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Katashi_itto
Katashi_itto's Journal
Katashi_itto's Journal
July 8, 2013
Fresh outta the "We never could have anticipated..." department.
On Tuesday, before they arrived, recruitment officers from the NSA probably never even considered that there would be dissenters in the crowd of students at the University of Wisconsin where the agency was holding a recruitment drive. Their collective arrogance hubris must have precluded them from considering the notion that young college students who were considering service to their country would actually have questions about what the agency is doing with their massive surveillance programs.
Were these de facto-militaristic-NSA-types never young?
Young, inquiring minds want to know. Literally.
As you've probably guessed by now; hilarity ensued!
The Guardian tells the story:
Attending the session was Madiha R Tahir studying a language course at the university. She asked the squirming recruiters a few uncomfortable questions about the activities of NSA: which countries the agency considers to be "adversaries", and if being a good liar is a qualification for getting a job at the NSA.
Apparently, they never saw Madiha coming.
Here's an excerpt: (enjoy!)
Tahir: "Do you consider Germany and the countries that the NSA has been spying upon to be adversaries, or are you, right now, not speaking the truth?"
Recruiter 1: "You can define adversary as 'enemy' and, clearly, Germany is not our enemy. But would we have foreign national interests from an intelligence perspective on what's going on across the globe? Yeah, we do."
Tahir: "So by 'adversaries', you actually mean anybody and everybody. There is nobody, then, by your definition that is not an adversary. Is that correct?"
Recruiter 1: "That is not correct."
Recruiter 2: "… for us, our business is apolitical, OK? We do not generate the intelligence requirements. They are levied on us ... We might use the word 'target'."
Tahir: "I'm just surprised that for language analysts, you're incredibly imprecise with your language. And it just doesn't seem to be clear."
Later...
Tahir: "... this is a recruiting session and you are telling us things that aren't true. And we also know that the NSA took down brochures and factsheets after the Snowden revelations because those factsheets also had severe inaccuracies and untruths in them, right? So how are we supposed to believe what you're saying?"
Even later...
Tahir: "I think the question here is do you actually think about the ramifications of the work that you do, which is deeply problematic, or do you just dress up in costumes and get drunk?" [A reference to an earlier comment the recruiter made about NSA employees working hard and going to the bar to do karaoke.]
Recruiter 2: "... reporting the info in the right context is so important because the consequences of bad political decisions by our policymakers is something we all suffer from."
Unnamed female student: "And people suffer from the misinformation that you pass along so you should take responsibility as well."
Later still...
Male student: "General Alexander [head of the NSA] also lied in front of Congress."
Recruiter 1: "I don't believe that he did."
Male student: "Probably because access to the Guardian is restricted on the Department of Defence's computers. I am sure they don't encourage people like you to actually think about these things. Thank God for a man like Edward Snowden who your organisation is now part of a manhunt trying to track down, trying to put him in a little hole somewhere for the rest of his life. Thank God they exist."
And finally...
Recruiter 2: "This job isn't for everybody, you know ..."
Tahir: "So is this job for liars? Is this what you're saying? Because, clearly, you're not able to give us forthright answers. I mean, given the way the NSA has behaved, given the fact that we've been lied to as Americans, given the fact that factsheets have been pulled down because they clearly had untruths in them, given the fact that Clapper and Alexander lied to Congress – is that a qualification for being in the NSA? Do you have to be a good liar?"
Recruiter 1: I don't believe the NSA is telling complete lies. And I do believe that you know, I mean people can, you can read a lot of different things that are, um, portrayed as fact and that doesn't make them fact just because they're in newspapers."
Unnamed female student: "Or intelligence reports."
Recruiter 1: "That's not really our purpose here today and I think if you're not interested in that ... there are people here who are probably interested in a language career."
Soundcloud link (full audio)
A rough transcript available @ Madiha's blog: The Mob and the Multitude
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/07/07/1221887/-NSA-Feels-P-R-HEAT-From-Potential-Prospects-at-Recruitment-Drive-at-University-of-Wisconsin
NSA Feels P.R. HEAT From Potential Prospects at University of Wisconsin Recruitment Drive
Fresh outta the "We never could have anticipated..." department.
On Tuesday, before they arrived, recruitment officers from the NSA probably never even considered that there would be dissenters in the crowd of students at the University of Wisconsin where the agency was holding a recruitment drive. Their collective arrogance hubris must have precluded them from considering the notion that young college students who were considering service to their country would actually have questions about what the agency is doing with their massive surveillance programs.
Were these de facto-militaristic-NSA-types never young?
Young, inquiring minds want to know. Literally.
As you've probably guessed by now; hilarity ensued!
