(no subject)
Jan. 7th, 2004 01:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
clayhornikSo, I'm thinking about the powers that be, that is the shadowy government organizations who go by initials, and I check the net for their web presences, specifically the NSA, CIA and ATF. And darn it if each of them don't have a kid's page.
If I were the paranoid ranty type, I'd be yelling "propaganda!" or something equally as, well, ranty.
But as an uncle, I'm impressed. Sure, the sites sugar coat or gloss over things, if not just ignoring outright, but they're fun.
Of the three, the NSA (No Such Agency) has perhaps the most fun site for kids. A crash course on cryptography for the youngsters with several puzzles to solve, with assistance from Codey, the NSA mascot owl. I'm not sure if Codey part of the NSA proper or just the kids page, but how scary could an organization that comes up with such a cool mascot be?
The CIA's mascot is Ginger, a little blue bear. Ginger is, sadly, not as cool as Codey, since well, Codey IS an owl. Ginger does, however, get an adventure- a tour through the CIA headquarters- while Codey is there to help with code breaking. Ginger's tour is done in a series of pages, one after another, and suffers for this. The tour would be better served as a flash movie or something a little less static. There's an added plus of a reading list on the CIA site, which may exist somewhere on the NSA site and I just haven't found it yet- Cryptic Manor is a pretty big place on the web.
The ATF website didn't work for me. Not only was the orange pink colour a turn off, the font they use is one of those "handprinted using a crayon" styles that comes off as not as sophisticated as the other sites. It very well maybe, I didn't even take to time to look around too much. The lack of games was a glaring omission and this warning in their FAQ was a down-right buzzkill:
Hey, Kids!
Q. Have you heard about the science fair project or school project where a student:
- Builds a homemade still,
- Lets leftover food scraps ferment and turn into alcohol,
- Burns the alcohol in a lantern, and
- Compares the alcohol to other sources of energy?
A. Well, under current law and regulations, we cannot allow you to conduct experiments involving distillation of alcohol at your home.
Isn't that nice?
I'm not going to include links, because I am just a little paranoid, but it's the group's initials with .gov
--
In a sort of related matter:
Thankfully, I haven't seen any of these T's in some time, but remember when there were wrestling t-shirts with the initials NWO?
Having read some paranoia literature, I was startled and a little afraid, seeing, let's be nice..., rather colourful wrestling afficiandos wearing New World Order advertising. One World Government Rednecks. I was very relieved to find out what the what was with that.
If I were the paranoid ranty type, I'd be yelling "propaganda!" or something equally as, well, ranty.
But as an uncle, I'm impressed. Sure, the sites sugar coat or gloss over things, if not just ignoring outright, but they're fun.
Of the three, the NSA (No Such Agency) has perhaps the most fun site for kids. A crash course on cryptography for the youngsters with several puzzles to solve, with assistance from Codey, the NSA mascot owl. I'm not sure if Codey part of the NSA proper or just the kids page, but how scary could an organization that comes up with such a cool mascot be?
The CIA's mascot is Ginger, a little blue bear. Ginger is, sadly, not as cool as Codey, since well, Codey IS an owl. Ginger does, however, get an adventure- a tour through the CIA headquarters- while Codey is there to help with code breaking. Ginger's tour is done in a series of pages, one after another, and suffers for this. The tour would be better served as a flash movie or something a little less static. There's an added plus of a reading list on the CIA site, which may exist somewhere on the NSA site and I just haven't found it yet- Cryptic Manor is a pretty big place on the web.
The ATF website didn't work for me. Not only was the orange pink colour a turn off, the font they use is one of those "handprinted using a crayon" styles that comes off as not as sophisticated as the other sites. It very well maybe, I didn't even take to time to look around too much. The lack of games was a glaring omission and this warning in their FAQ was a down-right buzzkill:
Hey, Kids!
Q. Have you heard about the science fair project or school project where a student:
- Builds a homemade still,
- Lets leftover food scraps ferment and turn into alcohol,
- Burns the alcohol in a lantern, and
- Compares the alcohol to other sources of energy?
A. Well, under current law and regulations, we cannot allow you to conduct experiments involving distillation of alcohol at your home.
Isn't that nice?
I'm not going to include links, because I am just a little paranoid, but it's the group's initials with .gov
--
In a sort of related matter:
Thankfully, I haven't seen any of these T's in some time, but remember when there were wrestling t-shirts with the initials NWO?
Having read some paranoia literature, I was startled and a little afraid, seeing, let's be nice..., rather colourful wrestling afficiandos wearing New World Order advertising. One World Government Rednecks. I was very relieved to find out what the what was with that.
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no subject
Date: 2004-01-07 11:22 am (UTC)Reading your posts makes me realize just how low my paranoia levels are. Not sure if its from having been in the military, growing up with dandoids, or some genetic factor in pioneer stock. So is this a put on?
no subject
Date: 2004-01-08 08:08 pm (UTC)I have decided not to be bothered by *paranoia*. I'm going to let things like SARS and earthquakes in Wyoming bother me. The alphabet soup guys? I'm just going to let them run the show and enjoy the ride.