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Don't.

Do. An aversion to the death penalty is a twisted concept because it leads to so-called 'life' sentences.

A 'life without parole' sentence is the most horrible torture ever devised. A 'comfortable' life in prison (without institutionalized slavery, malnourishment or brutality) is a modern invention of energy-wealthy society in which a moment's mortal agony is stretched out over many pointless years. Confinement, a dreary existence far from one's desired path, a great and ultimately worthless expense to society. Any sane person placed in this condition will harbor a degree of growing resentment that cannot be channeled away. You would think the only hope they could muster is that society may change its mind someday. And for some, this needs to happen .

Abandoning execution for the worst crimes also leads us inexorably in the direction of a 'revolutionary' new medical procedure that will render a bad person into brand new good person. They can return home to their families in varying states of sentience and independence, they know their name, they are as cuddly as ever, no vulgar scars on the forehead. There is a warranty. The procedure is so successful (and financially lucrative!) that it is naturally 'improved' and 'refined' so it can be applied to smaller gentler degree and under various brand names, to many judicial and civil markets. As told in our latest prospectus, a particularly fertile R&D effort may make 'problem teens' and 'repeat offenders' a thing of the past. To ease barriers of parental consent, a multi-faceted campaign has been launched in news and social media. Our secured trademark has been injected as a clever and cute internet meme, so even Grumpy Cat is promoting our product though he does not know it yet. Contacts in the AMA and DOJ have assured us that there is even a useable legal framework in which judges may order the procedure done, in the same way that a vaccine may be involuntarily given. We have a saying, the customer *is* the cure.

If you are curious about this medical procedure and wish to research it further, see this essay I wrote in 2006 in which you will learn its medical name. I will not disclose the trademark-meme at this time, you will have to wait for product launch. If you think this is a good idea then get the fuck away from me and my family.

But back to the prisons. For those guilty of heinous crimes and disposed to violence, what they're actually hoping is that the society around them collapses, the grid goes down, or some violent insurrection or hostile invasion occurs in which prisons are opened as a war tactic. Some would seek only escape and obscurity, some directed revenge at any cost. Who is to say what most would do? We cannot know. To us, a lifer prison is an undiscovered country. What would the guards do if some apocalyptic disaster ensues, that no help or food will arrive? They begin to leave, one by one to be with their families. Will the last one open the gates?

Few would consider storing gasoline-soaked rags near an open flame in the boiler room a good idea. But when you oppose the death penalty for the most horrid monsters of our age... you bring into existence the possibility you or someone you know might meet them in person some day under conditions in which you'd rather not. This may be more likely than being hit by a tornado. I see you have a storm shelter.

Some may see life imprisonment as a sort of societal insurance policy against injustice. File 'em all away for good, and if some new miracle of technology proves their innocence we can get 'em back and fix it, make it right. The most celebrated cases

We've got to stop with the Neanderthal nonsense...

Right we do. There are just a few pieces of evidence now, but it may be that Neanderthal is actually a distant race that falls within our human specie. If their whole genome diverged from the branch of modern humans ~600,000YA and yet --- if there is additional evidence of interbreeding up to ~50,000YA, and humans from ~50,000YA could interbreed with us today (which I believe is true) --- then I consider it extremely likely that a Neanderthal could breed with a modern human.

And give your children superpowers like X-ray vision.

This is vindication for Jean Auel, whose Earth's Children series of books has popularized this exciting idea for generations of children. As a lay author she has been the lightning-rod target of those who disagree with the hypothesis, and at times her literary critics have even betrayed a tone of indulgent arrogance that just might have been a glimmer of the old Darwinian stuffed shirts, who banished Neanderthal from the human family early on by some of the characteristics that (merely) differentiate races existing today. Central to all of this goofy criticism is the Ayla's hybrid child Durc.

I highly recommend Earth's Children books to all. They are on par with Tolkien in their use of descriptive language, the central characters portray a series of actual humans over time who have made technological discoveries over time. The books are especially fit for children as they imagine the rich and viable human society that we know must have existed long ago, dispelling the silly myths that what we would recognize as civilization is merely a few thousand years old.

I was rushed for time when I wrote that, it didn't come off too well. What I had in mind was from a future where people are being chosen for long term assignments such as a grand tour of the solar system (and part two), extended Mars mission -- or colonization -- where there are qualified volunteers of both genders. There's a lot more to this than sexual liaisons or pair bonding.

