[brent]

Pardon my naivety, but what do you mean by "thatched airplanes"?

[Nogwater]

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_cult

"Thatched airplanes" being an imitation of the real thing.

[MichaelSalib]

Nogwater nails it below.

Specifically, I'm think of things like http://cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/weblog/491.html and http://cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/weblog/656.html