Maybe they could even shoot little weapons, since they're basically tiny drones.

That's the beauty of technology: you can use it all sorts of ways.