asciilifeform: truffles: the kind where airlines live on 'bailout' and don't need an actual business model.

asciilifeform: only a matter of time, really.

asciilifeform: the obvious result: passengers fly naked and anesthetized, stacked like cordwood.

asciilifeform: not to mention the countless perfectly-ordinary pistols that routinely slide through the inspection.

asciilifeform: (and many similar ones elsewhere)

asciilifeform: benkay: reminiscent of the prison-made weapons exhibit at the 'crime museum' in wash., dc.

asciilifeform: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/aug/03/atom-splitting-attempt-swedish-kitchen

asciilifeform: the interesting bit can be reduced to one sentence: "u.s. officials suddenly care about TEMPEST shielding."

asciilifeform: nubbins`: to u.s. media crapartists, human history is about 50 years long.

asciilifeform: http://www.theage.com.au/world/barack-obamas-portable-secrecy-tent-some-assembly-required-20131111-2xb0l.html

asciilifeform: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/nov/13/bill-would-outlaw-us-dollar-russia/

asciilifeform: (of course passive rfid is even easier to clone. no need to take a suspicious-looking widget out of your wallet, either.)

asciilifeform: the likely outcome is, this will be the nudge that pushes the americans (and any other holdovers) into some sort of 'smart card' affair

asciilifeform: the lives of 'carders' are already quite easy. they buy blank cards (sold by the kilo on ebay, quite openly) and magstripe writer ($50 or so.)

asciilifeform: (when you end up using a stolen card #)

asciilifeform: solves the btc to fiat issue, at least until the cops drag you away

asciilifeform: then write it to a card

asciilifeform: (where people load up cards and sell the complete stripe data on a 'silk road' of sorts)

asciilifeform: the magstripe widget will be hacked (in the positive sense) and someone will build the illicit but intensely necessary gadget i described a year ago.

asciilifeform: firedrops: right.

asciilifeform: how many people even know that it is entirely possible (and inexpensive) to assay gold bars non-destructively.

asciilifeform: golden oldie: http://nsnbc.me/2013/04/18/federal-reserve-refuses-to-submit-to-an-audit-of-germanys-gold-held-in-u-s-vaults-2/

asciilifeform: replace 'bitdollar' with 'amero', for extra conspiratorial spice. ☟︎

asciilifeform: 'you read it here 1st!'

asciilifeform: they'll 'declassify' (or 'leak') documents 'proving' that btc was an nsa trial run for bitdollar

asciilifeform: 'we'll throw those dirty btc into the sun, really.'

asciilifeform: only a matter of time before the furher picks up the microphone and asks 'gimme your btc, get bitdollars you can pay tax with!'

asciilifeform: i've been wondering why a state-sponsored crackpot (key escrowed, etc.) altcoin has been so long in coming.

asciilifeform: 'we do what we must, because we can.'

asciilifeform: normally X>Y, and with 'limit per customer.'

asciilifeform: gov. asks for X oldcoins for Y newcoins.

asciilifeform: none of you fellows ever lived through a currency devaluation, have you.

asciilifeform: we're due for a rerun of the '90s 'key escrow' wars, this time with btc.

asciilifeform: i've been told that others had similar ideas long before, though.

asciilifeform: because of http://www.loper-os.org/?p=988

asciilifeform: i can't help but wonder if i'm secretly responsible for this turd.

asciilifeform: nubbins`: good fit. thanks

asciilifeform: got mine yesterday.

asciilifeform: think of the various skills a modern child is taught to avoid being run down by cars.

asciilifeform: the overall observation: the number of 'cold equations' a garden-variety human is expected to understand will... increase.

asciilifeform: mains cable gives no warning, and this led to quite a few incidents early on.

asciilifeform: partly: fire is hot, smoky, generally won't incinerate you immediately (humans aren't all that flammable)

asciilifeform: 'the cold equations.'

asciilifeform: i was actually thinking of mains cables. but yes, that too

asciilifeform: i imagine it wasn't easy to swallow

asciilifeform: 'invisible things that you can't beg forgiveness from will kill and mutilate you at a mere touch'

asciilifeform: the odd drunk still sizzles on the third rail.

