July 2018 - cypherpunks-legacy

DCSB: Jean Camp; Trust and Risk in Digital Commerce
by R. A. Hettinga 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- [The Harvard Club is now "business casual". No more jackets and ties, but see below for details. While it lasts, anyway. Since last year's dot-bomb, the suit-ratio in the main dining room has been asymptotically approaching unity. :-). --RAH] The Digital Commerce Society of Boston Presents Jean Camp, Kennedy School of Government Trust and Risk in Digital Commerce Tuesday, October 2nd, 2001 12 - 2 PM The Downtown Harvard Club of Boston One Federal Street, Boston, MA Trust is the critical variable in Internet Commerce. Trust requirements differentiate Internet from other forms of commerce. Trust has three primary components: reliability, security, and privacy. There is trust in routing, trust in encryption, and trust in applications. The layers of trust, the areas of risk, the power of cryptography, and the limits to security are all explained for the general audience in this text. When a business obtains customer data, the customer trusts that the data are used to improve service for her, and not used in a manner that harms her. The business is not necessarily violating privacy but is certainly requiring some extension of trust from the customer. This talk examines that trust relationship and examines the types of data that are most immediately useful but the least used. This talk contains explanations of fault tolerance and the components of reliability. Most transactions today are not fault tolerant. If a transaction is not reliable (in the sense of being fault tolerant) someone is at risk when the transaction fails. It is therefore important to be able to read a transaction-based Internet commerce standard and understand from that the risks involved in using the standard. Jean Camp is an Assistant Professor at the Kennedy School of Government, a Senior Member of the IEEE, and an elected Director of CPSR. Prof. Camp's core interest is in the interaction of technology, society, and the economy. Her interest usually fits within the design for values rubric or under the electronic civil liberties umbrella. It was this interest that led Prof. Camp from graduate electrical engineering research in North Carolina to the Department of Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon, and it remained her core research interest at Sandia National Laboratories, and continues at the Kennedy School. Prof. Camp's expertise are in Internet commerce and design for values. She is the author of "Trust and Risk in Internet Commerce" (2000, MIT Press). She is the author of more than thirty peer-reviewed publications on technical issues of social importance (e.g., privacy, reliability) and social issues with critical technical elements (e.g., content selection). This meeting of the Digital Commerce Society of Boston will be held on Tuesday, October 2nd, 2001, from 12pm - 2pm at the Downtown Branch of the Harvard Club of Boston, on One Federal Street. The price for lunch is $37.50. This price includes lunch, room rental, A/V hardware if necessary, and the speakers' lunch. The Harvard Club has relaxed its dress code, which is now "business casual", meaning no sneakers or jeans. Fair warning: since we purchase these luncheons in advance, we will be unable to refund the price of your meal if the Club finds you in violation of what's left of its dress code. We need to receive a company check, or money order, (or, if we *really* know you, a personal check) payable to "The Harvard Club of Boston", by Saturday, September 29th, or you won't be on the list for lunch. Checks payable to anyone else but The Harvard Club of Boston will be returned. Checks should be sent to Robert Hettinga, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, Massachusetts, 02131. Again, they *must* be made payable to "The Harvard Club of Boston", in the amount of $37.50. Please include your e-mail address so that we can send you a confirmation If anyone has questions, or has a problem with these arrangements (we've had to work with glacial A/P departments more than once, for instance), please let us know via e-mail, and we'll see if we can work something out. Upcoming speakers for DCSB are: November TBA December TBA January TBA As you can see, :-), we are actively searching for future speakers. If you are in Boston on the first Tuesday of the month, are a principal in digital commerce, and would like to make a presentation to the Society, please send e-mail to the DCSB Program Committee, care of Robert Hettinga, <mailto: rah(a)shipwright.com>. For more information about the Digital Commerce Society of Boston, send "info dcsb" in the body of a message to <mailto: majordomo(a)reservoir.com> . If you want to subscribe to the DCSB e-mail list, send "subscribe dcsb" in the body of a message to <mailto: majordomo(a)reservoir.com> . We look forward to seeing you there! -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGP 7.0 iQEVAwUBO6N+mMUCGwxmWcHhAQEmdQf+KqTSUWTyNbvqz6bDjeUYFLxsFeAfMacw SNmbmXa1l+o3VH3hqhsEQ3YK0DFMTD1Ydy71tSCk8tfD+RaAO69t2aUDsZvO9zax ujaGM2VeARN79eu4tVNHWxxGMIHJ/PgwVhrp0husLu5nZ0ScyWXriE/jCXTAU2P4 VsN4gbHXy6PeQ4IkVRKdUSqWsIUkZWcfNlgmLZFxVLgABtQTjOlQSI1m6T3z67Qr sXb4PUcXVw6woZtTm6YXPkF6d1L2r0LBVI7b/xF9fkQGImb7IFjkWcV5qflDFEeG iAyquJS/ikFiAdeD0SOUL5SYva9ryUkXEVKFuIalKTTxonp8v7m6MQ== =qXcv -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- ----------------- 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' For help on using this list (especially unsubscribing), send a message to "dcsb-request(a)reservoir.com" with one line of text: "help". --- 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' --------------------------------------------------------------------- The Cryptography Mailing List Unsubscribe by sending "unsubscribe cryptography" to majordomo(a)wasabisystems.com

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Lucrative update
by Patrick 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

