Not The Onion. Honest. NSA director modeled war room after Star Trek's Enterprise

[cali]

Congressional leaders already have a lot of power, but do they secretly want to captain the USS Enterprise? In an in-depth profile of NSA Director Keith B. Alexander, Foreign Policy reveals that one of the ways the general endeared himself to lawmakers and officials was to make them feel like Jean-Luc Picard, captain of the starship Enterprise from the TV series "Star Trek: The Next Generation."

"When he was running the Army's Intelligence and Security Command, Alexander brought many of his future allies down to Fort Belvoir for a tour of his base of operations, a facility known as the Information Dominance Center. It had been designed by a Hollywood set designer to mimic the bridge of the starship Enterprise from Star Trek, complete with chrome panels, computer stations, a huge TV monitor on the forward wall, and doors that made a 'whoosh' sound when they slid open and closed. Lawmakers and other important officials took turns sitting in a leather 'captain's chair' in the center of the room and watched as Alexander, a lover of science-fiction movies, showed off his data tools on the big screen.

'Everybody wanted to sit in the chair at least once to pretend he was Jean-Luc Picard,' says a retired officer in charge of VIP visits."

<snip>

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2013/09/nsa-director-modeled-war-room-after-star-treks-enterprise.html

[Enrique]

1. sorry parents, no money for special education

the NSA boss needs his swooshing door.

[warrant46]

37. Hey grandma Cat food is on sale at IGA

Disgusting only in that it's amazing "Creatures" like this general, rise to their positions of power and control when they are this Bat Shit Crazy

[grasswire]

2. in your guts you know he's nuts

He's nuts. Nuts.

[Divine Discontent]

21. yes. he should have to pay whatever it cost to do that set.

this isn't hollywood, and he isn't Jean Luc... sigh....

[HooptieWagon]

30. Crazy as a loon, I'd say.

Obama has picked some real winners. Time to break up the NSA, they're out of control.

[grasswire]

32. Obama didn't pick him

....but he did keep him.

But maybe Obama has no control over him.

[warrant46]

38. I find that Hard to believe

that "Obama has no control over him"

Hell--- Harry Truman "fired" Douglas" dug out doug" MacArthur

Obama should send this warrior to the old soldiers home forthwith !!

[grasswire]

41. Douglas MacArthur didn't have a dossier on every human.

Alexander does. And the ability to ruin anyone with a few mouse clicks.

NSA whistleblowers have said that the country is now run by the intel elites. Rogues.

And that's terrifying.

[HooptieWagon]

43. Then there should be solid support to can him.

And if he releases (or threatens) personal info then arrest him for extortion, etc. The guy isn't J-Edgar, those days are over. Fire his ass, along with everyone else at NSA. Cancel all contracts.

[woo me with science]

3. "The Information Dominance Center."

Last edited Fri Sep 13, 2013, 10:30 PM - Edit history (1)

These people are criminals, and they need to be slapped down, hard.

[MannyGoldstein]

4. We are living in an insane asylum. nt

[arcane1]

7. Where is Wonko The Sane when we need him?

[Autumn]

5. Fucking crazy.

[mick063]

6. Forget what the war room looks like for a moment

Get a grasp of the science behind it.

A list of resources:

link


A specific link


Interactive visual comparison of multimedia data through type-specific views

Russ Burtner ; Shawn Bohn ; Debbie Payne

Proc. SPIE 8654, Visualization and Data Analysis 2013, 86540M (February 4, 2013); doi:10.1117/12.2004735

From Conference Volume 8654

Visualization and Data Analysis 2013
Pak Chung Wong; David L. Kao; Ming C. Hao; Chaomei Chen; Christopher G. Healey
Burlingame, California, USA | February 03, 2013

Analysts who work with collections of multimedia to perform information foraging understand how difficult it is to connect information across diverse sets of mixed media. The wealth of information from blogs, social media, and news sites often can provide actionable intelligence; however, many of the tools used on these sources of content are not capable of multimedia analysis because they only analyze a single media type. As such, analysts are taxed to keep a mental model of the relationships among each of the media types when generating the broader content picture. To address this need, we have developed Canopy, a novel visual analytic tool for analyzing multimedia. Canopy provides insight into the multimedia data relationships by exploiting the linkages found in text, images, and video co-occurring in the same document and across the collection. Canopy connects derived and explicit linkages and relationships through multiple connected visualizations to aid analysts in quickly summarizing, searching, and browsing collected information to explore relationships and align content. In this paper, we will discuss the features and capabilities of the Canopy system and walk through a scenario illustrating how this system might be used in an operational environment. © (2013) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

[PoliticAverse]

8. For those that missed it: IRS makes Star Trek parody video...

http://trekmovie.com/2013/03/23/watch-irs-star-trek-video-earns-rebuke-from-congress-worst-parody-ever/

[Arcanetrance]

9. Okay I'm just gonna say it forgetting everything else I'd love to sit in the captains chair

[HolyMoley]

10. OMG... I am so there.

Things could be worse.
Imagine what it would have looked like if he was an LOTR fan or Bronie?

