Trigger

What's The Point?

"Not the most elegant way to save an online text conversation, but we have captured and safe stored the dialog. It is not easily machine readable or searched."

Relying too much on hearsay to proceed was inefficient at best. The presumed trust did not equal the importance of precision to the task at hand. Separating known from unknown reliably, the largest challenge.

"While our reliance on secrecy is minimal, the element of surprise should not be ignored. Getting a jump on disclosure timing has served the mission well."

"Agreed. It fits well with a principal driven operational plan - even when it is in a constant state of flux." She was repeating what everyone in the room already knew. Her statement just affirmed its importance in the context of the recently discovered infiltration.

"Co-opted privacy concern even hypervigilance,  it is one of our competition's truly potent tactics. Yet it seems that the most cyber secure operation is the IT department of a US based private corporation that is headquartered far from DC."

"We have strong circumstantial evidence that authorities have already interpreted the activity as aiding and abetting. And those authorities are not above suspicion themselves."

© 2012 Buzz Hill

Secret Trail

Ready in September

"If we get close I suspect we'll hear the 'politically-motivated' charge, verifying that we have picked up the trail and the technique employed is workng."

"And if not?"

"The other leads might look more promising."

A mix of mother nature at her pristine best and a remarkable miniature life-like artifact meet at her place with us, intoxicating. Speculating on the fusion in the best laboratory imaginable. For this, we came.

The circumstantial evidence linking the seemingly disparate chatter made more and more sense since the technical cover-up began. Handing off the device revealed aspects of the system that could be very useful in reverse-engineering the covert use of it.

© 2012 Buzz Hill

Burglary

"Their detective got a little clumsy. We have it on tape."

More interesting than most of the recent discoveries, implicit links between petty crime and secretive private 'enterprise'. The Cloak was amazingly effective at masking major links in the control chain. Its biggest vulnerability, human decency.

In each case of the ones studied so far, someone, consciously or unconsciously, disclosed key elements of the deception to the opposition. The fabric stayed intact, but chains leading to the ground broke. And as each broke the whole would weaken a bit more.


© 2012 Buzz Hill

Pathologic

"I am an attorney and I am telling both of you …"

In retrospect, scary words from a shady person thrust into a conflict-of-interest situation where a different but responsible person has almost no authority.

Much to learn when corruption becomes high art and very lucrative. Which in turn leads to a fascinating, equal and opposite reaction.

"That stunt won't work here, Keith or whatever your name was/is. Watch."

Why would something that happened decades ago in cellular infancy be conceptually juxtapositioned adjacent to the current crisis? Something to do with one or more Subscriber Identity Modules? The lion sentinel fell ill too. A story of fascinating implications for learning AV media and its central role in a recently connected planet.

In a sense, a broken hearted melody. Just like Romeo and Juliet. And The Matrix.

© 2012 Buzz Hill

Radio Daze

KOOL, Longview

Radio in the beginning was 'The' broadcast medium and all live. So naturally, everything revolved around what was on-the-air at the moment.

As more 'production' contributed to the content, the trend was away from spontaneity. Various parts of the broadcast transitioned to an environment where the elements were created before hand and isolated from each other. Connectivity and therefore spontaneity was sacrificed for precision, realism, production values, etc.

In a dream, the entire sound creation was open, in a single room. Still, designed so the sound of one workstation didn't impinge acoustically on the work at another. Live cameras recorded the process because the sheer joy of the effort was worthy of capture. It too did and would have a wide audience.

"Its radio, everything is geared toward what is being broadcast live, at this very moment."  Impromptu and at the same time well-rehearsed. Like robust living at the edge of now.

They lay looking together upon the live production, bodies close. Shallow moral thunder gathering behind them. Self-serving judgement in the name of a higher power, ever present.

© 2012 Buzz Hill

Something Will Break?

"Threaten the family, the inconvenient 'moral compass' will follow."

"He predicted violence. It is hard to deny. It is in the air. "

"The protectors of the prescribed domestic order are equipped with the latest weaponry, field tested in foreign lands. Nothing like competition and a ready market to develop the most innovative products (tasers, riot suits, agent orange …)

"Collateral damage in a civil war. How much thought has been given to it in what some claim is the most technologically and economically advanced nation-state?"

