Curious Ellie's Annex

NSA Comix Archive

I was browsing through the website of my recent acquaintance on Pinterest, the National Cryptologic Heritage Museum. In fact, I am sincerely proud to say Pinterest friend, as the follow is mutual. This led me to another website, where I noticed that the Public Information, Declassification and Transparency Department of NSA Communicators had posted a delightful document archive.

Cryptolog!

Newly declassified by the National Security Agency! Browse through any, or all, of the 136 issues of comic-formatted Cryptolog, from Volume 1 (1974)  through Volume 23 (1997). Each issue of Cryptolog is available as a PDF file, for your extended and leisurely enjoyment.

I found this puzzle transcribed as a webpage (HTML), as a sample of the fun to be found within.

The larger event is the 60th anniversary of the NSA

"Established on Nov. 4, 1952, the National Security Agency celebrates this week 60 years of service to the nation. NSA's achievements [are] in areas such as signals intelligence, information assurance, innovative research, and contributions in support of U.S. military and foreign policy goals."

Prior to 1952, the NSA existed as the Army Signal Corps. I didn't know this. My grandmother worked for the Army Signal Corps in Philadelphia during World War 2, and for several years following. She enjoyed her work there enormously. If she had been able to continue... wow! Instead, she returned to her job as a librarian assistant at Central High School. I feel so proud of my grandmother! I wish I could tell her what I learned today.

"A public ceremony will be held on the same day at the agency's National Cryptologic Museum, where officials will present a new 60th Anniversary Exhibit including the SIGABA cipher machine, the only such device that remained completely unbroken by an enemy during the war."

The date was 12 November 2012. This post is a little after the fact. However, the National Cryptologic Museum remains open, in its full glory.

The Cryptologic Foundation describes it as a Museum Like No Other. I wish I could visit. I wish it could be soon.

Big data for growth stock investing

Can big data analytic methods be used for comparing Compounded Growth Rate (CGR) for a stock versus the industry median?

So they say

That's an affirmative, according to Big Data for Finance via The Benefits of Going Big (June 2012), and posted on Twitter today, from the 2013 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Rationale

Comparing stock CGR's with the industry median over time, then filtering those that exceed the median is computationally intensive:

The growth rate has to be calculated not only for every stock in the universe but also for the industry it belongs to. Typically, this kind of analytic takes tens of seconds to compute. The Eikon data cloud - through its proprietary 'vega effect' - decomposes the query into data retrieval, data level and application analytics and applies speed and scale to each layer.

This is accomplished by applying techniques such as

... efficient data retrieval algorithms, vectorisation, and parallel processing... the same analysis now takes less than one second to compute.

Narrowed horizons

Economic gloom and climate doom

The following three excerpts are re-posted from the blog of J. Bradford DeLong, Professor of Economics, University of California at Berkeley. My bleak synthesis, of economic and climactic gloom and doom, follows.

N.B. Endorsement by Professor DeLong is not given, nor even vaguely implied!

John Quiggin on Utopia and climate change:

"Economic development and technological progress provide the only real hope of lifting billions of people out of poverty and destitution…. If current First World living standards can’t safely be extended to the rest of the world, the future holds either environmental catastrophe or an indefinite continuation of the age-old struggle between rich and poor. Of course, it might hold both."

Ryan Avent on The euro crisis: Mario Draghi's premature canonisation and European Central Bank inaction

"[T]he complacency on the macro situation (and on the broader process of institutional reform, for that matter) are just astounding."

Noah Smith on The End of Labor:

"For most of modern history, inequality has been a manageable problem. The reason is that no matter how unequal things get, most people are born with something valuable: the ability to work, to learn, and to earn money… But in the past ten years, something has changed... In past times, technological change always augmented the abilities of human beings… Once human cognition is replaced, what else have we got?

Via delong.typepad.com

Singular vision: Science and technology

Ray Kurzweil foresaw a technological singularity. It was to be positive, a sea change leading to freedom from the ancient tyranny of daily toil. The effort, to merely subsist, dominated human life for most of our history. Soul-numbing labor was expended to attain the barest necessities for survival.

Arrival of Kurzweil's singularity was to have liberated us. Yet it doesn't seem likely to. Concentration of wealth has increased during the past quarter century, especially in the U.S.A. (reversing the trend toward greater distribution during the 50 years prior). Most technology and genomic benefits will be out of reach, even for the technocracy. There is scant promise for any, other than the fabulously wealthy elite.

TED dystopia

Self-congratulatory, revival styled TED talks come to mind, with their fanfare, inspirational music, showmanship and miracle works. Yet religious revival meetings were numerous, accessible, and free for the most part. They were perceived with a mixture of hope, skepticism and humor. Compare those gatherings with TED talks. The latter are strictly controlled. There is a cap on attendance count per session. The barrier of phenomenal cost, approximately $2000 or more per person, for a one hour TED session is a hurdle. Yet even that does not assure admission. There are other criteria as well. 

My father

In memorium

Florida National Cemetery,  March 2010

Veteran's Day

For my father, Captain Russell H. Kesselman, U.S. Air Force, 1927 - 2009.

The loss and sorrow does not diminish. I think of my father every single day. I miss him so much. I wish I would have been a better daughter.

My father was not always tactful. He could say hurtful things, carelessly. He was often unhappy, moody. Yet he was absolutely consistent about this: When I was unsure about myself, he always told me that he believed in my ability to accomplish things. It never felt like reassurance, but rather, certainty. If I could, I would say,

"You were a good parent! I was so fortunate, yet never realized that. Thank you for constantly encouraging me. You never led me to doubt myself. I am so proud that you were my father. You worked for 50 years, helping people, working for the Veteran's Administration as a cardiologist, going on house calls for your elderly patients even though you were 75 years old yourself. I love you, Father."

I can't though. My father is gone from this world.

Don't be like me. Tell your parents that you love them, now, while you can. Don't be obstinate (as I often was), particularly if there is no good reason for it.

Don't do what I did, and feel such regret, more than I have words to describe.

Home decoy

via blog.dwr.com

This perfectly balanced, smoothly ebony Charles Eames® House Bird was featured as part of Design Within Reach's contest that ran for several weeks, earlier this year.

The complete assortment of elegant mid-20th century furniture and fixtures designed by Herman Miller, Knoll, the Eames Brothers and more may be viewed on the DWR main website. It is sometimes referred to as "Mid-century Modern", although it is equally well described as 21st century au courante by functional and practical-minded individuals such as myself.