The Guardian tells the story:
Attending the session was Madiha R Tahir studying a language course at the university. She asked the squirming recruiters a few uncomfortable questions about the activities of NSA: which countries the agency considers to be "adversaries", and if being a good liar is a qualification for getting a job at the NSA.
Apparently, they never saw Madiha coming.
Here's an excerpt: (enjoy!)
Tahir: "Do you consider Germany and the countries that the NSA has been spying upon to be adversaries, or are you, right now, not speaking the truth?"
Recruiter 1: "You can define adversary as 'enemy' and, clearly, Germany is not our enemy. But would we have foreign national interests from an intelligence perspective on what's going on across the globe? Yeah, we do."
Tahir: "So by 'adversaries', you actually mean anybody and everybody. There is nobody, then, by your definition that is not an adversary. Is that correct?"
Recruiter 1: "That is not correct."
Recruiter 2: "… for us, our business is apolitical, OK? We do not generate the intelligence requirements. They are levied on us ... We might use the word 'target'."
Tahir: "I'm just surprised that for language analysts, you're incredibly imprecise with your language. And it just doesn't seem to be clear."
Later...
Tahir: "... this is a recruiting session and you are telling us things that aren't true. And we also know that the NSA took down brochures and factsheets after the Snowden revelations because those factsheets also had severe inaccuracies and untruths in them, right? So how are we supposed to believe what you're saying?"
Even later...
Tahir: "I think the question here is do you actually think about the ramifications of the work that you do, which is deeply problematic, or do you just dress up in costumes and get drunk?" [A reference to an earlier comment the recruiter made about NSA employees working hard and going to the bar to do karaoke.]
Recruiter 2: "... reporting the info in the right context is so important because the consequences of bad political decisions by our policymakers is something we all suffer from."
Unnamed female student: "And people suffer from the misinformation that you pass along so you should take responsibility as well."
Later still...
Male student: "General Alexander [head of the NSA] also lied in front of Congress."
Recruiter 1: "I don't believe that he did."
Male student: "Probably because access to the Guardian is restricted on the Department of Defence's computers. I am sure they don't encourage people like you to actually think about these things. Thank God for a man like Edward Snowden who your organisation is now part of a manhunt trying to track down, trying to put him in a little hole somewhere for the rest of his life. Thank God they exist."
And finally...
Recruiter 2: "This job isn't for everybody, you know ..."
Tahir: "So is this job for liars? Is this what you're saying? Because, clearly, you're not able to give us forthright answers. I mean, given the way the NSA has behaved, given the fact that we've been lied to as Americans, given the fact that factsheets have been pulled down because they clearly had untruths in them, given the fact that Clapper and Alexander lied to Congress – is that a qualification for being in the NSA? Do you have to be a good liar?"
Recruiter 1: I don't believe the NSA is telling complete lies. And I do believe that you know, I mean people can, you can read a lot of different things that are, um, portrayed as fact and that doesn't make them fact just because they're in newspapers."
Unnamed female student: "Or intelligence reports."
Recruiter 1: "That's not really our purpose here today and I think if you're not interested in that ... there are people here who are probably interested in a language career."
Soundcloud link (full audio)
A rough transcript available @ Madiha's blog: The Mob and the Multitude
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/07/07/1221887/-NSA-Feels-P-R-HEAT-From-Potential-Prospects-at-Recruitment-Drive-at-University-of-Wisconsin
July 8, 2013
Scientists said Monday they had used a new-generation gene sequencing technique to select a viable embryo for in-vitro fertilization (IVF) that yielded a healthy baby boy.
IVF, the process whereby a human egg is fertilised with sperm in the laboratory, is a hit-and-miss affair, with only about 30 percent of fertilised embryos resulting in pregnancy after implantation.
The reason for the high failure rate is not clear but genetic defects are the prime suspects, according to the authors of the paper presented Monday at a meeting in London of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE).
The new method, known as next generation sequencing or NGS, uses updated technology to sequence an entire genome — revealing inherited genetic disorders, chromosome abnormalities and mutations.
Study author Dagan Wells of the University of Oxford’s NIHR Biomedical Research Centre said the new technology was “inherently cheaper” and yielded more genetic data than older methods.
It provides millions of fragments of DNA from a single cell which are then sequenced by a computer.
(Interesting potentials--- Could traits traits are regulated? Banned outright? Or mandated?
Are Bottle births only - no women required a possibility?
From a dystopian standpoint...how about a State that replicates its own polite, calm, tractable, ignorant citizenry, independent of human errors unwanted by the State. )
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/07/07/scientists-use-gene-sequencing-to-select-a-healthy-baby-boy/
Scientists use gene sequencing to ‘select’ a healthy baby boy
Scientists said Monday they had used a new-generation gene sequencing technique to select a viable embryo for in-vitro fertilization (IVF) that yielded a healthy baby boy.
