June 2020 - cypherpunks - lists.cpunks.org

Michael Wilson Thesis
by jim bell 27 Jun '20

27 Jun '20

https://eprints.qut.edu.au/199696/1/Michael_Wilson_Thesis.pdf [partial quote follows] "As the political and legal battles of the first ‘crypto-war’ were heating up in the1990’s, the technologist and activist Timothy C. May (1992) authored the CryptoAnarchist Manifesto. The manifesto proclaims cryptographic software “will altercompletely the nature of government regulation, the ability to tax and controleconomic interactions, the ability to keep information secret, and will even alter thenature of trust and reputation” while also recognising the potential that “crypto anarchywill allow national secrets to be trade freely and will allow illicit and stolen materialsto be traded… an anonymous computerized market will even make possible abhorrentmarkets for assassinations and extortion” (May, 1992, paras. 1, 3). Similarly,prominent crypto-anarchist Jim Bell (1996) published the tenth (and final) volume of 78his essay Assassination Politics in 1996, where he argued for an online assassinationmarket as a tool of social control in service of the comparatively powerless. The ideawas that citizens could use cryptography to mask their identities to place ‘bets’ on thetime of death of public officials and business leaders. The logic is that everyone whois willing to contribute to a bounty will place a ‘bet’ on the time of death, while the‘winner’ would be the person who conducts the assassination via their foreknowledgeof the time of death. The proposal attests to how the politics of privacy protection wereparticularly controversial during the 1990s. It is for this reason that the ‘crypto-war’ was so fiercely fought on both sides,prompted by the initial release of public key encryption to members of the public.Following the Second World War, cryptographic software was legally classified as amunition and subject to strict regulation and export controls (Levin, 1998, p. 532). Bythe early 1990s, the NSA was attempting to install a ‘Clipper Chip’ within telephones,to provide the US Government with ‘backdoor’ access to encrypted communications(Froomkin, 1995, p. 745). As a result of the proposal, technologist Philip Zimmermanpublished public-key encryption tool Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) via file-sharingservices in June of 1991. Characteristic of crypto-anarchists of the time, Zimmerman(1994) published PGP’s code in a physical book titled PGP Source Code and Internals,so the technology could be discretely distributed. As Zimmerman (1994, para. 3)observes in the foreword of the book, “cryptography is a surprisingly politicaltechnology.” By publishing the code, Zimmerman became the subject of aninvestigation by the US Customs Service examining whether he had violated the USArms Export Control Act (1976), although the case was dropped in 1996 withoutexplanation (Lauzon, 1998, p. 1327). The release of public-key encryption technologythus empowered ordinary users to protect their privacy. 79The popularity and development of such privacy-enhancing technologies hasincreased significantly since the ‘crypto-war’ of the 1990s. Tracking the trends in theirdevelopment during the decade from 1997, Goldberg (2007, p. 11) observes how thethen-recently developed Tor Browser was exponentially growing in popularity.Similarly, in response to growing awareness about mass surveillance, the CryptoPartymovement was established in 2011 to educate the public about cryptographic software.The decentralized movement promotes “crypto parties” where experts educate citizensabout encryption and digital anonymity. In this vein, they are a type of informationsecurity workshop (e.g. Albrechtsen & Hovden, 2010). Data provided by the TorProject (2018) highlights how the number of publicly52 connecting users increased sixfold after the Snowden Disclosures in June 2013. Subsequent studies suggest some ofthis increase was attributable to a Ukrainian botnet connecting to the network (Gehl,2016, p. 1223), however there has been a sustained two-fold increase (amounting to atleast two million daily users) on the network (Tor Project, 2018). Evidently, suchprivacy-enhancing technologies are becoming increasingly popular. [end of partial quote]

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Quantum entanglement demonstrated on tiny CubeSat in orbit
by jim bell 27 Jun '20

27 Jun '20

New Atlas: Quantum entanglement demonstrated on tiny CubeSat in orbit. https://newatlas.com/telecommunications/quantum-entanglement-cubesat-spooqy…

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LAX is testing thermal cameras as a coronavirus health measure - The Washington Post
by jim bell 27 Jun '20

27 Jun '20

https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2020/06/22/lax-is-testing-fever-detec… Jim Bell's comment:And they are only doing this as of June 23? Can you say, "idiots"?

