The Hacker's Encyclopedia 1998

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ The Hacker's Encyclopedia 1998 / hackers_encyclopedia.iso / zines / n_z / wv2_3.txt < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 2003-06-11 | 38.1 KB | 742 lines

Der Weltanschauung (The WorldView) Origin: HOUSTON, TEXAS USA %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% % % % Editor: The Desert Fox * FTP: chsun1.spc.uchicago.edu % % Co-Editor: Cyndre The Grey * pub/cud/worldview % % % % T H E W O R L D V I E W M A G A Z I N E % % % %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% April 9, 1992 Volume 2, Issue 3 ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY ISSUE (*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*) Material Written By Computer And Telecommunications Hobbyists World Wide Promoting the publication of Features, Editorials, and Anything Else.... To submit material, or to subscribe to the magazine contact one of the following net addresses... "Let us arise, let us arise against the oppressors of humanity; all kings, emperors, presidents of republics, priests of all religions are the true enemies of the people; let us destroy along with them all juridical, political, civil and religious institutions." -Manifesto of anarchists in the Romagna, 1878 @-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@ The World View Staff: InterNet Address: The Desert Fox [Editor] dfox@taronga.com Cyndre The Grey [CoEditor] cyndre@taronga.com Rev. Scott Free scotfree@taronga.com Bryan O' Blivion blivion@taronga.com Modok Tarleton rperkins@taronga.com The Sorcerer (REV) sorcerer@taronga.com Brain On A Stick brain@taronga.com WORLD VIEW NEWSGROUP: wv@taronga.com FTP Site: chsun1.spc.uchicago.edu ftp.eff.org - pub/cud/wview @-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@ TABLE OF CONTENTS 1) Teen Curfews [3 of 3]....................................Harvard Law Review 2) The World / New Company That Provides Access.............The Sorcerer (REV) 3) Irony, Or What...........................................riddle@rice.edu 4) Minutes Of EFF Director's Meeting........................eff-a@tic.com 5) Cyberspace And The Phoenix Effect........................Chuck U. Farley 6) Editorial O' The Month...................................MFactor 7) Politically Correct Terms For 1992-1993..................Anonymous 8) Editor's Comments........................................DFox @-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@ III. THE CONSTITUTIONALITY OF JUVENILE CURFEWS Juvenile curfew ordinances have been challenged on numerous constitutional grounds. Although curfews are often attacked as violations of the first amendment rights of speech, religion, and assembly (49), they affect these rights only indirectly. Moreover, a narrowly drawn curfew ordinance ordinarily contains exceptions for attendance at religious, educational, or other organized functions. But no matter how narrowly they are drawn, curfew ordinances directly curtail the freedom of social association (50). To be sure, there are opportunities for social association during daylight hours, but the mere fact that a right may be exercised during some hours does not justify banning its exercise during others (51). And although curfews are typically envisioned to affect only lawless gangs of roaming teenagers, the ordinances also hold the threat of legal sanctions over a child who wishes simply to walk home from a friend's house, attend a late movie or show, or participate in any number of social activities that are harmful to none and are beneficial to the child's development. Children subject to curfews are denied, at least in part, the opportunities for personal and intellectual growth offered by association with their peers (52). Beyond freedom of association, however, the primary fundamental right that a curfew inhibits is freedom of movement (53). Although this essential element of liberty is not specifically enumerated in the Constitution, the Court has long recognized that freedom of movement is "basic in our scheme of values" (54) and that when it is limited "all other rights suffer,... as when a curfew or home detention is placed on a person" (55). The Court has extolled the right to move about freely, not only as a necessary means to the exercise of other protected activities, but also as an end in itself (56). There can be little doubt that a law that in effect imprisons children in their homes for many hours each day substantially infringes this right. Because curfew ordinances clearly implicate fundamental rights, courts should examine the specific justifications for such ordinances in light of the Bellotti criteria to determine whether curfews serve any interest "compelling for children." The first possible justification, the special vulnerability of children, initially appears to be a sound basis for allowing a juvenile curfew. Children generally are smaller, weaker, and less able to take care of themselves than are adults. But if children's mere physical vulnerability