Whimbrel

This was my favorite wading bird on my trip to Acapulco. The city was too crowded for us so we found an Airbnb south of the city where the beaches were mostly free of people. There’s something about their curved bills that make them more interesting than the other wading birds I saw. I liked watching them ebb and flow with the waves looking for snacks in the sand. Continue reading Whimbrel

Medieval and Renaissance Cryptography

Between the decline of the Roman Empire and the rise of Islam, few advances were made in cryptography. That changed during the early 9th century in the Abbasid Caliphate (modern day Iraq) when an Arab philosopher and polymath made an advance in cryptography that would set off a cryptographic arms race that continues to the present day. Continue reading Medieval and Renaissance Cryptography