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New US spy satellite logo features world-devouring octopus
- losethos 13y agoGod likes octopuses better than whales. God says... C:\TAD\Text\WALDEN.TXT -- all that he could now cling to -- to convince me that it was no common "rider." I felt it, and still remark it almost daily in my walks, for by it hangs the history of a family. Once more, on the left, where are seen the well and lilac bushes by the wall, in the now open field, lived Nutting and Le Grosse. But to return toward Lincoln. Farther in the woods than any of these, where the road approaches nearest to the pond, Wyman the potter squatted, and furnished his townsmen with earth
- spodek 13y agoLink-baity title, but warranted, I'd say. The story is that the government is launching a spy satellite with a logo on it featuring a "mascot" -- a giant Kraken-like octopus taking over the planet. Whoever created it could only have been thinking of their bureau's unchecked ability to do what it wanted and not the public's perception of it because the creature, especially its eye, looks menacing, ominous, foreboding, malicious, malevolent, and borderline evil. It implies the agency is insular, unaccountable, and has an aggressive, secret agenda it cares about more than anything else, certainly more than your privacy or the consequences of its actions. The kicker is a comment that juxtaposes the logo with a warning illustration saying "Know your communist enemy" with a nearly-identical logo, presumably implying an evil enemy from the Cold War, which we have become. The government octopus looks like the Kraken on the top of the wikipedia page -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kraken https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kraken -- except the government one is planet-sized and its eyes seem to have more evil intent, to me, at least.
- mcv 13y agoIndeed. As the article points out, it's all very super-villainy. They're not even trying to pretend they're the good guys anymore.
- saraid216 13y agoYou've never played an MMO, have you? There is a huge, huge overlap between the people who like being villains and the people who like being good guys. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GoodIsNotNice?from=Main.JerkassHero http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GoodIsNotNice?fro...
- davedx 13y agoHow is the title link-baity?
- user24 13y agoIt doesn't say "logo". Literally interpreted, it means that there is a giant octopus on the satellite. That provokes one to click the link to find out more.
- adamc 13y agoOh, good grief. That was the original article's title.
- Ellipsis753 13y agoWe don't have to use the original title here. I too thought it meant a real octopus.
- kibwen 13y agoNo, the mods strictly and remorselessly enforce the "use the original title at any cost" rule, even when it is misleading and/or linkbait. Any attempt to provide essential context in the title is met with condemnation. Welcome to Hacker News, where the rules are made up and the points don't matter!
- jessaustin 13y ago...the points don't matter! Holy crap! I wish someone had told me...
- nagrom 13y agoReally? You read 'world-devouring octopus' and thought that not only have US scientists discovered Cthulhu, but they've decided to launch him into space to ride on a satellite? You really believed that? Life for you must be much more alarming than it is for most of us!
- Eye_of_Mordor 13y ago"Obama is a world-devouring octopus" featuring a logo of this creature with Obama's face would be "link-bait". Sadly, this title isn't provocative at all, since "nothing beyond our reach" is world-devouring! Poor octopus :'(
- rcavezza 13y agoThis reminds me of a relevant Mitchell ans Webb clip, "Are we the baddies?". As an American, I'm having trouble deciding if if we are at this point. Edited to add clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qv2XGQBcvxQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qv2XGQBcvxQ
- kingkawn 13y agoI don't think we're baddies so much as the logical outcome of relatively unchallenged power. But the internet has created, in a sense, an entire new world to figure out how to control. Hence the governments incredible efforts to monitor it, even to go so far as to create fake WoW accounts. The satellite is a real world manifestation of their far larger virtual world activities.
- eli_gottlieb 13y agoYes. We are the baddies. Have been for a while.
- ninjac0der 13y agoWow, only one person I can agree with at the bottom. Must still be too comfortable at the top of the heap.
