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Snowden’s Rubik’s Cube

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Re: Snowden’s Rubik’s Cube

#51

Post by atmosx »

discardorama wrote: post #31

I'm sure the nerds here will find ample opportunities to tear this movie apart, but keep in mind that the "average American" (a) doesn't know much about Snowden, other than "he stole secrets and hid in commie Russia, so he must've been working for them", and (b) just believes what the government says. To counter the powerful voice of the government, you need an equally powerful voice like Hollywood. Maybe this movie…

This movie is made by Oliver Stone right? Judging by prior work like The Doors (Jim Morrison) and Alexander (Alexander the Great) I don't have high hopes.

Oliver Stone likes to destroy characters on the big screen paying attention to the flaws rather than the charisma of his charactes. Jesus, I didn't remember a single battle scene from the movie "Alexander" and this guy went from Greece to India on horse battling his way out. He is considered one of the biggest strategic minds in history. He was the only leader I recall who changed the faith of battles consistently by making swift, unexpected moves with his cavalry hitting the enemy where he least expected it. Being gay[2] is not the reason why Alexander was named "Great".

[1] In the case of Alexander he admitted that it was a huge failure, but I'm not sure if by failure he and I mean the same thing, probably not.

[2] Sexual relationships amongst men were a very natural thing in ancient Greece, especially between soldiers. Indeed Alexander was married twice AFAIK.

Re: Snowden’s Rubik’s Cube

#52

Post by EthanHeilman »

deepnet wrote: post #35
stordoff wrote: post #32

This raises an interesting question: how did Snowden get the documents out of the NSA? I don't recall reading much about how this was accomplished. Has that been discussed/reported anywhere?

Snowden wasn't 'on-site', AFAIK he had remote access as a private contractor. One of Snowden's main revelations was how little oversight there was. He was motivated to come forward by the abuses he saw the NSA database put to, rather than its mere existence. Snowden has reported his colleagues reguarly exfiltrated 'dirty pictures' from the NSA database. Snowden says 'nudies' were a 'commodity' traded around his colle…

Years before Snowden it was revealed that recorded sex was traded around the NSA. In 2008 it was revealed that NSA employees made mix tapes of phone sex they recorded:

>Gordon routinely shared salacious or tantalizing phone calls that had been intercepted, alerting office mates to certain time codes of "cuts" that were available on each operator’s computer. "Hey, check this out," Faulk says he would be told, "there’s good phone sex or there’s some pillow talk, pull up this call, it’s really funny, go check it out. It would be some colonel making pillow talk and we would say, ‘Wow, this was crazy’," Faulk told ABC News. - Wired: NSA Snooped on Innocent Americans’ Private Calls from Iraq, Former Operators Charge https://www.wired.com/2008/10/we-snooped-on-i/

Re: Snowden’s Rubik’s Cube

#53

Post by B1FF_PSUVM »

discardorama wrote: post #31

I'm sure the nerds here will find ample opportunities to tear this movie apart, but keep in mind that the "average American" (a) doesn't know much about Snowden, other than "he stole secrets and hid in commie Russia, so he must've been working for them", and (b) just believes what the government says. To counter the powerful voice of the government, you need an equally powerful voice like Hollywood. Maybe this movie…

> To counter the powerful voice of the government, you need an equally powerful voice like Hollywood.

They're separate?

Re: Snowden’s Rubik’s Cube

#54

Post by cookiecaper »

deepnet wrote: post #35
stordoff wrote: post #32

This raises an interesting question: how did Snowden get the documents out of the NSA? I don't recall reading much about how this was accomplished. Has that been discussed/reported anywhere?

Snowden wasn't 'on-site', AFAIK he had remote access as a private contractor. One of Snowden's main revelations was how little oversight there was. He was motivated to come forward by the abuses he saw the NSA database put to, rather than its mere existence. Snowden has reported his colleagues reguarly exfiltrated 'dirty pictures' from the NSA database. Snowden says 'nudies' were a 'commodity' traded around his colle…

Do the people with that kind of access simply not understand the power they have? If Snowden had access, surely there are at least dozens of other 20-somethings running around able to read the correspondence of almost anyone in the country. Are we to believe that they really are so self-disciplined the only thing they'll look at are nude photos? Why haven't we seen industrial and political fallout from these guys?

