TRAFFIC ANALYSIS TIP #3207: Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) When performing traffic analysis and/or stylometry for the purpose of discerning the sometimes subtle differences between genuine mental imbalance and affectation of the same by boilerplate government and/or corporate shills, one needs to take into account the possible role that 'Seasonal Affective Disorder,' (SAD), may play in emotive attacks on the target, be it a group or a particular subject. The onset of SAD can often be recognized by the correlation between increasingly emotional attacks and specifically monitorable elements of seasonal changes, such as the decreasing amount of light in the northern and southern climes as winter advances. Examples of this can be easily charted using posts originating from ISP's such as sympatico.ca. The data can then be compared to that garnered through an analysis of Hettinga's posts, showing that the latter are goal-oriented emotive attacks designed to provide identity- associated confirmation/support of the current round of anonymous posts aimed at denigrating the cypherpunks mailing list by associating it directly, in the minds of others, with one or two individuals/targets on the list. Note that although SAD can aggravate existing conditions, such as OCD (Obssesive-Compulsive Disorder), it does not change the basic traits of those conditions. The excessive diatribes of Choate, for instance, upon having a few lines of one of his posts changed/misquoted by Toto/TruthMonger, were shown by analysis to have been easily deflected by others into a more generalized attack/defense-of-his-position. While Hettinga's current attack might easily be confused with an identity-fixation focus of the same general form of OCD, closer analysis would show that his posts continually return to goal- oriented repetitive misstatements aimed toward linking the individual to a specifically designed mind-construct being advanced by the para//el anonymous posts. Likewise, the effect of Seasonal Affective Disorder on those afflicted with a wider variety of interconnected dysfuntionalities, such as the ADHD/Tourette/OCD/Schizoid tendencies of TruthMonger #1, is to merely increase the volatility of already existing conditions. Analysis of the known posts of #1, under a variety of personas and anonymous list offerings, shows the same wide set of dysfunctional anomalies working at cross-purposes on a broad spectrum of issues. One of the keys to differentiating these posts from those produced by boilerroom spook operations is recognizing the existence of multiple underlying signs of a broader range of diagnosic criterion than is present in a willful affectation of dysfunctional conditions designed to elicit para//el emotive reactions in other subscribers to the mailing list. The effect/influence of SAD has been shown in the past to be much greater during high levels of El Nino activity. TAT#3207/coe