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Voodoo Child (Slight Return)

5. December 2008 by Revelator.

Regular readers of this blog may remember that I went on quite a rant some time ago about what some are passing off as fortune cookies. You know the ones; you open it and the words inside are not a fortune but some lame quote or some inisight about you, the cookie eater.

Well - here’s the latest “fortune” I recieved: “You have a flair for adding a fanciful dimension to any story.”

Ladies and gentlemen this is NOT a fortune - it’s a statement! And not even a true statement. Reread it and I’ll explain: “You have a flair for adding a faciful dimension to any story.” Did you get it that time? No? Well then allow me to put this into plain english for you - “You are a liar.” That is what this “fortune” told me…I am a liar. I mean, what else would you call someone who has the ability to add fanciful dimensions to a story? That’s right - you call that person a liar.

So not only did I not get a fortune from my fortune cookie (again) the damn thing called me a liar. At least it said I have a “flair” for it so presumably I’m a good liar - so I got that going for me…which is nice.

Keep the Faith!
Revelator

Voodoo Child (Slight Return) - Jimi Hendrix

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No Woman, No Cry

17. November 2008 by Revelator.

A lesson in indicators…

A man was shopping at his local supermarket where he selected one half-gallon of 2% milk, one carton of eggs, on quart of orange juice, one head of romaine lettuce, a small can of coffee, a package of bacon, a box of Band Aids and a bottle of unscented lotion.

As he was placing his items on the conveyor for check-out a beautiful woman standing behind him watched as he placed the items in front of the cashier. While the cashier was ringing up his purchases, the woman calmly stated matter-of-factly, “You must be single.”

The man was a bit startled by her rather bold (yet correct) statement but he was also intrigued by the woman’s keen intuition and (with any luck) interest in him. So he smiled at her and then looked at the items on the belt and saw nothing particularly unusual about his selections that could have given away his single status to this increasingly hot woman.

At this point curiosity (and lust if truth be told) got the better of him and he said: “Well, you know what? You are absolutely correct. But how on earth did you know that I was single?
The woman replied, “Cause you’re ugly.”

So, what is the lesson here?
Simple - beautiful women do not pick up single 40-ish men in the supermarket.

But what is the OPSEC lesson here?
There isn’t one. Sometimes life just sucks.

Keep the Faith!
Revelator

“No Woman, No Cry” - Bob Marley and the Wailers

Posted in BS, General OPSEC | Print | Comments Off

China Girl

25. August 2008 by Revelator.

Here’s a random non-OPSEC thought: Do you think millions of twenty-something Chinese people are running around with American symbols/letters on their arms, necks and the small of their backs? Do you think their friends are coming up and asking; “Dude, is that American or what? What does that mean? Is that the symbol for luck or wisdom? Man, that is soooo cool.”

Somehow I don’t think so. And by the way, none of the Americans I see with these Chinese symbols/letters tattoo’ed into their skin look remotely Chinese. So I must confess, I don’t get it. But then I’m old. I think if I wanted to convey to people that I am honest, or lucky, or blessed with great wisdom then I would use the English language to convey this thought so that no one would ever have to ask me what that damn thing on my arm means.

By the way - I have six tat’s myself so I’m not picking on those who chose to get inked - I’m just saying.

Keep the Faith,
Revelator

China Girl - David Bowie

Posted in BS | Print | No Comments »

What’s Going on?

13. June 2008 by Revelator.

A number of you have emailed me asking what is up with the entry titles so I figured I would explain. For no real reason what-so-ever I began using song titles as titles for my entries. The problem (apparently) is that not all readers know who performed the songs and I keep getting emails asking about the artist so I decided I would take some time and fill you in on the past artists starting with the title on this entry and working backward. In the future I will include the artists name at the end of the entry for you curious few out there.

What’s Going On - Marvin Gaye

The Message - Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five

Hot For Teacher - Van Halen

Welcome To The Jungle - Guns and Roses

You Can’t Always Get What You Want - Rolling Stones

Friends In Low Places - Garth Brooks

Purple Rain - Prince

Tumbling Dice - Rolling Stones

Thunder Road - Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band

Reveloution #9 - Beatles

Here Comes The Sun - Beatles

Keep the Faith!

Revelator

Posted in BS | Print | 5 Comments »

OPSEC Program Problems Finally Explained

22. January 2008 by Revelator.

In our world the OPSEC chaos theory describes the behavior of certain nonlinear dynamical risk analysis systems that may exhibit dynamics that are highly sensitive to initial conditions (popularly referred to as the butterfly effect). As a result of this sensitivity, which manifests itself as an exponential growth of perturbations in the initial risk conditions, the behavior of chaotic OPSEC systems appears to be random. This happens even though these systems are deterministic, meaning that their future dynamics are fully defined by their initial vulnerability conditions, with no random elements involved. This behavior is known as deterministic OPSEC chaos, or simply OPSEC chaos.

Chaotic behavior has been observed in the laboratory in a variety of systems including intelligence collection, oscillating chemical reactions, logistical black holes, administrative SNAFU’s, fluid dynamics, operations planning, and mechanical/magneto-mechanical devices. Observations of chaotic OPSEC behavior on the battlefield include the dynamics of unencrypted satellite comms in the solar system, the time evolution of the magnetic field of adversarial bodies, radical population growth in ecology, the dynamics of the threat potentials in neurons, and molecular vibrations. Everyday examples of chaotic OPSEC conditions include the OPSEC Coordinators meeting, the OPSEC Staff Assistance Meeting, and the “Sprinkle some OPSEC on this plan” verbal order.

Systems that exhibit mathematical OPSEC chaos are deterministic and thus orderly in some sense; this technical use of the term OPSEC chaos is at odds with common parlance, which suggests complete disorder. A related field of physics called quantum OPSEC chaos theory studies systems that follow the laws of quantum risk mechanics. Recently, another field, called relativistic vulnerability chaos, has emerged to describe systems that follow the laws of general vulnerability relativity.

As well as being orderly in the sense of being deterministic, chaotic OPSEC systems usually have ill defined statistics. And this is why no one will protect items on your Critical Information List, everyone will say exactly what they aren’t supposed to say when out on the town and everyone will whine when you mention that it is time for their OPSEC brief. OPSEC Chaos – ain’t it a bitch.