sufficed to justify curfews, similar concerns could easily support barring the elderly or handicapped from the streets or even excluding women or members of particular racial groups from certain areas of some cities. Such measures are clearly forbidden: the importance of the individual's fundamental liberties overrides the need for paternalistic controls (57). Because it is not an interest that sufficiently distinguishes children from adults, the goal of protecting vulnerable persons from physical harm by banning them from the streets cannot justify otherwise impermissible curfews when they are aimed solely at children. As the language in Bellotti makes plain, however, the Court is concerned primarily with children's mental, not physical, vulnerability (58). The Court noted that the state is free to adjust its legal institutions to account for the child's special need for "concern,... sympathy, and... paternal attention" (59). Our system of separate juvenile courts embodies this view in the recognition that the criminal trial process may be emotionally damaging to the child. The concern for children's vulnerability -- a concern that accords with the underlying societal assumptions about the intellectual and developmental incapacities of children -- justifies the state's attempt to protect children from severe and potentially damaging emotional turmoil. The efforts of juvenile courts to shield individual children who would otherwise face criminal process, however, are a far cry from blanket restrictions on the liberties of children who face no such predicament (60). Banning children from the streets is not an attempt to adjust the legal system in order to shield children from some specific emotional trauma to which they may be especially vulnerable. Rather, it is an attempt to shelter them from some unspecified future harm -- an attempt that simultaneously forecloses many beneficial opportunities. The second of Bellotti's justifications for restrictions on children's rights is the inability of children to make crucial decisions in an informed, mature manner. In elaborating this point, the Court noted that the state may "limit the freedom of children to choose for themselves in the making of important, affirmative choices with potentially serious consequences" (61). The Court cited Justice Stewart's concurrence in Ginsberg v. New York (62), which had suggested that "in some precisely delineated areas" children may lack the capacity for individual rational choice that is a presupposition of first amendment guarantees (63). In light of the potentially grave emotional effect of the decision to undergo an abortion, the Bellotti Court suggested that the state may in some cases restrict the right to privacy of an immature minor by requiring her doctor to notify her parents of her decision to have an abortion (64). A juvenile curfew ordinance, unlike a statutory requirement that parents be notified of an abortion decision, does not serve the "compelling for children" interest of protecting children from the potentially serious consequences of a critical decision. As the Fifth Circuit noted in Johnson v. City of Opelousas (65), the liberties of movement and association that a curfew broadly curtails do not typically confront children with choices having potentially grave or long-lasting ramifications (66). A minor who merely wishes to move about freely after dark, unlike a pregnant minor contemplating an abortion, does not face an unavoidable decision in which either choice may result in serious emotional consequences. Although certain situations that may arise during the curfew hours could present children with serious choices, other statutes offer more specific protection against the consequences of such choices -- statutes, for example, that prohibit the sale of liquor or pornography to minors and the admission of minors to adult entertainment establishments. Far from addressing a "precisely delineated" (67) set of activities that require children to make critical choices, a curfew prohibits all activities -- even nondisruptive and nonharmful ones -- in public areas during certain hours (68). A city could argue, however, that because of their inability to make rational, mature decisions, children are more likely than adults to get into trouble, and that a curfew is therefore justified as a means of reducing juvenile crime (69). But the basic choice between right and wrong is hardly what the Supreme Court in Bellotti had in mind when it spoke of serious decisions with grave consequences. Moreover, developmental psychologists generally credit even very young children with knowledge of right and wrong and some sense of social responsibility (70). Absent evidence that juvenile crime has reached an emergency level, children, like adults, are entitled to the presumption that they will behave in accordance with the law (71). Curtailments of liberty based upon anticipation of criminal activity have been soundly rejected by the Supreme Court (72). The state's interest in preventing crime cannot serve to distinguish juvenile curfews from anticipatory curtailments of liberty that affect adults; barring all citizens from the streets would no doubt reduce the incidence of crime, but such a measure would indisputably be unconstitutional. A juvenile curfew places "unfettered discretion... in the hands of the... police" (73) to stop individuals arbitrarily absent any sign capable of generating a reasonable belief of wrongdoing other than the violation of the curfew itself (74). Once crimes such as vandalism or disturbing the peace have occurred, they may of course be grounds for disciplining juveniles, but the state should not restrict the liberty of all in an attempt to reduce the illegal activities of a few (75). The final justification offered by Bellotti for restricting the rights of minors is the need to preserve a guiding role for parents in the upbringing of their children. This rationale is a two-edged sword. In cases in which a minor faces a serious and potentially damaging decision, the objective of preserving the parental role justifies the state in overriding the minor's right to privacy and compelling parental participation in the decision making process. But as was discussed above (76), exercising the rights that are affected by curfews -- rights of free movement and association -- does not ordinarily force children to confront grave and irrevocable choices. When such choices are not at stake, the principle of protecting the parental role cuts against the exercise of state power and requires the government to defer to parents on issues that merely involve authority over children. A long line of cases has established the Court's view that child-rearing is the role of parents, not of impersonal political institutions (77). Absent signs of abuse or neglect, the state generally permits parents to raise their children as they see fit (78). The principle of minimal state interference with parental guidance serves not only to preserve family autonomy but also to legitimate state authority. Juvenile curfews undercut both of these goals by allowing the state to usurp parental authority over children's liberty. One may argue that trust in parental authority is misplaced because it reflects an ideal vision of the family that bears little resemblance to reality in many cases. Nevertheless, the assumptions that family autonomy is of primary importance and that parents act in the best interests of their children persist. Until society has reached a broader consensus that the relationship between the state and the family structure should be altered, the state should not be free to ignore the ideal of the family in a given case simply because it is convenient to do so. Family autonomy is as much a right of children as of their parents. This notion is expressed in decisions in which the Court observes that parental consultation is in the best interests of the child (79). The child's need to identify with a loving and authoritative caretaker (80) suggests that if the child's rights are to be limited, the child is entitled to have her activities directed by her parents rather than by political institutions (81). If the state leaves guidance in the hands of the parents, they can monitor their child's development and gradually increase her liberty and responsibility by allowing her to experience new situations and to make choices as she develops into an adult (82). By contrast, state control disregards personal differences and restricts the activities of all individuals below a certain age. The state exerts such control when it enacts a juvenile curfew, which restricts the liberty of all minors regardless of their maturity of the desires of their parents. The second goal served by the principle of parental guidance (and undercut by juvenile curfews) is the legitimation of the state itself in the eyes of children. If children are to grow up appreciating and cherishing the liberties and privileges enjoyed by citizens of this nation, the government must grant them those liberties to the greatest extent possible (83). Underrestriction by the state, even in cases in which parental control varies from the ideal (84), may cause children to perceive a disparity between the liberties they are supposed to enjoy as citizens and those they do in fact enjoy. Minimal restriction of rights by the state is essential if we are to avoid "teach[ing] youth to discount important principles of our government as mere platitudes" (85). The concern for the parental role therefore suggests a presumptive right of minors to be guided by their parents and not controlled by the state -- a right that serves interests of both state and family. A juvenile curfew ordinance plainly violates such a right. Although purporting to facilitate parental responsibility, a curfew in fact denies parents responsibility and forces upon them and their children the state's conception of the liberties children should be granted. Such an ordinance is precisely the centralized imposition of orthodoxy that the Court has attempted to avoid by deferring to parental authority whenever possible (86). The general right of children to family guidance and autonomy weighs heavily against any such ordinance. IV. CONCLUSION Juvenile curfews protect no significant state interest pertaining only to children. The unique developmental characteristics of childhood fail to justify the limits that curfews place on the exercise of the fundamental rights of movement and association. There is thus no "compelling for children" state interest, and no legitimate basis for a curfew that differentiates between children and adults. The "compelling for children" strict scrutiny analysis serves the dual goal of protecting the rights of children as persons while recognizing the special state interests that pertain to this unique class of citizens. In cases in which minors face truly grave or critical decisions or in which the emotional and mental immaturity of minors demands special treatment, the analysis will allow for greater protection by the state, generally in the form of laws that require parental participation in decision making or enforce parental goals (87). In general, however, a "compelling for children" test assumes that children are endowed with the rights and fundamental human liberties of other members of society, and that the burden of justification is on the government when it seeks to limit those rights by invoking the label of childhood. @-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@ The World ACCESS / Internet / Services By Rick Jenkins (sorcerer@taronga.com) Greetings & Salutations all, Just thought I'd drop you all a line about something I ran across the other day. For those who are looking for Internet access with Telnet and FTP, the following service is available. The World A public access UNIX system: - Sun Microsystem Sparc Server - 19200, 9600, 2400, 1200 baud modems - over 3 GB disk storage - international network connections - nationwide access via Compuserve's Packet Network To sign up for public access, dial 617-739-WRLD and type "new". The basic rates are $2/hr 24 hrs/day and a $5 monthly account fee. The 20/20 Plan is $20 paid in advance for 20 hours of online time during a one month period. This includes the monthly account fee and an additional 1500 blocks of disk space. After your first 20 hours, the hourly rate is $1/hr. The World is managed by a staff of professionals, all of which have UNIX and international networking experience. We are committed to providing you reliable, cost effective network access. Our full time job is the support of The World and its software in order that you, our customer, can exploit the power of today's electronic community. Software Tool & Die 1330 Beacon Street Brookline, MA 02146 617-739-0202 Services offered by The World Electronic Mail - access to numerous networks including Internet, UUCP, BITNET, EUNET (Europe, Soviet Union), JANET, JUNET (Japan), Fidonet, BIX, Compuserve, Applelink, and MCImail We have all the popular unix mail programs, such as, mail, elm, mh, much, GNU's RMAIL, dmail, and mm. USENET - the international bulletin board system called USENET. A collection of over 2600 newsgroups. More than 1,000,000 people are reachable and over 100,000 are regular subscribers. The World carries the largest distribution of USENET topics. Among the newsreaders are rn, nn, trn, tass, and GNUS. ClariNet - UPI, AP, and satellite news services formatted and organized into a USENET compatible hierarchy Modems - The modems support 19.2k, 9600, 2400 and 1200 baud connections with most standard modem features. All modems support MNP/5 protocols. Recommended modem settings are 7, E, 1. Electronic Mailing Lists - Rather than trying to carry on focused discussions in a newsgroup you can join and form mailing lists with kindred souls devoted to specialized topics. Chatting - Two interactive discussion programs exist. One is the Internet Relay Chat (irc) and the other is Forumnet (fn). Both provide interactive, real-time access to people around the globe. IRC includes some channels for discussions in foreign languages. UNIX Software - Many of the common utilities and programs which have become an integral part of the UNIX environment are available. Unix shells include sh, csh, ksh, bash, tcsh, zsh and rc. Also most popular unix utilities are available. If it is not here and you want to use it, ask us and we will do our best to provide it for you. Archie - Direct access to an archie server for software index retrieval is available. Archie contains indexes for most anonymous ftp sites available on Internet. GNU Software - The basic GNU components, like EMACS, GCC, G++, GDB, GAS, BASH, GAWK, are available. This is particularly useful for customers who are interested in software development. Games - Most games common to the UNIX environment are available. These include hack, moria, nethack,adventure, omega, robots, and tetris. Online Book Initiative - The purpose of the OBI is to create a publicly accessible repository for freely re-distributable