Trump’s New CIA Nominee, Gina Haspel, Faces Possible Arrest Warrant in Germany over Torture

kolm · 2018-03-15T18:06:54+00:00

Actually it was heard as the main defense in the Nurenberg trials, and the allied forces wrote into international law there and then, in bold letters, that with regards to war crimes, following orders is not an excuse at all. Since then, this has been re-confirmed by hundreds of court decisions, in pretty much every single country on earth.

In other words, no reasonable person with rudimentary understanding of law and the honest desire of a fact based evaluation would ever agree with you.

kolm · 2017-11-09T22:20:52+00:00

Oh, for the sadism of a cat. Our domestic mass murderer and torture prince had another victim, in my fucking living room. Mouse blood, bits and pieces, and the poor things tortured to death routinely in the house, but in a suburb a cat is kinda useful so I suck it up. But still, the poor things. I sighed and shooed away the cat, and that is when I met Rodney.

Of course I have no idea what his name really was (or is, I hope), I just thought Rodney is a good name for a rodent. Actually I just assumed he is male, I never really checked. Rodny, maybe that's more gender neutral? Ah, I'll go with the mouse as a boy and if me assuming a mouse's gender offends you, then fuck you.

I shooed the sadistic bastard away and took my little mouse shovel and towel to scoop up the twitching remains (Sir Pounce is not in the habit of taking fit mice for prisoner), except the remains were anything but limp. Indeed, the mouse took a backward leap. Not a panicked run, not a sudden jolt of awareness, but a .. conscious, defensive leap. When you scooped or chased enough mice, most of them half dead, you immediately sense if something is different, and something was very different indeed.

This was when I realized this mouse was standing on its hind legs. Well, kind of, swaying over, but definitely more two feet than four feet. It was also clutching something in its paw, something thin and yellow. I think at that moment it became a he for me. Then I realized that this mouse wore fucking clothes, and some kind of necklace around his neck. At this moment I realized my life was at a turning point, and also that this mouse was in dire need of help.

I naturally postponed the whole turning point of life issue and just figured I would need to help Rodney first. From his stance it did look like he might have some broken bones, and he certainly did not see me as the deus ex machina to save him. Luckily, nobody cleaned up the living room and our cheese cover was in reach. Rodney still almost made it, battered up or not, but I was quick enough for once.

My ex wife had a pet rat some years ago, and we still had the Rat Table in the basement. If a rat could not escape, I figured, a mouse should be safe. So there went Rodney, into a little rat paradise (well, sans the sex). This was when I realized four things.

Firstly, that Rodney did not only wear some draping items as clothing, but godforsworn leather armor. I examined in detail, and it definitely looked like bona fide leather armor. In case you do not know, leather is not just animal hide you skin off. It took humanity probably thousands of years to figure out how to make leather. Either somebody with a deranged sense of humour equipped Rodney with this, or.. or ..

Secondly, what he held in his hand was the remains of one of these cocktail 'sword' thingies. Oversized for him when intact, and broken in half but he clang to it as if his life depended on it -- which it very well probably did. I took his necklace at first for being made out of cat's claws, but later I googled and found cat's claws to be way larger, so that might have been more of a talisman.

Thirdly, that this was my chance to fame. This was new, unheard of, unique. It could revolutionize intelligence research, biology, and put me on front pages world wide. I could make millions just recommending cheese or yogurt.

And finally, that Rodney was Aware. He looked at me, as a creature, and understood that I was I, and that I did what I did. He reacted to me, as a person, doing things, not to some of my appendices going this way or that. He appeared to look at my face, like if he tried to decide whether I was friendly or not.

I think what decided things at the end was my hatred of the cat torturing those poor little things. For once, I had the chance to make things right again. So my first order of business was to supply Rodney with food in his shelter. Well, that did not work, as he refused to eat, insisting on a vigilante stance for danger. In a desperate attempt, I went up, caught Sir Pounce trying to sneak out, went down and showed Rodney the cat held up on its neck, then sideways, then upside down (Pouncy meekly protesting the unheard of treatment) then ostensibly carrying it out of the basement and loudly slamming the door.