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BET founder Robert Johnson: "black people should be consulted before .. tearing down statues or firing someone for a comment they have made"
by Zig the N.g 27 Jun '20

27 Jun '20

Woah muh n.gger, a little too much truth there bruh.... BET Founder Says "Black People Laugh At White People" Toppling Statues Alex Nitzberg via JustTheNews.com, https://justthenews.com/nation/culture/bet-founder-robert-johnson-says-blac… https://www.zerohedge.com/political/bet-founder-says-black-people-laugh-whi… BET founder Robert Johnson during a Wednesday interview with Fox News described people toppling statues as "borderline anarchists" and pushed back against the idea that black people support such behavior, suggesting instead that they "laugh" at those who knock down the statues. "You know black people, in my opinion, black people laugh at white people who do this, the same way we laugh at white people who say we got to take off the TV shows," he said mentioning the "Dukes of Hazard," a decades-old television program that has come under fire for featuring a car emblazoned with a Confederate flag graphic. He pointed out that knocking over a statue will not "close the wealth gap," "give a kid whose parent's can't afford a college money to go to college," "close the labor gap between what white workers are paid and what black workers are paid" or "take people off welfare or food stamps." Johnson said that whites who seek to "assuage guilt by doing things that make them feel good" would be much more reluctant to support payments for blacks. Referring to actions such as "changing names, toppling statues, [and] firing professors because they said all lives matter," Johnson explained that "it just shows to me that white America is continually ... incapable of recognizing that black people have their own ideas and thought about what's in their best interests." ...

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Coriolis effect - some science for ya nuts - [SCIENCE]
by Zenaan Harkness 27 Jun '20

27 Jun '20

There is nothing quite like actually doing a test and checking the results. Now the below is not a particurary well done experiment - more a gimmicky tourist experiment - and so the way to (perhaps) better do it is with a larger circular container, and importantly with a smaller water exit hole, so that: the water can be poured into the vessel in the "wrong" direction (at least a little) and then there ought be sufficient time for the coriolis effect to overcome this 'wrong' water rotation, and cause the water to actually change its rotation back to the "right" direction. That would be compelling to witness. If the coriolis effect is insufficient to overcome a small yet visually evident water rotation in the 'wrong' direction, we then need to devise some other experiment to reach that 'truly compelling' resultant (onlooker) impression which our fragile "science virtue signalling" egos so desperately crave... Assuming for a moment that this "coriolis effect" is in fact real, we need to be able to strictly separate this effect from initial starting conditions, which could e.g. be demonstrated if the effect is able fo ovelcome some other effect, or can be shown to be visibly different from alternative starting conditions, or etc. Based on personal measurements of Pi π which bring into serious doubt π's "known" third significant digit, can we be certain that regarding this coriolis effect, that we are not just witnessing rotational inertia of the water molecules picking up speed from initial but tiny (thus unseen) starting water swirl? When conducting experiments, it is often the boundary conditions which are of interest and not the steady state (e.g. that we see in the video below). Enjoy, ----- Forwarded message from Novica Saponja <nmsaponja(a)tpg.com.au> ----- From: Novica Saponja <nmsaponja(a)tpg.com.au> To: 'Zenaan Harkness' <zen(a)freedbms.net> Date: Thu, 25 Jun 2020 09:46:13 +1000 Subject: FW: FASCINATING... X-Mailer: Microsoft Office Outlook 12.0 Thought you might find this interesting. The EQUATOR - It is a precise line. Click on view to see how razor sharp the division Is between the Northern Hemisphere and the Southern Hemisphere. We all learned in school that water goes down a drain clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and just the opposite in the Southern Hemisphere. But who knew this simple activity could be so precise? Watch the attached video, and you'll see it with your own eyes. The Equator Line passes through Kenya and Tanzania. This video demonstrates how precisely the earth's rotational forces work . . . . . even when the drains being used are just a few feet apart! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWc9SfwnSxM ----- End forwarded message -----

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Lifetime "lib/dems" going "gun nuts" - the surprisingly positive effects of USA chaos - [PEACE] [GUNS]
by Zenaan Harkness 26 Jun '20

