Κάθε day, on my Facebook wall, are popping up quite a few proud announcements of New Zoom renovation projects, new exhibitions and initiatives accompanied by thousands of likes. Consequently, everything is going fairly well in the New Zealand. In the following 15 minutes, I would like to draw my dislike, or at least my concern sign, using as case study Greek archaeological museums and prehistoric figurines. If I were concerned with their history, my task would be not so demanding. Although archaeological museums in general seem to evolve, figurines exhibits have always been and still are the same. However, figurines are not all the same. They adapt to the material, they embody the sensibility and skill of their manufacture, they reflect the randomness of a handmade artifact and they engulf social variety, etc. Consequently, an exhibit that would follow and highlight a typology of figurines would seem reasonable, although it could be considered old fashioned, bearing in mind outdated, positivistic, mechanistic or pedantic classifications. However, perhaps a typology based on criteria that has suggested in contemporary research can topple typical evaluations of museum visitors who favor naturalistic to schematic figurines and consciously following obsolete interpretations which consider the latter as childish examples of a declining art. Πεσονally, I would be very much tempted by the idea of a display correlating these types with the ways of prehistoric settlement is evolving across time, or the mechanisms a prehistoric community develops to manage collective memory. And I really don't mind if such a correlation is just a scholar's hypothesis and has not a unanimous consent. A maybe less risky idea is the museological handling of an issue only present in archaeological studies, gender identification and the significance of female figurines' abundance. We could use figurines to reflect on the many faces of prehistoric women or rather the many images we construct for prehistoric women today. Πresent here as immature adolescent, mother, sexual subject, servant elderly, passive reproductive tool, dynamic community member, pursuing her social role in gestures, body shape and indiscernible incisions on the figurines' malleable clay flash. I realized that such an approach is working on a dangerous interpretive path and I'm not putting it on the table carried away by a feminist enthusiasm. What I have in mind is that in this way we can deconstruct simplistic generalizations that dominate and reproduce sometimes hysterically out there. In other words, it is absolutely meaningless to put in the corner of a glass case this miniscule figurine that according to Gibutas represents the goddess of birth. On the contrary, we can put it at the center and use it to reexamine the mythic iconography of prehistoric society because I contend that the museum should take the initiative for the debate if we want to overturn the image of a female pantheon reflection of an ideal material health prehistoric society. A concept dominating out there although strongly questioned by us. Toys, dolls, grave goods, amulets, concubines, communication tools, votive offerings, identity marks, the list of widely accepted or doubted ideas for the use of figurines is quite long. I don't want to evaluate them but I would like to use them. The combination of ancient objects with contemporary ones is not unusual when we want to indicate conceptual correlations or use. We usually put behind a clay wall the photograph of a woman spinning. What if we put behind the aforementioned small figurine, a woman giving birth. We are afraid that young children would be shocked. Then why the idea of contemporary toys and Barbie dolls is not adopted since many scholars believe that figurines could be agents imposing and reproducing social norms. Then again we can put the impressive female figurine on an altar unless we are afraid through the furious local priest. Or we can put figurines with long necks next to a contemporary vibrator if we believe that they were prehistoric sexual aids. Unless our contemporary stuffiness doesn't allow it. Taking into consideration the limits of a public museum I'll make another more conservative proposal. We can put the stratophagic female figurine next to the flint blades and the carbonized seeds if we think that it expresses a wish for a rich harvest. My point is that since figurines are inextricable elements of the multifaceted prehistoric life and I believe there is no doubt about that they should be treated as any other object in museum exhibition and not as it is almost always the case isolated as pockets of spiritual meditation in the frame of a mundane society that is mechanically surviving or and I'm not sure which is the worst as archeologically unexplored islands surrounded by a calm ocean of interpretive certainties. I suppose that such an approach is difficult since there are so many ideas, some of them contradicting about the use of figurines which moreover can hardly be correlated with other material remains and mainly because most of them are not safely supported by archeological data. Let's then focus on archeological data. Let's take the figurines out of the glass case and let's show them dirty, broken and worn among rubbish and debris or on the contrary intact as groups of in meaningful context. Let's not underestimate the museological significance of things that every archeologist knows very well. The fragmentation of the remains, the ambiguity of data, the tyranny of a disturbed layer, the differences and similarities we observe even if we cannot decipher, in other words, the raw material of archeological interpretation. And if this seems weird inside the immaculate museum halls, I have another idea. It is well known that every object introduced in a museum is perceived by the visitor as an artistic masterpiece. Albeit how problematic such a perception is, it's not irrelevant to enhance the artistic value of figurines and underline what a prominent Greek prehistorian calls artistic orgasm and expression of exhilaration.  My problem is not glass case itself, but the visual relation it establishes. Figurines more than most archeological material constituted a strong visual stimulus for prehistoric people. Therefore, it is fair enough to stress their visuality. However, our aim should be to show how they were seen by prehistoric people and what these people were seeing on them. If the latter is almost eutopic, since we belong to a completely different regime, it's worth exploring the first one. There is no point to impose on figurines a specific stance overlooking that most of them do not have some sort of base, at least one that we can identify as such. There is no need to turn to discrete crutches to solve a problem that most probably prehistoric people did not have. Figurines constitute par excellence mobile artifacts and this mobility was essential for the fulfillment of their role in prehistory. Therefore, I wonder why would try so hard to nail them as if they were Roman statues.  Therefore, I cannot understand why we are determined to offer just one view to the visitor. Moreover, the static figurines give to the visitor the impression that they were passive recipients of a gaze, although many scholars reject such an approach. Small, suffocated in huge museum halls and crowded class cases, worn within discernible details, are incapable to persuade the visitor that in prehistory they have been acting as agents for identity constitution, in position negotiation or subversion of social perceptions and behaviors. It is exactly the small size that makes me wonder about the results of a complete inversion of scale. On the other hand, figurines as tangible objects are not mere visual stimuli. They are material bodies that we can grasp, harry in our palm filled with our fingertips. Some years ago in UK visitors were wondering an exhibition holding a small clay figurine made for the occasion by a contemporary potter. It's not a bad idea as long as we will never get the permission to give originals to the visitors. The aforementioned potter declared that it is not so difficult, nor time consuming to make a clay figurine. Many archaeologists have reached the same conclusion before her. I argue that it is time for the museum visitors to realize it as well. They should realize that it's quite another story when stone is used. And also that regardless of the chosen material, some figurines entail much more sophisticated and demanding construction methods. So hopefully visitors can start wondering about the significance of all these different construction techniques. They can try to decipher the intentions of the producer of this material image, no matter what their consumer perceives. An exhibition orientated to figurines can also experiment with the relations among them. Such a relation cannot be depicted in boring alignments on museums' shelves. And I don't have in mind only the well-documented figurine groups taking into consideration gestures and postures, we can see figurines as acting figures, as members of a complex arrangement that is pulled together and then is torn apart just to be recomposed in another way, possibly with the participation of other objects and of course of prehistoric people, some of whom were seeing themselves on these figurines even if there were no obvious similarities. Attempting to briefly explore the museological potential of figurines, I consciously avoided groundbreaking proposals based on novel exhibition choices. On the contrary, I have tried to point out that the exuberant archaeological debate that is anyway developing and the exhibition toolkit we now possess provides us with reasons and means sufficient to formulate some alternative display ideas coherent with archaeological anxiety and interesting for the visitors, I hope. However, I contend that figurines' exhibits are characterized by remarkable awkwardness that is growing over time compared to the enrichment of both archaeological and museological dialogue. It may seem peculiar, but I believe that the usual disparaging criticism of last century's archaeological museums is unjustifiably harsh. They express the aesthetic, technological, and communicative spirit of their time. In the same time, they were consistently expressed the dominant archaeological interpretations of their time. They were formulated by a less significantly abundant material record by a limited number of scholars and were following more or less a specific scientific paradigm. Thus, archaeological ideas and archaeological exhibitions have been collaborating in harmony for years supporting distinctively national narratives. However, things are not that simple anymore. Εξcavation have produced an explosive amount of archaeological material which fortunately led to a similarly explosive and not only terms of quantity interpretive production which is now supported by numerous scholars and rarely obeyed imperatives of a single dominant theoretical frame. Nevertheless, my content is that museums were unready to handle this absolutely interesting exuberance. Having said that, I don't mean that they haven't renewed their tools and techniques. On the contrary, my problem is that apart from this superficial renovation, museums haven't questioned the mechanisms with which they are interwoven and which they have been successfully supporting since the 19th century. Therefore, as long as we consider that archaeological exhibits have to present unquestionable truths and only them, figurines' interpretive problems are museologically unsurmountable. As long as they have space only for one, two, or three at the most alternative approaches, the plethora of alternative proposals concerning figurines is not museologically manageable. As far as we do not question the role of museums as a geological apparatus of the state and by that, apart from jingoistic discourse, I also mean social prejudice, stereotypical hierarchies, moral standards, et cetera, the uncanny characteristics of prehistoric community as they are expressed on figurines can only be eliminated. However, I argue that this uncanny, incomprehensible fleeting character of prehistory is the key. If we decide that in the museum we should erase it all from the cultural mosaic into our own scale, no matter how many modern glass cases and touch screens we employ, the only possible result is a damp exhibit presenting primitive techniques and childish art. Unless we let this uncanny incomprehensible fleeting character of prehistory to guide us, unless we turn to cheap and flexible exhibits based on fluidity, renegotiation and quick change things that go in hand with the speed in which today's ideas and proposals are born and die, exhibits that will dare to experiment, not being afraid of failure, that will welcome debate, disagreement and conflict, believing that in this way new conclusions will occur, theories will be questioned and discarded, exhibits that will evoke questions bewilderment on anger and not bored admiration. And I think that this is what we need more than anything else, either being scholars in a conference room or normal people out there. Thank you.


