Category: Opinion

Statistical analysis of the law on intelligence

Edward Sowden in 2013
Edward Snowden in 2013 – screen shot from the movie Citizenfour (2014, Laura Poitras, Praxis Films) under licence Creative Commons BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

You probably have notice that the public debate has been recently dominated by security issues – at least, it has been the case in France. The attacks in Paris on November 13, 2015 participated in putting this subject as one of the most debated. Yet, if the need to take some measures, probably real, is often stressed out, my impression, indeed not supported by a comprehensive study, is that the question of the effectiveness of these measures generally do not arise. However, even if it takes a bit to have the necessary perspective to assess the question of effectiveness, it is generally possible to carry out an a priori study.

Let take as an example the law on intelligence, promulgated in France on July 24, 2015 and which I have assess repeatedly, with a vue from here. Though we have to wait to judge its proven effects, a first assessment can been done using some simple statistics. This article was inspired by another one, published in the journal La Recherche in November 20151Claude Castelluccia and Daniel Le Métayer, 2015. Les failles de la loi sur le renseignement, La Recherche n° 505, pp. 61 – 65.. Our conclusions are compatible.

Continue reading Statistical analysis of the law on intelligence

Notes

Notes
↑1 Claude Castelluccia and Daniel Le Métayer, 2015. Les failles de la loi sur le renseignement, La Recherche n° 505, pp. 61 – 65.

Praise the long time

An example of a simulation of an experiment to be done with the LHC
An example of a simulation of an experiment to be done with the LHC – © 1997 – 2015 CERN under licence CC-BY-SA-4.0.

On July 4, 2012, Atlas and cms experiments of the Large Hadron Collider (lhc) announced that they had identified the beh boson. This led to award 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics to François Englert and Peter Higgs. As I write this, LHC experiments are continuing, while it is rising in energy levels. On August 6, 2014, the space probe Rosetta joined comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, dropping a module called Philae on it, among other experiments. This mission is at present still ongoing.

What is the common point between a particle physics experiment and a space science mission? They are both long time experiments: the first articles theorising the beh boson were published in 19641F. Englert and Brout, R., 1964. Broken symmetry and the mass of gauge vector mesons, Physical Review Letters, vol 13, n° 9,‎ pp 321 – 323. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.13.321, available on line. 2P.W. Higgs, 1964. Broken symmetries and the masses of gauge bosons, Physical Review Letters, vol 13, n° 16,‎ pp 508 – 509. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.13.508, available on line. and the design of the lhc began in 1994. Concerning the Rosetta mission, its starting point were in 1984 with the validation of the Horizon 2000 project.

Continue reading Praise the long time

Notes

Notes
↑1 F. Englert and Brout, R., 1964. Broken symmetry and the mass of gauge vector mesons, Physical Review Letters, vol 13, n° 9,‎ pp 321 – 323. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.13.321, available on line.
↑2 P.W. Higgs, 1964. Broken symmetries and the masses of gauge bosons, Physical Review Letters, vol 13, n° 16,‎ pp 508 – 509. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.13.508, available on line.