September 2004 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: Geopolitical Darwin Awards
by Tyler Durden 20 Sep '04

20 Sep '04

> It's a no, which sure seems to be your answer to my first question. OK, I understand the "stupid" part, but not the "anxious" part. Should I be concerned about your interest in Cypherpunks? >('He made an unfavorable, on-point response to John Young, On-point? It sounded like a mere insult, without zero substance behind it. In general, I have found that Cypherpunks knock the CRAP out of each other (kind of a 'Fight Club'), but most of the swipes are backed with a lot of logic and facts. I saw nether in your little post, so in the context of your long-term contributions, I thought I'd give you the sniff-test. As of right now, there's the faint smell of shit in the air. >speculation is rather amusing too. I won't humiliate & confuse you with >the truth. That better not be a reference to King Crimson. As leader of the Cypherpunks (I am declaring my leadership right now effective for the duration of this post), I hereby FORBID you to listen to King Crimson. Please keep your ears on Yes/Gentle Giant/Jethro Tull and so on. > Thanks for the dance! It was....educational, but now I'm bored of going >in circles. :) I've seen that "I'm bored" comment many times on the Internet. I'll translate for you: "I want to continue to take baseless swipes at opinionated list members, but now that you've called me on it I really don't want to have to defend what I'm saying, so I'll stop posting until you've forgotten about this incident." Gotcha. -TD _________________________________________________________________ On the road to retirement? Check out MSN Life Events for advice on how to get there! http://lifeevents.msn.com/category.aspx?cid=Retirement

1 0

Re: Geopolitical Darwin Awards
by Tyler Durden 20 Sep '04

20 Sep '04

"Tim" wrote... > Is there any reason other than you being stupid & anxious to offer some >feeble witticism for you to wonder if "we" use binoculars often? More >importantly (at least to some of us), how is that relevent to anything? ...so that would be a yes, then? I'm always interested in sniffing out contributing FEDs...it helps to determine whether you really believe what you're saying, or whether it's just part of your job. I'm guessing that your email "nightwatch" is also indicative of the latter. -TD _________________________________________________________________ Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! Download today - it's FREE! http://messenger.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/