Hello and welcome to Dispatches from India, a show by People's Dispatch where we bring you the latest news from the country, what Indians are talking about and its effect on economy, polity and society. Mr. Furrode Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari recently shared a government advertisement from his Twitter handle that stirred up controversy. The ad stars actor Akshay Kumar who is known to be close to the right-wing ruling party in India, the BJP. The ad shows a father who is weeping as his newly married daughter leaves with her husband in a car.  This official ad by the Government of India is intended to create awareness on road safety. However, soon after it was aired it received major backlash from the public and opposition parties alike, accusing the government of promoting and justifying the act of dowry. The practice of dowry involves the family of the bride paying large sums of cash and kind to the family of the groom during marriage. Women are often stigmatised or treated badly if their families do not cuff up enough dowry. According to data released by the National Crime Records Bureau or NCRB, there has been a 25% rise in cases of dowry in the country in the past year compared to 2020. We have with us lawyer Kirti Singh speaking on the dowry system in India. For the last few years, we have seen a progressive deterioration in the status of women and we have seen a decline as far as the statistics are concerned because they not only are we being ruled by a regressive ideology as far as women are concerned but also all kinds of regressive customs and traditions are being fuelled again and amongst them is the custom of dowry. So when people are and you see the many statements by the BJP government supporters who talk about how women should dress, what they should wear, who think of women as second-class citizens, who think of them not as equals and who therefore find nothing wrong with what is if dowry is given or taken. Even when you go to the police, the police don't think of investigating the cases properly. We see even cases of dowry death not being investigated properly. Now police don't collect the evidence, they don't get the statements reported in time. They do not think that it's a very grave offense if it is committed. Obviously the government should be acting to lessen the number of cases but I don't have any hopes of that happening because when you see that even in the Akshay Kumar case, I mean you see a normalization of the practice of dowry. So where, who, unless you think that it's an evil, unless you think that it is something to be stopped, who's going to stop it? The unemployment rate in the country is at its worst in the past year at 8.3%. In August this year more than 2 million people were unemployed according to data released by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy or the CMIE. The report reflects quite a quick increase in this rate as in just July this year the rate was at 6.83%. If one is to look at individual states then the BJP rule state of Haryana is the worst with an unemployment rate of 37.3%. The report also sheds light on the unemployment rate on gender lines. The unemployment rate in men stands at 6.6% and 15.2% in women. To understand the seriousness of these figures we spoke with Economics Professor Chirishi Dasgupta. Now why aren't there enough jobs and why is the number of unemployed and the proportion of unemployed going up in the economy? And for this we need to understand two things. At the time of liberalization there was the rate of profit that the organized capitalist sector, manufacturing sector used, the industrial sector used to make was around 25%. And this was with regulation.  But in the Marxist sense the rate of profit has shown a tendency to fall over time and it was static at about 17-18% in about 2010-11. But in the last few years it has now fallen to 11-12%. And this actually shows a crisis of capitalism in India and the response to that has been to intensify what existed already which is called the process of labor cheapening which is by the share of wages in the economy has been falling and the share of the surplus that accrues to capitalism has been rising over time. Now when this happens what do you mean and because we have a large labor surplus that we inherited since independence and there was never really a post liberalization, the labor surplus has increased. So keeping wages low is more difficult and then there is a first command over unpaid work especially of women and of people who are lower down in the caste and religious hierarchy. So all this together what means is that the income of the majority of people is actually in real terms not rising. It is depending on social location, it is either stagnant or falling. And this means that there is a low demand in the economy and just by the demand of the 10% no economy can survive. So 90% of people are actually seeing a contraction in what they can purchase and consume. However, capitalists are very happy with this situation because if they can keep on getting absolute profits and the share of the surplus increases every year to the point where it is about 65% of the total value that is created in the economy then they are absolutely happy about it. And then like as long as this fiscal consolidation, fiscal compression not spending like you enough by the state continues that actually helps more and more privatization agendas which perfectly suits the interest of finance capital both domestic and international. And that is exactly what is going on and which indicates that there is a complete narrowing of the class basis of the state in India in favor of capital and against workers. And this in a sense is the institutional structural reason for unemployment rising which cannot be just looked at in terms of monthly fluctuations of data. The longer term trend has to be explained through what has been happening in India for the past three decades and especially after 2015 which is just simply an intensification of the process. In our final story more than 30,000 workers in small rubber plantations in Kanyakumari a major town in the state of Tamil Nadu continue to languish without minimum wages and job security. Rubber plantations are the primary source of livelihood in Kanyakumari's hilly regions. The workers say that they suffer immensely especially during monsoons when they are left without work and wages. Social welfare measures including medical aid remain a distant dream for them. Here's a ground report. In Kanyakumari, there are no other ways to get a job. Even if you go tomorrow, you will get a job like that. If you don't like it, you will get a job in the future. We have been working here for the past 50 years and now we are 66 years old. In 2022, we have reached Malai in Kanyakumari. There is no unemployment in the Palawet University of Kanyakumari. For 3-4 months, 5-6 months, we can get a job in Malai. After all this, we are not able to get a job. Tamil Nadu government and other governments are not able to get a job. We are not able to get a job. We have been working here for a long time. We are not able to get a job because of the rain. Tamil Nadu government and other governments are not able to get a job because of the rain. We are not able to get a job because of the rain. We are not able to get a job because of the rain. We are not able to get a job. We have to collect all theated work to produce a big amount. The management side is saying that Malay is not good because of the rain. But they are not ready to give full treatment to their own child. That is a big problem. They are going to think that they did something wrong. But this is happening in their workplace. This is a continuation of the agitation. What they are doing now is that they are giving full treatment to their own child. That is not possible. We think that treatment is not good. If there is a disease, we should give it to the state. We don't get any treatment from the government. We don't get any treatment from the government. We don't get any treatment from the government. What will the government do? Keep watching. We will see you next week.


