White House

[BIAD]

I saw that on TV the other night, and it brought you immediately to mind - except you do better work, sourcing more obscure photos
for the composition, and doing a much better job with the drop-shadows and edge blending than the CIA/DIA/NSA/ETC can apparently
do...

This -again, tickles my curious bone about what we see through the lens of the media and the 'real' world we all
exist in daily. Carlson's viewpoint is a bit off-target as the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) is
basically the repository where crude Intelligence information is cleaned and made more appropriate for political
and sometimes, public consumption.

It is also an oversight group that the US intelligence agencies look to in regards of budgeting and streamlining these
narratives for private and public use within and outside the White House. I'd suggest the methods of acquiring such
sensitive information relevant to the US's security will rarely cross their desks.

"The Director of National Intelligence serves as the head of the Intelligence Community, overseeing and directing
the implementation of the National Intelligence Program budget and serving as the principal advisor to the President,
the National Security Council, and the Homeland Security Council for intelligence matters related to national security.

Working together with the Principal Deputy DNI and with the assistance of Mission Managers and Deputy Directors,
the Office of the DNI's goal is to effectively integrate foreign, military and domestic intelligence in defense of the
homeland and of United States interests abroad..."

(I ain't providing the source, they shut my internet access down for ten minutes!)

However, the face they've deliberately offered to the pubic -in the form of this annual demographic report, is phoney
and sends a poor message in terms of the DNI wishing to ride the politically-trendy diversity wagon and a brochure
-cover that implies shoddy facile workmanship.

Ironically -and that assumption worries me, the main failings in the image are in regards of the DNI's diverse 'reach-out'
to disabled people.

First:
The blind-guy image and the chick in the wheelchair displays second-rate care in implying an assorted group are better
equipped to perform the DNI's functions and that these individual external differences are relevant to that performance.
Obviously it's virtue-signalling and that's where my concern comes in.

Second:
I'd accept that with free-thinking and today's technological ability to discuss such broad-minded opinions -backed by
reliable evidence, the public will now believe or know how Intelligence Communities work. The DNI is a division of the
US's security network that triages information in order to make such material palatable to the public and informative to
superiors that govern such a complex network.



This kind of work demands focus, trust and finesse, one is basically bullshitting one type of audience to make them
fearful or relaxed and at the same time, bringing precise and accurate intelligence to those who need to make decisions
on that information.

It could well be that these qualities were unused due to an outside business agreeing to create the brochure's cover
and this lax attitude in a high-standard was a simple error by that private company's diligences to produce a good
product. But this doesn't really give the DNI a pass.

By examining the whole image, I can see a white line that passes over the female on the right and continues through the
mustard-coloured text-area at the bottom of the cover. This implies a 'Magic Wand' tool often used in imagery software,
to highlight a particular section one wishes to utilise.

Whoever composed this cover failed to realise that in many cases, the outer-edge or 'halo' of a selected part sometimes
remains due to the toleration-input of the application being set -enough not to delete any whiteness in the sections of the
image you wish to keep, but enough to get rid of the background you wish to lose.
(If the sun is shining on an object, that area where the rays hit will be lighter, a Magic Wand application may include that
area when required to highlight a white background due to the sensitivity input in the tolerance of the application.)

But this same application that can can a halo around objects also appears around the female in the centre of the group,
the lady in the teal-coloured sleeveless dress. It's not much, but it's obvious to anyone who works in imagery, as a white
line can be seen against the metal girder of the background.
This may mean the background is fake too.

The blind-guy's white stick was badly cut out and as Ninurta indicates, the drop-shadows to enhance the belief that a
composition is true, are poorly executed. To be fair, I wouldn't even contemplate such a piece of artwork good enough
to use as one of Rogue Nation's banners, not because of it's contents, but because of the substandard manner it has
been constructed.

To the average critical onlooker, it could be suggested that if those who deal in detailed data vital to a country's security,
missed these flaws -errors in a visual representation of beliefs and conduct, what more dangerous-facts may have been
overlooked through possible indolence?

There was this hotel-guy who likes golf, who once said "they're not sending their best!"
...............................................

By the way, to obtain the quote from the DNI website, I obviously had to go there. Two minutes later, my internet access
went down. Nah... just a coincidence.

If you ever get bored, you can always apply at MI6 - I'm sure they'd love to have your talents so they could sneer at the
US intel community...

Only if they leave my damned internet access alone!