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"At this cafe, you get what the person before you ordered. The next person gets what you ordered."

cabel.name: Kashiwa Mystery Cafe

"Well, sure, Dad … I suppose you could buy an Android-based phone, if that’s what you really want,” a seven-months-pregnant daughter will say via email. “I guess I assumed you’d be buying an iPhone 4, like the one I have. Because, you know, I thought you might be interested in seeing your new grandson’s first steps and his first word and all of those other little milestones. Oh, well, no worries … his other grandpa is buying an iPhone. I suppose little Tralfaz will just form an unseverable lifelong bond with him instead…"

iPhone 4 review: It’s a brand new, better smartphone

"7 Awesome Ways Barnyard Animals Are Like Communism"

Great Literature Retitled To Boost Website Traffic

"Enough of this bullshit. I’m gonna go get hammered with Papyrus."

I’m Comic Sans, Asshole.

"The article clearly struck a nerve around the Internet, and it also struck a nerve with us. In response, we’ve decided to add a subtle but important option to Readability. Just below the style, size and margin options, you’ll find an option to Convert hyperlinks to footnotes […]"

Readability Updated: An End To The Yank Of The Hyperlink. Nice!

"Nicola Marzovilla runs a business, so when a client at his Gramercy Park restaurant, I Trulli, asks for a children’s menu, he does not say what he really thinks. What he says is, “I’m sure we can find something on the menu your child will like.” What he thinks is, “Children’s menus are the death of civilization."

To Develop Young Tastes, Look Past the Children’s Menu - NYTimes.com

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Organisations and groups may have quite different strategic goals in terms of key retention vs torture relief to the individuals that comprise them, even if their views are otherwise co-aligned. A simple democratic union of two or more people will exhibit this behaviour.

When a member of a group, who uses conventional cryptography to protect group secrets is rubber-hosed, they have two choices (1) defecting (by divulging keys) in order to save themselves, at the cost of selling the other individuals in the group down the river or (2) staying loyal, protecting the group and in the process subjugating themselves to continued torture.

With Rubberhose-style deniable cryptography, the benefits to a group memember from choosing tactic 1 (defection). are subdued, because they will never be able to convince their interrogators that they have defected. Rational individuals that are `otherwise loyal’” to the group, will realise the minimal gains to be made in chosing defection and choose tactic 2 (loyalty), instead.

Presumably most people in the group do not want to be forced to give up their ability to choose defection. On the other hand, no one in the group wants anyone (other than themselves) in the group to be given the option of defecting against the group (and thus the person making the observation). Provided no individual is certain* they are to be rubber-hosed, every individual will support the adoption of a group-wide Rubberhose-style cryptographically deniable crypto-system. This property is communitive, while the individual’s desire to be able to choose defection is not. The former every group member wants for every other group memeber, but not themselves. The latter each group memeber wants only for themself.

Physical Coercion vs Rubberhose (via)