Cryptography

Recently I've become intensely interested in the history any techniques of cryptography, the science of creating and breaking secret codes. Now most people would associate that with spies and espionage, and rightly so, but it also plays an absolutely massive part in the world of computer science.

Take, for example, your wireless internet access password. Or your Facebook password, your encrypted files, CD-keys for software...essentially everything you do on your computer is associated with cryptography! Crackers spend inordinate amounts of time using the cryptography of programming and script-writing to cryptographically crack passwords and access codes, developers spend millions of dollars on writing high-maintenance security programs and even basic users are amateur cryptographers when they invent new passwords for the email accounts.

What a lot of people might not know, however, is exactly how much of a science cryptography is. There are elaborate, highly cerebral methods for breaking and making codes and they almost always involve intensely mathematical algorithms. A mathematician can easily find himself at home in the cryptography field just as easily as could a computer science specialist!

Occupy Wall Street---but why?

Recently there has been a lot of talk about Wall Street, spearheaded mainly by the major protest movement happening there a la "Occupy Wall Street". Now, being a generally left-leaning person, I was at first pleasantly surprised that these protests were taking place; after all, who doesn't think that those people who are majorly responsible for the financial situation in this country need a good what-for?

However, as time has gone on, I've gotten more and more disappointed in the protest or, more specifically, the protestors themselves. Instead of a neat, organised demonstration with simple, intelligent demands and slogans, we have a ridiculous mob of people who are generally just making loud noises and looking ridiculous.

http://img.ibtimes.com/www/data/images/full/2011/10/10/171743-occupy-wall-street.jpg

http://media.nola.com/politics/photo/occupy-wall-street-broadwayjpg-3c570e2db47bbb64.jpg

http://www.csmonitor.com/var/ezflow_site/storage/images/media/images/10-11-11-occupy-wall-street-protest/10810789-1-eng-US/10-11-11-Occupy-Wall-Street-protest_full_600.jpg

What the hell, people? What are you even trying to say? Now I know that these examples don't represent everyone and that there are plenty of people out there with legitimate concerns and good arguments but vague, cliche slogans aren't going to change anything. What's more, everyone having a different vague, cliche slogan just adds to the confusion. So here's my breakdown of what's wrong with the OWS movement:

Problem 1: A Lack of a Singular Message
At the moment, the Wall Street protesters are yelling about essentially everything that has made them unhappy since they were born whether it was the bailouts, gay marriage denial, the War...what have you. Now these messages are legitimate in their own right but the fact that the protest has spread across such wide categories of unrest has completely garbled whatever message it might have had and/or any reason to be talking about this shit at Wall Street. If you want to protest the bailouts, that's fine, but everyone should be doing it, not just five people here and five people there mixed into the crowd that wants to burn down Starbucks.

Solution 1: Get everyone together and agree on some principles.
Call a team huddle for a minute. Hand out coffee and fliers saying, "OWS meeting at 6pm" or what have you and try to get the majority of people to attend. When you get everyone together, establish an idea of what you're doing. I know it will take forever to get a mob to agree but, if you don't do it, you'll never succeed at whatever it is you're trying to do. Vote on some basic principles: (End the Bailouts, Encourage Philanthropy Efforts, etc.) and make sure that the majority of people understand that these are the main reasons the OWS protest is happening.

Problem 2: Vague Slogans with No Real Effect
"Peace and Love" "Down with the Rich" "Fight the Power" "Occupy Wall Street" "Don't Tread on Me!" That's a big reason that OWS is not being taken seriously, you've got the most idiotic slogans in the entire world. Saying "Peace and Love" at a Wall Street protest is not going to accomplish anything for you because it is a generalised, non-specific call to...well, nothing. While it does make people feel happy, it's not going to solve any problems right here, right now. People are going to avoid the tired, old cliches and the call to arms against a vague, impersonal enemy.

Solution 2: Use the Slogans from Solution #1

If you want to accomplish something, take slogans from the Solution #1 and use those. That way, when people read your sign or hear your chants, they know (a) what you want and (b) how you want it done. It's that simple.

Problem 3: A Lack of Leadership
While it's cool that the protests are mainly "anonymous" and leaderless, you come across really major issues when the Wall Street guys want to talk to you. The other day, when watching the news, I saw that the protesters booed a Senator who came to visit and was in total agreement with them. That's the problem, the protesters have become a leaderless mob who cannot even recognise specific events because, acting in a group mentality, they jump to irrational conclusions and general assumptions. In the event that anyone wants to present them with a solution, there will be no way to go about it because there isn't anyone to speak to (ergo the lack of leadership).

Solution 3: Appoint Community Leaders by Majority Vote
Remember that big meeting I suggested in Solution #1? Well, while you're there, vote on some people to act as representatives of the movement. I don't mean people that will go in and negotiate for you, I mean a few individuals who will go meet with the heads of Wall Street or whomever, listen to their suggestions and then come back and present them to you to vote on. They don't have to rule you, they just need to be your Henry Kissinger. Think of those people as your megaphone.

Problem 4: Hypocrisy and Generally Crazy People
It's kind of hard to argue against consumerism when pictures like this (http://i.huffpost.com/gen/370147/thumbs/r-OCCUPY-WALL-STREET-SOCIAL-MEDIA-large570.jpg) are easy to take. Notice anything wrong? Yeah, that Macbook. I've seen so many Macbooks and Starbucks coffees in the pictures of the protests that I'm liable to go out and buy one of each just because of the free advertisements.

