March 2023 - cypherpunks - lists.cpunks.org

Strong AI on Bittorrent reported
by professor rat 05 Mar '23

05 Mar '23

>> You know, I tweeted this a few weeks ago — and lo and behold, we already have an LLM on Bittorrent! Seems decentralized AI may have legs after all… Quote Tweet Balaji @balajis · Feb 4 AI is like a gun skittering on the ground. And three parties are scrambling to pick it up. We have woke AI. We have CCP AI. And if we’re lucky, we’ll have decentralized free AI. The PirateBay, Bitcoin, Bittorrent-like AI. Perhaps we can build tech that could facilitate that… <<< Reposts not endorsements of garbage police-states in cyberspace - ' Netstates '

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Fwd: Bodycam footage shows police targeted journalists
by fuzzyTew 04 Mar '23

04 Mar '23

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Freedom of the Press Foundation <newsletter(a)freedom.press> Date: Fri, 3 Mar 2023 20:32:35 +0000 Subject: Bodycam footage shows police targeted journalists To: fuzzytew(a)gmail.com Florida continues its anti-speech crusade View this email in your browser (https://mailchi.mp/freedom.press/bodycam-footage-shows-police-targeted-jour…) Dear friend of press freedom, Here are some of the most important stories we’re following from the U.S. and around the world. If you enjoy reading this newsletter, please forward it to friends and family. If someone has forwarded you this newsletter, please subscribe here (https://freedom.press/subscribe/) . Courtesy of Veronica Coit/Asheville Blade Body camera footage released this week (https://freedom.press/news/bodycam-footage-confirms-asheville-police-target…) following a court petition filed by Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) reveals that Asheville, North Carolina, police targeted journalists for recording them during a homeless encampment sweep in 2021. An officer can be heard telling his colleagues to arrest journalists first, before protesters and residents of the encampment, “because they’re videotaping.” Police then proceed to handcuff Asheville Blade journalists Matilda Bliss and Veronica Coit, despite both of them repeatedly explaining that they are members of the press. They’re charged with trespassing for reporting from the public park shortly after its closing time. Bliss and Coit were not charged with endangering or obstructing anyone and the video confirms that they recorded from a distance and did not impede police. Nonetheless, the Buncombe County district attorney continues prosecuting them. After repeated continuances, their case is scheduled for trial (https://wlos.com/news/local/city-moves-forward-with-trial-plans-for-journal…) on April 19. We told the Asheville Citizen Times (https://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2023/02/27/watch-now-ashevil…) “it’s disturbing and striking that Asheville, which markets itself as this progressive oasis in the South, wants to distinguish itself as the place where journalists are tried for doing their jobs at a public park.” Other cities, like Phoenix and East Palestine, Ohio, have dropped charges shortly after arresting journalists. We explained in a press release that (https://freedom.press/news/bodycam-footage-confirms-asheville-police-target…) “it’s bad enough when rogue officers arrest journalists but the ongoing prosecution means the mayor, city council and District Attorney all endorse these unconstitutional arrests.” ** Florida continues its assault on the First Amendment ------------------------------------------------------------ Last week Florida legislators introduced a bill, vocally supported by Gov. Ron DeSantis, that would open the floodgates (https://www.politico.com/news/2023/02/23/florida-gop-desantis-proposal-sue-…) for retaliatory defamation lawsuits by the wealthy and powerful against their critics. Then this week, the same state senator who carried DeSantis’ water on that anti-press bill proposed new legislation that would require “bloggers” who are compensated for their content to register with the state if they write about “the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, a Cabinet officer, or any member of the Legislature.” They’d need to disclose the amount and source of their compensation for each article. It’s a flagrantly unconstitutional content-based restriction on speech that treats critics of elected officials like sex offenders so the government can maintain a blacklist of its detractors. DeSantis has previously sought to frame his attacks on the press as necessary to save “the little guys” from large media conglomerates. That was always nonsense (https://www.tampabay.com/opinion/2023/02/15/gov-desantis-hides-behind-littl…) , and now his allies in the legislature are coming directly after the “little guys” themselves. Either DeSantis will denounce this fascist bill immediately or it’s exactly what he intended all along. ** FPF demands NC court lift gag order, unseal documents ------------------------------------------------------------ A federal judge in North Carolina entered an order (https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/judge-bars-media-from-publishi…) sealing court records in an expelled UNC student’s lawsuit against the university. Not only that, the judge ordered the defendant not to disclose any information about the case and to inform unnamed media outlets that they’re prohibited from reporting on it. We joined the ACLU of North Carolina and Prof. Eugene Volokh in moving the court (https://reason.com/volokh/2023/02/28/aclu-of-n-c-free-press-foundation-and-…) to lift the seal and the unconstitutional gag order, following a joint request from the parties. The court lifted the gag order the day after we filed, but the filings that would explain the reasons for entering it in the first place remain sealed. The public is entitled to know what persuaded a federal judge to enter a fundamentally unconstitutional prior restraint on the press. ** Daniel Ellsberg’s message following cancer diagnosis ------------------------------------------------------------ Our co-founder, our stalwart board member since 2012, our hero, Daniel Ellsberg, eloquently wrote (https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/daniel-ellsberg-pentagon-papers) about how he is facing terminal cancer and discussed his ambitious plans for his final months: “I work better under a deadline. It turns out that I live better under a deadline!” He reflected on expecting, after copying the Pentagon Papers in 1969, that he would spend his life behind bars. Instead, he was able to devote the decades since to “doing everything I could think of to alert the world to the perils of nuclear war.” That’s not to mention his vocal advocacy for the First Amendment rights of whistleblowers (https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-63832899) . He concluded that "my wish for you, my friends, is that at the end of your days you will feel as much joy and gratitude as I do now." ** What we’re reading ------------------------------------------------------------ Man charged in the shooting death of Spectrum News reporter (https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/spectrum-news-13-reporter-kill…) : A man has now been charged with first-degree murder for last week’s shooting death of Spectrum News 13 reporter Dylan Lyons and attempted first-degree murder of photojournalist Jesse Walden. Keith Moses was also charged with the murder that Lyons and Walden were reporting on when they were shot as well as murder, attempted murder and armed burglary in connection with another shooting that left a woman wounded and killed her 9-year-old daughter. Collateral murder and the persecution of Julian Assange (https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/collateral-murder-julian-assange?link_…) : “The effects on the First Amendment and press freedom will be severe if Julian Assange is extradited and successfully prosecuted. His persecution and torture already serve as a warning to journalists worldwide. And morally, Julian Assange’s imprisonment obstructs any reckoning we in the U.S. must do to contend with our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and their victims.” DeSantis ‘review’ of public records can add months of delays, newly uncovered log reveals (https://www.clickorlando.com/news/politics/2023/02/28/desantis-review-of-pu…) : Various Florida agencies forward requested public records to the governor’s office for review before releasing them to citizens and journalists, adding weeks and months of delay. That means that at the same time he’s proposing unconstitutional legislation to crack down on reporters using anonymous sources, DeSantis is creating unnecessary bottlenecks to prevent them from accessing official sources. Apparently he’d prefer journalists don’t report on the government at all. Plenty politicians agree — hence, the First Amendment. ** New Digital Security Digest newsletter ------------------------------------------------------------ FPF has a new weekly newsletter on digital security and journalism! It’ll be a short update on digital security news, what you can do about it, and other news from our team. Subscribe here (https://freedom.press/training/digisec-subscribe/) . ** Freedom of the Press Foundation is hiring ------------------------------------------------------------ FPF is thrilled to be hiring for two important roles (https://freedom.press/jobs/?gh_src=0e756c475us) . Please apply by March 10 if you’re interested, or forward to anyone you know who wants to make a real impact in the fight for press freedoms. Deputy Director of Advocacy We’re seeking a deputy director of advocacy to help lead our efforts to protect the rights of journalists and whistleblowers. The role includes plenty of writing (perfect for current or former journalists) as well as organizing advocacy campaigns to protect journalists and whistleblowers at both the national and local levels. Apply here (https://grnh.se/408aa9ce5us) . Deputy Editor We’re also looking for a deputy editor to help further our impact through editing and engagement. The deputy editor will work across FPF with our advocacy, digital security and U.S. Press Freedom Tracker teams as we defend press freedom worldwide. Apply here (https://grnh.se/26ebb38b5us) . — Seth Stern, Director of Advocacy https://twitter.com/freedomofpress https://www.facebook.com/FreedomOfThePressFoundation/ https://freedom.press/ ============================================================ Copyright © 2023 Freedom of the Press Foundation, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in via our website. Our mailing address is: Freedom of the Press Foundation 49 Flatbush Ave, #1017 Brooklyn, NY 11217 USA Want to change how you receive these emails? You can ** update your preferences (https://press.us6.list-manage.com/profile?u=19b87eae477821267dea69438&id=c8…) or ** unsubscribe from this list (https://press.us6.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=19b87eae477821267dea69438&i…) .

