Random Thought Thread Part III: The Thinking

[Alex]

I think there's more affirmation of life in Tolstoy's quip that boredom is a desire for desires. (I wonder if that sounds as snappy in Russian as it does in English?)

It isn't quite as bad as German, but almost everything sounds angry in Russian.

Boy isn't that true?

Do you speak German? To my father's lifelong regret I never learned, and he always wanted me to and always told me it's such an expressive language that once I learned it my mind would open in ways it wouldn't in English. He learned to speak German with an accent more common in eastern Germany than western but try as I might I rarely heard any difference.

Though I may be rusty now there was a time my French wasn't bad but I was always better at speaking it than reading it. (And I was told by a French boy I knew in high school that I sounded more Quebecoise than continental French.)

Mercifully I've forgotten the Latin they forced on us in school.

All in all I'm in a monogamous relationship with my native language.

There you go, everything you never wanted to know about my languages, and never would've asked. 

I once had a sex mad German girlfriend. I did learn some German from her, but not exactly what you'd call casual conversational type stuff.

[Trevor]

My final thought for today before bed: "I must teach everyone here some Afrikaans." 

[ER]

Tonight I feel less creative than Baby Shark's lyricist.

[lester1/2jr]

I'm getting metal taken out of me tomorrow. I fractured it skateboarding in 2019 and by the time it healed covid had happened. I will be glad to not have a bonky ankle

[ER]

I'm getting metal taken out of me tomorrow. I fractured it skateboarding in 2019 and by the time it healed covid had happened. I will be glad to not have a bonky ankle

Congratulations on the return of your non-binky ankle!. 

[Alex]

Let's see if I can get through to the weekend without strangling someone.

[Trevor]

Let's see if I can get through to the weekend without strangling someone.

This has been a very stressful week work-wise for me so I feel the same.

[Alex]

Let's see if I can get through to the weekend without strangling someone.

This has been a very stressful week work-wise for me so I feel the same.

When I was younger I attended a brief from one of the very high ups in our organisation. He was asked a question about people leaving, and while I can't remember his exact words, the reply ran something like this "Yeah, you know if you leave you'll be missed. For a month or maybe two. Eventually, you will be replaced. You want to leave, go ahead. Things will continue without you."

Ever since that day I have refused to get emotionally involved in what I do or invest any more than I need to. Previously in my job, I'd been putting so much of myself into it that at one point I actually made myself ill. I'd turn up to work early I loved my job so much.

Oddly enough this was at a time when a lot of people were leaving and then they started begging people to stay, but that is another story.

[ER]

People likely to be compromised or exploited by intelligence services:


Military service personnel, particularly in communications.

Worker in a defense industry plant.

Bartender in a military town.

High-end escort in a capital city.

Hair-dresser in a military town.

Self-help meeting attendees in a military town.

Activists and social organizers.

Transportation workers in capital cities.

Clergy in capital cities.

Teachers in capital cities.

Journalists in capital cities.

The adult and semi-adult children of those involved in most of these professions.



Most common methods of exploitation include:

The semi-innocent victim, meaning one who is not fully aware of his involvement and culpability. Trickery and flattering of the ego secure most assets of this nature. Seek a well-placed thrill-seeker who is bored, then carefully cultivate this individual's usefulness

Those compromised on behalf of a loved-one. (The cruelest and often most effective method.)

The ideologue who seeks to serve a cause.

The venal.



Contrary to expectation, most individuals involved in espionage are never detected or apprehended.


Intelligence operations are carried out every hour of every day, often in the most mundane of settings, and are rarely recognized for what they are.

The best spies seem the most ordinary, are good observers of human nature, possess a gift for listening, and invite confidences.


They are among us.

[RCMerchant]

  ^And you know this...how?  

Hairdressers?

[ER]

  ^And you know this...how? 

I watch a lot of Hogan's Heroes.

[RCMerchant]

  ^And you know this...how? 

I watch a lot of Hogan's Heroes.

Hairdressers?
I wonder who did Col. Klink's hair?

[ER]

 ^And you know this...how?  

Hairdressers?

Hair salons are dens of gossip.

Something that came to light after Soviet records ended up on the black market in the 1990s was how riddled with "spies" hair salons in military towns were. Humble little Dayton, Ohio, in part because of WP AFB had about as many intelligence workers pet capita in it during the Cold War as downtown West Berlin, and staggering numbers revolved around hair salons where military women or spouses of military men got their hair done.

I tell you it goes on in less than obvious places.

[RCMerchant]

 ^And you know this...how?  

Hairdressers?

Hair salons are dens of gossip.

Something that came to light after Soviet records ended up on the black market in the 1990s was how riddled with "spies" hair salons in military towns were. Wright-Patterson AFB in humble little Dayton, Ohio had about as many intelligence workers pet capita in it during the Cold War as downtown West Berlin, and staggering numbers revolved around hair salons where military women or spouses of military men got their hair done.

I tell you it goes on in less than obvious places.

It's a good thing I have hippy hair and don't know any government secrets!

[Alex]

What if the horses of The Four Horsemen are actually My Little Ponys?