So I'm here with Nellini Stamp, who is the National Organising Director of the Working Families Party. Nellini, how are you doing? Good! Thanks for hanging out. Pleasure. Pleasure to have you here, because I am fascinated by how your work spans lots of different spheres of organising in the US, trying to tackle this massive social and political crisis on so many different fronts. Can you talk to me more about how you see your work figuring into, I guess, solving this incredible political crisis in the US? Yeah, crisis is the same thing. But yeah, I mean, as my full-time job and what I do at the Working Families Party is that we find, identify and recruit candidates to run for office on a leftist politic. Candidates that are going to be committing to anti-racism, committing to smashing the patriarchy. I don't know if they would say that, but that's how we talk about them in that way. And making sure that we are actually governing and trying to govern the best way we can, even though our government was set up on the two sins of genocide, indigenous genocide and enslaved Africans. But we're using the system for what it is, especially since the Tea Party and all these kind of right-wing groups took over with Trump. And in other forms, too, is like supporting social movements. Like a political organization, a political party should not be in existence if they're not going to throw down with social movements. So from Occupy Wall Street to not one more, the immigration, like, you know, folks battling immigration crisis to the movement for Black Lives, we've tried to just throw down our support. That means showing up in the streets, whether that means supporting people with, you know, office space or printers, right? Like the basic things that you can and use our resources to actually say that, like, a political party stands with the movement that is down to take, you know, taking on racism that is taking on capitalism that is taking on the patriarchy. And in terms of characterizing, like, the particular nature of the crisis, because, like, a lot of the phenomena you've been pointing out that as, like, urgent horizons of struggle about, like, patriarchy and, like, white supremacy and capitalism have been, you know, the legacy of the basic infrastructure of America. But there's something particular about this moment that seems to be galvanizing people.  Do you think that that's a fair way of characterizing it? I definitely think that we're in a fascist moment in the United States. We have an authoritarian leader who, leader, it sounds so weird to say that, but like we have an authoritarian who was elected president of the United States, who empathizes and sympathizes with white supremacists when Charlottesville happened and Heather Hire was murdered in the streets, right, where we had anti-fascists that actually saved people's lives. There have been people on record that said if anti-fascists weren't there, they probably would have died. That level of seriousness, right? And they keep on coming out in the streets, the white supremacists. And so right now, I think we're in this crisis because the reality is, is that what fascists have been able to use, white supremacists, they've been saying that, you know, there is an economic crisis and we're all struggling and white people need to unite and our race is in trouble and all of these things. And they're using the fear that people really have because of the financial crisis 10 years ago, because of things like NAFTA and our trade agreements that took jobs away from people in the U.S. in the 90s, like, and they're basing that fear, they're using fear, economic fear and scarcity, and they're basing that fear on hatred of immigrants, on hatred of and rooted in the anti-blackness that the United States has.  Like that, a lot of people wear those shirts at Trump rallies. When you look at a Trump rally or you see it, it seems like a fascist rally, right? Like the propaganda, the people are holding up white supremacist symbols and insignia and like, there was people who've done the hyal. Like this is like, we're at this moment where like it is a fascist moment in the United States. It's also hard with the history that we have. We have a history of black folks in particularly first being enslaved, then redlining out of, you know, getting cut up into districts, segregation, you know, lynchings and mass incarceration that has existed to this day. The reality is, is that like, it's both a moment where it's a fascist moment and also we have to also recognize that some people like black communities feel like they've been living in a fascist state for a really long time. There is this kind of double side to the conditions that seems to have given rise to, I guess, a wake-up call to everyone but particularly to white America because a lot of people have said, you know, as you rightly point out that there are these underlying economic conditions that have provided, I guess, like a groundswell of justification to like fascist and far-right movements of all kinds. But there's also the, that wouldn't be possible or that wouldn't be possible on such an incredible mechanized scale without the other side of that heritage, which is like the extraordinary and extraordinarily violent infrastructure of policing and of deportation and of mass incarceration that has been going on for, you know, the establishment of the country. So it does seem that particularly in the US the distinction between fascism and like just good old-fashioned racial capitalism seems particularly slippery. So it seems like how do you combat fascism as like a separate formation and as like a particular kind of thing in and of itself and how do you separate those tactics out from like the struggle generally and like where do you like allocate those tactics and where do you allocate those resources, I guess, because when fascists are mobilizing in the streets it's tempting to just, I guess, treat symptoms rather than, I guess, treating the cause, which is where you get this veneration of the anti-fascist as like a college-age skinny white dude with a mask throwing a brick through the window, like that is the prime anti-fascist tactic. Yeah, I mean so getting, I just believe in the word radical means going to the roots of the problem, right, and not the leafs of the tree but the roots because it starts with the roots and I think what we were having in this moment right now, I wouldn't say if I'm organizing communities or in like in mass meetings or in organizing meetings, we wouldn't say, okay fascists are taking over, right, we've tried to now call the spade the spade which is white supremacy, right, because that was for years, like they were like all the white supremacists, that's a thing in the past, right, the hoods, the hoods are not out anymore, people don't need their hoods anymore, they are going out in public with their faces, with I mean and it's a whole movement, I mean when in Charlottesville before the night before Heather Hyred died, you know, when they were that photo of the Tiki torches, right, these folks are like dressing in a way together but it's a different form, they're tacky shorts and a collared shirt, it doesn't, they don't need hoods anymore, they have torches. Yeah, and they have the White House as well, the actual White House, which was built by enslaved Africans, right, and so I think, so for, I mean for us like the way that in terms of organizing and how we like do the different strategies to combat that, I think it's like one it's like I'm actually really relieved finally people are calling it what it is, right, the fact that we are, we had a national dialogue where we're like Trump is a white supremacist sympathizer, that's insane, like it hasn't happened in such a long time, even in, you know, even back in the day during the civil rights movement, there was, it was just, I mean people had to, they were white supremacist sympathizers but people weren't calling them, they weren't calling this baby this baby, they weren't saying, they weren't naming it, and so I think it's really important that we were able to get to this point where we're naming it, in terms of the different strategies to like get to the root, one is that we have to understand that our, the laws, like in the United States, like the Constitution, there's a 13th amendment that says that abolish slavery except for former punishment, the carceral state was literally built.  Yes, my God. What a get out clause, that is the 13th amendment in the United States, right? And so how do we change that? Kind of change the Constitution takes a lot. And so there's different strategies. What we do at the Working Families Party is on the electoral field, right? We're battling it out because we're taking out folks who are saying crazy things, like, you know, there are actual white supremacists who are running for office because they're inspired by Trump, who are like not, are saying like, yeah, I'm with the Nazi party, like that's the level we're doing, so that's a battle. Completely unapologetic. Absolutely. We need to be like at the Antifa movement in the United States where we're, when white supremacists come out on the streets, like they try to do in DC to celebrate the year anniversary, they were celebrating at the year after Charlottesville in August, the same dates and times, but they went to DC this time. And they were counter protested and it was bigger than Charlottesville in terms of the counter protest. That's good things. These are really good things. So we need to have the fight in the streets a lot of the times because we need to say that's not okay. You can't be out here like that, right? And then we also need to do the electoral movement. We have to build organizations of working class people that are led by, in my opinion, women of color, trans women of color, because these are folks who are dying every day and we're dying every day before Trump was elected, right? And so those are the folks who can connect the struggles and say this is how it has been and this is how it's radically changed now that Trump is in office because both truths are real and so multiple truths, right? And so I just think that we, and we're trying on a lot of fronts right now. And there is that sense that the initial shock has been, has given way to, I guess it's been a sort of gateway drug to a realization of just how normal this is for a lot of folks, especially, and that kind of gives us almost a key to strategies because it's not like, it's not like this has come out of the blue and that means that people have having, have been having to use strategies like just to survive, like just to survive in the conditions of like total objection. So it does seem that they're drawing together of different strands of movements that have been kind of marginalized, but from this, from my side of the Atlantic at least seem to be drawing together into some kind of coherent movement that isn't just antifascist, but treats, treats the future as something that has like more hope loaded into it than just maybe, maybe we won't have genocide, right? There's a drawing together of like antifascist movements and like the fight through 15 and the fight to like decriminalize marijuana as like a racial justice issue and that kind of thing. So yeah, no, I mean, I think that that is critical. We actually, I work with an organization called Mi Hinte, a Latinx organization that is pro-black, pro-indigenous, pro-queer, pro-pueblo, pro-worker, you know, like we try to be pro things instead of just anti, just to have that hope and that future.  But we, you know, when the families were being separated, a bunch of people were like families belong together. But here's the thing, they don't belong together incarcerated.  Oh, excuse my language. Great, great. Awesome. I'm a New Yorker, so. And I like they don't belong together in a cell. So what we did was we went, we made an intervention with a coalition of organizations, including Working Families Party, who said, free our future. That's what we want to talk about. We want to talk about our future, you know, and I like alliteration. So, who does it? And so that was like really what it was about, right? It was about, it was like, free our future. Yes, that means abolishing ICE as a state. And people are like, oh, well, if ICE gets abolished, what's next, we're going to go back to NCIS. It's doesn't matter. ICE has had its time. They're basically almost the Gestapo, a Border Patrol agent. Literally, they found out that he was a mass murderer just this two weeks ago. He got arrested because he murdered like five immigrant women. Jesus Christ. Yeah. And I mean, and that precisely the kind of like power that you need to gift someone in order to do their job efficiently. Like it's not, it's not this kind of completely off the wall preposition that like a border guard could just like go in and like, you know, pick people off individually because that's kind of what they're trained to do. Completely go in within the role of the border guard. Absolutely. And again, when we look at to the root of what is, does policing come from?  So like when we actually, when we peel off the layers, and it takes a lot, right? I get it. After Trump got elected, a lot of people realized that there was oppression for the first time in the United States.  Things are great. Things are fine.  Yeah. You know, and so, but like the realities is like, we have to actually work with people. We have to meet people where they're at and peel off those layers, which is why I appreciate folks like within the Women's March in the United States. Shout out to Sophie doing like confronting white women hood, right? Like having that, that's it's super important because that needs to be done. I'm not going to do it. Yeah, you've got, you've got another thing to do. Like sounds exhausting. Yeah.  We always need trappers. But like, you know, I think that like, you know, I just think that we have to both peel back the layers, meet people where they're at, right? Meet people where they're entering, right? Because anybody who's entering our movement is a good thing. Yeah. It's a good thing. We just got to move them along a little bit quicker because the situation is in crisis. And we need to just think about giving an entry point for other people, because some people don't want to do the clashes in the streets. Some people want to, you know, make phone calls and figure out something, right? And we have to give people those strategies to maximize so we can actually beat back what I think is becoming, yeah, an authoritarian state right now in the U.S.


