Saving Lives with Design

valdean writes "Last year, the White House declassified an August 2001 intelligence brief entitled: 'Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in US.' Among other things, the brief mentions that Bin Ladin 'wanted to hijack a US aircraft.' So why was it ignored? Graphic designer Greg Storey thinks part of the reason is poor design. He set out to modify the format of the original document into a more legible one."

The spoon explanation.

[qewl]

In related news, the declassified document now shows Laden originally planned to use spoons isntead of box cutters to hijack the planes...

/who came up with that anyway? I've never picked up a spoon and thought, "wow that's a pretty input device.."?

Not quite right...

[TelJanin]

While a better designed document might not save the world, I believe it would help the President (Bush or otherwise) to quickly and more effectively discard the facts and act the way he would have otherwise.

Lorem Ipsum = danger?

[Anonymous Coward]

No wonder no one paid any attention to the report! Judging by the new document, the whole thing was just full of gibberish beyond the headline!

Re:The spoon explanation.

[Soko]

I've never picked up a spoon and thought, "wow that's a pretty input device.."?

But... there is no spoon. ;-)

Soko

Too much text

[nizo]

Remember these are busy politicians. A simple one page graphic of a plane exploding, people on fire, politicians getting blamed, etc. might have better conveyed the message, since apparently the headline "Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in US" didn't instill the proper amount of concern.

Re:The spoon explanation.

[commodoresloat]

Bush has aids?

I know why it was ignored.

[GeorgeMcBay]

Presidential memos don't support the BLINK tag.

Re:News for nerds?

[MarkRose]

I fail to see how this has anything to do with Slashdot.

Obviously, it has everything to do with Slashdot! As you pointed out, the articles posted here aren't interesting, relevant, or timely, ergo geeks pay attention to Slashdot for the design and wise colour choice!

That, or I'm smoking crack!

The president has a hard enough time...

[Anonymous Coward]

with English.

from the this-is-not-a-political-post dept.

[GeorgeMcBay]

Nor is it a Hardware post, despite showing up in that section. But that's ok, because the person who posted it isn't really an editor, either.

Welcome to Slashdot!

Re:Lorem Ipsum = danger?

[serutan]

Fifteen minutes after this was posted, it was red-flagged by Carnivore. The President has approved $1 billion for a Lorem Ipsum task force. Monday morning Congress will pass the Lorem Ipsum Homeland Patriotism Act, which will impose a $100,000 fine and 10-year federal prison sentence for distribution or use of p2p software. Entertainment industry spokesmen hailed the new legislation as a step forward in the fight against terrorism.

Re:Why was it ignored?

[zulux]

As a Neocon overload myself, I can attest to truth of your statement.

In our defense, the whole "Kill 3,000 Americans and Take over the World" plot came out of a focus group held in Delwa, North Dakota.

If you've ever been to Delwa, you'd be thankful that the number of deaths was under 3,000 - some of those people are even too crazy for my taste.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some babies to kill and some trees to cut down. I think I'll make the clowns sad again as well - you know, you got to put in extra effort if you want to get anywhere.

Re:News for nerds?

[hedge_death_shootout]

This is an article about a computer nerd (okay web designer or something, but still) who thinks his particular not-that-important skills hold the key to saving the world.
Thus, it's supremely relevant to slashdot, where a large proportion of the readership share this delusion.

Re:The spoon explanation.

[Arathrael]

Must be inspiration taken from that other renowed villain, the Sheriff of Nottingham. I can see the scene:

Bin Laden: We will cut their hearts out, with spoons!
Lackey: Why spoons? Why not box cutters?
Bin Laden: Because they're dull you twit, it'll hurt more!

Re:The spoon explanation.

[Atrax]

Bush has aids?

possibly. He certainly doesn't believe in safe sex [religioustolerance.org]

Re:Yeah, right......

[Boronx]

We were thinking we were scared of the terrorists and gays, so we re-elected a corrupt closeted dimwit who didn't stop the terrorists the last time and decided the best way to stop the terrorists this time is to invade a non-terrorist country and turn them all in to terrorists.

So to answer your question, I don't know what we were thinking.

Re:Latin Jibberish Generator... probably from iWor

[Anonymous Coward]

Let me draw this to you:

._.
|_| <-- Joke
' '

0 <---- Andromeda Galaxy

o <---- Moon

. <---- You

Re:hindsight

[k-zed]

I thought he used Lorem Ipsum because the "target audience" (W.) wouldn't read the big wordy part anyway...

Re:Not possible to take all threats seriously

[milimetric]

it would have cost us less to take all the threats in the world seriously than to incur the losses resulting from the 9/11 attacks. Think about it:
- emotional damage for the country (not to be understimated, this is very much a country by the people)
- monetary damage (count the airline fiasco and the 200 some billion dollars spent on Iraq with it, because 9/11 was used as an excuse to go there)
- Bush is still in the white house... irreparable

While on the subject, why pay 200 some billion dollars to go through Iraq "supposedly" to stop Bin Laden? Why not just offer a 20 billion dollar reward for Bin Laden? A lot less U.S. soldiers dead, and shit, for that money, I'd go after him.

