[geeks] [rescue] Thread drift :)

[Phil Stracchino]

wa2egp at att.net wrote:
> OH yeah.  For real fun try to find out what parts of Jersey City are chromium contaminated.  Should be public knowledge but you'll be transferred to every employee in the system 'till you get tired and give up.  Don't want anybody to know what areas should be cheap (and shiney).  Of course doctors get the info instantly in case of "mysterious illnesses".

True story:

First, the background data:  In the UK, there exists something called 
the Official Secrets Act.  It's sort of the anti-FOIA.  Secrets are 
secret under the Official Secrets Act.  Certain non-secrets are also 
secret under the Official secrets Act, including that fact, so I just 
violated the Official Secrets Act by telling you that.

Once upon a time, there was a town in Sussex whose inhabitants became 
concerned about what might be in the plume coming from the tall stacks 
of the somewhat mysterious plant on the north side of town, and whether 
said plume was toxic and might be harming their health.  Nobody was 
really sure quite what the plant did, so it was hard to be sure. 
(Except of course for the people who worked there, and they weren't 
telling.)  So the townsfolk called the Alkali Metals Inspectorate and 
asked them to sample the plume.  So the Alkali Metals Inspectorate sent 
two men who came to the town, sampled the plume, and went away again.

Then time passed.  And passed.  And passed.

Finally, the townsfolk got impatient and called the Alkali Metals 
Inspectorate to ask if they'd ever gotten the results from the analysis 
on the plume.

"Oh yes, we had the results several months ago."

"Well, what's in it?"

"We can't tell you.  It's an official secret."

".... Well, can you at least tell us whether it's poisonous?"

"Sorry, that's an official secret."



-- 
   Phil Stracchino, CDK#2     DoD#299792458     ICBM: 43.5607, -71.355
   alaric at caerllewys.net   alaric at metrocast.net   phil at co.ordinate.org
          Renaissance Man, Unix ronin, Perl hacker, Free Stater
                  It's not the years, it's the mileage.