Of the many different ways to interpret the three word question, we have focused so far on the concept of something about to become suddenly broken.  Another interpretation is that an opportunity to 'get back in the game' presents itself in a heretofore undiscovered vulnerability in the opposing teams game plan.

"How different are they really? I mean that in the sense that the same change potential has a number of perspectives. Until the singular result manifests (wave collapse in particle physics) much is possible. The magic of now, so-to-speak.

© 2012 Buzz Hill

Smile

"Content with being unique and helpful. You might say humble."

"When ego assumes a productive role, it becomes an outward expression of abstracted uniqueness rather than an all consuming, dangerous and fragile trouble maker?"

The many 'ego' definitions floating around make answering the question, as stated, problematic. Generally speaking, any part of the mind in control of its output without the full benefit of the rest of the mind is more likely to act sub-optimally.

By extension, minds in concert perform better than a mind in isolation. We as sentient beings are fortunate that certain among us can catalyze the communication conducive to collective well being.

"She doesn't converse in English well enough yet to respond directly in that language. She seems a master at a common language though. You can see it in her eyes."

© 2012 Buzz Hill

Which Part?

"We have ways of dealing with excessive kindness"

.

"We have to lie, cheat and steal because people are stupid."

"Or not."

"The purpose of our think tank is to obscure this foundational premise in such a way as to confuse people who waste too much time being compassionate. It was working real well until something happened.

"Can anyone here tell me what, 'overreach" means? I am told the concept is related to the noted decline.

"As detailed extensively in this log, it is difficult to 'hear' when making so much sound. Even more so when the sound is intended to obscure, confuse etc. the audience.  It tends to have the same impact on those who are on the sending side trying to understand the impact of the transmissions.

At some point the perpetrators become numb to the utter senseless nature of their mind-control messages. Measuring the audience by what they expect of it rather than a conversation with it.

© 2012 Buzz Hill

Counter Intelligence Program

"The technical term is agent provocateur. In our network domain these bad actors are highly trained in masquerading their loyalty using the best technology practices available.

"The covert technique has an extended history, of course. Its long-lived primitives have been documented for centuries. Many centuries."

And the agent provocateur would say something like, "Why do you have to analyze everything? We are tired of it." Those who did not agree with her/his claim of speaking for the group as a whole did not speak up. They were still processing the revelation that there had been this unexpected breach.

"You may also be wondering why much of the log lately has been about the hazards of unknown conflict-of-interests. It is simple. Large numbers have now been exposed because the lights have come up.

"In short, transparency is a many faceted topic. The increasing consequences to those that have counted on obscuration, misdirection and the like, occur as one becoming visible reveals another."

© 2012 Buzz Hill

Deception Machine II

Protecting a too small base. When on offense, the actual size was inconsequential because it was perceived as larger by the other side and most of the fence-sitters. Astroturf is sometimes made to look authentic. It is not grown, it is manufactured.

Since the Lights-On offensive, the fragile nature of meager numbers appearing much bigger cannot sustain successful deception. This is so even though the primary means of 'news' distribution is owned (directly or indirectly) and operated by the side benefiting from distributed misinformation.

Much easier to observe when the top is in the form of a nation-state. This is different. Seeking ways to understand and describe how so. That is our intention here. Public perception control is more difficult when the masses have an alternative to cowering from threats

© 2012 Buzz Hill

Yes, corrupt.

Trust Me

"We can do whatever we want. We're the good guys."

"Who decided that? The 'Real' Americans?"

Who corrupts law enforcement is important to target. Why and how help narrow the field of suspects. The methods of detection are once again catching up. The cyber world speeds up the competition more than it changes it. Many of the same principles apply.

The history of COINTELPRO is one of the very best examples. "The Plant" takes a different form in the modern era but works in much the same way as when it was used against racial miniorities decades ago.

"Does the sheriff really know? Or is it buried and hidden from her/his view in the organization and/or private vendor/contractor?"

"That is why we have the Freedom Of Information Act and other tools, to discover when there is a breach of the public trust. To be effective, one has to have a lead.

"Whistleblowers can provide the information if there is sufficient safety and incentive in coming forward."

