Winding Down
An idiosyncratic look at, and comment on, the week's net, technology, science and other news
by Alan Lenton
22 November 2020
Welcome back to Winding Down. This week we have material on decentralised finance, a very expensive laptop, vitamin D, a lecture on the history of science, and the top 200 most common passwords.
There are three essays you might find interesting. The first is a systematic look at what a Lunar economy would actually mean, the second a look at the current lockdowns and why people are ignoring them, and finally what happened last time the government tried to abolish Christmas in the UK!
There’s a couple of interesting videos and a quote from Pete Seeger
Finally, Scanner has pointers to material on cryptocurrency, anonymized metrics, diamonds, non-existent words, internet censorship, Starlink, and finally Rocket Lab.
Stay safe!
Alan Lenton
Publishing schedule: NO ISSUE NEXT WEEK 29 November
Credits: Thanks to readers Fi and Barb, for drawing my attention to material for Winding Down.
Blockchain & Digital currency:
Cointelegraph has an interesting piece pointing out that crypto and decentralised finance (DeFi) are pretty much still a sub-culture when it comes to genuine mass adoption, and takes a look at both the history and what is now needed to achieve this mass adoption. It’s a useful background piece for anyone interested in the subject.
https://cointelegraph.com/news/defi-needs-real-world-adoption-not-just-disruptive-pioneering [via ADVFN Crypto newsletter]
Computers:
Here’s a little computer error (at least I hope it’s an error...) to make you smile. It seems that while you can buy a regular black Dell Inspiron 15 3000 laptop on the Dell website for £589.00 (US$780) if you want it painted ‘soft mint’ colour, then the price is £12,000,558.98 ($15,905,500)! Yes it’s a snip at twelve million and loose change pounds! I guess that’s one way of making sure that it’s a very exclusive laptop...
https://www.theregister.com/2020/11/18/dell_16_million_dollar_laptop_colour_snafu/
Coronavirus:
There’s been a lot of stuff around about whether vitamin D gives protection against COVID-19. I’m neither a nutritionist nor an immunologist, so I wouldn’t presume to advise. However, if you are looking for information on the subject, I suggest taking a look at a short piece by Metafact which gives both sides of the argument using quotes from experts on both sides.
https://metafact.substack.com/p/does-vitamin-d-protect-against-covid
35 deg North https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/35th_parallel_north [In case you are wondering where the 35th parallel is!]
Essays:
Our first essay this week is a piece on Lunar commerce. There is a lot of verbiage bandied around about Lunar commerce but little about what is actually involved. This is the first piece I’ve found that actually attempts to establish a framework of what is involved, and how it could develop. I think you’ll find it interesting.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4069/1
The second essay is very topical as most of the European countries move into a second lockdown. It is, however, becoming clear that there is considerable scepticism about the whole thing and an underground swell of deliberate flouting. The politicians are bewailing the flouting and suggesting ever more authoritarian solutions for enforcement.
However, as this piece shows the problem is what is known in high risk trades as ‘risk normalisation’. This is a process in which risks come to be seen as small because examples come infrequently to mind, and then the brain begins to accept ‘small’ risks over time. This, of course leads to risky behaviour...
There are ways, developed by high risk industries, to stop, or at least reduce this behaviour, without reaching for a club. Whether the politicians are likely to adopt such methods is an open question...
https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-is-no-longer-seen-as-high-risk-by-many-and-thats-undermining-control-measures-149026
And to go with that previous article, I note that some politicians are talking a hard line about a Christmas lockdown. So, I thought a little piece about what happened in the UK last time the government tried to abolish Christmas might be instructive! It was in 1647. Parliament had won the civil war and the usual Christmas festivities were banned. The powers that be tried it again in 1648, but in the three hundred and seventy or so years since they’ve never tried it again...
https://theconversation.com/when-christmas-was-cancelled-a-lesson-from-history-149310
Lectures:
With the pandemic, a lot more public lectures are starting to go online. Such is the case with the UK’s Royal Society, so I thought I would draw your attention of one later this week entitled ‘Defining science through history’. Unlike the way most science history is taught, instead of concentrating on individual scientists, it looks at the roots of modern science as a creative process rooted in the gritty realities of everyday life.
Definitely sounds interesting...
https://royalsociety.org/science-events-and-lectures/2020/11/wbm-lecture/
Security:
NordPass’s list of the top 200 most common passwords of the year 2020 is now out. Looking at it I notice that our old friend ‘qwertyuiop’ has sunk to 25th place. ‘password’ is in fourth place. In third place is ‘picture1’ (I don’t think I’ve ever come across that one), and in second place is ‘123456789’.
And in first place with over two and a half million uses is [cue trumpet fanfare] ‘123456’.
https://nordpass.com/most-common-passwords-list/
Pictures:
This week’s first picture is a short video of a wide variety of wild creatures visiting a water fountain. A really varied selection!
https://www.reddit.com/r/aww/comments/jhx0z2/a_variety_of_wild_animals_visiting_a_water/
The second is also a video. This time about the pictures the International Space Station astronauts have taken of Earth over the last 20 years.
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/videos/window-on-the-world
Quotes:
This week’s quote is from the American folk singer, Pete Seeger:
“Education is when you read the fine print; experience is what you get when you don’t.”
Scanner:
Cambridge University’s Third Crypto Study Records 101 Million Cryptocurrency Users Worldwide
https://news.bitcoin.com/cambridge-universitys-third-crypto-study-records-101-million-cryptocurrency-users-worldwide/
The ones who brought you Let’s Encrypt, bring you: Tools for gathering anonymized app usage metrics from netizens
https://www.theregister.com/2020/11/18/isrg_prio_services/
Scientists produce rare diamonds in minutes at room temperature
https://newatlas.com/materials/scientists-rare-diamonds-minutes-room-temperature/
Looking for a word that doesn’t yet exist? Try this site.
https://www.thisworddoesnotexist.com
‘Extremely aggressive’ internet censorship spreads in the world’s democracies
https://news.umich.edu/extremely-aggressive-internet-censorship-spreads-in-the-worlds-democracies/
SpaceX opens Starlink satellite internet to public beta testers
https://www.space.com/spacex-invites-starlink-internet-beta-testing
Rocket Lab nails its first ever booster recovery attempt
https://newatlas.com/space/rocket-lab-first-booster-recovery/
Footnote:
Please send suggestions for stories to alan@ibgames.com and include the words Winding Down in the subject line, unless you want your deathless prose gobbled up by my voracious Thunderbird spam filter...
Alan Lenton
alan@ibgames.com
22 November 2020
Alan Lenton is an on-line games designer, programmer and sociologist, the order of which depends on what he is currently working on! His web site is at http://www.ibgames.net/alan/index.html.
Past issues of Winding Down can be found at http://www.ibgames.net/alan/winding/index.html.
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