- misiogames 13y agoyep, still are, and looking at that mascot, that will not change anytime soon :P
- icegreentea 13y agoThat skit is hilarious. That said, it also just goes and forgets pretty much anything about what happens when you tell a bunch of men to live together so that they can go kill other men. It also skims over the history of that particular emblem. The death's head has been used by 'elite' Prussian and Germany military units back to the 19th century. Obviously the point is to incite a little fear, and obviously the point is that they're breaking taboos. That's the whole point is being in an army. And finally, in this particular case, humour stripped of its context always has the possibility to offend. While you're typically expected to take that into account while making your jokes ("political correctness" / "minimize backlash"), there is definitely a tradition of ignoring such considerations. Typically in military combat arms, but often extending to related situations (this might extend to the black humour of paramedics for example). So the point is that "Are we the baddies" is hilarious, but its not very useful to think of life in that context - well, at least the just 'evaluating your badness by your symbols' part.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- bananacurve 13y ago>especially its eye, looks menacing, ominous, foreboding, malicious, malevolent, and borderline evil. It implies the agency is insular, unaccountable, and has an aggressive, secret agenda Thanks, that gave me a good chuckle. I never realized the power of a cartoon eye.
- rayiner 13y agoIt does look menacing and ominous, but it's only supposed to be used against them. Whether you agree with it or not, it's the premise widely shared by Americans and those in the intelligence agencies and in the military. It renders your following implication inaccurate: "It implies the agency is insular, unaccountable, and has an aggressive, secret agenda it cares about more than anything else, certainly more than your privacy or the consequences of its actions." No, what it implies is that those who intend to do evil against America cannot hide anywhere in the world. It's consistent with Roosevelt's Big Stick, which is something Americans have always embraced: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Stick_ideology http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Stick_ideology. The idea is that we're free at home, but militarily unchallengable on the world stage. > The kicker is a comment that juxtaposes the logo with a warning illustration saying "Know your communist enemy" with a nearly-identical logo, presumably implying an evil enemy from the Cold War, which we have become. Could we declare a moratorium on false equivalency for like just a week? Last time I checked, we still have elections and aren't sending political prisoners to siberia. Not to mention that we haven't killed tens of millions of our own people. There is that too.
- logfromblammo 13y agoThe false equivalencies are probably more of a "there but for the grace of Columbia go we," type of thing. The disease that is Empire never has exactly the same symptoms. Last time I checked, the elections did not significantly change policy, despite a change in the balance of power between parties. The US has the highest per-capita rate of incarceration in the world, mostly over Prohibition. And the millions we have killed are mostly in other countries that do not respeck our authoritah. On top of that, the US has the clanking cojones to demand that banks everywhere in the world comply with its tax regime, and that every single packet of communication on the planet be subject to its spying. At what point do we look down and notice that we're dressed entirely in black armor, while holding a red lightsaber in one hand, and twirling the well-waxed end of our luxurious handlebar moustache with the other? Not only have we become the bad guys, but we have become a Hollywood caricature of badguyness. Hence the giant octopus. A normal bad guy hides his nefarious deeds behind a banal logo and seal. An over-the-top, booed-by-the-audience bad guy makes his logo into a tentacled beast devouring the entire world.
- mhb 13y agoNon-link-baity titles don't get as much love: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6866472 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6866472
- drzaiusapelord 13y ago> It implies the agency is insular, unaccountable, and has an aggressive, secret agenda You're giving these people way too much credit. Military and intelligence patches are all about bravado and "USA #1" not some sophisticated and cryptic critique of their employer. I've had a long time interest in this stuff and let me tell you, its all tasteless and dumb, with the occasional touch of humor. The patch critical of the USG simply wouldn't be approved. There's no big anti-US message here. Its exactly as it seems.
- jlarocco 13y agoIt's certainly not a critique. To me it shows that the people in the agency are oblivious to the rest of the world outside of the agency. There have been a bunch of embarrassing revelations about domestic and foreign spying, but instead of being embarrassed or ashamed like they should be, they're as gung-ho and bold as ever. It's no wonder there have been so many slip ups when they're so clueless about public perception. It doesn't take a secret spy agency to realize this logo would not go over well.
- saraid216 13y ago> To me it shows that the people in the agency are oblivious to the rest of the world outside of the agency. It's fairly well-established that this is by design.
