Interesting Stuff You Saw on the I-net Today

[abarbarian]

Nice to know that the hundreds of millions of pounds spent on GCHQ here in the UK are not wasted.

 

I spy with my little eye: GCHQ chief reveals Christmas cards featuring 'fiendish' festive bauble-shaped brainteaser sent to agents across the world

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The chief of GCHQ has released Christmas cards featuring a brainteaser which unlocks a secret message.

Jeremy Fleming, director of the spy agency, sent the letters to 'colleagues and partners across the world' and has made them public so everyone can have a go.

On the front is a circuit board pattern in the shape of a bauble, with space for nine answers.

There are nine letter sequences on the inside of the card which need to be fed into the decoration to reveal the message.

 

 

 

 

On a slightly more serious note,

 

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He warned vaccine suppliers and hospitals were being targeted by hackers looking to capitalise on uncertainty brought about by the Covid and Britain leaving the EU.

The spy chief revealed the National Cyber Security Centre is dealing with around 60 serious incidents every month.

He said around 200 incidents over the last nine months have been related to coronavirus.

Mr Fleming told the Sun: 'We have seen serious criminals and states trying to take advantage of this situation.

'They have targeted the vaccine's production and supply chains, government services and healthcare.'

He went on to warn members of the public were being tricked into handing over money in scams that posed as offering Covid-19 testing and treatment.        

 

 

 

[V.T. Eric Layton]

When you figure out the Christmas ornament, let me know.

[sunrat]

Thanks for reminding me to look up what "GCHQ" stands for. I've been binge watching "Spooks" for a few weeks and they mention it in almost every episode. Just finished series 9 last night, one to go! Great series.

[sunrat]

Today is summer solstice in the southern hemisphere. Which is the day with the longest time of daylight for the year. I just found out that does not mean the latest time of sunset for the year as I had believed for my whole life. Mind blown!

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2020-12-21/summer-solstice-2020-sunset-seasons-saturn-and-jupiter/12956544

 

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There are more hours of daylight during the solstice, but it is not the date of the latest sunset.

The latest sunset doesn't happen until January (and the earliest sunrise happened about two weeks ago).

This mind-bending phenomenon is due to a combination of the tilt of the Earth and the fact our path around the Sun is more of an oval shape than a circle.

 

 

Also tonight:

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And just by sheer coincidence, skywatchers are in for an extra treat when Saturn and Jupiter appear their closest in nearly 400 years in a great conjunction about an hour after sunset on December 21.

Note that's an hour after sunset AEDT.

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Yup... Winter Solstice here... longest night of the year. My fav time in FL because it's usually nice and cool.

[zlim]

I was hoping to see Saturn and Jupiter "fairly close" together but it is extremely overcast here. I guess I'll have to wait for the next one in 400 or 800 years.

It’s been nearly 400 years since the planets passed

this close to each other in the sky, and nearly 800 years since the alignment of Saturn and Jupiter occurred at night

[V.T. Eric Layton]

It should be clear as a bell tonight here. I'm going to step out for a bit and watch the event for a while. Spiffy.

[sunrat]

The closest conjunction was about 10 hours ago. It was pouring rain here so no view for me.

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Well, I didn't make it outside yet (2030hrs) because I'm getting drunk instead.

[crp]

but doesn't explain why the store you purchased from does this!

https://www.digitaltrends.com/features/wh-do-you-see-ads-stuff-already-bought/

 

 

[abarbarian]

How mass vaccinations halted a killer virus in 1950s Glasgow

 

 

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The long line of people outside the health centre wait patiently for their turn to be vaccinated.

Special clinics are getting through 600 jabs an hour but the queues are not getting any shorter.

Meanwhile, public health officials are desperately trying to trace anyone who has come into contact with those carrying a deadly virus.

It may sound familiar but this is in fact the picture in Glasgow in the grip of a smallpox outbreak in 1950.

 

 

Seems to me that government and people were much more sensible and quicker to react to danger than they are today.

 

[sunrat]

28 minutes ago, abarbarian said:

Seems to me that government and people were much more sensible and quicker to react to danger than they are today.

 

 

I'd guess people were more likely to follow government and community guidelines when they were already used to doing it during and after the war. Same for the 1918 pandemic and probably more so as the world was still on wartime restrictions.

People were maybe more trustful that their leaders would put them on the right path whereas these days any idiot on social media can panic a vast amount of gullible sheep with crazy conspiracy theories.

[abarbarian]

3 minutes ago, sunrat said:

People were maybe more trustful that their leaders would put them on the right path

 

Yesterdays leaders acted as they saw it for the good of the country and hoped that they had done the right thing.

Todays leaders will do anything to try and protect their own interests and their profits or their reputations.

