Threat Condition VASHJ: No, Seriously, Guys
Every morning, I read the New York Times on my iPad, because I have become the yuppie I grew up hating and because my local paper is kind of awful. This morning, this article was on the front page:
Spies’ Dragnet Reaches a Playing Field of Elves and Trolls
Constant readers will remember that, as the meme goes, I wrote about this on my blog five years ago. No, really, I wrote about this on my blog five years ago. Mainly running with the concept of what a stupid idea this was. I had no idea.
No. Really. I had no idea.
[Cory Ondrejka, Second Life's CTO] visited the agency’s headquarters at Fort Meade, Md., in May 2007 to speak to staff members over a brown bag lunch, according to an internal agency announcement. “Second Life has proven that virtual worlds of social networking are a reality: come hear Cory tell you why!” said the announcement. It added that virtual worlds gave the government the opportunity “to understand the motivation, context and consequent behaviors of non-Americans through observation, without leaving U.S. soil.”
No. Really. I had no idea.
In one 66-page document from 2007, part of the cache released by Mr. Snowden, the contracting giant SAIC promoted its ability to support “intelligence collection in the game space,” and warned that online games could be used by militant groups to recruit followers and could provide “terrorist organizations with a powerful platform to reach core target audiences.”
No. Really. I had no idea.
...so many C.I.A., F.B.I. and Pentagon spies were hunting around in Second Life, the document noted, that a “deconfliction” group was needed to avoid collisions...
See, this is why I haven't been updating my blog. The news is too stupid for me to parody.