- cypherpunks - lists.cpunks.org

Earth: Wildlife In Catastrophic Decline Due To Human Destruction
by grarpamp 21 Sep '20

21 Sep '20

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2705-y https://f.hubspotusercontent20.net/hubfs/4783129/LPR/PDFs/ENGLISH-FULL.pdf Wildlife populations have fallen by more than two-thirds in less than 50 years, according to a major report (PDF) by the conservation group WWF. The report says this "catastrophic decline" shows no sign of slowing. And it warns that nature is being destroyed by humans at a rate never seen before. The report looked at thousands of different wildlife species monitored by conservation scientists in habitats across the world. They recorded an average 68% fall in more than 20,000 populations of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish since 1970. Measuring the variety of all life on Earth is complex, with a number of different measures. Taken together, they provide evidence that biodiversity is being destroyed at a rate unprecedented in human history. This particular report uses an index of whether populations of wildlife are going up or down. It does not tell us the number of species lost, or extinctions. The largest declines are in tropical areas. The drop of 94% for Latin America and the Caribbean is the largest anywhere in the world, driven by a cocktail of threats to reptiles, amphibians and birds. Research published in the journal Nature suggests that to turn the tide we must transform the way we produce and consume food, including reducing food waste and eating food with a lower environmental impact.

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Numbers Stations: North Korea Allegedly Activates No. 719 Expedition Agents via YouTube
by grarpamp 21 Sep '20

21 Sep '20

" North Korea, on Saturday, allegedly broadcasted a mysterious encrypted message to its spies, for the first time on YouTube, reported Yonhap News Agency. The video clip, uploaded on the state-run Radio Pyongyang's YouTube account, had a female announcer read off a series of numbers and said this is "an information technology review assignment of the remote education university for No. 719 expedition agents." The announcer repeated phrases such as "No. 23 on Page 564, No. -19 on Page 479" in the minute-long broadcast. The video, titled "0100011001-001," was viewed several thousand times before it was deleted. Here are some of the screenshots of the video: This could be the latest example of cryptography blended with social media that Pyongyang uses to communicate instructions to its secret agents in other countries. YouTube user Sneed Chuck appears to have recorded the now-deleted video. However, Martyn Williams, founder of North Korea Tech website, was quoted by NK News as saying the media reports of the now-deleted video were false: "North Korea doesn't run the channel," Williams said. "It's run from Mexico and was only recently renamed to Pyongyang Broadcast Station– which is incorrect anyway, and the [official] radio station is called Pyongyang Broadcasting Station." He said there are dozens of websites and social media accounts that appear to be North-Korean run but are managed by individual users in Mexico, that frequently record or copy content and repost. Williams said Radio Pyongyang's YouTube account did precisely that... "The recording uploaded was obviously recorded off the radio," he said. "It wasn't clear and contained interference," Williams continued – a point that "also indicates it's not from the source." With no authenticity of the video's contents, it remains anyone's guess if the spy codes were, in fact, instructions to North Korean secret agents. However, the two Koreas have historically interjected codes into music, tv shows, and other media content over the decades to communicate with spies in enemy territory. "

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Let's Encrypt Rolls New Root Certs, Uses Whacked NIST P-384 Curves
by grarpamp 21 Sep '20

21 Sep '20

https://letsencrypt.org/2020/09/17/new-root-and-intermediates.html https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24536680 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curve25519#History https://safecurves.cr.yp.to/ https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-talk/2013-September/029956.html "I no longer trust the constants. I believe the NSA has manipulated them through their relationships with industry." — Bruce Schneier, The NSA Is Breaking Most Encryption on the Internet (2013)

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Cryptocurrency: Kraken is now a SPDI Bank, FinCEN Files Leaked, Banker Capitulation, Canna_Bars now Dreaming Behind Bars
by grarpamp 21 Sep '20

21 Sep '20

https://blog.kraken.com/post/6241/kraken-wyoming-first-digital-asset-bank/ https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24536477 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/topics/cl0514elpqet/fincen-files https://medium.com/in-bitcoin-we-trust/morgan-stanley-recommends-buying-bit… https://dailyhodl.com/2020/09/19/paypal-to-allow-merchants-to-accept-crypto… https://darknetlive.com/post/dream-vendor-canna-bars-sentenced-to-prison/ https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24533041 https://newrepublic.com/article/159252/vampire-ship https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24533261 https://twitter.com/michael_saylor/status/1305850568531947520 https://defipulse.com/ "it would be a national security catastrophe if it leaked that NSA was bulk decrypting all TLS/SSL traffic Internet-wide, by using a giant rainbow table of prime pair products for instant decryption without factoring, which was first proposed by Rabin back in 1997 at a NIST working group for establishing crypto standards."

