Profile picture
Arvind Narayanan @random_walker
, 4 tweets, 3 min read Read on Twitter
New blog post: How to constructively review a research paper
freedom-to-tinker.com/2018/05/15/how…
Let's start by acknowledging that three key review criteria — correctness/validity, impact/significance, and novelty/originality — differ greatly in terms of reviewers’ ability to judge them.
Unfortunately, "novelty" in peer review is often used as a euphemism for cleverness. If this tendency is left unchecked, publishing is at risk of devolving into a contest where academics impress each other.
Some suggestions for reviewers on how to constructively talk about correctness, impact, and novelty in a review. freedom-to-tinker.com/2018/05/15/how…
Many famous papers were initially rejected.

Ralph Merkle's invention of public key cryptography in 1975: merkle.com/1974/

Top economists let off some steam (1994): s3.wp.wsu.edu/uploads/sites/…

A blog post with many stories (+ great comments section):
web.northeastern.edu/slavovlab/blog…
Missing some Tweet in this thread?
You can try to force a refresh.

Like this thread? Get email updates or save it to PDF!

Subscribe to Arvind Narayanan
Profile picture

Get real-time email alerts when new unrolls are available from this author!

This content may be removed anytime!

Twitter may remove this content at anytime, convert it as a PDF, save and print for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video

1) Follow Thread Reader App on Twitter so you can easily mention us!

2) Go to a Twitter thread (series of Tweets by the same owner) and mention us with a keyword "unroll" @threadreaderapp unroll

You can practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @random_walker see all

Profile picture
In 2018 the blockchain/decentralization story fell apart. For example, a study of 43 use cases found a 0% success rate. theregister.co.uk/2018/11/30/blo…
Let's talk about some mistaken assumptions about decentralization that led to the blockchain hype, and what we can learn from them.
(For context, I think the technology is sound, interesting and important from a CS perspective. That’s why I’ve been researching and teaching it since 2013. bitcoinbook.cs.princeton.edu But I’ve also been speaking/writing about the pitfalls of decentralization for ~10 years.)
Blockchain proponents have a vision of _society_ in which centralized entities are weakened/eliminated. But blockchain tech is a way to build _software_ without centralized servers. Why would the latter enable the former? It’s a leap of logic that’s left unexplained.
Read 14 tweets
Profile picture
Less than 5% of cryptographers work on creating/breaking encryption algorithms. Encryption isn't the most important or most fundamental cryptographic construction. It's also mostly a solved problem. Attackers rarely even try to break encryption; they just exploit software bugs.
Here are a few of the cool things that modern cryptographers work on.
1. Secure Multiparty Computation: a powerful & broad set of techniques that enables (e.g.) 2 hospitals to do a genetic study on their combined patient records—without either sending its records to the other.
2. Theory of cryptography: how do questions about computational complexity (such as P vs NP) relate to which cryptographic algorithms are or aren’t secure? This is best understood as a quest to reveal the computational laws of nature and isn't directly motivated by applications.
Read 6 tweets
Profile picture
The online ad tech industry has created an extraordinarily invasive surveillance infrastructure that threatens our democracy. But the most tragic thing is how little has been gained—how poorly ad tech works despite all the data.
Even if rampant ad fraud is curbed, there's a deeper reason why ad tech doesn't work: measuring the returns to advertising is a statistical problem that's near impossible even with perfect tracking. This neat paper shows why and deserves to be better known justinmrao.com/lewis_rao_near…
One reason why print/TV ads work—by conspicuously spending money, the firm signals to consumers that it is big & will stick around, is invested in its reputation, and has products worth advertising. Online ads don't achieve this. The more targeted the ad, the *weaker* the signal.
Read 3 tweets

