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Code that helped end Apartheid

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358 points impish9208 | 5 comments | 18 Oct 24 13:05 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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jgrahamc ◴[18 Oct 24 13:35 UTC] No.41879323[source]▶
So when he DM’d me to say that he had “a hell of a story”—promising “one-time pads! 8-bit computers! Flight attendants smuggling floppies full of random numbers into South Africa!”—I responded.

Ha ha ha. Yes, that was literally my very short pitch to Steven about Tim Jenkin's story!

The actual DM: "I think this has the makings of a hell of a story: https://blog.jgc.org/2024/09/cracking-old-zip-file-to-help-o... If you want I can connect you with Tim Jenkin. One time pads! 8-bit computers! Flights attendants smuggling floppies full of random numbers into South Africa!"

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cutler[dead post] ◴[19 Oct 24 02:15 UTC] No.41885135[source]▶
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fldskfjdslkfj ◴[19 Oct 24 08:22 UTC] No.41886463[source]▶
The jewish people have a 2000 year old history and presence in the region, if that's consider colonialism then might as well just declare earth a settler-colonialist project and get it over with.
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anthk ◴[19 Oct 24 08:34 UTC] No.41886513[source]▶
So did the Italians, and I'm not sure if I would like Meloni ruling either Madrid or Barcelona... or the whole Mediterranean Europe and a chunk of Asia.
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1. psd1 ◴[19 Oct 24 10:29 UTC] No.41886965[source]▶
user fldsk means to say 6000 year history, of course. But I'm willing to come down on that, since Genesis is a bit of a chronological hand-wave.

I'm relying on whatever Synod counted the ages of people in the talks and arrived at a creation date of 4004 BC, of course

If we grant that Italy is Rome, which is a separate conversation, then we're still left with Roman conquest, which we don't consider legitimate today, and a long period of documented Jewish inhabitation.

I don't take a position on the legitimacy or otherwise of Israel, because there are already plenty of indignant westerners with insufficient information. But I will say: that written history is weighty evidence.

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2. anthk ◴[19 Oct 24 12:30 UTC] No.41887435[source]▶
The Bible is not a valid source, neither is the Talmud. I would trust the Egyptians far more as they wrote down everything.
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3. andrepd ◴[19 Oct 24 14:51 UTC] No.41888094[source]▶
> Genesis is a bit of a chronological hand-wave

What do you mean? Genesis is not remotely a historically accurate narrative at all

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4. psd1 ◴[21 Oct 24 02:30 UTC] No.41900189[source]▶
It's perfectly valid. The word you're looking for is "reliable".

If we were discussing the virgin birth, I wouldn't put any stock in the Bible. The gospels were written after the fact, by people who weren't there and had a strong motivation to make shit up. We conclude that it is _unreliable_ on the topic of the Virgin birth. (It's a reliable source on the topic of Christian beliefs in Nicaea in 300AD, however.)

But the Talmud describes Jews living in Judea at _great length_, which, I'll remind you, implies many hours spent reciting oral history or copying text by hand. It's supported by the existence of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The conspiracy that you suppose is of a flat-earth scale.

I won't discuss the middle east any further. Cunningham's Law got me. if you do want to learn more, try books.

5. psd1 ◴[21 Oct 24 02:35 UTC] No.41900214[source]▶
Irony. Consensus today is that the earth is 4 billion years old.