You see, while I thought that I'd arrived at the right spot for the 3DHD demo, I'd really been waiting in a sort of backstage area, where engineers, CEOs and Titanic producer Jon Landau were gearing up to pitch me and 30 other members of the press about their low power 3D plasmas.
I thought it was strange enough to see Panasonic corporate types posing with Landau's Oscar that he'd brought out for the occasion, handing off their cellphones to grab proud shots with the statue. Then a man in a gray suit and glasses walked up to one of the engineers standing to the side. He had an aura of overconfidence.
"Do you handle demonstrations of the 3DHD display technology," he asked the Panasonic engineer.
"Yes," the engineer responded after a moment.
"And you have prototypes in the US?"
"Yes, why?" asked the engineer, growing a bit uncomfortable at the man's forward nature.
The suited man paused for an intentional beat.
"I'm with the CIA, and we'd like to include your product in a presentation at the White House for the President." This was said nonchalantly, in that way people present grand pieces of information in a euphemistic tone meant to draw the listener in.
But it backfired when applied to the Japanese engineer whose English wasn't so fluent. So the engineer's following "what?" wasn't one of "holy cow, how is this possible?" but more just an earnest "what are you talking about?"
"The President of the United States," the CIA guy repeated, this time using full ceremonial emphasis.
"Uhhh..." the engineer responded nervously, completely confused now as to what was going on.
"I'm with the CIA. We're giving a presentation in two months to the President on eco technologies that will reduce our nation's dependence on oil. You know, oil?"
"...OK."
We'd like to include your display if you have one available in the States."
"...OK."
"Can I take a look?" Mr. CIA asked, motioning to the demo room.
"...OK."
And with that, another international technological concordance was made.
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- NoGodsNoMasters
- added this
- added January 09, 2009
- flag
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will the CIA go to AVN, too?
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Odd, shouldn't the CIA have it's own contacts and geeks doing things in private?
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Intersting......
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hmmmmm....
this is beyond fucked up... -
interesting news, don't they have better ways to contact companies? stupid CIA...and we pay taxes for these jokers.
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lowest bidder?
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- superfinet
- 6 months ago
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ever been to a CES? it's not too often that the average booth-twinkie has the experience or swave-and-deboner coolness to know what to do in such a situation!
had they been cool, the answer might have been, "don't move; i'll get someone to talk with you right now!"
been there, done that... better.
but that's how you learn what to do in surprising situations.
like the first time, during a product presentation, that a customer accused me of deliberately lying about my product's capabilities. i was flabbergasted--- totally speechless.... and i'd been giving presentations like that one for about twenty years!
it was just that NOBODY HAD EVER accused me, to my face, of lying.
turns out the customer was a moron, anyway.
:))))))))))))))))) -
Now the CIA is concerned with eco technology, don't know about that, they are usually concerned with government take overs or assassinations.
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Word.
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- damnneargenius
- 6 months ago
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Speaking of twinkies , you don't seriously believe this bullshit story. C'mon seriously ?
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I can smell a fake piece of journalism like a fart in a car.
If a CIA operative did in fact contact a person to discuss matters as important as this, do you really think the conversation would be overheard in earshot and transcribed verbatim no less?
Then there is the issue with the correlation between lessening oil dependency, progressive ecosystem initiatives and PLASMA TV TECHNOLOGY?
LOFreakin'L-
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- JayBforthewin
- 6 months ago
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O-I buy that it happened. Funny as hell-really not all that big a deal---just because you have "men in black" does not REALLY mean the issues involved are all that IMMEDIATELY important,.....it just sort of intimidates people. Hey man...call for corp backup!
