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Offshore Information Services is Back after Bertha
by Vincent Cate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Hurricane Bertha hit Anguilla just perfectly to do the most damage. Just north of the storm the counterclockwise spin and westward movements add for maximum destructive power, and we were just north of it. Don't know of any people or houses that were hurt, but a bunch of power and phone lines have been damaged. We lost power, ran for about 10 hours on battery, and then shut down. But about 24 hours later we are back online to stay. We are temporarily located in the Cable and Wireless building in town. Thanks Cable and Wireless! And thanks to everyone for your patience, Vince Cate Offshore Information Services Ltd Anguilla, Eastern Caribbean http://online.offshore.com.ai/

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Re: [RANT] Giving Mind Control Drugs to Children
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 10:47 AM 7/9/96, JR(a)ns.cnb.uam.es wrote: >Hey Perry, > > I think you are taking this too far. I believe that almost nobody >(there are always some exceptions) will deny the existence of disease. And >while Tim may not be a great doctor and even totally wrong in the case he >stated, the original point was not to discuss a specific medical case. Indeed. In reading the comments here, it seems that some are setting up a straw man series of arguments, and then knocking them down: -- "Tim says Attention Deficit Disorder does not exist." -- "Tim says Ritalin does not work." -- "Tim claims to know better than doctors." -- "Tim is against using aspirin, penicillin, and other drugs." -- "Tim wishes to interfere with the choices of others." And so on. In actuality, I have made *none* of these points. Instead, what I recounted was a telling anecdote about the over-medication--in my opinion of course, based on direct observation--of the child of a friend of mine. And my larger point was the _hypocrisy_ issue, that we tell our children to "Just say No! to drugs" while popping pills in their mouths. We are teaching children to "self-medicate." Whether these children continue to self-medicate later in life is unknown. As to choice, I am not interfering in any way, despite a strange claim to the contrary. My friend simply refuses to be a pill dispenser to keep a kid "controllable," especially when he has seen the kid in an "unmedicated" state and finds him much more personable, happy, and eminently controllable. The mother, Vickie, simply cannot impose discipline on him and, in our opinion, uses his Ritalin dose to control him. Quibbling about whether Ritalin is or is not a depressant, or a stimulant, or whatever, misses the main points. I personally never got into the drug thing, and my only drugs of choice are caffeine (taken straight, in caffeine tablets) and alcohol (preferably in the form of bourbon or Kentucky sour mash). But if I were advising a child--my own, or others--I would never lie to them about how horrible all drugs are, and especially I would challenge "D.A.R.E." programs which use school time to brainwash them. I sometimes wear a t-shirt I bought over the Net: "D.A.R.E. I turned in my parents and all I got was this lousy t-shirt." (Explanation for non-U.S. persons: "D.A.R.E." stands for "Drug Abuse Resistance Education," a multi-week school program which brings in local law enforcement officers to explain the evils of all drugs and which teaches children how to contact school officials, local law enforcement, and Child Protective Services should they detect drugs in their homes. This part has been very controversial, as children turn in their parents for smoking pot. Even the schools and cops realized things had gotten out of hand when children were contacting the authorities for wine-drinking and other such legal drug consumptions. Not surprisingly, civil libertarians draw parallels with the case of Pavel Morozov, the "Young Hero" of the Soviet Union who turned in his parents to Stalin's secret police. Hence the message of the t-shirt.) Personally, I think these issues are related to Cypherpunk themes. Telling children to "Just say No! to drugs" without providing nuanced interpretations of which specific drugs are dangerous, and why, is esentially lying to them. Dosing them with uppers and downers contradicts the simplistic message. And teaching them to narc out their parents is despicable. Anyone for "C.A.R.E."? Crypto Abuse Resistance Education. "So, boys and girls, be sure to tell your teacher if you see your Dad or your Mom using any illegal computer codes. It's for their own good, and they'll thank you for helping them to be reeducated." > And from the very onset Tim explained his point in not building >a mental control society. And there's no point in denying that it is far >easier for most societies to have full mental control of their subjects >(to which technology aids) than to fix the big social problems. Indeed. My original points seem to be have gotten distorted by others. (And you ought to see a couple of foaming-at-the-mouth personal messages I have gotten, including one from a woman "on lithium" (no, not any of the few regular women posters here). Hey, if "lithium" works, fine. But I wouldn't pop lithium pills in a child's mouth without some real careful consideration.) My point about the mother I mentioned is that she _appears_ to be using Ritalin to make her child more sedate and more controllable, when my friend finds that old-fashioned methods work quite well. And my friend has no plans to be the dispenser of uppers and/or downers to his son's friends. Children on drugs will have to find their