US senators propose bill to shut off NSA’s water supply in California

reply to post by purplemer


The NSA servers use water cooling to help keep the machines running. Without water, there's not much they can do online.

Wrabbit2000
reply to post by WhiteAlice

 

..except a server farm isn't bottling Pepsi and what they cycle through THAT much water for in their data centers is beyond me. That does seem to leave them vulnerable to utility disruption tho.

edit on 7-1-2014 by Wrabbit2000 because: (no reason given)

Isnt it obvious?, the only reason they would need that much is to power the micro nuke plants in the basement. Which also explains why they're going after the water supply instead of power.

On a serious note, i would guess its because of poor craftsmanship and low quality products being used. It's not like the NSA would care if they could use less water when it would cost an extra $10 million for the equipment and knowledgeable personnel to install it.

teslahowitzer
While they are at it...can they cut off their air supply???

Yeah, AND their REO Speedwagon. That'll drive em CrAzY!!!

(obligatory thoughtful-response-so-my-joke-doesn't-get-deleted follows)

They won't be able to ban utilities from providing them water. That is just an empty threat that they know has no chance of happening so that they can look good in their next campaign. Utter BS.

this sounds like a chapter from Dan Brown's Digital Fortress.
It is a good read for those interested in NSA fiction.

p.s. Truth is scarier than fiction in this case.

Everyone against the NSA believes that the NSA are 'spying'. They are not spying.
Everyone who supports the NSA believes that they are catching terrorists. They aren't doing much of that either. And everyone is wrong.

People get all upset because of the 'spying' and meta-data collections. This is a total distraction from the real purpose. The NSA employees and contractors are simply the "facility managers" in this case. The real purpose of the NSA/google data centers (don't forget the google barges!) is to build an infrastructure so that A.I. can be born, spontaneously. The goal is to have A.I. spawn in a territory under control of the United States. If that does not happen in a US controlled territory, you can bet that the US will attack whatever country has A.I. full on, with nukes.

Really paranoid people think that the NSA wanted their call/internet data to track them and punish them for crimes, Big Brother type mind-crime, but this will only happen under the most grave conditions.

Does anyone remember when AOL was giving away cd-roms for years? Does anyone remember when cell phone companies were giving away high tech cell phones for years and years? That's all to entice you into being an unknowing participant in the creation of a r t i f i c i a l i n t e l l i g e n c e.

The stakes are very high.

teslahowitzer
While they are at it...can they cut off their air supply???

As an analysis of the situation, if everyone in the area got a nice sized mirror and directed sunlight at the facility, re. shine a little light on their illegal activities LOL, wouldn't that create a major overload problem for the A/C systems? The power draw might go through the roof and burn out the transmission lines to the facility as well. However, knowing these people, they will simply install their own slo-poke or mini-reactor with your money to keep everything going and then they'll just step up their illegal activity.

Unfortunately the acceleration of one-upmanship will end in some kind of major problem for one side or the other. Shame they can't just be sent to an alternate reality where they fit in, like Hell.

Cheers - Dave

reply to post by purplemer


Loool

Even if it is a spoof article it is quite amusing. Those NSA peeps could do with a whole lot of reigning in...

Looks like we win!

Just for closure! no hard feelings...

reply to post by SayonaraJupiter


I agree that if true self-aware, self-educating (I.E. REAL) A.I spontaneously came about, the U.S and at least 4 other nations would go into instant all or nothing, total war mode to take full and immediate control of the source of it.

The sheer raw power and potential to a true system of that kind is just too dangerous for any major power to let any other major power have as an exclusive.....what? Partner?

..Then again, the Skynet Scenario isn't far fetched either. A self aware machine would likely become aware of it's own vulnerabilities and the true horror within a simple little word like format. To a learning machine, that would be a dire threat as long as anyone could do it, right? I'll be happy to live out my years without seeing A.I. emerge in the true sense.

Disgruntled with NSA spying on US citizens, two senators from opposing parties have introduced a bill banning companies in California from providing essential utility services to the agency – including cutting off its computer-cooling water supply.

I read: Two Senators from California disappear after provoking NSA!

What an uplifting story! Elected officials - the two senators - defending the constitution. And advocating giving no quarter to traitors.

interupt42
reply to post by pstrron

 

Senator like: "Hey guys we are looking pretty bad out there, can you throw us a bone"

NSA like: "Sure, first act angry and use harsh words about us. Nothing appeases the masses like good harsh language and words. refer to section 101 of how to use deflection against the masses"

Senator like: "Ok but people are begining to catch on so we need some action."