So I'm gonna try to make a pretty heavy-duty wheelbarrow It's as stainless as possible I don't want anything that's just gonna rust and fall apart and I do have some nice stainless scrap more pieces over there I'm pretty sure this is something I'll use a lot. So like for a long time So it's worth using some of my stainless stuff It is gonna take kind of a lot though All right, I'm gonna need two sticks strong pretty long sticks I've got this Not quite as thick as I would like And I've also got this Probably more than I need Kind of overkill. Hmm. Oh 10 feet Halfways like right there That would be long enough barely Yeah Nice to get a little longer. I just tried bending this longer tube. It seems pretty strong So I think I'll use that one Not this one Broken another store-bought broken thing. This is why I make things myself Guess I need to make a tape measure. It's six feet should be long enough for a wheelbarrow, right? Clear the wheel Yes, I know the wheel is not on it yet. It's not Yes, this is your factor. I still not finished Pretty start though Austin's breaking too. Oh, it's crooked. Yes, I need to make a loader. I'm kind of a loader I need to cut off that stick Nice wheelbarrow. I get killed for a spot welder right now. But I don't have time to make one I'm gonna go with the rivets rivets will look cool. Anyway Access to both sides of the material I'm using rivets.  Well, that's minimal functional wheelbarrow right there What else do I want to do to it? I want to make this extra strong. I can make a stick coming down here on both sides and then something going back here because that the parts that are most likely to fail are right here Having this bend up and then right here having that bend up stick there and stick there prevent it I think you put a few more rivets along the side here. I Think maybe just one up here and one on the back because everything else is held in like this is the This side panel will be held in by the fold up of the metal below it And then the metal below it's held up by that so I don't worry about that Yeah, this is this part could pop out or that could pop out. So yeah an extra couple rivets there Oh, you know it two birds with one stone I don't need an extra rivet here when I put a stick from here I'll just put it right up to there put a bolt in the stick down and connect the stick to that screw there And that'll be an extra holder there. I can do the same thing with the back put a bolt in stick Yeah, I do have a bunch of these Think that'd be suitable. All right now that is a good-looking piece of stuff. Yeah As fast as you can get it. Yep, lots of times All right front stabilizer to get the weight right over the wheel rear stabilizer to get the weight near my hands Yeah, I think that's it What do I need feet on it for so I don't need to bend over to pick her up Yeah, I think I can handle that It makes loading easier anyway It's way up here have to throw everything in twice as high Beauty I think it's done. Oh nice and solid. Oh, yeah. All right. Where are my kids? I think it's just left. What am I gonna do? All right Somebody's getting a ride in this thing All right with any luck. This is the first and last wheelbarrow I ever own Never bought one before cuz I always look so boring and disposable in the stores. I'm gonna do a quick Weight test Nothing's bending the handles are still in the right places. I weigh 200 pounds. So Yeah, I'm not gonna put much more than me in it The wheel is the only thing that's not stainless steel. So I I may have to replace that at some point everything else should last thousand years, I don't know And when I do eventually replace the wheel It'll be with something that won't rest and then the whole thing will last thousand years or whatever Kind of want to pile those baby decks in here But they'll just start eating the foam you know, I Got this piece of metal from the junkyard. It used to be a Slot machine.  I need to get the floor on this boat Yeah, whatever I also grabbed a smushed banana up there from my iguana buddy Well, I have two iguana buddies now Yes, I'm going to make the sounds every time I've used wheelbarrows a lot of times before I've never owned my own and This is the best wheelbarrow I've ever used by far and the reason is This may just be personal preference But most wheelbarrows this front thing sticks out further right and it sticks out further So when you tip it up it gets into the ground and then you can you know, you don't have to worry about rolling while you're trying to dump the problem is Then when you're driving around It hits everything like you try to go over a rock Crashes into the rock try to go over a piece of wood laying on the ground This thing I just drove through a bunch of off-road stuff It's just like boing boing like the wheels hitting not that front piece so nice I got over so many things that I was You know my my wheelbarrow instinct said oh you can't get over that and I was like well Let's just see maybe in mind you can and no problem another huge thing is I didn't realize how much I don't want legs on it until I was using it because that's another thing that ends up hitting things You know if you're trying to I mean if you're on flat ground fine No problem, but if you're on ground with you know lumpy stuff they end up hitting You know there's obstacles you get your wheel up and over something and it hits your feet and it's like And then the last thing I Have to look at another wheelbarrow to confirm this but I think the weight is low in this wheelbarrow compared to most wheelbarrows because You know in most wheelbarrows you lift it up And you gotta you gotta gotta put a fair amount of effort into keeping it from tipping But this thing is it feels so stable compared to other wheelbarrows of use partly. I'm sure because I have a big wide Wheel on the front, which I'm sure helps a lot But I think a lot of it is also just that the weight is lower than in most wheelbarrows But yeah, that wheel probably helps a lot. I don't know either way. It's so easy to drive around and do everything Normally I have to like focus you know when I put it up when I fill something up with this much dirt And focus on keeping it from tipping but this is I don't know. I'm just I'm really happy with this All right. I gotta get back to work


Thanks a lot for coming to a mathematical talk so early in the morning I really be thankful to speak here about this and a topic of my talk today is more a to-do list then providing Unfinite wisdom to the Audience and I'm glad that a lot of people doing crypto parties and stuff like this And so I want to push your attention also to a crypto event taking part Today at 1400 and Hanu will make some remarks about this at the end of my talk And it's fit really very perfectly because we had the situation Which is a bit surprising that in the Snowden discussion At what Snowden made a statement not only that crypto works or even That crypto is not an aren't an art. It's a basic protection is a defense against a magic against Bad and dark attacks against us And so you might ask if crypto can deal with this Is it something like a kind of magic and we need people wearing funny hats to present it? And the solution is surprisingly nice. It's not magic It's mathematics and in mathematics in a very beautiful form and to make it also from a standpoint as a Scientist to make very clear if we use crypto in an appropriate way. We can turn a much little change the Word in which we communicate our digital words can Dramatical change from a situation where secret agencies and other organization wire traps everything With the world where the secret agencies wiretap everything and can do it nothing and I make it in this small Python statement if you encrypt with as a a message and send it out and It is a wiretap this communication They can only recognize very long very beautiful random And so it is a really a dramatic game changer and for us and in the crypto research community is a question now a very central one That that our work has become so important that we really should Take a good consideration. What are the social impacts in our work? And I'm very happy that my work is in a field where scientific Advances helps the weaker persons in the most scientific fields You have the situation if you develop something new It usually helps the powerful people in a case of cryptography. It helps really by definition the people to defend against very powerful Very powerful attacker Against our system to make it very clear even in our smart cutting or our sim in our Mobile phones can encrypt With a very simple algorithms in a way that Secret agencies cannot access to the communication the communication there in in the air to be very clear crypto source not every Kind of problems. So the main purpose is now how to use crypto in an environment where the secret agencies wiretap everything and so my Idea is very to present some stuff which helps the weaker people to empower The confrontation with the secret agencies and the situation is not so bad. It's becoming much Better than for instance for two years ago We have a lot of fields in where we cryptographer has to do some work But in some fields we have really remarkable Results within the last time and even better a lot of our results is now put to Internet standards and stuff like this. The main point I want to address is that we should ban a weak crypto this is a Field where we can really Chains the whole game by setting a check on the right place in Most cases is trust deactivating as he for a solution for the problem field in no area of the medical We have oops battery I love my Linux so Second part is the field of hash functions. That is a bit scary situation, but even this field is getting better Problem field I have really also a long tradition to rant about is elliptical curve crypto In this field we have a total mess and the total mess is Generated by the National Institute of standards if the National Institute of standards standard the size Backdoor, which is very open and easy to see Then they have to deal with the problems that nobody trusts their parameters and in the field of elliptical Cryptography we have a lot of critical Parameters and if we don't trust the Organization which provides us this critical Parameter we are in deep problem So elliptical curve is something where a lot of interesting research is going on nevertheless. It's a field where I have a Lot of worries about The last two parts are post quantum cryptography I think we should think about a post quantum Cryptography now. I don't know exactly and which state the attackers grunting computers are but the engineering Mindset in me as as that it's good to be safe. It's better to be safe than sorry So I think we have now the time to invest some money to for strange mathematicians Developing strange algorithms So we can deal better also in a world where quantum computer Real problem to make a short Explanation a quantum computer would dramatically break not only as a on different helman But even breaks in in a earlier step all elliptical curve cryptography So it's an interesting thing to put their some efforts in and I want to close with some Optimistical remarks. I think we have some social protocols and Some advanced cryptography which could be very helpful to generate an environment in a digital world How can we illuminate a weak crypto in our Cypher's I have written on these slides of the last millennium and I give a talk about window security Today in the evening and I have realized that the two main problems in the actual patch disaster of Microsoft are really coming from the old crypto wars the freak attack and the second thing is Using very weak a hash function So it's a very interesting point that even the transformation away from weak cypher's could Let to a lot of practical problems. We should also take into consideration That's a medical crypto can be solved in a pretty easy way. We should simply ban As if or this is a old Request by the cryptographic research community which comes now to internet standards, which disallow Using as if or and that's the good thing if you take a look at the history of as if or it's a amazing brilliant idea of one remiss but From an engineering standpoint it's much too elegant to be very secure and actual research results show that our worries I have announced directly after the Snowden case the idea that the