From High School to College
Just another blogs.scienceforums.net weblog

There is something I really don’t get about some crytographers I’ve talked to or whose posts I’ve read. Here is an example, copied from the discussion board from the Chaocipher article on Wikipedia:

The article should clarify whether chaocipher is: (a) a *cipher* (which could be implemented in various ways, including but not limited to a physical machine), or (b) a *machine* whose internal construction must be kept secret. If it is (a), a modern cryptographer would still be interested in solving it. But if it is (b), no modern cryptographer would be interested in solving it: a fundamental requirement of modern cryptography is that the details of the cipher must be openly published for all to see.

In all honesty, I find that to be oxymoronic. I’ve always thought that the point of cryptography was to keep things secret, and the process of making the message secret is more important than the message itself. It’s how the Germans (no offense to any Germans reading this) lasted so long in WWII with their Enigma cipher. It’s because, for the longest time, anyone else in the world who weren’t supposed to read it, couldn’t, because they didn’t know the process.

The whole subject of cryptography is based on secrets and techniques others that weren’t receivers weren’t supposed to know. (Hope that last sentence made sense.) Now, I’m a hobbyist in cryptography, but can someone please explain to me why someone who doesn’t know how to solve something demand to know the process behind something secretive? It makes no sense to me. Thank you.

Well, I’m sorry that I haven’t been on for quite a bit. I’ve just been busy, but now, I can say why.

I’ve made it! I’ve made it to the school that this entire blog was based on.The North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (NCSSM) is now my high school for my junior and senior year! If you don’t know, it’s a residential high school, funded by the state, and focuses on teaching students advanced subjects on math and science, as well as some other subjects, since it doesn’t just focus on those. Many of it’s students have attended some of the greatest schools in the country (and the world!) including Harvard, Stanford, Oxford, Cambridge, Ivy League schools, Duke Medical School, and so much more, that if I listed them here, I’d be boring. Well, more boring. (Actually, it’s been said that one of the founders of Google graduated from here!)

Well… I’m not sure which classes I’ll be having, but I think I might be taking Introductory Japanese, AP Chemistry, Physics AB, and… Um… Not sure about the rest, honestly. I’ll try to keep posted!

LINK

Another subject on Ben Stein’s movie “Expelled”…

MY GOD! (no pun intended.) These people can’t keep quiet, can they?

There is only one credible side to an issue, and any dissent is not only rejected, it is scorned. Global warming. Gay “rights.” Abortion “rights.” On these and so many other issues there is enlightenment, and then there is the Idiotic Other Side…..Evolution is another one of those one-sided debates. We know the concept of Intelligent Design is stifled in academic circles. An entire documentary to state the obvious? You can see my reluctance to view it.

So far, I like this guy.

I went into the screening bored. I came out of it stunned.

And with those words, he had me stunned too. How can ANYONE be stunned?! I’ve read enough about this movie, and if there’s one thing I know, it’s that only IDIOTS watch it, and come out stunned. And he mentions it here too.

Richard Dawkins laments how the film will solicit “cheap laughs that could only be raised in an audience of scientific ignoramuses.” Minnesota professor and blogger P.Z. Myers predicts the movie is “going to appeal strongly to the religious, the paranoid, the conspiracy theorists, and the ignorant —— which means they’re going to draw in about 90 percent of the American market.” Myers and Dawkins now both complain they were “duped” into appearing in the movie (for pay).

That last part made me laugh. Not only did they prove that they were, in fact, being “duped”, they talked to every other evolutionist in there and found out the exact same thing!!

I don’t know about you, but I think Myers and Dawkins are right; only fools would find this movie educational, and Brent Bozell III had wrote that he was very much entertained.

Your opinion on this?

Hey! I guess this is my first post, so let’s get started on the right foot.

I participate in a program for high school students that allows them to take college courses earlier. It also allows us to finish with an Associate’s Degree and a high school diploma in five years from entering. Of course, since I’m posting here, I’m heading for an Associate’s of Science. My future? Teaching physics (or something along that field) in a university setting.

Currently, I take Biology at the college level as a sophomore. The semester is almost done, and I’m doing quite well. This semester, I’m taking General Biology II (because I finished GB I last semester). However, I’m considering going to a science and math oriented school during my junior and senior years. Hooray for science!

I guess that’s a good summary for what I do science-related. Besides posting on the forums. Hopefully, that explains why I’m not able to post much on some of the science-related forum discussions here. I’m a lowly science n00b…

But I’m moving on up, and hope to participate full-throttle in later years. In other (science) news…. I’ve read over the past few weeks about several interesting events…
1) A robot that uses EEG and eye-movements during sleep to move in according to your dreams. LINK Gives Freud a run for his money!
2) Electron filmed for the first time! LINK You probably already knew that…

Plus numerous other things. But these aren’t that recent… Ok. I guess this ends my first blog. Ever. Yay for firsts! Now for a quote about firsts…

“Louise: “How did you get here?”
Johnny: “Well, basically, there was this little dot, right? And the dot went bang and the bang expanded. Energy formed into matter, matter cooled, matter lived, the amoeba to fish, to fish to fowl, to fowl to frog, to frog to mammal, the mammal to monkey, to monkey to man, amo amas amat, quid pro quo, memento mori, ad infinitum, sprinkle on a little bit of grated cheese and leave under the grill till Doomsday.”" –From the movie Naked
(Taken from LINK)