Lucrative release 4 is out. I know many people are used to seeing releases numbered like "0.000001", "0.000002", "2.0.3.0.14.657" etc. but release numbering systems are essentially arbitrary in nature so don't get excited as Lucrative goes toward version 50+. This release is a fairly minor one, but included some changes such as the client name that I wanted to get out as soon as possible. There is also a new development weblog at http://lucrative.thirdhost.com/weblog/. I went through an install with someone over IRC last night and made a blog entry summarizing the install notes. I recommend reading the notes before attempting an install. I am glad to help with an install, drop me a note at patrick(a)lfcgate.com if you have trouble. Some documentation on the various entities in the Lucrative system is now available on the website, http://lucrative.thirdhost.com/documentation.php but more is needed and coming. If Lucrative is interesting to you, please consider helping in any way you can: Feedback Installation reports Suggestions Comments Criticism Feature requests Source code patches Donations Are all very much welcomed. And criticism is more useful to me than praise. My sincere thanks to everyone who has participated so far by installing, testing, providing feedback, spreading the word, and donating. And finally I just received word from SourceForge that the project registration for Lucrative has been approved. Regards, Patrick -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- Version: PGPfreeware 6.5.3 for non-commercial use <http://www.pgp.com> mQGiBD5ECKcRBADUvjXHwLtxIyS4AyjBs/dFtN6rdeP18Fhzh1hD5fJwkFevqY9Z I1ASROTh6eXYF7pU5sEvbcPshHyTB41ZtTqZvQvpwWN0fUzOuutuI0mtC5UPp9Rz j47SdWLdEXNHjwnHDCYSyqtqZu8GujGRQybR0eP3NIh/NwbSDUKdgz7IjwCg//Jo UtjP3zUFobm/0UYA+CJ5krED/091x9Js0gwNwvjbzM8DqO+r8qNz0kXI13FkrPRk QNd37lxt6m2m8HZD1WYM2wKwtMzHSwJcWzaDZ/tNc+ppYjzpw0EQCh9FqjGs8Vau guF6PA1M8lJTCcLKaL4e7ynic+PAw5Xa/tdOYgFCG+eLMU5RLvzRCYoOLIjgMJLJ yG98BACAMlDmFVYgC/UKvzZmHfZ5CtCKd8sPfCXrYLu5NeFRE0LR6D6zjzmhi1xX okfreR5o3T/y78VBM98js+m2/+7Z0AElqydeW/RnV1zqwDGjDr9z2MgARf3yLAbs n3BU8Fz61RwvHy6cRkT+2dR2f69QQUSpkupvLwZIGX/iwm4uKLQdUGF0cmljayA8 cGF0cmlja0BsZmNnYXRlLmNvbT6JAE4EEBECAA4FAj5ECKcECwMCAQIZAQAKCRBb mvb9yuOVfaA2AKDAu5tDj9F2KI8cJMrKKkQRAcUyxACg6/bei7lUJH+E5igJqGRx SjKrRA65BA0EPkQIpxAQAPkYoH5aBmF6Q5CV3AVsh4bsYezNRR8O2OCjecbJ3HoL rOQ/40aUtjBKU9d8AhZIgLUV5SmZqZ8HdNP/46HFliBOmGW42A3uEF2rthccUdhQ yiJXQym+lehWKzh4XAvb+ExN1eOqRsz7zhfoKp0UYeOEqU/Rg4Soebbvj6dDRgjG zB13VyQ4SuLE8OiOE2eXTpITYfbb6yUOF/32mPfIfHmwch04dfv2wXPEgxEmK0Ng w+Po1gr9oSgmC66prrNlD6IAUwGgfNaroxIe+g8qzh90hE/K8xfzpEDp19J3tkIt AjbBJstoXp18mAkKjX4t7eRdefXUkk+bGI78KqdLfDL2Qle3CH8IF3KiutapQvMF 6PlTETlPtvFuuUs4INoBp1ajFOmPQFXz0AfGy0OplK33TGSGSfgMg71l6RfUodNQ +PVZX9x2Uk89PY3bzpnhV5JZzf24rnRPxfx2vIPFRzBhznzJZv8V+bv9kV7HAarT W56NoKVyOtQa8L9GAFgr5fSI/VhOSdvNILSd5JEHNmszbDgNRR0PfIizHHxbLY72 88kjwEPwpVsYjY67VYy4XTjTNP18F1dDox0YbN4zISy1Kv884bEpQBgRjXyEpwpy 1obEAxnIByl6ypUM2Zafq9AKUJsCRtMIPWakXUGfnHy9iUsiGSa6q6Jew1XrPdYX AAICD/wKwtF7Y4NKBe8PQ6jDbjWziiTv9Ac/EnRTJDQEoqgLa2LyE+6Ahw/VPGvp mfxkD2MKxC9E7kYVmasn6sHnSpvAv3e7O1Bqbo/qLzzCcJQ5VCurZ+elRM1GZ4Oc fM19FPKutb0/JFEv0nrqS4BGkF7WFBbu5dKYl/GIO7Co1mAerFIb719dOwMPVEIz OT08u8uB9jyR8gEElf+CVuNfOUkrUGg4HS4SbmTTrCSz3/8n5PkquSuAyjCB/dwM ZsZwA0/TTR8sDYlmlf9xPj5PGpGnV9OUwfig6eE0eWtRFeasmz0uiX+yp45ABtNh 6EXP/PFaBgXi9omXXjeeFYfpDvmfA6izvTIQfXTV6V9ZWrBfXarM+GQ+6guXWVbd 9fXvmCr982LkzuKQrK1OpRXBMUapXL+tOy/LYzz91InqKKhgPNGa12fvotZ4LzlM iqoM+Hpz5L9B5We1Ph0lD6RBVXDCqd+P8extnY/7AaDy7tC0UghaAaUuEZXJQPIc oQ3QGbpjM0nGe/VZN5EZhljau0NNENFaU56cOpvOhcO04gLGNNc2NS+rIpTMsaHh o1CG90c5zZZJuUbyx0mIHriNQXDgEwunSZPQorKK9KSppyyjeuOyi5F/mBBPXeyT weLhLqLvAr9se/+Z3aQvMADJi8zUZtGggLTw+N9R5XSwtSh2R4kARgQYEQIABgUC PkQIpwAKCRBbmvb9yuOVfWayAKC+mBhHdn1XZ5uH0RocAyJ32hx2kgCePyhB+IqM TjWLDLarQxcPYhbkFi4= =nx1M -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- --- 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' --------------------------------------------------------------------- The Cryptography Mailing List Unsubscribe by sending "unsubscribe cryptography" to majordomo(a)wasabisystems.com

