Re: Something conspicuously missing from the media survival lists
On Tue, 11 Feb 2003, jet wrote: If you've read it recently, I'll take your word for it. That's a very(!!!) dangerous approach. Odds are the person hasn't read it at all. Check the archive for a reference to a pre-print in arXiv (ie xyz.lanl.gov) about pre-prints and how 80% of them are bogus in reference to claims of having read references/cites. -- We are all interested in the future for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. Criswell, Plan 9 from Outer Space [EMAIL PROTECTED][EMAIL PROTECTED] www.ssz.com www.open-forge.org
Re: Something conspicuously missing from the media survival lists
On Tue, 11 Feb 2003, Sarad AV wrote: A tape as an evidence?Is a tape still considered as a valid piece of evidence in a court of law? It's that oath thing, it's pretty much always required the person making the tape to swear it hasn't been tampered with and that they are the party who created it. Otherwise it would generaly fall into hearsay. Than of course it also depends on the particular states view of 1-party or 2-party permission issues. -- We are all interested in the future for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. Criswell, Plan 9 from Outer Space [EMAIL PROTECTED][EMAIL PROTECTED] www.ssz.com www.open-forge.org
RE: The Wimps of War
Steve wrote quoting: PAUL KRUGMAN And though you don't hear much about it in the U.S. media, a lack of faith in Mr. Bush's staying power a fear that he will wimp out in the aftermath of war, that he won't do what is needed to rebuild Iraq is a large factor in the growing rift between Europe and the United States. And this matters how? Why would Bush, or for that matter the Europeans, care about rebuilding (what?) in Iraq? Other than the minimum investments required to prevent the population from rising up against their future leaders, why should the U.S. concern itself with making investments in Iraq not directly related to creating and maintaining oil extraction and transport facilities? --Lucky
Re: Something conspicuously missing from the media survival lists
At 2:40 + 2003/02/12, lcs Mixmaster Remailer wrote: This one just won't die. People keep repeating it. Not much different from Bush's Time is running out or They hate us because we love freedom. Would you like to show us the part of the twelve page German law of March, 1938 that limits gun permits to members of the Nazi party? Uh huh, I didn't think so. It's been several years since I read the translated copy I purchased from JPFO, so it's possible that I am mistaken. If you've read it recently, I'll take your word for it. -- J. Eric Townsend -- jet spies com buy stuff, damnit: http://www.spies.com/jet/store.html
Re: Something conspicuously missing from the media survival lists
hi, I've not followed it closely, but Powell claims to have a tape of Bin Laden talking to Iraqi's. Al Jazerra denys it's real. This is all from NPR. The game is afoot, let's see who can deliver the bigger lie. A tape as an evidence?Is a tape still considered as a valid piece of evidence in a court of law?Is it not difficult to authenticate and even if authenticated-with what probability can we say that it is genuine? Regards Sarath. Patience, persistence, truth, Dr. mike __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Shopping - Send Flowers for Valentine's Day http://shopping.yahoo.com
Re: Forced Oaths to Pieces of Cloth
On Tuesday 11 February 2003 09:52, Dr. mike wrote: No reason we can't start a movement to plege alegiance to the constitution The main body of the constitution does not apply to the individuals, it is the law the politicians and bureaucrats of the federal government are supposed to obey (and instead completely ignore). The fourteenth amendment prohibits the state governments from violately individual rights. What is needed is the death penalty or life imprisonment for politicians and bureaucrats who violate their oaths to uphold the constitution. The proper recipient of a pledge of allegiance is individual liberty. As Ben Franklin said, Where liberty dwells, there is my country. David Neilson This will be the best security for maintaining our liberties. A nation of well-informed men who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them cannot be enslaved. It is in the religion of ignorance that tyranny begins. (also by Ben)
Re: Forced Oaths to Pieces of Cloth
On Tue, 11 Feb 2003, david wrote: The main body of the constitution does not apply to the individuals, it is the law the politicians and bureaucrats of the federal government are supposed to obey (and instead completely ignore). The fourteenth amendment prohibits the state governments from violately individual rights. What is needed is the death penalty or life imprisonment for politicians and bureaucrats who violate their oaths to uphold the constitution. The proper recipient of a pledge of allegiance is individual liberty. As Ben Franklin said, Where liberty dwells, there is my country. I'm not arguing with this, but I think pledging is just symbolic anyway. We need to act free so that we are free. It drives the control freaks nuts, and that's more fun anyway :-) Patience, persistence, truth, Dr. mike
