Jillian Foley

@jillianefoley.com

405 Followers 402 Following

historian of cryptography, computers, and information; doing mom stuff and writing in chicago occasional newsletter @ jillianefoley.com

a pile of five of the fluffiest, cutest puppies you could possibly imagine. they are asleep
a small table with an iPad displaying a book page, a plate with a delicious cornmeal-strawberry danish, and a mod-looking mug full of tea
5’6” white lady standing in front of a gigantic pickup truck. the hood of the truck is above her shoulder height.
mirror selfie of me, a white woman with brown-and-grey hair wearing a black shirt and badly-fitting green pleated pants with a tie waist
two small cups of dark drinking chocolate on matching saucers, each with a pink spoon next to it and a dry-looking Kraft marshmallow on top. The fancy chocolate packaging is visible in the background.
Highlighted text that reads: "It took an obscure technology, fueled by the Silicon Valley hype machine, mountains of dirty money and a massive gambling boom, to persuade millions of voters to embrace an extreme vision of individual freedom and decentralized money — and somehow overlook the authoritarianism and criminality that accompanied it all along."
Sticker on a concrete pole showing a 19th century political cartoon. In it, a large man in a top hat labeled Pullman is twisting a crank to squeeze another man between two large plates, one labeled High aren’t and the other labeled Low Wages
a very flat and sad loaf of sourdough
A hand holding open a book to a two-page spread. The left side is black with a white headline “PLAYING WITH MATCHES” and subhed “How we break the stable marriage algorithm.” The right page is a greyscale drawing of figures lined up in two rows, one on a conveyor belt, with a network graph superimposed above them connecting the figures together across the rows.
deleted scrivener items with whack names like New Folder, the weirdest quotes, 8. Anxieties, Why, Crypto b, Notes, Many ear, and Untitled Document
speedtest.net result of 0.16 Mbps download. that’s right, zero point one six megabytes per second
two-pane meme of Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc in Knives Out. In the first he's saying "It makes no damn sense." with a pained expression, and in the second he says "Compels me though," looking resigned to his fate as a chaos human investigating other chaos humans
a hand holding seven dark purple mulberries. in the background there’s a scruffy black dog on a leash walking on a sidewalk
a hand holding a copy of The Pocket Rhubarb Cookbook by Nina Mukerjee Furstenau
Tweet from 2017 shaped like a nesting file structure with folders labeled: NASA Press Conference, Top Secret, Alien pictures!, JK, Presentation, It’s Not Aliens.ppt
Publishers Marketplace deal report: Jillian Foley’s FREE SPEECH AND MAGIC MONEY, tracing cryptography's development from a secret US military weapon to a technology seen as central to debates over the protection of free speech and privacy, to Rachel Field at Harvard University Press, by Jonathan Agin at O'Connor Literary Agency (world). Rights: karen_pelaez@harvard.edu
xkcd cartoon (#1838) depicting stick figure 1 standing atop a heap holding a shovel. stick figure 2 asks: "This is your machine learning system?" stick figure 1: "Yup! You pour the data into this big pile of linear algebra, then collect the answers on the other side." stick figure 2: "What if the answers are wrong?" stick figure 1: "Just stir the pile until they start looking right."
Mom: FYI you both have been fully vaccinated for measles! Me: terrifying that that’s relevant
A store coupon for a free carton of 12 eggs
Headline: “why won’t millennials join country clubs?” photo shows old white men golfing
a modern silver menorah full with lit rainbow candles, mostly burned down. The menorah is on a white drip tray, on a wood table with a mirror directly behind. In the reflection you can see the menorah, a white woman taking the photo on an iPhone, and a hanukkah wall hanging in the distance.
Scruffy grey and black dog naps on a brown patterned rug in a very excellent sunbeam
a white plate with six chicken nuggets and two sad droopy pieces of previously-frozen spanakopita on it
a photo of a black mug next to a gas stove, with one burner lit. above the lit burner is a small black pot with pale brown milky coffee in it.
A BBC headline reading, "Stressed? Writing Down a to-Do List Might Help" with the subhed "If you find it hard to get to sleep, then a solution might be at hand - a pen and paper"
FiveThirtyEight headline: “Trump and Harris are both a normal polling error away from a blowout” subhed: “The race is uncertain, but that doesn’t mean the outcome will be close”
a here we believe sign edited with tape and markers to read: trick is treat/no zombie is illegal/dead lives matter/witchcraft is real/ werewolf rights are human rights/blood is life/candy is everything. The sign is staked to the ground with long bubble wands.
A haphazard pile of large, lined sticky notes on a desk. Included in the pile is a small whiteboard the same size and format because I am incorrigible.
A loaf of braided challah and a plum cake resting on a cooling rack.
shirtless Flea plays guitar on the beach in LA. it’s extremely sunny. the backdrop has American flag motifs.
eleven small English muffins on a cooling rack in front of two containers of iced tea
A bottle of eggnog with a pastel purple label with an illustration of a cow wearing a stew hat holding a purple pansy, somehow
A billboard with a photo of some trees with some sweet 90s-style word art in various colors: “Here are some quotes that you can tweet. When you find your purpose you stop searching True success is a relationship with God. Text God and he will text you back. Prayer is how you text God. Hope means it’s never to [sic] late” At the bottom in small print it lists the info for True Rock Ministries in Chicago
a small glass bottle with vanilla beans and brown vanilla extract, on a white quartz countertop
two small clear bottles with black caps on a quartz countertop. the left hand bottle is full of vanilla beans and brown liquid. The right hand bottle also has vanilla beans but the liquid is mostly clear.
a black and grey dog with white patches on her chest and toes is curled up in an incredibly uncomfortable-looking position on a fluffy green bed.