- cypherpunks - lists.cpunks.org

tails 2.11
by John Newman 09 Mar '17

09 Mar '17

Tails 2.11 is out - https://tails.boum.org/news/version_2.11/ Apparently this will be the last release to support i2p... they say they lack a developer in the team to keep up with it.

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If this doesn't define what TOR really is, what does?
by bbrewer 09 Mar '17

09 Mar '17

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/playpen-us-doj-drops-child-porn-case-against-jay-m… "The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has decided to drop its case against Jay Michaud, accused of accessing the notorious and now defunct dark web child pornography website Playpen, instead of sharing the classified technology used to locate thousands of suspects visiting the site."

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On Becoming Friendly [re: WikiLeaks will work with...]
by grarpamp 09 Mar '17

09 Mar '17

On Thu, Mar 9, 2017 at 12:03 PM, Razer <g2s(a)riseup.net> wrote: > They haz teh codz and they want to make friends with the tech industry: > >> "We have decided to work with them, to give them some exclusive access >> to some of the technical details we have, so that fixes can be pushed >> out," Assange said. Once tech firms had patched their products, he >> said, he would release the full data of the hacking tools to the public." > http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/national-politics/artic… WL needs to be publishing ticket system type notes on what they're doing here. There need to be timeouts after which exploit code is published regardless of what industry does with it or not. Need to be saying they sent 8 itemized exploits to Microsoft, 13 to Android, etc. With all this "making friends", what "making friends" is, or may end up, going on with secrets in general? Is there no Journo or Tech that can withstand the temptation, or the externally imposed necessity, of becoming "friendly"?

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(((Them)))
by He-Man 09 Mar '17

09 Mar '17

Yet (((they))) are | |3 | | |

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[OT] "Don't use science to justify your bigotry."
by He-Man 09 Mar '17

09 Mar '17

> Cecilia Tanaka cecilia.tanaka at gmail.com > Thu Mar 9 09:57:21 PST 2017 > >> There are more than two sexes because "muh bugs" >> Oh, did you mean humans ? >> There are more than two sexes because "muh nutritional deficiencies" So there are two sexes. One that shoots a load, and one that hosts the parasite, or something like that ... >> but your heart and brain are male My dick is female, since, according to Bill Maher, women can't rape men. > don't use religion to justify your prejudices Don't use politeness to justify your stupidity.

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A debunking of "Racialism": "So, in a nutshell, little sunlight=white skin, much sunlight=black skin"
by Razer 09 Mar '17

09 Mar '17

It's the Vitamin D stoopid! A science teacher explains: https://www.facebook.com/grace.pokela.1/posts/10100443953660160 > > There is even an exception to this rule, and it’s an exception that > PROVES the rule. > > There is one group only of people who have lived with very little > sunlight for a very long time, but who still have brown skin. This > group is the American Inuit (Eskimos.) They live in an area where the > sun shines not at all for a large portion of the year! According to > our vitamin D rule, they should be among the palest of the pale of all > of the Earth’s people. And yet, they are brown. Why? > > They are brown for one very, very simple reason. Inuit eat a lot of > seal and whale meat. And can you guess what vitamin seal and whale > meat contains tons of? > > That’s right- vitamin D!!! > > Inuit have brown skin for the simple reason that they’ve spent > thousands of years getting their vitamin D from their diets, and NOT > from the sun. > > I am so, so sick of living in a world wherein people whose recent > ancestors needed to efficiently conserve folic acid are treated > differently than people whose recent ancestors needed to efficiently > make vitamin D. It is. So. Stupid. H/t Cecilia Tanaka: "[OT] "Don't use science to justify your bigotry." for tipping me to this FB account.