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How Empires Really End
by Mises Daily Article 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

How Empires Really End by Sean Corrigan <http://www.mises.org/fullstory.aspx?Id=1656>[Posted October 25, 2004] Here is what the standard historical textbooks will tell you. The Romans, after nearly four centuries of occupation, abandoned Britain in the year 410 a.d., when the western Emperor Honorius sent a "Rescript"or official proclamationto the leaders of the British municipalities, telling them, thereafter, to look to their own defense. Those same bookswith their urge to chop history up into neatly packaged sliversthen roundly declare that Civilization was abolished and that the "Dark Ages" promptly began. They will inform you that, within the space of barely two generations, the feeble British had abandoned the fertile lowland fields and farms, which their ancestors had tended since the last Ice Age, giving them up to a few boatloads of Germanic pirates and that they began to flee, finding a bleak refuge in the harsher highlands on the oceanic fringes of their island. And why would this not be trueno less than Rome herself was sacked by Alaric and his Goths that same year, was it not? As for Honorius, well, he was sheltering safely in Ravenna while his people were enduring the barbarian siege. The story goes that when he heard the news of its ruin, he thought it was a lesser evil than would be the death of his pet cockerel of the same name! But rather than using the words of a fool in purple, historians consider the cataclysm was better encapsulated by the pen of St. Jerome, who gave out a whole series of lamentations, wailing, in one letter, that: "...the bright light of all the world was put out, or, rather, when the Roman Empire was decapitated, and, to speak more correctly, the whole world perished in one city." Here and now, sixteen centuries later, in my line of work as an investment analyst, you come across more and more latter-day St. Jeromes, wherever you turn. I know of people who are selling up and moving to seek Shangri-La in the Southern Alps of New Zealand. Ive met those who think Paradise is to be found among the palm trees of the Dominican Republic or Costa Rica. A smart and very highly-educated American with whom Im friendly speaks for many when he ends an e-mail with the words: "Im looking forward to seeing you in Zurich. The way things are here, I might even stay." In fact, its becoming increasingly common for well-to-do professional folks and retired businessmen to reveal, in the course of a conversation, that they are prey to increasing anxieties about their future. These people evidently fear that their quality of life can no longer be guaranteed and they often dont know what they can do about it. Meanwhile, out in the wider world, the Gold Bugs and the more extreme religious crazies (of all faiths) have seemingly set up a joint venture. These two incongruous lobby groups have joined hands in trying to persuade people that the End of Daysfinancial or universalis at hand. What they seem to have agreed upon is that when God/Jehovah/Allah/Shiva is shortly revealed in all His mighty wrath and when He causes credit to collapse and the stock market to plunge, He will expect the Faithful not to be caught up in the rout. Oh, no! For the mark of the True Believer is that, when the Crash comes, he should be ready to take the Lord straight to where he has his gold coins buried instead! As that mellifluous voice of carefully-crafted pessimism, Bill Bonner, put it, in a recent piece: "We like gold the way we like stacks of firewood, jars of canned green beans and cheerful women. They make the going so much more fun when the going gets rough. As we mention above, the going has never been easier. So easy have things become that people no longer see the need for reserves. . . . But someday, the going may not be so good. We hold it in inventory for the day when just in time fails and just in case comes back into style . . ." This sounds eminently more reasonable, but, in truth, it is simply more of the same doom-mongeringjust more soothingly and articulately expressed by a master of the art. For my part, Ill admit that our rulers chickens finally may be coming home to roost, and that ours will be the generation up to our necks in guano. However, Im among those who also find this vogue for paranoiathis cult of the Apocalypseboth unattractive and unfruitful. The lesson of history This is where the story of Rome and the manner of its tellingis particularly instructive. This is because, as frequently happens in life, if we look beyond the banner headlines of despair, we can find cause for hope. We can also draw several parallels with what is happening to us todaythough not on the way our present crop of St. Jeromes would do it. Lets take a glimpse at how Rome and her history can give us a reaffirmation of our unshaken belief in the ability of Everyman, acting as a free individual, to repair all the damage ever done by historys tyrants and their tax gatherers. The first thing to be pointed out is that, however dramatic the official version of those past events, what historiansand, more emphatically, archaeologistsare coming to realize is that, changes in political leadership aside, nothing very much at all can otherwise be found to distinguish the days before 410 a.d. with those afterwards. Rome may have swapped leaders. Violence may have been done and property destroyed on a considerable scale. Individual tragedy was, we suspect, both undeniable and heart-rending, as it always is in such times. Yet, the vast majority of men and women still lived their lives, tended their livestock, took their goods to market, and worshipped their gods, as they had always doneRome, or no Rome. The thrifty and the enterprising still, on the whole, fared better than the prodigal and the unthinking. In fact, freed of the crushing exactions laid upon them by a Rome always eager to bribe its vast, unproductive military class into quietude, they may even have been left to enjoy more of the fruits of their own labors than usual. But, the academic historians have always sought to ignore things like this, for these are concerns of common peopleof traders and farmersand historians focus mainly on the swaggering fools at the head of the Stateon generals and governors. Even if we momentarily share their obsession and even if we stick to the old texts, unbacked by any harder evidence, the accepted view does not bear much scrutiny. Take the case of those feeble Britons, for instance. Here, it should be noted that Honorius letter was not a denial of some grovelling plea for aid, but a recognition of their de facto and self-attained independence. In early 5th-century Britain, memories still burned with the flames