June 2022 - cypherpunks - lists.cpunks.org

Random Transformer Model News: Text2Human
by Undiscussed Horrific Abuse, One Victim of Many 02 Jun '22

02 Jun '22

People abuse energy resources by avoiding the use of self-designing algorithms in new ways every day. I think it's cool that it looks like researchers are intentionally hitting the uncanny valley now, instead of going for deceptive realism. I think that's a really important cultural safety choice, one of many things that many people will have thought of but that crucially needs to be actually put in practice. It's not that you can't make a clone of my wife: it's that it's rude, man. https://github.com/yumingj/Text2Human We synthesize full-body human images starting from a given human pose with two dedicated steps. 1) With some texts describing the shapes of clothes, the given human pose is first translated to a human parsing map. 2) The final human image is then generated by providing the system with more attributes about the textures of clothes.

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Re: [ot][wrong] Please let me sleep outdoors in the coldest winter. Was: Re: PLEASE LET ME SLEEP OUTDOORS
by Undiscussed Horrific Abuse, One Victim of Many 02 Jun '22

02 Jun '22

>> Thanks for posting these > I got the latest book (as i write this it is the start of June in > 2022) off library genesis, and I do not recommend getting it -- he > says in it that if you want the full advanced protocol to sign up for > a course on his website. I would try an earlier-published book, when > he was less popular, and see if he put some full instructions in > there. > > But basically you just regularly expose yourself to increasing lengths > of time to as cold as you can, keeping it reasonable and keeping > increasing it. It seems if a part of you gets cold, you make sure to > regularly and safely expose it to cold. > > I don't do the hyperventilating because it is similar to meditation [I > used meditation to relax when I was initially targeted so similar > things can trigger me] and hard for me. I want to include it but > haven't gotten very far with it yet. The few times I did try it it > worked incredibly well, tons of warmth and energy. > > I've personally been comfortable out in the cold a lot in the past, > and I found that keeping mobile was the most helpful and useful thing. > An instructor gave me this rule of thumb: if you feel pain, it's good > and you're growing. if you feel numbness, it's bad and time to warm > up. > > I would stay out until I could tell I was going to get numb, and then > I would casually go indoors and wait until I felt comfortable. This > worked for me. > > When outdoors, I was always walking or climbing somewhere, always > doing something. I did some of Scott Sonnon's "Intuflow" stuff, which > is great for casual parkour-like activity, and some Awareness practice > from John Young, always looking for new things around me I hadn't > noticed, and why they were there, etc etc, and also tracking from Tom > Brown Junior. It seemed like I became incredibly happy, healthy, and > smart, yet another drug-free nature drug. > > The Wim Hoff stuff seems very masculine to me in comparison, very > energy and power focused. But it's still great to find a way to have > some hormesis again: hormesis is roughly the human need for > appropriate environmental stress to be healthy. >

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BleepingComputer: Ransomware attacks need less than four days to encrypt systems
by jim bell 02 Jun '22

02 Jun '22

BleepingComputer: Ransomware attacks need less than four days to encrypt systems. https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/ransomware-attacks-need-less…

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Here's a song from me to John Young
by zeynep＠keemail.me 02 Jun '22

02 Jun '22

This for you:https://youtu.be/XxaPjwdaX1g Back-back-backstabber Back-back-backstabber Back-back-backstabber Bored, stoned, sitting in your basement All alone, 'cause your little conversations Got around and lookie what we all found out (Lookie what we found) Lookie here, we all found out That you have got a set of loose lips Twisting stories, all because you're jealous Now I know exactly what you're all about (what you're all about) This is what you're all about Man, you're such a backstabber (stabber) You're such a backstabber Oh man, you're such a shit-talker And everybody knows it (and everybody knows it) Man (man ), you're such a backstabber (stabber) You're such a backstabber Run your mouth more than anyone I've ever known And everybody knows it (and everybody knows it) Back-back-backstabber (Talk, talk, talk) (Talk, talk, talk, talk, talk) I'm sick and tired of hearing all about my life >From other people with all of your lies Wrapped up so tight So maybe you should shut your mouth (shut your mouth) You never shut your mouth Honestly, I think it's kinda funny That you waste your breath talking about me Got me feeling kinda special, really This is what you're all about Man, you're such a backstabber (stabber) You're such a backstabber Oh man, you're such a shit-talker And everybody knows it (and everybody knows it) Man (man), you're such a backstabber (stabber) You're such a backstabber Run your mouth more than anyone I've ever known And everybody knows it (and everybody knows it) Katie's to the left, ripping my style Damn, Jeanie, why you gotta tell the secrets 'bout my sex life? All I ever did was drive your broke ass around Pick you up, take you out, when your car broke down Back-back-backstabber Stabber, stabber Back-back-backstabber Man, you're such a backstabber (stabber) You're such a backstabber Oh man (oh, man), you're such a shit-talker And everybody knows it (and everybody knows it) Man (oh, man), you're such a backstabber (Taking and twisting and telling, so manipulating) Run your mouth more than anyone I've ever known And everybody knows it (and everybody knows it) Back-back-backstabber (Taking and twisting and telling, so manipulating) Oh man, talk, talk You're looking like a lunatic And everybody knows it (and everybody knows it) Everybody knows (back-back-backstabber) Yeah, you're looking like a lunatic And everybody knows (back-back-backstabber) Yeah, everybody knows (back-back-backstabber)