Stupid security measures, a contest
Human rights watchdog Privacy International has launched a quest to find the World's Most Stupid Security Measure. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/29279.html -- It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once. -Hume
Re: My favorite line from the DOJ's latest draft bill
On Tue, Feb 11, 2003 at 11:32:24PM +, Steve Mynott wrote: (much snipped) It's just the same as some people claiming particular alcoholic drinks are better or worse than others. That's hardly a good analogy. The key thing about these drugs is the effects are intensively subjective and highly unpredictable. The dosage level is more likely to be related to adverse effects than the particular psychedelic drug used. In double blind tests, where neither the doctor nor the subject knows which drug is which, people can't distinguish major psychedelic drugs anyway. The only clear distinction is the duration of drug effect which does vary. This is usually denied by users of these drugs despite numerous studies supporting this since the late 1960s. I can't imagine how they could ever do any sort of serious test, let alone a double blind test -- the length of experience would be a dead giveaway. Besides which anyone with any real experience would easily recognize the essential flavor, if you will, of the particular psychedelic, and the quite different and distictive voice of the Other. Or lack, thereof, for instance in LSD. They are simply far too different -- on LSD, people are up, eyes open, grooving on sights and sounds, talking to people, but on strong doses of psilocybin and ayahuasca you'll most likely be snuggled under a warm quilt with your eyes shut in a dark room. And preferably alone. Totally different experiences -- the voice of the Other with psilocybin and ayahuasca are very, very different from each other as well. One might have some difficulty discerning a strong hit of Salvia vs. DMT, but you certainly wouldn't confuse them with anything else, just because of intensity and brevity. But even with those two, most experienced travelers would say the entities one encounters in that other dimension are quite different, indeed, that those dimensions themeselves are not the same. (snip) -- Harmon Seaver CyberShamanix http://www.cybershamanix.com
RE: The Wimps of War
why should the U.S. concern itself with making investments in Iraq not directly related to creating and maintaining oil extraction and transport facilities? This is a continuation of the mythology that extrapolates post-WWII US presence in Germany and Japan (you know, those Americans really help the countries they beat in war) to the present day. Actually, it occurs to me that the only people who still believe this may be Americans. From: Lucky Green [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: The Wimps of War Date: Wed, 12 Feb 2003 01:21:18 -0800 Steve wrote quoting: PAUL KRUGMAN And though you don't hear much about it in the U.S. media, a lack of faith in Mr. Bush's staying power a fear that he will wimp out in the aftermath of war, that he won't do what is needed to rebuild Iraq is a large factor in the growing rift between Europe and the United States. And this matters how? Why would Bush, or for that matter the Europeans, care about rebuilding (what?) in Iraq? Other than the minimum investments required to prevent the population from rising up against their future leaders, why should the U.S. concern itself with making investments in Iraq not directly related to creating and maintaining oil extraction and transport facilities? --Lucky _ MSN 8 helps eliminate e-mail viruses. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus
Re: My favorite line from the DOJ's latest draft bill
By the time that people were mixing speed with it, actual dosages were much less (adding amphetamines to 250mic LSD is fairly pointless) and today most, from what I hear, are around 75-100 mic. In the early 80s I remembering getting some of the famous Goofy blotter, rated around 125 ugm. Microdots were around 35ugm. Hardly. Well, wandering around anywhere is not a good idea -- set and setting are extremely important. Well, wandering around in Soho NYC back when all the avante-garde galleries were there was quite a trip...some of these galleries were desgined already to be immersive, so that plus LSD really allowed one to leave one's normal psychological space and step into an alien one. This isn't exactly an obvious step on the path towards ego-destruction, but it does open one's mind up to ideas and modes of being that one's normal nature would have never truly encountered. Yup - increase their dose. Best thing that could happen to the world would be the development of a benign airforce that sprayed a fog of lsd/dmso on areas like Palestine. Real LSD, that is. Or better yet, psilocybin. 