2 1

The internment taboo
by R. A. Hettinga 20 Sep '04

20 Sep '04

<http://www.townhall.com/columnists/johnleo/printjl20040920.shtml> Townhall.com r-friendly version The internment taboo John Leo (back to web version) | Send September 20, 2004 Thanks to columnist Michelle Malkin, we are at last moving toward our first national discussion on the wisdom and fairness of interning 100,000 ethnic Japanese during World War II. For at least a generation, the issue has been positioned as closed and undebatable--the evacuation of Japanese aliens and Japanese-American citizens from the West Coast was simply due to racism and wartime hysteria. This orthodox view is reflected in histories, textbooks, fiction, and museums. Plausible reasons for the evacuation are almost always dropped from these presentations, and racism is simply assumed ("Ancestry Is Not a Crime" is one curriculum title). In her book In Defense of Internment, Malkin argues that President Roosevelt's order to move ethnic Japanese from the coast was at the very least a close call and can be viewed as a reasonable and mild decision, given the vulnerabilities of the United States to raids and attacks supported by a small minority of Issei (Japanese aliens) and Nisei (Japanese-Americans, many of whom held dual citizenship). With most of the U.S. fleet destroyed at Pearl Harbor, the Pacific became a Japanese pond, and in a series of raids, Japanese subs sank U.S. ships off the coast, shelled California's Goleta Oil Fields, and torpedoed a ship that escaped by running aground in the mouth of the Columbia River. In the view of Secretary of War Henry Stimson, "It was quite impossible to be sure that the raiders would not receive important help from individuals of Japanese origin." The core of Malkin's book concerns the so-called Magic messages--intercepted and decoded Japanese messages sent to and from Japan and kept secret by the United States until 1977. The Magic messages were startling. By mid-1941 the Japanese had set up an extensive espionage network along America's West Coast, recruiting Issei and Nisei and surveilling near military bases, shipyards, airfields, and ports. A Honolulu cell provided important last-minute help to the attackers at Pearl Harbor. Though the U.S. intelligence community knew that the vast majority of ethnic Japanese in America were no threat, it also knew that the Japanese government was beaming messages of ultranationalism, sometimes calling on Nisei to return to Japan for political or military training--the madrasahs of the day. A secret U.S. government estimate said perhaps 3,500 ethnic Japanese in America were active supporters of the Japanese war effort. After the war, Japan said that 1,648 Japanese-American citizens had fought in Japan's Army. Other estimates set the number as high as 7,000. In 1944, when the United States gave American Japanese a chance to renounce their U.S. citizenship, some 5,620 did so, and 2,031 left for Japan. Orthodox anti-internment historians generally discount the role of the Magic messages. Canadian historian Greg Robinson, who recently denounced Malkin's "crackpot book," mentioned the messages glancingly in two sentences of his 2001 book, By Order of the President, and spent a great deal of space musing about FDR's racial attitudes. In February of1942, Roosevelt issued the order that led to the evacuation of Japanese and members of other ethnic groups from the West Coast, as Canada and Mexico had already done. German and Italian aliens accounted for 14,183 of the U.S. internee population. Because of the intercepted Magic messages and the Japanese raids along the coast, the United States was primarily concerned with the Japanese population, but neither the stats nor the language of the order sustains the charge of racism. The initial evacuation was only on the West Coast. Nisei and Issei further east were left alone. The U.S. government assumed, or hoped, that evacuees would find suitable jobs and homes in the interior, but only 5,000 to 10,000 did. The camps were set up when most evacuees either couldn't or wouldn't move east on their own. As Malkin points out, evacuees at first were free to leave the camps if they found work or educational opportunities outside--some 4,300 left the camps to attend college. Camp conditions were often harsh, and the evacuation attached a harmful stigma to all Japanese in America. But Roosevelt, much of America's liberal establishment, and the Supreme Court signed off on evacuation as a reasonable step taken under extreme wartime pressure. Malkin's point is that if the threat to the survival of America is severe enough, some civil liberties must yield. She is right that the internment issue is currently being wielded as a club to prevent reasonable extra scrutiny of suspect Arabs and Muslims. But the twin towers were not brought down by militant Swedish nuns. It is always reasonable to look in the direction from which the gravest danger is coming. It's also reasonable and important to open an honest discussion of internment, past and present. -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

2 1

Re: Geopolitical Darwin Awards
by Tyler Durden 20 Sep '04

20 Sep '04

Tim wrote... > You demonstrate that point well. Hum. Spend a lot of time with binoculars, do we? How much does the FBI pay field ops these days? -TD _________________________________________________________________ Dont just search. Find. Check out the new MSN Search! http://search.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200636ave/direct/01/

2 1

[e-gold-list] GOLDMONEY PATENTS - PROOF OF PRIOR ART EXISTS
by Daniel S 20 Sep '04

20 Sep '04

Take a look at a document I discovered today: http://www.itk.ntnu.no/ansatte/Andresen_Trond/finans/others/interest-free-m… THIS DOCUMENT WAS PUBLISHED BY Bernard A. Lietaer, July 1990 GoldMoney's patents are of no value as this document describes EXACTLY what James Turk filed as patent 3 years later. --- "This New Currency would be convertible because each of its component commodities is immediately convertible. The Central Bank would commit to deliver commodities from this basket, whose value in foreign currency equals the value of that particular basket." ***** "There are a number of practical ways by which this negative interest rate could be levied. To begin with, most of the "money" in circulation (and practically all of the New Currency that would be circulated internationally) takes the form of accounting entries in a computer somewhere, and it would be fairly simple to charge electronically the negative interest rate on these accounts." ***** "Technically, this New Currency is a combination of two concepts, usually analysed separately: stamp scrip, and currency backed by a basket of commodities." "An additional flexibility: the Central Bank could keep and trade its commodity inventories wherever the international market is most convenient for its own purposes: Zurich for gold, London for copper, New York for silver, etc." "There is even a high-tech option in the form of the "chips on a card" electronic money tested in France: money is issued in the form of an "intelligent debit card" where a computer chip is imbedded in the card." "Whenever a payment is made by inserting the card in a Point of Sale terminal, a phone, or any other device accepting the card, the credit on the card could automatically be adjusted for the time delay since the card was last debited. For smaller amounts which require a lower security level, cheaper magnetic strip cards are also available, such as the ones issued for the rapid transit systems of San Francisco, Caracas or Washington D.C., or the British and Japanese telephone authorities." Comments? --- You are currently subscribed to e-gold-list as: rah(a)shipwright.com To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-e-gold-list-507998N(a)talk.e-gold.com Use e-gold's Secure Randomized Keyboard (SRK) when accessing your e-gold account(s) via the web and shopping cart interfaces to help thwart keystroke loggers and common viruses. --- end forwarded text -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