IVF, the process whereby a human egg is fertilised with sperm in the laboratory, is a hit-and-miss affair, with only about 30 percent of fertilised embryos resulting in pregnancy after implantation.
The reason for the high failure rate is not clear but genetic defects are the prime suspects, according to the authors of the paper presented Monday at a meeting in London of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE).
The new method, known as next generation sequencing or NGS, uses updated technology to sequence an entire genome — revealing inherited genetic disorders, chromosome abnormalities and mutations.
Study author Dagan Wells of the University of Oxford’s NIHR Biomedical Research Centre said the new technology was “inherently cheaper” and yielded more genetic data than older methods.
It provides millions of fragments of DNA from a single cell which are then sequenced by a computer.
(Interesting potentials--- Could traits traits are regulated? Banned outright? Or mandated?
Are Bottle births only - no women required a possibility?
From a dystopian standpoint...how about a State that replicates its own polite, calm, tractable, ignorant citizenry, independent of human errors unwanted by the State. )
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/07/07/scientists-use-gene-sequencing-to-select-a-healthy-baby-boy/
July 7, 2013
?1347379154
Worried about that whole NSA spying thing, and the loss of personal privacy, and our allies being seriously pissed? Rest assured:
Former President George W. Bush defended PRISM, the Internet spying program that began under his administration but remained secret until The Washington Post and The Guardian revealed its existence last month.
"I put that program in place to protect the country. One of the certainties was that civil liberties were guaranteed," Bush told CNN in an interview airing Monday. "I think there needs to be a balance, and as the president explained, there is a proper balance."
PRISM began under Bush in 2007 and has continued under the Obama administration. The program allows the National Security Administration to collect internet and email data from the nation's biggest technology companies.
Yes. Because if anyone is an expert at protecting the country, it's Bush. And that little war in Iraq was to protect us from Saddam's WMDs. And don't worry about PRISM, because civil liberties are guaranteed.
Feel better now? Feel safer?
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/07/02/1220620/-Rest-assured-about-PRISM-Bush-put-that-program-in-place-to-protect-the-country
Rest assured about PRISM: Bush says he 'put that program in place to protect the country'
?1347379154
Worried about that whole NSA spying thing, and the loss of personal privacy, and our allies being seriously pissed? Rest assured:
Former President George W. Bush defended PRISM, the Internet spying program that began under his administration but remained secret until The Washington Post and The Guardian revealed its existence last month.
"I put that program in place to protect the country. One of the certainties was that civil liberties were guaranteed," Bush told CNN in an interview airing Monday. "I think there needs to be a balance, and as the president explained, there is a proper balance."
PRISM began under Bush in 2007 and has continued under the Obama administration. The program allows the National Security Administration to collect internet and email data from the nation's biggest technology companies.
Yes. Because if anyone is an expert at protecting the country, it's Bush. And that little war in Iraq was to protect us from Saddam's WMDs. And don't worry about PRISM, because civil liberties are guaranteed.
Feel better now? Feel safer?
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/07/02/1220620/-Rest-assured-about-PRISM-Bush-put-that-program-in-place-to-protect-the-country
July 7, 2013
March 16, 2012 President Obama issued a creepy Executive Order.
Entitled “National Defense Resources Preparedness,” it authorizes the President and cabinet officials to take over crucial aspects of the national economy not only during emergencies but also in peacetime.
The order relies on a Korean War-era statute, the Defense Production Act of 1950, to further entwine the domestic industrial economy with the military. It talks of fostering “cooperation between the defense and commercial sectors.”
The stated purpose is to strengthen “the domestic industrial and technological base” so as “to ensure it is capable of responding to the national defense needs of the United States.”
This amounts to putting the economy on permanent war footing, even when there isn’t an emergency.
For instance, the Executive Order talks of the need for the economic base “to satisfy [defense] requirements in peacetime and times of national emergency.” And cabinet officials are authorized to “issue regulations to prioritize and allocate resources . . . to promote the national defense, under both emergency and non-emergency conditions.”
It amounts to a sweeping reassertion of Presidential authority. It reasserts the President’s authority “to require acceptance and priority performance of contracts or orders . . . to promote the national defense over performance of any other contracts or orders.”
http://www.progressive.org/permanent_war_economy.html
Is there a pattern? Obama’s Executive Order: Permanent War Economy
March 16, 2012 President Obama issued a creepy Executive Order.
Entitled “National Defense Resources Preparedness,” it authorizes the President and cabinet officials to take over crucial aspects of the national economy not only during emergencies but also in peacetime.
The order relies on a Korean War-era statute, the Defense Production Act of 1950, to further entwine the domestic industrial economy with the military. It talks of fostering “cooperation between the defense and commercial sectors.”
