Author Topic: $1,000,000,000 US Embassy for London  (Read 14550 times)

AZRedhawk44

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Re: $1,000,000,000 US Embassy for London
« Reply #25 on: February 24, 2010, 05:12:12 PM »
I think the $100 million for AC is for the Baghdad embassy.

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just Warren

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Re: $1,000,000,000 US Embassy for London
« Reply #26 on: February 24, 2010, 08:12:46 PM »


Derek Zoolander: What is this? A center for ants? How can they be expected to ambassadorize ... if they can't even fit inside the building?
Mugatu: Derek, this is just a small...
Derek Zoolander: I don't wanna hear your excuses! The building has to be at least... three times bigger than this!
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Regolith

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Re: $1,000,000,000 US Embassy for London
« Reply #27 on: February 25, 2010, 12:53:57 AM »
For a $100 mil, that A/C better be able to handle NBC events.... :O

Also, the moat for the London one better have either sharpened stakes or crocodiles.  Otherwise, it's not a moat, it's a ditch.  :lol:
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Boomhauer

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Re: $1,000,000,000 US Embassy for London
« Reply #28 on: February 25, 2010, 01:30:05 AM »
For a $100 mil, that A/C better be able to handle NBC events.... :O

Also, the moat for the London one better have either sharpened stakes or crocodiles.  Otherwise, it's not a moat, it's a ditch.  :lol:

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dogmush

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Re: $1,000,000,000 US Embassy for London
« Reply #29 on: February 25, 2010, 05:33:34 AM »
For a $100 mil, that A/C better be able to handle NBC events.... :O


For $100 Mil it ought to be able to handle Armegeddon.

Regolith

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Re: $1,000,000,000 US Embassy for London
« Reply #30 on: February 25, 2010, 06:15:38 AM »
For $100 Mil it ought to be able to handle Armegeddon.

 :lol:
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Re: $1,000,000,000 US Embassy for London
« Reply #31 on: February 25, 2010, 08:13:03 AM »
Ill tempered sea bass.

Also, poor London.  That cube is just damn ugly. London has such class as an old city, we're going to build that?
« Last Edit: February 25, 2010, 08:53:42 AM by JamisJockey »
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Re: $1,000,000,000 US Embassy for London
« Reply #32 on: February 25, 2010, 08:43:58 AM »
Ill tempered sea bass.

Also, poor London.  That cube is just damn ugly.  London has such class as an old city, we're going to build that?

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« Last Edit: February 25, 2010, 08:53:59 AM by JamisJockey »
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charby

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Re: $1,000,000,000 US Embassy for London
« Reply #33 on: February 25, 2010, 09:23:06 AM »
Welcome to the U.S. Embassy Casino and Slots!

No, US Embassy Suites

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longeyes

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Re: $1,000,000,000 US Embassy for London
« Reply #34 on: February 25, 2010, 11:40:33 AM »
I love the design.  Euro-buro-late dystopian.  All glass and no transparency.
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Re: $1,000,000,000 US Embassy for London
« Reply #35 on: February 25, 2010, 11:50:25 AM »
I kinda like the design. Reminds me of a porcupine.
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Re: $1,000,000,000 US Embassy for London
« Reply #36 on: February 25, 2010, 11:54:10 AM »
I kinda like the design. Reminds me of a porcupine.

Reminds me of a building under restoration, lots of scaffolding covered in plastic.

I think we should build a medieval castle like structure, show that we kicked your ass twice and saved your ass twice. :)

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erictank

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Re: $1,000,000,000 US Embassy for London
« Reply #37 on: February 25, 2010, 12:45:21 PM »

Derek Zoolander: What is this? A center for ants? How can they be expected to ambassadorize ... if they can't even fit inside the building?
Mugatu: Derek, this is just a small...
Derek Zoolander: I don't wanna hear your excuses! The building has to be at least... three times bigger than this!


BWAHAHAHAHAHAH!!

My wife cringes at anything starring Ben Stiller, but I thought Zoolander was hilarious - and that comment was just PERFECT!

Alternatively - hope the Decepticons don't mistake the embassy for an energon cube...

The "moat" in front of it reminds me of the Hall Of Justice, actually.

just Warren

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Re: $1,000,000,000 US Embassy for London
« Reply #38 on: February 25, 2010, 03:39:29 PM »
So protected from aircraft strikes but vulnerable to...

Quote
1. Reading data from the reflection on your eyeball

New techniques involving telescopes and cameras are now able to capture computer data from monitor reflections on eyeballs, glasses, and office picture frames.

http://lawyerist.com/shocking-computer-risk/


So all those building will be filled with folks, some of whom; despite whatever screening methods are used, will be interested in intercepting data.