- mturmon 13y agoThis article has examples of other patches, as you mention: http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/why-the-us-launched-a-spy-rocket-with-an-earth-sucking-octopus-on-it http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/why-the-us-launched-a-spy-r...
- sliverstorm 13y agoI'm not even that deeply interested in military/intelligence, and I share your stance. It takes only a cursory survey of their patches, particularly air units, to see the logos are not created with any kind of serious purpose- no more serious than when my casual hockey team decided to call themselves the Honey Badgers.
- btbuildem 13y agoSo.. an accurate depiction then?
- timbro 13y ago"NOTHING IS BEYOND OUR REACH" says their tag line. Let that sink in for a minute. It's the mindset of crazies.
- salient 13y agoIt's definitely something someone with too much power would say or think, especially in the context of the NSA.
- f4stjack 13y agoSweet. I, for one, welcome our new Tentacled Overlords! IA! IA! Cthulhu Fhtagn!!!
- nnnnni 13y agoYeah, I was fully expecting the satellite to have a picture of Cthulhu on it.
- Cthulhu_ 13y agoOr the mindset of a spy sattelite. I honestly don't get what the fuss is all about. They wouldn't launch a spy sattellite with the tagline 'We can only see a very small bit of earth after getting a court to agree on it in triplets', would they?
- pizza234 13y agoThe only way one cannot understand "what the fuss is all about" is by ignoring the context under which all of this is happening.
- mdisraeli 13y agoThat Octopus is probably one of their tamer patches. The National Reconnaissance Office missions have the best patches - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NRO_Launches http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NRO_Launches and http://www.thelivingmoon.com/45jack_files/03files/Mission_Patches_Their_Source_and_Meaning_002.html http://www.thelivingmoon.com/45jack_files/03files/Mission_Pa... detail them rather well.
- trothoun 13y agoI found this[1] one to be particularly reassuring. [1] http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3c/NROL49_patch.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3c/NROL49_pa...
- kristofferR 13y agoIt says "Better the devil that you know"
- VMG 13y agoSimilar motif on NROL-66: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NROL-66_Patch.png http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NROL-66_Patch.png Can't make this shit up
- DannoHung 13y agoThis one... I have no idea how this one makes me feel: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/77/NROL10_USA155_patch.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/77/NROL10_US... Like, seriously, what if they were all like that?
- sliverstorm 13y agoI think the way it should make you feel is, Clearly, the patches are silly and I don't know why I care so much about this
- 13y ago
- bowlofpetunias 13y agoNone of the revelations of US spying of the past year have particularly shocked or surprised me, and probably not very many here. The level of sheer insanity displayed in the latest revelations however, with yesterday's "horde of Orcs" and this sickening slogan "nothing is beyond our reach" is worse than I could have imagined. US intelligence has not just gone beyond what is acceptable, they've completely gone off the reservation and have lost all perspective. Historically, this doesn't end well.
- Renaud 13y ago>Historically, this doesn't end well. Doesn't end well for us the little people. Those who operate in the shadows, those have the power to play these games probably have it a lot better since they undoubtedly operate outside the rules they set for the rest of us (witness the lack of accountability shown by anyone who has ever been involved in any of these shenanigans).
- davedx 13y agoYou think? http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1991-08-31/news/9102020946_1_kgb-vladimir-kryuchkov-vadim-bakatin http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1991-08-31/news/9102020946_... In this kind of system, nobody is safe, and nobody wins.
- Renaud 13y agoIt took decades before the tide turned, and it did because of external forces or it would have continued for a lot longer. There is no reason to think that today's system would end up the same way without some huge counter-balancing force that I'm afraid I do not see in today's world order.
- davedx 13y agoI'm not sure which is more depressing to consider. :/
- spiritplumber 13y agoIt's the Space Kraken! We must fire SRB's at it! http://www.kerbalcomics.com/2012/07/30/episode-12-fighting-spirit/ http://www.kerbalcomics.com/2012/07/30/episode-12-fighting-s...
- zwdr 13y agoI like it. It's so super-villainy that I can't help but think it's meant tongue-in-cheek. And the logo does look awesome.