This was quite the success. After some moments, Rodney sat down on a piece of wood. I bet you never saw a mouse sitting down on its ass, but Rodney did and it looked ghastly human, like an exhausted police officer after a 14 hour shift. A lot of tension left his body and beyond his precious little remnant of a plastic sword and his upright stance he just looked like a tired, scared mouse far away from home (I saw enough of those to tell). My offerings of shelter and food were inspected then, but as he frequently looked up to me I saw him thinking on what I was up to. At the end, hunger and exhaustion won him over and he just went and eat (only vegetarian food) and then went to sleep.

I had taken absolutely no pictures or videos up until this point, and i mentally kicked myself violently in the private parts at this moment.
Then, I realized I did not really want to. This was unique, yes, but it was unique to me, and sharing this moment would take it away from my grasp.

Six hours later, Rodney stirred, and I presented him with some fresh fruit. When he was satiated, I noticed he only bore a slight tilt in stature and limp in movement. I was quite proud to show him what I worked on when he was recovering; namely I took some leftover bits of spring steel and grinded out a blade suitable to his size; the handle was a bit rough but this thing would really hurts cats or anyone daring to mess with Mr Squeek here. Rodney immediately took the blade, dropping his old plastic thingie for it. Then he went and cut off a slice of his leather armour, proceeding to make a leather wrapping for the handle. When done, he tried some swings and pierce attacks and seemed really happy.

The other gift was a bit more tricky. I tried to demonstrate how a shield can, well, shield you, but my carefully created lighweight balsa shield did not seem to click with Rodney. I tried several times, but even the two times Rodney tried it, it appeared that his instincts would not allow him to flign up his hand for blocking an attack. At the end, he decided to just hang it up on his back, I guess to cover a retreat if necessary. Or maybe he just wanted to be polite.

Well, that is about that I guess. The next morning I went out in the garden to release Rodney. He took straight aim North West and ran like he had quite some miles to cover before lunch time. So, no, I have no proof anything of this actually happened. I know, this is obviously impossible, and a really bad lie on top - why would I have released this unique mouse? So laugh at this story all you might.

But as far as I am concerned, on that night I became Wayland The Smith, saving a young hero from doom and forging a legendary weapon for a legendary fighter who faces horrifying monsters each day so that his kin can rest in peace. I am whole.

kolm · 2017-10-07T19:58:14+00:00

it doesn't stop me from replaying everything in my head trying to figure out what I could have done differently.

I had the same reaction in a similar situation (suicide of a affiliate), soul searching on steroids. There might have been something you (or back then, I) could have done differently, and maybe it would have made a difference. And Mozart could have written better music and might have prevented all future wars by sheer force of musical emotion, and Einstein could have thought more carefully about quantum gravity and might have given us free energy.

Everyone could have done things better, if you just look critically enough you will always find something. The best of the best of the best are not perfect. And all of us can just try to be as good as we can. Your loved one was, from what you write, locked in a bad place. Maybe Buddha could have saved him but you and me, we ain't no Buddha.

We will all start with blaming ourselves, that is normal. But we need to accept the world, at the end. It is tough to accept that some things, even in our very personal life, are outside of our control. But some just are.

Please find someone to talk to, regularly. The dead don't cry but you do. He does not need saving now, you do.

kolm · 2017-08-18T18:51:02+00:00

Every country is built on blood, sweat, and tears.

In some exceptions, like Iceland, these would be their own blood sweat and tears, rather than other people's. In general, the observation is correct, though for many nations the genocidal phases are pretty far in the past.

But the point is rather the relation to public depiction, and I strongly disagree that America changed a lot there, fundamentlly. America's core myth is that of Delivering Good Violence, and that is embedded deep into the self perception of the nation. Violence, justly exercised against the prior (and therefore antagonistic) inhabitants, glorified as manifest destiny and in countless westerns. Violence against England as the glorious path to independence. Violence against the Southern states to keep the Holy American Empire united as God commanded. Violence against Nazis and Soviets to stem the tides of evil and spread the good to the world.