Re:hindsight

[Dogtanian]

I thought he used Lorem Ipsum because the "target audience" (W.) wouldn't read the big wordy part anyway...

GWB isn't the only person who doesn't read the big wordy part. This is a common problem in all people.

Even on websites targeted towards the intelligent, people post replies to news items without bothering to read the article. Additionally, users won't read replies past the second paragraph; anything after that may as well be lorem ipsum.

Furthermore, fermentum wisi. Aenean nisl libero, rhoncus ut, aliquam nec, posuere nec, nunc. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Donec vel nibh. Integer enim. Donec posuere imperdiet est. Nam et odio id eros congue imperdiet. Sed vel mauris. Vivamus commodo ipsum nec wisi.

Fusce consequat, sapien non porta tincidunt, wisi lectus malesuada leo, vitae tincidunt risus libero ac metus. Sed lorem erat, dictum eget, commodo id, auctor volutpat, nibh. Ut sapien neque, tincidunt ut, convallis id, ultricies id, nibh.

Duis varius. Mauris libero orci, sodales sed, tempor ac, bibendum vitae, urna. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit.

President only?

[mindstormpt]

No matter how you present it, he won't know how to read it anyway, so what's the point? If you really really but really want him to do it, you can try turning it upside down and placing it inside "My Pet Goat", but results are not guaranteed.

Same old crooks?

[hawk]

Hillary is pulling Jeb's strings???

:)

hawk

Here is the true and unredacted text

[Un pobre guey]

You guys are all wrong. Here is the actual, still secret document read by the President:

Osama Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in US

Osama bin Laden is a bad man with a rifle and a beard. Osama is not America's friend. Osama and his friends are bad men that want to hurt America.

Osama and his friend are saying bad things. They are saying very bad things. The things Osama and his friends are saying are bad, very bad.

Osama is trying to send bad people with bombs to America. He and his bad friends want to make the bombs explode near Americans, so that the bombs will hurt or kill Americans.

These are bad things to do. Somebody must stop them. The President of the United States of America may need to send people to stop Osama and his bad friends.

Americans will be happy when they find that Osama and his bad friends have been stopped. They would be very angry and very sad if Osama and his bad friends send bombs to America and explode them near Americans to hurt or kill them.

Some of Osama's bad friends say they will get on airplanes full of people in the United States and crash them into tall buildings. If this happens the people in the planes and in the buildings may be hurt or killed. The buildings may be damaged, or may even fall down. Big buildings like these are very expensive, and are often poorly insured. This would be very, very bad.

The President should probably give orders to people to make sure these things do not happen, for they are bad things. It may be worth doing things to avoid having Osama and his bad friends attack us in those bad ways. Even if many people have to do extra work, they might need to be asked to do this extra work.

In conclusion:

• Osama and his bad friends are saying they will send people with bombs to America.
• They plan on exploding the bombs near Americans to hurt or kill them.
• They are also saying that they will crash airplanes into buildings in America. This would hurt or kill many people, and might damage the buildings or make them fall down.
• The President should think about ordering some of his police and soldiers to stop Osama and his bad friends.
• If Osama and his friends do these bad things, Americans will be very angry and very sad.

If the President takes too long to stop them, and Osama and his bad friends do these evil and terrible things, the President may need to send soldiers, spies, and airplanes to attack Osama and his friends. This may cause oil prices to go up, way up. The President may need to spend a lot of extra money on soldiers, airplanes, bombs and other war supplies. A lot more.

The people who buy and sell oil, or make, buy, or sell war supplies may need to make extra profits for a little while, but that is a sacrifice Americans will be glad to make in order to stop Osama and his bad friends. They will be even more glad, if other bad men in the general area where Osama and his bad friends are can also be attacked. At least one additional bad man should be found there and attacked, so that Americans can be even more glad. This will require even more profits for the oil and war supplies men, but they are good American Patriots, and Americans will be pleased to make even more sacrifices like that in order to attack the bad men.

Many American soldiers, spies, police, and firemen will be hurt or killed. Many others will also be hurt or killed by Osama and his bad friends, as well as by our spies and soldiers as they try to kill the bad men. These are also sacrifices Americans will be happy to make in order to attack the bad men.

If Americans are glad enough, they will reward the President and vote for him again, so that he will be President one more time. Americans will be gladdest when there is most excitement about the great deeds being done by their President.

This is the end of this very important warning about Osama and his bad friends. The President should think about all of words and ideas in it. He should think very carefully. He should decide very carefully. The President should think about what needs to be done, and then do it. Sometimes the obvious thing to do is not the best thing. Sometimes another thing might be better, in the end.