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Tor project changes directorship
by Zenaan Harkness 14 Jul '16

14 Jul '16

Trying to contain fallout, or transferring of the guard given problems with current directorship/ attempt to maintain illusion of transparency, when in fact now may be a full CIA/NSA takeover of Tor project? ----- Forwarded message from "LWN.net Daily Summary" <lwn(a)lwn.net> ----- https://lwn.net/Articles/694406/ Tor Project Elects All-New Board of Directors [Announcements] Posted Jul 13, 2016 19:39 UTC (Wed) by ris The Tor Project has announced a new board of directors. "As Tor's board of directors, we consider it our duty to ensure that the Tor Project has the best possible leadership. The importance of Tor's mission requires it; the public standing of the organization makes it possible; and we are committed to achieve it. We had that duty in mind when we conducted an Executive Director search last year, and appreciate the leadership Shari Steele has brought. To support her, we further believe that it is time that we pass the baton of board oversight as the Tor Project moves into its second decade of operations."

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overthrowing a powerfully united, cohesive nation of people - US Senator Richard Black on Syria
by Zenaan Harkness 14 Jul '16

14 Jul '16

US Senator Richard Black: "We Have Never Done Anything More Loathsome or Despicable Than What We're Doing in Syria." http://www.fort-russ.com/2016/07/us-senator-we-have-never-done-anything.html (Slightly slow to start, but some amazing quotes and some (new for me) historical facts from this one. A very small sampling: " the CIA could not go before Congress and say, “Look, we intend to attack a neutral, non-belligerent country, where the people are happy, prosperous, and enjoy greater women’s rights and religious freedom than any other Arab nation; we’re going to rip it to shreds, we’re going to open up a torrent of bloodshed: Please give us an appropriation so we can purchase weapons to do it.” " " Within three days from the city of Hama, 70,000 Christians streamed into Damascus; why Damascus? Because they knew that President Assad would protect the Christians. He would protect anyone who was under attack by the Muslim Brotherhood. " " if you want to consider whether the people of Syria are for or against their government and their President, just consider this: Syria has a population of 23 million people. It is in the sixth year of a war in which it has been opposed by the United States, Great Britain, France, NATO, the European Union,... " " Where have we [USA] come?! What has come of this country?! " " Extremely reckless, nearly an insane American policy, driven by Saudi wealth that lines the pockets of top people in this country. It’s sad. " )

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Sanity in Switzerland: What's in a handshake?
by Zenaan Harkness 14 Jul '16

14 Jul '16

----- Forwarded message from Jim ----- Hugh Fitzgerald: Switzerland: What’s in a Handshake? JIHAD WATCH By Hugh Fitzgerald May 27, 2016 12:12 pm 117 Comments Sometimes it’s the little things that are most telling. In Switzerland it has long been customary for students to shake the hands of their teachers at the beginning and end of the school day. It’s a sign of solidarity and mutual respect between teacher and pupil, one that is thought to encourage the right classroom atmosphere. Justice Minister Simonetta Sommaruga recently felt compelled to further explain that shaking hands was part of Swiss culture and daily life. And the reason she felt compelled to speak out about the handshake is that two Muslim brothers, aged 14 and 15, who have lived in Switzerland for several years (and thus are familiar with its mores), in the town of Therwil, near Basel, refused to shake the hands of their teacher, a woman, because, they claimed, this would violate Muslim teachings that contact with the opposite sex is allowed only with family members. At first the school authorities decided to avoid trouble, and initially granted the boys an exemption from having to shake the hand of any female teacher. But an uproar followed, as Mayor Reto Wolf explained to the BBC: “the community was unhappy with the decision taken by the school. In our culture and in our way of communication a handshake is normal and sends out respect for the other person, and this has to be brought [home] to the children in school.” Therwil’s Educational Department reversed the school’s decision, explaining in a statement on May 25 that the school’s exemption was lifted because “the public interest with respect to equality between men and women and the integration of foreigners significantly outweighs the freedom of religion.” It added that a teacher has the right to demand a handshake. Furthermore, if the students refused to shake hands again “the sanctions called for by law will be applied,” which included a possible fine of up to 5,000 dollars. This uproar in Switzerland, where many people were enraged at the original exemption granted to the Muslim boys, did not end after that exemption was itself overturned by the local Educational Department. The Swiss understood quite clearly that this was more than a little quarrel over handshakes; it was a fight over whether the Swiss would be masters in their own house, or whether they would be forced to yield, by the granting of special treatment, to the Islamic view of the proper relations between the sexes. It is one battle – small but to the Swiss significant – between o’erweening Muslim immigrants and the indigenous Swiss. Naturally, once the exemption was withdrawn, all hell broke loose among Muslims in Switzerland. The Islamic Central Council of Switzerland, instead of yielding quietly to the Swiss decision to uphold the handshaking custom, criticized the ruling in hysterical terms, claiming that the enforcement of the handshaking is “totalitarian” (!) because its intent is to “forbid religious people from meeting their obligations to God.” That, of course, was never the “intent” of the long-standing handshaking custom, which was a nearly-universal custom in Switzerland, and in schools had to do only with encouraging the right classroom atmosphere of mutual respect between instructor and pupil, of which the handshake was one aspect. The Swiss formulation of the problem – weighing competing claims — will be familiar to Americans versed in Constitutional adjudication. In this case “the public interest with respect to equality” of the sexes and the “integration of foreigners” (who are expected to adopt Swiss ways, not force the Swiss to exempt them from some of those ways) were weighed against the “religious obligations to God” of Muslims, and the former interests found to outweigh the latter. What this case shows is that even at the smallest and seemingly inconsequential level, Muslims are challenging the laws and customs of the Infidels among whom they have been allowed to settle. Each little victory, or defeat, will determine whether Muslims will truly integrate into a Western society or, instead, refashion that society to meet Muslim requirements. The handshake has been upheld and, what’s more, a stiff fine now will be imposed on those who continue to refuse to shake hands with a female teacher. This is a heartening sign of non-surrender by the Swiss. But the challenges of the Muslims within Europe to the laws and customs of the indigenes have no logical end and will not stop. And the greater the number of Muslims allowed to settle in Europe, the stronger and more frequent their challenges will be. They are attempting not to integrate, but rather to create, for now, a second, parallel society, and eventually, through sheer force of numbers from both migration and by outbreeding the Infidels, to fashion not a parallel society but one society — now dominated by Muslims. The Swiss handshaking dispute has received some, but not enough, press attention. Presumably, it’s deemed too inconsequential a matter to bother with. But the Swiss know better. And so should we. There’s an old Scottish saying that in one variant reads: “Many a little makes a mickle.” That is, the accumulation of many little things leads to one big thing. That’s what’s happening in Europe today. This was one victory for the side of sanity. There will need to be a great many more. Source: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2016/05/hugh-fitzgerald-switzerland-whats-in-a-h…