The Sex Differences in Psychology is a good read on what has been observed by experiment, there's some physiology in there too. And with any 'delicate' topic, the Wiki talk page for it shows an interesting struggle to identify and manage bias for a topic that is so rich with historical flavor it has its own category of humor.

But a most fascinating tangent from the Wiki page is this recent study Widespread sex differences in gene expression and splicing in the adult human brain (Trabzuni et. al 2013), showing "that sex differences in gene expression and splicing are widespread in adult human brain, being detectable in all major brain regions and involving 2.5% of all expressed genes."

Sequencing inherited genes has taught us that there's no more than ~0.5% variance among the races of the world. We have leveraged the smallness of that number into a scientifically based bias against racism and prejudice which we apply to classic arguments of "nature vs. nurture?" to stack the deck against "nature" when debating things like intelligence and ability.

This is good. This ~0.5% figure gives us a hard baseline for "humanness" superior to that applied by Phrenologists and early Darwinians. If I have inherited a certain gene that affects skull shape or skin color or susceptibility to a disease, I can expect a noble society NOT to apply judgment from it of inherent ability or potential.

So what about that ~2.5% difference in gene expression between male and female brains? "We are not alone." I mean that in the full Close Encounters aliens-are-among us sense, because when discussing sex-triggered gene expression we're firmly in "nature" territory. Science reveals the existence of an intelligent (yet 'alien') species on this planet. And even though your genes are expressed differently, you both fall within the ~0.5% genetic baseline.

This means "including women equally" in everything that matters in a direct or Monte Carlo 50/50 ratio or a process is NOT like that "gotta strive to ensure that all races are represented" thing. The human race is a successful species because of this working partnership. It is a successful one and we ignore or diminish it at our great peril.

By peril I mean that any enterprise without equal genders by default is ahuman. Not 'inhuman' with its connotation of injustice. Ahuman is "not us", creepy, weird, uncanny valley. I propose the gender coin toss+'merit' --- and not just 'merit' (plus equal action political metric) --- as a way to statistically implement what is our intrinsic nature, impose a system that can be agreed upon that eases us into gender parity as the likely default, but yet does what nature does --- when the toss weighs heavily to one side something new is tried.

Because there may be dynamics of gender interaction (not sex) that are not just necessary to evolve. By excluding gender at times through history we may have been losing ground.

For something completely different, see Women: How do they do it?

I was rushed for time when I wrote that, it didn't come off too well. What I had in mind was from a future where people are being chosen for long term assignments such as a grand tour of the solar system (and part two), extended Mars mission -- or colonization -- where there are qualified volunteers of both genders. There's a lot more to this than sexual liaisons or pair bonding.

The Sex Differences in Psychology is a good read on what has been observed by experiment, there's some physiology in there too. And with any 'delicate' topic, the Wiki talk page for it shows an interesting struggle to identify and manage bias for a topic that is so rich with historical flavor it has its own category of humor.

But a most fascinating tangent from the Wiki page is this recent study Widespread sex differences in gene expression and splicing in the adult human brain (Trabzuni et. al 2013), showing "that sex differences in gene expression and splicing are widespread in adult human brain, being detectable in all major brain regions and involving 2.5% of all expressed genes."

Sequencing inherited genes has taught us that there's no more than ~0.5% variance among the races of the world. We have leveraged the smallness of that number into a scientifically based bias against racism and prejudice which we apply to classic arguments of "nature vs. nurture?" to stack the deck against "nature" when debating things like intelligence and ability.

This is good. This ~0.5% figure gives us a hard baseline for "humanness" superior to that applied by Phrenologists and early Darwinians. If I have inherited a certain gene that affects skull shape or skin color or susceptibility to a disease, I can expect a noble society NOT to apply judgment from it of inherent ability or potential.

So what about that ~2.5% difference in gene expression between male and female brains? "We are not alone." I mean that in the full Close Encounters aliens-are-among us sense, because when discussing sex-triggered gene expression we're firmly in "nature" territory. Science reveals the existence of an intelligent (yet 'alien') species on this planet. And even though your genes are expressed differently, you both fall within the ~0.5% genetic baseline.

This means "including women equally" in everything that matters in a direct or Monte Carlo 50/50 ratio or a process is NOT like that "gotta strive to ensure that all races are represented" thing. The human race is a successful species because of this working partnership. It is a successful one and we ignore or diminish it at our great peril.

