AN ARTICLE about smart devices on the Science Daily website and in recent newspaper articles discusses the possibility of hackers gaining access to your computer system through smart devices including washing machines and light bulbs, a matter I was in the dark about.
The basic issue is that anything connected to your computer or operated by Wi-Fi such as the light bulbs needs to have strong passwords in order to protect your privacy.
To me, it seems not that great a worry, not just because I donāt have these devices but more so because I donā’t think I am that interesting. A look inside my fridge would show some healthy food, some not so healthy food, and some chocolate but no fascinating creative cooking that will inspire thousands of home chefs.
If you want to leave me in the dark by turning off my light bulb, Iā’ll just go to bed and sulk.
If you think you can spy on me via a Wi-Fi washing machine all you are going to see are some dirty clothes and a few āunmentionablesā.
Sometimes science goes too far in developing useless applications for useful technologies and maybe for a while the pressing area of concern is finding a vaccine for the COVID virus.
In the meantime, I am going to see if I need to change my light bulb or just its password before it gets too dark to see.
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A new sign of the times
The worldās headlines seem to be full of gloom and doom at the moment but a new sign of good times has appeared ā Ophiuchus, the snake bearer.
Like most people with any education in science I consider astrology to be in the same category as snake oil salespeople and it appears I was right; snakes do have an influence over our lives.
The only real concern is the mention of NASA in an article about star signs as many believers will seize on that and not read the rest of the article.
The basic information from NASA is that the constellations have slowly moved relative to the Earth and are now not where they should be in terms of the calendar. Astrology has not included the 13th constellation, perhaps because 13 is considered an unlucky number. NASA should probably have just laughed and not tried to convince the unscientific of the truth of science.
Like most people, I have glanced at the stars and considered what the day holds for me and it is generally positive, none specific and sometimes full of mumbo-jumbo.
As a science teacher I used a simple approach to show students the falsehood of these predictions by giving them a set of predictions without the star sign name, the apparent characteristics of the star signs and asked them to identify which was which ā the students failed to do this correctly.
For interest, mine, Aries, says in the local paper that I seem to be in a castle under attack, but there is a rescue party on the way. Iām not sure what to make of this but I think staying at home while the COVID pandemic is happening and waiting for a vaccine to be developed might be the only scientific reading of it and I didnāt really need to be told this again.
Weāll see if tomorrow is more positive.
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A bit short of inspirational
In this time of trouble, we need a laugh and Noah Lyles, a fast runner but not as fast as initially thought, provided it.
Because of COVID restriction a number of sporting events have been postponed or cancelled, including the Olympics. The spirit of the Olympics is to inspire us to be the best we can, Faster – Higher ā Stronger, and this does truly inspire many although not this year.
An alternative was set up with athletes basically competing by a ZOOM-like approach at different locations around the world and American Noah Lyles competed in the 200m in an apparent time of 18.90 seconds ā a new world record that even he could not believe it and he was right.
As it turns out he had mistakenly started in the wrong lane and thus run 15m less than others. He would have known that something was wrong as athletes at this level know what they are doing every second of the race. Obviously, this was his worst best day.
These errors do occur with the Darwin swimming pool being only 49.5m long, a small difference that will cost a lot to fix and Portsmouth, England have a pool 5 cm too short. It shouldn’t matter too much as demonstrated by Eric the Eel, in the Sydney Olympics, who had never before swum in a 50m pool. He did, however, win his heat, in the slowest ever Olympic time although this was helped by the fact that his two opponents fell in.
We need to look for the fun in life and enjoy these occasional small, 15m errors as everything is too serious at the moment. If we need to look for further inspiration, watch the āEddie the Eagleā movie, telling the story of a very brave or perhaps stupid ski jumper who, although hopeless, inspired everyone. (dfitzger@melbpc.org.au/PN)