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Indian Whalers On Long Island, 1669-1746
by Gunnar Larson 04 Mar '23

04 Mar '23

Abstract: From circa 1650 to the mid-eighteenth century, Native Americans were recruited by English company owners on Long Island to hunt whales along its south shore. Whale oil profits became the region’s main economic force in the global market. The “whale design,” as it was called, was characterized by a fierce competition among companies for Indian whalers. By reconstructing the careers of several Native whalers based on their extant employment contracts, this paper reveals changing patterns of labor negotiations and methods of payment. As English companies consolidated their monopolistic control over the “whale design,” however, they sought to minimize the Indians’ sphere of influence and bargaining power. Although some Indians tried to improve their situations, even to the extent of forming an independent Native whaling company, they faced diminished prospects due to growing contract enforcement and the gradual standardization of punitive labor practices. As their communities were dispossessed of their land, they looked to the sea for new opportunities, only to find themselves deeply enmeshed in debt. Keywords: whaling, whale oil, baleen, contracts, lay system, debt peonage, Indian whalers, right whales, Long Island, Algonquian, Native American Conclusion The whale was held in awe by the Native peoples of Long Island, who sacrificed its fins and tails in their rituals. Along with all the living creatures in their environment, the whale shared a spiritual essence that united human and animal beings. There was a concern for balance in nature that was expressed in rituals honoring the spirits of animals taken by the hunters. For the Europeans, however, the animals were commodities to be exploited for commercial gain. The fur trade, for example, almost wiped out the beaver population in the Northeast. The same fate befell the North Atlantic right whale during the latter half of the seventeenth century. The English also commodified the land. Land alienation on Long Island, beginning with the English arrival, was nearly complete by the end of the seventeenth century. In 1703 the last major acquisitions of their tribal lands were confirmed by the Shinnecocks and the Montauketts. The loss of their traditional hunting, gathering, and planting grounds gave them little choice but to enter the English economy. Many Indians found employment building fences and tending livestock and cultivating colonial gardens on the very spaces where they once hunted deer, gathered plants and harvested corn. Whaling, for a brief moment in time, provided some Indians with the opportunity to bargain competitively with English employers who eagerly sought their services. The Indians possessed the skills, experience, and courage required to successfully hunt whales in open boats during the winter months. The English companies recruited the Indians for their crews with offers of metal tools, clothing, shoes, kettles, and alcohol. These goods, carried back to the villages by the whalers, stimulated significant changes in material culture that undoubtedly made life easier and more comfortable. There was a dark side. Richard White, in his classic study on patterns of dependency noted that the credit system and the traffic in alcohol were “the two great banes of the Indian trade.” This “credit-liquor combination,” said White, loosened cultural restraints and undermined their resistance to English control over their labor.[80] Artor’s experience supports White’s conclusions. Artor’s indenture forced him to become even more dependent on the English economy. Although patterns of dependency emerged, there were also important aspects of traditional culture that survived, including religious concepts, family and kinship systems, and relationships with the natural environment. The whalers did not surrender passively to the oppressive labor system. They had a unique set of skills and experiences that gave them leverage in negotiating with the English company owners. Although their attempt to launch an Indian-owned company failed, they found other means to protect their interests by comparing the terms of their contracts, frequently changing companies and playing one owner against another. The Native peoples of Long Island played a formative role in the history of an iconic American institution. They were there at the beginning. The shore whaling companies depended on the Indian crews for a successful whale design. They were the first American commercial whalers, a legacy that has often been overlooked. Their descendants, David and Hugh Jacob, were among many Native Americans from Long Island who were recruited by whaling captains in the nineteenth century to hunt whales across the globe.

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Wokeism is Doomed
by professor rat 04 Mar '23

04 Mar '23

Money-badger don't care about your reactionary sexism, racism, antivax insanity, pro-nationalism and garbage-hoarding Gramps. You are crazy like a FOX reporter. So why don't you take your borderline Juan Garofalo gibberish and shove it where the sun don't shine?

