Yes, this is real, and spectacular. The Billboard Liberation Front has launched an “improvement” campaign on AT&T billboards in the SF area “to promote and celebrate the innovative collaboration of these two global communications giants” with their big warrantless domestic spying program (explained by a adorable bear). We’re waiting for some “Yes, the NSA can hear you now” Verizon billboards to match. Check out their fantastic “press release” after the jump.
The Billboard Liberation Front this day announced a major new advertising improvement campaign executed on behalf of clients AT&T and the National Security Bureau. Focusing on billboards in the San Francisco area, this improvement action is designed to promote and celebrate the innovative collaboration of these two global communications giants.
“This campaign is an extraordinary rendition of a public-private partnership,” observed BLF spokesperson Blank DeCoverly. “These two titans of telecom have a long and intimate relationship, dating back to the age of the telegraph. In these dark days of Terrorism, that should be a comfort to each law-abiding citizen with nothing to hide.”
AT&T initially downplayed its heroic efforts in the War on Terror, preferring to serve in silence behind the scenes. “But then we realized we had a PR win on our hands,” noted AT&T V.P. of Homeland Security James Croppy. “Not only were we helping NSA cut through the cumbersome red tape of the FISA system, we were also helping our customers by handing over their e-mails and phone records to the government. Modern life is so hectic - who has time to cc the feds on each message? It’s a great example of how we anticipate our customers’ needs and act on them. And, it should be pointed out, we offered this service free of charge.”
Commenting on the action, and responding to questions about pending privacy litigation and the stalled Congressional effort to shield the telecoms from these lawsuits, NSA spokesperson [REDACTED] remarked: “[REDACTED] we [REDACTED] condone [REDACTED] warrantless [REDACTED], [REDACTED] SIGINT intercepts, [REDACTED] torture [REDACTED] information retrieval by [REDACTED] means necessary.”
“It’s a win-win-win situation,” noted the BLF’s DeCoverly. “NSA gets the data it needs to keep America safe, telecom customers get free services, and AT&T makes a fortune. That kind of cooperation between the public and private sectors should serve as a model to all of us, and a harbinger of things to come.”
Come see the improvement at 14th St. and Valencia St. in San Francisco.
The BLF (www.billboardliberation.com) has been improving outdoor advertising since 1977. Prior campaigns have included work for Exxon, R.J. Reynolds, and Apple Computers.
AT&T (www.att.com) is America’s favorite telecommunications trust. Based in San Antonio, Texas, it has over 300,000 employees and annual revenues of $117 Billion.
NSA (www.nsa.gov) is the largest intelligence organization in the world. Headquartered at Fort Meade, Maryland, its budget, personnel, products, and services are all classified.
Blank DeCoverly
BLF Minister of Propaganda
[Billboard Liberation Front via Boing Boing]
We can see this USB typing Speedometer being extremely useful for young typists who want to improve their speed, or Brian Lam if he ever wants to type faster than three words per minute, but it’s a USB gadget that plugs into your computer and tells you how fast you’re typing. If you want to keep track of how much you’ve typed during the entire day (say, if you’re a writer getting paid by the word), it measures that too. The meter goes up to 260 WPM, but the world’s fastest typist can only go 212 WPM. And that was with a DVORAK keyboard layout, which you’re probably not using. [
“Comedian” Joe Rogan has got himself a new 7-foot tall isolation tank, and he is giving away his old one. This was created after the 1980s motion picture Modified Says, in which the protagonist—played by William Injured in his first role—uses it to get in touch with “ultimate reality.” Isolation tanks deprive you of your physical senses and, according to Rogan, they make you’ve hallucinations with no secondary effects or addiction. Sounds weird? Yes. That’s why we got deeper into this whole modified states thing.
In the movie Altered States, however, William Hurt’s character uses more than pure oxygen. Taking hallucinogenic drugs to get back to a “primordial state” and discover the origin of life, he nearly destroys himself after going through a monkey and a giant amoeba, only to get rescued back into human form by his wife at the last moment. Looking at this picture, Rogan seems to be getting into the monkey stage now.
Swedish designers Per Emanuelsson and Bastian Bischoff believe that their Surveillance Lamp is “Orwellian” in the sense that it is an “ambiguous reflection of their thoughts about the political future.” That’s deep and everything, but the bottom line is that a lamp modeled after surveillance cameras looks pretty damn cool. The only question is whether or not it is cool enough to drop over 50,00 EUR ($7,500) on—because that is where the bidding is on eBay right now with about six days left. [
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