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Nein eyes
by professor rat 02 Jun '22

02 Jun '22

Billy Bob Barr goes ballistic " . . . One question was whether US officials had asked foreign intelligence services to spy on Americans. Various theories of potential involvement by British, Australian, or Italian intelligence agencies had been raised over the preceding two years. Talking to our allies about these matters was an essential part of the investigation. It should not surprise anyone that a prosecutor cannot just show up on the door- step of a foreign intelligence agency and start asking questions. An introduction and explanation at more senior levels is required. So— gasp!—I contacted the relevant foreign ambassadors, who in turn put me in touch with an appropriate senior official in their country with authority to deal with such matters. . . ." https://www.emptywheel.net/2022/06/02/there-was-no-crime-predicating-the-du…

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Cryptocurrency: No One Is Coming To Save You or Crypto, And That's Ok
by grarpamp 02 Jun '22

02 Jun '22

No One Is Coming To Save You Or Crypto by Scott Hill via BombThrower.com The collapse of the Terra ecosystem in May rocked the Crypto world. The Luna token dropped to near zero from a prior high over $100. The stablecoin UST was trading down as much as half from its peg of one dollar. This was the nightmare scenario. Over $40 billion of market cap was wiped out over the space of a week. Both retail investors and Crypto funds got caught in the collapse. Such a widespread collapse of a reasonably credible project hadn’t previously occurred in Crypto. The closest comparisons are Bitconnect in 2018, which was flagged as a scam by everyone in the industry, and Mt Gox in 2014, which occurred in the early days of the industry when the risk of exchange failures and exit scams was front of mind. In August last year, Senator Elizabeth Warren warned that a “run on Crypto” might need a Federal bailout citing a lack of basic consumer protections afforded to investors in the traditional asset space. What we saw last month was a run on Crypto. We saw what can happen with no government backstop and no quality guarantees. We saw retail investors wiped out. We saw Crypto funds taking heavy losses. But there was no government bailout. That’s not to say that government involvement in regulating Crypto assets would be a good thing. It almost certainly would not be. As Ronald Reagan said there is no more terrifying phrase than “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.” It’s simply important to remember that there is no oversight body ensuring that Crypto protocols work and that tokens maintain value. Even the Korean government, whose citizens were much more heavily invested in Luna than their stateside counterparts, didn’t flinch at the loss of wealth. They’re pursuing Luna’s founder Do Kwon and looking to do everything from freezing assets to holding a parliamentary hearing. The Korean government even resurrected their elite financial crimes division, nicknamed the Grim Reapers, to investigate Kwon and Terraform Labs. But there was no government bailout. Retail investors will not be made whole. Nothing in Crypto markets broke. Losses were taken and the market moved on. Self Funded Bailout However, there was something that looked a lot like a bailout slightly earlier in the Luna timeline. In February, the Luna Foundation Guard, the entity which was created to hold a Bitcoin reserve fund for the Luna protocol, raised $1B from investors including Jump Crypto and Three Arrows Capital. These funds were used to bolster the Bitcoin reserves with the intention of using them to defend the stablecoin peg. In retrospect it’s pretty clear that this fundraise represented large Crypto funds bailing out Luna ahead of time. The failing protocol also looked for an additional $1B in bailout funds from Crypto industry heavy hitters as the collapse was occuring. These industry bailouts have become reasonably common recently. Jump Crypto bailed out the Wormhole bridge to the tune of $320M after a hack drained its funds in February. We need to pay attention to what is going on here. Firstly, governments are uninterested in bailing out retail investors who lose money in Crypto collapses. Do not expect the same level of investor protection and compensation in a Crypto industry failure as you would from a stock exchange failure or a bank collapse. This sometimes hamfisted government financial protection often does more harm than good as was the case with the Cypress bank failures and IMF global. But it’s important to remember that in Crypto the government isn’t coming to save you. Nor would we want them to attempt to do so. Secondly, the industry will intervene if it’s in their own interests. Jump Crypto is not interested in protecting your investment, but they will defend their investment. But Jump won’t throw good money after bad. They weren’t willing to bail out Luna a second time. Jump Crypto is not the Fed or the US Government. They can’t print infinite money to save the system. Bearer Assets are Different Crypto assets are fundamentally different to modern stocks or bonds. They are bearer assets. You are in charge of their safe custody and how you manage that is up to you. You aren’t shepherded into a government approved asset custody scheme like you are in traditional assets. There is no FDIC insurance if an exchange disappears overnight. Your assets are gone. There is no customer service department that