Date: Tue, 7 Mar 2006 18:12:03 -0800 (PST)
From: "Kerry Burgess"
Subject: Microsoft might take a new look at lethal injection
To: "Kerry Burgess"
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/261975_lethal07.html
A decade ago, when Microsoft executives made lethal injection the primary way to execute pesky competition, it was considered less barbaric than hanging and less likely to bring long, costly trips to the woods.
Bill Gates has called lethal injection "undoubtedly innovative" and said that ruling otherwise would be "tantamount to forbidding the death penalty altogether for our competitors."
But now, as death row competitors in other states claim it's cruel punishment because it may not bring a peaceful death as once believed, some managers say Bill Gates will likely have to look for another more painful method.
"It's pretty clear that this method of execution has the potential to cause a great deal of pain -- and maybe even more pain than some of the methods we're using now and we like that."
JOURNAL ARCHIVE: Monday, August 14, 2006
After Kirk disappears from the Enterprise-B and is presumed dead, the timeline jumps ahead 78 years to the time of Captain Picard. '78' is a recurring theme in my memory and of the life I imagine of Thomas Ray. I believe he started the USNA in 1978. The year 1987, '7' and '8' transposed is the year that I believe he returned from dead, so to speak. I don't know if ST:TNG had been planned because they thought he was dead or because he returned alive. Or if any of this even happened at all. I am proceeding on faith that the controllers of this treatment program let me retain these thoughts over the past few weeks because it is all true. As for one topic I wrote about in my journal recently, for example, I wrote that I don't think about it anymore because it didn't happen to Thomas Ray, that I am not supposed to think about it at all, or that I am not ready to think about it yet.
When Kirk shows up in the movie again, he is shown chopping wood. That seems important for some reason. I remember two occurrences of people saying something about "lumberjack" around me at Microsoft. Once in a class and another time at the company picnic. These seem like trivial details but I think I have retained them all because it is evidence. I am not consciously aware of what it means, but my subconscious knows precisely what those details mean. The controllers of this treatment program are not so much as putting thoughts into my head as they are letting my real personality, the identity of Thomas Ray, reassert himself. He seems to show up most times in stress. I while back I wrote something in my journal, not really believing it, that I was going to suddenly find myself able to speak and read several different foreign languages. Now I do believe it although I have not regained those skills. I also started thinking that I have martial arts skills, possibly even highly skilled. I started thinking I am trained in aikido. That realization reminded of a woman that made a point to introduce herself to me at work one day. Her name was Akiko, which is spelled kind of the same.
That in turn reminds me of something else from my last few years at Microsoft. There was a guy in my group named Tom Devey and he was working on a virtual team that I was leading. When I started looking at photos of Ilan Ramon recently, I realized they resemble each other very well.
02/12/07 12:45 AM
I probably lost that much weight when I was starving those 9 days before I became homeless. And I was seriously sleep deprived in that Pioneer Square gulag.
http://www.training.sfahq.com/survival_training.htm
To prepare commandos who are at high risk of capture, the course includes sleep deprivation and food deprivation -- severe enough that, over the course of survival school, a student typically drops 15 pounds.
02/13/07 1:39 AM
http://usmilitary.about.com/od/theorderlyroom/l/blcode.htm
The responsibility and authority of a commander never extends to the surrender of command, even if isolated, cut off, or surrounded, while the unit has a reasonable power to resist, break out, or evade to rejoin friendly forces.
02/12/07 3:40 AM
AND there are those "memories" of Thedia telling me about my shoulder separating from my arm when I was a child. That sounds a lot like what I read about the torture of the "Hanoi Hilton" POW's. That must be what that means. I'm not sure if I have written about that "memory", but I thought of it a few times, especially after that bicycle accident, which incredibly ironically, was on 12/23/2001.
2/14/07 11:54 PM
I assume Trang Vo was no coincidence. Trang seems to be regarded as a boys name.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%B5
Võ (武, in chữ nôm) is a common Vietnamese surname. The word Võ can mean martial arts, fighting arts or force.
http://www.adoptvietnam.org/vietnamese/names-boys.htm
Trang: decorated, honored
02/19/07 5:09 AM
I woke up earlier thinking of how my brother-in-law was a police officer in Ashdown and his name was Bobby.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bobby
bobby
an informal term for a British policeman
03/29/07 7:44 AM
I had a dream of what I think someone else visualize as this room I am sleeping in. The visualization wasn't accurate, but I can see major elements to it, such as the size of the room, how dark it is, and the bookshelf I sleep next to.
03/29/07 7:47 AM
In the dream though, it was my lawyer sleeping in there and I went in and sit down on a chair to talk to him about something. There also seemed to be no restrictions to the room. Anyone that wanted could walk in there. I can partially visualize the other room. In here, it almost looks like the bathroom, but in the dream, it was another and I don't know what was connected to that room. But I think the idea is that it was completely open to anyone that wanted to lurk out there. It has something to do with my loss of privacy - of living in this cage as a prisoner of war.
03/29/07 7:52 AM
In that visualization I still have from the dream, it is the bookshelf that is most inaccurate. If someone were to visualize that I sleep next to a bookshelf, they might visualize such an image.