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protagonist, antagonist, plotlines, loglines, the proforma story in real life - [PEACE]
by Zenaan Harkness 21 Sep '20

21 Sep '20

CJ Hopkins does us a service by putting his actual writing teaching skills to use in laying out in a mildly humorous way, how "democracy" has been attacked by populism and "literally Hitler reincarnated" - for would be writers, discover terms such as status quo/ inciting incident, new situation/ predicament, progress/ obstacles, rising action/ first culmination, complications/ subplots/ higher stakes, major setback and more, and how they apply in present events. Create your world, CJ Hopkins Exposes The Final Act In 'The War On Populism' Authored (mostly satirically) by CJ Hopkins via The Consent Factory https://consentfactory.org/2020/09/20/the-war-on-populism-the-final-act/ https://www.zerohedge.com/political/cj-hopkins-exposes-final-act-war-populi…

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[POLITICS] [AND] [PEACE] - pre-election SCOTUS appoint
by Zenaan Harkness 20 Sep '20

20 Sep '20

Appointing a SCOTUS RBG (Ginsburg) replacement prior to the November USA elections, will put a useful damper on Democrat party voter's' enthusiasm for bothering to vote at all. At least, if loony "liberal" lefty reactions are anything to go by: Idk where this came from, but Jesus Christ this lady is unhinged. Why is it that every time something upsets leftists, they act crazier than my psych patients? #RBG #RBGFreakout #freakout #rage #RuthBaderGinsburg #RBGRIP #Election2020 #publicfreakout #WORLDSTAR pic.twitter.com/O54rANoyHc — NCK Liberty (@NCKLiberty) September 19, 2020 https://t.co/O54rANoyHc (Found here: https://www.zerohedge.com/political/actblue-raises-record-45-million-12-hou… ) Hop to ole chaps...

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Assange was offered presidential pardon to help 'resolve' Russia role in DNC hack, court told
by jim bell 20 Sep '20

20 Sep '20

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/assange-offered-pardon-if-he-helped-reso… Sept. 18, 2020, 8:09 AM PDT / Updated Sept. 18, 2020, 11:00 AM PDTBy Alexander Smith and Michele Neubert LONDON — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was offered a presidential pardon if he helped to resolve the "ongoing speculation about Russian involvement" in the hacking of Democratic National Committee emails leaked during the 2016 U.S. election campaign, a London court heard Friday. Assange's lawyer, Jennifer Robinson, said she saw then-Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., and Trump associate Charles Johnson make the offer during an August 2017 meeting at London's Ecuadorian Embassy, where Assange was evading arrest at the time. His seven-year stay there came to an end in April 2019 when Ecuador revoked his political asylum and invited police officers inside to arrest him. Rohrabacher and Johnson said Trump knew about the meeting and approved offering Assange what they described as a "win-win" proposal, according to Robinson's statement provided to Assange's hearing in Old Bailey court. Assange, 49, is fighting extradition to the U.S. where he faces up to 175 years in prison on espionage charges over WikiLeaks' release of confidential diplomatic cables in 2010 and 2011. Download the NBC News app for breaking news and politics "Rohrabacher explained that he wanted to resolve the ongoing speculation about Russian involvement in the Democratic National Committee (DNC) leaks to WikiLeaks," Robinson said. "He said that he regarded the ongoing speculation as damaging to U.S.-Russian relations, that it was reviving old Cold War politics, and that it would be in the best interests of the U.S. if the matter could be resolved." In return, the men offered "some form of pardon, assurance or agreement which would both benefit President Trump politically and prevent U.S. incitement and extradition" for Assange, Robinson said in the statement. At the hearing Friday, James Lewis, prosecutor for the U.S. government, said: "The position of the government is we don't contest these things were said. We obviously do not accept the truth of what was said by others." [end of partial quote]

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cypherpunks list archive
by Punk-BatSoup-Stasi 2.0 20 Sep '20

