BC CULTURE
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In the shadowy corners of the shortwave spectrum lurk the Numbers Stations: strange radio broadcasts of mysterious blocks of numbers in creepy monotone voices!

It's actually an old form of spycraft which is still in use today. And as it's #WorldRadioDay let's take a listen...

 A Numbers Station is a type of one-way voice link for sending information to spies in foreign countries.

Operating on Short Wave radio bands they transmit a secret code of spoken numbers. Use of Numbers Stations peaked during the Cold War, but some are still operating today.
Numbers Stations are operated by various national intelligence agencies. At set times on a pre-arranged frequency a musical tone is played, followed by a speech synthesised voice reading out blocks of numbers. To most listeners it sounds both creepy and meaningless.
However to spies it can be vital. The numbers can be decoded to reveal a message, provided the spy has the right One Time Pad (OTP) - a random number key that is only used once before it is destroyed. OTP encryption is impossible to break if done correctly.
Why broadcast your secret message on Short Wave? Because it can be picked up across the globe. All a spy needs is a shop bought SW radio, a pencil, and the correct One Time Pad and they - and only they - can decipher the message. No complex kit is required.
For decades governments have denied running Numbers Stations, and for decades amateur radio enthusiasts have documented and recorded the stations to prove they do exist. It's only recently that more information about them has begun to emerge.
The Lincolnshire Poacher was a Numbers Station run by British Intellegence from Cyprus up until 2008. It played a minute of music before a female synthesised voice would read out 200 blocks of five digit numbers. Here's a clip: https://t.co/kcXDtPxrOD
Swedish Rhapsody was run by Polish Intelligence during the Cold War. It used a Stasi Sprach-Morse-Generator to synthesize a child's voice reading out number codes in German, preceded by a song from a music box. Here's how it sounded: https://t.co/f5nHnAEwLl
Gong was a Stasi run Numbers Station operating from East Germany. A series of gong strikes would be broadcast every half hour followed by the command "Achtung!" and the code number sequences. Here's a clip: https://t.co/KiiVA7jkGc
Not every Numbers Station broadcast numbers. Some stations, such as Whalesong, broadcast 'backwards music', a series of tones that would need to be recorded and deciphered by specialist equipment: https://t.co/tMTtrMVQ6F
UVB-76 isn't a Numbers Station, but it has continuously broadcast a series of buzzing sounds for 45 years across Russia. Is it just a channel marker, or could it be a 'Dead Hand' system to launch a nuclear retaliation if Moscow is destroyed? Hmm...: https://t.co/3nkZ2T4UEl
Numbers Stations may sound quaint, but they are still used today by many countries: a global signal with unbreakable encryption that is very hard to intercept - why reinvent a method that works?

More spy stories another time...

More from Pulp Librarian

Pulp Librarian
Pulp Librarian
@PulpLibrarian
Time for a pulp countdown now, and today it's my top 10 digital watches of distinction!

After all, why wear a Rolex nowadays?


At #10: the 1973 Seiko 06LC. This was Seiko's first LCD wristwatch: a field-effect liquid crystal display showed six digits of time continuously - you didn't need to press a button to see it either!


At #9: the 1976 Bulova Computron. The side mounted LED display meant you could sneak a peek at how long your meeting was taking without anyone else noticing. Very chic.


At #8: the 1989 Nelsonic Nintendo. This is The Legend Of Zelda version and it's perfect for letting others know you are a master of corporate strategy!


At #7: the 1975 Uranus Calculator watch. This natty number has its keypad on the bezel, which does increase its size. "How big is Uranus?" is a frequent question you'll get if you wear this.
TECH
Pulp Librarian
Pulp Librarian
@PulpLibrarian
Time once again for my occasional series "Women with great hair fleeing gothic houses!"

And today all the covers are by Walter Popp...


Crucible of Evil, by Lyda Belknap Long. Avon Gothic Original, 1974. Cover art by Walter Popp.


Hornet's Nest, by Evelyn Bond. Avon Gothic Original, 1972 Cover by Walter Popp.


The House In Munich, by Dorothy Dowdell. Avon, 1974. Art by Walter Popp.


The Secret Of Chateau Laval, by Susan Marvin. Avon Gothic, 1973. Art by Walter Popp.
CULTURE
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Pulp Librarian
Pulp Librarian
@PulpLibrarian
One slightly warm day and I'm all...


If tomorrow's as slightly warm as today...


And if it's not...
CULTURE
Pulp Librarian
Pulp Librarian
@PulpLibrarian
Today in pulp I look back at the world of Soviet women's fashion!

It's not all berets, but it mostly is...


Now you may think that fashion and the Soviet Union go together like Groucho Marx and Friedrich Engels. However that is to misunderstand the nature of the Commad Economy: if she commands it, you'd better buy it for her!


So there is a rich history of fashion and fun (along with the tractor factories and endless ballet performances) in the old USSR. Let's take a sashay along it...


At the start of the Soviet years women's fashion, let's face it, tended towards the functional. Red was popular, as were headscarves, hobnail boots and the ability to field strip a 3-line rifle.