can recover your private keys if you lose them. If your Bored Apes get stolen, the Apes are gone. The catchphrase, “not your keys, not your coins,” is just as applicable now as it has ever been. As we enter a downturn where the financial stability of entities in the Crypto industry will be tested, it’s important to understand which risks you are taking. Decide who you trust to custody your assets and ensure you understand how your security solutions work. If you have no security plan for your digital assets, you have no security. It’s quite an odd adjustment to make as we’ve all only ever lived in a world where your bank, your government and your exchange have layers of security and guarantees to protect your assets. But it’s a crucial difference to understand. Literally no one in the world cares if you lose your Bitcoin so it’s up to you to ensure you have the ability to protect your assets. If you haven’t done it already, it’s time to review your security. Get a hardware wallet and learn how to use it safely. Decide how you want to spread your assets among exchanges. Make active choices about your risk and your security rather than leaving it to chance. Do Your Own Research The other thing that the Luna collapse teaches us is that knowing what you’re invested in is more important than ever. Luna was actively promoted and suggested by several big industry experts. I don’t call them out to throw rocks or to say, “I told you so.” They are all financial product salesmen of one type or another. They get things wrong, that’s to be expected. It happens all the time and is completely normal. My point is that these people are used as a source of guidance and advice by the investing public. They are clearly good resources over the longer term. But we’re no longer in the sort of asset market where you can throw a dart at the wall and make money. The experts are getting things wrong. It’s more important than ever to understand what you are invested in and why. Form your own conclusions from a number of sources. Seek to understand, rather than blindly follow. If you can’t explain the difference between Luna’s tokenomics and Bitcoin’s tokenomics, then you need to do more research. You don’t have to become an expert or understand everything, but you do need to take responsibility for your own investment decisions and understand why you are making them. No one else cares if you lose money by making bad decisions and taking too much risk. In Crypto, there is no stock exchange listing board making sure that assets are safe for the public or that the issuance of tokens is done in a reasonable way. In Crypto, if you don’t understand how many protocol tokens exist today and how many will exist next year, then it’s important to recognize that and take your risk accordingly. We don’t want the government telling us what we’re allowed to invest in, but that means that the responsibility to investigate assets falls on each investor personally. Following the Luna collapse, the financial press is filled with anecdotes of people who took out a mortgage or a margin loan to take excessive risk on Luna. There’s no excuse to ever be surprised when this sort of bet fails. There’s a reason every newsletter on Crypto will always say, “don’t trade on margin, don’t lever up, don’t risk more than you can afford to lose.” It’s time to listen to those warnings, especially if you feel yourself trying to chase losses and make it all back in one big trade. You will have more opportunities to make money in these markets, but only if you don’t destroy your finances chasing losses. Risk is Opportunity Crypto is a really strange market compared to what traditional financial markets have become. In traditional financial markets, we have become used to governments and central banks intervening if things break. Support of risk asset markets and the continual lowering of interest rates have become entrenched in the way western economies work. With inflation above 7%, it’s not clear we can assume these features will continue. While Crypto does get impacted by Fed policy and macro conditions, it is mostly at the mercy of them rather than dictating them. If the treasury market crashes, you can bet the Fed will be in there the next day propping it up. If Bitcoin crashes, the Wall Street Journal will gloat and remind you that you should have just been paying Blackrock their cut by buying index funds. We are investing in the frontier of what could be a new and fairer financial system design but this is all untested theory; we have no guarantees. That is a big part of why the returns have been so large. We are taking excessive risk for the chance at excessive reward. We are providing capital to the dreamers and the builders, the people who want to remake the world in a way that doesn’t just funnel wealth to Goldman Sachs. This piece isn’t intended to scare you, only to open your eyes to the risk. If we don’t discuss risk then we can’t mitigate risk. You can do all sorts of things to reduce your risk: research protocol design, look to multiple sources to inform your thinking, listen to the skeptics and judge how credible their critique is. In Crypto, there is no FDIC insurance. There is no Fed bailout. There is no one in government who cares about protecting your assets. Your security is your own responsibility. You can take insane risk and no one will stop you from doing something stupid. If you make a mistake, own it and learn from it. Don’t expect to be made whole. No one is coming to save you. You have to save yourself.

