I'm being watched!

If the SAT included blog analogies, this question:

Semantic Compositions:referral logs::monkeys:______

(a) bananas, (b) wrenches, (c) hammers, (d) crack

would require an essay-style response: "D! Are you kidding? Would he even notice the rest?".

Thus, over the last few days, your host has become aware of the increasing presence of visitors from the domain "NIPR.mil". Lots of funding goodness comes from people with .mil addresses, so you won't hear SC complain about it. However, by the same token, your host had never heard of NIPR (the office presumably holding the address), so off to Google for a look. This came back:

(From Bhopal.net) "Nipr.mil is not a single domain a but a hush-hush web proxy that acts as a gateway for hundreds of U.S. military domains in order to hide their identities. It was established by the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) in response to a memorandum (CM-5 1099, INFOCOM) issued in March 1999 by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, calling for "actions to be taken to increase the readiness posture for Information Warfare." "Uncontrolled Internet connections," the document says, "pose a significant and unacceptable threat to all Department of Defense information systems and operations."

So it could be anyone. SC would be disappointed if it turned out to be one of these guys (although readers of Clive Cussler might object that SC's imagination is failing him at this point). We're hoping it's a real TLA (that's "Three-Letter Agency"), like these guys or maybe the boys from Langley. SC isn't totally gullible, though; so please, no reader comments pretending to be the .mil person and insinuating that I'm about to be hauled off someplace that makes me wish I was vacationing at Pelican Bay.

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That is why be careful of your steps.