of the pogrom unleashed by Emperor Constantius IIs emissary, Paulus Catena, sixty years before, after the native leaders had backed the wrong contender in a struggle for his masters throne. Many of the current leaders fathers had probably collaborated in fomenting what the texts call the "Barbarian Conspiracy," in 367 a.d.traditionally viewed as yet another mark of Britains weakness, but now being revised into what may actually have been another concerted attempt to shed the Imperial yoke. In fact, far from being wretched, the Britons invaded the continent several times themselves after this supposed disaster; notably, under Maximus in 383 a.d., and, again, under Constantine III in 409 a.d. They even deposed two previous, more circumspect leaders in swift succession in order to give Constantine his shot at the title! Thus, just a year before Honorius wrote his famous missive, one faction of the Island Celts had already come close to deposing him, while another spurned his rule completely. As Zosimus wrote of the period: ". . . [events saw] some of the Celtic peoples defecting from the Roman rule and living their own lives, independent from the Roman laws. The Britons therefore took up arms and, braving the danger on their own behalf, freed their cities from the barbarian threat. And all Armorica and the other Gallic provinces followed their example, freed themselves in the same way, expelling the Roman officials and setting up a constitution such as they pleased . . ." If this was the case, if some Celtic Washingtons and Jeffersons had, indeed, won and formalized their peoples freedom, what of the notorious Groans of the Britons letter, addressed to Generalissimo Aetius a generation later? Surely this must prove that British sheep were still being shorn by Saxon wolves? Well, perhaps not, for it can better be read as the futile obsecration of one pro-Roman (and Augustinian?) faction, losing out to their retro-Celtic (Pelagian?) foes. Note that, in it, the plaintiffs were bleating that the barbarians push us to the sea; the sea pushes us back to the barbarians: between these two kinds of death, we are either slaughtered or drowned. Anglo-historians swell with pride here, assuming that their virile Saxon forebears are pushing the effete Welsh off the cliffs of Cornwall, but a far more realistic construction is that supreme commander Vortigerns men are riding the imperial faction into the surf in Kent! Moreover, as late as 470 a.d.when the Saxons had supposedly started their "ethnic cleansing"it was a contingent of 12,000 Britons under King Riothamus (tentatively identified by some as Vortigerns disobedient warrior son, Vortimer) which is said to have sailed up the Loire in the unsuccessful effort to succor the Emperor Anthemius against his Gothic foes. So, contrary to popular belief, military aid and military adventurism did not always flow West from Rome, but often it was directed the other way around! The victors write the history But, no matter. Objective truth counted for little when generations of Englishmen had been schooled in the ways of Rome and were taught to treat its authors propagandistic Latin as plain fact. Who understood that these same worthies and their teachers were all too eager to trace their contemporary naval and commercial pre-eminence back to the alleged superiority of their race? Who realized that history must bend if Victorian overlords were eager to see in their own Empire a reflection of more ancient glories? Thus was conjured up the myth of the Anglo-Saxon supremacy and its counterpoise, the rapid descent of the degenerate post-Roman Britons back to the mud huts and pig sties from which their Italian masters had briefly roused them. As evidence for this, the historians cited the collapse of urban society. They noted the dwindling of the cash economy as the barely-civilized savages retreated to rural isolation and relied, once more, upon barter for the exchange of their few, poor goods. Deprived of their Tacituses and Cassius Dios, they scorned the natives lack of learning and mocked the dearth of literacy, which had replaced the renowned intellectual salons of the auxiliary castra. The fact that the Celtic Church, sponsored by the sovereign Celtic princes, was the re-educator of continental Europe and that its footsore saints were the proselytizers of both Faith and Science throughout these times, was neatly overlooked. Even on the economic front, the distortions are plain. New archaeological evidence and recent reinterpretations of old data suggest the towns had been undergoing a continual period of slow decay for many years prior to 410 a.d. and that the cause was not to be found in barbarian depredations, but in Romes own dysfunctional society. For far too long, Rome had lived by conquestthrough seizing, by force of arms, what its spendthrift patricians and Caesarian mafiosi could not hope to gain by trade alone. But once the Empire came to butt up against lands too infertile to be worth the taking, or against terrain too inhospitable for its Legions to control in the face of active native "insurgents," this predatory State turned increasingly inward to devour its own wealth producers instead. Punitive taxes were needed, above all, to pay the vast numbers of soldiers. In some strikingly modern ways, it was mainly the military contractors and the tradesmen (and trollops) in the towns (vici) which sprang up alongside the legionary camps who did well out of equipping and servicing (in all sorts of ways) their oppressors. Naturally, in response to these tolls, rich men sought to keep their wealth to themselves, as far as was possible. Rather than squandering moneysome of it borrowed at hefty rates of interestto build public edifices, such as baths and temples, solely for reasons of prestige, the urban elite began actively to avoid such impositions. Indeed, the former privilege of Roman citizenship and the pride of holding the offices which accrued to it became such a burden that the wealthy retired to the Dominican Republics of their day, their country villas. There, they could minimize the loss of their property to overt taxation and there they could avoid the constant, unsubtle pressure for those contributions aimed at displaying their loyalty to the regime. So, unrepaired and unfrequented, town centers began to look dilapidated, long before any unwelcome barbarian tongues were heard in their near empty streets. Fex urbis, lex orbis Added to all this was the presence of that perennial, wasting affliction, that debilitating disease so often visited by reckless rulers on their long-suffering subjectsmonetary inflation. Long before Alarics Goths had plundered the so-called Eternal City, its money had become so debased that Imperial tribute and taxes were having to be levied in kind, not in cash. This greatly