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Cryptocurrency: WEF Davos - CBDC's To Cancel Credit Cards Within Five Years, and Replace SWIFT
by grarpamp 02 Jun '22

02 Jun '22

Mastercard CEO: SWIFT Payment System May Be Replaced By CBDCs In Five Years https://www.forbesindia.com/article/crypto-made-easy/swift-may-not-exist-in… https://www.kansascityfed.org/research/payments-system-research-briefings/a… https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/chinas-digital-yuan-may-aid-russia-bypass-s… There has been a long list of revelations coming out of the recent World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, but one issue that might have gone under the media radar involves comments by Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach during a discussion on the future of cross-border payments between nations. Miebach, participating in a panel on Central Bank Digital Currencies at the WEF and hosted by the Global Blockchain Business Council, was one of the few participants that was willing to suggest that the SWIFT system, long dominated by western interests, might be made obsolete along with the proliferation of digital currencies among central banks. Initially dismissed as “conspiracy theory” only a few years ago by the media, whispers of CBDCs have suddenly gone mainstream and blockchain technologies took center stage at Davos in 2022. The Federal Reserve has even started active public discussions assessing the case for retail digital currency products. Few at Davos were willing to admit to the outcome that Mastercard's CEO suggested, arguing that SWIFT would continue its prevalence for decades. Yet, almost every major central bank in the world is now pursuing a digital currency program, and the IMF has been exceedingly vocal about the need for a global digital currency system in the near future to provide “stability” in the face of national inflationary crisis events. In the last year alone we have seen a developing trend among Eastern trade partners circumventing NATO sanctions in the wake of the war in Ukraine. After being blocked from accessing the SWIFT transfer network, which allows governments and central banks to quickly and accurately exchange data and transfer vast sums of capital, Russia and its allies are seeking alternative options. The Kremlin has talked often about using crypto and digital currencies to bypass restrictions, and China is currently establishing digital products to work around SWIFT and the CHIPS settlement system (Clearing House Interbank Payment System). It would seem that western sanctions are only accelerating a global move away from dollar denominated structures, but of course, this may be exactly what global institutions like the WEF and IMF want. With a host of new CBDCs in play, price fluctuations may be just as erratic as they have been with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Meaning, buying power would be far too unpredictable for the average consumer. This sets the stage for groups like the IMF and WEF to “save the day” by instituting a global basket system, likely under the SDR (Special Drawing Rights) basket, in the name of homogenizing and stabilizing various CBDC markets into a single centralized entity. In the meantime, only a select few among the globalists at Davos are willing to publicly address the real implications of CBDCs. The goal of global economic centralization is touched upon, but only as a consequence of the far distant future. Mastercard's CEO may have let slip the truth – That the plan is for CBDCs to take over global trade far faster than most people expect.

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FreeSpeech: Trump Launching Non-Woke Streaming CancelBanned Shows [re: Musk Buying Twitter]
by grarpamp 02 Jun '22

