Why does the state of Alabama keep trying to invent new ways to kill death row prisoners rather than just shooting them? It's that easy. Just use a firing squad.

Really hope chemical engineers start working on ways to filter out PFAS and similar compounds from water and preferably neutralize or destroy them. Hopefully on a large scale.

The more I learn about ZKPs, and STARKs in particular, the more I realize that this represents a technological transformation that may rival the invention of the electronic circuit. ZKP applications go far beyond simple transaction rollups. The correct execution of any Turing-complete system of any magnitude can be verified super-efficiently, in a completely private way. Add in the quantum resistance of STARK, and it's no longer hyperbole to say that it could be the defining information technology of the next century.

What if you made a blockchain for waffles? Investors please contact me if you want to get a 1% stake in my WAFL whitepaper for only $3,000,000.

Thinking about getting a new phone with eSIM. It just seems so much more convenient for international travel and/or carrier flexibility.

I refuse to use the PayPal stablecoin with a built-in rug right there in the badly outdated and insecure Eth smart contract. Who are they trying to fool?

Some researchers have already figured out the best way to simultaneously scale Bitcoin's transaction throughput and implement a post-quantum signature scheme. Essential reading.

IACR Cryptology ePrint Archive

Aggregating and thresholdizing hash-based signatures using STARKs

This work presents an approach for compressing hash-based signatures using STARKs (Ben-Sasson et. al.'18). We focus on constructing a hash-based t-...

"Budget sequestration" "Fiscal cliff" "Debt ceiling" They are fooling us. Fiat currency isn't real. These words have no actual meaning.

Room temperature superconductors aren't real and can't hurt you. Until they are. At which time they will be used to build quantum computers that break all current widely deployed public key cryptography and the hurting will be massive.

Superconducting quantum computing - Wikipedia

A real laugh from people who apparently don't even believe in capital letters! https://antisoftware.club/manifesto/2022/06/27/cryptocurrency.html

I wonder if there is a computational class of problems which is easy for a quantum computer to compute forwards, but hard to invert, while also being hard to compute forwards on a classical computer.

Don't scan my retinas! Don't scan me, bro!

Seems like the layoffs situation isn't really improving. Recession is probably already underway.

Amethyst feature request please: automatically filter out any posts matching the regex .*airdrop is live.*

Arguing over whether Hitler/fascism is or was worse than Lenin/communism is like arguing over whether it's worse to die of cholera or dysentery.

Trying to find a reasonably priced hotel room in Tokyo with twin beds is nigh impossible.

Thinking about taking a side trip to Taiwan after Nostrasia. Anyone know some cool stuff to do there?

Scientifically illiterate, incoherent reporting. This article correctly states that El Niño is a natural climate oscillation, but also calls it a "climate change phenomenon" without properly qualifying or justifying this term. In nearly every contemporary usage, "climate change" refers in particular to anthropogenic, long-term climate change as a result of industrial greenhouse gas emissions. Applying it to El Niño is disingenuous because while it is a temporary or cyclical alteration in climate, the El Niño phenomenon has likely been going on for thousands of years, prior to industrialization. There is no definitive evidence that a rise in the average global temperature has or will make El Niño more intense or last longer. Such detailed climate modeling is not yet possible and there are too many unpredictable variables. The article heavily implies or assumes that there is such a consensus that humans have caused El Niño to be more intense and therefore conflates political agenda-driven measures for reducing emissions with efforts to deal with a natural superannual weather cycle. This type of alarmist and inaccurate climate reporting is all too common in recent years.

The Tico Times | Costa Rica News | Travel | Real Estate

El Niño: The Climate Change Phenomenon Affecting Costa Rica : The Tico Times | Costa Rica News | Travel | Real Estate

El Niño is a climate change phenomenon that affects Costa Rica by causing an increase in temperatures and changes in precipitation patterns.

Just a little bit of shilling for my new blog post. Get it? A little bit?

Bit lengths of various things

I'm not actually going to TABConf. Unfortunately it's not in the budget this year. But probably next year!