NSA can break as if you're in real time Might be a good consideration as Bruce Schneier mentioned. So simply Just don't use as before we have IS IS There are some cryptographic worries, but they are far away from practical use. I would really suggest to use IS 256 some cryptographer say 128 is also a good solution, but I have the Main idea if you can really spend some processor cycle I think using longer keys is a very good idea and To make Small hacker remark if you don't trust IS Then you have from a mathematical hacker standpoint the idea to combine to systems That the attacker has to break both or at least the Harder one and if you combine this to cypher physics or you can simply prove That an attacker has to break the strongest of both algorithm and if you have a common Commutative solution, it's easy to see that an attacker has to break Both cypher if you exploit in appropriate mode you should check that a bit But I think it's funny that was one point where I have not been sure if I have been too paranoid To announce this construction using a two-fishing IS in crypto form Nevertheless, it's interesting to see that it's also in a white used Solution in true crypt and I was really very fleshed when I hear to that at what Snowden Bruce Nairth have discussed in Harvard about the idea to Cascade cypher in an appropriate way Bush now has criticized this I fear He was he might be right, but on the other hand I'm sure that the construction which has been suggested by me and other Researchers will provide a warm and fuzzy feeling in the trip. Oops. Sorry So next point is a bit scary I Have thought a lot of time For a better word to present this but I give you some background information We have the dramatic Situation that show one and MD5 is broken in a way that you can attack it in a successful way on a standard PC That is totally broken MD5 it's well known there have been other but also in the field of show one results in the last some Years have shown that these attacks are deeply practical some years ago there was a presentation by Applebaum and and and and another researcher shown that you can attack the certification framework of a Organization using MD5 and you can dance the almost the same story also on char one And this is actual problem. How actual is it? Yeah, as I mentioned I give a talk about windows 10 in the evening and I think in March there was an update from Microsoft going away from char one and To be very clear. I think it's now 20 years that they're using really a totally broken function now we have the really funny situation that we The char one function is designed by the NSA even there is a Funny story the first proposal from the NSA was there and was presented was in the standard procedure and they said Oh, well, we have forgotten something and added I think a rotation on a strange place making the system stronger without giving a good explanation So we're using an NSA a function where we Pretty sure that the only that there are only few fields where the NSA has an advance about the Public research and I fear in the field of hash function That might be a case if you take a look at the analysis of stooks nets you find some techniques Which are pretty interesting? The NSA has used some really hardcore crypto stuff to attack Here a system in a way Where it has not been necessary. So they have really shown that they have tools Which has not been necessary in a practical sense. So I can really state out that Hash functions is a field where a lot of good research or good or evil research Has been taken part in the NSA Why I tell this story because the the hash function which is now used by Microsoft char 265 is also designed by the NSA and has similar design to char one and The funny thing is that the NIST has stated out that the char three a competition Has been necessary because they are worried that somebody would break a char 265 and For some years there have been no results, but we have now the situation to char 200 265 is a NSA proposal which has not been nearly as good analyzed than the other ciphers and This is something what makes me also a bit worry Funny thing is I I told you that it's sometimes a strange idea I have used some times to do things double when I don't understand how secure it really is the funny thing is that as you might know Shard 256 is the main Algorithm or one of the main algorithms in Bitcoin and the funny thing is because the group the graph are behind Bitcoin are also pretty paranoid. They use it in a double way. So even if we have problems with shard 265 the guys of Bitcoin Bitcoin has done it double and so there is in in the case of Bitcoin a security margin even if the NSA would have Evil ideas against shard to nevertheless, it's not a very satisfying Situation things might be coming better the show what three function is a new function in the open competition With with with good explanation. There have been some worries regarding influence of ns of nist on the char three process, but main Critic points have been addressed by the nist and so char three might be a good idea Is it's totally other designs and char one and md5 and char 265 by the way It has been a requirement for char three competition not being these such designs as the NSA design cipher and This is a very interesting proposal. So I think char three would be the Best solution nevertheless. It's a very very new function. It's a new a hash function in town. And so we should Really invest also time and effort to analyze it in an appropriate way, but at the time now I would really recommend it to you char three Okay, coming to the ecc mess You know, I'm a one of the mean your Fractions of cryptographs which are pretty critical regarding I see elliptical curves One problem I have at the moment we have caused the nist by Implement by acknowledging by standardizing a back door and a very dilatantic a design back door We could not trust the nist regarding critical parameters in the field of elliptical curves anymore point This is something also nist employees have stated out that they have to work on trust in a new way The good news is in a cryptography. There might be a mathematical Solution also for this problem in the competition for instance for the is Advanced encryption standard. There was one requirement to justify that your parameters are Constructed in a way that there is not a back door possible That was the official requirement and we have to go back to the elliptical course cryptography and we have to invest a lot of research in this felt and we have We have to have really proof that some parameters are constructed in a way that they're not providing a back door To be very clear. Why do we need standardization one because elliptical curve is very complicated second? Besides the security consideration. It's another a Mind field in a field of elliptical curve within are I think some hundred patterns in that field and This is for practical use It's useful that somebody else checking this legal nightmare of patterns If you have a standardization the nist takes care about a lot of problems in the pattern stuff So even if you say I'm not caring about crazy Mathematician saying some elliptical curve group to be might not be secure enough You should really take care that you use standardize stuff if you not want to be involved in heavy heavy law suits and to make a mathematical evaluation about the most Patterns which has been in the field of elliptical is very short And most of them are totally ridiculous a Different base representation It's not something what a mathematician would accept Patent and even in this felt we should have a good discussion how to deal with this software and algorithm Patents and as I mentioned we need elliptical curve standardization also for this Problem stuff and on the other hand we have good news. There is a lot of research going on in Europe regarding Elliptical curves. There are good research by Langer and teacher Bernstein for instance There are also excellent work by brain pool And I think it's important that we can go to a place where we have also European standardization efforts to do this have there has been a lot of work done by the European cryptographic Communities and we should bring them now to standardization process another remark is We should take a close look Bruce Nyer has really stated. I think for more than 20 years We should use as a well understand crypto where we can and we should use elliptical curve in fields where we are very Limited it so I would really make the suggestion to use as a or even another Forgotten brother of RSA Rabin scheme which is heavily based on in a care field of Rebin it's a equivalent to Factorization this is the stuff we have understood for decades. It's the stuff which is simple to implement even the key generation is really very Very simple. It can be presented in one lesson if you give a cryptographic course at a university and This is a nice comparison. I need about 40-50 minutes to present As a key generation to my students I have advised the first elliptical curve a mathematical diploma thesis in 1999 or so I Don't understand elliptical curve Even through I have Dealed with them then for almost 20 years There are a huge amount of parameter They are really very critical and even if you do it 20 years of research in the field of a number They should you should be very careful and without choking I would make the statement everybody which has a deep knowledge in elliptical curve Has more worries than people use it in a in a in a heavy way Nevertheless elliptical curve is an interesting proposal and I heavily support Research in this felt and I think that is also a place where research Should throw some money in because elliptical curve is really very important in a lot of fields where we have really limited Environment for instance internet of things to make this magical best A word is Important to have good elliptical curves nevertheless even if we have a device like a mobile phone or something else I should make the statement that we should stick for as a 4096 for some more decays. I think even the propaganda stick evaluation of ECC performance Will show that For instance for checking as a signature so with a low expo low public experiment I'm not sure if elliptical curves are quick are faster in all the scenarios And I want to make also the remark that your rubbing Uses a public experiment to it's even more it's even quicker than checking as a with low public Exponents last five minutes so I come to current computing in the last five minutes what it's a bit a pity Because quantum computing is one very interesting a research field and whoops Sorry Oh Sorry quantum computing is a very interesting field to make a short Explanation of this at the moment. It looks like if we have a quantum computer. It's all our normal All our normal cryptography is dramatically broken I say is broken if your helmet is broken But something I really want to make a very loud remark about is if you have one computer they will very quicker Attack elliptical cars cryptography because they are much as much shorter keys 2056 in a lot of environments compared to 4069 So it's very clear if you have quantum computers We will have really problems with elliptical curves much earlier than with other fields and I Will want to make additional proposal. I think we have a lot of optimization possibilities to Attack elliptical cars even quicker than the actor research is a elliptic of its quantum cryptography even a quicker than Now is the state of the art in cryptographic research Last some slides is very funny thing I saw in this day is that this crazy stuff of mathematician Jumping around and saying if we have quantum computer if we have problems have now come also to Microsoft Microsoft has the first time more make a real proposal of post quantum cryptography Microsoft research and they have also presented Implementation for TLS and it's interesting to have the parameter If you take a look on the in the paper, we are now down to eight kilobyte Messages and about a performance probability of 21 percent and this is very good because In the older days we have to throw megabytes of data if you're using this way Very skilled and very fascinating post quantum cryptography last remark to post quantum cryptography is we can think To design protocols which survive quantum computing Attacks and one scary thing is