#classifcation

[nemfrog]

Classification system in biology. The dinosaur book. 1951.

Internet Archive

[reidl-sunday-scribbles-blog]

(source--- user loveliegreen, Pinterest)

4. Formal Script: This typeface is also based off of handwriting, but derived from writing styles of the 17th century. It is most normally used for cursive writing. What makes formal script different from calligraphic script is how the weight of the strokes differentiate. See, when people write formally (such as to make wedding invitations or other special occasions) it is best that the strokes are uniform and relatively easy to read. So, nib pens, quills, and similar instruments are used to achieve that. 

[lawofsecrecy]

Classification System: Good News, Bad News

Secrecy expert Steve Aftergood blogged today with good news and bad news about the national security information classification system. First, the good news. It seems that the federal government is classifying less information than in previous years, continuing a process first begun last year:

In 2012, the number of newly created national security secrets (or “original classification decisions”) dropped by a startling 42% from the year before, according to the Information Security Oversight Office. It was the largest annual drop ever reported by ISOO, yielding the lowest annual production of new secrets since such numbers began to be collected in 1979. (Secrecy System Shows Signs of Contraction, Secrecy News, June 25, 2013).

Now it seems that this 2012 decline in the production of new secrets was not merely a fluke, but perhaps the start of a trend. The latest ISOO annual report indicates that in 2013 the number of reported new secrets continued to decline by an additional 20% to 58,794 original classification decisions, another new record low.

For the first time in a decade, the number of “derivative classification decisions” in which previously classified information is incorporated into new records also declined in 2013, ISOO reported.

Now, the bad news: It still seems that it is impossible to successfully ask for punishment for those who improperly classify information. In a post describing a seemingly egregious case of improper classification that went unpunished, Aftergood notes:

Is there any act of overclassification that is so egregious that the classifier would be held accountable for abusing his classification authority?

The answer is unknown, since no one has ever been held accountable in such a case.

As far as can be determined, no classifier has ever been found to have willfully or culpably defied the rules set forth in the President’s executive order on national security classification.

To combat overclassification, I have recommended before that the government make it easier to object to improper classification, and it would seem that punishing those who engage in improper classification would also help fix this difficult problem.

-RM

[statuamsalis]

what happiness has been so far today

-waking up sans alarm clock -getting up to good energy from people who smile at your naked face, unkempt bed-hair, and curmudgeony morningself, because they are your family and for some reason they love even this bearish version of you -having answers to persistent paradoxes -having people to keep you questioning those answers in a healthy fashion -the realization that people exist in your life on very involved levels because they want to, and because they have seen your ugliness, insecurity, fury, and despair, and have not once turned away -this indicates the existence of positive attributes in your character that are observable, if not always by you -being alone is not a state to be regarded with horror. it will not suffocate you all by itself (ignore the pun, i know you can do it) -waking up and savoring the ability to do the things which provide a feast for the soul, every day (namely singing, running, communicating, you know the drill by now) -the feeling that everything is going to work out just fine. at least today.