Puzzle Number 12: Code Breakers

In honour of recent contributions in encryption made by researchers at the University of Toronto, I thought I would finally come out with a new puzzle. In this puzzle, I have designed a relatively simple encryption algorithm (one that could easily be implemented either by hand or on a computer) and used it to encode two messages. The messages are both under the category of 'Classic science fiction film and television', but are otherwise unrelated. In order to make the puzzle somewhat more reasonable, I will point that all non-alphanumeric characters (punctuation) have been unchanged and are not involved in the encryption. Also, I only used a single case for the letters (in this case, capital) simply to make my life easier.

Message 1:
GDL4J9H3: HE5H2 G7D2BL5A6 G8FCBHD9H5F. HE1H1GH2 L8FH2 HE8H2 JCML9F3H1G CG2 HE6H4 GHL3FGE8D5D H5BHH9FDFD2GH7. D7HG G3D5JH0-MH0L5F AD7GGD9CB: HC H1LDA5CFH4 GHFL0BF3H1 BH7K KCFA3I5G, HC GH1H6B2 CIH BH6K A6D7G4H0 L2BI9 BH1K J8D5JD9A0D4NL1HD9CBG, HC K0CA7I8A8M F0C KE3H2FH8 BC AL4B E9L1G F2CBH1 K1H8G5CFH5.

Message 2:
L1 A8CBF6 HD3AH5 L4F0C D2B L1 F1L2A4L0LM G9L9F, G4L4F L3KL9M... GHL3F KL1FG

Good luck, and remember to send in your answers (or clarifying questions) to mozglubov@gmail.com.

Note: Puzzle solutions found here.

Distraction of Cuteness

I thought I would put up a personal note this evening relating one of the massive distractions that has shown up and disrupted my planned work schedule: Sarah and I adopted a kitten over the weekend. Whether or not I would have actually gotten work done in her absence might be debatable, but she is a legitimately adorable distraction.

Her name is Klein, which means both "little" in German (and she is quite little, at least for now!) and is also the surname of the brilliant mathematician Felix Klein (there was already a Felix the Cat, so we figured there should be a Klein the Kitty). We adopted her through a local program called Animal Rescue Krew.

Although hanging out with Klein is wonderful for all the reasons that pets are wonderful, it is also quite exciting to watch her development. She has only been with us since Sunday morning, but already there is a marked improvement in her coordination. When we first brought her home she found the lack of traction on our parquet floor baffling, and slipped into walls and furniture on numerous occasions. This evening, though, she has already adapted and now uses the sliding motion in her pounce. I spent about a half hour dangling a little stuffed mouse in the air and she only snagged my hand instead of the mouse a single time. Her motor learning is remarkably impressive.

Welcome to your new home, kitty.

Monday Morning Quotations

It has been some time since I last started the week with a set of quotations, but it is time to start the proper return to blogging. To that end, here is a set of quotations to start off the week.

"What is man, when you come to think upon him, but a minutely set, ingenious machine for turning, with infinite artfulness, the red wine of Shiraz into urine?" - Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen), Danish author, 1885-1962

"Fancy being remembered around the world for the invention of a mouse!" - Walt Disney, American animator and film producer, 1901-66

"Upon the education of the people of this country the fate of this country depends."
"I will not go down to posterity talking bad grammar."
"It seems to me a barren thing this Conservatism - an unhappy cross-breed, the mule of politics that engenders nothing."
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." - attributed
- Benjamin Disraeli, Lord Beaconsfield, British novelist, Tory statesman, and Prime Minister in 1868 and 1874-80, 1804-81

I swear to think the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth

Lie detection and eye-witness testimony is a messy business. There are a myriad of issues that can arise, from outright lying to false memories created by after-the-fact suggestions and rationalizations. It is the latter effect that makes the proposed use of fMRI in a civil case so troublesome, because even if fMRI were a perfectly accurate technology for identifying lies and truths (which it is not) there would still be the problem of knowing whether the person telling the truth was telling an objective truth or a falsehood he believed to be true. Although the argument could be made that fMRI would function simply as a method for screening outright liars from sincere witnesses (at which point other evidence must be relied upon to determine the veracity of the sincere witnesses' statements), there remain two major problems:

1.) Outright liars can turn into sincere but misled witnesses given enough time and repetition. Since access to MRI scans is not always available in a timely fashion, this would likely be a major issue (for example, the scan in this case comes four years after the incident).

2.) fMRI scans look so damn impressive that any jury (and even most judges) are likely to give them far more weight than they deserve. Considering the degree to which neuroscience peer reviewers can be dazzled by the colourful pictures (and these are people who spend much of their careers dealing with the nuances and limitations of fMRI) it is hard to expect a judge and jury, no matter how intelligent, to give fMRI evidence the appropriate level of ambivalence.

While I am all for the the use of science and technology to improve the justice system, new techniques must be introduced very carefully. The ease with which people can be dazzled by fancy technical words and graphics must be acknowledged along with just what exactly an fMRI 'truth scan' is showing.

Edit: According to alexismadrigal on Twitter, the use of fMRI has been rejected by the court. I found that out about five minutes after posting this... oh the magic of Twitter.

Not so much updating...

I did promise to get the blog back on its feet this week, but I forgot about a few things. After getting back from vacation I had to clean out my email boxes (which had accumulated a fair bit of correspondence), file my taxes, make sure I was fully registered for school (I start my Masters on Monday! Note the description update), and hang out with my visiting parents (not that spending time with my parents is a bureaucratic chore, but it does take away from the time I spend on the computer). However, at some point the backlog of subjects I meant to but have not yet blogged about should get typed up, so stay tuned.

Start of the Week Quotations

I took a bit of a break in putting up quotations recently, so here is a set to tie you over for the next two weeks.

"Since a politician never believes what he says, he is quite surprised to be taken at his word." - Charles de Gaulle, French soldier and President of France from 1959-69, 1890-1970

"By convention there is colour, by convention sweetness, by convention bitterness, but in reality there are atoms and space." - Democritus, Greek philosopher, c. 460- c.370 BC

"Damn them! They will not let my play run, but they steal my thunder!" - John Dennis, English critic, poet, and dramatist, 1657-1734
Said after hearing his new thunder effects used at a performance of Macbeth, following the withdrawal of one of his own plays after only a short run. Thus, we get the phrase "to steal one's thunder".

"The absent are always in the wrong." - Philippe Nericault Destouches, French dramatist, 1680-1754

"Minds are like parachutes. They only function when they are open." - attributed to James Dewar, Scottish physicist, 1842-1923

"Poor Mexico, so far from God and so close to the United States." - attributed to Porfiro Diaz, Mexican revolutionary and President of Mexico from 1877-80 and 1884-1911, 1830-1915

The State of the Blog Address

As most will have noticed, I haven't been very attendant to blogging recently. Things should pick up a bit this week, but then next week I am going on vacation and will only have shoddy internet access at best. Once I get back from that, though, things should really start back up around here (and I'll start posting over at Computing Intelligence again as well).

So, there will be some light posting this week, a week off, and then things should get back to normal (and by normal, I mean the normal of about eight months ago).