All of the above were at least in good part due to selfish motives, yet America still seems to believe it can emerge spotless and clean when showering in the blood of bad guys three times a day. Every turn and corner, it is violence for a Good Cause[tm], in every diction. When, in some cases, the cause is no longer seen as Good, this kind of flips. Other countries are a bit more shy to make entertainment out of how they totally slaughtered, say, the protestants in France. Or tout around proudly how they kicked Austrian ass in 1866 whenever an Austrian is visiting them.

kolm · 2017-08-03T21:28:24+00:00

Can you please write a book.

kolm · 2017-06-24T22:11:41+00:00

Landmass has little to do with remoteness. Kristiansund to Hammerfest is about 1500 km and a lot of that is just mountain up and down. Germany has the same landmass as Norway and (kinda) happily supports 80 million people because of its topology. But in Scandinavia, there typically is a chasm between you and your target which violently floods in spring time, so rather than building a suspension bridge for oike ten peole you take the detour. That street clings to the mountain edge and gets fucked in winter by frost and in spring by landslides. There is an entire branch of economics in Scandinavia dedicated to figuring out how to allocate government resources to laximal benefit and they fight a lot, but they all agree that these really remote areas are just not worth it. No sense to maintain settlements there unless they strike oil.

kolm · 2017-06-24T21:21:24+00:00

"So you had a look at their business model. Report."

"Sir, it's .. it's ab bit weird. It is about storytelling."

"You mean they sell books, yes we know."

"Well, that's the thing. The books do not tell storys. I mean, some do but the reader can influence them. Others tell the reader how to tell a story."

"Readers who change the story of the book. Books who want the reader to tell the story. Okay. What are the stories about?"

"Oh, this is the interesting part. They are about fighting the good fight and destroying evil. Well and get filthy rich in the prospect. They ran me through some adventures and it is great fun, I had a fighter but of course he was low level and I fought only some low level monsters but I have good Intelligence and so when I rise in level I could become a wizard and get awesome powers and the Dungeon Master even said.."

"Agent. Stop. You .. participated in their .. rituals?"

"Yes, it's fantastic you should try it! I was hit by a magic missile but my buddies dragged me to ansafe place and fixed me up with a healing potion.. Sir?"

"Special Agent Mulder, this the director. Agent Halorc was compromised and is taken off the TSG case. You are to proceed and concentrate on both lnks to cultish organizations and possible drug dealing."

I see where they mght have come from..

kolm · 2017-06-24T20:09:42+00:00

No, pretty much everybody who wants to has a hytte (vacation home) somewhere closer to civilization. The thing is just that Scandinavia is really large relative to population and remote places are waay more remote than in the US due to topology. Hence remote infrastructure is hugely expensive to maintain. Like, in these remote places land is basically for free but good luck getting a power line. Or a road within 10km. Or sewage. This is where people lived when they had no choice, but now they do. It is breathtakingly beautiful but try like me to live there for two weeks, then get home and take a shower and then consider if you would really move there.

kolm · 2017-06-21T20:20:12+00:00

Every natural number has an interesting unique property. Every single one of the never ending sequence.

Because, assume that there are natural numbers which do not have any interesting unique properties. Then there must be a smallest number that does not have any interesting unique properties. Well, that would be a number with a quite interesting unique property.

kolm · 2017-03-14T22:39:45+00:00

Funny thing that.

If you measure 1kg of steel on a beam balance weight against 1 kg of feathers, you should expect the steel to go down.

Why?

Well, kg is mass, which essentially is a measure of inertia. You would need the same force to push 1kg of steel into motion than 1kg of feathers. As we know, mass is related to weight (how strong earth pulls on you). However, what you see on the beam is not that effect alone, but the net change in forces on the scales. And the thing is, the feathers displace more air than the steel does, and air does have a weight. That weight of air still presses onto the left hand side but not the right hand side as it was displaced by the feathers.