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ADAM Back just underlined what statist filth he associates with.
by professor rat 04 Mar '23

04 Mar '23

Adman Backstabber's strange love for the secret-policeman's jackboot https://twitter.com/Excellion?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr… Adam Back Retweeted Samson Mow @Excellion · 12h Missing the Silvergate Exchange Network? <<< Reposts not devastating exposes of carpetbagger collaborator traitor scum from the 90's era

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Btc Maxi's garbage narrative
by professor rat 04 Mar '23

04 Mar '23

>>> Beautyon_ Replying to @Beautyon_ and @giacomozucco Imagine if Phil Zimmerman took this attitude and refused to release GPG on this same pretext? Cowardice is not the Cypherpunk way; solutions is the Cypherpunk way, and blocking lists are not writing code, and Cypherpunks write code. Now you know why Satoshi had to vanish... <<< GnuPG was initially developed by Werner Koch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Privacy_Guard Imagine if Phil specifically disassociated himself from the 90’s cypherpunks - which he did. If cowardice is not the c-punk way how to explain Hughes in 2001? May till 2003? ( On assassination marts ) Julian fears this - Julian fears that, Assange? Satoshi doing a Hughes? There are so many cypherpunk cowards they got a name by 1999 - ' The circle of eunuchs ". " Cypherpunks write code ' is not a commandment and was scribbled by Hughes before he defected to the USG in 2001. Tim May and others interpreted ' code ' as ' speech ' anyway - even before 9-11. Now you know why these Btc Maxi morons have to vanish. They are too stupid to read archives.

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Anarchist & Jewish identities combined
by professor rat 03 Mar '23

03 Mar '23

SEX, POLITICS & ANARCHISM https://anarchistnews.org/content/sex-politics-anarchism Reposts not imprecations to wallow in the good-old-days

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Cryptocurrency: Action - Go RepMyBlock To Abolish The NYDFS Bitlicense
by grarpamp 03 Mar '23

03 Mar '23

https://www.abolishthebitlicense.org/ https://www.repmyblock.org/ My testimony at the New York City Council Committee on Technology on 2/15/2023. We need to get rid of the Bitlicense for the technology to flourish around the world. I built a website called RepMyBlock because I was upset with those politicians. Google Abolish The Bitlicense to see what we can do. https://v.redd.it/xsckljwsudla1 Testimony It's time! I talked about this particular political window as an intermediary step to go after the BitLicense in New York. This window is only open between March 1st and March 31, 2023. The next window is 2025. (Check the Abolish The Bilicense website to understand the whole story.) https://v.redd.it/8b5qwwp6kdla1 I am leading a Bitcoin contingency to fight the Bitlicense in New York inside the political party ran by Zombies. https://www.reddit.com/user/theochino/submitted/ Dear Bitcoiners, I need the maximum of people to watch this documentary and tell their friend in New York City and New York State to signup using this Bitcoin link. https://bitcoin.repmyblock.org/bitcoin/exp/register/movie The mainstream press is not interested in telling the story so we need to create a force to have political influence. The Bitcoiners in Nebraska showed it was possible. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itLPbT_9n_o We need the press around the world to shame the New York press on keeping their readers in the dark and letting zombies to be elected. If you want more info about what I have done, https://newyork.abolishthebitlicense.com/ https://legistar.council.nyc.gov/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1078724&GUID=A0BC20A… https://vimeo.com/795649609/a303d838a9 County 2022 County (2022) - A documentary that explores the County Committee political machine in New York City, suppression at the local levels of American democracy, and the activists on the ground seeking to reform the system.

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How Wind Power and Indigenous Rights Clash in Norway
by Gunnar Larson 02 Mar '23

02 Mar '23

How Wind Power and Indigenous Rights Clash in Norway https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-03-02/how-wind-power-and-indig… Already a world leader in the use of renewable energy, Norway has plans to up its game. But now, two large wind parks on the country’s blustery Fosen peninsula have become the source of a collision between indigenous rights and the government’s green agenda, raising questions over future projects. Protesters concerned about the effects of the parks’ operations on the Indigenous Sami have blocked government offices and demanded that officials shut down the project’s 151 turbines. The case is considered a bellwether of the future of onshore wind power in Norway, which needs more clean power generation to supplement its vast hydropower resources in order to meet its emissions-reduction goals and prepare for the electrification of everything.