I have been asked for was state channel Germany to make an evaluation about The security of Bitcoin and I made the statement. Yes There are problems because Bitcoin using elliptic of cryptography with 265 if we have quantum computers, but A Whole system is designed in a way that even a break in this field will not attack the whole Economic philosophy behind Bitcoin. And so it's really interesting if you take a look at Bitcoin We can learn how these are to design Crypto which also survives quantum Cryptography by the way the headline in the article in Wall State terminal was a Researcher warns because of quantum computer regarding elliptical curves cryptography Yeah, I have one, but the statement that Bit coin will have much lesser problems than normal money systems have been not Brought to a very central point. I am don't want to make a final statement about Bitcoin But in a cryptographic field this are nice people. These are people which Deep not too deep knowledge in crypto and they know that they don't have too deep knowledge in crypto Then design it in a conservative best engineering way and there's a kind of the best Cryptographic engineers you can have so the cryptography in Bitcoin is Some construction which makes me sometimes smile and that is not often the case if you take a look at Implementation So coming to the final Really final I'm a bit over time already a remarks what we should do only some statements We have advanced cryptography Which can be used to model social corporations in a better way One of the few things which is in heavy use is OTA in OTA We have really built with advanced cryptographic protocols things like a like Non-regulation That we can really discuss in a way where we have some Kind of authentication of message, but we vocal the authentication of message which makes us Gives us a chance to model communication of the record so that you can say something without Have the problem that somebody could take your statement and bring you to court and From a philosophical standpoint. It's important to try to bring some concepts of a private private talk also to the cryptographic world and Boris off and in Goldberg had to do fantastic work in this field There's also very cool stuff in the field of blind signatures And this is a second time I smile in this talk because I Was a bit angry that nobody use on implements Blind signature over the last 20 years and the good news is now 20 years are over most of the scary Software patents have been gone so we can use blind signature Without legal problems because we have spent so much time not implementing it and so I think it's a good thing To think about electronic voting. I'm a bit disappointed But that's some nice ideas of the private party like you could feedback didn't make the next step to to use advanced cryptographic technique to model Democratic processes But maybe we can find some time more the good thing is the software and the ideas are still available and Next generation might do it in a better way Can we give this? requirements for Edward Snowden we have more to a moral philosophical and technical commitment to do it and yeah, I Don't want to make jokes about it. I take it serious We are hackers are mathematicians. We are friendly people which want to hack some times and sit in the sun in a camp But now we are in a big battle In a big battle of our internet and the problem is the internet is not My maybe a problem may be a feature is not only our nice playground It had huge implication on the whole society and yes I think we have a moral philosophical and technical commitment to do it and so this is a point where I ask Hano to come to the state if he's still here and In that sense, I want really to make the Request to you Use your skills and make the world a better place. Can we do this what he's asked for and I think yes We can thank you for your attention Yeah, I just want to make a very quick announcement We will have a open crypto meeting at 2 o'clock in workshop 10 3 Which is just like get people interested in crypto to discuss Like what are the newest attacks on TLS and what new algorithms are interesting? Whatever you want to discuss open crypto meeting at 2 o'clock in workshop 10 3 We still have a few minutes left, so if you have any questions quick short questions Please line up on the microphones. I don't on the left or the right A remark on the ring learning with errors thing Pretty here As far as I know this is patented to so that's kind of bad the Microsoft ring learning with errors thing So the reason Websites today use It was only a sign that Microsoft Take some considerations to do this to stuff which has been really very esoteric Mathematical concepts along if there are patterns we have the normal problems there and not as a good thing I have not evaluated the Microsoft proposal. I think it on the first look. It is very optimistic what they do I'm not sure as a good idea the only statement. I want to give is that Microsoft now tries to Evaluate and implement stuff which has been esoteric mathematicians for esoteric mathematician for a long time Just one Statement maybe it's on quantum cryptography isn't it supposed to be Actually very resistant to man in the middle attack because when you actually have two entangled quantum particles You it is very hard to actually Carry out an MITM because if you change one then you affect the other and do you see that perhaps in future This could be it could become a standard which will be used to To avoid such kind of attacks Yeah, we we had to think in and to that direction. It's very hard to give a Short answer yet one pessimistic thing is if a quantum we have quantum computer every Cryptographic operation we use in public key cryptography elliptical curves or as a number is completely broken Promptly broken in a sense of completely broken that you get the secret key as a private key and to go to everything your question is interesting in that field that like Like in Bitcoin or other protocols you can Modify these protocols in a way to make even a completely break of the public key cryptography Not so harmful for the whole construction, but this is even Challenging cryptographic research. Yes. Thank you The reason most websites today use ECC in their ciphers is Because the size Needed to transmit during connection setup It's so big if you use RSA based things and it gets bigger if you use Another key like DHA we have a Perspective how to solve it because currently we are all using ECC and Can't go back to RSA To make following statement my maybe this is a bit a bit of an angry cryptographer We we talk about 4069 Bit as a versus 200 to K To okay, I have Recommendated four times six, but even to key Even worse In the regard to how much traffic you need to transfer traffic transfer Come on you make one key exchange at the beginning of the show and then you streams Gigabyte on gigabyte of games of thrones cats we do content and Yes, we we we group to cover should go into the edge because we Your mobile phone is much more powerful than my original IBM sync Without without without choking to be very clear Making your your point in a more even more aggressive way is using a As a wish to 4068 bit might harm our climber. Yes, it's might have Influence on on on using millions and billions of money for cryptographic operation and To be very clear. I think we might have systems where we have a long time as a 256 key and using for perfect river secrecy ECC curves with With 256, but I really would heavily recommend that we have a long time secrets and and and and signature keys we should make a heavily use of as the of as our 4069 and As I mentioned if you have environments where there are environments in the internet of things wealth as a 4069 is too heavy for these fields It might be a good idea to have also elliptical curve and this is a statement of Bruce Schneier if you have the options use as a If you have no options Or if you have the option to use no crypto or elliptical curve crypto use elliptical curve crypto And I think this statement is still right But it's a ideological discussion in in in cryptography and I admire that I have the minority position in this Thank you practical problem. Yes, sorry Thanks, you're Made it very clear that you're hesitant using elliptic curves in crypto Does that only apply to the NIST standardized curves or are you also hesitant regarding like EDA to 55 19 Goldilocks and so to be very clear a lot of Critic in this talk and and I focus really on the standardization problem is not valid for Langer and DTB group is not valid. It's not a critic. They do a fantastic work to be very clear They should be heavily supported they doing by the way also interesting stuff in grunting group Graphy I heavily supported I don't get me wrong Even though if I would be right to be as a is a more conservative and more secure thing I had really make a statement that we have and in a lot of fields where we heavily need elliptical curve And so we should use really a brain pool cause which have announced some problems and DTB has really Announced all the requirements. I've said to be backdoor free and the weather read DTB's paper in this field is very interesting and very Good point to do for further research to be very clear the critic regarding Standardization is not valid for DTB and not valid for brain cold cause so it's just the Not the rigidity of the curves and and this standardized curves It is that we have to use because we don't have TLS 1.3 still yeah Yes, but we have to address it and as I mentioned this problematic situation is also visible Inside the NIST and is all the time and we should Continue to have pressure on NIST because NIST has done fantastic work for decades It's very helpful for the whole humankind humankind to be very clear And this is one mistake and we should give them the chance to come back But it's not possible that they present any parameter which could have a backdoor without having it Where there's not a big choice and by the way, this is the official policy of NIST regarding the IS competition So what we what we ask with this power behind is just the position they have mentioned before Okay, thanks a lot. Thanks a lot for your attention


As everybody talks about drone Powell and what just happened in the press conference and raising rates and higher for longer If there's something that really got overlooked and that particular case is this two-year Treasury yield tops 5% For the first time since 2007 now, I don't remember in 2007 But we went this little the big recession that lasted for about a couple of years or so and we take all these Treasury yields That is one of those recession indicators. So here's what's happening and why it's concerning me So the two-year year as Treasury yield on Tuesday topped 5% rose its highest level since 2007 as investors assess Comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell. We said the central bank may need to increase the pace of interest rate hike again Now everybody's talking about this on YouTube. I don't want to cover it But essentially this goes like this Jerome Powell is saying look we got we're not having everything under under control Inflation is still not tamed. We need to raise rates for longer and higher and essentially faster


