December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Seismic Data Authenticator
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Bill Payne has provided his 1992 Sandia report: "Data Authenticator for the Deployable Seismic Verification System" Marked "For Official Use Only." The 185-page paper describes in fine detail the design, data security and fabrication (with photos and technical drawings) of the third generation authentification device for verfiying seismic data in connection with the nuclear weapons control-START treaties with the USSR. The paper also cites deficient cryptographic algorithms provided by NSA for the device. http://jya.com/da/whpda.htm (98K)

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legal EAR work-around/Paper based remailers
by Adam Back 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

EAR says that you can't export crypto in electronic form. EAR says you can export crypto in textual form. We have electronic cash in terms of MT banks digicash. Email is more convenient for exporting crypto source code and binaries that snail mail. Let's do it. Here's what we need: 1. US entrepreneur to accept mail with :: Snail-To: <street address (outside US)> Snail-Fee: <Fee + 2c/sheet + postage stamp charge, digicash> Scanning-Fee: <50c/sheet, digicash> Request-Remailing-To: <cypherpunks(a)cyberpass.net> Anon-Post-To: alt.cypherpunks US volunteer strips off first two headers, prints out the document in a large OCR friendly font. Puts in envelope and posts at highest priority snail that can be paid for out of the included postage (overnight/air-mail/slow-boat). 2. Non-US entrepreneur to scan and remail results :: Scanning-Fee: <50c/sheet, digicash> Request-Remailing-To: <cypherpunks(a)toad.com> Anon-Post-To: alt.cypherpunks US volunteer scans the sheets, mails/post them to the requested email address/newsgroup, and collects his digicash fee per sheet. I volunteer for #2. (You understand the importance of the Scanning-Fee, I can pay someone to feed sheets into a scanner if needs be with a fee, without that I can become overloaded with a ream of paper representing the binary for PGP5.0). Legal questions: I'd be interested in legal interpretations of whether the above scheme is legal for the US entrepreneur. Peter Junger said a short while ago on the list that printed material could be exported under the EAR regulations administered by Commerce Dept. Does this scheme qualify? Technical questions: If this is to include uuencoded or radix-64 mime encoding, we might want to think about redundancy to allow error correction. Perhaps we want that anyway to ensure that what we have is 100% character-by-character perfect. Or perhaps not as it may damage the legality aspects. They may start saying that you can only export human readable stuff on paper, etc. Then we move on to `texto' apparently human readable steganographically encoded paper based remailer messages. Adam -- Have *you* exported RSA today? --> http://www.dcs.ex.ac.uk/~aba/rsa/ print pack"C*",split/\D+/,`echo "16iII*o\U@{$/=$z;[(pop,pop,unpack"H*",<> )]}\EsMsKsN0[lN*1lK[d2%Sa2/d0<X+d*lMLa^*lN%0]dsXx++lMlN/dsM0<J]dsJxp"|dc`

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No Subject
by Secret Squirrel 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

http://www.datafellows.com/gallery/ F-Secure SSH 1.0 Windows Client pc_ssh.com - removes time-limit. Copy into SSH-directory and execute. pc_ssh.com in ASCII: -----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE----- Version: 2.6.2 owFbczSJqyA5vrg4Qy85P5cBCPYlML6wZ9hiu4FpVwjjWcUihcUxjFucNjB0y8Uw 7joTsJOB4aziFoedTAy74oDSr7kn7OtlfMHHsMXnrOK+5YwvWMCsLhG3hl8MJWxb mIBKPh0ODvbQc41wBZr+uvSfgptucGpyaVGqAlBYocxQz0DBuSgxOVtBV1ehKrMo OT9PQV+hINnSnJeL4Z+Ca1FRfpGCf0FqXmZeugLUILCMc35uQU5qSaoikAcA =KINJ -----END PGP MESSAGE----- WarezMonger

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A New Law Could Take Care Of The Problem
by lucifer＠dhp.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

* In a September statement, Joseph Sniezek, an official of the Centers for Disease Control's National Center for Injury Prevention, lamented the serious injuries suffered by rodeo bull riders and suggested a solution might be to require helmets. ...and seat belts? (When the law is passed to require this, don't be surprised if they tack on requirements regarding the use of child-seats for those riders who take the children along. And of course, if they have a copy of PGP in their pocket when they ride without a helmet...}

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EXTRO-3: Extropy Institute's Third Conference on the Future
by Alexander 'Sasha' Chislenko 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Hope you may be interested... -------------------------------------------------------------------------- E X T R O 3: Extropy Institute's Third Conference on the Future August 9-10 1997, Doubletree Hotel, San Jose, CA Saturday (Aug 9) theme: The Future of the Body and Brain. Sunday (Aug 10) theme: Future Infrastructure. The conference will include presentations by Eric Drexler - nanotechnology pioneer and chairman of the Foresight Institute, Gregory Stock - Author of "Metaman", Kevin Kelly - executive editor of Wired, Max More - President of the Extropy Institute, Mark Miller - founder of Agorics, Inc., Chris Peterson, Sharon Presley, Sasha Chislenko, Robin Hanson, Anders Sandberg, and others, as well as panel sessions devoted to progress in Artificial Intelligence, Investing in the Future, and Future of Gender and Sexuality. Extropy Institute functions as a networking organization bringing together scientists, technologists, entrepreneurs, philosophers, and artists who share certain general interests including: extending life span, augmenting intelligence (both cognitive and emotional), gaining access to space, and achieving control over our own biology through genetic engineering, bioengineering, neural-computer interfaces, and molecular nanotechnology. We welcome all interested members of the public to attend and participate. Past speakers have included Marvin Minsky of MIT, Bart Kosko - fuzzy logic and neural network pioneer at USC, Roy Walford - leading gerontologist at UCLA, Hans Moravec - Director of Carnegie-Mellons Mobile Robotics Lab, Michael Rothschild - author of Bionomics, and Ralph Merkle - nanotechnologist at Xerox Parc. For more information, please visit <http://www.extropy.org/extro3.htm> or call (310) 398-0375 and leave your mailing address or email address, or send email to more(a)extropy.org ------------------------------------------------------------------- Alexander Chislenko <http://www.lucifer.com/~sasha/home.html> Great Thinkers page: <http://www.lucifer.com/~sasha/thinkers.html> -------------------------------------------------------------------

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Summit on Cyber-Terrorism
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

May 31, 1997, Asahi Evening News Summit leaders to combat cyber-terrorism World leaders will agree to take measures against a new high-tech element of terrorism--attacks on host computers--at the June 20-22 Denver summit, officials involved in the preparations said Friday. As part of countermeasures against cyber-terrorism, further joint efforts to control the spread of computer encryption technologies will be reaffirmed, they said. Concerns over terrorist attacks on computers and the need for heightened international efforts will be added to the 25 specific counterterrorism recommendations that Japan, the United States, Britain, Germany, Canada, Italy, France and Russia adopted at a ministerial meeting in Paris last July. ----- For full, brief article: http://jya.com/denver.htm

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SSN - when can agencies ask, and passports
by nobody＠REPLAY.COM 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

The privacy act of 1974 (public law 93-579) says that any government agency has to provide you with the follwing when asking for a SSN: 1. If the disclosure is mandatory or optional 2. The statutory or other authority they have to ask for it 3. How it will be used 4. Any penalties for not disclosing it. These should be in a "privacy act notice" the agency should already have. As far as passports, I have a pointer to an article in the Western State Law Review, Fall '92 issue by Stephen Kruger. The title is Passports, Social Security Numbers, & 26 USC sec 6039E where he points out that it is probably unconstitutional to fine someone. A plug is warranted since the above info (and a lot more of value) is in Financial Privacy Report, Vol4N8 (August 1994) - I think back issues are $15, but call first (612)-895-8757. This issue is entitled 22 ways to protect your social security number from thieves, snoops, and bureaucrats. FPR / POB 1277 / Burnsville MN 55337

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Re: The Bible Code
by lucifer＠dhp.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

John Young wrote: > > Published today with great fanfare, "The Bible Code" > describes the fruits of three Israeli mathematicians in > decrypting hidden messages in the Bible by textual > analysis algorithms. Blurbs claim that the work passed > peer review for publication in a math journal a few > years back, was confirmed by "a US Defense Department > code-breaker" and predicted the assassinations of > JFK, RFK, Sadat and Rabin. ... > Better, is this book the first of many to come to celebrate the > cook-ups of codes and cyphers and algorithmic chefs? Is a > film in the works, or, best, a Seinfeld of 0s and 1s? I will shortly be releasing my new book, "The ASCII Code" which outlines the predictions made based on decrypting the hidden messages in the ASCII artwork sent to the cypherpunks list. Since none of the predictions have proven accurate, my book speculates that perhaps Tim May isn't a cocksucker, after all. All proceeds from the book will be converted to eca$h and used to wager on the predicted date of death for Graham-John Bullers on the AP Bot at: http://www3.sk.sympatico.ca/carljohn/AP/AP.htm DeathMonger

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Jim Bell Defense fund
by ichudov＠algebra.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I guess everyone has forgotten about Jim Bell, but he is in no less need of help than he used to be. I would like to know how to help him, and suggest to organize his legal defense fund. igor

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Re: May's Banal Rant
by Michael Froomkin 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I don't understand this. Of all the alphabet soup privacy groups out there, EPIC is the one I consider most pro-privacy and anonymity other than the ACLU itself. And EPIC knows the tech better, on the whole (although the ACLU is quite clued-up too). It is true that EPIC is not absolutist on SAFE -- and I'm not quite sure that they are right to give even the inch they gave to get a mile -- but they're awfully good. Rotenburg should be a near-hero to most readers of this list. Instead, canabalism. Weird. Very weird. That does it. When I get back to the US, I'm sending EPIC a donation. -- Michael Froomkin until 6/11: michael(a)lawprof.demon.co.uk Associate Professor of Law Various Points, England froomkin(a)law.miami.edu <-- this will still find me, eventually PO Box 248087 Coral Gables, FL 33124-8087 "Rain in parts, then dry" --BBC http://www.law.miami.edu/~froomkin

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RE: The Bible Code
by Chris DiBona 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Hello again... I see this sort of thing as being like when people see jesus in a bar of saop and charge a buck to the suckers who come to see it. Okay... here's the EMAIL code. I you read the following message: On Saturday, May 31, 1997 12:10 PM, Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM [SMTP:dlv@bwalk.dm.com] wrote: > lucifer(a)dhp.com (lucifer Anonymous Remailer) writes: > > I will shortly be releasing my new book, "The ASCII Code" which > > outlines the predictions made based on decrypting the hidden > > messages in the ASCII artwork sent to the cypherpunks list. > > > > Since none of the predictions have proven accurate, my book > > speculates that perhaps Tim May isn't a cocksucker, after all. > > But John Gilmore is surely a cocksucker. > > I've met Rips, who's supposedly behind this "bible code" nonsense. > He's an asshole, and I dismiss anything he says as total bullshit. > > --- > > Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM > Brighton Beach Boardwalk BBS, Forest Hills, N.Y.: +1-718-261-2013, 14.4Kbps > and put it though a filter using the "bible code" method.. you get : stupid dorks will buy this book. >From characters : 3,5,6,.... you get the point. Suckers. Chris DiBona

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Re: Rotenberg as the Uber Enemy
by nobody＠huge.cajones.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Paul Bradley wrote: > > Sure it is unpleasant to have your privacy violated, but it is your own > choice whether you allow information to become available or not. Theoretical bullshit. Your choice is to not work, not go on welfare, not drive, not get a telephone, not be born in a hospital...ad infinitum. Even then, when you are arrested for trespassing on private land or misuse of public land for those grubs and worms you ate, the government will take your fingerprints and attach an identity to them. When you return to your cave, the postman will be waiting at the entrance to deliver the "Worms R Us" snailmail spam. > All true law within anarchist, and indeed much minarchist belief derives > from the non agression principle, by making use of freely available > information about you I do not initiate violence against you, therefore I > am guilty of no crime. Everyone seems to neglect recognizing that most of the proclaimed "freely available information" is the result of coercion of one kind or another. "If you want a driver's license so that you can earn a decent living, then you must give us your social security number so that we can make sure that you get your fair share of junk mail and spam. If you drive without a license, men with guns will lock you in a cage." Try dumping your garbage on other people's doorstep and telling them that you haven't initiated violence against them and are thus guilty of no crime. Sell "freely available" information about other people's children to convicted child molesters and then explain the same thing to the parents. Why don't the people who send out spam go out ringing people's doorbells at 4 a.m. to tell them how to "Make Big $$$"? It is because they would be held personally accountable for the effect their actions have on the lives of others. They can explain until they are blue in the face about their right to be an asshole who is intruding in my life but they are unlikely to convince me to put up with it without acting in a manner they find offensive. I enjoy many of the posts on anarchy by Paul and others but I think most of the concepts are valuable mainly as personal standards one applies to their own life. You can explain to the guy who slashes your tires that you had a right to ring his doorbell at 4 a.m. to try to sell him your product but he had no right to slash your tires. You will be right, but so what? If Tim McVeigh beats the rap and returns to society, I'm going to buy him a computer and an email account and then give the address to CyberPromo. I am sure he will understand the issues of anarchy and free enterprise involved, and act in accordance with the dictates of his own conscience. TruthMonger

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Re: Rotenberg as the Uber Enemy
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Lucky's right on Bell's undue incarceration. There's more to the story than tax avoidance. Declan perhaps should look beyond the government's citations of law to examine the other allegations of intent to harm federal officials which did not receive substantiating cites. The affidavit which prompted Jim's arrest was a potpourri of disingenuous spleen and bile and unintentional humor. This appears to be another instance of the USG patchworking public menace and phlegm (the Kallstrom syndrome) when it's in its self-preservative and -promotional interest to do so. As Tim and cie often note, the syndrome's fountainhead is DC and world centers of ambitious regulators, enforcers and promoters for "public security." Which is fast replacing national security, via dual-use sleight of hand, as a career trajectory. Counterterrorism is the fastest growing governmental subculture at the moment, and no longer aimed overseas. Secret laws, courts and committees are burgeoning, anticipating that the public cannot be trusted to protect itself against the enemy within, ahem, the Beltway.

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Re: Rotenberg as the Uber Enemy
by nobody＠huge.cajones.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Tim May wrote: > > I suppose I am developing a reputation amongst the Inside the Beltway Cyber > Rights Groups (tm) as a pain in the ass A polite, mild-mannered person such as yourself? I can't imagine. > The latest quote is from Marc Rotenberg, on a CNN piece on spam and > anti-spam legislation, saying that what the legislators in Congress really > need to look into is how the spammers develop their data bases..... > > Incredible. Does he propose investigations of private data gathering? > Perhaps search warrants served on those who take public postings and > construct data bases? > > Look, I'm annoyed by getting 5-10 "unwanted" spam messages a day. But I > realize I'm certain you also realize that enough of our rights and freedoms are being taken away in order to save us from "dangerous threats" from every conceivable source, that we have little use for even more of them being taken away to protect us from "annoyances." I think I'll email Rotenberg and suggest that he enlist Tim May's support by promising legislation to support warrantless searches for the purpose of stopping the ASCII art slams of Tim. Knowing how our "saviors" end up walking with the Devil *over* the bridge once they become enmeshed in the D.C. mentality, Rotenberg will probably thank me for the idea. To save the citizenry from the "annoyance" of unregulated sidewalk traffic the city of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, passed a law requiring people to walk on the left side of the sidewalk. I sent in a facetious letter to the newspaper supporting the law, saying things like, "Use of the sidewalk is a privilege, not a right." etc. I couldn't believe the number of lunatics who took my letter seriously and supported my position. One of my goals in life is to hunt down, mutilate, maim and torture the individual who coined the expression, "There ought to be a law." TruthMonger

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Remailer Follies
by nobody＠huge.cajones.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Jeff Burchell wrote: > > I have added your address to my block list, this remailer won't send > anything directly to you in the future. > -Jeff > Operator... Huge.cajones.com I have a friend who used to operate a remailer and he told me a story about receiving an abuse complaint and request for blocking from an acquaintance who was unaware that he was the operator of the remailer. The person making the complaint was also a user of the remailer. My friend composed a highly officious reply which indicated that he had logged and read the remailer messages of both parties and had reached the conclusion that the complaintant was indeed a fascist, asshole, etc. and thus did not have a valid complaint according to the policy of the remailer. He included enough personal details regarding the complaintant to indicate that he had actually been snooping through the messages. The complaintant was dumbfounded and responded with a message asking, "Are you crazy? Do you have any fucking idea what the concept of anonymity implies?", etc. He concluded by stating that in the future he would be using encryption in his remailer activity and send them via other remailers. My friend enlisted the aide of another remailer operator who was a close friend of the complaintant and was known by him to be the operator of the second remailer. The second fellow emailed his friend to announce that a group discussion between remailer operators had resulted in the decision that his friend would only be allowed to send plaintext messages through the remailers since it was standard policy to monitor the messages to and from "troublemakers" in order to protect the operators from unfounded accusations against them. At this point the complaintant was slightly suspicious of being the butt of a joke but he was still gullible enough that the two remailer operators had a bit more fun before copping to the fact that they were just yanking the complaintant's chain. They had the decency to promise not to use the complaintant's real name when telling the story of their prankery. > P.S. Besides... aren't ad hominum attacks on Tim May a Cypherpunks > tradition? A day without a Tim C. May attack is like a day without moonshine. MailMonger

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Re: Quadratic Residue: Vulis
by lucifer＠dhp.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Demento Vulis's mother attempted to pro-choice the unwanted little bastard by fishing with a coat hanger in her giant cunt, but failed miserably to pull the rabbit and succeeded only in scraping out the contents of little Demento's fetal cranium (not much to begin with). (_) _____ (_) /O O\ The Proctologist Demento Vulis ! I ! ! \___/ ! \_____/

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Re: Public Key Break Paper
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Phillip Hallam-Baker wrote: >As a meta-point any securirty person knows that employees and >ex-employees are the most serious security risks. Its not exactly >unknown for someone to go nuts and then come out with loony >paranoid theories. > >This may not be the case in this instance but its a good idea not >to start seeing black helicopters around every corner... "All cryptologists are rightly paranoid, they break the rules of the game and lie to hide how it's done." -- Anonymous. For what it's worth, it was Sandia who disclosed Payne's public key break paper, not him. He's suing SNL for privacy violations. His suit of DoE and NSA is about being fired for refusing to carry out illegal work which craven colleagues jumped to do. William Payne could be the Bellwether of spilling the dark national lab secrets unless, ahem, he gets his million dollar settlement. I say good luck to him and the others fighting the secret-hoaders. Payne's dispute with Sandia and NSA shows once again how the gatekeepers of top secrets manipulate those who work on classified projects: Lure the best and brightest with flattering invitations to join prestigous secret work. Require high-penalty NDAs for participation. Invite to work on repugnant projects, and if refused, fire for insubordination or other pretext ("displeasing the customer" or "to protect national security"). Then, destroy careers by precluding ever again working on classified projects. Finally, stigmatize the victim and publicize to frighten other workers into subservience. This entrapment into fearful servitude happens repeatedly in high affairs of state: Oppenheimer, Snepp, McGee, Halperin, and so on. There are dozens of current pending cases at DoE, CIA, NSA and the like in the US, and many more in other countries. To be sure, wisely obedient government workers will never have to cry "help me, my former colleagues are attacking, I did nothing wrong." Still, it seems that there must be ritual sacrifices of the innocent, as Shirley Jackson wrote in "The Lottery," to expatiate collective guilt, any innocent will do -- "for all are equally guilty," so the gods and secret-keepers hyper- guiltily smirk. Who's next to exaptiate the guilt of the mega death national and university labs? Surely not Hallam-Baker or Crisp? Or, as Tim suggests, how about sacrificing the secret labs (and black-chip fabs)? There's a bill before Congress to redo the NLs, but why dawdle when there's a surefire crypto-lottery.

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RE: RSA, PGP IN LEGAL FLAP OVER ENCRYPTION TECHNOLOGY
by Chris DiBona 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I don't pretend to be patent law knowledgeable, but I'll try to address this. While pure mathematics is unpatentable, the inventions based on it are not. Remembering you can't get patents on ideas, only inventions, I decided to go and check out the RSA patent and see why it has held up and been allowed renewal (no kidding. Think of all the trouble that could have been saved if renewal had been denied!) This first thing I noticed is that not only is RSA patented, but so is Stego, under patent 5613004. The RSA patent is abstracted and here it is: ABSTRACT: A cryptographic communications system and method. The system includes a communications channel coupled to at least one terminal having an encoding device and to at least one terminal having a decoding device. A message-to-be-transferred is enciphered to ciphertext at the encoding terminal by first encoding the message as a number M in a predetermined set, and then raising that number to a first predetermined power (associated with the intended receiver) and finally computing the remainder, or residue, C, when the exponentiated number is divided by the product of two predetermined prime numbers (associated with the intended receiver). The residue C is the ciphertext. The ciphertext is deciphered to the original message at the decoding terminal in a similar manner by raising the ciphertext to a second predetermined power (associated with the intended receiver), and then computing the residue, M', when the exponentiated ciphertext is divided by the product of the two predetermined prime numbers associated with the intended receiver. The residue M' corresponds to the original encoded message M. For the actual details of the patent go to IBM's patent server: http://patent.womplex.ibm.com/details?patent_number=4405829 Notice how careful they were to title it a "System" and a "Method". It is that they are patenting. I think if someone had good enough lawyers, they could probably challenge this patent using prior art claims, but what the hell do I know. I'm thinking however that the Secure Telephone Units had a dual key system, and were introduced by AT&T long before the RSA patent was granted, but I'm not sure. So indeed they are patenting the method of using the mathmatics. Which is thier invention, which is why (IMO) they were granted the patent. I wish that they hadn't been able to get it renewed. It would have been nice to see how RSA would do competing thier software libraries against alternative competitors. Ah well, guess we'll have to wait another 17 years. Too bad. Chris DiBona -----Original Message----- At 19:47 5/13/97 -0700, Kent Crispin wrote: >On Tue, May 13, 1997 at 07:11:48PM -0800, Jim Bell wrote: >> However, I've been waiting many years for some patent-law-knowledgeable >> person to explain why mathematics, which was widely seen as being absolutely >> unpatentable prior to the invention of public-key cryptography, suddenly >> became patentable just in time for RSA, etc. >> >> Until I hear such an explanation, I _DO_ begrudge RSA and others that "right." > >Wow! I agree with you! Sit down until the feeling goes away. Jim Bell jimbell(a)pacifier.com

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Videocrypt/Videocrypt2 any cryptanalytic results?
by nobody＠huge.cajones.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Has any progress been made in cryptanalysing the algorithms used in the european Videocrypt and Videocrypt2 standards used to encrypt satellite broadcasts? Particularly, is there any information I can obtain about the protocols, the data communicated between the decoder and card, and the algorithm itself. I am looking at the possibility of a new version of the "season" card simulator software created some time ago, which is now obselete, which used to be used against videocrypt broadcasts...

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Re: Public Key Break Paper
by nobody＠huge.cajones.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Phillip M. Hallam-Baker wrote: > > >I just took a brief look at it, (thanks for forwarding, Lucky), > >and it's pure crap-ola. > > As a meta-point any securirty person knows that employees and > ex-employees are the most serious security risks. Its not exactly > unknown for someone to go nuts and then come out with loony > paranoid theories. Whenever I see the dying embers of the spam debate being blown to life (along with similar non-issues), I wonder what the disinfo artists are trying to distract me from. I don't have to wonder too hard, however, since I can always count on the usual suspects to step forward and pooh-paah whatever they don't want anyone to look at too closely. Anything Phill casts aspersions on has to be worth checking out: http://jya.com/snlhit.htm TrafficMonger

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Kill a Fag, Go to Congress / Was--Re: Disinformation in L.A.
by lucifer＠dhp.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Tom Allard wrote: > > Didn't her boss's murderer walk on the charge by using the defence > > that he ate too many Twinkies? > > No political intrigue here... > > That was the defense, yes. Dan White was a former cop and treated like a > hero by fellow cops. The prosecution never really challenged the Twinkie > defense, nor did they bring up politics or homophobia as motives. With a > prosecution like that, who needs a defense? I remember that it was seen as being a message to the gay community that they were getting too "uppity" for their own good. (I wonder how they got that idea? <former cop kills a queer, gets treated like a hero, prosecuters play with Little Peter while he gets off for eating too many Twinkies, and Swinestein is waiting in the wings to do an "LBJ">.) The government is a lot like the Mob--other politicians can't really trust you until you've whacked somebody and they have it to hold over your head so that you'll play along. SwineMonger

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HUGE NEW PROFITS FROM THE NET!
by helpers＠prep.future.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

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Re: The War is Underway
by Duncan Frissell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- \At 10:44 AM 5/10/97 -0800, Tim May wrote: >This is the "race to the fork in the road" I have long talked about. The >future will be pulled between two attractors, with essentially no middle >ground >At one side lies a surveillance state >At the other side lies crypto anarchy Except that their branch of the "fork" is illusory. It depends on public support and physical powers they lack. The reason that I'm a technoptimist is *not* because I think that modern technology is an all-powerful mechanism which has shattered the control capabilities of the coercive state apparatus. The really beautiful thing is that today's technology is merely piling onto a pre-existing trend which favored individual choice. Things were already trending towards markets and self government long before crypto and the Internet hit the front pages. Even mainframe computers helped. If you look at the graphs, you'll see that computers started forcing institutional downsizing as early as the late '60s in the U.S. and Britain. Mechanical technology and the wealth it produced was sufficient to get things going. Since the Second World War, people have been getting wealthier and hence more powerful. First here in America and later spreading throughout the worlds like a health-giving virus. Remember, it's not just technology. If I can move and trade in a very efficient market, I have a lot more power than someone with my same level of wealth in a primitive society with limited capabilities. Cheap radios (the first micro technology product) and jet engines helped push things along as much as anything. The slow development of market institutions which, today, give individuals the power to buy, sell, and lease almost any good or service eventually reached a critical point as well. Rich people are *much* harder to push around than poor people. (If you push them too much, they just leave.) So factories produced wealth which produced power which automatically increased individual choice. You will note that the 60's happened, for example. As time went on, markets spread, tyranny contracted and people became harder and harder to control (for good or ill). Pile crypto and the Net onto this trend, and you get an accelerated beneficial movement towards enhanced personal choice. Obviously, "the generation that was born into bondage in Egypt cannot enter the Promised Land." They have to die off before the changes can become obvious to all. The Net can help in this by changing our cultural and social environment so much that it allows us to, in the words of yet another Timothy, "Metaprogram the human biocomputer." I must say, however, that I find it hard to believe that other people can't see the amazing progress that we've made in the last decade. The utter destruction of totalitarian communism, the transformation of Latin America from 26 dictatorships and 1 democracy a few years ago to 26 (more or less) democracies and 1 dictatorship today, the liberation of the Forex markets, the ideological dominance of market liberalism, the Death of the PTT communications monopolies, the deregulation of transportation, the lowering of trade barriers, etc. Note that last month, Mongolia became the first country since the dawn of the nation state to abolish all tarrifs and quotas. Now if you can just get to it, you can trade freely. The control capabilities of the government depend on the attitude of the people. If they support the government or are intimidated by it, they will obey. Today, support for most OECD governments is at historic lows. Cynicism about government policies is widespread. And the simple ignoring of rules and regs is "out of control." DCF "You don't have to be nice to nation states you meet on the way up if you're not coming back down." -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 4.5 iQCVAgUBM3os3YVO4r4sgSPhAQHTRgQAvXFT8D+v2rpRe1d6bev87ODWCm4Pr1HS 0akwfOIBdGcCIWzRVRywTe1uBkMlnP2rXg819q+LLMkLK2J0Oma0zCPbCOqG8OSd aChGNuLq1106YjRPGXsbpKOBugbpW5AgLXUlUXtwjMBJzoZ9GNRCQDJlGCHuO0Q3 gDVw2CRSW6A= =33tc -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Rwanda and "anarchy"
by Rich Graves 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Kent Crispin wrote: > On Tue, May 13, 1997 at 08:21:13PM -0800, Tim May wrote: > > At 6:34 PM -0800 5/13/97, Kent Crispin wrote: > > > > >First of all, it neglects to consider that governments may have > > >prevented more murders than they caused. This is unknowable, since > > >we don't have any worthwhile control cases. (I suppose we > > >might examine a state of anarchic chaos (eg Rawanda) and compare the > > >percentage of murders...but such cases are symptoms of other human > > >ills, and cannot be used as a meaningful comparison, I believe.) > > > > Rwanda (or Ruwanda, or...) is a _very_ poor example to pick, as this was > > not any kind of anarchy such as any of us have ever advocated. Rather, > > Rwanda was a near-textbook example of one tribal faction (Hutus or > > Tutsis) coming to power and inititiating a pogrom against the rival > > faction (Tutsis or Hutus). > > > > Calling this an "anarchy" is comparable to calling the pogrom by the > > Third Reich against Jews, gypsies, cripples, and others an example of > > anarchy. > > Nonsense. > > "anarchy n. the absence of government or control, resulting in > lawlessness. 2. disorder, confusion" -- Oxford American Dictionary > > Which part of that would you say didn't apply to Rwanda? I would say "none." Tim is essentially correct. Ironically, we know he's correct thanks to the United Nations and Judge Goldstein's International Criminal Tribunal, which Tim would oppose. (The answer to bad government is more government?) Jean-Marie Higiro was Rwanda's Minister of Telecommunications. He saw the radio turn into a tool of totalitarian propaganda. The killings were encouraged and organized by the government. He was there. Lindsey Hilsum was the only English-speaking reporter in Rwanda when the killings started. She described the situation as "anarchy" because she did not understand the language or the political situation. She later retracted that story, and spent several more months in Rwanda and Burundi documenting what really happened. She eventually testified before the ICT on what she saw. I think she's a really cool person. Raymond Bonner joined Lindsey in Rwanda later. You might recognize his name -- he's the guy who was fired by the New York Times because the Reagan Administration didn't like his reporting on human rights violations in El Salvador. Gilles Peress is a French photojournalist who documented the genocide in Rwanda both for himself and for the ICT. I met these folks and browsed the relevant documentation, recordings, and photos on April 11th. I believe them when they say it was planned. Blaming it on "evil government," though, is ludicrous. There was quite a lot more going on. If you want to look at anarchic chaos, try, maybe, Albania, or Los Angeles after the Rodney King verdict. But even in those cases, the violence had specific targets for specific reasons. It wasn't unstructured anarchy, and it didn't last long. For all the press, there were few deaths in either case. > In fact, the correlation between anarchy and war is very strong, for > obvious reasons. Perhaps that is why most intelligent people don't > consider anarchy a desirable state of affairs. There is no such thing as anarchy, and there never will be. -rich http://www.stanford.edu/~llurch/

