#sipher

[celeryman6]

uh oh, somebody's in trouble... 😓 full painting on my Patreon!

[glitchmetal]

figuring out aether dragons!!

just for him

[thecraftingtablecrew]

INTRO !

HI, we're The Crafting Table Crew, a subsystem in the Ether Collective [@ethercollective]. We're all MCYT introjects - some of us are factives, some of us are fictives, some of us are a bit of both. Our member list is below!

BDUBS (JASPER) [life series c!bdubs fictive]

ETHO [life series/hc s10 c!etho fictive]

ETHO (ACE/CARMINE) [double life red c!etho fictive]

KERALIS [hc s8 c!keralis fictive] LIZZIE [life series/sos smp c!lizzie fictive] MINDLESS [eotwsmp c!mindless fictive] NIKI [osmp s1 c!niki fictive]

PEARL (SCARLET) [double life red c!pearl fictive] PHIL [qsmp c!phil fictive] POMME [qsmp pomme fictive] RANBOO [cc!ranboo factive] SIPOVER (SIPHER) [eotwsmp c!sipover fictive] SPEY (ZEPH) [eotwsmp c!spey fictive]

TANGO (FLICK/LUNA/IRIS) [hc s8 c!tango fictive] TUBBO (JUNIPER) [mix of dsmp c!tubbo and cc!tubbo] WILBUR [cc!wilbur factive] WILBUR (CASPER/CASS) [osmp s1 c!wilbur fictive] WILBUR (CEOL) [qsmp c!wilbur fictive]

All of us are cool with any sourcemates, please interact! We're mostly fine with source talk, but please ask just in case!

[ofisniyst1lyaga]

My version of HUMAN!Bill Sipher.

Drawed in March...

[breadfacednerd]

@mossolantern @princesolluxstash come get your faggots.

[mossolantern]

@breadfacednerd hey, make your damn baby stop shaking my horrible little grub

[tomorrowusa]

During his administration, Donald Trump was passing Israeli intelligence on to Russia. This was known WAY early in the administration – this NYT article is from May of 2017.

Israel is one of the United States’ most important allies and a major intelligence collector in the Middle East. The revelation that Mr. Trump boasted about some of Israel’s most sensitive information to the Russians could damage the relationship between the two countries. It also raises the possibility that the information could be passed to Iran, Russia’s close ally and Israel’s main threat in the Middle East. [ ... ] Mr. Trump said on Tuesday on Twitter that he had an “absolute right” to share information in the interest of fighting terrorism and called it a “very, very successful meeting” in a brief appearance later Tuesday at the White House alongside President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey. Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, Mr. Trump’s national security adviser, told reporters that he was not concerned that information sharing among intelligence partners would stop. “What the president discussed with the foreign minister was wholly appropriate to that conversation and is consistent with the routine sharing of information between the president and any leaders with whom he’s engaged,” General McMaster said at a White House briefing, seeking to play down the sensitivity of the information Mr. Trump disclosed.

Trump is a blabbermouth who has never had a good record on keeping classified intelligence to himself. Anybody using his Mar-a-Lago bathroom could browse nuclear secrets while trying to complete their digestion of well-done Trump steaks with ketchup.

Israel’s concerns about the Trump White House’s handling of classified information were foreshadowed in the Israeli news media this year. Newspapers there reported in January that American officials warned their Israeli counterparts to be careful about what they told the Trump administration because it could be leaked to the Russians, given Mr. Trump’s openness toward President Vladimir V. Putin. “The Russians have the widest intelligence collection mechanism in the world outside of our own. They can put together a good picture with just a few details,” said John Sipher, a 28-year veteran of the C.I.A. who served in Moscow in the 1990s and later ran the C.I.A.’s Russia program for three years. “They can marry President Trump’s comments with their own intelligence, and intelligence from their allies. They can also deploy additional resources to find out details.”

So, did any Israeli intelligence that Trump gave to Putin then go to Iran which passed it on to Hamas?

Mike Pence was Trump's vice president and Nikki Haley was Trump's ambassador to the UN at the time Trump was passing secrets on to Putin's foreign minister. They are both candidates for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination. It's particularly hypocritical for Haley to try to somehow blame Biden for the current situation in Israel.

