- cypherpunks - lists.cpunks.org

[FakeNews] Four Years of Fake News about Syria: East Aleppo census edition
by Razer 08 Dec '16

08 Dec '16

> /"Nearly 2 months ago, a thread here disputed the 275k number of > civilians in E #Aleppo . The skepticism now appears to have been > justified" / 26,000 more or less. Not 275,000. It's a ghost town ... and both sides had reasons to inflate the numbers. https://twitter.com/EHSANI22/status/806642137450315776

1 0

Breitbart n' shit
by Razer 08 Dec '16

08 Dec '16

The folks at Weather.com have asked Breitbart to kindly stop using their data to create #FakeNews. https://weather.com/news/news/breitbart-misleads-americans-climate-change ROTF!

8 19

collapsing socialism - Brussels now enforcing 1950's dance tax
by Zenaan Harkness 07 Dec '16

07 Dec '16

Socialism, or rather socialist governments, "liberating" money from the population. Astounding what sheeple will put up with. EU states are enforcing a “dancing tax”. €0.40 for every customer who dances in a bar http://theduran.com/eu-states-are-enforcing-a-dancing-tax-e0-40-for-every-c… Federal condom taxes looming.. "This is called freedom, fool!" -- * Certified Deplorable Neo-Nazi Fake News Hunter (TM)(C)(R) * Executive Director of Triggers, Ministry of Winning * Weapons against traditional \/\/European\/\/ values: http://davidduke.com/jewish-professor-boasts-of-jewish-pornography-used-as-…

1 0

Food in the freezer - How long was the power off ?
by Zenaan Harkness 07 Dec '16

07 Dec '16

This seems blindingly obvious in hindsight, and although the power supply to the area I live is ridiculously inconsistent compared to city areas, it seems determining the un-freeze-ing-ed-ness has not been a high priority. For those who do value knowing if their frozen food became unfrozen, or otherwise enjoy taking retail power companies to small claims tribunals or Magistrates Court, following tip may bring a smile. Z ----- Forwarded message from Gil May ----- Date: Thu, 8 Dec 2016 06:55:38 +1000 Subject: How long was the power off You are away from home and the power goes off, how do you know how long it was off? Was it off long enough for the contents of the freezer to thaw out and go 'off', then the power came back on and everything re-froze? Get a tin or plastic container and fill it with water and freeze it in the freezer then place a coin on top, when power goes off the coin will slowly sink into the ice, if it is half way down then it is unlikely the frozen food will have thawed, if it is on the bottom then you had better check the food very carefully or discard it. ----- End forwarded message ----- -- * Certified Deplorable Neo-Nazi Fake News Hunter (TM)(C)(R) * Executive Director of Triggers, Ministry of Winning * Weapons against traditional \/\/European\/\/ values: http://davidduke.com/jewish-professor-boasts-of-jewish-pornography-used-as-…

1 0

Intro/Projects
by amen a nema 07 Dec '16

07 Dec '16

> Ceessi: > absolute truth "And when people start to need lawyers and doctors, we have conclusive proof that the education system is worthless. Men in the courts before snoozing juries, trying to get remedies by legal trickery, is a proof positive that they don't have enough education to arrange their own lives properly. Just as disgraceful is going to the doctor, not with any real malady, but because they've filled their bodies with garbage, which the pompous medical profession manages to name as some new-fangled disease." -- nan

3 2

Intro/Projects
by Elle Phent 07 Dec '16

07 Dec '16

> Charles Fox: > I'm not an anarchist This isn't anarchist list This is christian conservitive pro-russian list > please forgive me. Only Jebus can forgive you