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Problems at PGP?
by Steve 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Hot Off The Press http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,10660,00.html Pretty Good Privacy CEO quits By Dawn Yoshitake May 14, 1997, 11:30 a.m. PT Security software firm Pretty Good Privacy announced today that its chief executive and president has resigned as the company mature from its start-up status. Thomas Steding, CEO, president, and a PGP founder, will now become a company adviser. The CEO position will be phased out, the company said. "This was a decision by the board and the executive staff. It seemed the right time," spokesman Mike Nelson said. "We're moving out of a start-up mode and into pursuit of the corporate marketplace. This was a minor adjustment to the staff." Nelson added that Steding will continue to advise the company on team-building and moving its operations quickly. Phillip Dunkelberger, former vice president of sales, will now become president and be responsible for the company's daily operations. Dunkelberger will also become a board member. Jonathan Seybold, a PGP founder, has been named chairman of the company. Nelson said the company is on target with its product development and sales and profitability targets, and will review where it stands financially and with its product lineup before setting a future course for an initial public offering. PGP, which has been in operation for a year, is scheduled to begin open beta testing for its Personal Privacy version 5.0 tomorrow. The commercial version is slated to be released later this month. Meanwhile, the crypto company has initiated a few acquisitions. One of its most recent was the March buyout of Zoomit, a directory technology that combines private intranets, pubic extranets, and the Internet. -- A picture tells a thousand words. Stego -----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK----- Version: 3.1 GCS/IT/S d--() s+: a-- C++++(++)$ ULS+++@ P++@ L+(++)$ E- W+(+++)$ N++$ !o K-? w++(+++)$ !O+>++ !M !V PS+(+++)@ PE(++)@ Y++$ PGP@ t+@ 5++@ X++>$ R+++>$ tv+@ b+@ DI+++>$ D+++@>$ G@ e++@>++++ h r* y+ ------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------

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