8-) Well, I'm not so sure. Surely you must be aware of the stories of Villages in Spain and wherever receiving a bad batch of ergot-infected bread, and then going collectively wacky, with suicides and whatnot. Some people really aren't in a place where they can handle losing control and seeing through all of their most cherished beliefs like wet tissue paper. Palestinians locked in a daily struggle with life and death might not take too well to being raptured all of a sudden. (BTW, ever read The Transmigration of Timothy Archer by PK Dick?) Obviously it wasn't LSD. I'm finding out this is apparently true with many drugs. Most heroin overdoses (as I have been informed by someone who ran a detox ward) are actually reactions to crap mixed in with the Herion (or once in a great while a dealer giving a hated customer an unexpectedly pure dose). The toxicity of Herion isn't very high, particularly for someone who's been building up a tolerance for a few years. (Crack's a different storyreally bad for the heart.) So the moral of this story is that illegalization of most drugs is what kills people! Perhaps we have underestimated the wisdom of the CIA! (Or are they the ones who initially put crap in the drugs they smuggle?) -TD _ The new MSN 8: smart spam protection and 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail
Re: The Wimps of War
On Wednesday, February 12, 2003, at 08:39 AM, Thomas Shaddack wrote: And this matters how? Why would Bush, or for that matter the Europeans, care about rebuilding (what?) in Iraq? Other than the minimum investments required to prevent the population from rising up against their future leaders, why should the U.S. concern itself with making investments in Iraq not directly related to creating and maintaining oil extraction and transport facilities? Consumers. You have people there. The people want to eat, drink water, use electricity, place phone calls. You build the infrastructure, they will use it. You build and then own the infrastructure, they pay you and they pay through the nose as there is no competition, at least in the beginning. They will need money, they will work shit overtime jobs, and they are closer than Malaysia is. It's not the function of U.S. taxpayers (or any other taxpayers) to build another country's infrastructure. Nation-building is the worst meme of the 20th century. Even for oil it's not. That's the choice Exxon and BP and Shell make, not U.S. taxpayers. --Tim May Aren't cats Libertarian? They just want to be left alone. I think our dog is a Democrat, as he is always looking for a handout --Unknown Usenet Poster
RE: The Wimps of War
And this matters how? Why would Bush, or for that matter the Europeans, care about rebuilding (what?) in Iraq? Other than the minimum investments required to prevent the population from rising up against their future leaders, why should the U.S. concern itself with making investments in Iraq not directly related to creating and maintaining oil extraction and transport facilities? Consumers. You have people there. The people want to eat, drink water, use electricity, place phone calls. You build the infrastructure, they will use it. You build and then own the infrastructure, they pay you and they pay through the nose as there is no competition, at least in the beginning. They will need money, they will work shit overtime jobs, and they are closer than Malaysia is.
As war approaches, so do secret congressional sessions
SENATE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE National Security Threats Full committee hearing on current and future worldwide threats to U.S. national security. (The hearing will adjourn into a closed session in SH-219.) Witnesses: George Tenet, director, CIA; Vice Adm. Lowell Jacoby, director, Defense Intelligence Agency Location: 216 Hart Senate Office Building. 9:30 a.m. Contact: 202-224-3871 http://www.senate.gov/~armed_services **REVISED**
Re: Something conspicuously missing from the media survival lists
On Tue, 11 Feb 2003, Mike Rosing wrote: On Tue, 11 Feb 2003, Tim May wrote: And so on. He talks the talk, but he and his buddies in HomeSec are establishing a national police force, states rights be damned. He's proof that you can fool just about everyone simultaneously - the NRA supports him inspite of his lack of of commitment to the 2nd. The NRA is openly hostile towards the embarrasing 2nd Amendment. The NRA is mostly all about allowing the weathly wingshooters to be the last to fall. The rest of us, like the armed citizens, get bartered off everytime gun control bill comes to a vote.
Re: Something conspicuously missing from the media survival lists
On Tue, 11 Feb 2003, Bill Frantz wrote: At 10:44 AM -0800 2/11/03, Tim May wrote: But in postmodern America mentioning guns is simply NOT DONE. Not even on the Fox Network, a more rightward network than the others. (Being right no longer means mentioning guns, as Ashcroft and Cheney and the like would prefer that guns be in the hands of der polizei. There's a reason Hitler confiscated guns held privately by Germans.) I thought Ashcroft was on record as stating that the second amendment confered an individual right to own arms. Are his actions are not in accord with his words? His words are pretty much without meaning. All gun laws are unconstitutional and should be repealed immediately, and all those who have fallen victim to the legal system as a result of the enforcement of these laws should be granted restitution. It is possible that there could be a gun law that would be constitutional, but no such laws currently exist.