Related threads

Profile picture
This may be the most important election-security article of the past year. Study confirms that voters should mark their paper ballots by HAND, & that jurisdictions are making a dangerous mistake buying touchscreen barcode ballot marking devices instead! 1/ freedom-to-tinker.com/2018/12/03/why…
By way of background, the debate here is between hand marked paper ballots (counted by hand or on scanners) and computer marked so-called "paper ballots" (generated by touchscreen barcode ballot marking devices and counted on scanners). 2/
3/ IT expert Prof. Richard DeMillo of Georgia Tech has previously explained that the barcodes on these computer marked ballots constitute an additional, previously non-existent attack vector that can be used 2 instruct scanners 2 flip votes. medium.com/@jennycohn1/st… cc @rad_atl
Read 29 tweets
Profile picture
New blog post, where I describe a potential risk for the Bitcoin network medium.com/@francois.chol…
In short, a large fraction of the mining hardware produced in 2018 is going to be turned off. The hashrate, difficulty, & mining profitability will find a new equilibrium, but...
...there is going to be a lot of now-worthless hashpower on the market at extremely low prices, far more in fact than the hashpower that's actually online. Someone with a bit of capital available could buy up a fraction of that hardware and implement a 51% attack on the network.
Read 4 tweets
Profile picture
!!NEW Q DROP!! 8/1/18 12:03 Conspiracy No More Edition!! Q posts links to articles re Q and says, Twitter [today] releases ban? Twitter told to by MSM to demonstrate impact? Do you think they got the [4am] memo? Coincidence? All for a Conspiracy? Enjoy the show!! #QAnon @POTUS
!!New Q Drop!! 12:07 Q replies to last drop and says, “You are now mainstream. Handle w/ care. The Great Awakening!!
WWG1WGA!! #WhoIsQ #QAnon #DarkToLight #GreatAwakeningWorldwide #WWG1WGA @realDonaldTrump
!!NEW Q Drop!! 12:15 Eyes On!! Q replies to Anon regarding deletion & gives statistics for Q’s reach worldwide!! Wow!! See below!! ‘Common Sense’ drop was no accident! Q says to think email & 1776! #WhoIsQ #QAnon #DarkToLight #GreatAwakeningWorldwide #WWG1WGA @realDonaldTrump
Read 83 tweets
Profile picture
New blog post summarizing recent work by grad student Pengfei Li. tritonstation.wordpress.com/2018/06/14/rar…
The scientific version of the paper is in press at A&A; you can get the preprint at arxiv.org/abs/1803.00022
A single effective force law suffices to describe the data for nearly 200 rotating galaxies. Good fits are obtained for ~90% of galaxies with reasonable M*/L. No muss, no fuss, and no need for the extraneous parameters we usually invoke in dark halo fits.
Read 4 tweets
Profile picture
0/ #RESEARCH PAPER Review

Digital Tulips?
Returns to Investors in Initial Coin Offerings

Hugo Benedetti/Leonard Kostovetsky
Boston College

Draft Date: May 20th, 2018

#ICOs #cryptocurrency #BTC #LTC #ETH #EOS

poseidon01.ssrn.com/delivery.php?I…
1/ From a dataset of 4,003 executed and planned ICOs,
which raised a total of $12 billion in capital, nearly all since January 2017.
Average returns were 179% from the ICO price to the first day’s opening market price, over a holding period that averages just 16 days.
2/ Even after imputing returns of -100% to ICOs that don’t list their tokens within 60 days and adjusting for the returns of the asset class, the representative ICO investor earns 82%.

HODLING generated average buy-and hold additional returns of 48% in the first 30 trading days
Read 19 tweets
Profile picture
#New PA cong. map increases D chance of winning the House majority by 4%. They only need a 6.8% generic ballot margin now (down from 7.7) to be favored.

Diff. will be closer to 10% in Nov when uncertainty from polls is ⬇️. Redraw is a very big deal.

One major reason the new PA map is such a big gain for Democrats is that it solidifies, not just tips, PA districts in Philly burbs. Also creates one additional vulnerable R district. (Easily seen in this map made by @JMilesColeman)
My forecasting model will have new PA map in the near future. This is not just a simple switch; it’s a coding redesign, restructuring of input, & drawing new geographic files. Takes a while (for me, a student).

In the meantime, just add 3-4% to the model: bit.ly/2018_house
Read 4 tweets

Trending hashtags

#Culpich #AngeloSerrano #Lejada #Michigan #fbpe #ObispoCristiánContreras #LaVerdadOsHaraLibres #SanFranciscoDeAsís #RobertMutsaerts #ObispoPellegrínBarrera #LasVíctimasVanPrimero #Infiltration #RégisPeyrard #Synode2018 #ChristianPfeiffer #BlaseCupich #Schoenstatt #Re #MadreTeresa #ItsHappening #OTD #USS #JosephZen #CristiánContreras #Illinois

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just three indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member and get exclusive features!

Premium member ($3.00/month or $30.00/year)

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!