Imagine the security nightmare of keeping out unwanted eyes when your building is a glass cube surrounded by taller buildings. Even the hard-core spook types make mistakes, so with all the assistants to assistants and Under-Under Secretaries to the Under Secretary and so forth in that building there will be leaks, unintentional or...not.


Funny thing, Eric my wife dislikes Ben Stiller (except for Night at the Museum) as well and hated Zoolander. Me, I'm happy to hear that Ben is looking at some scripts for Zoolander 2.
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AZRedhawk44

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Re: $1,000,000,000 US Embassy for London
« Reply #39 on: February 25, 2010, 03:44:21 PM »
I've heard that all the top secret stuff happens in rooms with no windows.  Usually with big thick concrete walls and such.

And, I bet that we have fancy polarizing treatments we can put on windows to block out that kind of thing for the not quite so secret stuff, anyways.
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just Warren

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Re: $1,000,000,000 US Embassy for London
« Reply #40 on: February 25, 2010, 03:47:33 PM »
Well, that's assuming that the top secret stuff does not somehow migrate out of the special rooms and that the polarizing works as intended and is maintained.

Plus there could be a lot to be gained just through intercepting non-secret or non-sensitive material.
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AZRedhawk44

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Re: $1,000,000,000 US Embassy for London
« Reply #41 on: February 25, 2010, 03:52:12 PM »
Just had a thought:

Embassies use intercontinental communications.  I doubt they use local ISP's to accomplish this, so they probably route it through satellites.

So, an embassy beams its sensitive information up to space, and then downloads it back from space after it bounces around a bit to get the the US Mainland computer they happened to need.

How tight is a transmission aimed at a satellite?  Is it pinpoint accurate to the receiving dish, or is it a cone that could be 100 yards across when it finally encounters the satellite?

Does the transmission go PAST the satellite and can be intercepted by another satellite BEHIND it?

A constantly changing private key structure that changed with every transmission would make it impossible to glean anything useful from 1-way eavesdropping I guess... but if you could intercept the transmission over-leak you could eventually decrypt it in theory...

...and does E.T. know all our secrets? =D
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Regolith

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Re: $1,000,000,000 US Embassy for London
« Reply #42 on: February 25, 2010, 08:22:25 PM »
I've heard that all the top secret stuff happens in rooms with no windows.  Usually with big thick concrete walls and such.

Makes sense.  Also, with a cube design, a significant majority of the rooms in the building probably won't have windows.
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Re: $1,000,000,000 US Embassy for London
« Reply #43 on: February 25, 2010, 11:20:01 PM »
A constantly changing private key structure that changed with every transmission would make it impossible to glean anything useful from 1-way eavesdropping I guess... but if you could intercept the transmission over-leak you could eventually decrypt it in theory...

Eventually is a long time in infosec terms.  Especially when you have 500-1000 non-useful messages for every sensitive one, and can't tell which is which until you decrypt each one separately.

Throw in some intentional garbage, and it becomes even less practical.  I encrypt the snot out of "notes to self" and sometimes send them through long chains of remailers for just that reason.  Occasionally, I encrypt a random passage from a book, then randomly change a few characters in the ciphertext so it won't decrypt anymore, and email that to myself for the same reason.  If anybody wants to fish through my email, they'll have to deal with all of those before they can find the one or two that have something they could actually use.

As for the high-security embassy, if the Brits are that much of a threat, maybe it's time for that revolution we claimed to be having a couple centuries ago.

Jamie B

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Re: $1,000,000,000 US Embassy for London
« Reply #44 on: February 26, 2010, 12:13:49 AM »
The real question is how many staff and the annual cost to run it.
In the end, worse than the initial investment.

Then extrapolate to all the other locations world-wide.

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agricola

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Re: $1,000,000,000 US Embassy for London
« Reply #45 on: February 26, 2010, 11:35:14 AM »
Throw in some intentional garbage, and it becomes even less practical.  I encrypt the snot out of "notes to self" and sometimes send them through long chains of remailers for just that reason.  Occasionally, I encrypt a random passage from a book, then randomly change a few characters in the ciphertext so it won't decrypt anymore, and email that to myself for the same reason.  If anybody wants to fish through my email, they'll have to deal with all of those before they can find the one or two that have something they could actually use.

"Padding" messages in this way is of course a well established practice, as well as being an integral part of one of the best stories about the Pacific Campaign there is.

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