Degenerate Political Pressure (was RE: The Wimps of War)
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 At 1:21 AM -0800 on 2/12/03, Lucky Green wrote: And this matters how? Why would Bush, or for that matter the Europeans, care about rebuilding (what?) in Iraq? Other than the minimum investments required to prevent the population from rising up against their future leaders, why should the U.S. concern itself with making investments in Iraq not directly related to creating and maintaining oil extraction and transport facilities? Apropos of nothing, here's what I wrote yesterday about the entire article, remembering that Charles Rangel claims to want the draft back, straw man or not: At 12:14 PM -0500 2/11/03, R. A. Hettinga wrote: Wherein we witness the spectacle of Paul Krugman fairly begging George Bush to colonize Iraq and Afghanistan. Amazing. Almost as amazing as liberal democrats begging for a return to the draft. Liberal logic continues to implode. 'Round the bowl, and down the hole... I wrote the above yesterday because I'm possessed lately by this goofy notion that liberals, and social democrats, and progressives, and all the other refried Marxists out there will collapse like degenerate electrons against their political opposites into some kind of statist neutronium someday, resulting in something with the political prayerbook of the modern small-l (as in lipservice) libertarian right, with aisles patrolled the usual knock-you-on-your-head bluenose-and-busybody deacons of authoritarianism. Someday. This was brought on by a Bartley editorial in the Wall Street Journal a little while ago that observed that Bush Co. are displaying all the hallmarks of an emerging establishment, operating under the same implicit rules, the same leaderless ability to turn setbacks into opportunities, that the original liberal elite was able to do after the cryptosocialists took over the Roosevelt agenda in the 1930's. Probably just wishful thinking, internet millennialism, and all that, but, if it does happen, the technology this list advocates be what, paradoxically, brings that collapse about. Ubiquitous bandwidth, cryptographic privacy and authentication and so on, pretty much kill closed societies, especially those who calculate their prices instead of discover them with markets. In such a world, actual Big-L Libertarians, as the political inheritors of that technological and economic whirlwind, will become the only logical political opposition to that strange-matter amalgam of refried Marxism and muscular Christianity, both of which, you notice, *are* pretty much theocrats. Like modern neocons had to do under the last 70 years of intellectual occupation, Libertarians will have to considerably sharpen their arguments and organization, and do so under a deluge of criticism that will make the recent liberal pulsar sound like background radiation. That is, if we don't all just collapse past degenerate neutron pressure into the event-horizon of crypto-anarcho-captialism, right? :-). Cheers, RAH Who -- until whatever degenerate political pressure takes hold -- is still voting for the muscular Christians, thank you very much, and who, as a consequence, thinks rather highly of the idea of paving the entire fertile crescent, after pounding certain political features of it to rubble, and replacing it all with a giant concatenation of freeways, strip malls, franchise restaurants and nudie-bars from one end of the Tigris/Euphrates valley to the other. Albuquerque. That's it. Albuquerque on the Euphrates. I *love* Albuquerque. Heck, I even like Walnut Creek (maybe even Concord, too :-)). Yeah. Pave the cradle of civilization. Who *says* you can't go home again? -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: PGP 8.0 - not licensed for commercial use: www.pgp.com iQA/AwUBPkq7XsPxH8jf3ohaEQJjDgCfRBwaKlU/BghTVU2ehJt38A/XhdAAn1jX cBPGGXgXxIsffFx6Q/kYCZxC =4Ocg -END PGP SIGNATURE- -- - R. A. Hettinga mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED] The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation http://www.ibuc.com/ 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA ... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience. -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
Re: Something conspicuously missing from the media survival lists
At 16:18 -0500 2003/02/12, cubic-dog wrote: The NRA is openly hostile towards the embarrasing 2nd Amendment. The NRA is mostly all about allowing the weathly wingshooters to be the last to fall. The rest of us, like the armed citizens, get bartered off everytime gun control bill comes to a vote. Sadly, there doesn't seem to be any RKBA organization without some sort of right-wing, religious, or loonie ties. The Gunowners of America (GOA) back right-wing Christian loonie causes -- the long-distance-for-RKBA company GOA promotes (Promise Vision) doesn't mention one word about RKBA on their web site (http://www.pvpromisevision.com). Instead, they position themselves as the anti-pornography long-distance company. -- J. Eric Townsend -- jet spies com buy stuff, damnit: http://www.spies.com/jet/store.html
CodeCon Registration Deadline Approaching
CodeCon is fast approaching, and there are only three days left to register online for CodeCon at the reduced rate. CodeCon 2.0 is the premier event in 2003 for the P2P, Cypherpunk, and network/security application developer community. It is a workshop for developers of real-world applications with working code and active development projects. Last year, presentations at CodeCon included the Peek-A-Booty anti-censorship application, the Invisible IRC Project, the CryptoMail web-based email encryption project, and the file-distribution application BitTorrent. Some of this year's highlights include Mixminion, a next-generation anonymous remailer; Alluvium, Internet Radio software exempt from current RIAA webcasting royalties; and GNU Radio, an open source software defined radio application. CodeCon registration is $95; a $15 discount is available for attendees who register online prior to February 15th. CodeCon 2.0 will be held February 22-24, noon-6pm, at Club NV (525 Howard Street) in San Francisco. For more information, please visit http://www.codecon.info.
