[a_bonobo]

150 million people out of 7.079 billion possible candidates? In my view that is narrowing it down a lot!

[leoedin]

It does narrow it down, but not to any useful level. For all intents and purposes, trying to pick someone from a pool of 150 million vs 7 billion is essentially the same level of impossible.

[daeken]

Really interesting article on using information theory to narrow down suspects of crime: http://www.gwern.net/Death%20Note%20Anonymity

[leoedin]

That is pretty interesting. The wikipedia edit time example is particularly revealing. The AC hum stuff is truly fascinating!

[ecdavis]

The number of possible candidates is not the total population of the planet, but rather the number of people on the planet who have the knowledge and skills required to operate such a site.