Benlog

Paul Levy, CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, has just started a blog. I’m impressed and, given my interest in health technology, I didn’t hesitate long to add this blog to my newsreader. This should be fascinating. That said, my first comment is a bit tangential to Paul’s post regarding a Medtronic [...]

For some reason, I’m fascinated by a story I’ve been following for a few months: bananas as we know them may disappear in 10 years: Two fungal diseases, Panama disease and black Sigatoka, are cutting a swath through banana plantations, just as blight once devastated potato crops. But unlike the potato, and other crops where [...]

For the past few days, and today more so than before, I’ve been in complete disbelief over the detainees bill pushed by President Bush. I can’t believe McCain caved. I can’t believe Democrats are thinking of not standing up to this. This bill would allow the President to detain someone without proof, torture them, and [...]

My PhD thesis is complete (250 pages of crypto voting goodness). It’s been one crazy month of August! In the process, I’ve updated my publications and presentations pages to reflect new work: thesis defense slides, Scratch & Vote final version, presentation slides on Privacy at the Media Lab’s Simplicity conference, How to Shuffle in Public, [...]

Zidane Originally uploaded by Kaptain Kobold. I am truly stunned by Zidane’s headbutt in today’s World Cup final, just a few minutes ago. One of the most shocking moments of bad sportsmanship I’ve ever seen. As a frenchman, I was enjoying the game until then, hoping for a France win. From that moment on, I [...]

The Freakonomics guys find it interesting that some guy downloaded their book from a P2P network and now wants to send them money. They lecture him about the publisher/distributor costs, etc… How about, instead, realizing that there’s an interesting development here: lots of people will pay after they’ve sampled the content if they find it [...]