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GlomarDisclosure with your host Michael Best
by grarpamp 14 Jul '16

14 Jul '16

https://glomardisclosure.com/

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Tor repos on github draw certain...
by grarpamp 14 Jul '16

14 Jul '16

https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-project/2016-July/000512.html ... censors, quotes of free speech, and irony. Create your own repos on an onion today... FTW! Related: https://blog.cloudflare.com/author/marek-majkowski/

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Re: comprehending the heart's nationalism
by Zenaan Harkness 14 Jul '16

14 Jul '16

> > PS, On "choice": every morning, between 8am and 8:17am, I "choose" > > to have a coffee, a fully free, first amendment style choice of my > > free will. Nope, nothing biological or preordained about it > > whatsoever. Nope, nuthin! > > Speaking of free will, anarchism, russians and the like, here's > an interesting read > http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/michail-bakunin-man-society-and-free… That's an awesome read! Thank you. I put it into an OpenOffice file, 4 pages, 88KiB, numbered paragraphs, "tidy" layout by my standards. Email if you'd like a copy for easy printing. Quote: "Always and everywhere, when the masses are restless, even the most enthusiastic liberals immediately reverse themselves and become the most fanatical champions of the omnipotence of the State." I take exception to the historical absolute assertion "(They ["Liberals"] know very well that no state in history has ever been created by contract, and that all states were established by conquest and violence.)", in that around 1900, the Commonwealth of Australia, the federation of various states including New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria etc, was created by referendum and consent of the British parliament and the British monarchy, and not "by conquest and violence" even though it is true that the majority of states ("countries") in existence were created by conquest and violence. New Zealand and Canada and perhaps other Commonwealth states, I think share similar non violent histories, though I am no historian, so please do your own research if important. Setting aside this historical exception to the "conquest and violence" rule about the creation of states, the paper gives much to think and debate about. Quote: "Under the aspect of their earthly existence, the mass of men present so sorry and degrading a spectacle, so poor in spirit, in will and initiative, that one must be endowed with a truly great capacity for self — delusion, to detect in them an immortal soul, or even the faintest trace of free will."