Republicans do have a poor record on dealing with intelligence this century. George W. Bush famously ignored a 06 August 2021 presidential intelligence brief warning of an attack by al Qaeda. We all know what happened five weeks later.

A vote for Republicans, especially Trump, is a vote for passing classified secrets to America's enemies.

The world is becoming more chaotic; no American should add to that chaos by putting Trump back in power.

[brainfugk]

Oh fugk, I have that book and forgot about this.

This book brought me to Numberphile on YT. Simon collaborates with them.

Simon wrote another book Simpsons and their mathematical secrets. That's how I found him.

The numberphile hosts many mathematicians, including James Grime, which does tours with Enigma. Yes, that Enigma, which was used to cipher communication for the German military in WWII.

The movie The Imitation Game (aka Enigma code) is all about this. Benedict Cumberbatch plays Alan Turing.

You know the Turing test?

That's why you watch The Simpsons.

Years and years ago, I read a book on cryptography that I picked up because it looked interesting--and it was!

But there was a side anecdote in there that stayed with me for more general purposes.

The author was describing a cryptography class that they had taken back in college where the professor was demonstrating the process of "reversibility", which is a principle that most codes depend on. Specifically, it should be easy to encode, and very hard to decode without the key--it is hard to reverse the process.

So he had an example code that he used for his class to demonstrate this, a variation on the Book Code, where the encoded text would be a series of phone numbers.

The key to the code was that phone books are sorted alphabetically, so you could encode the text easily--picking phone numbers from the appropriate alphabetical sections to use ahead of time would be easy. But since phone books were sorted alphabetically, not numerically, it would be nearly impossible to reverse the code without exhaustively searching the phone book for each string of numbers and seeing what name it was tied to.

Nowadays, defeating this would be child's play, given computerized databases, but back in the 80s and 90s, this would have been a good code... at least, until one of the students raised their hand and asked, "Why not just call the phone numbers and ask who lives there?"

The professor apparently was dumbfounded.

He had never considered that question. As a result, his cipher, which seemed to be nearly unbreakable to him, had such an obvious flaw, because he was the sort of person who could never coldcall someone to ask that sort of thing!

In the crypto book, the author went on to use this story as an example of why security systems should not be tested by the designer (because of course the security system is ready for everything they thought of, by definition), but for me, as a writer, it stuck with me for a different reason.

It's worth talking out your story plot with other people just to see if there's a "Why not just call the phone numbers?" obvious plot hole that you've missed, because of your singular perspective as a person. Especially if you're writing the sort of plot where you have people trying to outsmart each other.

[alanshemper]

be on the lookout for a color revolution in Iran, coming soon...

[natchart]

My Watcher Tarmiel - moon godlike, sipher. After what Eothas did, she returned home to live her last life alone. As it always was.

[celeryman6]

Sipher: a fallen knight, now killing for money... and the thrill. high res versions up on my Patreon!

[aardwolfpack]

I missed this episode as a kid, and I thought my friend made up Mega Girl and the Warp of Life for our Nintendo-based playground games. It was weird to suddenly see this stuff in cartoon form when I watched the D.V.D.s many years later.

Why did I draw her? She’s not a good character… in fact, she barely qualifies as a character. Even by the low standards of both Mega Man and Captain N.

The Captain N episode “Happy Birthday, Mega Man” annoyed me as a kid, even if I couldn’t completely articulate the sheer depth of problems with it. There’s a lot wrong here.

But I was distinctly annoyed at how “Mega Girl” promptly vanished from the show after that episode. I didn’t know Roll existed back then (and when MM was new, one could not be blamed for that), so when I would draw my N-inspired mondo video-game world arts, Mega Girl was among the recurring cast because even then I knew we needed more female characters.

(As was Christine from Arkista’s Ring.)

Any rate… yeah, here she is. In this little project I felt like Captain N needed a bit of representation, so… here ya go.

