our author this afternoon is sharon weinberger in the book is: "the imagineers of war: the untold story of darpa" this is sharon's third book and also her third what i will call long form exploration of the practices of defense. she began her career as a defense analysts and became a journalist and author shifting her eye inward in which she has been working and she is now the executive editor on foreign-policy that you confine on foreign-policy.com. the advanced research project agency has a pretty solid reputation especially for those who know its background especially like the birth of the background, but sharon's book digs deeper exploring darpa from its birth to the present and some of its less successful work including research funded related atmospheric belt of radiation to deter nuclear weapons, counterinsurgency practices in vietnam and superhuman soldiers that could survive on bus food and sleep that's currently possible. it's a multifaceted story with a lot of fanciful failures in an agency in search of a mission, but what's the most impresses is if you get to the back of the