9 ms·

I feel like evil institutions don't even bother trying to hide their evil any more. If you look at a photo of the building, it's pretty much exactly what you w

I feel like evil institutions don't even bother trying to hide their evil any more. If you look at a photo of the building, it's pretty much exactly what you would expect a dystopian secret police to operate out of. [0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/33_Thomas_Street https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/33_Thomas_Street

mattnewton 10y ago
That reminds me of this stellar Steve Bannon (the new chief strategist in the whitehouse) interview with CNN where he talks about "darkness" as being good and powerful, like "Dick Cheney, Darth Vader, Satan". I had to check the URL maybe 3 time to make sure I wasn't reading the onion. http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/18/politics/steve-bannon-donald-trump-hollywood-reporter-interview/index.html http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/18/politics/steve-bannon-donald-t...
- morgante 10y ago
  Edit: I don't think this thread is the place to discuss that.
  - mattnewton 10y ago
    Eh, it seems relevant to the parent comment to me, about organizations not attempting to hide their "evil villain"-like attributes. Reasonable people can disagree.
  - grzm 10y ago
    "Conservative Christians apparently think an admirer of Satan and the 1930s is a good guy." That's a pretty sweeping generalization, wouldn't you say? Just considering how fractured religion is, if nothing else.
mirkules 10y ago
I don't see the big deal here, not from your comment or about the article. Every agency has to operate from someplace. It makes sense that spy agencies operate from non-descript locations. Unless your argument is that NSA should not exist altogether, or that it should not operate on American soil, I honestly don't understand what the fuss is about. And I say this as a _staunch_ opponent of domestic surveillance.
- morgante 10y ago
  My comment was primarily about the aesthetics of the NSA. They don't seem to bother with trying to appear good or friendly. > It makes sense that spy agencies operate from non-descript locations. The building is the opposite of nondescript. A 30-story building in Manhattan with no windows stands out a lot more than if they dressed it up with windows. I also happen to think the NSA should be completely disbanded and replaced with an agency which solely focuses on international espionage.
  - walshemj 10y ago
    Its portably more a telco thing some of the uk's big telecoms buildings are butt ugly. Baynard House and the main lab building at martesham in particular. One American burst out "its a f&^king prison" when he visited martelsham.
closeparen 10y ago
AT&T Long Lines sites look menacing because they were designed to keep humming while we retaliated against the USSR at the end of the world. There are former Long Lines sites around the country, from urban high-rises to lonely fenced-in microwave horn antennas atop bunkers, miles from the nearest towns and sometimes accessible only by helicopter. A good few are next to highways and train tracks, which is how I came to start reading about them. They provided rural telephony for civilians, but were also part of the Cold War-era continuity-of-government system connecting SAC bases and missile silos. There's a fairly dedicated hobbyist community cataloguing the sites [0]. A remote Long Lines site also played a role in the Death Valley Germans story, which got some pretty good discussion on HN a while ago [1]. [0] http://long-lines.net/places-routes/ http://long-lines.net/places-routes/ [1] http://www.otherhand.org/home-page/search-and-rescue/the-hunt-for-the-death-valley-germans/ http://www.otherhand.org/home-page/search-and-rescue/the-hun...
- riffic 10y ago
  There are similar AT&T buildings scattered throughout the country built to similar specification. Here's one in West Palm Beach - https://goo.gl/maps/VD42JWpnp8P2 https://goo.gl/maps/VD42JWpnp8P2
  - cheiVia0 10y ago
    They might be same in windowlessness, but the scale is completely different. Here's a photo that more better captures its size: https://www.emporis.com/images/show/446315-Large-fullheightview-view-to-the-northeast.jpg https://www.emporis.com/images/show/446315-Large-fullheightv...
  - Sgt_Apone 10y ago
    Yes, it's a very common design that many switching building incorporated in that era. They're all over Canada as well.
rdtsc 10y ago
Very true. I observed that as well. Another example if FBI building in DC: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Edgar_Hoover_Building#/media/File:Fbi_headquarters.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Edgar_Hoover_Building#/medi... It looks ugly and menacing in the pictures, it is even more so walking next to it.