[glitchmetal]

⚡ stubborn ⚡

[kaethefangirl]

“Just CALL him, Stephen,”

“No, I’ll look obsessed,” 

Any number of things could happen. Statistics show 1 in 260,256 flights crash, and what if Tony is on that one plane? Or worse what if his father’s told him he didn’t like Stephen and it was all an act at dinner? God, Stephen felt a nauseous feeling in chest at the thought of a news broadcast announcing Tony Stark dead. He paced so long his legs began to hurt and his feet ached. He continued after Christine left and had resorted to sitting in a chair by his bed in the corner of the room, waiting to give Tony a piece of his mind once he returned. It hit him suddenly that he’d been an asshole to everyone all day. They didn’t deserve that. A rush of dread crept up his spine as he realized he’d have to apologize to everyone in a way that didn’t make it obvious that it was because of-

The door unlocked and opened revealing, “Tony,” Stephen barked.

“Christ! Don’t do that shit anymore,” He sighed, setting down his many bags. 

“Why- Where- Explain to me-” Stephen sputtered in anger.

“Sorry mom, I was out with friends and my phone died,” Tony mocked, sitting on his bed.

“Damn, this feels good,” He makes a snow angel motion in his bed, ignoring the way Stephen’s face turns red.

“You can’t just up and leave without telling anyone! I was worried sick!” Stephen shouts across the room.

“You were- what?” Tony sits up with a puzzled expression that pisses Stephen off even more.

“ We’re you expecting for nobody to give a damn!? That you could just waltz on out and waltz right back in like nothin- mmph!” Tony dived onto Stephen, capturing him in a kiss. Stephen felt all his anger being siphered away in the kiss as he tried desperately to feel some kind of agitation at Tony but.. there was nothing. Once he pulled back he could see the tears forming in Tony’s eyes.

“Nobody’s ever been worried about me before asshole,” Tony punched Stephen’s arm lightly as he let his tears fall.

“Well get used to it. Don’t just leave anymore, got it idiot?” Stephen felt himself tearing up as well.

“Yep,” 

“Good,”

it comes in waves and I'm pulled below (it's not subjective its clinical)

[breadfacednerd]

@mossolantern has complete legal authority over the bottom right corner

[mariacallous]

When I was a foreign correspondent in West Berlin during the dying days of the Cold War in 1988, a British spy gave me a vivid insight into the state of Germany’s intelligence services.

‘If you want the Kremlin to take something seriously, give it to the Germans and tell them it’s a secret,’ he said. ‘It’ll be on every desk in the Politburo the next morning.’

Clearly little has changed in the intervening years.

On Friday, the Russians revealed that they had eavesdropped on a discussion between the head of the Luftwaffe and three top air force colleagues about the highly contested question of donating Germany’s long-range Taurus missiles to Ukraine.

Such weaponry would help that country strike Russia’s logistics depots and supply lines, such as the Kerch Strait Bridge that links Crimea to Russia proper.

Top brass in any self-respecting country would conduct such sensitive discussions on encrypted lines using special handsets, with the participants in secure locations — an arrangement known in this country as a ‘STRAP environment’.

But the gormless Germans used Webex, a conference-call system akin to Zoom.

One participant dialled in from Singapore — using his bog-standard phone. So, too, did the Russian intruders. Unbelievably, nobody noticed the extra, silent participant.

Nothing was decided on the call. The missiles’ delivery remains blocked by German chancellor Olaf Scholz. But the 38-minute recording, released by the Kremlin, did reveal that he has lied to the German public.

According to the brass hats, well-trained Ukrainians could program the missiles with targeting data — something Scholz had claimed would require German specialists on the ground in Ukraine. This would be an impossibly provocative step in his view.

But the worst damage was done not to reputations but to allied security.

‘If we’re asked about delivery methods, I know how the British do this. They always transport them in Ridgeback armoured vehicles. They have several people on the ground,’ said the head of the German air force, Lieutenant General Ingo Gerhartz, referring to the Storm Shadow missiles that we have donated to Ukraine.

Discussing military secrets on an open phone line is a sackable offence. But you cannot sack a whole country. Western allies are confronting the reality that our biggest and richest European ally is an appalling liability.

No 10 yesterday described the leak as ‘a very serious matter’ but declined to be drawn on whether there are plans to restrict our intelligence- sharing with Berlin.