26 Jun '20

An interesting and apparently systemic change is underway in the USA, with a surprisingly positive effect of the Some Kind O' Crazy™©® going on around us all. "I have seen the emergence of a new class of students seeking training: anti-Second Amendment liberals," he said. Illinois Gun Permit Applications Soar 500% As Frightened Liberals Embrace 2nd Amendment https://www.zerohedge.com/political/illinois-gun-permit-applications-soar-5… ..Over 40,000 Illinois residents applied for a gun permit over a two-week period this month, a jump of more than 500% over this time last year according to Illinois State Police. "Take a full glass of coronavirus, shake in a shot of riots and another of this defund police notion, and everything goes crazy," gun shop owner Mark Glavin told the Chicago Tribune. "Not to mention the backlog on background checks." The state's mandatory 72-hour background check has stretched to more than a week for some of Glavin's customers, putting Illinois residents in the same boat as Californians - who have a 10-day wait before they can take possession of recently bought firearms. ..Des Plaines gun store and range owner Dan Eldridge says that half of the customers scrambling to arm up are first-time buyers. "The numbers I saw from the National Shooting Sports Foundation … said 40% of respondents to (store) surveys were new, first-time buyers. And of those, 40% are female — 40% of the 40%," said Eldridge. "We’re tracking 150% of a typical May in firearms sales ... and that’s with being open by appointment only." Eldridge also noted that sales of defensive ammunition, such as hollow-point bullets, were 10x as high. ..Liberals embracing the 2nd Amendment A 38-year-old man from Dixon — who didn’t want his name used, citing employment reasons — described himself as “a very liberal Democrat” who for decades has been “for most forms of gun control politically.” But since March, he’s been waiting for his first gun permit to arrive so he can keep his family safe, he said. “My views have recently changed, and I have accepted that the Second Amendment provides for the personal ownership and use of a firearm,” he said in an email. “The recent social unrest of a divisive president, the pandemic and dramatic rise in unemployment, and the more recent social unrest because of the way we police in this country have all been reasons that have prompted my recent application.” -Chicago Tribune ..Concealed Carry gun instructor and owner of Safer USA, David Lombardo, says he's had several callers recently who have disclosed their political beliefs while asking him for private one-on-one training because "they don't want anyone to know they're doing the training, let alone going to buy a firearm." "I have seen the emergence of a new class of students seeking training: anti-Second Amendment liberals," he said. ...

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US Senators Introduce 'Lawful Access to Encrypted Data Act' — With Backdoor Mandate
by jim bell 26 Jun '20

26 Jun '20

https://news.bitcoin.com/lawful-access-to-encrypted-data-act-backdoor/ US lawmakers have introduced the Lawful Access to Encrypted Data Act to ensure law enforcement can access encrypted information. This bill is “a full-frontal nuclear assault on encryption in the United States,” one expert says. It requires manufacturers of encrypted devices and operating systems to have the ability to decrypt data upon request, creating a backdoor requirement.Lawful Access to Encrypted Data Act Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham and U.S. Senators Tom Cotton and Marsha Blackburn introduced the Lawful Access to Encrypted Data Act on Tuesday. The new bill “would bring an end to warrant-proof encryption in devices, platforms, and systems,” the committee’s announcement reads. “Terrorists and criminals routinely use technology, whether smartphones, apps, or other means, to coordinate and communicate their daily activities,” Senator Graham said. He claims that law enforcement could not access “vital information” in many recent “terrorism cases and serious criminal activity” even after a court order was issued. Senator Cotton elaborated, “Tech companies’ increasing reliance on encryption has turned their platforms into a new, lawless playground of criminal activity,” adding:This bill will ensure law enforcement can access encrypted material with a warrant based on probable cause and help put an end to the Wild West of crime on the internet.[end of partial quote]

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Contact
by Karl 26 Jun '20

26 Jun '20

Cpunks, Many accounts were recently disabled from this list. I just discovered the situation myself and re-enabled my account. Is the list administrator able to bulk re-enable the accounts of everybody else affected, to undo this accidental censorship? Additionally, ddosecrets.com recently publicized 269GB of leaked police data. At this time of police brutality, this is important data, but the server hosting it became inaccessible the following day. Does anybody know where else to find this data? K

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Assange Superseding Indictment
by John Young 25 Jun '20

25 Jun '20

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Ooh ... she -really- mad! - "I am done, with you're bull shit!"
by Zig the N.g 25 Jun '20

25 Jun '20

Gen Z chick-a-roo just gone done got really, really mad! Did I mention "she got mad?" Coz you know, she.... One Gen Z'er Dares To Speak Out: "I'm Done With Your Bull$hit!" https://www.zerohedge.com/political/one-gen-zer-dares-speak-out-im-done-you… The HYPOCRISY is Unbelievable! 💥 MUST WATCH & RT!!!! 👇🏼 pic.twitter.com/hH5aP9uk3c — TONY™️ (@TONYxTWO) June 22, 2020 https://t.co/hH5aP9uk3c ~6MiB

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