© 2012 Buzz Hill

Social Brains

Friend

"With nary a mention of Facebook, it could not have been more about a successful organizational model writ very large. Silicon or no. Yet the subject was not really about the massive connections of our man-made global electronic network.

More about what appears to nature's most sophisticated internal network, the human brain. Further, why and how it connects to its context, socially. It is not trivial, it is not incidental. It is key. All else we value is derived from it. We are social critters, period."

Many dismiss the significance of the natural cognition architecture on which we depend. One suspects this is unwise. History is replete with disasters caused by taking for granted the care and feeding of this self renewing mechanism. To ignore its framework's details is to miss a wonderful nurturance opportunity.

© 2012 Buzz Hill

Yeah, that.

The challenge of a really big scale ...

"Can metaphor be formal?"

"I see what you mean. Scope constrained for the convenience of formality limits potential application."

Unspoken, for no other reason than to preserve a certain decorum. Venue dependent in this case. This order allowed in fact, a directed exploration of cognitive potential. There are other venues for a later time conducive to other directions (greater than just 'computer science').

Recent inroads to the previously dominant competition came as a direct result of circumventing the predatory chatter they generated. Mapping their HQ architecture revealed its vulnerabilities. Unprepared to defend without relying predominately on secrecy, misdirection, privacy manipulation and the like, the latest desperate attempts to compensate just accelerate the balancing process.

© 2012 Buzz Hill

... Where Art Thou?

Oh Brother

"Who among us is most proud of not reading directly or listening to opposing views? Is the person intellectually honest? Should this person be trusted with authority, explicit or otherwise? Do we, as engaged citizens have any influence over the situation? Should we?"

Law enforcement corruption through private channels. Those best served by the practice can get a lot of mileage out of providing a continuous propaganda stream supporting the idea that other sources of information are to be ignored because they are not trustworthy.

In defense of such shallow logic is a meme that justifies bad behavior because 'the other side does it."

© 2012 Buzz Hill

Gravity Defines Vertical

"You can't see it but it points to a singularity. Something defined by itself is inherently unstable?"

"That seems a useful way to think of it. Any uncontrolled positive feedback loop seldom results in something better."

"So the notorious big bank and a legend in its own mind emerging economic powerhouse nation-state create some major doubt about 'conventional economic wisdom'.  How much of our collective impression is programmed by owned media?"

"No doubt, still too much."

Artificial wind metaphor. Describes very succinctly its value to manipulators.

© 2012 Buzz Hill

Her Day

My Three Girls

"Life is not mathematics. Nor is mathematics life. Each informs the other, however. In a language from another time - Two but not two or dependent origination."

"Our abstraction engine (commonly called mind and for its convenience) reduces vast collections of experiences to what is ostensibly their essence. Its a lossy process and error prone but essential to life's apparent goal (for lack of a better term): better."

"Compromised precision is mitigated in part by distributed redundancy. When composed of the most capable of autonomous agents, network effects produce the counter-balance to entropy. If you are reading this, you know of whom I speak for you are but one of many on our blue planet.

"Imagine it is design without pretending to understand 'who', if anyone, might have brought such into being. You will like the result. I am pretty sure."

© 2012 Buzz Hill

Context Dependent Logging

Ubiquitous Pattern

"We had not discovered the nature of this type of recording until recently. Many unknown tuned circuits coming and going in response to pattern repetitions.

"The ones that endure are applicable to a wide variety of situations - leaning generic so-to-speak. The as-yet unnamed and highly abstract, the focus of our study."

Aspire to automate this natural cognitive process. Using authentic personal identities in a sharing context to catalyze its development.

NOTE: Some of the foregoing in this BuzzTheHill post is not fictional. Consider its appearance here as a public disclosure and as such, to the degree something novel and not obvious to those skilled in the art has been discussed, the specific intent was/is to put it in the PUBLIC DOMAIN.

© 2012 Buzz Hill

Not A Toy

"Surely an impossible dream. But irrational hope seems, for now, better than the alternative."

"It makes me angry that I cannot dream what I want into existence. At other times, it makes me sad. Funny thing is (funny peculiar rather than 'ha, ha') some dreams actually do come true. How is that so?"

"Its a collaboration, actually. Few things of lasting value are created through obedience. 'Soup' rapport is one of the most important elements. Connection another. And lets not forget time.