But no one would blame them if they were considering just such a response. After all, Scholz is in the doghouse for other reasons, too.

Only last Monday, he let slip that British soldiers were on the ground in Ukraine assisting with the use of our Storm Shadow missile system.

This would come as no surprise to Moscow. But it is still embarrassing to have a sensitive detail blurted out by the leader of a supposedly trustworthy partner.

Chairman of the Commons’ Foreign Affairs Committee, Alicia Kearns, didn’t hold back, describing the blunder as ‘wrong, irresponsible and a slap in the face’.

The bleak truth is that, in the eyes of Western allies, Germany is now regarded as worse than useless.

And no branch of its security set-up is in a more parlous state than its clueless, leaky secret services. A senior official in the German foreign intelligence service, identified only as Carsten L, and an alleged accomplice, Arthur E, went on trial in December for spying for Russia. The pair were arrested, not thanks to German diligence, but thanks to a tip from the FBI.

Former CIA officer John Sipher describes German spies as: ‘Arrogant, incompetent, bureaucratic, useless’.

Yet it is no laughing matter for the Ukrainians that Scholz dithers on sending weapons. High hopes of the Zeitenwende — ‘change of eras’ — that he announced after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 have shrivelled.

Germany’s puny military remains under-equipped, ill-led and cash-strapped. Berlin’s aversion to hard thinking about security lies partly in its two catastrophic defeats last century, and its role as a potential nuclear battleground during the Cold War.

This past stokes anti-Americanism and anti-militarism. ‘Even the worst peace is better than the best war,’ said a leading German thinktanker as Ukraine began its struggle for survival.

The idea that freedom might be worth dying for counts for nothing.

Greed also plays a big role. Germany has obsessively pursued lucrative deals with Russia and China.

That contributed to Germany’s blind spot when it came to its eastern neighbours such as Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Yet it was these countries that the Hitler-Stalin pact fed into the meat-grinder in 1939.

Germany owes them a huge historical debt but, instead of making strenuous efforts to boost their security, Berlin blocked Nato defence plans for these states for years.

Worse, German spymasters stole their secrets. As I revealed in my book Deception, the German BND — the counterpart to our MI6 — recruited a top defence official in Estonia, Herman Simm, in order to keep an eye on American influence there.

What the Germans did not know was that Simm was also spying for the Russians. The damage was colossal.

I am no Germanophobe. I lived and worked there for many years. I tried to alert Germans to the danger presented by nascent, and now revived, Russian imperialism. The response was patronising and incredulous.

Meanwhile, Russian spies, thugs and crooks ran riot under the noses of the bureaucracy-bound German police and security services.

That reflects another legacy of the past: a resistance to state surveillance, thanks to the long shadows cast by Hitler’s Gestapo and then the Stasi, communist East Germany’s secret police.

Ultra-strict data-protection and privacy laws stop German authorities conducting the simplest security checks.

The consequences of this were recently highlighted by journalist Michael Colborne, who took only 30 minutes to track down a fugitive Left-wing terrorist, 65-year-old Daniela Klette, of the murderous Baader-Meinhof gang.

She had been living in Berlin under a false identity, despite being on Germany’s most-wanted list. A simple internet picture search led to her hasty arrest by the hitherto ignorant German police.

Germany’s policy makes it the weakest link in Europe’s defence. Suppose that Russia, boosted by success in Ukraine, tests Nato’s resolve in Poland or the Baltic states?

These states would respond with flinty and furious resistance. We and other allies will want to help them. But suppose Germany cries ‘Diplomaten statt Granaten’ — ‘Diplomats instead of grenades’ — and demands that the crisis be solved through talks not war?

Sitting, as it does, on the North European Plain, Germany and its supply lines would be vital in rushing aid and ammunition to the front. Yet Berlin might bristle at direct involvement and close its borders and airspace to allied reinforcements.

This nightmarish prospect is not fiction. Germany closed its airspace to reinforcement flights at the start of the Ukraine war. The uncomfortable truth is that Germany slumbers as Europe burns, and that means sleepless nights for the rest of us.