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Earlier quoted context omitted.
Oh, good grief. That was the original article's title.
We don't have to use the original title here. I too thought it meant a real octopus.
I 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.
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/11/secret-insignias-fro...
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_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.
That 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 and http://www.thelivingmoon.com/45jack_files/03files/Mission_Pa... detail them rather well.
Cocaine Intelligence Unit: http://i.imgur.com/2RFM677.jpg Unicorn: http://i.imgur.com/QOsCRYE.jpg
Doesn't seem all that surprising, these kinds of things have been around for years: http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/11/secret-insignias-fro... 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_pa..…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._617_Squadron_RAF
The so-called "Dambusters" motto was "Apres moi les deluge"
So yes, it is frightening, but only since colonial America.
"NOTHING IS BEYOND OUR REACH" says their tag line. Let that sink in for a minute. It's the mindset of crazies.
It's definitely something someone with too much power would say or think, especially in the context of the NSA.
Link-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,…
This 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
Yes, 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 goo…