collections of textual information, a net-worker's library. AlterNet Access - Users have access to AlterNet via ftp/telnet. Dedicated high speed connections are available for sites that wish to join the world wide Internet. Internet - Due to NSFnet policy, not all Internet networks will allow ftp and telnet connections. Compuserve Packet Network - To access The World via CPN, you first need to find your local CPN number. Dial direct to Compuserve at 1-800-848-4480 using your modem. Enter the command "phones" at the prompt or call us direct at 617-739-0202 and our staff will provide your local number. After you have your local number, dial it and enter "world,domestic" at the "Host name:" prompt. Use the password "notobvious" to gain access to The World. Getting an Account - At The World's login prompt, use the login "new" to begin the account request program. You will be asked a few questions necessary to create your account. Visa or Master Card is accepted for billing purposes. The World will allow you to select your login name. Most people select their name, their initials, or a combination of both. Your login name will be your electronic mail address. Your initial password will be provided by the account creation software. For customers with credit cards, the account is available immediately upon completion of the request. Customers who request postal billing must contact our office for account activation. If anyone else has knowledge of other such services, post them here. Sorc'(Rev) @-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@ Irony, Or What... By: riddle@rice.edu [Maybe this is a good place for a trivial anecdote, since we're talking about spies and Bruce Sterling: my wife and I drove to Austin a few weeks ago to visit friends and indulge in a bit of nostalgia for our college days. Our first stop was brunch at the Ommeletree, which is always a good tonic against the pessimists who continually claim that Austin is now indistinguishable from Dallas or Houston. Who should we find sitting at the next table but Bruce Sterling, holding forth on EFF and SF and other topics in a voice which we couldn't have avoided hearing if we'd wanted to. Eavesdropping on Bruce made for an entertaining meal, and I recommend it highly. His most memorable comment was that he didn't want to be an L. Ron Hubbard, whose fans actually believed all the things he said. If you're reading this, Bruce, my apologies, but I guess you're used to people you don't know recognizing you in public places by now. I tried to make it up to you: when I saw the paperback of "The Difference Engine" on the shelf at Europa Books, I took it as an omen and bought a copy. :-) ] -- Prentiss Riddle ("aprendiz de todo, maestro de nada") riddle@rice.edu -- Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of my employer. @-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@ MINUTES OF AUSTIN EFF DIRECTORS' MEETING - March 10, 1992 Held at 7:30pm at Matt Lawrence's. Directors present were Jon Lebkowsky, Matt Lawrence, Smoot Carl-Mitchell, Steve Jackson, Ed Cavazos. Observing: Dick Anderson, Gavino Morin. Minutes of the last meeting were approved w/o reading. Recommendations on organization and our official status - Ed presented his first draft of a charter and by-laws. He and Gavino had collaborated on these. Lots of discussion; some blanks filled in, others debated but not filled in, more blanks discovered. Decisions included: We will ask Cambridge for a copy of their charter in order to make language of purpose, etc., identical where possible. There will be 9 directors and an undetermined number of advisory directors. Local dues will be $10/year, or $5 per students, but we won't set a corporate structure yet. Individual members will be strongly encouraged to join the national EFF, but not required. Meetings and publicity - We still don't have any commitments. Jon and Dick will try to get something definite from MCC. We need to prepare a membership package for the local group, once the first meeting is set. SJ will do DTP and printing, Smoot will take care of postage. Jon is now keeping a separate stock of literature, to make it easier for him and others to get material without going by SJ's office. Local activities since the last meeting: The GTC finished as well as it started; we got lots of names of people interested in information. Bruce participated in a panel and was reportedly the hit of the show. Steve Jackson, along with Mike Godwin, went to Kansas City to the ACM meeting to take the negative in an ACM debate on the proposition (stated briefly) "Should the states license software professionals?" Audience of about 100; it went well. John Barlow was at the same event, participating in another panel. SJ also passed out EFF literature and answered questions at OrcCon, a very large (2,000-plus attendees) gaming convention in Los Angeles. Local activities, upcoming or proposed: The Austin Peace Festival takes place April 25. Jon reports that we can reserve a booth for $20. He has not yet done