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Silvergate, a Federally Insured Bank, Just Blew Up from Ties to Crypto
by Gunnar Larson 02 Mar '23

02 Mar '23

https://wallstreetonparade.com/2023/03/silvergate-a-federally-insured-bank-… By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: March 2, 2023 ~ The one thing a depositor never wants to hear from a bank that is holding his or her life savings is that it has doubts about its “ability to continue as a going concern.” Unfortunately, those very words appeared in a filing made yesterday by Silvergate Capital with the Securities and Exchange Commission – which pretty much guarantees that the ongoing run on deposits at Silvergate will continue with an added sense of urgency. Silvergate Capital is the owner of the federally-insured and taxpayer-backstopped bank, Silvergate Bank, which decided several years back that it would be a cool idea to become the go-to depository bank for crypto companies. One of those outfits was Sam Bankman-Fried’s now collapsed house of fraud. Accounts at Silvergate Bank included Bankman-Fried’s crypto exchange, FTX; his hedge fund, Alameda Research, which prosecutors say looted his FTX crypto exchange customers; and North Dimension, a fake company promoting itself as an online seller of mobile phones, when it was actually laundering money for Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto enterprises, according to federal prosecutors. Once the word got out about Silvergate’s ties to FTX and Bankman-Fried, a bank run ensued. On November 11, when FTX announced it was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Silvergate CEO, Alan Lane, released this statement: “In light of recent developments, I want to provide an update on Silvergate’s exposure to FTX. As of September 30, 2022, Silvergate’s total deposits from all digital asset customers totaled $11.9 billion, of which FTX represented less than 10%. Silvergate has no outstanding loans to nor investments in FTX, and FTX is not a custodian for Silvergate’s bitcoin-collateralized SEN Leverage loans. To be clear, our relationship with FTX is limited to deposits.” Apparently, having $1 billion exposure to FTX was not comforting to other depositors. On January 5, Silvergate reported that its “total deposits from digital asset customers declined to $3.8 billion” as of December 31, 2022 (down from the previously reported $11.9 billion on September 30, 2022.) That’s a 68 percent drop in one quarter – an astonishing figure for a federally-insured bank in the United States. On the same date, the company announced that it was firing 40 percent of its workforce and that it had met the demand for customer withdrawals during the quarter as follows: “Silvergate sold $5.2 billion of debt securities for cash proceeds during the fourth quarter of 2022. The sale resulted in a loss on the sale of securities and related derivatives of $718 million during the fourth quarter of 2022.” That unaudited loss figure was updated in yesterday’s statement to $948.7 million – and that may not be the last word on the matter. Another way that Silvergate apparently met the run on the bank was to obtain $4.3 billion in advances from the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco – a program meant to support housing for the poor. (See Four Crypto-Friendly Banks Are Being Bailed Out with Billions from a Federal Housing Program.) There were more troubling phrases in Silvergate’s revelations to the SEC yesterday, such as the fact that Silvergate can’t file its annual report for the full year of 2022 (Form 10-K) on time; it needs more time to “record journal entries.” Equally troubling was the phrase that “its independent registered public accounting firm” needs more time “to complete certain audit procedures, including review of adjustments not yet recorded and the evaluation of the effectiveness of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting.” You can read Silvergate’s full statement to the SEC at this link. In after hours trading yesterday, following the news of Silvergate’s statement to the SEC, its stock price fell by another 30 percent. Based on its closing price at 4 p.m. yesterday, it has lost 90 percent of its market value over the prior 12 months. Silvergate has other troubles as well. It’s under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice; it’s being sued by multiple plaintiffs seeking class action status; and Reuters reported in February that another crypto exchange kingpin, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, had suspiciously moved $400 million at Silvergate Bank. Eight months ago Wall Street On Parade warned our fellow Americans to Brace Yourself for Federally-Insured Bank Failures Caused by Crypto. In that article we explained how federal regulators were twiddling their thumbs as more and more federally-insured banks in the U.S. moved into crypto. We also explained that crypto is a completely discredited “innovation,” writing that: “…Warren Buffet has called the largest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, ‘rat poison squared’; global economist, Nouriel Roubini, told the Senate Banking Committee in 2018 that ‘Crypto is the Mother of All Scams and (Now Busted) Bubbles While Blockchain Is The Most Over-Hyped Technology Ever, No Better than a Spreadsheet/Database.’ More recently, Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, one of the most valuable tech companies in the world, stated that cryptocurrencies are ‘100% based on greater fool theory.’ And just this past June 1, more than 1,600 scientists and software engineers wrote to Committee chairs in Congress to warn that both crypto and blockchain are shams.” The only remaining question is how long Americans are going to tolerate this madness within our financial system.

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