decreased the efficiency of the process. It also hurt the leadership indirectly, because it made tax collection more personal and more violently confrontational. Gradually, then, the whole empire had become little more than an arena in which competing warlords would raise forces to bid for the throne. Increasingly, its farmers and merchants were seen as nothing more than tax slaves to be exploited in order to provide the Dole to the restless urban proletariat and to buy the fickle loyalties of the ever-important soldiers. Over time, the difference between the "barbarians" and the Romans was becoming blurred, too. For one, the legions military pre-eminence became eroded as the hardy peasants of Italy in its ranks gave way to the unwilling sons of the conquered who were conscripted in their place. Additionally, many sons of the unconquered would volunteer to join themattracted by the pay and conditions and by the very modern enticement of the chance to learn a trade. There was also the prospect of becoming a man of mark back home when the volunteers term was up. This was an advancement aided substantially by the often sizeable retirement bonus with which nervous emperors made further attempts to keep the military caste onside. That bonus, could, of course, be most readily employed as capital in a business which relied on the veterans ability to use his inside contacts. He could call in a few favors, grease a few palms and so win a lucrative tender to supply his old army mess mates with their victuals, their gear, or their trinkets. Once more, the parallels with todays "revolving doors" are obvious, Mr. Cheney. But, it wasnt just the soldiers: "foreign" tradesmen and artisans, too, had learned what there was to learn from Rome and they applied it both in their home markets and inside the imperial lines. While this meant tribal leaders far beyond the empires boundaries were able to show off their collections of Roman jewellery and plate and to quaff the best Roman wines when feasting with their henchmenjust as their unsavory equivalents today all drive Mercedes and sport Rolex watchesit was they who often had the better of the terms of trade. This must have discomfited the Romans then no less than China's new manufacturing competitiveness or Indias growing software programming skills frighten British and American union bosses today. Rome, then, was not only undermined from within, but it became much less singular in its abilities, as knowledge of its technologies and innovations diffused across its borders. The lessons we should draw from all this is that though things were, in some senses, gradually getting worse as the Fifth Century began, many of the evils were not the result of sudden irruptions of savages from the outer fringes of the world, but were due primarily to a slow corrosion from within. Inflation, arbitrary government, swingeing taxation, the confiscation of propertyoften undertaken on the flimsy pretext of punishing dissent, or after the accidental infringement of some obscure regulation: these we would all recognize as things which plague us today. The development of an increasingly remote, self-serving and fabulously wealthy governing elite; the destruction of the bedrock middle class; the reliance of the poor on State grants and subsidies; the inhibition of free enterprise and the pervasive militarization of societythese are all things we also know all too well. Our Rome, too, may be ending in exactly this fashion and in this, the End-of the-World crowd may be right about a coming reckoning. But, just like Ancient Rome was lost long before the Goths invaded her precincts, it will not be our empires external foes who bring it down, but the self-inflicted wounds from which it has been suffering for decades. Should we care? At the margin, perhaps, we should, for we may have to work that bit harder to make our way against people outside the empire who will now be able to compete on a more level playing field than before. But what we should also remember is that Romes passing was not universally mournedcertainly not by those at risk of its institutionalized terror. As the noted British archaeologist, Sir Mortimer Wheeler summed it up, after a lifetime of work in the field: "I suffered from a surfeit of things Roman. I felt disgusted by the mechanistic quality of their art and by the nearness of their civilization at all times to cruelty and corruption." We should recall also the passages above which showed that the Briton and some of their Gaulish cousins thrived under their new found freedoms and their recovered self-determination. We should listen to the testimony of the present generation of less-hidebound archaeologists and historians who are beginning to see matters in a different light to that by which their professors worked. Men such as Francis Pryor, who goes to great lengths to point out that history (and prehistory, too, in his case) provides much more evidence of continuity, overlaid with gradual change, than it does of revolutions or mass invasions. In fact, based on a careful study of settlement patterns, artifact finds and burial practices, Pryor even doubts whether the "Anglo-Saxons" themselves might not be largely or wholly a post-dated fiction, constructed to give one set of relatively successful British kinglets a suitably glorious lineage, the better to distinguish themselves more clearly from their losing opponents among the other, no-less British kinglets! At present, that seems too far a stretch for me, but his point is nonetheless well made. To return to the main issue, will the fall of our Rome mean a fundamental change in the way our lives will be lived? I would contend not and to support this contention, I would ask you to consider the historical record again. Life goes on Over four centuries of occupationand countless more of commercial trafficBritons adopted certain Roman mannerisms, were influenced by Roman religious cults, and sought to purchase Roman consumer goods, just as people in Tehran today wear Levi Jeans and Nike trainers while listening to REM or Eminem on their iPods. But, at heart they remained Britons and, beyond even that broad classification, they were individual acting humans, each driven to provide for himself and his family through working to satisfy their needs. In their labors, these Britons were aided by the use of what capital they had and they appreciated the benefits which came from specializing in a trade. In this, they did best when their property was most secure from either legal or criminal jeopardy. Then, just as now, they would look for opportunities to exchange the surplus to which their trade gave rise. They would swap it for others surplus goods at the best mutually agreed rate they felt they could achieve. In short, their liveslike ourswere dominated, not so much