methods of delivery. And to all those on this list who assume I am "insulting" their ADD condition, go back and reread my post. I never claimed that ADD does or does not exist. Maybe it does. Maybe it is partly exaggerated. In any case, my point was that we cannot tell children that all drugs are evil and then give them mind-altering drugs. And believe me, most children are bright enough to eventually see the hypocrisy. (I should stop now, but I just have to mention the LSD scares of the mid-60s. As LSD hit the mainstream media, we were bombarded by stories of how people thought they could fly out of buildings while on LSD. One famous case, that of Art Linkletter (the Oprah Winfrey of his day). His daughter, he claimed, flew out of a building while on LSD. Many years later he admitted--as I recall--that she had long been suffering from major depression, and that it was most probably a standard suicide...tragic, but not really caused by LSD. In any case, people in the 60s heard these scare stories, saw the reality of how their friends behaved on acid, and realized they'd been fed a line of scare-mongering hype. The dangers of crying "Wolf!" falsely. This process was repeated a decade or so later with the media propagating tales of people on "angel dust" (PCP) putting babies in microwave ovens and committing suicide in horrific ways. True or not, for whatever twisted reasons, these cases were used to "manufacture consent" about the dangers of PCP. And then there were the "crack babies," which more recent analysis shows largely to be a myth. And so on. The Four Horsemen are riding high.) --Tim May Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software! We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay(a)got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Licensed Ontologist | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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MIT harassed over publication of PGP book
by Hal Abelson 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- The following message is written on my own behalf; it is not an official statement of MIT. Over the past few weeks, MIT has been negotiating a research framework agreement with Sandia Labs. A framework agreement does not fund any particular piece of research. Rather it establishes policies and procedures under which future research will be funded and carried out. This saves MIT and Sandia the trouble of working out a separate agreement for each new contract. We have several such agreements in place with various organizations. Sandia has also set up agreements with universities in the past, and is currently setting then up with several more universities, including MIT. In the current round of negotiations, Sandia is requesting to add language to the agreement, giving them right of prior review over any publications arising from their sponsored research at MIT, in order that Sandia can review these for possible violation of US export control regulations. When our contract people queried this, they were put in touch with Bruce Winchell, a Sandia lawyer. Winchell told them that the State Department had "made it clear" to DOE that the Department was very concerned that "MIT did not have procedures in place to monitor the dissemination of material that is subject to export controls." Winchell went on to say that a recent MIT publication by "a Philip Zimmermann" came very close to violating export control laws. As far as we know, Sandia has not been discussing such a clause with other universities with which it is negotiating contracts. I assume that Mr. Winchell's comment above refers to the publication of the PGP source code book by MIT Press. Before publishing the PGP book, the Press wrote the State Department, informing them of our intent to publish the PGP book and giving them the opportunity to let us know if they thought this would raise an export control problem. We never received a response. Since publication, MIT has never (to my knowledge) heard from State that they had any objection to the PGP publication. Now, we learn of a back channel communication from State to DOE to Sandia, which has prompted Sandia to want to act as a policeman for MIT vis a vis export controls. This is troubling for what it says about how the State Department is dealing with export issues surrounding information about cryptography, and about the extent to which policies are being administered in a clear and above-board manner. Hal Abelson Prof. of Comp. Sci. and Eng. MIT -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 Comment: Processed by Mailcrypt 3.4, an Emacs/PGP interface iQCVAwUBMeNIKviGKLV9Y6XFAQFeRwP6ArPEyMTY3IgfuAQGcCCfmbuc5D/505N/ +x/9hhVZOIv33sEummQ5UtJeSAyH9gLg0GMOxKCpQOqsBsed5YAO9xVRjIW3dXfQ Xgo975qFHHmlRA3cxa5EZFg7Q/39V3QVKlCrcZ8jyYW9ECgNJtbMSvcvaO3Qzgom lgo4OB6g7eo= =QABK -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Re: [RANT] Giving Mind Control Drugs to Children
by mike＠fionn.lbl.gov 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

On Jul 9, 9:21am, Rick Smith wrote: > >Seems like if your child needs drugs to go to school than perhaps school is > >the problem not that your child's body lacks Ritalin. One thing we need to remember is that life, not just school, is full of boring, repetitive tasks, even for the hi & mity. You have to figure out how to do them. This is one very difficult *lifetime* problem for those with add-like behaviors. Also, add people need credentials & good jobs like everyone else, so they have to be able to perform well enuf in school to get good recs & good marks in subjects that interest them. They didn't make this system, but they do have to adapt to it somewhat.

