June 2001 - cypherpunks-legacy

Independent Libraries in Cuba Defy Government's Lock on Information
by Matthew Gaylor 08 Jun '01

08 Jun '01

http://chronicle.com/weekly/v47/i39/39a04001.htm Independent Libraries in Cuba Defy Government's Lock on Information The movement faces poverty and repression as it collects books from the outside world By MARION LLOYD San Juan y Martínez, Cuba The smattering of Catholic journals, poetry books, and yellowed Newsweeks that make up Valentin Almiral's provincial library seem an unlikely catalyst for revolution. But in a country where the government wields nearly absolute control over information, the former biology teacher's private collection represents a significant challenge to state authority. Mr. Almiral's Love, Peace, Democracy, and Freedom Library, housed in a concrete shack on the outskirts of this tobacco-growing town in western Cuba, is one of dozens of independent libraries that have opened in Cuba over the past three years to give scholars and other Cubans access to books that they can't always obtain elsewhere. Most of the libraries are little more than a bookshelf in the back room of somebody's home. But their content -- ranging from light fiction, like detective novels, to hard-core anti-Communist treatises -- and the long list of dissidents involved in the movement have made the Cuban government uncomfortable. "It's hard not to have the feeling that these people are conspiring with a superpower that has been plotting against Cuba for more than 40 years," says Eliades Acosta, the director of the state-run National Library, referring to the United States. He notes that the vast majority of the independent librarians are active members of opposition political parties. In addition, he says, many openly receive money from Miami-based exile groups to support their dissident activities, as well as help in coordinating book donations. The movement's founders, Berta Mexidor and Ramon Colas, deny that they have political motives, but acknowledge that the U.S. government helps the libraries with book donations. Both Ms. Mexidor and Mr. Colas, who are married, used to be professors. They say they are merely trying to supplement the offerings at state-run libraries, which have few texts critical of Communism. Scholars who want access to controversial texts at those libraries must be affiliated with a university and get written permission from administrators in their department, according to diplomatic sources and academics who spoke on condition of anonymity. Access to controversial books is further restricted by the university-admissions process. In order to be admitted to a university, students must prove that they have not been active in any dissident movement -- a requirement that screens out many Cubans interested in such books. New books of any kind have been hard to come by since the collapse of the Soviet Union, in 1991, which deprived Cuba of its main supplier of textbooks and paper. "The latest books don't make it into the country," says Noedis Pita, an engineering student at the Jose Antonio Echeverria Polytechnic Institute, on the outskirts of Havana. Although the university -- like the University of Havana -- has an extensive main library and separate libraries in each department, she says her professors had to request copies of newer texts and then make photocopies of selected passages for their students. She studies at central Havana's century-old Masonic Library, which has an impressive stock of 36,000 books, but most date to before the 1959 Cuban revolution. Ms. Pita says censorship does not tend to inhibit the study of engineering, but friends in political science complain about their lack of access to books on subjects such as capitalist theory. "Many of the books are there, but only certain students can get access," she says. Students skirt the problem by requesting books from family members abroad. Then, if the books somehow slip by the censors who inspect incoming packages, the students circulate them secretly. Ms. Mexidor, who used to teach economics at the University of Las Tunas, in eastern Cuba, says that what the independent librarians want is freedom from censorship, so "ideology doesn't define what a person can read." She and Mr. Colas say they got the idea for the independent libraries from a remark Fidel Castro made in February 1998, during an international book fair. The Cuban president insisted that "there are no banned books in Cuba, just no money to buy them." The couple took those words at face value and began soliciting book donations from Latin America, Europe, and the United States. Today, they say, more than 80 such libraries operate around the island, with new ones opening almost weekly. In the process, however, the movement has attracted attention from the government, always a risky proposition. Soon after the couple opened the first library in their home, in March 1998, Mr. Colas, a former psychology professor, was fired from his job as director of a psychiatric hospital in Las Tunas. The couple were later evicted from their state-run housing in Las Tunas and sent to live on a nearby government farm -- a move that shut down their library. They later moved in with Ms. Mexidor's family, in Amancio, a farming town 60 miles from Las Tunas. Their story is typical of the other independent librarians, most of whom are academics or journalists who were fired from government jobs after becoming involved in opposition politics. In the past year, the police have detained half a dozen independent librarians, according to reports by the independent CubaNet news service and Amnesty International, and supporters say at least a dozen more have been threatened and harassed. In December, Julia Cecilia Delgado, a librarian and president of the Association for the Recovery of Human Values, a human-rights group, was sentenced to one year in jail for "disrespect," in what supporters assert is punishment for opening a library in her Havana home. In mid-March, five men said to belong to the government's Rapid Response brigades -- groups of young Communist Party activists who investigate "counterrevolutionaries" -- attacked Mr. Almiral's library here in San Juan y Martinez, ransacked the bookshelves, and beat up several patrons. After Mr. Almiral complained to the police, he says, the men returned the next night and threw sacks of excrement on the walls of the shack. Following appeals from independent librarians, the International Federation of Library Associations sent a delegation to Cuba in June 1999 to investigate the alleged human-rights abuses. In a September 1999 letter to President Castro, the organization concluded that "the Cuba government has responded to the independent libraries with a campaign of threats, intimidation, detentions, evictions ... and has deprived these people of their jobs." The letter urged Mr. Castro to respect freedom of information and freedom of expression, which it described as "the right of citizens in all countries of the world." Cuban-government officials say they have no knowledge of any attacks on independent libraries. They also deny any connection between the arrests and the library movement. But they are keenly aware of the movement's potential to attract unwanted international attention. "We're in the presence of a carefully disguised campaign, which has a big appeal in the world today under the guise of free access to information," says Mr. Acosta, the National Library director. He charges that the movement is based on the false pretense that certain books are unavailable at state libraries. "I challenge you to find a book on [the independent libraries'] shelves that I don't stock," he says. Critics note that even if a book is listed in the National Library's catalog, that does not mean it is available to the public. A Cuban college student who recently requested a copy of a novel by the exiled writer Guillermo Cabrera Infante was refused by the librarian, who said the book was "counterrevolutionary." George Orwell's classic anti-authoritarian novel 1984 is not listed in the library's card catalog. Mr. Acosta blames a budget crunch for the absence of certain books, saying that with limited funds he chooses to stock only those texts that "contribute to upholding the moral fabric of the Cuban state." He also justifies the need to restrict access to anti-Communist texts by saying, "We are in the midst of a war [with the United States]. These are not normal times." The debate over whether the U.S. trade embargo warrants the Cuban government's clampdown on information was the subject of an article in the April issue of American Libraries, the magazine of the American Library Association. The article took the form of a debate between Robert Kent, a humanities reference librarian at the New York Public Library and a leading advocate of the independent libraries, and Ann Sparanese, a librarian at the Englewood Public Library, in New Jersey, and a member of the library association's Social Responsibilities Round Table. Ms. Sparanese defended the Cuban government's position, arguing that the independent librarians were more interested in waging politics than in promoting reading. "This is not about libraries; it's not even about intellectual freedom," she argued, adding that none of the people involved in the movement were trained librarians. She also challenged Mr. Kent's assertion that book censorship is commonplace in Cuba, noting that the government did not confiscate any of the 4,000 books recently delivered to the island by Jarrett T. Barrios, a Democratic lawmaker in Massachusetts. Mr. Barrios notes, however, that most of the January shipment comprised children's books and medical texts with no political content. He says he was not aware of the independent libraries before his trip. But by going through official channels, he says, he ensured that the books would reach the widest audience. "We have strong feelings about politics, but we also want to encourage democracy from within," he says. U.S. officials in Cuba take a different view. The U.S. Interests Section in Havana, the only official representative of the U.S. government in Cuba, has actively supported the independent libraries, which officials say will broaden Cubans' knowledge of the outside world and help prepare them for life after Mr. Castro. The office makes monthly book deliveries to independent libraries around the island and weekly deliveries in the capital. The Martin Luther King II Library, an other independent library in San Juan y Martinez, recently received a shipment that included Tom Sawyer and a set of how-to texts on raising children. Alina Alvarez, the librarian, says she has since requested English-language primers and American-history texts. The books are in high demand in a country where nearly everyone either is planning to emigrate to the United States or is receiving money from relatives already there. The U.S. Interests Section also distributes books -- including Orwell's Animal Farm; The Power of the Powerless, by the president of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Havel; and politically neutral textbooks -- to 1,200 people throughout the country. Many of the recipients are Cuban-government officials hungry for outside information, according to a diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity. Within its guarded compound, the U.S. office has also started offering free Internet access to a select group of Cuban dissidents. In Cuba, only government officials and academics usually have access to the Internet, and then only to certain sites. Still, the founders of the library movement say the bulk of their support comes from private contributors, not the U.S. government. Mr. Cabrera Infante, a former Cuban diplomat and winner of Spain's prestigious Cervantes literary award, helps coordinate donations from his home in London. The movement has also caught the attention of several delegates to the European Union, who have proposed shipping books en masse to the independent libraries. "We never expected the project to take off like this," says Mr. Colas. "But we have one big advantage. The project is concrete, and you can see the results, the books." The librarians complain that many books sent from abroad never make it past Cuban customs officials, who are charged with confiscating any material deemed a threat to the state. Francisco Perez Delgado, the son of Ms. Delgado, the jailed librarian, shows a half-empty box of books that arrived recently from Miami. He says the family received a notice from the government outlining which books it had confiscated as "counterrevolutionary." Most of them involved political theory. But other books manage to slip past the censors. His mother's library -- sitting on sagging wood shelves in the front room of the family's dingy, three-room Havana house -- includes titles like The End of an Era in Havana: In Whose Name Can a Revolution Cheat a People?, an anti-Communist tract by a pair of French journalists; On Liberty: The Voice of the Church in Cuba: 100 Epistolary Documents, by Friedrich A. Hagel; and the standard collection of poems by Jose Marti, Cuba's idolized martyr. The eclectic collection is typical of the independent libraries, which their directors insist are primarily designed to offer literary options, not to indoctrinate. They also note that not all of the independent libraries stock controversial books. The Martin Luther King II Library is one such example. "We don't have anything here that's banned," says Ms. Alvarez, whose husband is a well-known dissident. "They're mostly children's books. How can that be dangerous?" But other librarians acknowledge their political motives. "No book can start a war," says Mr. Almiral, who was fired from his teaching job after becoming involved in opposition politics. "But if we can open people's minds, they might start thinking certain thoughts, and that will inevitably lead to change." ------------------------------------------------------------------------ http://chronicle.com Section: International Page: A40 Copyright © 2001 by The Chronicle of Higher Education __________________________________________________________________________ Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. --- ************************************************************************** Subscribe to Freematt's Alerts: Pro-Individual Rights Issues Send a blank message to: freematt(a)coil.com with the words subscribe FA on the subject line. List is private and moderated (7-30 messages per week) Matthew Gaylor, (614) 313-5722 ICQ: 106212065 Archived at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fa/ **************************************************************************

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Enquiry
by Vinay Menon 08 Jun '01

08 Jun '01

Hi I want to join this list .. Can anyone tell me how to do so ? Regards Vinayan Menon System Analyst Email : vinayan_m(a)visualsoft-tech.com Ph : 3412266 Ext : 5032 VisualSoft Technologies www.visualsoft-tech.com www.visualmart.com

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And what do we call a "wordsmith"
by Tim McVeigh 08 Jun '01

08 Jun '01

At 08:24 PM 6/7/01 -0500, Harmon Seaver wrote: >Sandy Sandfort wrote: > >> I'm a wordsmith by trade. People pay me to put words in a row. > > And what do we call a "wordsmith" that doesn't like poetry? > Lawyer. There's been a recent influx of such, or so they claim.

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Market Update
by Do_Not_Respond 08 Jun '01

08 Jun '01

Notice: If you wish not to recieve any more newsletters, please reply with "REMOVE" as the subject heading. Note, the removal process may take a few days. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------- Market Update 3:30PM: Market is holding steady with the blue chip indices maintaining their ground in positive territory while the Nasdaq trades comfortably above the unchanged level... All in all, it has been an admirable performance by the market to this point, but it would be even more so if the financial stocks were in a more participatory mood and if the volume was on the heavy side... Nonetheless, the notable lack of concerted selling interest in the face of disappointing sales reports from the retailers, and the not-so-impressive earnings guidance from the semiconductor sector, does speak to the market's underlying bullish bias... NYSE Adv/Dec 1495/1526, Nasdaq Adv/Dec 1970/1755 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------- Profile - IMPCO Technologies, Inc. (NasdaqNM:IMCO) (Alternative Fuel) IMPCO Technologies, Inc. designs, manufactures and supplies advanced fuel delivery and storage technology systems and components. These products are designed to allow internal combustion engines and fuel cell systems to operate in a variety of transportation, material handling and industrial and power generation applications using clean fuels such as hydrogen, propane, natural gas and methanol. These systems maximize efficiency and performance by electronically sensing and regulating the proper proportion of fuel and air used by internal combustion engines and fuel cells. The Company classifies its business into three operating segments that target specific markets and specific customer bases. The Automotive OEM division targets automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). The Gaseous Fuel Products division and its International Operations segment target the material handling, industrial and power generation OEMs and aftermarkets, and the transportation aftermarkets. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------- Monday June 4, 3:45 pm Eastern Time Press Release SOURCE: Visual Data Corporation Visual Data To Proceed with Acquisition of Remaining 49% of its Ednet Subsidiary POMPANO BEACH, Fla., June 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Visual Data Corporation (Nasdaq: VDAT - news), a media company specializing in the production and distribution of video and audio for broadband, narrowband and wireless applications, today reported the signing of a merger agreement that specifies the terms under which the Company will acquire the remaining 49% of its subsidiary, Entertainment Digital Network, Inc. (Ednet) (OTC Bulletin Board: EDNT - news). Both the Board of Directors of Visual Data and the Board of Directors of Ednet have approved revised acquisition terms that provide for holders of Ednet capital stock to receive 1 (one) share of Visual Data common stock in exchange for every 10 (ten) shares of the capital stock of Ednet. Additionally, every 10 (ten) Ednet outstanding options or warrants will be converted into 1 (one) option or warrant of Visual Data. The transaction is subject to the approval of Ednet's shareholders. About Ednet Entertainment Digital Network, Inc. (http://www.ednet.net) develops and markets integrated systems for the delivery, storage, and management of professional quality digital communications for media-based applications, including audio and video production, for the U.S. entertainment, advertising, newsroom and public relations industries. Ednet also produces live audio and video streaming broadcasts over the Internet and provides digital communication lines for transporting the media back to its servers and distribution partners for live streaming over the Internet. About Visual Data Corporation Visual Data Corporation is a leading full service broadband media company that enables businesses to market their products through various channels including print, television and the Internet. Visual Data's extensive video libraries and media offerings (http://www.vdat.com) cover a wide range of topics, including travel, golf, leisure activities, medicine and healthcare and business, corporate and financial information. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------- Disclaimer: To access any of our 1800ventures.com services, you need to be familiar and read our disclaimer first. 1800ventures.com is published as an information service for subscribers, and it includes opinions as to buying, selling and holding various securities. However, the publishers of 1800ventures.com are not brokers or investment advisers, and they do not provide investment advice or recommendations directed to any particular subscriber or in view of the particular circumstances of any particular person. The information provided by 1800ventures.com is obtained from sources believed to be reliable but is not guaranteed as to accuracy or completeness. Subscribers to 1800ventures.com or any other persons who buy, sell or hold securities should do so with caution and consult with a broker or investment adviser before doing so. At various times, the publishers and employees of 1800ventures.com may own, buy or sell the securities discussed for purposes of investment or trading. 1800ventures.com and its publishers, owners and agents, are not liable for any losses or damages, monetary or otherwise, that result from the content of 1800ventures.com. Securities discussed in 1800ventures.com should be considered speculative and contain a high degree of volatility and risk.

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RE: The Credentialling of America
by John Young 07 Jun '01

07 Jun '01

Many years ago I explained that I, like Sandy, write explicitly for money, as much as possible, and the people who pay me expect that I will do whatever text can do to get readers to obey those who pay for the text. One method for this is to write clearly in the most authoritarian language of the day, the most grammatically correct, the most literate, the most accepted as being the proper way to write in an unmarked, unidiosyncratic way, the most likely to have been written by someone who embraced without shame the way the masters of writing write, the way the writing manuals recommend, and recommend as nauseum, purest banal. And to never write the way poets do, oddballs do, gibbering idiots do, for that will allegedly diminish the value of your writing the way the payers want you to write, that is to write as if their and your shit don't smell, your and their skin is hued the preferred color, our accent the dominant unaccent of the day, you and they don't copulate the wrong kind of people, you and they have no faults to hide, you and they have no guts to face up to your inability to break away from hiding behind conformity not of your making. Shit, I understand Sandy all too well. And totally admire his talent to blow prefabricated sunshine where it's needed. Even so I won't do what the grammatically correct crowd never cease trying to impose here. Fuck them as one of them has said often here when he's tired of explaining why he won't do what some assholes keep demanding. Or to say it my way, correct writing, clear writing, comprehensively coherent writing, is just another way to tyrannize, bully, hector and obscure jive-ass agendas, though those who do it don't always own up to , or not admit the arousal it gives them to be part of a me-too maleducated mob. This is a friendly joke, as ever, in respect for the asshole language rules-makers here. (Spit)

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RE: The Credentialling of America
by aluger＠hushmail.com 07 Jun '01

07 Jun '01

At Thu, 07 Jun 2001 20:58:27 -0700, John Young <jya(a)pipeline.com> wrote: >by someone who embraced without shame the way the >masters of writing write, the way the writing manuals >recommend, and recommend as nauseum, purest banal. You meant "ad nauseum." No? ;) Free, encrypted, secure Web-based email at www.hushmail.com

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Marking: A Privacy Protecting Approach Against Blackmailing
by lcs Mixmaster Remailer 07 Jun '01

07 Jun '01

http://www.informatik.tu-darmstadt.de/GK/participants/kuegler/pkc01_marking…: Marking: A Privacy Protecting Approach Against Blackmailing Dennis Kuegler and Holger Vogt Blind signature based anonymous payment systems [Cha83] have been invented for privacy protecting payments over the internet. However, it was discovered by von Solms and Naccache [vSN92] that unconditional anonymity may be misused by criminals: A blackmailer can exploit the properties of the used blind signature to receive blackmailed money from his victim so that neither the victim nor the bank are able to recognize the blackmailed coins later. Furthermore, the blackmailed coins can be transferred anonymously via an unobservable broadcast channel (e.g. a newsgroup). This attack is called the perfect crime, as it is impossible to identify or trace the blackmailer. To solve anonymity related problems as blackmailing, money laundering, or illegal purchases, payment systems with revokable anonymity have been proposed [CMS96, JY96, FTY96, JY97]. In these payment systems trusted third parties are able to revoke the anonymity of the users at any time. In our opinion blackmailing is the most serious drawback of the known payment systems offering unconditional anonymity. Attacks like money laundering and illegal purchases aren't a major problem in anonymous electronic payment systems, as these problems are even worse with physical cash [Fro96], because in anonymous electronic payment systems the bank always knows how much a customer withdraws and how much a person deposits. Thus the bank is able to detect either the initiator or the recipient of a suspicious transaction. In this paper we will show how to fight blackmailing without restricting the anonymity of users as it is done in systems with revokable anonymity. We present a new online payment scheme, which offers unconditional anonymity, but does not suffer from the blackmailing attack described above.

