Cracking the security on a trove of 17th century letters
Before envelopes, there was “letterlocking”Mar 3rd 2021A MODERN CORRESPONDENT wanting to communicate privately can use computerised encryption. Three hundred years ago, origami would have been a better bet.Before gummed envelopes became common in the 1800s, letters were posted with no security wrapper. Privacy-minded writers relied instead on a cunning combinations of folds, tucks, slits and…
Will Smith Is ‘Considering’ Running For President of the United States
Will Smith disclosed in a podcast interview recently that he would “consider” running for president “at some point.”In an interview released Monday, the 52-year-old rapper told Crooked Media’s “Pod Save America”: “I think for now I’ll let that office get cleaned up a little bit. And then I’ll consider that at some point down the…
Spy agencies have big hopes for AI
This isn’t their first attemptMar 2nd 2021WHEN IT comes to artificial intelligence (AI), spy agencies have been at it longer than most. In the cold war, America’s National Security Agency (NSA) and Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) explored early AI to help transcribe and translate the enormous volumes of Soviet phone-intercepts they began hoovering up…
Might the pandemic pave the way for a universal basic income?
Mar 2nd 2021WASHINGTON, DCWHEN ANDREW YANG began his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, his proposal for a “Freedom Dividend”—monthly cash payments of $1,000 to be paid to all Americans—distinguished him among a crowded field as an outsider and an unorthodox thinker. Nearly two years later, as Mr Yang leads the race for mayor of…