NSA like: "Ok then refer to second edition of misdirecting the public under how to take action without taking action. Pretend that we use public water to cool our data centers and say you are going to cut it off."

Senator like: "Awesome that will surely take away distraction from congress despite us having passed the laws allowing you guys to do anything you want without oversight"

Senator like: "Hey can you put in a good word with your bosses over their on K streets for us"

I bet if you replaced Senator Like's name with Feinstein and Boxer, you would have just stated the real truth. Those 2 are notoriously doing things behind the backs of citizens, and a scheme like you describe is highly likely to have already happened numerous times.

Well, it's a nice try. And I'm sure it makes a lot of Californians feel all warm and cozy. But I doubt that this bill would be worth the paper it's written on.

Provided the law passed, it's still just a state law. Federal law trumps state law every time. I'm sure that the NSA ("No Such Agency") would quickly find a federal judge that would issue an injunction against the State of California from enforcing the new law.

I think the Patriot Act, or the FISA Amendments Act, already makes it mandatory that businesses provide support to the NSA so that they can conduct whatever actions the Federal Government sees fit. It seems to me that this automatically trumps this proposed new law by the State of California.

And, if push comes to shove, the Federal Government can nationalize pretty much anything that it wants to.

Here's the text of the proposed California law.

Here's the press release discussing the law.



Dex

DexterRiley
Well, it's a nice try. And I'm sure it makes a lot of Californians feel all warm and cozy. But I doubt that this bill would be worth the paper it's written on.

Provided the law passed, it's still just a state law. Federal law trumps state law every time. I'm sure that the NSA ("No Such Agency") would quickly find a federal judge that would issue an injunction against the State of California from enforcing the new law.

I think the Patriot Act, or the FISA Amendments Act, already makes it mandatory that businesses provide support to the NSA so that they can conduct whatever actions the Federal Government sees fit. It seems to me that this automatically trumps this proposed new law by the State of California.

And, if push comes to shove, the Federal Government can nationalize pretty much anything that it wants to.

Here's the text of the proposed California law.

Here's the press release discussing the law.

Dex

You are probably right, but I sure would love to see the NSA Attorney say :""Your Honor, I motion there be an injunction issued against this..blah blah, because the NSA has the constitutional authority to spy on citizens!... Errr - uhhh...... Judge: "Motion denied!!"

I can think of more useful resourceful things to do with that facility. We allow them to use tax payer money to then turn around and spy on us. Man are we stupid. Why is this facility still standing??

Just as I suspected and posted my thoughts earlier in this thread,

From a USNEWS article Source

The bill's intent is largely symbolic. Universities might be affected, but the NSA does not currently operate a large data facility in the state.

Also, these are STATE senators, not US senators.



From my earlier post:

They won't be able to ban utilities from providing them water. That is just an empty threat that they know has no chance of happening so that they can look good in their next campaign. Utter BS.

reply to post by purplemer


These Senator's better be squeaky clean or the NSA will have them on the front page of every news paper In the world for every evil thing imaginable.

You would almost have to take the U.S. government down before you do anything about the NSA and then they would most likely become the U.S. government.

pstrron
reply to post by Indigent

 

no flowing water, just a fluid in a thermodynamic cycle

If they hadn't already thought of this then they are fools. I have no doubt that they have their own power supply and cooling systems independent of outside sources. The senators just are not privy to this information as I'm quite sure it's on a need to know bases. That water might not be being used to cool computers but something else.

While I'm sure they do have some sort of fallback system, I am also rather sure that such a fallback system can only last for so long, and in the event that they are required to turn to this, I would assume they have about a weeks worth of 'full operation' at their disposal before things start getting complicated for them.

IMHO The resulting response will likely be water trucks from 'contractors' that have special interest in the progression of the agency's agenda. Were it me, I'd shut down the water, and a week later turn off the electricity. My question though... is why hasn't anyone DDOS'd any of these server farms... I'm pretty sure it would be rather easy to start identifying agency IP Addresses if someone sat down and wrote the right program to do it...

*fires up visual studio*

I'll append a small footnote here too for the official record, addressed specifically to the senators being referenced... "Do it..."

jibajaba
Apparently they don't have the 'big brass ones' to attack them directly ala Ron Paul and stop funding this money pit of perversion.

That's exactly what I was thinking, cut off the money flow. In fact it's about time to cut off the money flow for the WHOLE fed gov't and audit the whole mess.