by their rulers, as by plain old economic necessity: by matters such as scarcity, choice, capital, income, profit, and enterprise. Do you suppose that all of this was called into question because a Pope died, or an Emperor was usurped? Do you suppose people thought that the local warrior princeeven if he spoke German, or Welsh, not Latinwas any less, or any more, of an inevitable ill with which to put up than were the procurators and legates of a distant sovereign? Do you think it will matter now if a President is thrown out, or if a Prime Minister resigns? No. Now, as then, Men will adapt to their new circumstancesas they always do, if their government allows them the necessary freedom. Yes, there may be economic upsets and, yes, certain long-standing trading networks might become defunct. Conversely, new business ventures will suggest themselves as being potentially profitable and ships will still ply the deep oceans, with holds stuffed full of goods to exchange. No doubt, different loyalties will be expressed as the balance of political risks changes. Threats to life and property will take newer forms, though not necessarily less bearable ones. Crucially, the blessings of thrift and hard work and the fruits of enterprise will still be enjoyedespecially where the States footprint lies a little less heavily on the soil. In summary, life will go on today, as it did even when the mightiest Empire history had known was sinking into legend. Life will go on, in the 21st Century as it did in the 5thdifferent, yet the same. If we cut through the religious intolerance and ascetic distaste evident in the words of the sour old monk we met earlier, Saint Jerome himself, from his hermits cell in Bethlehem, had already recognized this, well before the embers had ceased to smoulder in his erstwhile City of Light: "The world sinks into ruin . . . he wrote, as mournful as ever. The renowned city, the capital of the Roman Empire, is swallowed up in one tremendous fire; and there is no part of the earth where Romans are not in exile. . . ." But, pay particular attention to what he had to say next: ". . . and yet we have our minds set on the desire of gain. We live as though we are going to die tomorrow; yet we build as though we are going to live always in this world" Well, of course, his contemporaries did just thatand it was no sin that they did, either, but rather a matter for thanksgiving! For, why wouldnt we expect people to go about their daily lives in much the same fashion as they did before; buying and selling, building and dreaming, speculating and investing? And why wont we carry on, pretty much regardless, even if our modern Western Empire loses its pre-eminence in its turn? No. The one thing of which we can be sure is thatwhatever the details of the looming changemore will stay the same than will be altered by it. What you should do about it Buy gold, then, if you willbut only because you share the view that it is very much harder to acquire than paper money is to create and that this means it should tend to maintain its value better. But, whatever you do, dont buy it as part of a retreat from life you are making just because times seem more uncertain than they used to appear. In trying to preserve your liberty from the zealots in charge of todays increasingly Roman State, dont surrender it instead to your fears by becoming either a metaphorical or an actual survivalist. Dont be tempted to hole up in the mountains with only your water purifier, your rifle, and your Krugerrands for company for, if the end of the world does come, no amount of gold is going to comfort you very much. But if it is only our version of Rome which fallsthis will not invalidate the lasting truth that your own wealth is best preserved when it helps another entrepreneur in the process of creating his. This means you must not hoard what is yours, for its real worth will only dwindle, if you do, eaten away by inflation, confiscated by the tax farmers. No, rather, you must keep on trying to invest it wisely by using it to participate in undertakings which make their owners a living through serving their post-Imperial, just as their pre-Imperial, customers better than their competitors can. All in all, you know the Emperor Honorius may not have been such a fool, after all. Maybe his roostera most useful bird, economically speaking did matter more than the fate of any ruler or regime, for the final lesson we must draw is that, as long as Men are Men, entrepreneurship will always outlast empire. So, take note, you historians of decline: our times will be no exception! ______________________________________ Sean Corrigan is the Investment Strategist at Sage Capital Zuerich AG (<http://www.sagecapital.com/>www.sagecapital.com) a Swiss-based organization dedicated to the cause of capital preservation and is co-adviser to the Bermuda-based <http://www.edelweissfund.com/>Edelweiss Fund. See his Mises.org <http://www.mises.org/articles.asp?mode=a&author=Corrigan>Articles Archive, or send him mail (<mailto:corrigan@sagecapital.com>corrigan(a)sagecapital.com) This article is written for the exclusive use by Mises.org; the usual liberal reprinted policy does not apply. Comment on this article on the <http://www.mises.org/blog>blog. In response to many requests, it is now possible to set your credit-card contribution to the Mises Institute to be recurring. You can easily set this up on-line with a donation starting at $10 per month. See the <https://www.mises.org/donate.asp>Membership Page. This is one way to ensure that your support for the Mises Institute is ongoing. <http://www.mises.org/fullstory.aspx?Id=1656>[Print Friendly Page] <http://www.mises.org/blog/> <http://www.mises.org/elist.asp>Mises Email List Services <https://www.mises.org/donate.asp>Join the Mises Institute <http://www.mises.org/store>Mises.org Store <http://www.mises.org/>Home | <http://www.mises.org/about.asp>About | <http://www.mises.org/elist.asp>Email List | <http://www.google.com/u/Mises>Search | <http://www.mises.org/contact.asp>Contact Us | <http://www.mises.org/journals.asp>Periodicals | <http://www.mises.org/articles.asp>Articles | <http://www.mises.org/fun.asp>Games & Fun <http://www.mises.org/StudyGuideDisplay.asp?SubjID=117>EBooks | <http://www.mises.org/scholar.asp>Resources | <http://www.mises.org/catalog.asp>Catalog | <https://www.mises.org/donate.asp>Contributions | <http://www.mises.org/calendar.asp>Freedom Calendar You are subscribed as: rahettinga(a)earthlink.net Manage <http://mises.biglist.com/list/article/?p=prefs&pre=l&e=7669537&pw=miya781tml>your account. Unsubscribe <http://mises.biglist.com/list/article/?p=unsub&pre=l&e=7669537&pw=miya781tml>here or send email to <mailto:article-unsub-7669537@mises.biglist.com>this address. --- 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'