20 Sep '20

A while back jim bell claimed to first notice that a good chunk of the archive from the 1990s was missing. The topic was discussed and nothing come it. jim bell spouted his usual technocratic garbage about how 'somebody' must have a copy of the archive on floppy disks, bla bla but of course none of the old subscribers (who are still subscribed like john young, hettinga, james donald, mirimir, etc) ever produced a backup. They never commented on the reasons why parts of the archive are missing. After a while jim bell stopped talking about the issue. I'd say he stopped talking about it all of a sudden. So, have 'you guys' who are US subjects got some friendly notice from your friendly nazi government or what? Or should I take this as an example of how amazin bell's beloved technofascist technology is, except that 'the technology' and the master cypherpunks who use it are so useless that they can't even keep a working backup of their own mailing list? Well, couple bell's suddden dropping of the subject with all the governmetn propaganda he constantly vomits and you get an entertaining picture....

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OpenPOWER EULA up for review - intends to be "libre-friendly"
by Zenaan Harkness 20 Sep '20

20 Sep '20

OpenPower EULA Released, FOSDEM, and More (Libre RISC-V M-Class by Luke Leighton) https://www.crowdsupply.com/libre-risc-v/m-class/updates/openpower-eula-rel… Several things in this update: the OpenPower Foundation released their EULA (which is really exciting); we had a last-minute decision to go to FOSDEM to meet NLNet (and meet lots of nice people including someone from the EU Commission); we have new team members helping out (and making really good progress). Before we begin, however, we still have a high-priority task of finding a C++/compiler developer for the NLNet-funded 3D MESA Driver project. EUR 50,000 is available, tax-free: this thread describes the scope, where you’re pretty much at liberty to choose the approach that you’d like to take. http://lists.libre-riscv.org/pipermail/libre-riscv-dev/2020-January/003302.… OpenPOWER Foundation Releases the Power ISA EULA This is a big deal: the EULA for anyone wishing to create a Power ISA compatible processor, it’s been designed to be “libre-friendly.” We will need to do a full review, and would appreciate feedback on it, via this bug report. A very quick read (like, right now): the really interesting bit is the combination of a royalty-free grant (as long as you are fully compliant with Power ISA) in combination with “if you initiate patent litigation, you lose all rights immediately.” This provides an extremely strong disincentive for patent trolls to “try it on.” It also actively encourages contributors to make sure that their work becomes an “official” part of Power, because that then gets them under the “umbrella” of protection as part of this EULA. https://openpowerfoundation.org/final-draft-of-the-power-isa-eula-released/ http://bugs.libre-riscv.org/show_bug.cgi?id=179 ...

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Stephen F. Cohen, pre-eminent contemporary American scholar of Russia & USSR, friend of Gorbachev & advisor to Bush, dies at 81 - [PEACE]
by Zenaan Harkness 19 Sep '20

19 Sep '20

Stephen F. Cohen is our pre-eminent Western scholar on Russia and the peace that all non-sociopaths seek, especially with our Russian brothers. Our condolences and our gratitude for Cohen's life work and his tireless voice of reason and sanity in this age of the apparent collapse of the USA empire. Stephen F. Cohen, pre-eminent contemporary American scholar of Russia & USSR, friend of Gorbachev & advisor to Bush, dies at 81 https://www.rt.com/usa/501133-stephen-cohen-russia-scholar-dies/ ... Breaking with many American academics and political commentators, Cohen was highly critical of Washington’s approach to Russia following the collapse of the Soviet Union. He warned of the dangers of NATO expansion and argued that much of the economic devastation seen in Russia during the 1990s could be traced to bad-faith policies and advice from the United States. His principled, and patriotic stand, led to smears from members of the think tank racket and both liberal and neoconservative interventionists, keen to stoke tensions with Moscow. Cohen was labelled a Putin apologist. He responded by saying that he saw him as being "in the Russian tradition of leadership, getting Russia back on its feet." After the election of Donald Trump, Cohen found himself in the crosshairs of the mainstream media for challenging the now-debunked Russiagate narrative, which he said was being used to sabotage bilateral relations and trigger a “new Cold War” with Moscow. ... The author of numerous books and countless articles, Cohen was a frequent guest on RT, where he often used his air time to sound the alarm over the dangerous state of US-Russia relations, lamenting that the hostility was both unnecessary and potentially calamitous. Stephen Cohen on how impeachment battle is impacting US-Russia relations http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQK7M7_GMDc ...

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