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New US spy satellite logo features world-devouring octopus
61–70 of 129 posts
Re: New US spy satellite logo features world-devouring octopus
#62HN has been seriously trolled. You would think smart people have a sense of humor. You would be wrong.
Re: New US spy satellite logo features world-devouring octopus
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
The only way one cannot understand "what the fuss is all about" is by ignoring the context under which all of this is happening.
Or maybe to understand that it is but one logo in a long tradition of wacky logos.
Even with that tradition in mind, you can still understand why it calls the eye.
Filed under "unintentional gallows humor".
Re: New US spy satellite logo features world-devouring octopus
#64It's like the jokes about hitting a women. Once you actually had done it they are no longer even remotely funny.
Re: New US spy satellite logo features world-devouring octopus
#65HN has been seriously trolled. You would think smart people have a sense of humor. You would be wrong.
I'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.
Re: New US spy satellite logo features world-devouring octopus
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
We don't have to use the original title here. I too thought it meant a real octopus.
Really? 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!
Isn't that what is happening, though? I have yet to RTFA, but I for one welcome our world-devouring octopus overlords.
Re: New US spy satellite logo features world-devouring octopus
#67Link-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,…
It 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. 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.
Re: New US spy satellite logo features world-devouring octopus
#68Link-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,…
Non-link-baity titles don't get as much love:
Re: New US spy satellite logo features world-devouring octopus
#69Link-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. We are the baddies. Have been for a while.
Re: New US spy satellite logo features world-devouring octopus
#70Link-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
That 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.