Imaginary Nanotech of the North Spooks U.S. Defense Officials

Brian Doherty | May 8, 2007

While it isn't a Mooninite level of phony panic, it is pretty amusing: The Associated Press reports on how the U.S. Defense Security Service (a division of the Defense Department) spread false rumors that a common Canadian coin was in fact a nanotech-embedded tracking device meant to spy on U.S. contractors for nefarious purposes.

[Hat tip to reader Jay Weiser.]

Comments

|5.8.07 @ 3:36PM|#

The terrorists truly have won.

|5.8.07 @ 3:46PM|#

Stupid idiots.

Everyone knows it's the Toonies [the $2 coin] than have the secret microchip/tracking device/elint/bowel monitor implanted.

|5.8.07 @ 3:51PM|#

The Loonie in my pocket just started talking to me. Damned Canuck menace.

Not counting you, Aresen, of course.

VM|5.8.07 @ 3:54PM|#

Diefenbaker Diefenbaker Diefenbaker Diefenbaker Diefenbaker Diefenbaker Diefenbaker Diefenbaker Diefenbaker Diefenbaker Diefenbaker Diefenbaker Diefenbaker Diefenbaker Diefenbaker Diefenbaker Diefenbaker Diefenbaker Diefenbaker Diefenbaker Diefenbaker Diefenbaker Diefenbaker Diefenbaker

|5.8.07 @ 3:59PM|#

Pierre "Gary" Trudeau.

We should have a contest among the non-Canadians to see who can name the most Canadian prime ministers without looking them up.

Say, VM, I didn't know that Elisabeth Shue was the old Burger King girl until the Urkobold posting.

Bee|5.8.07 @ 4:07PM|#

Wasn't Leslie Nielsen's brother a PM in the 80's? I can't remember without looking it up, though.

|5.8.07 @ 4:12PM|#

Is the Shatner still a Canadian citizen? He'd be a great PM. The song when he takes office? Why, the Star Trek Fightin' Song, of course!

highnumber|5.8.07 @ 4:13PM|#

[putting on Guy Montag cap for the second time today]

Oh, that's so cute. The canadians act like they have their own money and an adorable little prime minister.

OHMYGOD! How it BURNS!!
[tears the hat off and dumps the bucket of water handily placed nearby with foresight]

|5.8.07 @ 4:14PM|#

Wasn't Leslie Nielsen's brother a PM in the 80's?

No, but he (Erik Nielsen) was a MP (in the 70s, actually IIRC). From the Yukon.

|5.8.07 @ 4:17PM|#

Bee

It was Eric Nielsen & he was Deputy PM to Mulroney.

|5.8.07 @ 4:18PM|#

We should have a contest among the non-Canadians to see who can name the most Canadian prime ministers without looking them up.

I'm a non-Canadian but since I went to school there I probably don't qualify as one.

I can probably name them all if I think on it a bit.

|5.8.07 @ 4:19PM|#

Bee: Yukon Eric was Deputy Prime Minister, as well as Government House leader, and leader of the opposition, but not PM.

|5.8.07 @ 4:20PM|#

Yukon Ho!

|5.8.07 @ 4:20PM|#

It was Eric Nielsen & he was Deputy PM to Mulroney.

Oh, really. That's after I left.

Funny, I seem to recall that he was a Liberal. Time does stuff like that to old brains. :)

VM|5.8.07 @ 4:26PM|#

ProGLib - Mr. Crane tipped me off to that.

But High# was close in guessing, "your mom".

um... dumps the bucket of water handily placed nearby with foresight

um.

(couldn't find link to Rollins Band's, "Thinking Cap")

|5.8.07 @ 4:33PM|#

Your mom looks like Elisabeth Shue? How. . .Oedipal.

|5.8.07 @ 4:35PM|#

Pro Libertate | May 8, 2007, 3:51pm | #

"The Loonie in my pocket just started talking to me"

If it's saying "85 Cents US. 85 Cents US. 85 Cents US.", then it is functioning properly.

highnumber|5.8.07 @ 4:38PM|#

Dude, your mom's hot.

|5.8.07 @ 4:38PM|#

Aresen,

The exchange rate has been even less favorable in the past. I was in Vancouver in 2001 and thought there was an error in my dinner bill. I made things worse by negligently tipping in American numbers with Canadian currency. Sorry!

VM|5.8.07 @ 4:39PM|#

pssst: Aresen - the one eyed one.

ProGLib. *shrugs* :)

*goes back to knitting belly-button lint sweater

|5.8.07 @ 4:40PM|#

And a member of Class Mammalia, according to Urkobold.

|5.8.07 @ 4:49PM|#

And a damned prominent member she is, laddie. I'd like to attend her class.

Bee|5.8.07 @ 5:09PM|#

Ah - thanks! I remember my jaw dropping when I heard that Leslie Nielsen's bro was an actual serious politician. In Canada.

You know what I like about Canada? I like being able to walk into places without having my handbag pawed and my person scanned. I also like bears. I howled when I saw my first "Attention Aux Ours" sign. Really, wouldn't just a picture of a mean ol' scary snarly bear get the point across better than blah blah blah warnings in both English and French?

Bee|5.8.07 @ 5:11PM|#

Oh, and GO DUCKS.

|5.8.07 @ 6:33PM|#

the U.S. Defense Security Service (a division of the Defense Department) spread false rumors that a common Canadian coin was in fact a nanotech-embedded tracking device meant to spy on U.S. contractors for nefarious purposes.

Anyone who hypes up the capabilities of tiny nanotechnological devices is clearly a shill for Big Miniaturization.

|5.8.07 @ 6:35PM|#

Stevo,

The CMDF and Raquel Welsh would like to speak with you.

Thomas Paine\'s Goiter|5.8.07 @ 7:41PM|#

Awesome. DoD is a bunch of monkeys fucking a football.

VM|5.8.07 @ 8:24PM|#

psst - with Raquel - that's a shill for Big Bottom (bum cakes and mud flaps division)

|5.8.07 @ 11:35PM|#

I would like to have a miniature Raquel Welch in my pants.