| Thursday,
May 12, 2005 I get some very strange email:
Subject: Jerry Pournelle
I hope you don't mind that I have taken the liberty of
assuming that you are newpagan on stormfront.org, since newpagan's profile
points to your web site?
If that is the case, then I am wondering what inspires
you to post on a well known internet hate site? Although stormfront is not
rated as the largest hate group in the world, I think that it is by far
boasting the largest online membership, or at least the largest of those
that I have seen.
I think I noticed the reference somewhere to a title
of Dr., referring to you. I am wondering doctor of what, since I haven't
taken the time to read far enough to figure that out for myself. I am
interested in doctors since my son is a medical doctor specializing in
anaesthesiology.
Anyway I am quite interested in groups, such as
stormfront, as examples of man at his worst. I have posted from time to time
on stormfront.org, but invariably, if I express any opposition to the views
of the moderators there, I am banned. While I have managed to acquire new
email addresses and new on-line identities, I have only been somewhat
successful in staying on the site for any length of time.
I am sure that most people think of stormfront and
their allies as comical relief, but when one sees that known hate mongers
such as David Duke, Don Black, Paul Fromm, David Lane (does he post from
prison or is he just quoted by others?) are the leadership of such a group,
one has to entertain the possiblity that stormfront is for real.
I'm sure that you will agree with me that most white
people would not even consider the ideas that stormfront promotes, much less
actually promote them, however it is somewhat disconcerting that groups such
as stormfront are even permitted to use the internet for such purposes,
other than comic relief that is.
Fortunately, most white people in the world are more
civilized than to promote animosity against other people. Both my country,
Canada, and the United States are well-known world-wide for their multi-culturalism,
although Canada has somewhat of a better reputation than America in that
regard, at least to some people. Also Canada takes a somewhat less tolerant
stand with racists and bigots, and certain types of promotion of racial
hatred are discouraged and even banned here, eg Ernst Zundel.
I would have been quite happy to permit my taxes to
help pay for Zundel's incarceration for the remainder of his life, however
the powers that be saw fit to send him back to his beloved homeland to face
hate charges there. We can only hope that the Germans decide to give him the
very maximum punishment that his actions deserve.
Anyway, I just thought I would drop you a line, as it
is not every member of the hate groups that provide an email address where
they can be contacted. Forgive me that I am attempting to hide my identity,
but the truth is I get tired of being kicked off hate sites so frequently so
I thought disquising myself might slow down that process a little.
comfeiy [hqitel702@sneakemail.com]e.
I have never heard of stormfront.org. I do know
know who Zundel is.
I do think that "multiculturalism" is pernicious; I
have always thought that the melting pot Americanization process worked just
fine so long as it is not overwhelmed with too many immigrants. America is
unique or nearly so in that you can study to be an American no matter what
your origins; that is not true of many civilizations. But multiculturalism
is a way of destroying the entire process; the problem is that when you go
beyond tolerance to encouragement of disruptive elements, you find yourself
disarmed when it comes to defense of civilization vs. barbarism. The
barbarians come within the gates: you can civilize them or give in to them.
But that has not a lot to do with white vs oriental vs black.
As to my personal credentials why do you ask? If
you don't take the trouble to find out to whom you speak, or whether the
people you speak are who you think they are, do you really expect personal
answers?
Subject: I NEVER KNEW BRITAIN WENT TO SPACE
I NEVER KNEW BRITAIN WENT TO SPACE <http://www.spaceuk.org/>
I was having a drink with my brother the other day
when the conversation turned, as it does (with us anyway), to space travel.
He told me that in the 70s Britain launched our own satellite but Whitehall,
being Whitehall, never mentioned it.
Being somewhat flabbergasted I asked him for a link &
here it is:
http://www.spaceuk.org/introduction.htm
What of the Black Knight development? The Black Arrow
project was put into hand. Prototypes were built. Then this too was
cancelled. A satellite was launched in 1971 with the hardware left over.