RE: The Wimps of War
-- Steve wrote quoting: PAUL KRUGMAN And though you don't hear much about it in the U.S. media, a lack of faith in Mr. Bush's staying power a fear that he will wimp out in the aftermath of war, that he won't do what is needed to rebuild Iraq is a large factor in the growing rift between Europe and the United States. On 12 Feb 2003 at 1:21, Lucky Green wrote: And this matters how? Why would Bush, or for that matter the Europeans, care about rebuilding (what?) in Iraq? Other than the minimum investments required to prevent the population from rising up against their future leaders, why should the U.S. concern itself with making investments in Iraq not directly related to creating and maintaining oil extraction and transport facilities? The arabs hunger for development and modernity. In the past they absorbed the worst poisons spewed by western universities, socialism and anti-imperialist nationalism, and attempted to apply them, with predictably disastrous results, Then they healthily came to reject these foolish and dangerous ideas, and attempted to return to their roots, with results that were bad for us as well as them. The theory of the democratic imperialists is to export better ideas at gunpoint. It is far from clear that this will work, even if tried honestly and vigorously -- we are running into a bit of trouble applying it in Kosovo. It is also far from clear that the US has the necessary will and virtue to apply it in Iraq. The Germans and the French are not very keen on doing it at all, but realizing that position is unpopular, instead say they doubt the US will to do it. --digsig James A. Donald 6YeGpsZR+nOTh/cGwvITnSR3TdzclVpR0+pr3YYQdkG 3cgDYFmaaqwoNleSbHMta+Lh1jBHPKeYH8milYX4 4Jd1XwS8ngV1yW9WaN7beF2CZS5t7tXSXrmZDptBR
Re: New Scientist - Joao Magueijo - Hero or Heretic? (fwd)
On Thursday, 13 de February de 2003 02:02, you wrote: On Wednesday, February 12, 2003, at 05:04 PM, Andri Esteves wrote: Everything that could go wrong in academia and science is in Portugal. That is the background Magueijo comes from... I sat in a bookstore and read most of his book several weeks ago. A few comments: First, I kept looking for a clear description of the theory, with convincing details, support, etc. I didn't find it. I instead found a lot of stuff about peeing outside a bar in some tropical place, stories about his girlfriend, insults he delivered to editors at Nature, and on and on. Sort of a Fear and Loathing on the Road to Quantum Gravity. (Pun with Smolin's title intended.) You still read science popularizers ? If you like science you should go to the source. I can't read many tecnhical articles, but good sinopses and conclusions give you an idea of the article's inplications. Just have to build a field mind map of an area... And after some time you get the ability to find if someone is bulshiting you on the popularizing front... e-print is great... There is a NEED for destructive purification in today's science. Second, I don't know about Hawking's books, but Lee Smolin is one of the current popularizers who have done excellent jobs. I recommend both of his books. His own Three Roads to Quantum Gravity is crystal clear in describing several of the competing theories. Smolin also explains what's really important. (Check the archives for my past comments on Smolin and topos theory, for example, from last summer.) Never heard of him... Books are very expensive in Portugal... As the publishing houses in portugal mainly publish religious or black-magic themes... I will probably read it in english... Hawking writes about fairly established stuff, the usual black hole stuff. This was mostly old hat 30 years ago (which is when I took Jim Hartle's class on general relativity). Hawking doesn't get much into the newer theories, at least not in any of the books of his I've skimmed. (One of my texts 30 years ago was the Hawking and Ellis book, The Large Scale Structure of Spacetime. This was heavy going, not the popular fluff he's been turning out lately.) Third, I have no idea if the VSL theory is right. Time will tell. At least there is some experimental work on it. Wich tons of theorical work in physics don't even try to achieve and with blessing of the establishment... Fourth, but I will say that Magueijo undercuts his arguments with his scatological denunciations of the establishment. I'll be the first to say that I am not always polite, but if I were publishing papers and attempting to get math or crypto results accepted, I doubt