Blog/April 2017/Apr 28th

April 28th

It was a week full of work, B”H, and little else. So I apologize if this week’s blog gets a bit technical and political. You’ll forgive me, won’t you?

As mentioned last week, I’ve been enhancing the cryptographic repertoire in 8th. The enhancements center around three things: adding more crypto options, “hardening” 8th’s use of crypto, and adding more crypto abilities. The last one is particularly interesting, I think.

Here’s one thing I was working on: SSSS. That’s “Shamir’s Secret Sharing Scheme”. What that is, is really cool: it provides a method of splitting a “secret” amongst a group of X people such that any Y of them (but not fewer than Y) can reconstitute the secret. It’s a provably secure method. That is, it is absolutely impossible (no matter how much computation is used) to reconstitute the secret with fewer than Y pieces of it. What’s the idea behind it?

The idea is incredibly simple, actually. Any “polynomial of degree N” can be uniquely determined by N+1 points. So a line, which is a “polynomial of degree 1”, is determined precisely by any two distinct points on it. But a single point on the line can lie on an infinity of other lines. So one point cannot determine a line, nor does it leak any information about what potential line is desired. This is, in short, the idea behind the SSSS algorithm. Of course, the technical implementation is a bit more involved than the simple explanation. Anyway, 8th now includes this feature, which was requested by users.

Jew Haiku:

Cryptography is
Lots of math and proofs and stuff
Do not “roll your own”!

Sundry and various:

• In the information-security world, it doesn’t pay to make ridiculous claims
• Bad fat? Not so fast…
• Public use of math skills in Oregon may result in a fine
• Furry feet? You might be related to hobbits

Those of us who raised kids in the ‘90s (or who grew up then) remember Bill Nye the Science Guy fondly. For the rest of you: the man had a “science show for kids” which was somewhat educational, quirky, and entertaining. But in recent years, “Good Bill Nye” has morphed into “Shrieking Propagandist Bill Nye”. The change is not one for the better.

He started out innocently enough, debunking wild claims by creationists and like-minded folks. But as the years progressed, his progressive creds became more and more pronounced. Now, his new show is called “Bill Nye Saves the World” (sic). You can search for it on YouTube if you want; it’s so cringey and bereft of beneficial content that I won’t link it here.

Here’s the problem: he puts himself forth as a representative of “the science community”, but he’s not a scientist — he’s a mechanical engineer by training, and a TV personality/comic entertainer by profession. He most recently made statements in favor of jailing people who are sceptical of “anthropogenic climate change”. Seriously.

I believe very strongly in “freedom of speech”; so strongly, in fact, that I don’t believe there should be “hate speech” laws at all. So you might figure that I am appalled at the statements and behavior coming from Mr. “Science Guy”. I am even more appalled at the recent spate of riots at Berkeley, whose purpose was the quashing of opposing viewpoints and the stultification of free-speech. That, at a university which made its name in the ‘60s over “free-speech protests”. It doesn’t bode well for the world’s most powerful nation when its “guaranteed” right of free-speech is no longer guaranteed.

Last night we went to a lecture given by MK Yehuda Glick and hosted by our shul. You may know Glick as a “troublemaker” or an “extremist”. You may know he’s an advocate for Jews ascending the Temple Mount. You may remember the assassination attempt which nearly took his life. The man we heard didn’t sound extreme — in fact, to a question from the audience he responded that it “made him very happy” that Muslims pray on the Temple Mount, to the One God; in his view, that’s confirmation of our prophet’s words, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples” (Isa 56:7). Interesting and entertaining man, Glick.

This coming Tuesday is Israel’s 69th birthday, and will be celebrated around the country by massive barbecues. As they do every year, the Central Bureau of Statistics released figures related to the country’s population growth and demographic makeup. So: as of the moment, Israel’s population is about 75% Jewish and 25% not-Jewish. Surprisingly (to me), amongst the Jewish population, those who identify as “secular” or “not religious” are distinctly a minority at 44%. Likewise amongst the non-Jewish population, a mere 21% are “not at all religious”. Don’t know about you, but I find that interesting.

This shabbat we’re down to the sub-nuclear two. Just the two of us will have:
(perhaps) chicken soup, baked salmon, baked chicken with shallots and wine sauce, roasted veggies, various salatim, and spice cake.

Until next time,
shabbat shalom!

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