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The FBI Says Its Malware Isn't Malware Because The FBI Is Good
by Cecilia Tanaka 13 Jul '16

13 Jul '16

Joke Du Jour: The FBI Says Its Malware Isn't Malware Because The FBI Is Good. http://gizmodo.com/the-fbi-says-its-malware-isn-t-malware-because-the-fbi-1… Hahahaha!!! :D Yeah, that's the reason why they receive Santa's gifts every Christmas! Ho ho ho!!! :D

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EasyDoc Eleanor Malware Onion Bots
by grarpamp 13 Jul '16

13 Jul '16

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/07/05/easydoc_malware_adds_tor_backdoor_t… http://appleinsider.com/articles/16/07/06/new-mac-malware-can-remotely-acce… Security firm Bitdefender has issued an alert about a malicious app that hands over control of Macs to criminals via Tor. The software, called EasyDoc Converter.app, is supposed to be a file converter but doesn't do its advertised functions. Instead it drops complex malware onto the system that subverts the security of the system, allowing it to be used as part of a botnet or to spy on the owner. "This type of malware is particularly dangerous as it's hard to detect and offers the attacker full control of the compromised system," said Tiberius Axinte, Technical Leader, Bitdefender Antimalware Lab. "For instance, someone can lock you out of your laptop, threaten to blackmail you to restore your private files or transform your laptop into a botnet to attack other devices. The possibilities are endless." The malware, dubbed Backdoor.MAC.Eleanor, sets up a hidden Tor service and PHP-capable web server on the infected computer, generating a .onion domain that the attacker can use to connect to the Mac and control it. Once installed, the malware grants full access to the file system and can run scripts given to it by its masters.A report on AppleInsider says that malware can also control the FaceTime camera on a victim's computer. But thankfully, Apple's Gatekeeper security prevents the unsigned app from being installed.

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The Laws (was the principles) of secure information systems design
by Peter Fairbrother 12 Jul '16

12 Jul '16

I've been revising the principles, and came up with this. It's an early version. As ever, corrections and suggestions are welcome. Calling them Laws is perhaps a bit overreaching - but on reflection I thought that's mostly what they are, break them and the system won't be secure. I will put the Laws up on the 'net shortly, hopefully with a link for suggestions and comments. The Laws of secure information systems design: Law 0: It's all about who is in control Law 1: Someone else is after your data Law 2: If it isn't stored it can't be stolen Law 3: Only those you trust can betray you Law 4: Attack methods are many, varied, ever-changing and eternal Law 5: The entire system is subject to attack Law 6: A more complex system has more places to attack Law 7: Holes for good guys are holes for bad guys too Law 8: Kerckhoffs's Principle rulez! - usually... Law 9: A system which is hard to use will be abused or unused law 10: Design for future threats Law 11: Security is a Boolean Law 12: People offering the impossible are lying Law 13: Nothing ever really goes away Law 15: "Schneier's law c" [1] holds illimitable dominion over all... including these laws -- Peter Fairbrother [1] " a: Anyone, from the most clueless amateur to the best cryptographer, can create an algorithm that he himself can't break. It's not even hard. b: What is hard is creating an algorithm that no one else can break, even after years of analysis. c: And the only way to prove that is to subject the algorithm to years of analysis by the best cryptographers around."

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The Moon landing again - Fw: Neil Armstrong's Boots
by Zenaan Harkness 12 Jul '16

12 Jul '16

Sound like rather compelling questions to me. But I'm not a physicist, and I never worked for Nike or a boot maker, so I couldn't begin to say how ripple soles got left behind on the Moon. Bah humbug ... prolly someone conspired to think of a theory. ----- Forwarded message from Gil May <gilmay97(a)gmail.com> ----- From: Gil May <gilmay97(a)gmail.com> Date: Tue, 12 Jul 2016 09:21:54 +1000 Subject: Neil Armstrong's Boots No one has answered my simple question, instead of providing an answer they want to call me names and say I am a conspirator--I am not, I am just asking a fair question. When Neil Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface he left a deep footprint in the dust showing a *ripple soled imprint, *the photo was shown all around the world. The landing module was about 3 meters in diameter and the thrust rocket central: from “NASA Launch Vehicle/Spacecraft Key Facts <http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4029/Apollo_18-13_Launch_Vehicle-Spacecraft_Key_…>, LM descent stage maximum rated thrust = 9,870 lbf (43,904 N)”. This massive thrust would have blown the dust away from the landing area creating a massive dust cloud, so why was thick dust still on the ground and no massive dust cloud? Please explain NASA. [image: Inline image 3] In July, 46 years to the day after the first moon walk, the *Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum* in Washington, D.C., started its first Kickstarter campaign, asking for money to preserve the spacesuit Neil Armstrong wore when he stepped off Apollo 11 onto the moon in 1969. Oct 15, 2015 How the Smithsonian Will Save Neil Armstrong's Spacesuit <http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/moon-mars/a17583/neil-armstrong-space…> *www.popularmechanics.com/ <http://www.popularmechanics.com/>space/moon-mars/a17583/neil-armstrong-spacesuit* [image: Inline image 2] [image: Inline image 1] NASA verified this was the actual space suit worn by Neil Armstrong, interesting to see the boots have no ripple sole. Please explain NASA. My father often said “Do not ask difficult questions you upset folk and get called names”. Oh Dear! Cheers

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