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Canadian Coins Not Nano-Tech Espionage Devices

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the reality-is-always-funnier dept.

Necrotica writes "An odd-looking Canadian coin with a bright red flower was the culprit behind the U.S. Defence Department's false espionage warning earlier this year. The odd-looking — but harmless — "poppy coin" was so unfamiliar to suspicious U.S. Army contractors traveling in Canada that they filed confidential espionage accounts about them. The worried contractors described the coins as "anomalous" and "filled with something man-made that looked like nano-technology," according to once-classified U.S. government reports and e-mails obtained by the AP."

12 of 412 comments (clear)

  1. Conspiracy? by Tuoqui · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Man this has tinfoil hat written all over it... Why wasn't the contractor given a government issued one?

    I mean really, nanotech in coins? They use nanotech in computer processors and look how much time and effort it takes to make one of them.

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    09F911029D74E35BD84156C5635688C0
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  2. Espionage devices or not ... by WrongSizeGlass · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... they still don't work in American vending machines or toll booths ... and thats what really matters, isn't it?

  3. Re:wow by jcorno · · Score: 5, Funny

    It "looked like nano-technology"? Those contractors have really good vision.

  4. Did you mean by Frequency+Domain · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...and that's what really matters, eh?

  5. Re:wow by asninn · · Score: 5, Funny

    We should put these guys in charge of airport security etc. - I bet they can identify terrorists just by looking at them, too. "Hey, he's got a turban! And a beard! It's ONE OF THEM!"

    --
    butter the donkey
  6. Projection by Excelcia · · Score: 5, Insightful

    When you are a country who's law allows the kidnapping of foreign nationals, who's laws allow "rendition", who's laws allow Guantanamo to exist... a country who spies on everyone else, then you see yourself in others too. One tends to expect from others the sort of treatment you meet out. Conversely, the society for which the above is unthinkable tends not to see those threats everywhere else. This story isn't so much funny, as it is deeply... deeply sad.

  7. I guess this means ... by Bearpaw · · Score: 5, Funny

    I guess this means we shouldn't have preemptively invaded Canada. [shrug] Oh well. We can't leave now, or there'll be a bloody civil war between Quebec and everyone else up there. Besides which, this is our best chance to spread democracy and freedom in North America.

    1. Re:I guess this means ... by Trent+Hawkins · · Score: 5, Funny

      That's ok, Canada is ready for the invasion.

      We plan to let American troops walk in, and station wherever they like. Eventually they'll either get bored and leave or get jobs at Tim Hortons. Besides there's no way Americans will want to inherit the tax, or Quebec.

  8. Re:Why is The State of Canada Not Using US Coins? by who's+got+my+nicknam · · Score: 5, Informative

    Actually, you did invade us once (back in 1812), but we fought you off, sank most of your ships, and then marched down to Washington and burned down the White House. You wanna piece of this - come git some! *grin*

    --
    "Apparatus dignosco occultus, satis non supernus."
  9. Re:No big deal by nasch · · Score: 5, Insightful
    We're not laughing at them for being suspicious and checking out something they weren't familiar with. We're laughing at them for being suspicious and not checking it out. They knew it was a Canadian coin. A quick Google search on "canadian quarter red flower" probably would have cleared it all up. Confirm that with a phone call to the Canadian embassy. The whole thing could have been over in ten minutes, and then if it becomes public, they say yep, we wondered about those coins but we quickly discovered they're harmless. Now, they've demonstrated that not only are they paranoid about anything looking slightly strange, but they also don't have any idea how to investigate it. So we'll have the aforementioned sea of false positives, and if there are any real positives we don't have any reason to think the government is capable of doing anything about it. I don't find this situation reassuring, because we're being asked to give up some liberties without any evidence that our security is improved anyway. And no, that doesn't mean I necessarily approve of giving up liberty for security.

    P.S. whoever "they" are

  10. Re:wow by Phisbut · · Score: 5, Funny

    As for the "man-made" bit.. well, it's a coin.. who'd they expect made it?

    What? Are you telling me your US coins aren't created out of thin air by God Himself? "In God We Trust", I thought that was His signature...

    --
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    - The Tao of Programming
  11. it's probably been said that it's always been said by BitterAndDrunk · · Score: 5, Funny

    Stupid Flanders.

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