By peril I mean that any enterprise without equal genders by default is ahuman. Not 'inhuman' with its connotation of injustice. Ahuman is "not us", creepy, weird, uncanny valley. I propose the gender coin toss+'merit' --- and not just 'merit' (plus equal action political metric) --- as a way to statistically implement what is our intrinsic nature, impose a system that can be agreed upon that eases us into gender parity as the likely default, but yet does what nature does --- when the toss weighs heavily to one side something new is tried.

Because there may be dynamics of gender interaction (not sex) that are not just necessary to evolve. By excluding gender at times through history we may have been losing ground.

For something completely different, see Women: How do they do it?

The US is choosing the path of aggression instead of the path of civilized behavior. This is a strategy designed by fools.

It is called "game theory". It is a virus that teaches that the only way to achieve a predictable result is to cheat, steal and lie. Because everyone else does.

There are two kinds of people in this world, those who will lean into its principles thinking that (despite its ugly face) there is some shred of real science hidden underneath because of its (apparent) success in helping to model animal behaviors. But if Lassie played by the rules of Game Theory she'd leave Timmy down in the well because it would achieve a predictable result as opposed to the uncertain course of action where she'd have to try save him again, and might fail. If that makes sense to you then congratulations, you're a Game Theorist.

And those like myself who see Game Theory applied by or to anything human as a mental disorder masquerading as a tool. One of our training wheels for disaffected hypocrites.

The folks at Enron imagined themselves Game Theorists but it turned out they were just being assholes.

Conspirational racketeering isn't so hot either because it leads to the formation of larger committees over time to help hide its existence and effect.

I will always strive to be an unpredictable coefficient in any theory. My favorite sport is Drunkard's Walk Philosophy. You never know where you are morally speaking but eventually you find your way home.

Why did NSA infect 50,000 computer networks?

Lack of adult supervision. I really mean that.

What makes you so sure?

That they are STILL trying to hide something BIG? Years in the telecom and ISP business, NSA-watching since the Internet went global and way before. I am one of those people who might have become a spook, though I am glad I did not. From its all-to-brief brief mention in David Kahn's The Codebreakers [1967] which I carried around as a kid like some overstuffed bible, my interest was piqued by James Bamford's Puzzle Palace [1982] which introduced the world to the topic of the 'piggyback slurp' and laid out directly NSA's intentions to tap the world. The whole world -- Charter be damned -- from the start.

A few anecdotes from good friends in the telecommunications trade who alluded to special cordoned-off spaces within AT&T's Magens Point cable terminus in St. Thomas US Virgin Islands, drunken conversation in bars with reminders not to speak of such things... a rather suspicious 'underwater landslide' fiber outage between St. Thomas and Puerto Rico c.1995, which I suspected at the time might involve a submarine because a telco friend noticed that after all his voice circuits were back there was an eyebrow-raising 'unusually long period' before the data circuits came up, even though they were physically interspersed and not supposed to be broken out at the carrier level... circumstantial stuff, sure. Pure speculation is as fascinating as the real thing.

Since then, revelations about Room 614A and Hepting vs. AT&T, the little mouse who could have roared all the way to the Supreme Court, had they not declined to hear the case.

I'm not talking about individual stakeouts or FISA warrants or occasional 'oopsies' of a few domestic intercepts. I'm discussing large scale Tier 1 total interception of data with selective routing and forwarding of target traffic onto side channels via 'dark' or leased fiber on a scale that is approaching 'total'. This includes voice too: terrestrially trunked cell calls and landline (there is practically no difference these days, it's all turkeyfart compressed).

Which is why I posted here back in June my theory that PRISM slides were made as part of a limited hang-out. I came to this conclusion because I found the allegation that Internet service providers named grant direct back-doors to NSA to be preposterous (and still do, too much risk of exposure by now). The purpose of the hang-out was for Google and company to discredit the allegations honesty to relegate it to 'hoax' status... and provide a topic that diverts attention away from the total-tap-slurp operation.

Steve Gibson of Gibson Research has come up with another theory that I find interesting, it may fit Occam's Razor better than my own. He presented it recently in Security Now #408: The State of Surveillance, audio and full transcript available. GOOD STUFF. His angle is that "direct access to their servers" means all unencrypted SMTP-mail and HTTP from tap points directly upstream. It is all about fiber and taps. Taps are about splitting light... and that is what prisms do.

If you have a good traffic tap and encrypted intercepts, add a bit of coercion for the providers to divulge their private SSL keys and they can replay the past SSL sessions they have gathered.