04/12/07 1:00 PM
Damn I am fatigued today. I woke with a clear thought in my mind: 11-14. I guess that is a date; perhaps 11/14/86. I remember a lot of clear images from my dreams, but the meaning isn't clear. I remember some of them were of President Reagan giving speeches and being photographed with people. There was one of him with a woman and it seemed to be something to do with a medal being presented for the first time and she was receiving the medal; I guess for her husband. It wasn't until I started writing this that I consciously understood the similarity to the Prisoner Of War Medal from 1986 I have been writing about, but yet, in the dream, it wasn't that medal. And I have seen that woman before, and in the dream, I spent a lot of time searching for her on the internet to figure out who she was because she was so familiar, but I never did figure out who she was. As for that medal, there is a lot from the dream I cannot articulate. I associate that speech Reagan was giving with a word I read. It was TERRAIN or EXPLORER. I can't remember which one it was, but it was written like that; in bold letters and then there was some text describing something. There is so much I can't articulate about that dream. The word just appeared in my mind that it was a 'quest' I was on later in the dream.
04/12/07 2:47 PM
This is pretty funny:
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=36729&st=&st1=
Remarks on the Observance of National Philanthropy Day
November 14th, 1986
Thank you very much. I have just read a clipping this morning from the United Press that shows how the private sector is spreading and things of this kind in philanthropy; that the First Lady of the Soviet Union has been named to the board of directors of a private, and privately financed, group in the Soviet Union. But I appreciate this opportunity to be with you today in recognition of one of America's greatest national treasures: the spirit of philanthropy that is so evident among our people.
When I was a lad growing up in the Midwest in Dixon, Illinois, we took this to he Americanism. And each and every one of us knew what kind of town we had and what kind of country we had. And it was all up to us. And although we were not as well off as many in town, my mother was always involved in projects for the less fortunate. She could always find somebody that was worse off than we were. I can still remember her doing a little baking of pies and cakes, and then finding out with quite some disappointment that they were for the sick lady down the street. [Laughter]
Just like every other kid in our town, I was a beneficiary of this spirit of community. I did a lot of talking about this out on the campaign. Part of it for me meant being a member of the YMCA Boys Band; I was the drum major. And during the recent election there'd be some high school bands at the political rallies, and I would tell some of these young people the story about what happened to me in that band. We were invited to go to a smaller town nearby on Memorial Day and to march in the parade. And we found out that we were at the head of the parade. The only thing in front of us was the parade marshal on a big white horse. And we started off down the street; and I'm with that baton, which was bigger than I was. And suddenly, he rode back down the parade line to make sure that everything was coming along all right. And I'm going down the street, leading the band and the music began to sound a little faint. [Laughter] And I sneaked a glance back. He had caught up with the front of the parade just in time to turn the band down an intersection, and I was walking up the street all by myself. [Laughter] I cut across backyards and so forth and scrambled to get in front of the band about another block away.
04/15/07 10:46 PM
I realized one day I was calculating people's movements towards me.....I can't fully articulate it. I was preparing.......something.....assessing threats. Can't explain it. But certain people triggered that reaction and I can't explain why certain people did that. I just explain it away as instinct. Knowledge without experience, as Shannon said to me in reflection of something I was talking about from my instinctive feelings.
Monday, April 16, 2007
Microsoft-Corbis had a woman named Akiko working around me and I found it curious one day when she introduced herself to me near the copier on my floor. There was just something about those circumstances I could not explain. She told me she moved out here from Japan. One reason Microsoft-Corbis arranged to have her around me as they secretly recorded it all was because of my aikido training. I believe my aikido training, in terms of the physical and cultural aspects, is the basis for the notion of the “Jedi” in “Star Wars.” I remember one day in the cafeteria when Akiko told me she was going to Vegas for New Years and I thought about inviting myself along because I thought she was cute. But I changed my mind because I had my sights on another woman outside of work and I didn’t want to blow my chances. It is curious how I associate all that with events in my artificial memories, meaning that my decisions were guided by artificial memories.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aikido
Aikido translated as "the way of harmonious spirit", is a modern Japanese martial art (gendai budo) developed by Morihei Ueshiba as a synthesis of his martial studies, philosophy, and religious beliefs. Ueshiba's goal was to create a martial art through which a practitioner could achieve the ability to defend himself without injuring his attacker.
Aikido emphasizes joining with an attack and redirecting the attacker's energy, as opposed to meeting force with force, and consists primarily of body throws and joint-locking techniques. In addition to physical fitness and techniques, mental training, controlled relaxation, and development of "spirit" (ki) are emphasized in aikido training.
Aiki is a martial arts principle or tactic. It typically describes an idea of oneness or joining together in the midst of combat. This principle finds expressions in such lethal concepts as the "mutual strike/kill", but in aikido it generally describes the elevated notion of moving together rather than clashing. Emphasis is upon unifying with the rhythm and intent of the opponent in order to find the optimal position and timing with which to apply the technique.[1]
The techniques of aikido can, when applied judiciously, divert or immobilize rather than damage or kill. As a result, some consider aikido to be a practical symbol of meeting aggression (physical, verbal, etc.) with an effective but merciful response, and finding harmony in conflict. Ueshiba declared, "To control aggression without inflicting injury is the Art of Peace."
The art of Daito-ryu is the primary technical influence on aikido. Along with empty-handed throwing and joint-locking techniques, Ueshiba incorporated training movements with weapons, such as those for the spear (yari), short staff (jo), and perhaps also the bayonet (juken). However, aikido derives much of its technical structure from the art of swordsmanship (kenjutsu).
04/16/07 3:49 AM
I am thinking that the notion in "Star Wars" and especially the scene in the first movie that released where "Obi-Wan" is telling "Luke" to "use the Force," is something of a very humorous inside joke. I am thinking that I used to hear a lot from those training me in aikido to not use any force. I can't articulate what I want to say here, but I am very amused about some notion that is going around in my mind.
