January 2013

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Anonymous Operation Last Resort - In Response To Death Of Aaron Swartz

Hacktivist group Anonymous hijacked the website of the US Sentencing Commission in retaliation for the death of internet freedom advocate Aaron Swartz, and in protest of the overly harsh federal sentencing guidelines and policies of the Department of Justice. It appears that via the U.S. government website, Anonymous have distributed encrypted government files and left a statement on the website that de-encryption keys would be publicly released (thus releasing the as-yet unknown information held on the stolen files) if the U.S. government does not comply with Anonymous' ultimatum demands for legal reform.


Citizens of the world,

Anonymous has observed for some time now the trajectory of justice in the United States with growing concern. We have marked the departure of this system from the noble ideals in which it was born and enshrined. We have seen the erosion of due process, the dilution of constitutional rights, the usurpation of the rightful authority of courts by the “discretion” of prosecutors. We have seen how the law is wielded less and less to uphold justice, and more and more to exercise control, authority and power in the interests of oppression or personal gain.

We have been watching, and waiting.

Two weeks ago today, a line was crossed. Two weeks ago today, Aaron Swartz was killed. Killed because he faced an impossible choice. Killed because he was forced into playing a game he could not win — a twisted and distorted perversion of justice — a game where the only winning move was not to play.

Anonymous immediately convened an emergency council to discuss our response to this tragedy. After much heavy-hearted discussion, the decision was upheld to engage the United States Department of Justice and its associated executive branches in a game of a similar nature, a game in which the only winning move is not to play.

Last year the Federal Bureau of Investigation revelled in porcine glee at its successful infiltration of certain elements of Anonymous. This infiltration was achieved through the use of the same tactics which lead to Aaron Swartz’ death. It would not have been possible were it not for the power of federal prosecutors to thoroughly destroy the lives of any hacktivists they apprehend through the very real threat of highly disproportionate sentencing.

As a result of the FBI’s infiltration and entrapment tactics, several more of our brethren now face similar disproportionate persecution, the balance of their lives hanging on the severely skewed scales of a broken justice system.

We have felt within our hearts a burning rage in reaction to these events, but we have not allowed ourselves to be drawn into a foolish and premature response. We have bidden our time, operating in the shadows, adapting our tactics and honing our abilities. We have allowed the FBI and its masters in government — both the puppet and the shadow government that controls it — to believe they had struck a crippling blow to our infrastructure, that they had demoralized us, paralysed us with paranoia and fear. We have held our tongue and waited.

With Aaron’s death we can wait no longer. The time has come to show the United States Department of Justice and its affiliates the true meaning of infiltration. The time has come to give this system a taste of its own medicine. The time has come for them to feel the helplessness and fear that comes with being forced into a game where the odds are stacked against them.

This website was chosen due to the symbolic nature of its purpose — the federal sentencing guidelines which enable prosecutors to cheat citizens of their constitutionally-guaranteed right to a fair trial, by a jury of their peers — the federal sentencing guidelines which are in clear violation of the 8th amendment protection against cruel and unusual punishments. This website was also chosen due to the nature of its visitors. It is far from the only government asset we control, and we have exercised such control for quite some time…

There has been a lot fuss recently in the technological media regarding such operations as Red October, the widespread use of vulnerable browsers and the availability of zero-day exploits for these browsers and their plugins. None of this comes of course as any surprise to us, but it is perhaps good that those within the information security industry are making the extent of these threats more widely understood.

Still there is nothing quite as educational as a well-conducted demonstration…

Through this website and various others that will remain unnamed, we have been conducting our own infiltration. We did not restrict ourselves like the FBI to one high-profile compromise. We are far more ambitious, and far more capable. Over the last two weeks we have wound down this operation, removed all traces of leakware from the compromised systems, and taken down the injection apparatus used to detect and exploit vulnerable machines.