1 0

[e-gold-list] GOLDMONEY PATENTS - PROOF OF PRIOR ART EXISTS
by Daniel S 20 Sep '04

20 Sep '04

Take a look at a document I discovered today: http://www.itk.ntnu.no/ansatte/Andresen_Trond/finans/others/interest-free-m… THIS DOCUMENT WAS PUBLISHED BY Bernard A. Lietaer, July 1990 GoldMoney's patents are of no value as this document describes EXACTLY what James Turk filed as patent 3 years later. --- "This New Currency would be convertible because each of its component commodities is immediately convertible. The Central Bank would commit to deliver commodities from this basket, whose value in foreign currency equals the value of that particular basket." ***** "There are a number of practical ways by which this negative interest rate could be levied. To begin with, most of the "money" in circulation (and practically all of the New Currency that would be circulated internationally) takes the form of accounting entries in a computer somewhere, and it would be fairly simple to charge electronically the negative interest rate on these accounts." ***** "Technically, this New Currency is a combination of two concepts, usually analysed separately: stamp scrip, and currency backed by a basket of commodities." "An additional flexibility: the Central Bank could keep and trade its commodity inventories wherever the international market is most convenient for its own purposes: Zurich for gold, London for copper, New York for silver, etc." "There is even a high-tech option in the form of the "chips on a card" electronic money tested in France: money is issued in the form of an "intelligent debit card" where a computer chip is imbedded in the card." "Whenever a payment is made by inserting the card in a Point of Sale terminal, a phone, or any other device accepting the card, the credit on the card could automatically be adjusted for the time delay since the card was last debited. For smaller amounts which require a lower security level, cheaper magnetic strip cards are also available, such as the ones issued for the rapid transit systems of San Francisco, Caracas or Washington D.C., or the British and Japanese telephone authorities." Comments? --- You are currently subscribed to e-gold-list as: rah(a)shipwright.com To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-e-gold-list-507998N(a)talk.e-gold.com Use e-gold's Secure Randomized Keyboard (SRK) when accessing your e-gold account(s) via the web and shopping cart interfaces to help thwart keystroke loggers and common viruses. --- end forwarded text -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

