Slashdot Mirror
Protesters Launch a 135-Foot Blimp Over the NSA's Utah Data Center
Dega704 sends this news from Wired:
Plenty of nightmare surveillance theories surround the million-square-foot NSA facility opened last year in Bluffdale, Utah. Any locals driving by the massive complex Friday morning saw something that may inspire new ones: A massive blimp hovering over the center, with the letters NSA printed on its side.
Activist groups including the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Greenpeace launched the 135-foot thermal airship early Friday morning to protest the agency's mass surveillance programs and to announce the launch of Stand Against Spying, a website that rates members of Congress on their support or opposition to NSA reform. The full message on the blimp reads 'NSA: Illegal Spying Below' along with an arrow pointing downward and the Stand Against Spying URL."
Activist groups including the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Greenpeace launched the 135-foot thermal airship early Friday morning to protest the agency's mass surveillance programs and to announce the launch of Stand Against Spying, a website that rates members of Congress on their support or opposition to NSA reform. The full message on the blimp reads 'NSA: Illegal Spying Below' along with an arrow pointing downward and the Stand Against Spying URL."
So Fucking Awesome!
That is all.
Are in reality a bunch of shameless cowards.
I agree, but they're not as shameless as I thought. My first reaction was: they are not going to have a pilot's license much longer. But when I took a look at the aeronautical charts for that area, I was surprised to find out that it's not a prohibited area to fly over.
In my humble opinion, this means that apparently the Government doesn't think this datacenter is such a big deal, otherwise it would have been a no-fly zone (like the plant a couple of miles to the left of the lake).
I'm not a complete idiot... Some parts are missing.
If they are caught off guard by A BLIMP
So how exactly does the blimp impede the NSA?
Too bad they are so utterly tone-deaf that they put up a website that requires not just your zipcode but also your street address in order to look up your congressional representative's record on the NSA. Stupid web2.0 fuckheads couldn't at least include a link to a list of reps to pick from in case we didn't want to hand out our home address to god knows what data brokers? Even when I disabled noscript and disabled requestpolicy that damn lookup still wouldn't work either. Epic fucking fail.
> In my humble opinion, this means that apparently the Government doesn't think this datacenter is such a big deal, otherwise it would have been a no-fly zone
Don't attribute to moral convictions what is more easily explained by simple incompetence.
Politics makes for strange bedfellows, indeed.
Prohibited areas are few and far between, and don't include power plants as you suggest,despite what some obedient naive security person might proclaim to an even more naive reporter.
The data center is wide open, and this was a peaceful protest. It is not possible from the picture to tell if the flight was conducted at a legal altitude or not. http://www.aopa.org/News-and-V... ==the law enforcement community proved itself to be a bunch of incompetent, fragile personality types.
People like to believe anything that gives a sense of urgency or authority to what they feel they have to say.
If the government truly wanted to protect the data center, they wouldn't have placed their chiller stations on the perimeter with no barriers,or their transformer service stations, etc. The place would be disabled for months at a minimum if they were affected. An airplane flying overhead? It would barely mess up the paint. There is no reason to shut down the airspace there.
Bluffdale Utah has a population of approximately 8000 residents who could at any time have seen the blimp, but the location of the site is so far to the outskirts of the city as to make it pointless. the only person who would see it immediately would be perhaps NSA employees entering and egressing, but its unlikely that theyd care.
protesting over congress and capitol hill would make more sense, but thats illegal incursion into a longstanding no fly zone.
Good people go to bed earlier.
Thermal airship
they are not using helium at all.
I drove due west straight toward the NSA center and never saw it this morning. Not very effective in that regard.
We're talking those idjits at Greenpeace, here. Anybody that was on the fence on this just went with the NSA.
They should have done a promo showing all the LOLCATS the NSA's put in GITMO, people'd burn the place down then.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
I'm surprised that it wasn't shot down and labeled a terrerist act.
I can't help but think the people you really want to antagonize are the employees and contractors... A Blimp that says something like "amoral and unethical people work here and spy on you" might do more to create unrest... The people who work there probably live in the community or surrounding community... If you can make someone uneasy about their employer, that's probably better...
"See? Nobody cares."
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Better that it should read "U.S. commerce R.I.P. No one will use our products again."
But that would mean one of those scrolly signs and a big-ass battery.
The data center sits right in the flight path for commercial airliners landing at SLC international though because of the distance I doubt the height it was at was an issue.
You can learn more about the NSA data center here.
NSA will blimp you from behind.
It's not illegal to be a shameless coward. The massive scale spying on US citizens and foreign allies was what was illegal and what we should be jailing people for.
Maybe it's just a disaster recovery site with a few hundred secretarial staff located there, the real show could be elsewhere. We just don't know.
There's nothing that allows that datacenter to have restricted airspace. They're complying with the law.
Unfortuantely, I just lost a lot of respect for the EFF when they aligned themselves with greenpeace. EFF has been, until this point, a consistently ethical organization. Greenpeace has been, to this point, consistently unethical.
Correct. The blimp in question is a four-seater GEFA-FLUG AS 105 GD/4 with a 41-meter Hyperlast envelope that inflates using two Cameron Shadow burners. It's powered by a Rotax 582 UL engine putting out 65 horsepower, mounted in pusher configuration with a four-bladed, fixed-pitch Helix H50F prop. (That's an ultralight engine and a lightweight glass / carbon-fiber prop, incidentally. Dy weight is under 1,100 pounds, and maximum takeoff weight is under 2,000 pounds.)
http://www.gefa-flug.de/index....
"Nice blimp ya got there. Sure would be a shame if something happened to it."
It couldn't have been built there if it was going to get restricted airspace. It's right under the northbound flight path for aircraft landing at Salt Lake International Airport. Not to mention being right at the junction of two valleys it's the major through way for general aviation flights north and south, forcing new deviations around that site simply is not an option as to the west is a military reservation and to the east the terrain gets tall really quickly.
NRO listening post. Except there is no one around to see it.
46.682162, -120.356564
-- I have a private email server in my basement.
Are in reality a bunch of shameless cowards.
I agree, but they're not as shameless as I thought. My first reaction was: they are not going to have a pilot's license much longer. But when I took a look at the aeronautical charts for that area, I was surprised to find out that it's not a prohibited area to fly over.
In my humble opinion, this means that apparently the Government doesn't think this datacenter is such a big deal, otherwise it would have been a no-fly zone (like the plant a couple of miles to the left of the lake).
Another way to think about it is that:
1. They want it to remain obscure.
2. They think that the facility is impenetrable from all directions.
I was surprised to find out that it's not a prohibited area to fly over.
Now watch an emergency meeting in congress to pass a new air restriction over the building
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
Prohibited areas are few and far between, and don't include power plants as you suggest
Well, if you would actually take the time to look at the sectional chart, you'd see what I mean. It clearly says "plant" and pilots are requested> not to overfly it at a low altitude.
The guy who was arrested a couple of years ago should not have let his case get dismissed on the condition that he would not sue the local Buford T. Justice. If it was me, I'd challenge them in court. They had no business talking that glider down or arresting the pilot.
I'm not a complete idiot... Some parts are missing.
Statistically Greenpeace have helped to kill maybe 5 to 10 million people. (with their 40 yr campaign to promote coal mining by stopping nuclear power)
Below the speed of light Special Relativity is one of the most accurate theories in physics - above the speed of light..
They could say goodbye to their blimp after that though, if they even get through the security around the event. Could be worth trying with a big RC blimp that only costs 4 digits though.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel