I used to do some work on the ethical use of satellite and drone imagery for aid and disaster response, and it is genuinely hard to express in words what a dangerous, stupid thing Google is doing by making it easy to use GenAI to create faked satellite imagery:

How to plant a nuclear plant in Iran

The question is: what on earth is Google doing?

digitaldigging.org

The supersingular isogeny problem in time and memory p^(1/3 + o(1)) (Benjamin Wesolowski) ia.cr/2026/1486

Genuinely why are Europeans so scared of air conditioning? This is in a hotel in England. The thing on the wall is undeniably an air conditioner.

I'm realizing that I haven't given boomers enough credit for living through the ongoing threat of nuclear annihilation and staying mostly sane

Looks amazing! I have minor quibbles (who wouldn't?) but this has so many advantages over the current system

@mccurley.bsky.social · 4w ago

The IACR board has put forward a proposal to revamp the publishing of the general conference proceedings for Eurocrypt, Crypto, and Asiacrypt. iacr.org/hybridpropos... I would encourage members to engage in discussion about this on iacr.org/discuss

Huh, Le Guin invented "skill issue"

Daniel Burke - 🍺Innkeep@innkeep.bsky.social · 4w ago

Le Guin on the idea that there is a secret to getting good at writing.

If you have only a basic understanding of how corruption works, this situation looks fine, if not ideal ("more money for research, no strings attached! yay!")

Sophie E. Hill@sophieehill.bsky.social · last mo.

How does this work? 🛡️ Donors hire a PR firm to commission research from universities 💰 "Anonymous donation" sent via a donor-advised fund, who perform minimal KYC checks 🙈 Universities conduct *no due diligence* of their own 📄 Journals accept "anonymous funding" declaration, no questions asked

Whatever prankster set this up is my hero: scholar.google.com/citations?us...

Wow! Alfred Menezes just published this 182 page "A Gentle Introduction to Lattice-Based Cryptography" paper. I just skimmed through it, but it looks like an invaluable resource if you want to study lattices and how they're used in (PQ) Cryptography. eprint.iacr.org/2026/1098

A gentle introduction to lattice-based cryptography

We present the quantum-safe Kyber key encapsulation mechanism (ML-KEM) and the Dilithium signature scheme (ML-DSA). We also develop the mathematical background on lattices needed to understand why Kyb...

eprint.iacr.org

Me: hmm, what's the plural word for emeritus professors? My brain: Emiratis! Me: ... close enough

Recently, FamilySearch digitized and uploaded tons of microfilmed records, including many from 18th-century Massachsuetts. They're using some sort of AI to transcribe/summarize the handwritten documents. I've noticed that the AI strips out references to race and enslavement in 18thc documents.

I see that the new MacOS Tahoe 26.5 update releases *EIGHT* new emojis from Apple's strategic emoji reserve. Folks, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that this is a software update that you really want to take somewhat urgently

Underrated Linux usability barrier: "I have this problem, how do I fix it?" "Post the log file and I can help" Then the log file is thousands of inscrutable lines that may or may not contain sensitive data about how you use your computer, that you as a beginner cannot understand

CrescensXG@zuramaru.net · 5mo ago

I sure love that the first step of every troubleshooting with our firewall vendor [unnamed] is: "Please attach a full current config to the ticket." [to be stored god knows where, for god knows how long]

One of the benefits of travelling is seeing other cultures coordinate to effortlessly do something your culture thinks is impossible

Alex Wellerstein@wellerstein.bsky.social · 4mo ago

This is pie in the sky thinking, but I think if more American professors taught a course in a different kind of educational system early or mid-career, it would lead to more creative thinking about how things could be done differently — or better — in the US.

On DOOMSDAY MACHINES, this week I dive into the idea of “atomic bombs” before the discovery of nuclear fission made them actually feasible. I’ve long thought it makes for an interesting case study — a fateful intersection of scientific fact and science fiction. doomsdaymachines.net/p/strange-ev...

"Strange even to the men who used them"

"Atomic bombs" before the discovery of fission

doomsdaymachines.net

Two weeks ago, Google published a paper proving in zero-knowledge that they had an efficient implementation of Shor's algorithm. Today, Trail of Bits can prove that we have an even better implementation which beats Google's on all metrics! 🫢 blog.trailofbits.com/2026/04/17/w...

Overdue quantum landscape update: sam-jaques.appspot.com/quantum_land... A 2d chart can only say so much. tl;dr new results are still overhyped, but definitely worth taking seriously. This chart is based on surface codes and a big question now is whether new codes can be practical (=>useless chart)

Hot take: IACR submission guidelines should eliminate appendices, bump the page limit to 70 pages, but have an earlier deadline for any paper longer than 30 pages

I was deeply humbled by the unbelievably positive reaction to my talk at Real World Crypto 2026 in Taipei about my experiences teaching applied cryptography in post-crisis Lebanon. The full video for the talk is now available: www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_Hx...

Real World Crypto 2026: Lessons from Teaching Applied Cryptography in Post-Crisis Lebanon

YouTube video by Nadim Kobeissi

youtube.com

Fernando is looking for a PhD student www.iacr.org/jobs/item/4164 Fernando is excellent, you should consider applying.

We don’t talk often enough about the Superman issue where, fed up with pedestrian deaths from car collisions, he sets out to try and destroy every car in the city.

Photo memory: a bootleg version of settlers of Catan I made from memory during summer fieldwork in 2012

I love my city youtu.be/uttoyAX4ntc?...

How This Small City Built Light Rail For Cheap

YouTube video by Oh The Urbanity!

youtu.be

The impact of Alfred Menezes in cryptography is profound. Francisco RH and I are organizing an afternoon session in Latincrypt to celebrate Alfred's career: menezesfest.info If you're coming to Medellín, consider attending!

Always bothers me when you lose the 1/N factor in a multi-user security proof. Was thinking about how to dodge it; consider this for Schnorr signatures: you are an active adversary against a single challenger, with access to a multi-user adversary.

I wrote a bit about options for phones at protests, explaining the benefits and drawbacks, and added some security tips at the end.

Options for Phones at Protests

Simply showing up to a protest leaves you susceptible to all sorts of surveillance, including cameras, drones, facial recognition, and more. There's not always a lot you can do about pernicious street...

blog.yaelwrites.com

Ursula K. LeGuin on technology

An out-of-schedule update to my quantum landscape chart: sam-jaques.appspot.com/quantum_land..., prompted by @craiggidney.bsky.social 's new paper: arxiv.org/abs/2505.15917. A startling jump (20x) in how easy quantum factoring can be! Also: much improved web design!

Seriously embarrassed myself in front of my cat: Middle of the night, cat sits there wanting pets. I can't see a thing, I reach out and try to pet a dirty pair of shorts.