December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: UNSUBCRIBE CRYPTO
by Dale Thorn 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

paratama(a)idola.net.id wrote: > UNSUBCRIBE [CRYPTO] Well, if it were up to me, I'd "unsubcribe" you all right, but it's not. I don't think you realize who you're dealing with. I've crossed the wrong people now and then, posting messages I shouldn't have, and I've been lucky so far. If I were in your position, I'd get some advice from one of those guru-types who know their way around these places.

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Why waste your money? Save big on long distance
by Brian Hale 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

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Why waste your money? Save big on long distance
by Brian Hale 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

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Re: WWII & Japan
by Benjamin Grosman 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Dear Sir, >Japanese Ambassador Kichisaburo Nomura and Special Ambassador Saburo Kurusu >were to present Secretary of State Cordell Hull a Declaration of War at 1pm >Washington time on Dec. 7th. To achieve technical compliance with >international rules it was intended to be delivered approx. 30 minutes prior >to the actual attack. There were decoding difficulties however and it was >delivered after the attack. Neither of the Ambassadors is thought to have >had any knowledge of the actual attack and therefore did not understand the >criticality of delivery. Japan intended to go to war with the United States, >Great Britian, and Holland over their policies concerning the Japanese >presence in China and Manchuria. This is totally true, except that the American forces actually knew that an attack was coming, and the Japanese ambassadors definitely had an inkling of what was going to happen. Communicades to the Japanese ambassadors were being made sparse as the attack came, and details of actions to come were broken up into a 14 part message. On the USA side, the even knew that the attack was coming on a Sunday. They had broken the Japanese codes, and had been distributing the information from the communicades to pertinent authorities. However, a copy of a communicade was found in a rubbish bin in the hallway of a military building, and so distribution was reduced to fewer people. But nobody wanted to take any notice. This begs the question of the illegal lend-lease agreements between the Americans and the British which could have had Roosevelt impeached if the details had come to light in congress. However, as to the reason why the Japanese wanted to go to war, your explanation is a little basic. It is true that the Japanese wanted to go to war over the aforementioned countries policies concerning the Japanese invasion and occupation of Manchuria, or Manchukuo as they called it. However, this was not simply the reason. The aforementioned countries policies barred export of vital natural resources to the Japanese, who live in a naturally mineral poor country. Their original invasion was actually staged (see "The Manchukuo Incident") in the hope that they could gain more natural resources from Manchukuo. Another reason why the Japanese wanted war is a rather complicated one, and it dates back to the end of World War I. At the end of the war most countries in a position to have colonies in the pacific/orient area were under severe financial stress. The French had borrowed so much money from the USA that they had doubts of ever being able to count so high, and Clemenceau, the "French Tiger", was determined to extract as much reparations under the War Guilt Clause of the Versailles Treaty as possible. The British had also borrowed phenomenal amounts of money. However, these two, after taking all territorial possessions of the ex-German Empire, and the ex-Austrian Empire, had in fact huge amounts of possessions. The British Empire spanned roughly a third of the world in both population and size, and the French were roughly two thirds as big as the British. But how to pay for this massive Empire? Maintance of ships, particularly the newer Dreadnought class Battleships, was incredibly expensive, and enough were not in possession at the end of the war to defend pre-war borders, let alone the newly expanded ones. Thus the British Empire, and the USA decided that it was best to maintain the status quo. They had "run the race" and won. They had their colonies (the USA had the Phillipines, and a few other pacific islands, although the USA has always had a policy against Colonialism), and they decided to end the possibility of another arms race via an agreement. Thus it was that the Washington Naval Conference was formed. This conference limited certain countries to certain ratio's of certain classes of ships, to help maintain the status quo, and all measurements were done against the British Navy. It was this conference and the forged agreement that came out of it that greatly crippled Japan, in desperate need of Colonies and the natural resources that could be exploited from them, for Japan was limited to a navy roughly half the size of the British Navy, but consisting of mainly smaller ships overall, for their quote of battleships was less than half. Holland and France were also participating countries in this pact. However, whilst it limited ships in the pacific regions, it did not limit ships in other regions. This crippled Japan, but left _all other players_ with other waters in which to build ships (hence the large buildup of Atlantic sea forces by the USA that facilitated the lend-lease agreements later on). This in itself a heavy blow to the Japanese, but added to this was the failure of the British to renew their alliance. Not only was the most powerful empire in the world now not an ally of the Japanese, but the Japanese could not even compete to provide what they needed. And the other countries, naturally, liked this just fine. Therefore, whilst your comments are true, they are only true in part. The Japanese ambassadors certainly had a general idea as to what was following due to the 14 part message, and the Japanese had more motive to attack than a simple "policy of other countries" explanation warrants. Yours Sincerely, Benjamin Grosman