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Global Name Registry Hopes To Score Big With '.Name'
by George＠Orwellian.Org 07 Jun '01

07 Jun '01

Excerpt: # GNR is billing ".name" as more than a Web address. Along with # technology partners such as New York-based Speednames Inc. and # International Business Machines Corp., the U.K. company hopes # to transform .name addresses into a multipurpose "digital # identity" that can also serve as an e-mail address, cellphone # number and even an electronic credit card. # # Instead of typing in a credit card number, customers could simply # provide their ".name" address, and merchants would then be able # to retrieve the financial information from a secure server hosted # by a bank or other "trusted" institution, the company says. ---- http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB991855694886302396.htm # # June 7, 2001 # # Global Name Registry Hopes To Score Big With '.Name' # # By BUSTER KANTROW Dow Jones Newswires # # STOCKHOLM -- What's in a .name? # # For Britain's Global Name Registry Ltd., the hope is, a lot. # The London-based start-up is the global administrator for ".name," # one of the new top-level Internet domain names to be introduced # this year. # # As the gatekeeper for the entire domain, GNR will begin # distributing ".name" addresses this autumn, collecting a $5.25 # (6.16 euros) wholesale registration fee and a similar annual # renewal fee for each one it hands out. # # The company also plans to provide more than just a name. It hopes # to transform the .name addresses into a multipurpose tool that # can receive e-mail or serve as a virtual credit card. # # It's a formula that could pay off in millions or even billions # of dollars in annual revenue, if demand for ".name" Internet # suffixes takes off. # # "People have an emotional affinity for their names," said GNR's # chief executive, Andrew Tsai, in a recent interview. "Clearly, # Icann picked a space where they thought millions and millions # of people wanted addresses." # # New Competition Ahead # # Originally a spinoff of Norway's Nameplanet.com, which operates # a free Web-based, e-mail service, GNR beat dozens of other # applicants to the Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers, # or Icann, the U.S.-based agency that manages the Internet-address # system. The would-be registries included such familiar names # as Finland's Nokia Corp. and Lycos Inc. # # The new top-level domains -- which include ".biz," ".info" and # ".museum" -- are intended to create new competition in the # domain-name space, which has been dominated by California-based # VeriSign Inc., central administrator of the ubiquitous ".com" # suffix. # # VeriSign's control of the ".com" suffix was recently extended # by Icann, despite criticism from the Internet community, where # there has been some resentment of the company's monopoly position. # VeriSign has agreed to relinquish control of the ".org" and ".net" # suffixes. # # Mr. Tsai, formerly president of Urbanfetch Ltd., said he thought # the initial demand for the new domains would be strongest in # North America. But he said registrars, who act as middlemen # between the U.K. company and individual customers, are also # reporting strong interest in the ".name" domain from China, Korea # and other parts of Southeast Asia. # # "The opportunities are mind-boggling, but this is a very, very # challenging discipline, to set up a registry," he said. "We # consider ourselves a technology infrastructure company, and we # don't take for granted the challenges of implementing this # business plan." # # GNR's backers include Carlyle Europe Venture Partners LP, # Northzone Ventures AS and Four Seasons Venture AS. # # With the lucrative ".name" registry in hand, it is Nameplanet # that is now the subsidiary of GNR. "The student has become the # teacher," says Mr. Tsai. # # GNR is billing ".name" as more than a Web address. Along with # technology partners such as New York-based Speednames Inc. and # International Business Machines Corp., the U.K. company hopes # to transform .name addresses into a multipurpose "digital # identity" that can also serve as an e-mail address, cellphone # number and even an electronic credit card. # # Instead of typing in a credit card number, customers could simply # provide their ".name" address, and merchants would then be able # to retrieve the financial information from a secure server hosted # by a bank or other "trusted" institution, the company says. # # Such value-added services are expected to provide an additional # revenue stream for GNR, as well as for the registrars. # # "There is no other domain out there currently that has any # functionality," says Mr. Tsai. # # GNR moved a step closer to launching the new addresses over the # weekend here, as Icann set a deadline of June 30 for giving final, # formal approval to the new domain. # # Manifest Destiny # # Once the approval is secured, GNR will begin handing out names # to around 80 registrars around the world, who will sell them # to individuals, Mr. Tsai said. # # The addresses will be registered with two dots (i.e., # joseph.smith.name) in order to maximize the potential # combinations, and will be introduced in phases. # # The new addresses are reserved for individuals. But companies # and others will first have an opportunity to ask that addresses # related to their trademarks be removed from the database. # # GNR will then launch a series of two-week "land rushes" when # registrars may submit lists of requested addresses. If two # individuals request the same address, one of the two will be # randomly chosen, Mr. Tsai said. # # The first names should be available to individuals by early # autumn, the company said. # # GNR says there will be five to 10 land rushes, then names will # be handed out as requested. Registrars are expected to sell the # addresses for $20 to $35 annually -- roughly what a ".com" address # costs now, Mr. Tsai said.