On top of that, you've got people like this: http://msnbcmedia4.msn.com/j/reuters/2011-10-05t193347z_01_btre7941idc00_rtroptp_3_usa-protests.grid-6x2.jpg who are just making the protests look stupid. As soon as you wear a mask, you're immediately dismissed as a carnival show and no one is going to take you seriously.

Solution 4: Tell These People to Go Home
That's it. Take off the mask and put away the Mac or go home.



Once again, I agree in principle with what the protesters are saying. I don't like consumerism or the way the money has been used in this country but I want to see the protests done in a way that will accomplish something, not just make noise. I have a feeling this will turn out like Slavoj Zizek predicted when he spoke at OWS, "The only thing I’m afraid of is that we will someday just go home and then we will meet once a year, drinking beer, and nostaligically remembering “What a nice time we had here.”"

The Freedom to Choose

Everyone thinks that the freedom to choose is a really great thing.

Is it?

Think about it, you're so weighted down with meaningless choices that you either (a) don't have time to choose important things or (b) you're so tired from useless decisions that you don't WANT to choose anymore.

You have to think about what brand of chips you want, what flavour you want, what's on sale, what you have a coupon for, what your family likes, if there's any bags left, if you'll eat them all before the expiration date, what other items can you afford, do you really need salsa, what checkout lane to choose, which cashier fits your comfort profile the most, cash or credit, paper or plastic, are you a part of our member's club, do you need a bag, do you want to donate a dollar to the children's fund, left door or right door to leave, where did you park.

That's a shitload of decision for buying a bag of chips and some salsa! How are you going to decide the future of your household with all that shit on your mind!?

The State of Today's Literary Establishment

The literary world is too full of bullshit these days...everything is high-and-mighty pretentiousness and old professor with tweed jackets, spectacles and pipes talking about the "romantic classicism in Goethe's Faust" but not understanding the heart of the words they're talking about. Writing shouldn't be a circlejerk, it should be a match to the light your fire.

"Don't lose the taste of the apple when wondering if it is ripe."

I love classical literature, don't get me wrong. In fact, I read more books published before 1900 than I do after but my ultimate point still remains, the creaky old literary criticism of olden days has to be demolished. At the same time, postmodern bullshit is even less helpful than that. Nothing irritates me more than writers like Tao Lin. Tao Lin doesn't write, he types.

What happened to writers like Yukio Mishima?

Slut Shame

Humanity has to come to terms with something.

(1) Society says that a man who has sex with a lot of women is good.
(2) Society says that a woman who has sex with a lot of men is bad.

That doesn’t make sense and the worse part is that it’s not just men who say this kind of thing.

Sex, in and of itself, is an act of physical attraction (there is a difference between sex and “lovemaking”). If you are attracted to someone physically and they are attracted back, the two of you generally want to have sex.

The concept of sex being “bad” or “wrong” goes back to ancient moral codes that have long since been transcended by human development.

There’s a long bit of bullshit I could say here but the point is this:

Either decide that people should only have sex with one person in their entire lives or stop shaming women for having sex with as many men as men have sex with women. :|

Modern Mythology

One of the most fascinating and vital parts of human culture is passing down information, beliefs and themes, usually through the telling of stories. The most popular stories that have survived the test of time is mythology, stories or songs that detail the adventures of people that irrevocably have some kind of underlying information or warning to them. Up until recently, most people associated mythology with ancient cultures and powerful gods, stories concerning Zeus and Heracles, and not any kind of modern equivalent. However, with careful analysation, we can see that there is just as much mythology now as there has ever been.

Think about all of the urban legends that one hears just in their normal life, whether it be the meaning of an esoteric song or the origin of a habit. Let's look at some examples:

Myth #1: Musician Phil Collins wrote his hit song, "In the Air Tonight" about witnessing his mother get raped by a stranger when he was a child and then seeing the same man again later at his concert.

Myth #2: The inventor of Lifesavers candy (famous for looking like life preservers) put holes in the center of his candies because his daughter choked on a candy years before.

Myth #3: Playing the song "Stairway to Heaven" by Led Zepplin backwards reveals a Satanic message.

Take into consideration that none of these three stories are true. Now, the important thing to look at here is the themes that run behind the little myths. The first two myths are similar because they are summarised stories that easily appeal to one's pathos (emotions). Most anyone can feel upset or outraged at a child's death or a mother's rape so that, in turn, gives us the purpose of these little stories. They are entertainment stories.

We see these stories essentially everywhere. On the internet, we are constantly told stories about boyfriends who do sweet things for their women or vice versa, dying children, the love of a an omnipotent god, etc. and encouraged to spread the story either as a show of singularity or in hopes of some supernatural reward. They are ingrained into the populace.

The third myth is different from the other two but just as popular in today's society. While it does not have a real "story" to it, it does provide you with the key aspects of its purpose. (1) It tells you that there is a song with a secret message, (2) that the song is Satanic and (3) that the song is played by Led Zepplin. This implies that Led Zepplin is promoting Satanism by inserting Satanist messages into their music and, by extension, trying to get the listeners to convert to Satanism. Taking it further, it could very well be that all music that sounds like Zep is Satanic and harmful.

This myth is important because it (albeit usually incorrectly) informs us of something. In this case, it is informing us that Led Zepplin is Satanic and we should not listen to their music. There are a great many myths like this floating around and constantly being created, showing their popularity and place in our culture. Whether it be a story about the American President being a secret Muslim or how Marilyn Manson removed his bottom ribs, these smear campaigns exist all over the world.

The important thing to take away from all of this is that mythology is not restricted only to the ancient Greeks and their contemporaries, it is in fact a product of every moment of human existence, constantly being created, carried on, edited and re-adapted for every new development.