Good evening aspirants. Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar I.S. Academy for the date 8th of January 2024. Displayed here are the list of news articles we will be going through today. Before getting into the discussion, I have an important announcement to make. Are you passionate about mastering geography as an optional subject? Here's your chance to excel. Get ready to deeper into geography with our esteemed faculty Mr. Shabir I. Bashir. Whether you prefer offline sessions in Chennai or online access from other branches, this batch caters to your learning preferences. Prepare to enrich your understanding of geography with comprehensive teaching sessions designed to help you as your exams. Mark your calendars for January 20th 2024 and join us for an enriching educational journey. Don't miss out on this opportunity to elevate your geography optional score. For enrollment and further details, visit our website. With this happy announcement, let's get into the news article discussion. Look at this news article. This article from Sunday's newspaper talks about simultaneous elections. The present law commission constituted under Justice Ritu Raj Ausati is currently examining the possibility to conduct national, state and local polls simultaneously. The commission has invited political parties to discuss on the matter. It has also asked the public to record their opinion and suggestions before Jan 15th through a dedicated website. This is about the news article given here. In this context, let us quickly go through the pros and cons of holding simultaneous elections using our mains answer rating approach. Let me read through the question for you. Simultaneous election to the Lok Sabha and the state assemblies will limit the amount of time and money spent in electioneering, but it will reduce the government's accountability to the people. Discuss. See this is a previous year question asked in GS paper 2. Now let us see how to approach this question. See the only keyword in the question is discussed. When the keyword is discussed, you are expected to examine and analyze various aspects of the topic. And at the end, you have to give a balance to judgment. This is how we are going to address this question. Now coming to the introduction part.  This will help the examiner to understand that you have understood the demands of the question. For example, you can write like this. Simultaneous election or one nation, one election is not something new to India. It was a norm in India until 1967. It got disrupted due to premature dissolution of some legislative assemblies in the subsequent years. Since then, many attempts have been made to revive the practice. One of the arguments against simultaneous election is that it reduces the government's accountability to the people. But in reality, it is the frequent election that deviates the attention of the lawmakers from the core issues of good governance and development to campaigning for election. This can be your introduction for this question. Now moving on to the main body of the answer. Here you can split the main body of the answer into two parts. First, you can write about the advantages of conducting simultaneous election, and then you can write about the disadvantages of conducting simultaneous elections. Remember, while writing the answer, you have to address all the dimensions of the topic. Now, we shall start to answer the first part of the question. First, let us write about the advantages of conducting simultaneous selection. Firstly, it saves public money and helps in reducing the burden on the administrative setup and the security forces. See at present, the scenario is that at least one part of the country is witnessing an election at any given year. When elections are conducted to the House of the People, the expenditure incurred will be borne by the central government. Similarly, the expenditure incurred while conducting elections to the state assemblies is borne by the concerned state government. This puts tremendous burden on the public money. So, if the elections to the House of the People and the state assemblies are held together, the expenditure will be distributed between the government of India and the state government in a ratio equally. The saved public money can be used for some other development purpose. This is the first advantage. Secondly, the simultaneous election will contribute to the reduction of policy paralysis caused by the imposition of model code of conduct during election day. Here, the model code of conduct is a set of guidelines applicable to the political party and the candidates to ensure free and fair election. On one hand, the model code of conduct prevents the rollout of populist measures by the ruling party to ensure their win in the election. But on the other hand, it causes interruption on the governance and the developmental programs. The frequency of this policy paralysis can be reduced if elections are held only once in five years. The third advantage is that the simultaneous elections reduce the opportunity for political parties to choose political convenience over public interest. See, during the election time to lure voters, the political parties concede to popular demands without any consideration of public interest. For example, political parties compete in promising individual benefits like social welfare pension, loan waiver, free housing, food subsidy, free electricity, etc. See, these practices will be reduced substantially if simultaneous election were brought in. There will be a better focus on taking up measures which are beneficial to the public at the long run. There would also be substantial reduction in hate speeches, violence and other law and order problem if simultaneous elections are conducted. The fourth advantage is that the simultaneous election brings state on par with the center. If the elections are to be held simultaneously once in five years, the elected state governments cannot be dismissed easily. This reduces the anomalies created by Article 356 of the Indian Constitution and hence its strength and federalism. Finally, simultaneous election will increase voter participation. The rational behind this is that casting votes can be more comfortable for voters when the elections are conducted together. You can write these points to address the first part of the question. Now moving on to the second part, here you have to list the disadvantages of conducting simultaneous election. Firstly, there is no guarantee that expenditure of the political parties will reduce. See the cost of election has two components. One is the expenditure incurred by the election commission. The second one is the expenditure incurred by the political parties. Simultaneous election may reduce the expenditure incurred by the election commission, but it may not reduce the expenditure incurred by the political parties. Political parties may spend their fund at once rather than in phases. This is the first issue. The second issue is that the Article 83 Class 2 and Article 172 of the Constitution requires that the Lok Sabha and the state legislature be in existence for five years from the date of first meeting unless dissolved earlier. Simultaneous election ignore this phrase as there would be no opportunity to dissolve Lok Sabha or state assemblies. Thirdly, it negates the concept of no confidence, which is an important tool for legislative control over the executive. As we all know, a government can be in power as long as it enjoys the confidence of the parliament. Simultaneous election can work only if the government lasts for a fixed tenure of five years regardless of the confidence of the parliament. This raises a concern because finally, holding simultaneous election once in five years may also face logistical challenges. For a free and fair conduct of the election, security forces need to be deployed in large numbers. Given the current strength of the security personnel, this may be a challenging task. These are some of the disadvantages of conducting simultaneous election. You can write these points to address the body of the answer, no coming to the conclusion part. In the conclusion, you can write that implementation of simultaneous election requires certain amendments to the Constitution and enactment of relevant laws. Enactment of such provision should be approached with caution, ensuring that efficiency gains do not compromise the essential democratic principle of transparency, response units and people's right to express their will regularly. A gradual, well thought out approach with the involvement of all political parties and stakeholders is essential to successfully implement this concept in India. This can be your conclusion. So that's all regarding this discussion. Through this discussion, we saw what is simultaneous election, the pros and cons of simultaneous election. Now let us conclude this and take up the next news article. Look at this news article. The news article reports about the trapping of five persons in a cave in central Slovenia. Two days back, they began a tourist visit to the cross cave, which laid it flooded due to heavy rain. Since cave is a erosional landform found in cars topography. In our discussion, let us focus on cars topography. See limestone topography or cars topography is nothing but the landform produced by chemical weathering or chemical erosion of carbonate rocks. When carbonate rocks like calcium carbonate and magnesium carbonate is eroded by surface and subsurface water, it leads to the formation of cars topography. Cars topography is named after a province in Yugoslavia and the Adriatic Sea coast where such formations are most noticeable. Now let us quickly go through the essential conditions for the development of cars topography. Firstly, the presence of soluble rocks, preferably limestone at the surface or subsurface level. The limestones must be massive, hard and well cemented and well jointed. Secondly, the rocks should be non porous and thickly bitted. This is to aid water to infiltrate through the joints resulting into effective corrosion of limestone along the joints. If it is porous already, then the rock mass will become weak and collapse easily. Thirdly, the carbonate rocks should be very close to the ground surface so that rainwater can easily and quickly infiltrate in the bits of limestone and may corrode the rocks to form solution landforms. There should also be enough rainfall so that the required amount of water is available to dissolve the carbonate rocks. These are the essential conditions for the development of cars topography. Now let us see some of the important erosional landforms of the cars topography. First is the sink holes. Sink holes are small depressions carved out by solutions where rainwater sink into limestone at the point of weakness. The water then gets into the carbonate rocks through the sink holes leading to the formation of caves along the joints. Gradual enlargement of sink holes due to continuous dissolution of limestone results in the merging of closely spaced sink hole into a large hole which is called a swallow hole. When a number of swallow hole join together, they form a larger hollow called the doline. Several doline may merge as a result of gradual caving to form an even larger depression called the uvala. Some uvalas may join together to create a U-shaped valley called the pole jay. They are characterized by vertical side walls, flat alluvial floors, independent surface drainage system on their floors, irregular border and a central leak. These are some of the erosional landforms of cars topography. Some of the important depositional landforms of cars topography include salsite, stalaxite, stalagmite and calcite pillars. That's all regarding this discussion. In this discussion, we covered the basics about cars topography. Now with this, let us conclude this and take up the next news article. Look at this article. Mr. Raghuram Rajan, the ex-governor of RBI stated that India isn't getting sufficient manufacturing investment through the China plus one strategy. Other countries like Mexico and Vietnam are successfully attracting a greater amount of manufacturing investment. Mr. Rajan also highlighted that India's ability to attract manufacturing investment has decreased in recent times. This is about the news article given here. In this context, let us see some points about the China plus one strategy. China plus one strategy refers to the business approach adopted by the multinational companies. According to this strategy, the companies will diversify their manufacturing and production facilities beyond China. This strategy involves setting up additional or alternative manufacturing units in other countries alongside their existing operations in China. The aim of this strategy is to reduce the risk associated with solely relying on China for manufacturing production. When the MNCs rely solely on China, it might lead to raising cost, supply chain disruption or trade uncertainties during the times of geopolitical tensions. By expanding operations to other countries, the MNCs aims to reduce these risks while exploring new markets and opportunities for growth. When the MNCs are looking to diversify their supply chain, they are favoring countries like Mexico and Vietnam rather than India. Now, what is that? What are the hurdles that is preventing India from getting benefited from the China plus one strategy? Let us see them one by one. The first one is the taxation and regulatory