02 Jun '22

> Woke Promoted, everything else > BANNED BANNED BANNED Trump To Launch 'Non-Woke' Streaming-Service Featuring 'Canceled Shows' https://www.theepochtimes.com/trump-to-launch-non-woke-streaming-service-fe… https://www.theepochtimes.com/devin-nunes-building-a-beachhead-against-big-… https://s3.amazonaws.com/b2icontent.irpass.cc/2660/rl104194.pdf Former President Donald Trump’s media company is planning on launching a new streaming service featuring “non-woke content.” According to a May 16 filing by Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG), the former president’s media company plans to launch a subscription-based streaming service called “TMTG+” that features “non-woke” content, aims to “cancel ‘cancel culture,’” and commits to not censoring content creators for their political ideology. “TMTG believes that there is a need for quality programming that does not lecture its viewers or only presents one ‘acceptable’ approach on a topic. Entertainers, comedians, and creators have frequently been agents for change in our society. As the large media conglomerates become increasingly monolithic in their views, they cancel those who disagree, and voices are silenced,” the filing stated. Programming, the filing said, will be “similar” to Netflix, and will feature “blue collar comedy, canceled shows, Trump-specific programming, faith-based shows, family entertainment, shows that embrace the Second Amendment, and news.” The document did not indicate a launch date for the platform. The Truth social network logo taken on Feb. 21, 2022. (Dado Ruvic/Illustration/Reuters) The plans for TMTG+ come as an expansion to TMTG’s social media platform launched in the first quarter of 2022, Truth Social. The streaming platform is one of TMTG’s growth strategies for becoming a “fully integrated” media and technology company” to “rival the liberal media consortium and promote free expression on all issues,” according to the filing. TMTG+ will also feature a podcast platform as a part of its streaming service. “Whether it be Hollywood, news media, search engines, payment processing. These are all areas that I think that people could get canceled. Americans could get canceled if you don’t pay homage to the proper woke God. Those are the things that we’re going to fight against,” Devin Nunes, CEO of Truth Social and former Republican Congressman, told Epoch TV’s “American Thought Leaders” program in an interview earlier this year. “We’re probably the last best chance at this point to establish that beachhead, to give people their voice back,” Nunes said. TMTG’s other growth strategies include expanding TruthSocial, TMTG’s social media platform launched in early 2022, pursuing strategic acquisitions, and increasing product offerings, the company said. Trump has envisioned the social media platform as a means to “restore free speech in America.” “The new age of censorship is a disaster for our country. Things were far better in the days when we had our debates fiercely and openly, and then we could move forward together, as Americans, with both sides knowing that their voice, and their best arguments, had been heard,” Trump said in an October statement. “In the end, a small number of powerful people who all think the same and wish to silence anyone who thinks differently cannot be trusted to control almost every major media, technology, and entertainment company in America,” Trump said. “I am determined to break their chokehold over the voices of the American People—not just for myself and my own supporters, but for the United States of America!”

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What is a Woman [Re: It's Okay To Be White] BANNED
by grarpamp 02 Jun '22

02 Jun '22

On 8/2/20, Zenaan Harkness <zen(a)freedbms.net> wrote: > Greg Johnson writing for The Unz Review asks the obvious question of the > "It's OK To Be White" flyer campaign, "is this hate speech?" https://twitter.com/MattWalshBlog/status/1532203292180332547 https://www.dailywire.com/videos/what-is-a-woman https://whatisawoman.com/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42ivIRd9N8E What Is A Woman If you want proof that #WhatIsAWoman is a devastating critique of gender ideology, look no further than the cyber attack to shut down our premiere. That won’t be the only trick the Left pulls to punish us. So be it. The film isn’t going anywhere. Wikipedia: A woman is an adult female human. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtIbFytVBXo https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/1531857446020386816 A drag queen who identifies as a Satanist pornographer is headlining an event for kids in Minnesota paid for by tax dollars. @RepMaryFranson Paging @libsoftiktok - Satanist Pornographer that was pulled from a “story hour and show” last year in Bloomington, MN is now headlining another MN event on June 4th … oh, and it’s also paid with MN tax dollars via our Legacy Amendment 🤢 alphanews.org/satanist-porno… An Illinois middle school treated students to a drag show during school in early May. One of the performers is an employee of the district, brought 2 drag queens during school to perform for students @AbbottMiddle https://nitter.net/pic/media%2FFUNXbDpWIAAzZEc.jpg Overcome

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Linux Kernel 5.18 Released, Enables Creepy Secret Intel Payware CPU's w SDSi
by grarpamp 02 Jun '22

02 Jun '22

https://www.zdnet.com/article/linux-kernel-5-18-arrives-heres-whats-new/ https://github.com/intel/intel-sdsi https://www.theregister.com/2021/10/19/intel_sdsi/ https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Intel-SDSi-Platform-x86… https://lwn.net/Articles/884876/ https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Intel-Software-Defined-… https://lore.kernel.org/all/20210924213157.3584061-2-david.e.box@linux.inte… The SDSi driver provides an interface for applications to provision an "authentication key certificate" that's written to memory and used to authenticate a "capability activation payload".

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