# THE SILVER CRESCENT ## MAY 2020, ISSUE 5. ### "A Free Press for a Free Internet." ### QUINTUPLICATE CONFEDERATION, Editor. ### MINIWA, Publisher. ### FLOWER, Treasurer. ### YORI, Technological Advisor. ### DLN_, Minecraft Server Correspondent (NEW!). ## COMMUNITY NEWS. ### DE-DISCORDIZATION DEFEATED AT REFERENDUM On the 10th, a referendum was held in Toxspace on de-Discordization. The results were surprising to many: it lost by a landslide, 5 to 8. The [official report](https://pastebin.com/VxhyW3uQ) sums up the reasons for it: "The large vote against in the Discord edition is presumably caused by unwillingness among the userbase to migrate somewhere else, insufficient campaigning in favor, and lack of access to arguments for de-Discordization." In no edition of Toxspace, by no metric, did turnout reach a majority of the population. To quote the official report: "The possible reasons for low turnout are lack of advertising of the referendum and low awareness." ``` ---------------------------------------- | Edition | For | Against | Total | | Discord | 4 | 7 | 11 | | IRC | 0 | 0 | 0 | | Matrix | 1 | 1 | 2 | | Grand Total | 5 | 8 | 13 | ---------------------------------------- CHART OF RESULTS. ``` ``` ^ y |100 -------------------------- -------- // / / / / / / / / |50 |' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' '| |' ' '| | |- - - - - - - ' ' ' ' ' '| |' ' '| | |- - - - - - - ' ' ' ' ' '| |' ' '| | |- - - - - - - + ' ' ' ' '| |- - -| | |- - - - - - - + ' ' ' ' '| |- - -| |25 |- - - - - - - + ' ' ' ' '| |- - -| | |- - - - - - - + - - - - -| |- - -| | |- - - - - - - + + + + + +| |+ + +| | |+ + + + + + + + + + + + +| |+ + +| | |+ + + + + + + + + + + + +| |+ + +| x |/ /---------------------------------------------> 0 10 20 30 Discord IRC Matrix Toxspace X-axis: Number of migrants, each cross, dash, or prime symbol representing 3 (except for weighted average for whole of Toxspace.) Y-axis: Turnout, in percent. Key: _ _ _ |+| - vote for |-| - vote against |'| - did not vote - - - GRAPH OF TURNOUT. ``` ### MINECRAFT SERVER LAUNCHED *by dln_, Minecraft Correspondent* On the 10th of May, a group of 7 Migrants, namely Sanya, Refined, Engee, sates, Yori, fabricatedplastic and dln_ started a Minecraft Server after the prior forming of a room and discussion. The survival game mode and the unmodded vanilla version of the game were chosen for the first server to introduce Sanya,as she doesn't have much experience with the game. According to her, she is very fond of the game and would like to play it more. The seed of the world to play on was chosen in the discussion before, and so was the place to settle. After the initial start in a simple dirt house, we made our way to our place to settle: The shore of a snowy taiga biome. The igloo we found served as a starting point in the new area, but quickly got replaced with a castle and a stone house. The main objective of the game is mostly finished, the Nether has been conquered, the Enderdragon has been defeated, and so has the Wither. But work on the base has only started, we erected a nether highway to the world spawn, so new players could get to the base quickly. Sanya has made plans to build a temple for the purpose of worshipping Aurora, as she envisioned it before, but lacks the resources to do so in Life. So far, moon and kanji were built in the water near the shore. The final temple will be located in the End. ### GENERAL MIGRATES AFTER USER JOINS FROM MATRIX.ORG On the 13th, Miniwatrix moved its general room to #lobby:miniwa.space after ORDN, a migrant, joined from matrix.org, which is far and away the largest homeserver in Matrix, and regarded as a joke even by Iodine's server. Miniwatrix General--covering nearly five months of Systemspace history--will be preserved for archival purposes, but it will no longer be possible to post to it. ORDN, the user who joined from matrix.org, now has an account here. ### GOT A NEWS TIP? **Contact us** at silvercrescent[at]protonmail.com and get subsidized ad space! ## THE JUKEBOX - WHAT IT IS, WHAT IT DOES, HOW IT WORKS: INTERVIEW WITH YORI, TECHNOLOGICAL ADVISOR On May 20, 2020, we interviewed Yori, our technological advisor, about the new feature in Miniwatrix, the jukebox, that is sure to bring many of us back to the days of TSUKICHAT. SC: Let's explain it first, and clarify it later. How does the jukebox work? Yori: It takes a video URL, feeds it into yt-dl, and gets a video file. Then it's fed into 2 instances of ffmpeg both generating HLS streams, one for video/audio and the other for only audio. The HLS stream is just saved as files onto a directory that is served by a HTTP server. SC: What happens after? Yori: The client uses a stream manifest file and then just uses video "chunks" to play it. The manifest has the list of chunks. Chunks are literally just 4-8 second clips that get sent to the client. SC: What is HLS short for? Yori: HTTP Live Streaming, Apple's HTTP video streaming standard. SC: What is ffmpeg? Yori: FFMPEG is hard to explain. It does a lot of things; it's a open source video encoder, but it can do way too much. Basically, it's the Swiss army knife of dealing with video files. SC: So if you have bad internet, does the video stop to buffer on chunk boundaries? Yori: The buffer is just a list of chunks. You download a chunk to play it, and the client will try to download as many as it can. If you run out of chunks due to bad connection, the playback will stop and the client tries to download the "current" chunk based on the sync time code. I know this is kind of primitive compared to YouTube or whatever, but it's still more advanced the jukebox in TSUKICHAT that just sent