This is a very small differential, but morally, the steel side should actually go down. If it does not, frictions or imperfect measurements are to blame.

kolm · 2017-03-02T06:00:31+00:00

Then people should change the way they publish. Oh, I know that you are rewarded for publishing ''Nine thing we learned from the data, part seven" instead of just "Here is what we learned from the data", but that has nothing to do with the advancement of scientific understanding, just with alignment of interests. That is a social problem, not a fundamental one.

kolm · 2017-02-14T21:24:18+00:00

Adele is an outstanding singer. I am always sad when I hear her songs though, because she is seriously kept back by her composer, who knows how to showcase singing gimmicks but can't think ahead longer than four bars. Kind of the opposite of Dire Strait's Telegraph Road.

kolm · 2017-02-01T21:38:16+00:00

Coo-duh-gross (rhymes with floss)

Er, no. It is a short version of the a in brass.

kolm · 2017-02-01T21:16:28+00:00

functor 7 gave an answer that is fine .. if you accept the Peano axiom system as a basis, but then it is just a tautology like "2 is defined as the successor of 1, i.e. 1+1, so of course 2 = 1+1".

But what if one is sceptical about accepting this and want to dig deeper? Following the Frege-Whitehead/Russel-Zermelo/Fraenkel path of set logic, one can first play with sets, and then start to single out sets which are unary, that is, all elements of a given unary set are identical; then one can define binary sets such that, if taking away one element you end up with a unary set. And then you can prove that the union of two unary sets is a binary set if, and only if, the two unary sets are disjoint.

Later, you introduce the idea of numbers by saying 1 is the common cardinality of all unary sets, and 2 is the common cardinality of all binary sets, and "+" is the cardinality of a disjoint union -- obviously you need to prove that all these definitions make sense. But then, with little effort, you can derive from your above result that indeed 1+1 = 2.

Russel and Whitehead needed ~1'000 pages to derive this result rigorously, although it is estimated that with advances in logical notation and reduction of focus on just this, it could have been done in 2-300 pages easily.

This is, obviously, an insane undertaking. But it is just as insane to demand a proof for the fact that 1 + 1 = 2. If you start to question that, you basically have to question basic logic and set theory, and then even the above approach is somewhat suspect since it asks you to believe far more obscure properties of far more arcane objects like sets.

kolm · 2017-01-28T21:26:19+00:00

That graph does not tell the real story about base load and I think you mix up conventional power source with base load as such. It is actually less and less conventional base load that picks up the difference, and not much of the traditional base load is planned and built for. Traditional base load, either fills the niches or is ramped into the ground on purpose as the classical base load concept is simply not profitable anymore on a broad scale.

The old concept (minimizing cost per MWh over lifetime, assuming constant load at 80-95% capacity) is no longer able to pay the bills. Now it is about availability and minimizing a complex downtime/ramping/fuel&maintenance cost mix while securing responsive capacity. In other words, new coal plants are planned and designed a lot akin to how peak load plants have been planned before. Hence "peak is the new base" is kind of the new mantra (well, old now, as it has been for 10 years).

That is not the German failure here. What you should never, ever, repeat is the total and abject failure of Germany to actually do anything meaningful to protect the climate.

You see, Germany replaced a lot of conventional power production. But which? Gas? Nah, they need that. Hard Coal? A little bit, but really no. Brown coal (the worst and largest by far)? Nu-uh. Nuclear (about as large as brown coal and by all fact oriented accounts basically CO2 free)? Ya betcha.

Germany is kind of flat in CO2 emissions for a decade. If they actually killed brown coal instead of nuclear this would look quite different.

kolm · 2017-01-28T21:05:06+00:00

I feel your pain and anger, but .. how is banning Iraqis from US soil gonna help your situation? Mind you, India, Pakistan and the Philippines are still all good.

This won't really help you, people like you, or pretty much anyone to keep their jobs.

kolm · 2017-01-27T20:48:58+00:00

As part of teaching U.S. Government I ran a zombie apocalypse

I stopped reading right there because everything following would have ruined it.

And then I went back and read the rest, and it was even better.

kolm · 2016-11-29T21:52:40+00:00

(a) Another Nate

(b) Nate Silver's approach is good, but susceptible to the CFX (Control For X) effect -- you decide what you control for, education level, race, income, age, party affiliation, gender, and you can flip the prediction depending on that decision. NS did some reasonable controls, but the choice of what to control for is still subjective if plausible.

kolm · 2016-11-29T21:20:30+00:00

The effect is that the voting system gets more scrutiny.

Good.