[Maven]

11. Your tax dollars at work.

[reformist2]

12. That's really demented. It's like something out of a dystopian Mel Brooks comedy.

[Divine Discontent]

20. yeah, spot on! makes ya wonder if he has a black and red Picard outfit he wore around

or called any of them Worf or Data.... (you know he did at least once)

[MADem]

45. Check under his pillow for his pajamas....nt

[MADem]

13. No pictures? Whassamatta wid PBS? nt

[pintobean]

42. here's one

[MADem]

44. Those have got to be models posing thusly (nyuck, nyuck!)

It's rare to see a flag or general officer so fit and trim, and politicians? Fuggedaboutit! They're better larded than kobe beef!

On a more reality-based note, was Mister Sulu ever that YOUNG??? And hasn't he aged well! And what are they watching on that mid-20th century representation of a flat screen?

[Jefferson23]

14. This is not Star Trek, this is the Twilght Zone...it must be. n/t

[Kaleva]

15. Kinda like a CIC of a navy warship

Even on the first ship I served on that was commissioned before the first Star Trek series aired, there was a Captain's chair in CIC (Combat Information Center) from which the Commanding Officer could see large screens, watch sailors at their stations and communicate with any part of the ship or with other people off the ship.

The bridges of the various Star Trek Enterprises are functionally the same as a post WWII naval warship.

[Wilms]

25. I was thinking something like that.

But I'm guessing the Navy doesn't hire Hollywood set designers. Yet, anyway.

[n2doc]

39. But do their doors go "Woosh!"? n/t

[Posteritatis]

46. While it's easy snark bait around here the basic setup does make sense. (nt)

[cali]

47. snarkbait? No, it's more damning than that

It gives a disturbing insight into a mentality that's pretty clearly institutional. What does that more than anything is that this guy hired a set designer. That's pretty telling.

[Posteritatis]

49. ... Like I said, easy snark bait. (nt)

[cali]

50. Like I said, more insightful than that. You can't even say why it's just snarkbait

you just keep saying it is.

That's kind of the ultimate fail- when you have no argument at all and just keep repeating no like a small child.

So, for you: The tin FAIL award.

[Kaleva]

51. It's practical

Doors that go 'whoosh' is over the top but the basic layout makes sense.

[gopiscrap]

16. OMG

[Jack Rabbit]

17. Hmmmm . . .

Nice digs.

Please click here.

[LondonReign2]

18. Alexander is a protege of Rumsfeld

Enough said.

Oh, except: Obama has seen fit to leave him in charge.

[Divine Discontent]

19. the level of waste and absurd bizarreness this rises to is high

and no one within the employee ranks dare spoke up about it being a bit out there...

[hunter]

22. My Tardis blows his "War Room" away.

But all Alexander could ever see would be my messy desk, the old computer, and the dog hair on the floor. Even if he was standing in the room with me.

I pity the poor fellow, actually.

[Iliyah]

23. LOL - yes!

As a Trekker... ..... .......

Where no one has gone before . . . . . . . . . . . . .

[Oilwellian]

24. It's enough to make Spock (and me) cry

K&R

[Historic NY]

26. Interesting place.....pictures!!!

http://www.dbia.com/portfolio/us-army/

http://www.dbia.com/projectpage/LIWA.pdf

[Warren DeMontague]

36. Okay...

yeah, it totally does look like the Bridge of the Enterprise.

[yuiyoshida]

27. I wonder what would happen if they were

Invaded by Klingons...


They would probably run!

[Are_grits_groceries]

35. They are the Klingons! nt

[yuiyoshida]

40. But they have no Honor!

More like Ferengi!

[joshcryer]

28. To boldly spy where no one has spied before.

[Hekate]

29. Well... Star Trek the tv show is why we got those cute flip-top cell phones for awhile

Those were certainly functional enough in design and use.

As for the Information Dominance Center (ew, urk), if everything is as functional as it should be, it probably didn't cost any more to design and build it than it would have if it were butt-ugly.

[onethatcares]

31. why the fuck do we need

an "Information Dominance Center"

just the name of the place gets me all tingly.

[Warren DeMontague]

34. lick my metadata, worm

[Warren DeMontague]

33. What's a black budget appropriation good for, if not this sort of thing?

[Rex]

48. TO boldly go where no NSA director has gone before!

Insane!

[Deep13]

52. I'm glad the NSA treats national security seriously and not like...

...a bunch of kids playing Star Trek.

[Adsos Letter]

53. Jean-Luc Picard?

Poor Captain Kirk...

[Stupefacto]

54. Odd

lol.