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It was Singh's book got me interested in crypto when I read it in 9th grade, but it really made me smile to revisit this! Since leaving GCHQ, the NSA, and a he
by bhickey 16y ago
It was Singh's book got me interested in crypto when I read it in 9th grade, but it really made me smile to revisit this!
Since leaving GCHQ, the NSA, and a hedge fund, Nick works as a genetic anthropologist at the Broad Institute. Last year I had the distinct pleasure of haranguing Nick Patterson with all manner of technical questions, mostly with regards to Hidden Markov Models. He never did mention his role in public-key cryptography. The NYTimes did a bio on him a few years back, it's a great read about an amazing person and intellectual giant.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/12/science/12prof.html http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/12/science/12prof.html
http://www.broadinstitute.org/blog/five-questions-nick-patterson http://www.broadinstitute.org/blog/five-questions-nick-patte...
- RiderOfGiraffes 16y agoSimon Singh is the same guy as wrote and produced the documentary on "Fermat's Last Theorem": http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=380332 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=380332 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=498494 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=498494 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1646727 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1646727 He's also a nice guy, and says nice things about my presentations.
- srean 16y agohttp://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/08/mf_qa_singh/ http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/08/mf_qa_singh/ Wired article about how the British Chiropractic Association went after Singh. Simon Singh: It would have meant that whenever somebody typed “Simon Singh” into a Web search, it would say, “science journalist found guilty of libel.” People could dismiss anything I’d ever written about alternative medicine. But more important, it would have implied that there is some validity to these claims that chiropractic can help with things like asthma and colic. And that would have an impact on parents and their children. Faced with that, I couldn’t apologize. If you’ve written something that you believe is true, and if you can afford to defend it, then you’ve got to defend it.
- bhickey 16y agoThe UK really needs to backport the Zenger Trial.
- fanf2 16y agoWe already did. The problems are with the cost of defending and the lack of a public interest or legitimate argument defence.
- srean 16y agoThis http://www.relfe.com/media_can_legally_lie.html http://www.relfe.com/media_can_legally_lie.html I think turns it on its head. Its trajectory was quite the opposite of Singh's libel lawsuit. Zenger side of Atlantic isn't any rosier. It was established that, deliberate falsification of the news (by Fox) is the agency's legal right, and so is firing reporters not willing to lie on purpose (about health effects). Law totally beats me. Thankfully I am not a lawyer.