Letter counting: a stem cell for Cryptology, Quantitative Linguistics, and Statistics

Counting letters in written texts is a very ancient practice. It has accompanied the development of Cryptology, Quantitative Linguistics, and Statistics. In Cryptology, counting frequencies of the different characters in an encrypted message is the basis of the so called frequency analysis method. In Quantitative Linguistics, the proportion of vowels to consonants in different languages was studied long before authorship attribution. In Statistics, the alternation vowel-consonants was the only example that Markov ever gave of his theory of chained events. A short history of letter counting is presented. The three domains, Cryptology, Quantitative Linguistics, and Statistics, are then examined, focusing on the interactions with the other two fields through letter counting. As a conclusion, the eclectism of past centuries scholars, their background in humanities, and their familiarity with cryptograms, are identified as contributing factors to the mutual enrichment process which is described here

Collegiate Codebreakers: Winthrop, Women, and War

During World War II, college-aged women from across the nation filled United States Army and Navy secretive cryptanalysis facilities to help win the war. For many women, colleges facilitated involvement in codebreaking. Through information gathered in oral histories, this thesis primarily explores war related programs at American colleges and the young women that became cryptanalysts. Academic institutions, like Winthrop College, became the nuclei for colligate codebreakers. They acted as early crypt education centers, through the offering of cryptology classes, functioned as recruitment centers, and operated as essential training hubs. While in school, young women were saturated by a climate of war and secrecy as campuses became militarized during this period. Their careers in academia and moral character came into account when cryptanalysis sectors began searching for loyal workers. While working as codebreakers for the United States government, women experienced a degree of freedom and witnessed a change in their position. In the name of the war effort and patriotic ideologies, female cryptanalysts broke codes and tested the strength of American ciphers. From college campuses to Army and Navy facilities, young women played essential roles in the war effort

Historia Vol. 21

Historia is a joint publication of Eastern Illinois University\u27s History Department and the Epsilon Mu Chapter of Phi Alpha Theta. Edited entirely by EIU students, Historia is designed to offer undergraduate and graduate students the opportunity to publish their work. Students who wish to work as Historia editors must enroll in HIS 4900 (Historical Publishing), which is offered each spring. Students who wish to submit articles or reviews for consideration are welcome to do so at any time.Historia earned third place in Phi Alpha Theta\u27s Gerald D. Nash History Journal Prize competition in Division I in 2011.https://thekeep.eiu.edu/historia/1019/thumbnail.jp

EFFICIENT ATTACKS ON HOMOPHONIC SUBSTITUTION CIPHERS

Substitution ciphers are one of the earliest types of ciphers. Examples of classic substitution ciphers include the well-known simple substitution and the less well-known homophonic substitution. Although simple substitution ciphers are indeed simple - both in terms of their use and attacks; the homophonic substitution ciphers are far more challenging to break. Even with modern computing technology, homophonic substitution ciphers remain a significant challenge. This project focuses on designing, implementing, and testing an efficient attack on homophonic substitution ciphers. We use an iterative approach that generalizes the fastest known attack on simple substitution ciphers and also employs a heuristic search technique for improved efficiency. We test our algorithm on a wide variety of homophonic substitution ciphers. Finally, we apply our technique to the “Zodiac 340” cipher, which is an unsolved ciphertext created in the 1970s by the infamous Zodiac killer

Jaspers, Husserl, Kant: boundary situations as a " turning point"

Abstract: The essay addresses the meaning of boundary situations in the philosophy of Karl Jaspers, as a turning point drawing on Edmund Husserl's phenomenology and Immanuel Kant's transcendental philosophy, and as a key for the comprehension of some of the differences in Karl Jaspers' philosophy regarding the thought of Husserl and Kant, respectively. For Jaspers, the meaning of boundary situations as a structure of Existenz underlines the possibility of risk in the individual historicity. Taking risks breaks the flow of reflection and, at the same time, appeals to an opening of ethics—without sacrificing the universality of Kant's categorical imperative. From Jaspers' point of view, Husserl's phenomenology does not open the possibility of self-transformation of the self, nor contributes it to the unfolding of the "inner action" of the transcending thinking, and since the boundary situations break the flow of the selfreflective consciousness, tensions arising between consciousness and Existenz remain beyond the scope of Husserl's phenomenology. Similarly, as seen from Jaspers' position the meaning of Kant's transcendental method has become different after the clarification by the Existenz, which not only shows that thought is at stake in boundary situations, but also that Existenz at the same time puts its potentiality and its fate at stake