this approach would work: What can i say... Career or science. Are you part of the problem or of the solution?? Computers and mathematics are a bit diferent from physics, in that the materialization of your ideas can have a vast laboratory in other people's computers... You could try a diferent way of doing criptoscience if you built a diferent comunity. But if you only want the recognition of certain individuals and certain establishments what can i say?! Everybody wants 3 meals a day... It will not be me to judge that badly... One of my problems is that there could be people doing real research on their part-time and the paid-ones don't even let them be heard... The crypto community is filled with dumbshit charlatans. I piss on them. I piss on Rivest. I was taking a leak outside a bar in Maracaibo and it hit me: cyphers are just like big turds. Maybe he doesn't fully understand English and has some idea that interspersing vulgarities with scientific points is the cool thing to do. Maybe he should point out things like you did it right now... Well.. fed up portuguese are not really englishmen... But he at least gave some emotion to it? Didn't he?! :) However, I'll bet he ends up at a U.S. university, particularly if the VSL theory gains any kind of acceptance. He spoke of one of his colleagues who landed at UC Davis recently. Yes, he will. Americans love collecting things. I remember Einstein commenting why he had to receive in his office, every VIP in the IAS in Princeton: You see, I have been bought by Mr Flesher for the IAS and he has to have some return for the investment... Yours faithfully, André Esteves
Re: New Scientist - Joao Magueijo - Hero or Heretic? (fwd)
On Wednesday, February 12, 2003, at 05:04 PM, Andri Esteves wrote: Everything that could go wrong in academia and science is in Portugal. That is the background Magueijo comes from... But, it is not only in Portugal... Everywhere science has declined, as it becomes part of the political logic of governments, ideologies and power groups... I sat in a bookstore and read most of his book several weeks ago. A few comments: First, I kept looking for a clear description of the theory, with convincing details, support, etc. I didn't find it. I instead found a lot of stuff about peeing outside a bar in some tropical place, stories about his girlfriend, insults he delivered to editors at Nature, and on and on. Sort of a Fear and Loathing on the Road to Quantum Gravity. (Pun with Smolin's title intended.) There is a NEED for destructive purification in today's science. Popularization of science should not be taken as the stupid adoration of uncompreensible speeches from the so called great popularisers of science. Does the common man read his Hawking's book? Did Hawking even write it? Second, I don't know about Hawking's books, but Lee Smolin is one of the current popularizers who have done excellent jobs. I recommend both of his books. His own Three Roads to Quantum Gravity is crystal clear in describing several of the competing theories. Smolin also explains what's really important. (Check the archives for my past comments on Smolin and topos theory, for example, from last summer.) Hawking writes about fairly established stuff, the usual black hole stuff. This was mostly old hat 30 years ago (which is when I took Jim Hartle's class on general relativity). Hawking doesn't get much into the newer theories, at least not in any of the books of his I've skimmed. (One of my texts 30 years ago was the Hawking and Ellis book, The Large Scale Structure of Spacetime. This was heavy going, not the popular fluff he's been turning out lately.) Third, I have no idea if the VSL theory is right. Time will tell. Fourth, but I will say that Magueijo undercuts his arguments with his scatological denunciations of the establishment. I'll be the first to say that I am not always polite, but if I were publishing papers and attempting to get math or crypto results accepted, I doubt this approach would work: The crypto community is filled with dumbshit charlatans. I piss on them. I piss on Rivest. I was taking a leak outside a bar in Maracaibo and it hit me: cyphers are just like big turds. Maybe he doesn't fully understand English and has some idea that interspersing vulgarities with scientific points is the cool thing to do. However, I'll bet he ends up at a U.S. university, particularly if the VSL theory gains any kind of acceptance. He spoke of one of his colleagues who landed at UC Davis recently. --Tim May