the entire thing as a mp4 video that was downloaded all at once. SC: Yeah, I remember the troubles we'd have with big videos back then. What is a client? Yori: Any jukebox user is a client. SC: What is a sync time code? Yori: A time sync code is just a timestamp that is broadcasted. SC: What is a stream manifest file? Yori: The stream manifest is a HLS manifest file. It basically is just a file that lists all the "chunks" and is polled by the client. SC: Thank you for participating in this interview. Yori: Alright. ## CRESCENT DAY, CRESCENT TIME! Sanya's birthday was on the 7th. Some new commands, such as .lain (displays image of the eponymous anime character from "Serial Experiments Lain"), .8ball (predicts the future through humorous text placed on a pool ball), and .neko (displays image of cat), have been or are in the process of being implemented in Miniwatrix. A profile feature was implemented on the 25th which allowed migrants to write about themselves and describe their belief status. ## HELP WANTED. ### Writers - Writing news stories - Coming up with "Puzzles" and "Trivia" ### Copyeditors - Proofreading and formatting articles ### Correspondents - Collecting notable and interesting community happenings for the "Crescent Day, Crescent Time" column - Reporting on stories for the "Community News" column Needed Give back to the community, hone your writing and people skills, and have fun along the way! Apply **today** at silvercrescent[at]protonmail.com ## PRIVATE ADVERTISEMENTS. ### ADVERTISE WITH US and get access to an audience of almost ***fifty*** penniless autistic NEET's! - $1 for every 100 words of text, or 250 characters of ***area*** (length * width) of any ASCII art illustrations, ***not*** how many characters are actually used, or part thereof. - This rate is a maximum, and may be waived or reduced at our sole discretion. - We reserve the right to reject or request modifications to all advertisements. - Send Bitcoin Cash to bitcoincash:qq9ncyspj2k6uj7tmhyez0pgshr2r0gaasse0wsccg - Contact us at silvercrescent[at]protonmail.com if you would like to donate any other currency. ## PUZZLES. ### ANSWER KEY TO LAST ISSUE'S PUZZLE. There is not enough information to answer the question. We do not know the initial or final velocity of the ball, or the time it takes the ball to be caught. Free advertising space will be awarded to anyone who can prove they made an honest attempt to answer the question. ## TRIVIA. CloudFlare uses a wall of lava lamps to generate big, random numbers that are vital to creating keys that encrypt websites. Thanks to dln_ for submitting this fact! In 1931, a man in Ireland tried to beat a speeding ticket by arguing that since Ireland was an independent country, it shouldn't use English units any longer. It didn't work. At the time Florida became a state in 1845, all of what is today South Florida were covered by only three counties: Dade, Hillsborough, and Monroe. Liberia was founded in the early 1800s as an independent republic in Africa where freed slaves could be resettled. ## LITERARY LUNACY. - The following classes of works are accepted: poetry, skits, short stories, essays, song lyrics, and serialized parts of novels and plays, of any genre, relating to any subject except political or religious. - All submissions must be in English only, and contain no promotional content. - Submissions shall not exceed 1,000 words; exceptions are available on a case-by-case basis where the word limit would seriously detract from the merit or quality of the work. - All work will be deemed released into the public domain UNLESS you explicitly indicate otherwise, and provide an email address for contact regarding permissions. If one is not provided, the one you sent it with will be used. - Send it to silvercrescent[at]protonmail.com. ### THE SWORD OF THE WILDERNESS. *An Alternate History.* By Quintuplicate Confederation. *continued from last issue...* In exchange for being permitted to plead down from a felony charge of smuggling to a misdemeanor charge of resisting arrest, Longman confessed all the activities of the Peoples Temple within his knowledge to a select committee of the Guyanese Senate in a hearing held on April 29, 1978. His testimony was taped, transcribed, published, and heavily circulated: a pertinent excerpt follows: ``` Q. Did you or did you not know that there was poison in the cargo? A. I plead the Fifth. Q. This is not America. There is no Fifth [Amendment] here. A. I did know that. But I claim parliamentary immunity. Q. Sir, this applies to members only. Now if you will not answer our questions, I'm afraid we shall have to waive your plea bargain. Now, did the Peoples Temple mean to use the poisoned drinks to kill? A. Yes, sir, they absolutely did, I can assure you of that. I’ve heard Jim Jones sometimes late at night—we all did—fantasizing, dreaming, about killing himself, and taking us all out with him, if the Yankees ever came to get us here. Now there wasn’t no guns in Jonestown; only possible way he could’ve was them poisoned drinks. Q. Did you intend to participate in, or aid, the killing? Your answer will not mitigate or aggravate your punishment. A. Jim might have been a bit "cuckoo" in the head, but on this he was a regular Einstein. He has this whole elaborate setup of codes, communications, and other secret systems that he'll use whenever he wants us to commit what he calls "revolutionary suicide". Q. Mr. Longman, you are not answering the question. A. Now I am. Now I’ve seen the light, but I fully and knowingly intended to kill my wife and kids and then myself. [a muffled gasp is heard] Q. We won’t mark it down as an admission. ``` While