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Re: [RANT] Giving Mind Control Drugs to Children
by JR＠ns.cnb.uam.es 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>I bet you go up to people in near suicidal states and tell them "hey, >get a life", don't you. > Sorry, Perry, but that's a cultural matter. Here we consider one has right over his/her own life up to decide to suicide. And so it is not ilegal here. What that reflects is that I respect their right to dispose of their lifes. I do care though, and if I can help I'll do my best. That's why I studied Medicine in the first place. Just as I try to convince people to learn, increase their political awareness, overcome their limitations and get better. That's why I defend defensive use of crypto against technological mind-control. I still won't force anyone into using this or that algorithm or taking this or that drug. As long as they have a free will. Then comes disease, when one is not able to decide by him/herself. If I were to make a blood transfusion to someone refusing it on religious grounds I wouldn't be much different from the gov't imposing some crypto scheme on the basis of its own moral grounds. Is it that what you are proposing? It would be quiet another thing if I saved the life of someone who can't tell me at all his/her religious beliefs. Not to say I wouldn't 'cos I'd. But I don't think goverments can say we are not able to express our preferences, do they? In short, I may think otherwise and try to convince people not to suicide, even do my best. But in the end it's their choice. Just the same I believe the gov't can try to convince us, but it should be in the end our choice to chose how we live (or what crypto we use). So, are you saying that to avoide the society collapsing by terrorism and go to its suicide we should give the government total control? jr

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[Poster] Add Uncle Sam to Your Circle of Friends and Family
by Michael Froomkin 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

http://www.rsa.com/rsa/gallery/circle1.gif A. Michael Froomkin | +1 (305) 284-4285; +1 (305) 284-6506 (fax) Associate Professor of Law | U. Miami School of Law | froomkin(a)law.miami.edu P.O. Box 248087 | http://www.law.miami.edu/~froomkin Coral Gables, FL 33124 USA | It's hot here. And humid. PLUS: Bertha Watch

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Contracts, Responsibilities, and Drug-Dispensing
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

There have been some statements here that "Tim is interfering in the choices of others." In particular, Perry has been saying I am a hypocrite, that I wish to interfere with the choices of others, and so and so forth. Let's make something clear: -- I have no "contract" to supply drugs to anyone, nor does the friend I have been discussing, who makes a choice _not_ to dose the friends of his son who are in his house. -- This "contractarian" analysis should be important to any libertarian or believer in civil rights. -- If someone makes a contract, formal or informal (with some caveats), to supply a dose of drugs, alcohol, whatever, at some specified time, then this is fine. But if no contract exists, not supplying the drugs is not interference in choice. (Is, for a example, a Mormon interfering in the rights of a friend by refusing to supply a drink to a visiting friend? Am I interfering in the choice of others by refusing to allow cigarette smoking in my home? Examples like this are easy to find.) -- If someone claims there is an _implied_ contract in this case, this falls apart after the first "refusal" to supply the dose. That is, Vickie, the mother, is well aware that my friend is returning the Ritalins to her unused, in the kid's backpack. That she continues to send the kid over, absent the drug dose she would have preferred her son to be given, means she has effectively made a choice that maybe the Ritalin dose is not so important after all (or at least that my friend is able to "control" and "handle" the kid without the drug...maybe this is giving her some second thoughts about dosing the kid into compliance even on the weekends?). [A cynic might suggest she is letting the alleged violations of her son's rights "pile up" so she can bring a lawsuit and get some of his money! :-}] So, I reject the straw man arguments that I am interfering with the "rights" of others. My house, my rules. My friend's house, his rules. And one of his rules is that he refuses to become a pill dispenser for mind-altering drugs. Vickie can accept these rules, or not. Her choice. (And part of this, as perhaps I did not make clear enough, is that he doesn't like the idea of his _own_ son seeing his Dad dispensing mind-control drugs to make a kid more compliant and passive. He is obviously well within his rights to refuse to be a drug supplier. His house, his rules. Would this apply if the visiting kid needed an injection of insulin? Maybe, maybe not. It would depend. Speaking for myself, I would refuse to supply injections of insulin to a child--I'd tell the mother or father to not expect me to administer medical treatments beyond simple things like aspirins or band-aids on cuts and scrapes. My house, my rules.) It's always useful in discussing "rights," as Perry is doing, in terms of contracts and agreements. To paraphrase Lysander Spooner, I can't find my name or the name of my friend on any contract about supplying drugs to visiting children. --Tim May Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software! We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay(a)got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Licensed Ontologist | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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Rep. Sonny Bono speaks at NPC on online copyright
by declan＠well.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Date: Tue, 9 Jul 1996 15:07:41 -0500 To: fight-censorship+(a)andrew.cmu.edu From: declan(a)well.com (Declan McCullagh) Subject: Rep. Sonny Bono speaks at NPC on online copyright I just got back from hearing Rep. Sonny Bono (R-Calif) speak at the National Press Club this afternoon. The topic was "Intellectual Property" -- timely enough since Bono sits on the House subcommittee considering the online copyright bill (HR2441) I've railed against in the past. As a former member of the entertainment industry, he's a stauch supporter of that ill-advised legislation, which is opposed by the Digital Future Coalition. Given the topic of his speech, I kinda expected him to talk about, well, maybe intellectual property. I was wrong. He spent most of an hour rambling incoherently about his life ("I had to lug beef to get started in the music business") and how he really wasn't a politican after all. Not to put too fine a point on it, he's a bit of a dimwit. (Someone sitting at my table told me that a recent Washingtonian mag dubbed him the dumbest member of Congress.) Bono is one of the few politians that could make Bob Dole sound intelligent and eloquent. I brought a friend along to the banquet. (Since I'm a member of the NPC -- actually the first cyber-journalist to be admitted to the club -- I can bring one guest.) She slipped me a note halfway through: "He is honest. If he were smarter, and honest, probably no one would listen to him." She's right. Bono did seem honest. He was truly convinced, in some kind of inchoate way, that intellectual property piracy online was really a problem. So he supports this wretched legislation without grokking what it would do to the Net. Unfortunately, the question I submitted ("What are the major concerns the entertainment industry has regarding copyright and the Net?") didn't get asked, so instead we were treated to hearing Bono talk about Cher. "I hope she doesn't put on any more tattoos." And if he'd sing a song for the audience: "I've got you babe!" *sigh* -Declan

