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 <y 1> 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"