6 7

[song] [OT] Where Is The Love? - Black Eyed Peas
by Cecilia Tanaka 06 Dec '16

06 Dec '16

https://youtu.be/WpYeekQkAdc Where Is The Love? - Black Eyed Peas What's wrong with the world, mama People livin' like they ain't got no mamas I think the whole world addicted to the drama Only attracted to things that'll bring you trauma Overseas, yeah, we try to stop terrorism But we still got terrorists here livin' In the USA, the big CIA The Bloods and The Crips and the KKK But if you only have love for your own race Then you only leave space to discriminate And to discriminate only generates hate And when you hate then you're bound to get irate, yeah Madness is what you demonstrate And that's exactly how anger works and operates Man, you gotta have love just to set it straight Take control of your mind and meditate Let your soul gravitate to the love, y'all, y'all People killin', people dyin' Children hurt and you hear them cryin' Can you practice what you preach? Or would you turn the other cheek? Father, Father, Father help us Send some guidance from above 'Cause people got me, got me questionin' Where is the love (Love) Where is the love (The love) Where is the love (The love) Where is the love, the love, the love It just ain't the same, old ways have changed New days are strange, is the world insane? If love and peace are so strong Why are there pieces of love that don't belong? Nations droppin' bombs Chemical gasses fillin' lungs of little ones With ongoin' sufferin' as the youth die young So ask yourself is the lovin' really gone So I could ask myself really what is goin' wrong In this world that we livin' in people keep on givin' in Makin' wrong decisions, only visions of them dividends Not respectin' each other, deny thy brother A war is goin' on but the reason's undercover The truth is kept secret, it's swept under the rug If you never know truth then you never know love Where's the love, y'all, come on (I don't know) Where's the truth, y'all, come on (I don't know) Where's the love, y'all People killin', people dyin' Children hurt and you hear them cryin' Can you practice what you preach? Or would you turn the other cheek? Father, Father, Father help us Send some guidance from above 'Cause people got me, got me questionin' Where is the love (Love) Where is the love (The love)? Where is the love (The love)? Where is the love (The love)? Where is the love (The love)? Where is the love (The love)? Where is the love (The love)? Where is the love, the love, the love? I feel the weight of the world on my shoulder As I'm gettin' older, y'all, people gets colder Most of us only care about money makin' Selfishness got us followin' the wrong direction Wrong information always shown by the media Negative images is the main criteria Infecting the young minds faster than bacteria Kids wanna act like what they see in the cinema Yo', whatever happened to the values of humanity Whatever happened to the fairness and equality Instead of spreading love we're spreading animosity Lack of understanding, leading us away from unity That's the reason why sometimes I'm feelin' under That's the reason why sometimes I'm feelin' down There's no wonder why sometimes I'm feelin' under Gotta keep my faith alive 'til love is found Now ask yourself Where is the love? Where is the love? Where is the love? Where is the love? Father, Father, Father, help us Send some guidance from above 'Cause people got me, got me questionin' Where is the love? Sing with me y'all: One world, one world (We only got) One world, one world (That's all we got) One world, one world And something's wrong with it (Yeah) Something's wrong with it (Yeah) Something's wrong with the wo-wo-world, yeah We only got (One world, one world) That's all we got (One world, one world)

2 1

Repurposing OnionDuke
by rooty 06 Dec '16

06 Dec '16

use wisely my friends - the quieter you are the more you can here - hi hi (*-*) - mitmf 0.9.8 http://tinyurl.com/jcpc4yk