so due to lack of Board response to his postings on the subject. The UT College of Communication is interested in having an EFF speaker at their Communications Week, April 1-4. It looks as though Steve Jackson and Mike Godwin will both participate. When Bruce's HACKER CRACKDOWN book is published, EFF-Austin should sponsor a signing. Maybe at a local bookstore . . . maybe at a computer store. Bruce is willing. The book will be released in September. Mailing list - Jon was going to meet with Earl Cooley to discuss this. Earl may be out of communication; Jon hadn't gotten back with him, but will do so before next meeting. CyberTex was discussed again. Consensus that it can't happen this year - tentatively, about this time next year sounds right. Jon and Ed will call a meeting specifically for those interested in CyberTex; the convention committee needs to start meeting separately. Important decisions needed: Basic committee structure, basic agenda, preferred date. SJ volunteered to call hotels once preferred date is set. Computer display program - No progress. Logo - we now have a working graphics file of the star, cannon and "Come And Take It" image. The EFF logo has been completed, but we have not yet seen it. Dick Anderson discussed a case, reported in the newest issue of AMERICAN RIFLEMAN, of a gun owner who was subjected to an intrusive and destructive surprise search by BATF (Treasury Department) agents. He suggested that the EFF should contact the NRA and offer to share information on Fourth Amendment issues, since the case sounds very similar to the SJ Games and Sun Devil raids. For instance, the raid was made in great force, on a sealed "no comment" warrant, but nothing was found. Susan Cisco sent some searches done on SJ's name in the Nexus/Lexis database. Consensus: Nothing new here, but the search is a good thing - it just happens that this time we had all the data already. Susan was not present, and sent word that she will not have time to be a director but is interested in serving as an advisor. Jon's suggestion for a retreat was discussed. Reaction were mixed. No action was taken. We have gotten no further data on the bust of "Archaic Illume." Ed will make some calls and see if he can find anything further. Still awaiting discussion is the "Interactive University" proposal from Dick Cutler at UT. Is this something we are able and willing to support in any way? Our next directors' meeting will be Tuesday, April 14, at 7:30 at Matt's house. Note that the agenda for the March 10 meeting said the next meeting would be April 7. This was wrong. @-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@ Cyberspace and The Phoenix Effect An Editorial By Chuck U. Farley Why are you here? Why are you reading this? Why do you give a damn about this movement and it's destiny? I can't answer for you, but I'll tell you why I'm here. I'm here because I care. I care enough about the rights and ideals behind the Cyberpunk movement to put forth a little effort and stick my neck out a little bit. I don't want the FCC or the PUC deciding what I can or cannot transmit, what I can or cannot THINK! The original writers using the name `Der Weltanschauung" died in Nazi concentration camps. We may suffer like or worse fates for what we do now. It's doubtful, but nothing is impossible. Even if we do die, something can be left and continue on after our deaths, like the name and spirit of the original "Der Weltanschauung" lives on now, with us. If one copy of this or another E-mag survives and is kept and cherished, or kept and used as an example, it's power will survive! If one copy is read by one parent who laughs and tells his/her child about the insanity of "The Rev. Scott Free" or the worthlessness of "Merlin the Idiot Magister", maybe, just maybe, we will hit a note in that child, cause him or her to change, to begin to question the "state", to seek the truth of freedom! If we don't succeed this time, even if we lose in the most horrible way, we will still win, for if this a movement leaves it's mark, then the processes we work for will begin again! Every time the movement is "reborn" it's a little stronger, a little faster, a little better. Like a phoenix, it has always existed and always will, but also like a phoenix, it's getting better every time. If we do lose, I will not worry. Maybe we will win the next time, or the time after that. Eventually, somewhere and sometime, the system will actually work for us, eventually we will gain those rights and freedoms we deserve as men and women, those rights we deserve as human beings. Don't take me wrong, I do fear death, I fear it with a passion, but I do take solstice in religion. I don't fool with any wimpy god like Yaweh- Jehova, or Buddah, or even the mighty Bob! ( I do owe him for helping me see my point in life, though...) I worship a set of gods that has been around since the first reproduction in the primordial seas, I worship the Gods of Change, and my friend, their winds are blowing. Thank you and