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Re: Abducted by Aliens??
by barrensj＠gate.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

You Little Cutie, You -- All right already! What about choice Z? I waited so long to respond to the joke (which I went around telling everyone) I got embarrassed. The longer I waited, the more stuff happened so that I just couldn't catch up and tell all. What about that one???? Actually nothing is happening (oh, except for St. Pete burning last Thursday night) but we manage to stay frenetically busy. Teaching dance -- the kids -- doing my mother/wife/housewife/daughter/friend/neighbor duties. I'm very, very sorry to hear about your mother's illness. My friend/neighbor just told me she's been diagnosed with depression and is having a difficult time overcoming the stigma. There's a pile of ignorance out there. I'm sure you're aware that chronic illness and injury can take down whole families. How's your dad holding up? It sounds selfish, but I hope you're taking care of yourself. It's particularly difficult when you live so nearby except that when something is wrong and you're not there it's somehow worse. Also, too bad about your heavy work load. On the other hand, I'm glad you still have your job. I was also particularly happy to hear that The Equine is feeling frisky again. This business about JP is so weird. I wish he were normal and you two could be friends. But it just seems like. . . like . .. ????? I mean, what would it hurt 'im? It's just BIZARRE! And I absolutely think it's NOT you! I mean, aren't we all civilized adults here? You'll be glad to know that we finally got Hannah a pet: Mexican jumping beans. She's named them Rosie, Rosie and Rosie. (You think we're REAL mean, huh?) Well, they ARE low maintenance! I hope you got the cc: of the message I sent Kika over the weekend. It had a short update of sorts on our condition which is, "Can't complain." So . . . I DO still love you. You are still a good friend for putting up with me. Love, Ruth

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Montgolfier was a JOKE
by c62op27＠ibx.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>The Montgolfier post sent anonymously >was a joke and I thought quite a good one. >(It wasn't me and I don't know who it was.) >It was poking fun at the QED pest at cyberstation >who really was writing drivel. >So far 2 people have missed the point and let >us know about it. > -- Peter Allan peter.allan(a)aeat.co.uk Thanks for the enlightenment, Peter. The problem is that it resembled the real "drivel" that passes through here far too often. So, I did not bother to read the whole piece. Kudos to the author for getting a biting satire by a person who writes them for a living.