A ubiquitous cyclic pattern reminiscent of artificial music ... or the other way around? No matter. Not hiding nor shouting. Just being.

"Millennia have passed since the first of this wisdom was recorded. Yet a timeless thread runs through it. Sentient accessible but subtle."

© 2012 Buzz Hill

Roof of the Planet

"Legend has it that when the spiritual leader passes, his soul resides in a certain type of critter until he is re-incarnated. Works for me.

"Let me tell you why. Personal experience.

Bear with me. Regular readers know that the impatient will check out early. For them this message, "don't let the door hit you on your way out." Not original, but apropos."

Returning visitors know that each log entry is highly dependent on and an expansion of previous entries. Ideally, it is an extension of many time-based continuums that extend far into the past and into a predictable future.

Lifetimes of the conscious/ego based world are but a subset of that which underlies all phenomena. In some respects, the legends that pervade long history provide a bridge. One between "I am" that feels transient and 'we are' that is far more timeless.

© 2012 Buzz Hill

Owned versus Public

"Relying of the subjugation of the sensitive renders the perpetrator(s) subject to an organized push back. Think in terms of Newton's third law, and its basic mechanism as applied to socio/political interaction.

One of the more effective manipulation countermeasures is group emotional intelligence. Often called a "smart mob". In such an environment, mediated sensitivity is far wiser than the blind loyalty its opposition employs.

© 2012 Buzz Hill

Life Passing Me Up

Wild?

"After awhile, a sensitive person succumbs to the repetition, 'There is something wrong with you.'

"That energy is being re-directed now. The angry, violent reaction to change is already underway. Disobey those who abuse." He may as well have been talking to his chair. For no words need be spoken. He could hear the thoughts without the sound.

"The trick now is to share the insight with firm compassion. Of course, it is not a trick. Ironic that the popular slang expression is its own invalidation. 

"The media business has a desperate vested interest in keeping the competition close. Honesty will be sacrificed in the interest of low-cost revenue optimization. No rumble, much less advertising. Simple."

© 2012 Buzz Hill

Glossary Discussion

"Gaslighting. The author was unaware of what it meant and was fascinated when first learning of a famous movie starring Ingrid Bergman who won the Best Actress academy award for portrayal of the victim in the story."

A primarily unidirectional medium is ideal, as one might imagine. Creating the illusion that the target is participating in a productive discussion helps the deception achieve its objective.

"Automated recognition of the Gaslight pattern. Described in its most abstract form."

"Yes, lets try it."

Though mentioned before in a metaphor, searching quickly for a link in the soup informed both the glossary and index tasks. The connections, rather than the long sequence of the log described the latest mission phase to a "T".

"You know, it could be a second picture, so visual searching needs to be different than what we have been doing."

© 2012 Buzz Hill

Blocking Tactic

"This explains it."

"We now know that one of their players has elected to block reception from this source. It explains why engagement with him has been problematic.

"The only time useful dialog between the parties occurs is when third parties can hear transmissions from both and comment while referencing the blocked message so that the blocking party sees the origninal message indirectly.



"Perhaps, there is another explanation. Anybody?"

"I take it as a complement that Redmond follows our open discussion." she said, matter-of-factly.

Most do not know that choosing to stay with the highly patched legacy email system exposes an otherwise robust group interaction to disguised manipulation. The disruptors get a lot of help from certain software vendors. Often, but not always, they are purveyors of proprietary 'solutions' with baggage.

Exposure of disruption tactic is countered by manipulators when they appeal to a subtle combination of  arrogance and ignorance to which many of us fall victim.

© 2012 Buzz Hill

Actionable Evidence

"It would appear the videos are evidence of criminal mischief ... or worse."

Databases

When corruption is reasonably suspected, what are the factors considered in proceeding with discovery? What is the significance of Open Records Reports and the like?

Few would argue that political retribution is a valid use of law-enforcement information sharing. As in Watergate, the real crime is often in the cover-up. When sensitive management is delegated to private vendors, not-pretty things can happen. Indeed, they have happened.

Security for the team is largely derived by the openness and continuous recording of events. Thanks to technology developments, there are few constraints on how thorough the coverage is.

A sleeping giant has been awakened.

