According to Dale over at Samizdata quantum computing is here. Now I don’t want to entangle myself in all the details but just one consequence.
Quantum computing kills stone-dead RSA style encryption. Through the long history of human sneakiness there has been a war between cryptology and cryptanalysis. RSA was (is) a decisive victory for cryptology. [...]
Posts from ‘May, 2011’
Quantum Computers & Codes
Ezra and Sam
I guess Brian at Samizdata must have been watching this at about the same time I was.
Never heard of Sam Solomon, ex imam, before, but the strength of his conversion and the power of his witness for Christ could almost, almost but not quite, convert this confirmed atheist.
My complaint with this interview was Ezra. Now [...]
So Much for the “Tireless Campaigner for Freedom”*
I’m a big fan of free and open-source software - none of my computers runs a proprietary OS, and I try to stick to open-licenced apps on my Android (Linux-based) phone wherever possible - but I don’t talk about it here because… well, it never came up, I suppose.
It just did.
The Palestinian boycott has spread [...]
How many people will they be willing to kill
to achieve this misanthropic fantasy:
What is degrowth?
Degrowth carries the idea of a voluntary reduction of the size of the economic system, which implies a reduction of the GDP.
However degrowth is not simply about challenging the centrality of GDP as the overarching policy objective but proposes a framework for transformation to a lower and sustainable level [...]
What a crock
Wot?
It will destroy jobs, it will cause difficulties with bills, and it has nothing to do with children’s health.
And, why are they using Battersea Power Station?
Yet more “The debate is over”
Think they would rebroadcast this on BBC?
This red meat from Andrew Bolt
Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Wahnsinn*
From an article by Fritz Vahrenholt, Die Welt. Translation by Philipp Mueller. For brevity I’ll concentrate on some of the “highlights” of what passes for scientific integrity and critical thought in Germany.
Germany’s green government advisors admit frankly that decarbonization can only be achieved by the limitation of democracy - both nationally [...]
Not the wedding of the century.
On the BBC News this morning was the story about Ed Miliband marrying his long-term girlfriend.
It’s hardly Watergate is it?
Anyway, the BBC assured us it’s the second most important wedding this year.
Anyway, the wedding of the pico-second is at some gaff that does weddings in Nottinghamshire and doesn’t feature Pippa Middleton’s arse* in [...]
Got kids? Get out of jail free.
A burglar was freed from jail today - after judges ruled his five children would suffer as much as he would if he remained behind bars.
Our judicial system isn’t just unfit for purpose, it’s batshit crazy too. As of today jailing criminals infringes the human rights of their kids. Some fucking legal precedent, [...]
(Paul) Nurse Shark Jump
Nobel laureate Sir Paul Nurse told the Guardian that some climate scientists were being targeted by organised campaigns of requests for data and other research materials, aimed at intimidating them and slowing down research. He said the behaviour was turning freedom of information laws into a way to intimidate some scientists.
Nurse said that, in principle, [...]
The Envy of the World
STAFF at a major Scottish hospital left a pensioner without food for 10 days and sedated her repeatedly, a damning report has revealed.
Nurses appeared to have a “negative attitude” towards the 80-year-old, who suffered from dementia, and gave her more than 80 tranquillizing drugs in little more than a fortnight.
From The Herald. And over on [...]
Advertising Genius!
I like Aldi, Lidl, Netto. Some of the stuff they sell is extremely good. I don’t like them because they are cheap as such. I like them because they are extremely good value. That is not something that can be said about Iceland. Good stuff can be cheap if the company is run well and [...]
The Bottom Inspectors
The Bottom Inspectors are a rather gloriously puerile (yes, even by the standards of Viz) form of secret polic that check if you’ve wiped your bum. They are quite well known because for quite some time Chris Donald refused to say what he’d based them on. The smart money was they were a parody of [...]
Oh Hell!
Britain and France are to deploy attack helicopters against Libya in an attempt to break the military stalemate, particularly in the important coastal city of Misrata, security sources have told the Guardian.
In a significant escalation of the conflict, the Apaches – based on HMS Ocean – will join French helicopters in risky operations which reflect [...]