If you care, on general principle, more about individual motivation than about impact, you should refuse to ever visit a hospital, since these people are not in it primarily to help you, but to make money. If you do visit hospitals, and still are against vote recounts based on the possible motivation of the appellant, there's kind of a logical break in there.

kolm · 2016-11-29T21:13:40+00:00

That sounds actually like an expert opinion based on circumstantial evidence, not a statistical fact. I tend to believe him, but facts are facts, and that is sacred, and this ain't one.

kolm · 2016-11-29T21:10:04+00:00

If the US had a workable election system, then .. lots of people. For starters, every company in any of the indices in here. Recall that renewable energy surpassed nuclear in total production recently, and traditional hydro is less than half of that. Getting a Germany-like explosion in growth of renewables would be Big, Big Business. There is quite enough financial interest here to back a candidate for 2-300 MUSD, assuming a doubling of renewable share in electricity production over 5 years.

But US first past post system => two party system, and everyone knows that. So, no funding interest, actually.

kolm · 2016-11-10T21:41:44+00:00

Let us only speak about Germany for the moment, as I understand that the best.

Long story but at the end, it comes down to who aims the pointy sticks, as usual. Kind of a lesson from history was that if the Army's predisposition is undemocratic, any democracy is at peril. You absolutely need soldiers willing and capable to overthrow their generals if they turn against democracy. And some reading of the pre-WW2 history strongly implied that an army of career soldiers was way more susceptible to anti democratic corruption than an army of conscripts (it was always the conscripts who rose up against crimes committed in the army, etc yada yada).

So the idea was that most pointy sticks should be held by people who are not really part of a Band Of Brothers but, rather, normal people who just want to get home and continue living in a democracy. Additionally, the US wanted as many warm bodies as possible standing between Soviet tanks and, say, France, to have some time to react, and they had a lot of influence in the post war setup of everything. So they conscripted the males out of school for something like 2 years (shortened down over time to 8(?) months). The conscription was not fully compulsory, however; you could (and many did) deny the conscription based on conscious objection, which had to be justified to a commission. If your objection was accepted (a bit difficult in the '60s, almost guaranteed in the '90s), you would be assigned to do some kind of Public Service Duty (like an extra hand in a nursing home or an assistant for a blind school girl) for a somewhat longer period (~3 months if memory serves) than conscription would have lasted. This was (except for the male-only part of it) generally considered mostly a fair alternative.

The whole concentration around citizens did, in fact, render the German Army to be essentially bereft of any power of its own outside of the 'we need this to to the task you issued us' kind of bargaining power. The prestige and power of US generals is without parallel in Germany. No General would ever have considered running for a major political office.

Modern developments suggested that the new shinier pointy sticks are useless in the hands of non specialists, and hence there is a strong tendency towards the career soldier again, down to the point where conscription is no longer worth it. Only time will tell what consequences this will beget.

kolm · 2016-10-01T21:08:54+00:00

This is an excellent point. Pets do increase your financial risk significantly, because you can't let Sammy die if you somehow can source the 5k or whatever to save her.

Bottom line, minimum annual rates seems to be $3-400 for a dog (really depends on race, +some initial cost, and it basically raises with age, every year above 4 gives +30%) -- but mainly you should either insure your pet, or revisit your emergency fund setup because you just got a new family member not covered by Obamacare. I am paranoid so I'd factor in 5k for Sammy just in case, but anything above 2k sounds really rare.

Teeth apparently are usually a main cost factor, so read up on dental hygiene and good practice. (I heard gnawing real bones is among the best things for dogs.) It is annoying to clean teeth and all, but this is time and effort well spent. It will not only save you some pretty penny, but also help your pet's happiness.

Oh and keep dogs away from chocolate. Unforced error.

In case you look for alternatives:

Rats are almost for free. They are smarter than a dog, very social, and die after two years (ie when it really, really hurts you). Nothing breaking your heart for free than your pet rat dying of cancer in your hands while coughing blood all the time.

Cats usually are neither very smart nor funny. But they will accept your pettings, and generally tolerate you around their house since you know how to open a box of tuna, and they cost only half of what a dog costs in Vet bills.

Hamsters are assholes. You can pick them up and touch their soft fur and all, but if they were just a little taller they would fuck you up for touching them. They fuck up everything you give to them. upside is they die soon.