Re: Snowden’s Rubik’s Cube

#57

Post by toyg »

atmosx wrote: post #51
discardorama wrote: post #31

I'm sure the nerds here will find ample opportunities to tear this movie apart, but keep in mind that the "average American" (a) doesn't know much about Snowden, other than "he stole secrets and hid in commie Russia, so he must've been working for them", and (b) just believes what the government says. To counter the powerful voice of the government, you need an equally powerful voice like Hollywood. Maybe this movie…

This movie is made by Oliver Stone right? Judging by prior work like The Doors (Jim Morrison) and Alexander (Alexander the Great) I don't have high hopes. Oliver Stone likes to destroy characters on the big screen paying attention to the flaws rather than the charisma of his charactes. Jesus, I didn't remember a single battle scene from the movie "Alexander" and this guy went from Greece to India on horse battling hi…

No director is perfect. Oliver Stone had a few duds, but he also made some excellent movies: JFK, Any Given Sunday, Platoon, Talk Radio, Wall Street...

If you have to criticize him, you could say that his recent movies have not been up to the bar he set in the '90s -- but it definitely was a very high bar.

I'm much more worried about Gordon-Levitt playing Snowden, from the trailer he looks pretty bland.

Re: Snowden’s Rubik’s Cube

#58

Post by jellicle »

cookiecaper wrote: post #54
deepnet wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Snowden wasn't 'on-site', AFAIK he had remote access as a private contractor. One of Snowden's main revelations was how little oversight there was. He was motivated to come forward by the abuses he saw the NSA database put to, rather than its mere existence. Snowden has reported his colleagues reguarly exfiltrated 'dirty pictures' from the NSA database. Snowden says 'nudies' were a 'commodity' traded around his colle…

Do the people with that kind of access simply not understand the power they have? If Snowden had access, surely there are at least dozens of other 20-somethings running around able to read the correspondence of almost anyone in the country. Are we to believe that they really are so self-disciplined the only thing they'll look at are nude photos? Why haven't we seen industrial and political fallout from these guys?

Probably because they don't feel like spending the rest of their lives in permanent solitary confinement in ADX Florence.

Re: Snowden’s Rubik’s Cube

#59

Post by deepnet »

cookiecaper wrote: post #54
deepnet wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Snowden wasn't 'on-site', AFAIK he had remote access as a private contractor. One of Snowden's main revelations was how little oversight there was. He was motivated to come forward by the abuses he saw the NSA database put to, rather than its mere existence. Snowden has reported his colleagues reguarly exfiltrated 'dirty pictures' from the NSA database. Snowden says 'nudies' were a 'commodity' traded around his colle…

Do the people with that kind of access simply not understand the power they have? If Snowden had access, surely there are at least dozens of other 20-somethings running around able to read the correspondence of almost anyone in the country. Are we to believe that they really are so self-disciplined the only thing they'll look at are nude photos? Why haven't we seen industrial and political fallout from these guys?

Boeing lost a $4.5 billion contract for jets, soured by the Petrobras "Blackpearl" & "Blarney" slides that detailed NSA & GCHQ spying on businesses worldwide[1].

NSA's James Clapper issued a denial "What we do not do, as we have said many times, is use our foreign intelligence capabilities to steal the trade secrets of foreign companies on behalf of – or give intelligence we collect to – US companies to enhance their international competitiveness or increase their bottom line."

By 2014 overseas contract losses to US businesses attributed to dissatisfaction with NSA spying were estimated at $180 billion [2]

[1] http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/09/nsa-spying-braz... [2] https://shadowproof.com/2014/08/01/nsa-spying-costs-u-s-comp...

Re: Snowden’s Rubik’s Cube

#60

Post by ape4 »

cmrx64 wrote: post #7

This movie looks like is has a good chance of doing a better job than even The Imitation Game at ruining and fundamentally misrepresenting a topic I care about and a person I respect.

Both films have somebody finishing a test in an incredibly short time.
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