1 0

'Motel Six' squad scans guest activity
by R. A. Hettinga 20 Sep '04

20 Sep '04

<http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200~20954~2413356,00.html> L.A. Daily News - News Leaving no room for crime 'Motel Six' squad scans guest activity By Jason Kandel Staff Writer Motel Six, LAPD-style, has made a name for itself by checking out who's checking in. A half-dozen officers assigned to a squad nicknamed Motel Six are credited with the arrests of more than 100 felony and misdemeanor offenders by raiding motels across the San Fernando Valley for the past seven weeks. They've picked up suspected sex offenders, parole violators and fugitives in crime-plagued motels lining Sepulveda and Ventura boulevards and other thoroughfares. The Valley operation has become a model program that Chief William Bratton might expand citywide. "It's much more easy to hide in a motel than in your neighborhood," said Valley Bureau Cmdr. Valentino Paniccia, who handpicked the sergeant and five officers for the team. "Guns, violence, drugs, identity theft, computers -- they get free electricity, a base of operations, concealment, mobility. They can move from day to day." Long considered by police as hotbeds of prostitution, motels offer cheap rent and easy access to freeways, and can become a base of operation for felons to manufacture forged identity cards and carry out big drug deals -- and hide out from the cops. "They're becoming more enterprising, and they're fanning out," said Assistant Chief George Gascon, who oversees department operations. "They're becoming more businesslike." The six-member unit was formed after police noted an increase in violence at local motels, including last year's slaying of Burbank police Officer Matthew Pavekla in a gunbattle in the parking lot of the local Ramada Inn. Just last year, Craigor Lee Smith -- suspected of being the "Yellow Tooth Bandit" who held up dozens of Valley motels -- was fatally shot in a police standoff outside an Encino restaurant. In 2002, police caught a murder suspect who had been living out of his car parked in a lot at a North Hollywood motel. The Motel Six patrol checks parking lots, running license plates through police car computer terminals and getting instantaneous information about the registered owners. They then can check the information against guest registers and knock on doors, often turning up weapons, large amounts of cash, drugs and associatedparaphernalia. "The law allows for us to examine the registers," said Capt. James Miller, head of the Van Nuys Division, who had expressed concern about suspects' privacy rights while the project was still in the planning stages. "Running a license plate to see if it's a stolen vehicle or if there's a warrant has been recognized by the courts for a long time." The Motel Six program dovetails with efforts by the City Attorney's Office to shut down problem motels under the city's nuisance-abatement laws. The city attorney has a dozen open cases involving Valley motels where narcotics and prostitution have been problems. "We're going to be working closely with (the motel squad)," said Deputy City Attorney Colleen Courtney, a neighborhood prosecutor for the West Valley and North Hollywood areas. "We know that city resources are limited. This is an effective approach." Officials with the California Hotel & Motel Association applaud the LAPD's efforts. "Innkeepers should view the police as one of their best friends and resources, always," said Jim Abrams, the executive vice president of association, the nation's largest state lodging industry trade organization with more than 1,750 members. "Innkeepers and the cops need to work together." Mike Barry, the manager at the Mission Hills Inn, also appreciates the efforts of the Motel Six patrol. Earlier this month, the squad raided a room at the motel and arrested Joseph Romagnano, 32, on drug charges. They also seized methamphetamine, marijuana and more than $11,000. "From time to time, we get bad people in here," Barry said. "We try to screen our guests as much as we can, but still they can check in with different IDs. When the police come and take them away, we're really happy." -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

1 0

Re: Geopolitical Darwin Awards
by Major Variola (ret) 20 Sep '04

20 Sep '04

At 12:15 PM 9/19/04 -0400, Tyler Durden wrote: >My running, personal theory is that Muslim fundamentalism (and in general, >most fundamentalisms) get going when the locals gain a persistent sense that >they're gettin' screwed over, See "Crusades", which aint over til the tall buildings fall. and that their current government ain't >helping a whole lot. The Saudi royalty is the best the US can buy! It's kind of a devil's bargain to obtain a source of >strength. By necessity it needs to reject a lot of the local culture, >otherwise there isn't sufficient motivation to fight. In general, it's >probably on many levels predictable and even reasonable. Religion (of any form that posits an afterlife) is a terrorist weapon. Faith in the man with the silly hat is a WMD. >Of course, this can boil over into bizarre, "fanatical" behavior, but then >again as Mr Young so aptly put it, "fanatical" is what the screw-ers >normally call mass behavior they don't like. Winners write the history books. >In the case of Nukes, I'd point >out that the nuclear nations have a distinct advantage at the UN or any >other bargaining table, so if I were Iranian I'd be working pretty hard to >get something quasi-viable together that could be called a "nuke". Of >course, the few truly "fanatical" members of the local nuke-wannabees might >get a hold of the block box and, well, that sucks. 1. The UN doesn't let Rogues (tm) into the Security Council and thus a nuke is only *de facto*, not diplomatically useful in deterring colonial regime-changing. 2. Far more likely is that a decade's worth of work, a lot of money, and a few scientists will be vaporized by an Israeli Hellfire, made in the USofA by those proud flag-flying folks at Raytheon Death, Inc. The counter to 2 is to have two or more, one mounted on a missile on a mobil platform, how do you say MX in Farsi, and keep everything really really secret. The first nuke is for demonstration purposes, which might be a waste if its a U-gun type (except in making abundantly clear how far along your R&D is :-). (Remember the Hiroshima bomb was *not* tested, so sure were the scientists. Trinity was a Pu-implosion finesse job.) The interesting thing is that Iran isn't buying a few from Pakistan. Oh that's right, the U$ bought the Paki 'leadership'. Also means that Al Q isn't willing to share their stash with Iran. They probably think they have higher-priority uses for them.

