Official development blog for the PARANOIA roleplaying game. No description is available at your security clearance. The Computer is your friend.

Thursday, May 31, 2007

Paranoia in the Real World: Project Acoustic Kitty 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2001/11/04/wcia04.xml

In one experiment during the Cold War a cat, dubbed Acoustic Kitty, was wired up for use as an eavesdropping platform. It was hoped that the animal - which was surgically altered to accommodate transmitting and control devices - could listen to secret conversations from window sills, park benches or dustbins.

Victor Marchetti, a former CIA officer, told The Telegraph that Project Acoustic Kitty was a gruesome creation. He said: "They slit the cat open, put batteries in him, wired him up. The tail was used as an antenna. They made a monstrosity. They tested him and tested him. They found he would walk off the job when he got hungry, so they put another wire in to override that."

Mr Marchetti said that the first live trial was an expensive disaster. The technology is thought to have cost more than £10 million. He said: "They took it out to a park and put him out of the van, and a taxi comes and runs him over. There they were, sitting in the van with all those dials, and the cat was dead."

R&D Researcher: We don't have a cat.
Other R&D Researcher: We've got lots of Troubleshooters. Use one of them.
R&D Researcher: What about the antenna?
Other R&D Researcher: Stick in the tail, of course.
R&D Researcher: Troubleshooters don't have tails.
Other R&D Researcher: Tail, spine, potato, potato.
Posted by: Gareth Hanrahan / 6:46 AM

Comments:
Thank Friend Computer for petbots. Any Sierra Clubbers with a secret taxidermist skill around?
# posted by Anonymous CPUreaucrat : May 31, 2007 3:48 PM
 
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