complaints. In India, there are issues like multiple layers of taxation and dispute over tax assessment that act as a hurdle for investors. In addition to this, India has a chronic issue of redtepism. These two are acting as a hurdle for foreign investors. The second issue is infrastructure bottlenecks. Inadequate infrastructure in India actually demotivates investors. The last issue is the lack of skilled workforce. See, it is these challenges that is preventing India from becoming a part of the China present strategies adopted by the MNCs. But despite these challenges, our government is taking various steps to increase the inflow of foreign investment. Now, let us see the steps taken by the government one by one. The first one is the national infrastructure pipeline. It will address the infrastructure bottleneck in India. The second is that government has adopted a single window clearance system to enhance ease of doing business. This will address the issue of redtepism. The last issue is that the production linked incentive scheme for various sectors will motivate the MNCs to invest in India. These are the steps that are taken by the government to make India gain from the China plus one strategy adopted by the MNCs. So, that's all regarding this discussion. In this discussion, we saw some basics about the China plus one strategy adopted by the MNCs. Now, let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article. Have a look at this article. The news here is that a team from IIT Delhi has developed an Indian landslide susceptibility map. This is about the news here. In this context, in our discussion, we will see some points about landslides. First, what is a landslide? Landslides are geological phenomenon where large masses of earth, rock and debris move down a slope. Landslides can vary in size from small localized slides to large catastrophic events that can destroy entire communities. They are highly relevant in Hildi or mountainous region where the risk of landslides is very high. Landslides are caused by a variety of factors. Let us see them one by one. First, let us look at the natural causes. Natural causes of landslide include heavy rain, deforestation, earthquake, volcanic eruption. And the anthropogenic causes of landslide include construction of road, shifting agriculture and increasing population pressure in the mountainous region. These are some of the causes of landslides. Now, let us see the measures that can be taken to prevent landslides. The first one is the slope stabilization. Slope stabilization is the strengthening of unstable slope using techniques such as retaining walls, terracing and rock bolting to prevent slope failure. The second step that can be taken is the increasing vegetative cover. Promoting the plantation of vegetation on slopes will help to prevent landslides. This is because the roots help to bind the soil and stabilize the crops. The third one is the erosion control. Impregnating erosion control measures such as silt fencing and mulching prevent the removal of soil by the water enough. The last one is the land use planning. Enforcing land use regulation and restricting construction in landslide prone area can prevent the damages caused by landslide. And that's all regarding this discussion. In this discussion, we saw what is a landslide, the causes of landslide and the steps that can be taken to prevent landslides. Now let us conclude this and take up the next news article. Look at this article. This article is actually an interview of Mr. E. R. Venkata Chalapathy who recently wrote a book about V. O. Chidambarampillai. So in our discussion, let us see few problems related facts about Mr. V. O. Chidambarampillai. First, let us start with his early life. V. O. Chidambarampillai is from the Tutukorin district of Tamil Nadu. V. O. Chidambarampillai entered politics in 1905 following the partition of Bengal. At the end of 1905, V. O. Chidambarampillai visited Madras and was drawn closer to the Swadeshi movement initiated by Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Lala Lajpatrai. V. O. Chidambarampillai was also drawn towards Ramakrishna mission and came into contact with Subramanya Bharati. Now let us see his role in freedom struggle. Swadeshi movement in Tirunelveli district began to gather momentum only after the arrival of V. O. Chidambarampillai. By 1906, V. O. Chidambarampillai got the idea of establishing a Swadeshi shipping outfit by the name of Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company. He won the support of merchants and industrialist class in Tutukorin and Tirunelveli for creating this company. He was aided in these efforts by a number of Tirunelveli based lawyers who formed an organization called the Swadeshi Sangam or National Volunteers. V. O. Chidambarampillai established many institutions like the Swadeshi Prachar Shava, Dharmasanga Nesavasalai, National Kudon, Madras Agro Industrial Society Limited and Desabhimana Sangam. His nationalist movement acquired more importance with the beginning of the Tutukorin Coral Mill Strike 1908. Even prior to Gandhiji's Champaran Satyarga of 1917, V. O. Chidambarampillai took the course of the working class in Tamil Nadu and thus he is a foreigner to Gandhiji in this respect. V. O. Chidambarampillai along with other leaders resolved to take out protest on 9th March 1908 to celebrate the release of Bipin Chandrapal from jail and also to hoist the flag of Swaraj. Following this event, he was arrested in 12th March 1908. He was charged with sedition and sentenced to two life imprisonments. The Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company was later liquidated in 1911 and the ships were auctioned to their competitors. The Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company's first ship, SS Galia was sold to the British shipping company. These are some problems related facts about V. O. Chidambarampillai. Now with this, let us conclude the news article discussion and take up the practice problems questions. We have three practice problems questions today. Let us see them one by one. Look at the first question. It is a three statement question. Three statements about the cars topography is given. We have to find how many of the statements given here are correct. Look at the first statement. Highly fractured or folded limestone bed is one of the primary requirement for the development of cars topography. This statement is correct. This we saw in the discussion itself. Okay. It is one of the primary requirement for the development of cars topography. Moving on to the second statement. It is also called as badlands topography. This statement is incorrect because badland topography refers to a different type of landscape which is characterized by rugged and highly eroded hills or ridges with steep slopes. It is mainly formed in arid and semi-arid region with soft and easily erodible sedimentary rocks. So statement two is incorrect. Moving on to the third statement. Stalactite and stalagmite are erosional landforms of cars topography. This statement is incorrect because in our discussion we saw that these two are depositional landforms of cars topography. So statement three is incorrect. Since only one statement is correct here, the correct answer is option A only one. Moving on to the second question. Let me redo the question. In the context of international trade and manufacturing, what is the core objective behind China plus one strategy? From our discussion we know that the correct answer is option B to reduce dependency on China by seeking alternative trade routes. Okay. Moving on to the last question. Which type of landslide is characterized by a slow downslope movement of soil and rock material often triggered by heavy rainfall and saturation of the ground? The correct answer here is option D creep. With this we have come to the end of the video. If you like today's video, like, comment and share it with your friends. 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During the COVID-19 pandemic, corporations in the food, pharmaceutical, energy and technology sectors have profited handsomely. Meanwhile, due to the pandemic's ongoing effects and quickly rising costs of essentials such as food and electricity, millions of people around the world are facing a cost of living crisis. Inequality, which was already high before COVID-19, has now reached new heights. According to a new Oxfam brief released on May 23, for every new billionaire minted during the pandemic, which is one every 30 hours, over a million people might be pushed into extreme poverty in 2022 at approximately the same rate. The brief, profiting from pain, was published while the World Economic Forum in Davos takes place for the first time face-to-face since COVID-19. According to the brief, the pandemic created 573 billionaires at the rate of one every 30 hours. It is estimated that at a rate of a million people every 33 hours, 263 million more people will fall into extreme poverty in 2022 alone. According to Gabriella Butcher, Executive Director of Oxfam International, billionaires are arriving in Davos to celebrate an incredible surge in their fortunes. Meanwhile, decades of progress on extreme poverty are now in reverse and millions of people are facing impossible rises in the cost of simply staying alive, she added. Billionaires' wealth has increased more in the first three years of COVID-19 than in the previous 23 years. Their combined wealth now accounts for 13.9% of global GDP, which is a three-fold increase from the year 2000 when it was 4.4%. The study also finds that business monopoly holders in the energy, food and pharmaceutical sectors are making record profits despite the decade-high prices in the face of COVID-19. In the last two years, the fortunes of food and energy billionaires have increased by $453 billion or $1 million every two days. Five of the world's major energy companies, that is BP, Shell, Total Energies, Exxon and Chevron, are producing $2,600 in profits every second, while 62 new food millionaires have emerged. The Kargil family controls 70% of the global agricultural market with just three other corporations. Kargil generated its largest profit in corporate history last year, which was $5 billion in net income. It is anticipated to do so again in 2022. There are now 12 billionaires in the Kargil family up from 8 before the pandemic. Global food costs have reached new highs, causing social and political instability. 60% of low-income countries are on the verge of defaulting on their debt. People in developing countries spend more than twice as much of their income on food than people in developed countries. The epidemic has resulted in the creation of 40 new pharmaceutical millionaires. Pharmaceutical companies such as Moderna and Pfizer are earning profits of $1,000 every second from the monopoly control of the COVID-19 vaccine. This is despite billions of dollars in public funding for its research. Governments are being charged up to 24 times the potential cost of generic manufacture. In low-income countries, 87% of people have not been properly immunized. The brief has also suggested some actions that the government must take urgently, which are, introduce one-off solidarity taxes on billionaires' pandemic windfalls to fund support for people facing rising food and energy costs, and a fair and sustainable recovery from COVID-19. Argentina enacted a one-time special levy known as the Millionaires Tax and is now considering enacting a windfall tax on energy gains as well as a tax on undeclared assets held abroad to pay off IMF debt. Nearly $8 trillion has been stored in tax havens by the super-rich. End crisis profiteering by introducing a temporary excess profit tax of 90% to capture the windfall profits of big corporations across all industries. According to Oxfam, a tax on just 32 highly profitable multinational corporations could have raised $104 billion in revenue in 2020. Introduce permanent wealth taxes to reign in extreme wealth and monopoly power as well as the outsized carbon emissions of the super-rich. A 2% annual wealth tax on millionaires and 5% on billionaires could raise $2.52 trillion annually. This amount is enough to lift 2.3 billion people out of poverty, produce enough vaccines for the entire world, and provide universal healthcare and social protection to everyone in low and lower middle-income countries.