2 1

FYI: 10 Surprising Upsides To Colonialism
by Razer 06 Dec '16

06 Dec '16

I think I've found the worst article of 2016... Illustrated: https://listverse.com/2016/12/03/10-surprising-upsides-to-colonialism/ "Colonialism gets a bad rep these days, often with good reason. You’d have to be a madman to look at King Leopold’s adventures in the Congo, for example, and conclude that the Belgians were awesome imperial overlords. Same deal with the slave-trading powers. But that’s not the whole story of colonialism. Move beyond the headline atrocities, and a more nuanced picture begins to emerge. Far from being a nonstop cavalcade of horrors, colonialism often resulted in some seriously awesome, surprising stuff. 10 Spreading Good Government Most of us kind of take democracy and functioning government for granted. But a largely democratic world was by no means inevitable. For most of human history, “government” meant a military dictator or crazy king telling you precisely where to live, what to wear, and when to die in battle for some pointless cause. So why does most of the world now at least pay lip service to democratic norms? For that, you can thank the European colonial powers. Wherever the British went, they instituted governments that looked like their own. That meant parliaments, an efficient civil service, and a basic package of democracy. The French, meanwhile, folded their conquered territories into France itself, promoting Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite. When decolonization finally rolled around, many of those democratic institutions remained in place. 9 Creating Modern Medicine For colonial powers, tropical diseases were a constant pain in the derriere. Asia, Africa, and South America were swimming in bugs that had a nasty tendency to kill colonists and subjects alike. That meant unnecessary expenditure, time and men lost, and a problem extracting that sweet, sweet natural wealth. The solution? Throw everything modern medicine had at the problem. Europe was at the vanguard of modern medicine in the 19th century. The British discovered the antimalarial properties of quinine, which is still our only effective antimalarial. The French became specialists in tropical medicine thanks to their North African holdings. Public health in general received a massive boost thanks to techniques learned in the chaos of the colonies. Even conquered natives benefited from this, in the form of hospitals and new treatments pioneered in Europe. It’s no stretch to say modern medicine is a by-product of imperialism. 8 Economic Booms Of course, colonialism isn’t something that exists only in that fairy tale land we call “the past.” Welcome to Africa, where the Chinese are engaging in a massive exercise in 21st-century colonialism. According to Zambian economist Dambisa Moyo, the resulting economic boom has been the best thing to happen to the continent in decades. Her data shows that this new colonialism has created jobs for millions of Africans and lifted many out of poverty. The boon from Chinese investment has massively benefited the poor in Africa and China alike. That’s not to say all colonial adventures improve people’s lives. Spanish dalliances in the New World memorably crashed Spain’s economy. But it does show that imperialism can be handled well, in a way that benefits the many rather than the few. 7 Global Languages Remember the story of the Tower of Babel? Humans were getting all uppity with their engineering prowess, so God scrambled their languages so they could no longer cooperate. Well, colonialism was sort of like that in reverse. From hundreds of thousands of different tongues, the age of empires whittled humanity down to just a handful of big ones. Seriously. There are currently 106 countries where English is spoken, many of them former colonies. Spanish is spoken in 31, modern standard Arabic in 58, and French in 53. Taken together, pretty much the entire world speaks at least a smattering of English, Spanish, Arabic, French, Russian, or Mandarin—all languages associated with imperial nations. And that has massive advantages. The ability to communicate breaks down barriers to trade and understanding. It allows wildly different countries to find common ground. While it’s not a prerequisite, it’s certainly helpful in uniting people. 6 The Creation Of Modern Art Who likes Picasso? What about Art Deco architecture? Or modern sculpture? We’re betting that at least half of you said yes to one of those. In that case, you should probably be thankful for French and British colonization of Africa. It was the display of African tribal art in Paris and London at the dawn of the 20th century that inspired all of these movements. Artists like Picasso and Matisse saw the treasures from the Ivory Coast or Benin City and were inspired. Architects were seduced by the simple, powerful forms of ruined African temples. It was the imperial trade that brought these objects to public view and allowed them to inspire everyone from designers to artists to architects. It’s incredible to think that, without African art, something like Art Deco wouldn’t exist. New York would look completely different. The cultural benefits of colonialism are all around us. 5 The Development Of Infrastructure Over the last few years, parts of Africa have been undergoing an infrastructure boom. Great railways have unrolled across the plains of Nigeria, the mountains of Ethiopia, and along the lakeside shores of Uganda and Kenya. The projects are expected to send local economies booming, lifting millions out of poverty. These vital new railways didn’t appear out of nowhere. They’re the remains of colonial infrastructure, being updated for the first time in decades. Ironically, the economic boom these railways will bring is partly thanks to Africa’s former colonizers. Wherever the great empires went, they left robust infrastructure in their wake. India still uses Raj-era rolling stock today, transporting millions across the subcontinent. Old colonial roads are still in use alongside ports, hospitals, schools, and universities. While the infrastructure initially benefited the colonizers, it has been repurposed to help the colonized. 