We have enough fissile material for multiple warheads. Today we are launching the first of these. Operation Last Resort has begun…

Warhead – U S – D O J – L E A – 2013 . A E E 256 is primed and armed. It has been quietly distributed to numerous mirrors over the last few days and is available for download from this website now. We encourage all Anonymous to syndicate this file as widely as possible.

The contents are various and we won’t ruin the speculation by revealing them. Suffice it to say, everyone has secrets, and some things are not meant to be public. At a regular interval commencing today, we will choose one media outlet and supply them with heavily redacted partial contents of the file. Any media outlets wishing to be eligible for this program must include within their reporting a means of secure communications.

We have not taken this action lightly, nor without consideration of the possible consequences. Should we be forced to reveal the trigger-key to this warhead, we understand that there will be collateral damage. We appreciate that many who work within the justice system believe in those principles that it has lost, corrupted, or abandoned, that they do not bear the full responsibility for the damages caused by their occupation.

It is our hope that this warhead need never be detonated.

However, in order for there to be a peaceful resolution to this crisis, certain things need to happen. There must be reform of outdated and poorly-envisioned legislation, written to be so broadly applied as to make a felony crime out of violation of terms of service, creating in effect vast swathes of crimes, and allowing for selective punishment. There must be reform of mandatory minimum sentencing. There must be a return to proportionality of punishment with respect to actual harm caused, and consideration of motive and mens rea. The inalienable right to a presumption of innocence and the recourse to trial and possibility of exoneration must be returned to its sacred status, and not gambled away by pre-trial bargaining in the face of overwhelming sentences, unaffordable justice and dis-favourable odds. Laws must be upheld unselectively, and not used as a weapon of government to make examples of those it deems threatening to its power.

For good reason the statue of lady justice is blindfolded. No more should her innocence be besmirked, her scales tipped, nor her swordhand guided. Furthermore there must be a solemn commitment to freedom of the internet, this last great common space of humanity, and to the common ownership of information to further the common good.

We make this statement do not expect to be negotiated with; we do not desire to be negotiated with. We understand that due to the actions we take we exclude ourselves from the system within which solutions are found. There are others who serve that purpose, people far more respectable than us, people whose voices emerge from the light, and not the shadows. These voices are already making clear the reforms that have been necessary for some time, and are outright required now.

It is these people that the justice system, the government, and law enforcement must engage with. Their voices are already ringing strong with a chorus of determined resolution. We demand only that this chorus is not ignored. We demand the government does not make the mistake of hoping that time will dampen its ringing, that they can ride out this wave of determination, that business as usual can continue after a sufficient period of lip-service and back-patting.

Not this time. This time there will be change, or there will be chaos…

-Anonymous


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Thursday, January 24, 2013

Test Your Awareness: Do This Test

The hardest prison to escape is in your mind... Test your awareness, do the test! How many passes does the team in white make?



“Thoughts become perception, perception becomes reality. Alter your thoughts, alter your reality.” -William James, The Principles of Psychology


Anthony de Mello - Awareness



“We can control our lives by controlling our perceptions.” -Dr. Bruce Lipton, Biology of Perception


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Saturday, January 19, 2013

Crossroads: Labor Pains of a New Worldview (Documentary)

A new documentary exploring the depths of the current human condition and the emergence of a worldview that is recreating our world from the inside out. Weaving together insights and findings from biology, psychology, network science, systems science, business, culture and media, the film reveals the inner workings of the human experience in the 21st century, urging viewers to step out of the box and challenge their own assumptions about who we really are, and why we do what we do.


“The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.” -Isaac Asimov

'Crossroads: Labor Pains of a New Worldview' places evolutionary context to today's escalating social unrest, natural disasters, and economic failures. It illuminates the footsteps of an integrated worldview, penetrating its way through the power of social networks to the forefront of our personal and collective awareness.

A refreshing reality check for all viewers and a clarion call for those who carry the seeds of the emerging worldview.