2 1

VeriSecure Systems, Inc. Demonstrates Check 21 Fraud Prevention
by R. A. Hettinga 20 Sep '04

20 Sep '04

<http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_vi…> Search Results for Google September 20, 2004 09:00 AM US Eastern Timezone VeriSecure Systems, Inc. Demonstrates Check 21 Fraud Prevention FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 20, 2004--VeriSecure Systems(TM), Inc. announced that its Check Fraud Prevention System (CFPS) was tested under the auspices of the Financial Services Technology Consortium, whose members include the largest financial institutions in the US, as well as community banks, check clearing exchanges and other institutions. VeriSecure Systems technology was demonstrated to survive the check truncation, imaging and exchange and to offer security value throughout the process. In October of 2003, Congress passed legislation known as Check 21. This legislation becomes effective October 2004 and enables the banking industry to exchange bank check images in lieu of paper bank checks. Called "Controlling Fraud in a Truncated Check Environment", the purpose of the project was to assess the survivability, performance and viability of "next-generation" document security features in image based operations for bank checks, by conducting real life simulated exchanges among ten institutions. VeriSecure Systems employed its Check Fraud Prevention System (CFPS) for the project, which is based on its US Patent #5,432,506 "Counterfeit Document Detection System." The technology uses cryptography to create a unique code for each check. The security feature is applied as a standard printed barcode symbol by the check issuer. VeriSecure's software, developed in conjunction with Inlite Research, Inc., can provide a fully automated solution to read and validate the codes from either the actual paper documents or from the images of the documents. The software rapidly verifies the authenticity of the information printed on the checks, and identifies any alterations, thus preventing the most prevalent forms of fraud. Tom Chapman, VeriSecure's founder and the inventor of the technology said, "This project has certainly helped to demonstrate how cryptography can easily and conveniently be put to use, to validate any type of physical documents or their images. Along with fraud losses, this technology has the potential to reduce operating expenses of financial institutions as well as remittance processing for corporations." Gene Manheim, President of Inlite Research explained that "Industry standard barcodes serve as the robust foundation to secure check images, and enable innovative technologies like CFPS to provide fraud prevention across a huge range of images." Frank Jaffe, project manager for FSTC, said "Based on the results of the project, and given the magnitude of the risks of loss from check fraud, FSTC believes that financial institutions and check issuers will be well served by the adoption of these new document security features." About VeriSecure Systems The Company licenses its patented technology which is designed to verify the authenticity of physical documents and/or captured images. It is located in Plantation, Florida. (954) 401-8378 http://www.verisecuresystems.com About Inlite Research Since 1992, Inlite Research Inc. offers its Image Processing and Barcode Recognition technologies to OEMs and solution providers in markets that demand the utmost accuracy, productivity and quality in business processes. It is located in Sunnyvale, California. (408) 737-7092 http://www.inliteresearch.com About The Financial Services Technology Consortium The Financial Services Technology Consortium (FSTC.ORG) is a consortium of leading North American-based financial institutions, technology vendors, independent research organizations, and government agencies. New York, NY. (212) 461-7116 http://www.fstc.org Contacts VeriSecure Systems, Inc., Plantation, Fla. Tom Chapman, 954-401-8378 Print this Release Terms of Use | ) Business Wire 2004 -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

1 0

The Meaning of Security
by R. A. Hettinga 20 Sep '04

20 Sep '04

--- begin forwarded text

1 0