good-night. @-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@ Editorial Of The Month By MFactor (Excerpt from INdigest, Feb 1994, Interview with the Elusive and Unintelligible Mfactor) IN: In your most recent book, "I Don't Want My Children To Grow Up Around Those Filthy UNIX", you seemed to display a sense of farce that isn't too commonly seen amongst the Great Internet Poets of the Apocalypse. Tell us, why do you see the 21st century as the Golden Age of Lunacy? Mf: [wearing pajamas and Mickey Mouse ears] Well, it's like this. In the early 80's we perfected the concept of an international communications database. It was populated solely by research personnel. MIT grads, military, Elvis. Purely serious study going on. Then, in the late 80's and mid-90's, there was a practical applications boom, where savvy businessfolk rolled up their sleeves and sank their elbows into the datastream. Now, as we near the End Times, we find that the greatest structure ever created by man -the Internet- is being vacated by its corporate and research personnel and a whole buttload of social misfits and weirdos are moving in by the droves. Look at me for instance. No, you better not. Wanna jawbreaker? IN: No, thank you. Are you saying that the new computer literacy is making this once rich and fertile forest of intellect and commerce into a vast mental wasteland where the only thing that stirs is an occasional, barbed, tumbleweed of a pun based on bathroom jokes? Mf: Well, yes, and I'm thankful for it! I mean, have you SEEN what happens to the human body when the brain is used too much? Glasses, unsocial behavior, a goofy voice, and insatiable masturbatory compulsions become the trademark of the computer genius. Why if I had to choose between looks and brains, I'd sure as hell pick looks, cause looks can get you brains, and the corollary is not as true. I feel very lucky to have both. IN: In the book, you mention a few extreme cases of individuals who have no business on UNIX and who yet not only live in it, they can't do without it. Mf: Indeed, there seem to be many odd cases. Take for example Cherry, the erotic dancer from Norway who has an Internet Address. She works out 36 hours a day, dances every night, goes out with friends, HAS FRIENDS!!! And yet she still finds time to moderate a newsgroup, cherry.pop.tart, I mean, how does she do that? Then there's the Internet node for the Eskimo Len Terrorist With Teret's Syndrome Association. What does THAT have to do with worldwide communications? Then of course, there's alt.binaries.pictures.bestiality. Need more be said??? The freaks are moving in as the contractors and architects move out. Isn't it beautiful? IN: What's your plan in life, Mr. Mfactor? Mf: In this day and age, making plans is dangerous. That's why I have several. IN: Please, share with us your most visionary. Mf: Moving to Norway and finding Cherry. Soon. Like NOW. @-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@ New Official Politically Correct Terms For 1992-1993 Submitted old new ------------------------------------------------------------------------- conservative reactionary The Establishment White Power Elite hearing person temporarily aurally abled sighted person temporarily visually abled blind visually challenged mute vocally challenged dead metabolically different alive temporarily metabolically abled ugly aesthetically challenged rude politically correct (tm) psychopath socially misaligned bald follicularly challenged non-white, non-male oppressed white melanin impoverished/genetically oppressive white male oppressor black african-american asian asian-american afro-american african-american pregnancy parasitic oppression janitor sanitation engineer dish washer utensil sanitizer dairy where cows are raped ranch where cattle are murdered egg ranch where hens are raped biology department where animals are tortured and then murdered to fulfill the sadistic fantasies of white male scientist lakeys of the imperialistic drug companies fishing raping the oceans farming exploiting mother earth paper bag processed tree carcass Many of the labels from the 80's are now passe. Here is a partial list of the denotations that are now acceptable (all labels are subject to change without notice). old 80's 90's --- ---- ---- deaf hearing impaired aurally challenged blind sight impaired visually challenged retarded mentally handicapped mentally challenged queer gay/homosexual queer [strange but true] fat big boned alternative body image @-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@ -=-( EDITOR'S COMMENTS )-=- One year has passed since the first issue of The World View. As I look back on that old, crude issue, I can't help but to be 'satisfied' with our progress. We are still accepting submissions. Please mail them along with any questions to: dfox@taronga.com We have a new FTP site to add to the list... FTP.EFF.ORG Most issues can be found there. All issues can be found on CHSUN1.SPC.UCHICAGO.EDU in pub/cud/worldview. @-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@-==-@