The Terror of Almanacs

Birdseye · Post by **Birdseye** » Fri Jan 09, 2004 11:53 am

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/12/29/fbi.al ... index.html

*shakes head*

Dedman · Post by **Dedman** » Fri Jan 09, 2004 2:00 pm

I would hate to be a Britannica salesman right now.

Actually, that article makes me want to go buy an almanac of Washington DC, mark it up in mysterious ways, leave it open on the front seat of my car, and then go run a red light. It would be worth the cost of the ticket to have a little fun with the police.

Will Robinson · Post by **Will Robinson** » Fri Jan 09, 2004 3:00 pm

How about the 'Terror of 24 Hour News Service' or the 'Terror of Agenda Driven Reporting'?

I see this as one of thousands of relatively insignificant reminders sent out to law enforcement personel daily. Any tips or insight the department can provide to keep their officers on their toes and aware they will send out or mention in briefings. No big deal and nothing new about it!

It's no more significant than a reminder on the shampoo bottle to 'wash, then rinse' or cooking instructions on a burrito 'Some microwaves will cook faster than others'.

What you ought to shake your head at is, why is this reported?
Just a slow news day...or maybe someone who wrote the article wants to ridicule the efforts of someone else, and if so, why?

My guess is the motive behind the 'heads up' about almanacs is benign and the motive behind the so called news report is either a 24 hour news cycle trying to sustain itself or even worse, reporting with malignant intent.

What's more likely, a reporter/editor who is coloring the news cycle, perhaps subconsciously, with his/her disdain for Homeland Security efforts... or a bunch of fascist cops thinking ' Yea, now we can roust all those college kids carrying books and say we were looking for almanac carrying whacko's'?

I'd say the almanac warning is a lot more benificial than the news report about it.

Birdseye · Post by **Birdseye** » Fri Jan 09, 2004 6:05 pm

It just seems like a complete waste of time and resources.

Fusion pimp · Post by **Fusion pimp** » Fri Jan 09, 2004 6:46 pm

For once, I completely agree with Birdseye.

B-

Will Robinson · Post by **Will Robinson** » Fri Jan 09, 2004 7:09 pm

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Originally posted by Birdseye:
It just seems like a complete waste of time and resources.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

The news report or the heads up bulletin

I don't think the bulletin used up much time or resource, but you wouldn't gather that from the 'news report'.

Will Robinson · Post by **Will Robinson** » Fri Jan 09, 2004 7:22 pm

Here's my take in a D3 analogy:

Imagine a CTF Polaris game between BOT's and Asylum.
The match lasts 1 hour, during the match the BOT's players are on RogerWilco and are giving each other info on the Asylum players tactics, one of the literaly hundreds of things mentioned during the match is a heads up warning "Watch out for Barry, he's hiding behind the post in the base".

When asked after the match by the gang in PXO to fill us in on the details of the match the report focuses on the merits of the one warning of Barry's whereabouts.

Now, what was a bigger waste of time, the warning or the report?
The tactic of that warning may or may not pay off...but it was the report that was absolutely useless.

Unless there is some personal need to ridicule the person who gave the warning.....

index_html · Post by **index_html** » Fri Jan 09, 2004 9:13 pm

I think it's a valid point that a terrorist might very well use an almanac for profiling a target area ... pretty rich source of information. It's not like they're proposing checkpoints to root out anyone with an almanac. I dunno, seems like a reasonable thing to make a mental note about during routine police work.

Lothar · Post by **Lothar** » Sat Jan 10, 2004 12:08 am

It's sort of like saying "if you pull over a car, and the dude is acting suspicious, and you happen to notice he's hauling fertilizer, be aware that's the sort of thing that might be used in terror attacks." It doesn't mean you go searching for dudes hauling fertilizer, but if you happen to notice it with someone you've already pulled over and think might be trouble, you make a note of it and look for related clues.

It's all about the clues. It's too bad some people don't comprehend this.

fliptw · Post by **fliptw** » Sat Jan 10, 2004 1:45 am

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Originally posted by Lothar:
It's all about the clues. It's too bad some people don't comprehend this.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/28/34776.html

Its also about proper word choice, "obeying advice"? some people.

Dedman · Post by **Dedman** » Tue Jan 13, 2004 2:22 pm

I just pray that the terrorists don't discover Libraries or Atlases. We would really be screwed then.

Gooberman · Post by **Gooberman** » Thu Jan 15, 2004 2:23 am

Just imagine if they discovered the internet as well.

woodchip · Post by **woodchip** » Thu Jan 15, 2004 6:51 am

Just imagine if they found a Victoria Secrets catalog...

Dedman · Post by **Dedman** » Sat Jan 17, 2004 6:42 pm

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Originally posted by woodchip:
Just imagine if they found a Victoria Secrets catalog...<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

If they did, maybe the terrorism would stop