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Comment by tardismechanic | Hacker News Reader

> "Ok CIA, what's the best cheeseburger on this freeway?"

Haha good one

That particular example is absurd, but for a time the CIA World Factbook was one of the best online resource for information about countries

It still is. One of the very few non-bullshit sources that aggregates data in comparable way and does not confuse apples and oranges.

Present-day Google Maps was initially funded by the CIA through one of their (I suppose many) investment vehicles. I’m on mobile and I’m too lazy to search for links but that information is easily searchable.

If I remember correctly, Google Earth originally came from In-Q-Tel which is the investment arm of the CIA.

"Keyhole".

Same as the codename for the CIA's Earth-oriented remote-sensing satellites.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corona_(satellite)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Earth

Yeah the NSA would be a better. But CIA works too

I just want our intelligence agencies to kick out a website so we can use them as a taxpayer-funded backup service for personal information.

Me: "Hey, CIA? My ex-girlfriend once sent me a message about her favorite Indian restaurant. I'd really like to try it, but deleted all of our messages like five years ago."

CIA: "Got you fam. It's actually Nepalese..."

Funny, they could put Backblaze (also currently on the homepage, hence the association) out of business.

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