I hate to intrude here but I have been seeing all the smoke out in the newsgroups about this "tentacle" business and L. Detweiler (who is this guy??!). I hope I won't be flamed so I am sending this through a remailer. (I love your technology, one of my friends went to a cypherpunk meeting once and told me about the cooler stuff.) I sent L. Detweiler some of these questions but he never responded, so I was hoping people here could help me understand what is going on out here!!! So anyway... Could someone define "tentacle"? Detweiler said, out in the newsgroups:

1) the cypherpunks betrayed me. they even got a an old college friend to pretend he was real. M.Dale sent me mail claiming he was real. I did not ask for this mail. But if you send me lies, I will call you a liar.

I don't agree with that in the least. (With what he says they did, not the paragraph itself).

2) Szabo is one of the most valuable cypherpunk tentacles as far as reputation. `he' has been posting to the net for a long time in many groups. this is why they fought so tenaciously to protect him.

3) T.C.May said at a cypherpunk meeting that everyone I have accused of being a tentacle is real. T.C.May is a liar. I dare you, Mr. May, to come out of your hole. I will tear your postings to shreds. I will rip the lies apart. I will decapitate the tentacles, and they will be afraid to show their sickly green faces anywhere respectable.

I have followed this thread for such a short time (relativly speaking). I think I picked up on the "Cryptoanarchist" part (someone who doesn't support the regulation of cryptography?). From what I've been able to gather, the talk is about "tentacles" coming from one "Medusa."

4) B.Stewart says that he saw N.Szabo and J.Dinkelacker at the last cypherpunk meeting, *and* their drivers license. B.Stewart is an Accomplice. I challenge anyone who saw them to tell the world you did. Did you really see the Phantoms?

5) the whole affair proves that the conspiracy is very active, involves very many people, and has gotten quite out of control.

6) anyone who supports the cypherpunks or their leaders are accomplices to lies and the `hidden agenda' of black marketeering, manipulation, tax evasion, deception, money laundering, overthrow of governments. And these are just the *obvious* ones.

So many makeshift terms here that I'm not familiar with. Could someone Define "cypherpunk." (I HAVE heard of "CyberPunk," but couldn't extract a meaning out of that either.) Please enlighten me.

7) cypherpunks are responsible for a huge increase in trash lately to newsgroups. It is a means of drowning my signal in noise. They are nothing but conspiracists, powermongers, and extremists.

What trash is this? The only thing I have seen (so far, as I believe) are various messages written by an12070 (L. Detweiler?) that have erupted into flame wars. Keep in mind that I'm NOT FLAMING ANYONE here.

hey cypherpunks! you think that because no one challenges your ridiculous posts, calling me insane, that no one believes me? that no one is taking me seriously? That no one is stunned that szabo is nothing but a worthless, slimy snake? the joke's on you. there are a fantastic number of lurkers `out there' who are beginning to sense the lies.

CyberAnarchists... Is that someone who doesn't want CyberSpace regulated? Personally, I have nothing against the free exchange of information (does anyone here?). I was really upset when he said

death to cyberanarchists-- by anarchy...

stay tuned, soon they will all be SQUISHed

--

is this one of the "violent death threats" that everyone has been talking about? thanks for the help, I just want to know. sorry that I missed some of the earlier stuff. I will be watching this list for a reply. BTW that stuff that Detweiler is doing with signatures, switching them around, it is kind of ironic given that the cypherpunks are really into that thing. He seems to be really pissing you guys off. but I gotta admit it really is a sort of new art form in cyberspace, kinda like Graffiti. although, there is so much activity lately that it kind of makes me wonder if there is a whole team of people out there. there have been a lot of rumors about infiltrators and double agents. we'll see what the future brings. personally I think remailers are God's Gift to Cyberspace, and anything done to limit their capabilities or infringe on the privacy of whoever uses them is CENSORSHIP and ORWELLIAN POLICE STATE. we'll prove to Detweiler that we are not the hypocrites he claims we are, that under no circumstances whatsoever will we *ever* betray the people who use our remailers, even if they are our enemies, because Privacy is all that matters. .adAMMMb. .dAMMMAbn. .adAWWWWWWWWWAuAWWWWWWWWWWAbn. .adWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWbn. ..adMMMMMP^~".--"~^YWWWWWWWWWWHHMMMMMMMMbn.. "~^Y" / ..dMWMP".ammmmdMMMUP^~" | Y dMAbammdAMMMMMMP^~" | | MMMMMMMMMMMMU^" -Row l : Y^YUWWWWUP^" \ j "-..,.^ mveaudry@turing.acs.ryerson.ca & ld231782@longs.LANCE.ColoState.EDU (and how many more that I haven't revealed yet? Could I actually be jmurphy@apple.com? could I be 3CJS5@qucdn. QueensU.ca? Who am I? Who cares?)