- rapind 13y agoDefinitely tongue-in-cheek after seeing some of the other logos.
- acheron 13y agoTrolling achievement unlocked. U mad bro?
- ry0ohki 13y agoThe military/spy agencies are not concerned about being politically correct. This is sort of a tradition, if you look at missile projects they all have logos like these and are called things like "reapers" etc... If we start seeing this on the White House seal I'll be concerned.
- dwc 13y agoI worked on the camera team for LRO. In the control room at Goddard they had (have?) a custom made Jolly Roger hanging. None of us were actually pirates, and none of us advocated actual pirate values. Of all the issues with surveillance, I can't believe this story is getting any oxygen.
- dm2 13y agoIt is a little weird to have devils and such strongly worded messages in mission badges, but it's come to be expected. There is a huge psychological factor in the DoD about making people believe you have the biggest stick and can see everything. Kind of like putting an alarm company sign outside of your door to prevent theives. http://vigilantcitizen.com/vigilantreport/top-10-most-sinister-psyops-mission-patches/ http://vigilantcitizen.com/vigilantreport/top-10-most-sinist... http://www.thelivingmoon.com/45jack_files/03files/Mission_Patches_Their_Source_and_Meaning_003.html http://www.thelivingmoon.com/45jack_files/03files/Mission_Pa... http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1033/1 http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1033/1 http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1033/2 http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1033/2
- ck2 13y agoHow did that Google engineer put it? F- these guys. Seriously.
- hahainternet 13y agoYeah those arseholes monitoring terrorist cells in Pakistan, those pri... Wait, why are we mad at these people again?
- g8oz 13y agoBecause they used that mission as an excuse to go all Stasi on the rest of us.
- znowi 13y agoThey should have used Octocat - charming, friendly creature, who keeps your stuff in order :) This one will do. http://octodex.github.com/images/murakamicat.png http://octodex.github.com/images/murakamicat.png
- simbolit 13y agothis is one of those cases where a parody would inevitably fail. the reality is its own parody, and perfectly so.
- mapt 13y agoYes, it's a ballsy logo, but on the other hand... Wikipedia tells us that NROL-39's payload is actually a Topaz synthetic aperture radar (SAR) node, flying in constellation with two others already in operation, and two more to come. This is essentially not-at-all-threatening to civil liberties, being a ground-elevation mapping platform (and to a second order, some degree of surface roughness), of not particularly good resolution, at a semi-polar low earth orbit. There are commercial counterparts to this that are presently in operation, like TanDEM-X, and an order of magnitude improvement on that constellation's capabilities would remain insufficient to track anything particularly interesting beyond the construction over time of large static structures, with a relatively long revisit time.
- shill 13y agoIf there was Wikipedia in 1974 it would have told us that the Glomar Explorer was built to mine manganese nodules from the ocean floor.
- mapt 13y agoAnd what is it you suppose this satellite is tasked with? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NRO_Launches http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NRO_Launches This is an intelligence mission, it's just one of the least sinister of all the intelligence missions that can be performed from space. We are performing those missions - just not on this launch.
- moocowduckquack 13y agoGiven that is is a modern radar and part of an array, my guess would be deep subsurface 3d spectroscopy using ground penetrating radar technology, similar to what is now used in mining - http://adrokgroup.com/ http://adrokgroup.com/ , then you know where the distribution of elements are down to several miles below the surface, which means you then know where all the nuclear material in the world is and can spot when it moves. Oh and as a bonus, you have a huge edge on mineral rights.
- dmix 13y ago
- rdtsc 13y agoThis is like the Rapiscan. Really, you are going to name an invasive x-ray-taking-pictures-of-your-junk device Rapi-scan? It is slapping you in the face and laughing at it just because they can. Someone said "Hey I bet I can do this and get away with it. Here hold mah beer, watch me draw a giant octupus devouring the earth!"
- celticninja 13y agoin the same way that abu ghraib/gunatanamo torture and mistreatment of detainees served as a recruiting tool for al-qaeda and similar organisations i can see this sort of thing being the equivalent for digital activists.