Scientists and thinkers featured include: Amit Goswami, Neale Donald Walsch, Elisabet Sahtouris, Bruce Lipton, Peter Joseph, Caroline A. Miller, Nicholas Christakis, James Fowler, Michael Laitman, Ervin Laszlo, Dean Radin, Dave Sherman, Annie Leonard, Jairon G. Cuesta, and John St. Augustine.



“The future has already arrived. It's just not evenly distributed yet.” -William Gibson

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Friday, January 18, 2013

What Does School Really Teach Children?

People are not being educated; they're being tested for levels of obedience. School is about memorizing what you are told short term and repeating it. The bulk of how you are graded is by completing daily work. Obedience is, in fact, work force's most important quality in a worker bee.


“The biggest atrocity of all is to indoctrinate our children into a system that does not value their creative expression, nor encourage their unique abilities.” -Benjamin Greene

“School is the advertising agency which makes you believe that you need the society as it is.” -Ivan Illich

“Schools train people to be ignorant, with style. They give you the equipment that you need to be a functional ignoramus. American schools do not equip you to deal with things like logic; they don’t give you the criteria by which to judge between good and bad in any medium or format; and they prepare you to be a usable victim for military-industrial complex that needs manpower.” -Frank Zappa

“When Students cheat on exams it's because our School System values grades more than Students value learning.” -Neil deGrasse Tyson

“The aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment at all; it is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed a standard citizenry, to put down dissent and originality.” -H.L. Mencken

When children start going to school, not only they spend most of their day in the classroom, but they start being conditioned to the 8 to 5 schedule which will be the blueprint of their future.

Let's highlight the main points that the education system is very successful in imprinting on the minds of our children:

  • Truth comes from Authority
  • Intelligence is the ability to remember and repeat
  • Accurate memory and repetition are rewarded
  • Non compliance is punished
  • Conform: Intellectually and socially



“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” -Albert Einstein
“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” -Alvin Toffler

Education should be a process of stimulating and awakening people at the core of their being, thereby enabling them to sense the reality of interconnectedness, to appreciate the infinite potential in each person, in order to unlock and develop the power within to create happiness.

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Aaron Swartz - A Fighter Against the Privatization of Knowledge

Aaron H. Swartz (November 8, 1986 – January 11, 2013) was an American computer programmer, writer, political organizer and Internet activist. Two colleagues and friends of Aaron Swartz talk about his activism and vision of technology in the service of a more democratic and just society.

“When internet activists are getting longer prison sentences than rapists, you have to wonder what kind of world we're leaving for our kids.” -Anonymous

“With enough of us, around the world, we'll not just send a strong message opposing the privatization of knowledge — we'll make it a thing of the past.” -Aaron Swartz
“This is your life, this is your country — and if you want to keep it safe, you need to get involved.” -Aaron Swartz

Aaron Swartz and a depraved Justice System


“Be curious. Read widely. Try new things. I think a lot of what people call intelligence just boils down to curiosity.” -Aaron Swartz

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Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Albert Einstein - How I See the World

Albert Einstein navigated the twilight turf between consciousness and matter for much of his life. He argued that “Man” suffers from an “optical delusion of consciousness” as he “experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest.” His cure? “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious,” he said.

“It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: His eyes are closed.”

“A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”

“The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and the sense in which he has attained liberation from the self.”
— Albert Einstein

10 Lessons from Albert Einstein


1. Follow Your Curiosity
“I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.”

2. Perseverance is Priceless
“It’s not that I’m so smart; it’s just that I stay with problems longer.”

3. Focus on the Present
“Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves.”

4. The Imagination is Powerful
“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions. Imagination is more important than knowledge.”

5. Make Mistakes
“A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.”

6. Live in the Moment
“I never think of the future – it comes soon enough.”

7. Create Value
“Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.”

8. Don’t be repetitive
“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

9. Knowledge Comes From Experience
“Information is not knowledge. The only source of knowledge is experience.”

10. Learn the Rules and Then Play Better
“You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.”

“Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think. -Albert Einstein


“Never give up on what you really want to do. The person with big dreams is more powerful than one with all the facts.” -Albert Einstein

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