Month: March 2017

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50 Things That Made the Modern Economy - Public Key Cryptography

Take a very large prime number – one that is not divisible by anything other than itself. Then take another. Multiply them together. That is simple enough, and it gives you a very, very large “semi-prime” number. That is a number that is divisible only by two prime numbers. Now challenge someone else to take that semi-prime number, and figure out which two prime numbers were multiplied together to produce it. That, it turns out, is exceptionally hard. Some mathematics are a lot easier to perform in one direction than another. Public key cryptography works by exploiting this difference. And without it we would not have the internet as we know it. Tim Harford tells the story of public key cryptography – and the battle between the geeks who developed it, and the government which tried to control it. (Photo: Encryption algorithms. Credit: Shutterstock)
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The Gist - Survey Says …

Anthony Salvanto, CBS News’ elections director, explains the CBS Nation Tracker poll and why it’s different from the surveys that tell you if you’re a Jessa.

In the Spiel, can you trust the job numbers?

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Stuff They Don't Want You To Know - Die Glocke: The Legend of the Nazi Bell

Like most other militaries of the time, the Nazi army conducted extensive classified research into all aspects of warfare, from rocketry to drugs, tank improvements and so on. They also delved into more exotic realms, and their endeavors remain a subject of enduring fascination in the modern age. Perhaps the most famous of these legendary experiments is something known as Die Glocke, or the Nazi Bell. But what is it supposed to be, exactly? What does it do? And, if it is real, where did it end up?

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They don't want you to read our book.: https://static.macmillan.com/static/fib/stuff-you-should-read/

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