the Senate received some criticism from human-rights organizations for the heavy-handed way in which the questioning was conducted, the verbatim transcript, as published, was well-received by most in the international community. That night, analysts stationed at listening-posts reported a notable downtick in sobriety and rest in the tone of Jim Jones’ voice in his nightly harangue. But more bad news was yet to come. George Collins had survived, carried by ocean currents to the Caribbean island of Trinidad and Tobago, and taken by a fisherman who mistook it for a bag of mislaid fertilizer to a police station. The explanation for his survival was that his tormentors had failed to seal up his nose adequately or make sure the bag was airtight; a fortuitous north wind enabled him to ride the waves to Trinidad. When he was rescued, he weighed 80 pounds, despite being taller than six feet, and had not had a bite to eat in four days; a light drizzle on the second day of his ordeal saved him from dehydration. Refusing requests from the island's Defense Force to give a private lecture to them regarding disaster survival once he had recovered, he instead opted to hold an open press conference at the island's Hilton Resort after spending the preceding weeks recuperating at Port of Spain General Hospital. It was attended by a veritable army of hundreds of reporters from around the world, and the shocking revelations delivered there further soured public opinion against the Peoples Temple. An aide of Burnham informed us that an emergency cabinet meeting was convened almost the second the press conference adjourned; and, very uncharacteristically for a man like him, opened it by saying "This meeting is not a forum for public debate; it is a session to discuss what should we do about the Peoples Temple." It was resolved at that meeting to send for U.S. and Venezuelan aid if they did not respond to a demand to voluntarily remove themselves from Guyanese Territory. The demand was formally transmitted by first-class mail, May 3, 1978; an officially curt refusal was received and acknowledged, May 11, 1978. Requests for help were sent to the State Dept., May 12, 1978, and in accordance with Treaty of 1966 (7) Secretary Vance ordered the Joint Chiefs of Staff to go over the matter. On May 15, 1978, the Joint Chiefs of Staff informed their Guyanese counterparts that while direct military intervention had never been even considered seriously, financial aid was not off the table, and a $60 million aid package was forthcoming with the help of some allies in the Congress. In addition, Marines stationed in the area would receive orders not to resist any operation planned or to aid the Peoples Temple, except as necessary to protect the persons and property of noncombatant American citizens, provided that they received full information about it. Burnham readily acceded to the request. Mailbag 68 contains some of the confidential correspondence as well as physical exhibits that were transmitted in diplomatic bags between the Guyanese General Staff and its military attache in the U.S. W. Charles Taylor, the assigned intelligence advisor and trainer for the Guyanese Military Police, received orders to help plan the operation, which was directed by Lt.-Col. J. Thomas Parris of the 4th Parachute Battalion. The 3rd Squadron, Guyanese Air Force, was to provide air support with twelve helicopters and five fighter-bombers. A company of Marines was under orders to interdict any leading figures of the Peoples Temple attempting to flee to the Caribbean Islands, and return them to the control of Guyanese authorities. (7) Treaty of Mutual Aid, Friendship, and Commerce, between the United States of America and the Republic of Guyana, sgd. Apr. 19, 1966, D.C.; ratified May 15, 1966; reg. with Sec.-Gen. June 12, 1966, U.N.T.S. No. 9682 and T.I.A.S. 4756. ## OPINION ### The dividends of peace As the world around us explodes in hate and violence, it is my pleasure to thank and congratulate all in the Systemspace community for solving their problems civilly and peacefully without resort to drastic actions. Any look through the previous issues of the Crescent will reveal great tumult that has happily not been replicated this month. And it is for the good of the community that it should remain so forever. For war and tension do not cost just the damage or hurt feelings that are dealt in them. A greater cost, and one that affects even those who do not directly suffer its ravages, is time. Time to hope and time to dream is robbed and replaced by time to weep and time to destroy. Peace has the opposite effect. Because there is much less to worry about, people can put their minds to other things. They can enrich our culture and make each other's lives more interesting. That is what is meant by "the dividends of peace", the rewards peace, by its existence, pays out. Give comments...express feedback...propose suggestions...make your voice heard with ### LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Tips to maximize your chances of acceptance: - Write to silvercrescent[at]protonmail.com, and clearly label it as such. - Keep it under 250 words. - Give it a descriptive title, and focus it around one main idea. - Be clear and respectful but firm. - We try to be fair and balanced, but we will select a cross-section of all viewpoints; yours will not necessarily make the cut. - We will try to respond publicly to your letter, but there are no guarantees. If you would like this community to be one thing or another, far be it from me to discourage you. But take care that you do not disturb the peace which we by now have taken for granted.