mattnewton 10y ago

That reminds me of this stellar Steve Bannon (the new chief strategist in the whitehouse) interview with CNN where he talks about "darkness" as being good and powerful, like "Dick Cheney, Darth Vader, Satan". I had to check the URL maybe 3 time to make sure I wasn't reading the onion. http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/18/politics/steve-bannon-donald-trump-hollywood-reporter-interview/index.html http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/18/politics/steve-bannon-donald-t...

morgante 10y ago
Edit: I don't think this thread is the place to discuss that.
- mattnewton 10y ago
  Eh, it seems relevant to the parent comment to me, about organizations not attempting to hide their "evil villain"-like attributes. Reasonable people can disagree.
- grzm 10y ago
  "Conservative Christians apparently think an admirer of Satan and the 1930s is a good guy." That's a pretty sweeping generalization, wouldn't you say? Just considering how fractured religion is, if nothing else.

mirkules 10y ago

I don't see the big deal here, not from your comment or about the article. Every agency has to operate from someplace. It makes sense that spy agencies operate from non-descript locations. Unless your argument is that NSA should not exist altogether, or that it should not operate on American soil, I honestly don't understand what the fuss is about. And I say this as a _staunch_ opponent of domestic surveillance.

morgante 10y ago
My comment was primarily about the aesthetics of the NSA. They don't seem to bother with trying to appear good or friendly. > It makes sense that spy agencies operate from non-descript locations. The building is the opposite of nondescript. A 30-story building in Manhattan with no windows stands out a lot more than if they dressed it up with windows. I also happen to think the NSA should be completely disbanded and replaced with an agency which solely focuses on international espionage.
- walshemj 10y ago
  Its portably more a telco thing some of the uk's big telecoms buildings are butt ugly. Baynard House and the main lab building at martesham in particular. One American burst out "its a f&^king prison" when he visited martelsham.

closeparen 10y ago

AT&T Long Lines sites look menacing because they were designed to keep humming while we retaliated against the USSR at the end of the world. There are former Long Lines sites around the country, from urban high-rises to lonely fenced-in microwave horn antennas atop bunkers, miles from the nearest towns and sometimes accessible only by helicopter. A good few are next to highways and train tracks, which is how I came to start reading about them. They provided rural telephony for civilians, but were also part of the Cold War-era continuity-of-government system connecting SAC bases and missile silos. There's a fairly dedicated hobbyist community cataloguing the sites [0]. A remote Long Lines site also played a role in the Death Valley Germans story, which got some pretty good discussion on HN a while ago [1]. [0] http://long-lines.net/places-routes/ http://long-lines.net/places-routes/ [1] http://www.otherhand.org/home-page/search-and-rescue/the-hunt-for-the-death-valley-germans/ http://www.otherhand.org/home-page/search-and-rescue/the-hun...

riffic 10y ago
There are similar AT&T buildings scattered throughout the country built to similar specification. Here's one in West Palm Beach - https://goo.gl/maps/VD42JWpnp8P2 https://goo.gl/maps/VD42JWpnp8P2
- cheiVia0 10y ago
  They might be same in windowlessness, but the scale is completely different. Here's a photo that more better captures its size: https://www.emporis.com/images/show/446315-Large-fullheightview-view-to-the-northeast.jpg https://www.emporis.com/images/show/446315-Large-fullheightv...
- Sgt_Apone 10y ago
  Yes, it's a very common design that many switching building incorporated in that era. They're all over Canada as well.

rdtsc 10y ago

Very true. I observed that as well. Another example if FBI building in DC: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Edgar_Hoover_Building#/media/File:Fbi_headquarters.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Edgar_Hoover_Building#/medi... It looks ugly and menacing in the pictures, it is even more so walking next to it.