But the costs are dropping. And an intelligence agency might not bother with the sort of detail, training and experience included, that a court might expect.
]]>In my friend's case, the stem cell transplant also showed up as a 'gender' change on some of the tests. Very weird, and I recall our discussing scenarios where this level/type of testing might become an issue when traveling, certain types of jobs, etc.
]]>Thus, they are, effectively suffocated by their own insecurity.
]]>Ho Hum, as of today from a local newspaper that is available over the internet ...BUT should I be disclosing this? ....
" But his latest request for information has led to Defra invoking a regulation which states disclosure would “adversely affect international relations, defence, national security or public safety”.
Mr Latimer requested an update from the government department over information it provided to the European Court of Justice surrounding a breach of a water treatment directive at Whitburn.
And the 71-year-old, who runs the Latimers Seafood Deli in Bents Road, Whitburn, has described the response as “comical”.
He said: “Defra say to disclose the information I am requesting would adversely affect international relations, defence, national security or public safety, and then they go further, stating disclosure would adversely affect the course of justice.
“This is quite comical and makes one wonder why they are withholding the information when all I am doing is asking about a sewerage system.”
Mr Latimer insists disclosure is in the “public interest”, adding: “Withholding information discriminates against the public interest. The public need to rely on Defra to have the ability, as a public authority, to conduct an inquiry in a fair and honest manner.”
In response Ed Beard, head of waste water treatment with Defra, said it was currently in negotiations with the European Commission to rectify the water treatment breach, and claimed disclosure of the information requested would “adversely affect the UK’s relations with the European Commission”."
http://www.shieldsgazette.com/news/local-news/campaigner-laughs-off-security-threat-snub-1-6664476
Now IF that is the outfall site that I'm thinking of then its a charming little cove between steep, limestone, cliffs and its not very far away from an out to sea dumping site for wastes dredged from the tyne side shipyards ...
"CONTROVERSIAL plans to dump a staggering 60,000 cubic metres of dredged waste off a coastal beauty spot has sparked an environmental row.
"The material, which contains contaminants above levels normally accepted for sea disposal, comes from the dredging of the Tyne – and will be disposed of just off Whitburn."
http://www.sunderlandecho.com/news/local/all-news/tyne-waste-dump-row-1-1117891
But doubtless that info is ever so TOP SECRET too ..as is any info that you might possess on environmental polution nearabouts of your neighbourhood.
Oh, that off shore dumping site? Apparently it is over a NATURAL hole in the sea bed and it has been capped with clay ..though local skin divers told me a few years ago that that clay is nowhere near as thick as was claimed.
Mind you you have to question the sanity of people who pluge arround in the depths of the sea sticking metal probes into sites that are reputed to be sealing off highly toxic metalic wastes.
Ah well, I expect that it's all right really. What could possibly go wrong?
]]>Absurdity #2: Even if they get this ludicrous linguistic hard AI, it would drown in so many petabytes of surveillance that it's still futile.
Absurdity #3: The NSA today claims that its surveillance systems are so complex that it can't prevent 'em from deleting older surveillance data in order to comply with privacy requests. This suggests that the NSA has built a system so complicated that it's run out of control, operated by algorithms no one understands and no one can make useful changes in because random tweaks would crash the system. The analogy here? High-speed financial trading which runs amok based on algorithms whose consequences humans can't predict, and which consequently periodically crashes the planet's global financial system.
Kirkpatrick Sale wrote a great book about these kinds of complex systems that exhibit unpredicted uncontrollable behavior: Human Scale.
Absurdity #4: As Bruce Sterling pointed out, there are multiples of intelligence. What if we succeed in creating a true AI, but it's really good as kinesthetic intelligence (dancing) but it's terrible at verbal intelligence (can't explain why it does what it does)?
The whole thing is a classic example of a degenerating researching project, like alchemy. More and more resources get sucked into the failed research project, producing increasingly absurd results, until the whole thing implodes in a shower of embarrassment and universal ridicule.
]]>The FBI tried to compile a list of internet slang terms, only to end up with severe EOF (Egg On Face):
]]>Yes, but they don't need something that works. They need something they can claim they believe will work.
If they get an assassination attempt that they did not predict, that had internet messages they should have predicted from, that will look bad after it happens provided the public hears about it.
But right now they look bad for getting buried in petabytes of surveillance.
If they can just get a good excuse to ignore that stuff they will be off the hook until they get caught with a false negative.
So they need somebody to sell them a product that gives them a small manageable stream of false positives. Then they can assign people to look at that blather as a punishment detail, and they're happy. If it actually worked, that would be even better. But they don't need it to work, they only need to be able to say they don't know it doesn't work.
]]>Apparently somebody in the FBI thinks that any acronym used on Twitter must be in common usage.
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