© 2012 Buzz Hill

Response

Forward (as opposed to the other direction).

"Imagine, if you will, that you are all but helpless in a coercive situation and discover that your new "condition" causes you to sleep with lucid dreaming in response."

'When you believe in things you don't understand?' Well, Stevie may not use these words to describe what was first conveyed four decades ago, but this log would: Mind is a superset of ego. The ego alone is not capable of deep understanding. Carefully nurtured, one can compensate for what would otherwise be a vulnerability to meme based predation. It is done by answering the call of the 'soup'.

"She was not only there, she sat down next to me without a clue as to who I was. Her smile matched the voice on the phone the day before. What did we have in common? Reverence for a remarkable man and his family (the dog too). To be invited meant a lot to me. Ok, bragging rights too. Our mission puts a glow in my heart.

"It will be close but I am convinced the effort will not be wasted regardless of the outcome."

© 2012 Buzz Hill

West of Portlandia

"I have heard a lot about the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Does it apply here? Corruption of a county government function certainly has precedent. Misuse of power and information collected in databases maintained by private parties is not new. This even though the data is from the public for the public protection benefit.

"Push back can take the form of an independent investigation?

"The common response from the opposition is something on the order of trivialization of the suggestion. Another tactic verbalized, 'I don't know what you are talking about.'"

© 2012 Buzz Hill

Better?

"No, that is my idea!", his ego snapped. 

Truth is, ownership of a good idea, (its source) has little to do with its ultimate success.  Great ideas propagate because they resonate with enough folks that they are implemented. And because they make sense rather than being sourced by a single or small group of egos.

"It is why robust attribution can be so useful. Rather than claiming a good idea, acknowledge that one stands 'on the shoulders of giants' and mention them by name. It is what the giants and compassionate humans do. I am pretty sure."

© 2012 Buzz Hill

They Are On To Us

Politics?

"Think of it as a 'protection from corruption' network. Prototype it in a local venue. 'Keep the lights on' means continuous documentation safely stored in multiple locations with a default mechanism for automatic disclosure, should the need arise."

With political winds shifting from 'law and order' serving the minority to safety for all, certain players of the old regime are relying on a variety of intimidation tactics. The challenge is to remain compassionate but firm, comfortable in the knowledge that it is eminently logical.

"The network effect - that each node is made better when a node is added - is operative here. Using strategic communications methods, it is easy to circumvent attempts to disrupt network growth."

© 2012 Buzz Hill

New?

"If a highly vocal person elects to undervalue creativity and project that on others, why should we care?

"Because to do so is to deny a human one of her/his most valuable assets. We are well aware of the devastating effects to children when their natural inclination to create is systematically undermined. In this regard, society is like a child. Dysfunctional when abused."

In a time of international economic upheaval, it is time to start asking questions of this nature. If the winners wish to maintain a status-quo responsible for so much suffering it may be time to question how the term 'winner' is defined.

© 2012 Buzz

Domestic Militarization

Deadly Weapon

"He had a flashlight that made a very realistic taser sound. Showing off to a young person who looked to be his grandson he set it off in what was otherwise completely normal inside coffeeshop environment with customers present making the comment, 'see how that got everybody's attention?'"

"Who might find this story disturbing? People who have witnessed the use of a taser in a confrontational environment (justified or not). Or persons whose life might be threatened by a sudden adrenaline rush (due to, say, heart disease)."

Make no mistake, the story is absolutely true and documented thoroughly.  While financial sponsors of 'Stand Your Ground' play cat and mouse with revealing media, one wonders just what it means to yell 'fire' in a crowded theatre, version 2012?

© 2012 Buzz Hill

Whose Framework?

Mindful

"Does the WSJ article include the word, 'complex'."

"I don't know. Why do you ask?"

Talking points. Important framework control method. If a participant chooses to expand the scope outside said items, take remedial action (ignore, redirect, query motives, personal attacks etc.) One can be trained to implement the practice without being consciously aware of the trainer's secret agenda.

His training was from a school called 'constructive confrontation' as memory serves. Choosing a framework's talking points achieved de facto leadership of that conversation.

"Seems outside the scope of the original intent.

"For another time but very much related, the subject of passive disruption as it relates to the talking points manipulation."

© 2012 Buzz Hill