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FW: RE: The Credentialling of America
by Sandy Sandfort 07 Jun '01

07 Jun '01

For those of you who didn't get the picture, Len Sassaman has kindly put it up at: http://sion.quickie.net/GunnyBunny.jpg > > > "George" wrote: > > > > > > > My female bunnies have expressed an intense > > > > sexual interest in meeting this person. > > > > > > How about the attached person? > > > > > > > > > S a n d y

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hi/fresh NSA+echelon rant
by V.Z. Nuri 07 Jun '01

07 Jun '01

another hi to old cohorts. can echelon be exposed? can it be trounced? I'm looking for any old article by someone who lambastes the idea of a global data collection system as impossible, infeasible, etc. the more credible the author/outlet, the better. ideally a smug op-ed piece in some uptight mainstream newspaper etcetera. the idea is to get the most closeminded denunciation of the idea possible to show it in contrast with new information about echelon/carnivore/CIA datamining capabilities. useful propaganda. for your amusement. a fresh rant on the NSA, their role in blocking the RSA patent, and echelon.. and the idea of CIA/carnivore press info as diversionary tactics. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/theory-edge/message/3180 stop by theory-edge if you want to talk about hard-core algorithms or mathematics. its a pretty civil environment. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/theory-edge/ also.. you guys were all scratching your heads at the meeting when I brought up this subject many years ago..(haha yeah a little "spoofing") a little more on that.. "silent weapons for quiet wars".. what is the cypherpunk opinion on this one? would really like to get more supporting material on this. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/theory-edge/message/3149 I am not on the list but will reply to emails. oh yeah, you guys may be vaguely curious as to what Ive been up to. here's a new htmlized group faq for theory-edge.. I suppose you can see why we may have had a few disagreements over philosophy.. also what I'm aiming for.. hope to add much more, barely just the beginning http://www.geocities.com/vznuri/faq.html * * * I noticed the cpunk archives go all the way back to 93 and further after an old post turned up in my google search. haha how delightful. hey TCM, old pal, you are still around here right? how about you join the cyberspace age.. just a little? how about a home page? and hey, you could start your own yahoo group too, easily. really, I wish you would do it. I'd probably watch it. consider the easy capability of throwing out anyone you think is a useless specimen. yahoo groups have a built in blocking mechanism. I've used it on two occasions already. the spam problem seems to be almost totally solved by just preventing nonsubscribers from posting. cyberspace has evolved a bit.. as you once said "let a thousand flowers bloom".. well they have =) http://groups.yahoo.com hey, I've also noticed something else re: tragedy of the commons problem. you can civilize people with the leverage of leading a mailing list and the blocking feature. the founder picks the atmosphere. if he's into stuff like "integrity" that others feel is impossible to impose, he can give it a shot in cultivating it... you can all decide to what degree Ive succeeded and whether the goals are worthwhile. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail - only $35 a year! http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/

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