On Wed, 24 Apr 1996, Declan B. McCullagh wrote:
I confess I had a good laugh at Jim Bell's expense. His attempt at weaseling was sadly uninspired, and Black Unicorn was quite right to move in for the kill. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Is it possible that we are witnessing a self-fulfilling prophecy? I believe that we are contributing to the gradual implementation of Jim's AP system to deal with excessive noise posting (which makes AP to be The Assassination Posting) and unenforceable betting. It's interesting to note that this is the side-effect of Mr. Bell's own postings on the subject (congrats). I therefore bet 100 Monopoly Roubles that by the end of the "Unibell" dispute (sometime before all the stars freeze over) a contract on the original assassination politician's head(s) will have been successfully carried out. I also note that Mr. Unicorn, being wealthy and having wisely protected his anonymity is in a fine position to carry this out. without any fear of retaliation or discovery. What's more, during the "No matter where you go, there they are" thread, Jim sent a reply to Dr. Denning with the infamous cypherpunks@toad.com in the headers. Not smart. Alas, from now on, no matter where Jim goes, Dorothy will know. (Say, don't Uni and Denning both live around DC? Hmmm...) So I submit to the list that any reinvention of the AP is ultimately self-terminating. (Though it might reduce noise and deal with unsuscrivers) The odds aren't good, Jim. You should have been more careful. ;-)
But to be fair to Jim Bell, perhaps $100 is still too high? I mean this in complete seriousness: I have to come up with nearly $2,000 cash by this weekend, and I wouldn't be able to make such a wager at this time, no matter how right I felt I was.
Watch out Declan, the frustrated gamblers on the list might take your statements as encouragement to Jim and decide to test out the prototype AP on you first. )8-0 Be careful folks, Little Dorothy is watching You! Ps. As this pseudonym will disappear before September, I am quite safe, myself.