But all that was about to change...


...because Russia had a new fashionista in charge: Stalin! He hated the peasant look of War Communism because it made socialism seem synonymous with poverty. He ordered Soviet Woman to spruce herself up.
WORLD
Pulp Librarian
Pulp Librarian
@PulpLibrarian
Which book took you the longest time to actually finish reading?

For me: Underworld. 17 years from buying it to actually getting around to reading it, and maybe 19 months on and off to make myself read it until the end.

Still, ticked it off the list ✔


Second place goes to The Charterhouse of Parma, which Stendhal wrote in 52 days. According to the Oxfam Books receipt I used as a bookmark I bought it on 11 April 2009. Finished it last month.


Coming Up For Air was torture. It's nature's punishment for autodidacts.
CULTURE

More from Culture

Hugh Howey
Hugh Howey
@hughhowey
[thread]

Folks at Marvel were trying to figure out how to launch phase 4 of the MCU, incorporate the addition of the X-Men, the relaunch of the Fantastic Four, and help the MCU on Disney+ get off the ground, and Feige was like:


The meta goes deep on WandaVision. This bit might be unintentional, but there's poetry in Marvel Studios launching its first foray into TV shows with a show about TV shows. Some history:

The previous Marvel TV properties were (mostly) run by Marvel Television and Jeph Loeb. They did some brilliant work, but the MCU films largely ignored the goings-on over there.

Now everything is in one house. It has the potential to be a huge freaking mess.


Part of the problem is how to insert the "first family" of Marvel comics into the MCU timeline. The Fantastic Four are old-school. The MCU heroes we know looked up to them and went to them for advice. Now they are going to get an MCU origin story. That's a conundrum.


Kevin Feige is a big comic nerd with a whole team of comic nerds, and one of them was probably like:

"Hey, did you know the witch who mentored Wanda was a nanny for the Fantastic Four? Maybe she could be in this."
CULTURE
Jo Luehmann
Jo Luehmann
@JoLuehmann
I am going to say something very uncomfortable. Read before you react please.

Purity culture encourages pedophilia, a thread:

Purity culture encourages pedophilia.

Some of the standards of purity culture are innocence (pretty much ignorance about sex), submission (for women), virginity as the ultimate standard, and “modesty” (for women that is wearing clothes that don’t reveal their adult curves)*
1/

Purity culture makes the desirable standard a child. It makes child likeness desirable in regards to sexuality. It makes virginity, and innocence, and submission; what the male brain should want most in a partner. And your brain doesn’t rewire just because you get married.
2/

This doesn’t mean every man raised in purity culture is a pedophile, that’s not what I am saying. What I am saying is that purity culture wires the brain of men to desire child likeness, which encourages pedophilia. After all desire and objectification happen in our brain.

3/

Now if you are a pedophile who wants to act on those desires, purity culture does a lot of the grooming for you. Purity culture discourages comprehensive sex education leaving children without the ability to know what’s appropriate and what’s not.

4/
CULTURE
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dan spaceman
dan spaceman
@ohlaika
I'm gonna do my other star wars thread tomorrow, which will primarily be me yelling at a @RowanKaiser-shaped strawman for calling the First Order and The Resistance "cosplayers who the rest of the galaxy has to deal with"

the deal w/the New Republic, the First Order, and the Resistance is very weird and complex and I actually take issue with how Story Group frames the actual conflict.

pre-TFA stuff is presented as a "cold war" between the New Republic and the remnants of the Empire that form the First Order, which 100% makes sense.

But they frame the First Order's attack on the Hosnian system and the subsequent battle that takes place across TFA and TLJ as a full on war when it's very clearly a coup. A war implies at least equal standing, but the First Order completely wrecks shop and takes over the galaxy.

ok never mind I'm fucking doing this now.

The First Order fleet we see in TLJ is *not* the entire fleet of the First Order (I don't even think Starkiller Base was their main base of operations honestly, it couldn't have been considering they were operating out of Wild Space)
CULTURE
\U0001d683\U0001d69b\U0001d69e\U0001d697\U0001d690 \U0001d67f\U0001d691\U0001d68a\U0001d697 \U0001f1e8\U0001f1e6
𝚃𝚛𝚞𝚗𝚐 𝙿𝚑𝚊𝚗 🇨🇦...
@TrungTPhan
1/ Amazon is famous for its writing culture:

• "Mock press releases / FAQs" for new product pitches
• "6-page memos" instead of Powerpoint

Two former Amazon execs wrote a book called "Working Backwards" detailing the philosophy.

Here are some insights 🧵


2/ The "Working Backwards" playbook

Instead of creating a product then finding customers, Amazon asks "What does the customer need?" and works toward the product.

✅Customer need --> Create product
❌Create product --> Find customer

3/ Write a mock press release

To determine if the customer need makes biz sense, employees write a press release:

• What problem is the new product solving
• Why it's better than existing options

To persuade a customer, the document has to be jargon-free and tell a story.


4/ Press release forces big thinking

You don't write a press release for an incremental improvements.