 

[crp]

Steam-Punk lives!

https://www.digitaltrends.com/news/steam-powered-cubesat/

 

 

[ebrke]

And you think you had a bad day . . .

Programmer Locked Out of Bitcoin Account

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Yeah... I saw that elsewhere just a few moments ago. Oh well... easy come; easy go.

[abarbarian]

[crp]

When it was illegal to buy sliced bread -

 

bureaucracy run amok.

[amenditman]

2 hours ago, crp said:

When it was illegal to buy sliced bread -

 

bureaucracy run amok.

I love The History Guy channel. Watch it all the time.

[sunrat]

I often listen to ambient music to create a relaxing mood both while awake and sleeping. One artist I have actually regularly purchased is Louigi Verona who often releases well-produced and inspiring work. Currently listening to '"Mystic Waters" on Bandcamp which was released yesterday and is one of his best so far imo - listen at https://louigi.bandcamp.com/album/mystic-waters . I'm about to splurge the €3 EUR to buy the FLAC version.

 

He also dabbles in coding and has a page of randomly amusing and/or useless software - https://louigiverona.com/?page=projects&s=software&t=various#chess

Desolate News Channel and Non-Random Number Generator made me chuckle.

 

There are also games and other stuff, and he writes some insightful articles - https://louigiverona.com/?page=projects&s=writings&t=philosophy

 

Edit a short time later:- Just read this fascinating article which analyses a major cause of turmoil in today's world - The Dangers of Public Discourse

 

[zlim]

Received some images in an email. Deja vu!

 

[V.T. Eric Layton]

And yet... 2021 with a worldwide pandemic raging, the attitude seems to be "open everything up and PARTY ON!"

 

Intelligence of this species has diminished substantially in the last 100 years or so, it seems.

[abarbarian]

1 hour ago, V.T. Eric Layton said:

And yet... 2021 with a worldwide pandemic raging, the attitude seems to be "open everything up and PARTY ON!"

 

Intelligence of this species has diminished substantially in the last 100 years or so, it seems.

 

Probably because there are not so many Lodge Meetings held these days

[V.T. Eric Layton]

2 hours ago, abarbarian said:

Probably because there are not so many Lodge Meetings held these days

 

Like Ralph and Norton's Fraternal Order of Raccoons.

 

[sunrat]

My curiousity made me look at world population history. I found it has increased almost threefold since I was born (2.7bn - 7.8bn), with Australia's population showing a similar increase (9m - 24m).

It took 123 years to increase from 1bn to 2 bn (1804-1927), 47 years (1927-1974) to double again, and projected about 50 years to double to 8 billion.

Earth is full, please stop breeding, humans. Was full in 1974 IMHO.

 

Sources - 

World Population by Year

1954 World Population

2020 World Population

[abarbarian]

8 hours ago, sunrat said:

My curiousity made me look at world population history. I found it has increased almost threefold since I was born (2.7bn - 7.8bn), with Australia's population showing a similar increase (9m - 24m).

It took 123 years to increase from 1bn to 2 bn (1804-1927), 47 years (1927-1974) to double again, and projected about 50 years to double to 8 billion.

Earth is full, please stop breeding, humans. Was full in 1974 IMHO.

 

Sources - 

World Population by Year

1954 World Population

2020 World Population

 

Do those figures take into account covid ?

[V.T. Eric Layton]

7 hours ago, abarbarian said:

Do those figures take into account covid ?

 

Overall, believe it or not, Covid fatality rates are quite small in relation to world population.

 

• About 10% of the world’s population has been infected
• As of mid-January, models suggested that 17% of Americans have been infected
• There are nearly 100 million global cases of COVID-19

 

*from this site -> https://coronavirus.nautil.us/percentage-of-people-who-have-covid-19/

[amenditman]

Covid will result in increased birthrate.

 

[V.T. Eric Layton]

2 hours ago, amenditman said:

Covid will result in increased birthrate.

 

And liver disease.

[abarbarian]

 

The Factory Worker Who Spent 50 Years Filling a Forest with Otherworldly Sculptures
 

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Veijo Rönkkönen was a recluse who spent his days between the paper mill where he worked for 41 years, and his farm, tucked away in a Finnish forest. By all accounts, he didn’t like to talk to people, and he never took an art lesson in his life. But by the time of his death in 2010, Rönkkönen had covered his land with around 550 sculptures. Nearly all of them depicted human figures: people of all ages and ethnicities, frozen in moments of play, athleticism, and even agony.

 

 

 

The strange park of Veijo Rönkkönen
 

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The park is the most important set of pieces of contemporary folk art of Finland. The facial expressions of the statues, made from concrete, are part of what makes this group of statues unique. Their expressions are scary, since they aren’t fully realistic: instead they come close to the Uncanny Valley. Some of them also have real human teeth, and sound effects that make the whole park even creepier.