- leokun 13y agoWell at least they're being honest. Getting rid of the logo is just like changing the marketing without changing the bigger problem.
- aluhut 13y agoThe current flow of things while I read all of the works of Bruce Sterling realy freak me out a little bit. This guy looked in the future somehow. I'm pretty sure about it. Just finishing "The Zenith Angle"
- columbo 13y agoDoesn't seem all that surprising, these kinds of things have been around for years: http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/11/secret-insignias-from-the-black-ops-world/ http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/11/secret-insignias-fro... http://vigilantcitizen.com/vigilantreport/top-10-most-sinister-psyops-mission-patches/ http://vigilantcitizen.com/vigilantreport/top-10-most-sinist... Patches seem more like a game of one-upmanship. I do like this patch's story, sounds just like something a bunch of engineers would come up with: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3c/NROL49_patch.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3c/NROL49_pa... > This patch for NROL-49 depicts a phoenix rising from the flames with the flag of the United States in the background. The Latin words “Melior Diabolus Quem Scies” roughly translates to mean “The Devil You Know,” as in the phrase “Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t know”. Cryptic. According to NASA, this saying refers to the return of the use of an old system after attempting to use a new one, which had resulted in failure.
- eli 13y agoSure, and AT&T features a deathstar
- walshemj 13y agoIts only that big cos they are still using strowger gear - the ewoks are there to provide a source of cheap labour for bank cleaning. Should have gone with System X guys
- eumenides1 13y agothe logo reminds me of an image in an old Canadian history text book. it was an american octopus grabbing all of America (north and south) and part of the section that talked about manifest destiny ( http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manifest_destiny http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manifest_destiny). So yes, it is frightening, but only since colonial America.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- bananacurve 13y agoHN has been seriously trolled. You would think smart people have a sense of humor. You would be wrong.
- iaskwhy 13y agoI'd say after some point it starts being black humour instead of just humour. Even more if the ones doing it are precisely the ones fucking with us. Some people might like it, some won't.
- bananacurve 13y agoThe thing is, even if you somehow manage to unilaterally hamsting US intelligence efforts, which is extremely unlikely because the entire West is complicit, you will still be spied on unless you protect yourself with extreme measures which are onerous. Have a laugh, go outside, life is short.
- iaskwhy 13y agoYou realise you can use that same logic to avoid fighting for anything, right? I don't really care if life is short, I won't cross my arms. I did have a laugh though but I would very much appreciate not needing to laugh at it at all. What I did say is that it doesn't matter if you think you are smart or not, laughing of certain things have no relation whatsoever with being smart or not.
- scotty79 13y agoIt's like the jokes about hitting a women. Once you actually had done it they are no longer even remotely funny.
- ninjac0der 13y ago... or you've done it enough without being shamed from the public you represent, that it's something you feel comfortable joking about. Analogies are awesome.
- ambler0 13y agoThe comparison to old anti-communist propaganda in the promoted comment after the article is priceless.
- ninjac0der 13y agoI read the comments in this thread and realize for the most part, the US government can do no wrong. Then I realize you mofos are the real problem.
- cproctor 13y agoIt seems to have inadvertently collected North America.
- squozzer 13y ago"Nothing is beyond our reach" - except subtlety, obviously.
- charlysisto 13y agoFunny nobody spotted it's also commonly used to represent the mafia. Small side note : mafia's power mainly relies on people's fear of being heard if they say anything against it... Just sayin...
- walshemj 13y agoTip for the new NSA/CIA/FBI Director One of my advisors will be an average five-year-old child. Any flaws in my plan that he is able to spot will be corrected before implementation. BTW NCIS wont need this as they have Jethro Gibbs just run every thing past him and if he doesn't hit you on the back of the head your golden.
- Sputum 13y agoThere is an Airforce unit in NH tasked with tracking and maintaining government satellites which has this incredibly evil looking logo http://i.imgur.com/jAzLyvS.jpg http://i.imgur.com/jAzLyvS.jpg
- trekky1700 13y agoAnyone else just think this is meant to be a bad ass logo and not something to be psychoanalyzed as some metaphor for the intelligence community?