British Government involvement in space research came effectively to an end
at that point. There was to be a Services satellite communication system,
Skynet, that relied on US launchers, but that was it.
There are several infuriating aspects to all of this.
To produce a missile, and then realise it was the wrong missile. To convert
it to a satellite launcher, one that looked to be highly successful, and
then to cancel again. And the cancellation took place in the late 60s, when
the uses of satellites in TV [the Tokyo Olympics of '64 were the first to be
transmitted by satellite], telephone communications, weather observation
were becoming apparent and obvious.
I like the understatement about several infuriating
aspects. To be fair to Whitehall this programme was always aimed at giving
us a nuclear capacity against the USSR. The problem with this (well the
technological problem) is that Britain is a geographically small country 4
minutes missile time from Russia (the US is 15). To make a retaliatory
strike, since there is no way a launch could be made before theirs got here,
would require serious numbers of hardened silos spread around our island,
some of which would inevitably be near cities. Polaris, when it became
available, was a better option. Of course if you regard the technological
future of humanity as important then it is still well worth doing.
Amazing the things that don't get reported.
============================
Subject: Re: Dread
I am skeptical of the "no recoil" claim. Recoil might
be reduced by the absence of muzzle blast, but you're still putting mass
downrange, and Newton says, at those velocities, there'll still be
significant recoil.
Joe Veazey
I expect so: the third law holds so far as I know.
==================
Subject: Mozilla notes
Dear Dr Pournelle, As various people have predicted,
notably Rick Hellewell, as Firefox became more popular the number of known
exploits has increased. Someone's girlfriend or similar leaked a
proof-of-concept exploit under investigation by a white hat team to the
trade press, and as a result the Mozilla foundation have scrambled to issue
a quick fix.
This one is particularly dangerous - Secunia has for
the first time issued its highest degree of criticality to a Mozilla
vulnerability. It potentially hijacks the security update process. There
have been no exploits in the wild - yet - of "MFSA 2005-42 Code execution
via javascript: IconURL". A history of the security vulnerabilities is
available at
<http://www.mozilla.org/projects/security/known-vulnerabilities.html#Mozilla>
- Note that at this writing this most recent
vulnerability has no fix, although Mozilla has been able to take some steps.
On past history there will be an update within days. Keep examining the
above link if need be.
Regards, TC
-- Terry Cole System Administrator, OU Physics tcole@physics.otago.ac.nz
tel: 64 3 4797801
=============================
Subject: IMPORTANT - Firefox Updates, Microsoft Spam
Fighters, SpamCapital in Florida
Dr. Pournelle:
1) An update to Firefox (to version 1.04) is now
available to fix two 'extremely critical' vulnerabilities. Firefox users
should immediately apply the update. They can do this by clicking the 'red
arrow' that is displayed (rather obscurely, I think) in the upper right
corner of the Firefox window.
It is noted that Firefox doesn't emphasize, IMHO, the
availability of updates. Some browsers (and add-ins, like the Maxthon add-in
for IE, which has tabbed browsing and groups) will tell you about an
uninstalled update when you start the program. Although FireFox has an
option in the Tools menu to check for updates, it is not an automatic check.
You don't get an alert unless you manually click that "update" button (or if
you happen to notice the red arrow in the screen corner).
2) Microsoft assisted in the 'bust' of a spam ring
based in Boston. (Readers can find info in their favorite news site.)
3) A report from an South Florida paper indicates that
25% of the top 180 spammers are based in Florida. (Boca Raton seems to be
the 'spam capitol'.) And the reduction in spam last fall seems to be due to
the series of hurricanes that hit Florida during that time. Story is here:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-sbspammain08may08,0,7702631.story?page=1&coll=sfla-news-sfla
("TinyUrl" is http://tinyurl.com/8tmmn -- no funny business apparent at the
TinyUrl site).
Hope you are enjoying your trip, TSA notwithstanding.
Regards, Rick Hellewell
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