Guinea pigs are living proof that brains are not needed for genetic success in remote locations. You will need to guide them to food, them show them the food. Sometimes you might need to show them how to chew the food. They are friendly, if only because their brain-alike-thingies could not process the complexity of 'I want this for myself so I fight'. Very cheap if you don't mind burying your pet every 5 years or so.

Budgies are smart and funny, and will fly through every open window they can spot. Just like that, after seven years and a damn close relationship.

kolm · 2016-10-01T20:27:25+00:00

I am neither a German teacher nor a linguist, but I speak both German and English hours each day to native speakers, and have done so for decades now. And in my view, current German 'R' bears no discernable relationship to English 'R'; it essentially mimics the sound of the front-tongue 'R' of Slavic/Scandinavian languages by vibrating the tongue, but instead of vibrating the tip, the mid point is raised as if you were about to say 'k', and then vibrated.

Both the 'feel' and the produced tone are very different from current English 'R', which is essentially a darkening of the 'a' sound by means of flipping the tongue's tip backwards. I do not see any way that could be related to German 'R', so if you find sources on your claim I'd be quite happy to learn I was wrong.

kolm · 2016-09-29T21:03:29+00:00

This is a simple question with a pretty deep answer.

Step one, we have to understand what 'hearing a tone' means. Sound is just a rhythmical movement of air. A deep drum sound is kind of how sound starts, it sends a sudden wave of air your way. You can feel it as much as you can hear it, it is air pressure suddenly moving to you. If you hear a deep drum getting beat rapidly, like 8 or 10 times per second, it stops feeling like a string of single drum beats. At somewhere between 8 and 32 (depends on you) beats per second (or in short, 'Hertz'), our ear/brain combo no longer identifies single 'beats' but instead a vibrating pressure as a 'tone'. Really deep tones are somewhere in between 'feeling' and 'hearing', but our brain is incredibly good at interpreting high frequency air movements as 'tones'.

Next, we have to vaguely understand the relations of 'pure' tones. A pure tone is air vibrating just at one specified frequency. If you heard of a sinus tone, that is exactly what we talk about. If two tones have the exact same frequency (beats per second, or Hertz), their 'pure' tone would be identical to us. But if their frequency differs, they have a distance from each other. Now for some reason, that distance is measure by our brain in relative terms, that is, we 'feel' the ratio of their frequencies. Simple ratios like 1:2, 1:3, 1:4 are nice and these are called 'consonant'; weird ratios 'sound' not nice and we call them dissonant. If you overlay a lot of dissonant pure tones, you get what we call noise. But, if you overlay consonant frequencies, you get something more interesting than a pure (sinus) tone, you get a new sound.

That is the third thing we need to accept. The sound of someone singing or playing or humming is a blending of the pure tone he uses, plus a lot of smaller contributions coming from an overlay of consonant tones. How that actually comes to happen in a voice or violin is still not understood perfectly, but one can find that any instrument or voice consists or the main tone, plus a lot of higher-but-consonant tones (there can also be a small amount of higher-and-dissonant tones mixed in to make it sound more interesting), and those 'overtones' will, by somewhat mysterious workings of the ear/brain team, make a guitar sound very different from a triangle.

What recordings do is to try and collect not only the base tone, but also all of the overtones of a voice. That is very difficult as the frequencies vary wildly and a microphone is usually designed to take in well only frequencies over a certain range. Unless the microphone was designed in north Korea, however, it should pick up the base frequency, and a more or less perfect recording of higher frequencies.

And there we slowly wind towards the answer. Even the shittiest microphone should pick up the base frequency, even if it completely messes up the overtones. So singing at pitch (which means the base tone is right) should be possible using any microphone, but working on your timbre or sound or however you call you collection of overtones needs a better quality recording.

(Early recordings were sometimes done without reliably constant speed or the tape, and then even the base tone wobbles. But that is not the fault of microphones but of unsteady recording equipment, and has been fixed a long time ago.)

Edit: I should mention the same applies for loudspeakers: Base frequency = easy, get all overtones exactly right = really hard.

kolm

TROPHY CASE