Today's Topics:
View From the Ledge
Computer addiction - it's official!
Rare opportunity for Boston Subs
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Message-Id: <8907181927.AA10066@wrath.cs.cornell.edu>
Date: Tue, 18 Jul 89 15:15:18 edt
From: Eric Haines <eye!erich%spruce@wrath.cs.cornell.edu>
Subject: View From the Ledge
Well, I just received the latest "View From The Ledge", from
Chuck Shepherd
Deadfromtheneckup, Inc
PO Box 57141
Washington, DC 20037
(no cost to subscribe. You send on any weird newspaper stories you run into
and you're automatically subscribed for some unknown amount of time).
Some highlights from issue # 28 (I'll try to avoid the real sicko stuff...)
- Exiled spiritual leader Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh announced from India that he
had changed his name to Suravi Rajneesh because he had tired of the private
joke that "Bhagwan" represented--a compound word meaning "penis" and
"vagina."
- Mario Morby, 12, a cancer patient who had received two million postcards of
get-well support from around the world, was discovered dead by the family
dog underneath a stack of about 500,000 postcards that had toppled over and
suffocated him.
- Hallock Coin Jewelry of Anaheim offers for investment a 1-troy-ounce silver
medallion (the RTU) for $12.95, intended as a medium of exchange for
survivalists. RTU stands for "Rambo Trade Unit" and features a likeness of
Sylvester Stallone.
- The New China News Agency reports that black marketeers, noting China's
traditional preference for boy babies, are attaching false male genitalia to
baby girls in order to fetch a higher price; one couple paid $540 for a boy,
only to see the genitalia fall off a week later.
Anyway, lots more where that came from, but my program's finished running...
Eric Haines
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Date: Tue, 18 Jul 89 23:52:04 EDT
From: "Keith F. Lynch" <KFL%AI.AI.MIT.EDU@MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU>
Subject: Computer addiction - it's official!
Message-ID: <622896.890718.KFL@AI.AI.MIT.EDU>
For the first time, the law officially recognizes the concept of being
addicted to computers! The implications are staggering.
"My name is Keith L, and I'm a hackaholic..."
Forwarded from the RISKS digest:
Date: 18 Jul 89 08:49:34 PDT (Tuesday)
From: Rodney Hoffman <Hoffman.ElSegundo@Xerox.com>
Subject: Mitnick sentenced as an addict
Kevin Mitnick is the hacker once called "as dangerous with a keyboard
as a bank robber with a gun." (See RISKS 7.95, 8.1, 8.3, 8.43, 8.65,
8.70, and 8.76.)
His first plea bargain was rejected by U.S. District Judge Mariana R.
Pfaelzer as too lenient. He subsequently reached a new agreement,
with no agreed-upon prison sentence, in which pleaded guilty to
stealing a DEC security program and illegal possession of 16
long-distance telephone codes belonging to MCI Telecommunications
Corp. If convicted of all counts, Mitnick faced a maximum sentence
of 20 years and a fine of $750,000.
According to a story by Henry Weinstein in the 18 July 1989 'Los
Angeles Times', Judge Pfaelzer said Monday that she will sentence
Mitnick to a year in a rehabilitation center, where he can be treated
for his "addiction." It is believed to be the first time a person
indicted for a computer hacking - related crime will be treated as an
addict.
Harriet Rossetto, the director of the rehabilitation center said that
Mitnick would benefit from the program. She said that Mitnick's
"hacking gives a sense of self-esteem he doesn't get in the real
world.... This is a new and growing addiction. There was no greed
involved. There was no sabotage involved.... He's like a kid playing
Dungeons and Dragons."
Asst. U.S. Attorney James R. Asperger told Pfaelzer that he was
amenable to the rehabilitation plan, in part because Mitnick has
cooperated extensively with the government in its case against
DiCicco, Mitnick's one-time friend who turned him in. Asperger said
that Mitnick had turned out to be considerably less harmful than the
government had originally thought, particularly since he not broken
into DEC's computer system out of malice or to make money.
Judge Pfaelzer said she will rule today on whether Mitnick should
serve any additional prison time, beyond the seven months he has so
far spent in federal custody. DiCicco still faces one federal charge
of illegally transporting a stolen program (!).
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Date: Tue, 18 Jul 89 23:55 EDT
From: Michael Travers <mt@MEDIA-LAB.MEDIA.MIT.EDU>
Subject: Rare opportunity for Boston Subs
Message-ID: <19890719035544.5.MT@OUROBOROS.MEDIA.MIT.EDU>
We New England Subgenii are at a disadvantage relative to our southern
brethren in that we don't have fundie preachers that are quite as loud,
ignorant, or numerous. Here's your chance to make up for all that.
There is a revival tent set up on Boston Common until the 22nd. See
real live preachers with red faces and white shoes tell you that you're
going to hell! See HATE close up! Pick up better-than-average tracts
(best one I found: ""Jehovah's Witnesses"? or Satan's Salesmen?")!
Really, no connessieur of stupid, vicious belief systems should miss
this opportunity to observe one close-up.
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End of SubGenius Digest
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