asciilifeform: not any harder, really, than 'subservience' to... electricity.

asciilifeform: do anything vaguely mathematical, and these folks will be there, as surely as termites.

asciilifeform: 'self-licking icecream cone.'

asciilifeform: self-graded, naturally

asciilifeform: right now 'top 10%' is top 10% kabuki artists.

asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: quite a few of the irritants in this piece are actually overall features of the 'mandatory kabuki theatre' of anglo academe.

asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: 'durable' == 'holds the magic smoke in', or in a more general sense of continued usefulness?

asciilifeform: interesting!

asciilifeform: yeah actually even my own toy fpga miner had this one.

asciilifeform: not uncommon, among academic noobs, to grok the 'how' but not the 'why'.

asciilifeform: nothing earth-shaking. if anyone was hoping for a working 'satcoin', you'll be disappointed.

asciilifeform: section 9.3

asciilifeform: and, imho, might be of interest to some here. hence the link.

asciilifeform: the optimization shortcuts described towards the end are quite genuine.

asciilifeform: t'were me, it'd be ascii art cover to cover.

asciilifeform: ask them, not me.

asciilifeform: http://cryptome.org/2013/10/bitcoin-incertitudes.pdf

asciilifeform: http://cryptome.org/2013/10/nsa-tor-disinfo.htm

asciilifeform: specifically: 1) impose ham-handed censorship 2) herd lusers into 'l33t h4ck3r privacy' honeypots 3) '???, profit.'

asciilifeform: jurov: what we're dealing with here is the 'TOR gambit.'

asciilifeform: machine under noble gas.

asciilifeform: t is pyrophoric.

asciilifeform: ultrasonic is the gold standard test if you don't want to drill/melt the sample.

asciilifeform: middle-right hand: thickness gauge

asciilifeform: example: http://picture.yatego.com/images/47b45967967651.8/big_gcb0-kqh/goldmnzen-tester---gold-coin-balance.jpg

asciilifeform: has a 'go/no-go gauge' in it, too

asciilifeform: the traditional method is the 'spoon' that tips over

asciilifeform: if nobody tests, you don't even need tungsten, old-fashioned lead will suffice.

asciilifeform: you at least need the 'density spoon'

asciilifeform: metals aficionados, do you run density tests on what you buy?

asciilifeform: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/ghcq-targets-engineers-with-fake-linkedin-pages-a-932821.html

asciilifeform: anyone hazard a guess as to the demise of http://issilentcircleopensourceyet.com ?

asciilifeform: firedrops: hardware.

asciilifeform: for cardano fans: rng to be tested this week.

asciilifeform: wonder if this explains the demise of the SE/30

asciilifeform: firedrops: have no doubt, rectothermal cryptoanalysis works.

asciilifeform: "drunk wanders into a trolleybus, screams out 'i'm gonna walk all over yer heads!' bald man spits on his hand, rubs head, mumbles: 'may you slip!' " (soviet joke)

asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: what boggles my mind is why they had to make public fools of themselves by bringing it up again.

asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: classic. "shot himself in the head, three times."

asciilifeform: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24927078

asciilifeform: BingoBoingo: "Eat recycled food! It's good for the environment, and OK for you!"

asciilifeform: BingoBoingo: special-ops folks are rather fond of poisons from the animal kingdom, e.g. shellfish. 'plausible deniability', 'poor sod ate bad seafood'.

asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: notice that animal venoms are typically liquid. you need the solvent, or it won't necessarily circulate.

asciilifeform: right

asciilifeform: (re: bullet: DMSO+payload would only make sense for an exceedingly small bullet. like the kind that killed georgi markov.)

asciilifeform: right

asciilifeform: (in anything like a realistic absorbed dose)

asciilifeform: DMSO per se is harmless.

asciilifeform: without doubt

asciilifeform: probably would've noticed eventually

asciilifeform: we had candidate compounds (pharma dev) dissolved in, guess what.

asciilifeform: porous.

asciilifeform: finally i notice she's wearing latex gloves. ☟︎