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Re: [IP] worth reading -- loophole in FISA?
by David P. Reed 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

Well, Dave, here's a couple of relevant personal thoughts regarding vacuum-cleaner-like data gathering... 1) there's a saying I heard recently that the NSA's approach to intelligence is like trying to find a needle in the haystack by sending tractors in the field to gather more hay. Based on my understanding of the reliability of inference-making I suspect the problem is that and worse. So these so-called vacuum-cleaner technologies probably won't improve the ability to predict terrorism that much, but the elimination of checks and balances will almost certainly result in lots of "false positives" that can be used as presumptive reasons to harass both US citizens and foreigners for "inferences" that are little more than wild-ass intuitions about what kind of activity might be correlated with bad actors. Of course there are lots of technology companies who sell stuff to the intelligence community who are full of hyperbolic claims about the wonders of mass data collection and analysis, but if they were so good, why don't they predict the stock market instead and make money the old fashioned way? Predicting the stock market is a trivial problem compared to predicting and preventing terrorism, but in the market there is actually a measure of success, whereas the measure of success in the beltway intelligence technology business is getting another, bigger contract. (that's what comes from outsourcing to a military-industrial complex that is so big it can buy members of Congress, lock stock and barrel, as we saw with Duke Cunningham). 2) what the NSA does outside the US may be legal under US law, but by no means is it either legal or a source of pride when viewed in other countries or in international law. The grand glorious endeavor of spying is fundamentally anti-social and anti-humanity. Apparently, part of the standard CIA induction briefing is being reminded that humint is just another word for fraud, deception, burglary, and other things that we do not tolerate in civilized societies. If agents carrying out such acts are discovered in our country they can be executed, and by symmetry most countries can and will execute our spies if caught. (this may be cruel and unusual, because theft of information inside a country is usually punished by more lenient methods). Sigint (though the hands *seem* cleaner) is legally and morally just wire fraud and peeping-tomism etc. by another name, and again, agents who listen in on radio or wire conversations in other countries are violating their laws, just as agents doing that in the US would be guilty of espionage and subject to execution or harsh penalties. So by any "golden rule" standard of justice we should be careful. One can argue that, just as war is sometimes thought to be necessary to deal with threats to the citizens of our nation, intelligence gathering, however illegal, might also be sometimes necessary. But it's not a "good" at any level, and hardly something we should be proud of. However, the thrill of hanging out with the codebreakers shouldn't be used to glamorize what is, at its core, just a government-sanctioned form of antisocial behavior. It's practitioners cannot be trusted to decide what is appropriate, because they are by definition able to carry out acts that are antisocial and illegal. ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as eugen(a)leitl.org To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/ ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE [demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type application/pgp-signature which had a name of signature.asc]