4 Removal Of Brutal Occupying Powers The story of the Spanish conquest is portrayed as one of bloodthirsty Europeans super-murdering millions of Aztecs. While that definitely happened, there is one part of the story that gets left out: The Aztecs themselves were occupiers who were in the middle of conquering neighboring states when Cortez arrived. And you’d better believe they were brutal. The Aztecs worked captured enemies to death. They sacrificed them by ripping out their hearts. They forced prisoners into cannibalism. They murdered children to appease the Sun. The Spanish, too, were mega-jerks, but most of their jerkiness came from accidentally importing smallpox and running off with people’s gold. Compared to the bloodthirsty Aztecs, they were practically saints. You see this time and again in colonial societies. Before the British arrived, the Mughals had marched over India and razed Delhi to the ground eight times in eight centuries, building skull pyramids from its inhabitants’ remains. Even at the Raj’s most brutal, no massacres touched the mass murder and enslavement of those times. And while we’re on the subject . . . 3 Increased Peace For the vast majority of human history, life wasn’t fun. Competition for resources forced tribes into a nearly perpetual state of warfare. In Central America, for example, various Maya cities were only one failed harvest away from massacring one another. Steven Pinker has identified the creation of nation states as integral to ending this violence. In some places, the rise of those states was the result of fierce battles and endless politicking. In others, it was a direct result of colonization. Suddenly, once-competing tribes were bunged together and told to get along and swear allegiance to France, Britain, Spain, or wherever. While that created a ton of resentment, it halted the almost continuous cycle of killing, forging brand new national identities that still exist today (like Indian or Ghanaian). Sure, in some cases, like the Belgians in the Congo, the murder rate went up after colonization. But the overarching story is one of enforced peace, which isn’t great, but it’s still better than no peace at all. 2 The Creation Of Modern Tourism One peculiar side effect of the age of empires was the creation of modern tourism. Before the 19th century, going abroad was restricted to the rich and the scientifically curious. Middle-class people in Britain who wanted to go somewhere exciting went to the pub. Then the British Empire arose, bringing with it tales of adventure in far-off places with exotic, romantic names like India, Egypt, Jamaica, and Australia. Realizing the public hunger for these places, a guy named Thomas Cook started offering package tours to the empire’s outposts. In one fell swoop, the concept of the modern tourist was born. According to the Journal of Tourism History, empires provided the perfect vector for the development of a global tourist industry. By repackaging places like Australia from a convict island to a “Down Under paradise,” people like Cook changed how we thought of these places forever. 1 It Saved Millions Of Lives While their rulers and leaders were off gadding about the globe, it’s worth remembering that Europe’s masses were living through hard times. Mass famines were common. France alone suffered 40 devastating nationwide famines between 1500 and 1800. Millions were dying every decade. Into this chaos stepped an unlikely savior: Peru. Spanish conquistadors had brought back a wonderous foodstuff from the colonized nation. It was durable, easy to farm, full of nutrients, and nearly always gave a bumper harvest. It was the potato. Incredible as it may seem, introducing the potato to Europe saved millions of lives. Suddenly, crops no longer failed en masse. Starvation rates plummeted. Populations in rural economies like Ireland exploded, and rates of stuff like scurvy dropped off. Without Spain’s imperialism in the New World, this continent-transforming food would have never been adopted, and your family tree would probably be a heck of a lot emptier."

4 4

Intro/Projects
by Charles Fox 06 Dec '16

06 Dec '16

Hi Everyone, I'm new to the list and to encryption generally. I don't consider myself a good programmer but I needed to learn a little about gpg for work and I'm increasingly curious about it. I had two ideas for things I could build but I want to know if they've already been done/whether they're bad ideas: 1) Cloud storage. I think it would be relatively easy to write a program where any file I save in folder X automatically gets encrypted and saved to folder Y Box/Dropbox/etc. Any new files saved in Y which my key can open get opened and put in folder X. Since the private key password would be saved for this to work automatically, it would be worthless if someone got on my machine, but if one of the cloud providers gets compromised, all they would have is a collection of encrypted files. 2) re-mailer usability An Outlook (sorry) macro (sorry again) to save outgoing mail as .msg file. Python script monitors folder were the .msg would appear, encrypts the msg, composes and sends new blank message with the old message as an encrypted attachment and the proper forwarding instructions. I'm not an anarchist, please forgive me.

4 3