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Re: Metered Phone
by eli+＠gs160.sp.cs.cmu.edu 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

In article <+cmu.andrew.internet.cypherpunks+wlsUPSm00UfAA10MIt(a)andrew.cmu.edu>, Jerome once again writes: >Every dial will be counted, every seconds will be measured... Every gratuitous repost will be *penalized*...

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DS: The Net and Terrorism
by Bart Croughs 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

On monday 8 july 1996, Mark Rogaski wrote: An entity claiming to be Timothy C. May wrote: : : (Note: For various cultural and image reasons, science and technology are : _not_ emphasized as careers for black children. Contrast the image of : science in predominantly black environments with the image of science in, : say, predominantly Jewish environments. The result is clear: blacks are : severely underrepresented in these areas, and Jews are overrepresented in : these same areas. Hey, I'm just citing a basic truth of our times, at least : in this country. Similar statistics apply to Asians, with more than half of : all U.C. Berkeley science and engineering undergrad students being Asian, : and something less than 3% of them being black. The figures for who : _graduates_ are even more skewed. There are various reasons for this. One : of my pet peeves is how the terms "dweeb," "nerd," and "geek" are used to : characterize science and engineering majors and professionals. Hardly terms : that are likely to make a brother in the hood consider studying science!) : I attended a school in the Pittsburgh area that had an active recruiting effort centered in Philadelphia. Thus, most of the black students were from inner-city Philly. What I noticed about their failure to show up in upper level math/science classes was that they had to spend too much time in remedial classes to undo the damage done by city schools. Considering the percentage of America's black population that lives in urban areas, that seems to explain the lack of black representation. Even more distressing on the whole was the lack of female students in the Comp. Sci. department ... but that's another story. As for the slang, I don't think it's going to attract white kids from the suburbs either. Screw the stereotypes, it's a little too close to the "They could but they don't have the drive/will/intelligence" arguments to say that Dilbert cartoons are going to turn off a "brother in the hood" to math/science. Also, most of the Asian students at my school were not US citizens. Most were from China or Japan. mark - -- I wonder why you don't mention the fact that blacks on average have a lower i.q. than whites, while jews and Asians have a higher i.q. than (non-jewish) whites. If we talk about achievement in science, these facts seem rather important. And why is the lack of female students in the Comp.Sci. department distressing? It's what you can expect: on average, women are less talented than men in dealing with abstractions. Bart bart.croughs(a)tip.nl

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