Most of nature is a very high quality vacuum, actually.

Yup, I did my 100hrs of Physics, Chemistry and Math too. I like the way the 'vacuum' behaves near very hi-Z nuclei.

Governments have not always been so parasite-infested;

And I find this very difficult to believe.

this disease progresses slowly, numbingly, unnoticed, like leprosy.

Interesting that you use 'numbingly' to describe leprosy; it shows an understanding of the nature of the infection. Be careful if you swim in the freshwater streams in Hawaii. Better not have any cuts or abrasions! More interesting, though, is this: why would a block cipher use key bits rather than an LFSR to do input or output whitening? Is it strictly a performance issue? Is it proven that doing this doesn't leak key bits in some way? Mike