Completely agree using last-4 SSN is terrible, but some light in the tunnel exists. It is possible to change it, although it is as you would expect, quite annoying: https://faq.ssa.gov/en-us/Topic/article/KA-02220
Also the article doesn't calculate SPY total return.
Dividends-reinvested SPY is very different over long periods of time, I get ~3.46 (versus their 3.01) for the from-2012 calculation, which is a substantial improvement (and over only 8 years!).
From the description it doesn't sound like there is any new technique being used, just an application of existing software to a new large prime.
There are a very few justifications:
* They get new bounds on factorization performance, which might be important to keep tabs on over time, in case no one else does it, and suddenly we find all our primes factored
* For some reason, INRIA really really hates unfactorized primes
I agree with you that, unless their upcoming research paper introduces new information/experimental procedure, it was a waste of money.
A search in Bing for "cult of the dead cow" seems to give me some localized (Japan) results, while DDG has a bunch of American Beto O'Rourke politics news pieces added.
Could you please add options for 3 passports? I actually have US/Canada/Finland and it would be interesting to see, although US v Canada is probably almost identical.