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When I was an undergraduate, the Mathematics Department cork board of announcements had an NSA(No Such Agency era) brochure, describing a program labelled somet

by e3pi 13y ago

When I was an undergraduate, the Mathematics Department cork board of announcements had an NSA(No Such Agency era) brochure, describing a program labelled something like `OCREA'. I do not remember it clearly, but its intent was soliciting academics to preview their work with the NSA before publishing, or possibly, it was an offer for grant funding. What struck me, and why I remember it, was the freehand watercolor/acrylic bluish/dark painting graphic of the entire cover page, Showing a long straight road/landing-strip(?) made of rectangular tiles, receding into a horizon's vanishing point of a low horizontal mountain range. To one side, we see a small green budding plant surfacing through some broken tiles. Suggesting to me: "A weed surfacing through a sidewalk needs to be snipped."

rayiner 13y ago
Considering the historical role of the NSA, I'd imagine it was more a reference to hope and freedom bursting out of oppression. People who work at these agencies do not think they are evil, they think they are contributing to ensuring American freedom and prosperity.
- MisterWebz 13y ago
  "Well, first of all, let me take you—the population at NSA, about 85 percent of them, I think, are ISTJs on the Myers-Briggs scale, and they’re very strong introverts, you know? They have a very focused job to do. Breaking a crypt system or something is a very focused effort. You—it’s really intense. So it’s really something that’s really compatible with their character. And so, when something happens and they see things happening to people who get involved, like myself or others, they get afraid. And being introverts, they even go further as—further into themselves and staying isolated. So, that’s—that’s the primary character of people. And the others, the others are probably part of it and believe that it’s the correct thing to do. And they don’t try to find a reasonable, constitutionally acceptable, legally acceptable way to do the—to achieve the objectives that they want. They simply felt that they had to go to the far—the other far side of the spectrum and get as much as they can about everybody they can." - William Binney

by e3pi 13y ago

rayiner 13y ago

Considering the historical role of the NSA, I'd imagine it was more a reference to hope and freedom bursting out of oppression. People who work at these agencies do not think they are evil, they think they are contributing to ensuring American freedom and prosperity.

MisterWebz 13y ago
"Well, first of all, let me take you—the population at NSA, about 85 percent of them, I think, are ISTJs on the Myers-Briggs scale, and they’re very strong introverts, you know? They have a very focused job to do. Breaking a crypt system or something is a very focused effort. You—it’s really intense. So it’s really something that’s really compatible with their character. And so, when something happens and they see things happening to people who get involved, like myself or others, they get afraid. And being introverts, they even go further as—further into themselves and staying isolated. So, that’s—that’s the primary character of people. And the others, the others are probably part of it and believe that it’s the correct thing to do. And they don’t try to find a reasonable, constitutionally acceptable, legally acceptable way to do the—to achieve the objectives that they want. They simply felt that they had to go to the far—the other far side of the spectrum and get as much as they can about everybody they can." - William Binney