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[IP] worth reading -- loophole in FISA?
by David Farber 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

Begin forwarded message:

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"Cool Tools for Tyrants"
by Seth Finkelstein 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

http://legalaffairs.org/issues/January-February-2006/ feature_bambauer_janfeb06.msp Cool Tools for Tyrants The latest American technology helps the Chinese government and other repressive regimes clamp down. By Derek Bambauer "... Curbing market freedom to protect human rights inevitably limits profits, an unappealing prospect in the best of circumstances. With this no doubt in mind, companies argue that merely doing business with repressive nations helps open the nations to democracy, free trade, and human rights. Cisco CEO John Chambers said recently, "Anytime you've got a good exchange of information, citizens benefit as a whole." And Microsoft has argued that a censored Internet is better than no Internet: Although the company's Chinese MSN Spaces web-log software prevents users from writing words like "democracy" and "human rights" in the titles to their postings, it encourages a central value of democracy by promoting self-expression. But there is little evidence to support these views. Despite China's five million bloggers, the Communist Party remains firmly in control of the nation and, for the most part, the Internet within its borders. Iran's blogging community is perhaps the country's liveliest political arena, yet the authoritarian Iranian government is stronger than ever, especially after a resounding victory in February 2004 elections. Contrary to the utopian view that the Internet evades local control, governments are proving adept at controlling the information that their citizens receive and share. Market freedom does not necessarily lead to personal freedom. We must at times limit the first to safeguard the second; the right to sell must sometimes yield to protect the right to speak." -- Seth Finkelstein Consulting Programmer http://sethf.com Infothought blog - http://sethf.com/infothought/blog/ Interview: http://sethf.com/essays/major/greplaw-interview.php ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as eugen(a)leitl.org To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/ ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE [demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type application/pgp-signature which had a name of signature.asc]

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[IP] "Cool Tools for Tyrants"
by David Farber 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

Begin forwarded message:

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Re: <nettime> Mute article on Bitcoin
by Dmytri Kleiner 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

On 04.03.2012 16:50, Jaromil wrote: > hi Josie, >> The Wine and Cheese Appreciation Society and Scott Len take the >> currency seriously but ask, how exactly does it differ from 'real' >> money? > A rather quick conclusion, comprehensible since it takes some > knowledge of cryptography to understand that Bitcoin is less than > what you are talking about, while what might come next is the most > interesting part. BitCoin is nothing more and nothing less than electronic specie. Sure, the cryptography behind has some interesting possibilities, like Namecoin. But BitCoin is like digital gold coins, it's main advantage over gold is that it can be electronically transfered, however, it also has disadvantages, it can't be made into a gold tooth, and earring or a pimpin' belt buckle. In terms of electronic commerce, this can be quite usefully, but macroeconomically the significance of electronic specie seems quite negligible, taking it place among various less interesting, non-decentralized, exchangeables, including pre-paid telephone credit and online shopping gift codes. It's main advantage over these is it utility for unsanctioned economic activity, which certainly is critical for some undertakings, but hardly disruptive to the economy as a whole. I'd very interested in a co-herent argument otherwise. Best, -- Dmyri Kleiner Venture Communist # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime(a)kein.org ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE

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[tahoe-dev] notes from the LAFS Weekly Dev Chat for 2012-11-01
by Zooko Wilcox-O'Hearn 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

Folks: I apparently never posted these notes from the LAFS Weekly Dev Chat of November 1. I'm sorry about that. I was probably planning to flesh them out with more context and explanation, but I haven't done that, either. So, here's a dump of my notes. Regards, Zooko === 2012-11-01 === #1679 * we don't have consensus on the long-term strategy for caching of filenodes; options: * aggressively cache filenodes, make downloaders be indefatiguable, so that they never cease their labors unless cancelled * aggressively cache filenodes, make downloaders get a fresh burst of energy whenever a new use of the downloader is begun * don't cache filenodes of any kind, implement a separate mutable-write-serializer (which looks a lot like a cache) * cache mutables but not immutables * but we do have consensus on what to do right now: * we're going to write a unit test for the patch attached to #1679 and commit it to trunk; That means Tahoe-LAFS v1.10.0 will cache mutables but not immutables. #1240 * tests of corruption both before and after servermap-construction don't apply to some parts of the data * document which are which and why we test some of them both before and after servermap-construction; Andrew will write, Brian will review. #1832 * indefinite (or long-term) but cancellable leases * we discussed two protocols that could implement #1832: * the one shown on the initial description of #1832 * one in which the client builds a manifest and delivers it to the server in one (potentially big) message * if I have multiple clients, they could have separate accounts * but how to get aggregated accounting information concurrent garbage collection notification so you can add leases in the leasedb schema, indefinite leases are indicated by having an expiration time of null encrypted timestamps add a storage api which says "give me back something which the server will recognize as a timestamp", and another api which says "you are allowed to clobber everything that hasn't been created or renewed since $THIS_TIMESTAMP" should each lease renewal method come with an explicit $THIS_TIMESTAMP, or should it be able to do an explicit "when you receive this message"; the latter would unnecessarily require limited-time-leases to do a round trip first. we'll need separate account ids on separate leases to prevent one user from clobbering add a requested-duration to lease-renewal methods; if we don't have a negotiation protocol for that, maybe make it server-side-config for now. (#1003) _______________________________________________ tahoe-dev mailing list tahoe-dev(a)tahoe-lafs.org https://tahoe-lafs.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tahoe-dev ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE

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Re: [tor-talk] NPA to urge Internet providers to block users of hijacking software [Tor]
by grarpamp 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

> http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20130418p2a00m0na013000c… http://yro.slashdot.org/story/13/04/21/229242/japanese-police-urge-isps-to-… _______________________________________________ tor-talk mailing list tor-talk(a)lists.torproject.org https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-talk ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE

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