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[OT] "Don't use science to justify your bigotry."
by Cecilia Tanaka 09 Mar '17

09 Mar '17

"Don't use science to justify your bigotry. The world is way too weird for that shit." And, please, don't use religion to justify your prejudices too. :) c. ====== # http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/biology-teacher-transphobia_us_58b9cb01… # http://observer.com/2017/03/transgender-facebook-troll-biology-sexuality # https://www.bustle.com/p/science-teacher-grace-pokelas-viral-facebook-post-… # http://www.refinery29.com/2017/03/143902/biology-teacher-transphobia-argume… ====== https://www.facebook.com/grace.pokela.1/posts/10100443442509510 "I just commented this on a transphobic post that was all like, "In a sexual species, females have two X chromosomes and males have an X and a Y, I'm not a bigot it's just science." I'm a science teacher so I responded with this. First of all, in a sexual species, you can have females be XX and males be X (insects), you can have females be ZW and males be ZZ (birds), you can have females be females because they developed in a warm environment and males be males because they developed in a cool environment (reptiles), you can have females be females because they lost a penis sword fighting contest (some flatworms), you can have males be males because they were born female, but changed sexes because the only male in their group died (parrotfish and clownfish), you can have males look and act like females because they are trying to get close enough to actual females to mate with them (cuttlefish, bluegills, others), or you can be one of thousands of sexes (slime mold, some mushrooms.) Oh, did you mean humans? Oh ok then. You can be male because you were born female, but you have 5-alphareductase deficiency and so you grew a penis at age 12. You can be female because you have an X and a Y chromosome but you are insensitive to androgens, and so you have a female body. You can be female because you have an X and a Y chromosome but your Y is missing the SRY gene, and so you have a female body. You can be male because you have two X chromosomes, but one of your X's HAS an SRY gene, and so you have a male body. You can be male because you have two X chromosomes- but also a Y. You can be female because you have only one X chromosome at all. And you can be male because you have two X chromosomes, but your heart and brain are male. And vice - effing - versa. Don't use science to justify your bigotry. The world is way too weird for that shit."

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CIA/FBI Throwing Hissie Fit Over WL, Vows Havoc Against All But Self
by grarpamp 09 Mar '17

09 Mar '17

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/03/08/politics/wikileaks-cia-investigation/ The investigation is looking into how the documents came into WikiLeaks' possession and whether they might have been leaked by an employee or contractor. The CIA is also trying to determine if there are other unpublished documents WikiLeaks may have. The documents published so far are largely genuine, officials said, though they are not yet certain if all of them are and whether some of the documents may have been altered. One of the biggest concerns for the federal government is if WikiLeaks publishes critical computer code on how operations are conducted, other hackers could take that code and cause havoc overseas. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/03/hey-cia-you-held-security-flaw-inform… Cindy Cohn, writing for EFF: The dark side of this story is that the documents confirm that the CIA holds on to security vulnerabilities in software and devices -- including Android phones, iPhones, and Samsung televisions -- that millions of people around the world rely on. The agency appears to have failed to accurately assess the risk of not disclosing vulnerabilities to responsible vendors and failed to follow even the limited Vulnerabilities Equities Process. As these leaks show, we're all made less safe by the CIA's decision to keep -- rather than ensure the patching of -- vulnerabilities. Even spy agencies like the CIA have a responsibility to protect the security and privacy of Americans.

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Bitcoin: NH Moves to Completely Deregulate Cryptocurrencies
by grarpamp 09 Mar '17

09 Mar '17

https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/5y91i0/were_about_to_completely_d… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxCNeK97_C8

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Tech Oligopoly Harmful, Deja Vu
by grarpamp 09 Mar '17

09 Mar '17

http://www.theverge.com/2017/3/8/14848642/walt-mossberg-tech-gang-of-five-a… What we have now in consumer tech, in 2017, is an oligopoly, at least superficially similar to the old industrial-era American corporate groups that once dominated key industries. I think that their enduring and growing power casts a shadow over the Silicon Valley legend that there are lots of great new consumer tech innovations being incubated right now in garages or dorm rooms somewhere that will be taken all the way to becoming great companies, the way each of the Gang of Five was. What I fear is more likely to happen to any such startup is that, if they're good, they get acquired by a member of the Gang, or that their idea is turned into a feature for one of the Gang's products. And, even if that never happens and a startup thrives, too often it can only thrive by being successful on a platform controlled by one or more Gang members, with the big guy maybe taking a cut. For instance, Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, which went public last week, famously spurned a $3 billion takeover offer from Gang member Facebook in 2013. But it depends for its very operation on the cloud services of Google and on the mobile app platforms of Apple and Google. And plenty of other companies which either presented threats or opportunities to the Gang have been snapped up by them. Each of the five companies actively scoops up numerous smaller companies every year, in many cases just for their talent and / or patents.

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