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Re: silly putty
by c62op27＠ibx.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Oh, and the laughs just keep on comin'... ----- Begin Included Message ----- >From cypherpunks-errors(a)toad.com Thu Oct 31 02:42:30 1996 X-Sender: gbroiles(a)mail.io.com X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Pro Version 3.0b28 (32) Date: Wed, 30 Oct 1996 20:38:22 -0800 To: sameer <sameer(a)c2.net> From: Greg Broiles <gbroiles(a)netbox.com> Subject: Re: silly putty Cc: cypherpunks(a)toad.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Sender: owner-cypherpunks(a)toad.com Precedence: bulk Content-Length: 3755 X-Lines: 81 Status: RO > Would anyone be interested in 50 pounds of silly putty? A >friend of mine would be grateful if I could help him get rid of 50 >pounds of silly putty. It would be $500. Dear Mr. Parekh: I represent the Comic Publishers Association, a trade group formed to combat the illict theft of our members' intellectual property. Your message has come to the attention of our "flexible media" section, which licenses the duplication of our members' creative efforts in flexible media, such as Silly Putty (tm). Many people do not realize (or, more likely, merely pretend not to realize) that the duplication, even in mirror image, of portions of protected comic strips in flexible media infringes upon our members' exclusive rights as granted by the Copyright Acts of 1909 and 1976, 17 USC 101 et seq. Further, the irresponsible distribution of this flexible media by fly-by-night retailers and distributors compounds this problem. Many of the wrongdoers who violate our members' rights do so as part of an informal social framework, utilizing aliases like "Junior", or common first names such as "Billy" or "Tommy". You can imagine our members' frustration when we must enforce our rights against six and seven year old defendants known merely as "Jimmy" or "that big kid from soccer practice". The fact that flexible media can be used to make illicit copies of visual art is well known; in fact, it is one of the selling points used when flexible media is sold at the retail level. It is our position that distributors and retailers selling flexible media do so knowing full well that their juvenile purchasers intend to irresponsibly flout the Copyright Act; and that such sales constitute contributory infringement. Sellers of flexible media are the linchpins in the deadly chain of comic book copyright infringement via "Silly Putty (tm)". We realize that some retailers do not wish to be complicit in this serious injustice. Therefore, we have drafted the "flexible media code of conduct", which we are asking sellers of flexible media to sign. We are asking you to sign this code of conduct as a demonstration of your good will and responsibility towards copyright owners worldwide. If you do not sign our code of conduct we'll make some stuff up and then sue you and send out lots of press releases. --- FLEXIBLE MEDIA SELLER'S CODE OF CONDUCT As a seller of "Silly Putty (tm)" flexible media, I agree to: 1. Maintain records of the first name, last name, parent(s)' names, school's name, teacher's name, and grade level of every purchaser of flexible media. 2. Present an educational program which will sensitize my customers to the grave responsibilities that the Copyright Act imposes upon each of us. 3. Police my customers' use of flexible media, including but not limited to in-store use of flexible media, simultaneous purchases of flexible media and comic books such that illegitimate use can be inferred from the circumstances, and the structuring of transactions to obscure what would otherwise be simultaneous or contemporaneous purchases of flexible media and comic books. 4. Cooperate with the Comic Publishers Association by providing customer lists and transaction detail logs so that suspicious purchase patterns at multiple retail location may be tracked by the CPA. 5. Agree to allow the CPA to audit my records and record keeping procedures, at any time, without notice or right to refuse. --- Please print out a copy of our agreement, sign it, and mail it to me via postal mail by the close of business tomorrow. Flexible media copies are not acceptable. If you don't, we'll kick your ass. Have a nice day. /s/ L. Itta-Gator (#65535) for DEWEY, CHEATHAM, & HOWE, P.C. Counsel for Comic Publishers Association ----- End Included Message -----

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Cranky Listserver?
by nobody＠replay.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Is anyone else having trouble getting their posts picked up on the list? Messages I send to: cypherpunks(a)toad.com sometimes have to reposted as many as three times before I see them in my incoming list traffic.

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RE: tcmay in favour of redistribution of wealth?
by Hard Media 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Date: Mon, 28 Oct 1996 10:15:35 -0800 tcmay wrote: > While I won't get started again here, understand that my views are much > more than just "justifiable apathy" about the people of the world. Justifiable? I dunno bout that. (Sorry couldn't resist.) > > My point? I feel more strongly about the death of one of my pets than I do > about hearing that some natural catastrophe in Bangla Desh has killed > 100,000. And I think all honest persons will admit that this is a natural > reaction. The "Hamming distance" matters, and people I have never met on > the opposite side of the earth simply are _abstract numbers_ to me, as I am > to them. Natural. "Natural" is a dangerous word to use. I hadn't met any of the people involved in the Oklahoma bombing, nor had most of the world, yet there was worldwide condemnation of the event. I hadn't met any of Hitler's concentration camp victims but I'm still outraged at these events. There are tangents and there are skew lines. Oh yeah why people think I'm making an attack on Tim's character, his looks, or whatever I don't understand, all I'm doing is criticising something he wrote. Where Walter Wriston/Third World debt is concerned the events are not natural, we'r not talking about a flood, which is a "natural" event but the actions of a man, or if you prefer an organisation. There is nothing "natural" about these. A country in debt to the IMF/World Bank or Citibank must accept "Stabilisation Policies" : "stabilisation policies are often viewed as measures designed primarily to maintain poverty and dependency of Third World nations while preserving the global market structure for the industrialised nations." - "Economics for a Developing World", M P Todaro. this is also known as "debt slavery". Not so good eh? Zaid

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Re: Privacy Issues
by Hal Finney 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I recommend the web/gopher site <URL: http://chaos.taylored.com:1000/ > managed by Chael Hall and Karl Barrus. It has a collection of articles from the early days of the cypherpunks list when we initially explored a lot of the ideas which are getting rehashed today. In fact, I would recommend this to all new readers of the list in order to understand what has been discussed before and what some of our goals have been. Looking back, some of the essays seem a bit naive in our hopes and expectations for what crypto would do; things have turned out to be more corporate, more political, less grass-roots, than many of us expected. But the basic issues have remained much the same. Hal

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