Creating a product worthy of a press release means really solving a customer problem and going after markets with large TAMs.

5/ Include an FAQ in press release

Addressing every potential customer question can help identify hurdles to getting something to market...and also uncover opportunities.
CULTURE
Joshua Todd James
Joshua Todd James
@writerjoshjames
Sunday thoughts:

I've had an untold number of abusive bosses over the years (I speak primarily of before I became a screenwriter.)

A large number. Same is true of teachers, instructors and coaches. I had those before I ever had abusive bosses. 1)

2) I've also lost jobs when it was clear I wouldn't put up with a abuse, or wasn't hired when it seemed like I wouldn't take shit. I interviewed for an assistant manager position in a business in Union Square eons ago. The manager looked at my resume, then looked at me, and said,

3) "it says here you've done a lot of martial arts, and you're a black belt. That worries me," he said. "The owner of this establishment is a former football player. He likes to throw his weight around. You don't look like someone who'd be okay with him screaming at you."

4) He screams at his employees? I asked.

"Among other things," he said. "He's a big guy, he might challenge you to step outside, if he doesn't like the look on your face. How would you respond to that, since you're a black belt?"

"I'd probably call the police, first," I said.

5) I didn't get the job. This wasn't the only time. There were other times I DID have a job & my employer vetted me, knew I needed the job, knew I'd be homeless without out it, I had no family or resources to fall back on.

And proceeded to torture and torment me as a result.
CULTURE

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Today I'm going to expose these so called reviver of Sanatan dharma.

Arya samaj's main book which they treat as their bible is Satyarth Prakasha. Which was written by "Maharishi" Dayanand Saraswati.

Dayanand Condemned Idol worship and blamed it on jains . like really??


The book peddles hate against several Hindu sects.

here is hate against Vaishnavas
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Once upon a time there was a Raja named Uttānapāda born of Svayambhuva Manu,1st man on earth.He had 2 beautiful wives - Suniti & Suruchi & two sons were born of them Dhruva & Uttama respectively.
#talesofkrishna https://t.co/E85MTPkF9W


Now Suniti was the daughter of a tribal chief while Suruchi was the daughter of a rich king. Hence Suruchi was always favored the most by Raja while Suniti was ignored. But while Suniti was gentle & kind hearted by nature Suruchi was venomous inside.
#KrishnaLeela


The story is of a time when ideally the eldest son of the king becomes the heir to the throne. Hence the sinhasan of the Raja belonged to Dhruva.This is why Suruchi who was the 2nd wife nourished poison in her heart for Dhruva as she knew her son will never get the throne.


One day when Dhruva was just 5 years old he went on to sit on his father's lap. Suruchi, the jealous queen, got enraged and shoved him away from Raja as she never wanted Raja to shower Dhruva with his fatherly affection.


Dhruva protested questioning his step mother "why can't i sit on my own father's lap?" A furious Suruchi berated him saying "only God can allow him that privilege. Go ask him"
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The Eye of Horus. 1/*


I believe that @ripple_crippler and @looP_rM311_7211 are the same person. I know, nobody believes that. 2/*

Today I want to prove that Mr Pool smile faces mean XRP and price increase. In Ripple_Crippler, previous to Mr Pool existence, smile faces were frequent. They were very similar to the ones Mr Pool posts. The eyes also were usually a couple of "x", in fact, XRP logo. 3/*


The smile XRP-eyed face also appears related to the Moon. XRP going to the Moon. 4/*


And smile XRP-eyed faces also appear related to Egypt. In particular, to the Eye of Horus. https://t.co/i4rRzuQ0gZ 5/*
CULTURE
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🇺🇸I Support Our Milita...
@TheWiseOwl_AZ
1. There are more people added on the list of arrests and executions of famous people but no further intel is available at this time.

ARRESTS and EXECUTIONS OF FAMOUS PEOPLE 2020 UPDATED
Explanation of the latest military tribunal arrests and executions of famous people in 2020.

2. The tribunals are arresting these people in plain clothes. We saw the Obama’s arrest, although we didn’t know it was an arrest at the time. The arrest was done nonchalantly so as to not get noticed by the public.
All arrests of these famous people were done this way.

3. If the person is convicted of child sex trafficking, crimes against humanity or treason, they will be executed.
If the person arrested has evidence on someone else to help their prosecution, or is willing to help Trump, & they want to cooperate, they may be allowed to do so.

4. A sentence of execution down to life in prison may be accepted if their evidence is worth anything.
When a plea deal is done, the defendant must present evidence they have to make their sentence lighter. This information is given to the prosecution, defense, and to the judge.

5. If evidence is accepted, they are presented the plea deal. They will have to make a guilty plea to the crime with a video confession & written statement. That is how all plea deals work.

All famous people arrested were either treasonous or involved in satanic worship rituals.
CRIME
Egypedia
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Ancient Egypt was the most advanced civilization in the ancient world. Why was Egypt so special?

There are so many firsts in Egypt that we all know about, and that makes Egypt unique. For example, the Sumerians did not build the pyramids of Egypt.


Save as history
HISTORY