NIST Randomness Beacon

This is a python module to simplify using the NIST randomness beacon, a public source of truly random numbers.

From the project description:

The Beacon will broadcast full-entropy bit-strings in blocks of 512 bits every 60 seconds. Each such value is time-stamped and signed, and includes the hash of the previous value to chain the sequence of values together.

Using the python wrapper is easy. To generate a random number:

b = Beacon()
print b.last_record()['outputValue']

The Beacon object will cache the timestamp of the last call and use that for the basis of next() and previous() calls.

There's also a generator for convenience:

for num in random_nums(3):
    print num['outputValue']

(Note, as the documentation says, WARNING: DO NOT USE BEACON GENERATED VALUES AS SECRET CRYPTOGRAPHIC KEYS.)