It is time for everyone to learn about and implement Perfect Forward Secrecy.

Thar be dragins in our midst. Slay them.
NSA and the Desolation of Smaug

Some years back I wrote a small essay about another potential scenario... not the generic malware threat but one targeted to certain individuals. If you have a secret to keep that is worth killing to protect, you buy some specific Google ad-words that attract the attention of independent investigators out there who might be getting close to the mark. Lure them in by presenting a false front and inviting collaboration. Then go for the kill and make it look like an accident. Hocus Locus: Information Land Mines

Not that Florida would save him - but "un-conceding" is apparently a legal option that Kerry explored in December, 2004, due to voting-machine-fraud allegations from Ohio.

Digital storage media for long term -- which I'd take as a human lifespan at least -- simply does not exist right now. It just hasn't been a priority in consumer based technologies, and is not likely to become one any time soon. Even if it did exist it would be expensive, reliance on it alone would not work, any single titanium box of gold plated discs would end up in a landfill somewhere the first time a marriage ends badly.

Only family based tradition can bridge time with assurance. There must be some one to gather the material, decide on the medium and see that the copies are tested and the collection is updated regularly. Also at least one other 'backup librarian' person -- preferably far away -- holding a copy. In every generation there should be one 'primary' and one 'backup' librarian. Consider the role of primary librarian as one not be taken lightly, which deserves the respect of (and occasional monetary support from) the entire family.

What I am saying is, it is not enough for everyone in a large family to acknowledge to one another, "You have a bunch of stuff, so do I, I'll send you mine some day, or..." Some day never comes. People forget. Disks crash. Only someone so designated as 'librarian' emowered with personal responsibility who follows a ritualistic backup/mirror strategy can make it work.

Choose some modern but cheap medium, for example 500GB or 1TB external USB drives. Get three of them, A B & C. Put the whole collection on each and send 'C' to the backup librarian. During the year write new material to 'A', mirror the changes to 'B' occasionally. At the end of the year mail 'B' to the backup librarian, upon receipt they mail back 'C' which you also bring up to date. You keep swapping 'B' and 'C' through the mail, only one in transit at any time. Of course, the failure of any disk demands immediate replacement.

A paper document and personal letter from you explaining the collection and instructions for keeping it up to date should be kept with each drive... so even if the scheme does not work out, some descendant might read it and be moved to salvage the data and carry the tradition forward.

As the years go by no doubt better mediums and methods will be available... but once you have gathered and built your Collection, mirrored and have a backup copy far away you can say to yourself, "That will be a task for a future librarian." and take pride in the statement! For you have done much more than just gathered and written some stuff... you have created a 'mantle of responsibility' which is just a wetware based mechanism to see that the job is done.

Because WE ARE LIVING IN A FUTURE DARK AGE
http://breakfornews.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=10474#10474

And yet, who are the real extreme conspiracy 'theorists?' The ones who make a living doing it.

They're the ones who tap the phones of the Raging Grannies and peace activists. Those who trumpet a threat through media mouthpieces about badly concocted risks, like WMD, ignoring or downplaying real risks, like traffic and poverty and the Mob. The McCarthys and the JE Hoovers, shock jocks and NSA spooks. The makers of the 100,000 person 'no-fly' lists, who stop people from travelling because of the cover of the mystery novel they're reading. Commies in the woodpile and all that.

Oh sure, there are plenty of ineffective kooks who make the Lone Gunman series look tame, but they're badly outgunned, outfinanced, and make a good paintbrush for the 'crazy' tag that is both so legitimate and so admittedly expanded by black propaganda, fear, and other disinformation.

So, it is both planned and true that firm believers in alternate histories and shadow elites are crazy, because the evidence is so tainted, that to believe it wholly is to be inevitably duped. Still, some of the evidence is for real, right? Occam's Razor suggests that documents like the PAO's "Greater CIA Openness" and Pentagon's "Information Operations Roadmap" memos are real, and that there are always those-who-would-be-king pulling whatever strings they can grasp.

Here's the situation for media skeptics:

• you have to question nearly every source, cross reference, etc.
• it is extremely tiring and brings about malaise (an intended effect)
• on public fora like this, expect the spanish inquisition

How much of USA's population celebrates indefinite ideological domestic and global war? Millions. And the first casualty is always truth (sorry). To answer your first question: conformity is comforting, and authoritarian.