The stated purpose is to strengthen “the domestic industrial and technological base” so as “to ensure it is capable of responding to the national defense needs of the United States.”
This amounts to putting the economy on permanent war footing, even when there isn’t an emergency.
For instance, the Executive Order talks of the need for the economic base “to satisfy [defense] requirements in peacetime and times of national emergency.” And cabinet officials are authorized to “issue regulations to prioritize and allocate resources . . . to promote the national defense, under both emergency and non-emergency conditions.”
It amounts to a sweeping reassertion of Presidential authority. It reasserts the President’s authority “to require acceptance and priority performance of contracts or orders . . . to promote the national defense over performance of any other contracts or orders.”
http://www.progressive.org/permanent_war_economy.html
July 7, 2013
Scientists have discovered more than 3,500 unique gene sequences in Lake Vostok – the underground Antarctic water reservoir isolated from the outside world for 15 million years – revealing a complex ecosystem far beyond anything they could have expected.
"The bounds on what is habitable and what is not are changing," said Scott Rogers, Bowling Green State University professor of biological sciences, who led a genetic study of the contents of half a liter of water brought back from the lake after it was drilled by Russian scientists last year.
(Scientists observing strange structure in Antarctic)
"We found much more complexity than anyone thought," Rogers said. "It really shows the tenacity of life, and how organisms can survive in places where a couple dozen years ago we thought nothing could survive."
There are few places on Earth more hostile to life forms than Lake Vostok, the largest subglacial lake in the Antarctic, and initially Rogers believed that the water from it may have been completely sterile.
Water is located 4,000 meters below the ice, which completely blocks sunlight, and creates huge pressure on the liquid. It is also literally located in the coldest place on Earth: the world’s lowest temperature of -89.2C was recorded at Vostok Station above the reservoir.
http://rt.com/news/lake-vostok-bacteria-dna-745/
Lake Vostok mysteries: Biologists find over 3,500 life forms in isolated Antarctic basin
Scientists have discovered more than 3,500 unique gene sequences in Lake Vostok – the underground Antarctic water reservoir isolated from the outside world for 15 million years – revealing a complex ecosystem far beyond anything they could have expected.
"The bounds on what is habitable and what is not are changing," said Scott Rogers, Bowling Green State University professor of biological sciences, who led a genetic study of the contents of half a liter of water brought back from the lake after it was drilled by Russian scientists last year.
(Scientists observing strange structure in Antarctic)
"We found much more complexity than anyone thought," Rogers said. "It really shows the tenacity of life, and how organisms can survive in places where a couple dozen years ago we thought nothing could survive."
There are few places on Earth more hostile to life forms than Lake Vostok, the largest subglacial lake in the Antarctic, and initially Rogers believed that the water from it may have been completely sterile.
Water is located 4,000 meters below the ice, which completely blocks sunlight, and creates huge pressure on the liquid. It is also literally located in the coldest place on Earth: the world’s lowest temperature of -89.2C was recorded at Vostok Station above the reservoir.
http://rt.com/news/lake-vostok-bacteria-dna-745/
July 3, 2013
In theaters July 12th.
From acclaimed filmmaker Guillermo del Toro comes "Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures' Pacific Rim."
When legions of monstrous creatures, known as Kaiju, started rising from the sea, a war began that would take millions of lives and consume humanity's resources for years on end. To combat the giant Kaiju, a special type of weapon was devised: massive robots, called Jaegers, which are controlled simultaneously by two pilots whose minds are locked in a neural bridge. But even the Jaegers are proving nearly defenseless in the face of the relentless Kaiju. On the verge of defeat, the forces defending mankind have no choice but to turn to two unlikely heroes—a washed up former pilot (Charlie Hunnam) and an untested trainee (Rinko Kikuchi)—who are teamed to drive a legendary but seemingly obsolete Jaeger from the past. Together, they stand as mankind's last hope against the mounting apocalypse.
Kaiju Remedies from "Pacific Rim" Movie
In theaters July 12th.
From acclaimed filmmaker Guillermo del Toro comes "Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures' Pacific Rim."
When legions of monstrous creatures, known as Kaiju, started rising from the sea, a war began that would take millions of lives and consume humanity's resources for years on end. To combat the giant Kaiju, a special type of weapon was devised: massive robots, called Jaegers, which are controlled simultaneously by two pilots whose minds are locked in a neural bridge. But even the Jaegers are proving nearly defenseless in the face of the relentless Kaiju. On the verge of defeat, the forces defending mankind have no choice but to turn to two unlikely heroes—a washed up former pilot (Charlie Hunnam) and an untested trainee (Rinko Kikuchi)—who are teamed to drive a legendary but seemingly obsolete Jaeger from the past. Together, they stand as mankind's last hope against the mounting apocalypse.
July 2, 2013
F*** Rick Perry
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