From the cypherpunks mailing list, I got the following short message:
From: uni@acs.bu.edu (Shaen Bernhardt)
Date: Sat, 22 May 93 14:02:51 -0400
Ego + Espionage = Death
Taking other well-known identities:
Silence = Death
Energy = Mass x Speed-o-Light^2
and the assumption that the energy of one's ego cannot exceed one's
maximum potential energy (which has great explanatory powers re. the
Limbaugh Effect).
I get:
Silence = Ego + Espionage
<= MC^2 + Espionage
solving for Espionage,
Espionage >= Silence - MC^2
which raises some interesting points:
1. Espionage can be measured in existing SI units, thus
2. Espionage is a creation of the French
Item 2 is supported by the following etymology
espionage (es pi o nage; es p <y3> <en> <x2> <en> n <adi> azh <y1>, -
nij, es p <y3> <en> <x2> <en> n <adi> azh ) n.
1 n.
the practice of spying on others.
2 n.
the systematic use of spies by a government to discover
the military and political secrets of other nations.
Etymology:
<x4> F espionnage, MF espionage, equiv. to espionn(^B er)(to)
spy(deriv. of espion spy <x4> It spione <x4> Gmc; akin to
G sp <adi> ahen to look out) <u6> - age - AGE
Further anecdotal support - the French use an unbreakable code in most
of their communications. A clear affront in the face of the
government's Clipper Chip proposal that all encrypted messages must be
based on a key escrow system.
Of course, the French could go far to mollifying U.S. intelligence
interests by supplying either their Platinum-Irridium Espionage
standard, or adopting a U.S. approved cipher system. For the latter,
I think the US would be happy to approve "rot13" for export.
--Pat "McElwaine, without the caps"
