Winding Down
An idiosyncratic look at, and comment on, the week's net, technology, science and other news
by Alan Lenton
20 June 2021
Happy Solstice everyone :)
I offered three outcomes to the ‘end’ of the UK lockdown last week – a real end, a continuation, and a fudge – which I considered most likely. And the result was... a fudge!
A bit shorter than usual this week, and we are also going to take a couple of weeks off to (hopefully) relax and have a proper Sunday brunch!
I’ll be back...
Alan Lenton
Publishing schedule: No issue next week, or the week after which is 4 July – next issue will be on 11 July.
Credits: Thanks to readers Fi and Barb for drawing my attention to material for Winding Down.
Astronomy and Cosmology:
Here’s something to keep your brain working over breakfast – it’s five theoretical cosmic objects that may, or may not, exist: black dwarfs, Thorne-Żytkow objects, boson stars, darkino fuzzballs, and antistars! And just to add to that, we will have to wait for some hundred billion years for black dwarfs to form. The universe is currently reckoned to be under 13 billion years old...
https://www.sciencealert.com/5-entirely-hypothetical-star-like-objects-astronomers-are-yet-to-discover
Autonomous Vehicles:
I’d like to draw your attention to a somewhat different autonomous vehicle to the ones usually touted – a ship! It’s currently out in the Atlantic having left Plymouth, England, and heading for Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA. There are no humans on board (not even pilgrim settlers) – it’s controlled by an IBM computer, and driven by a solar-powered motor. Wisely, there is a diesel backup!
While the vessel is only a small (50ft) trimaran, it represents an important move which shipping magnates will be watching closely. Oh! And it is designed to obey the international navigation rules...
There’s supposed to be a live web cam available (details in the article at the URL), but I haven’t managed to catch it when it’s available yet...
https://newatlas.com/robotics/ibm-autonomous-mayflower-ship-sets-sail-across-atlantic/
Computers:
Sigh! Microsoft are planning to tamper with Windows again. Apparently, they want to, among other things, put rounded corners on the on screen window. Frankly, I just want Microsoft to stop messing around and let me get on with using my computer without them sticking their nose into my business and my computer...
https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/15/22535123/microsoft-windows-11-leak-screenshots-start-menu
Energy:
Ironically, considering the high profile disasters involving nuclear power plants – for instance Chernobyl, Three-Mile Island, and Fukushima Daiichi – nuclear power plants have better safety records than their more conventional brethren. As a result of the experience gained, new varieties of nuclear power reactors are starting to be touted to replace coal, oil and gas powered electricity generating plants.
The key technology here seems to be molten salt reactors, which are backed by the likes of Bill Gates (perhaps they’ll have rounded corners like the putative Window 11), so I thought my readers might like a few articles to browse through so they can make up their own minds. I have to say it looks hopeful, and better than enormous wind power pylons or solar panels produced by Chinese slave labour...
See what you think.
https://newatlas.com/energy/natrium-molten-salt-nuclear-reactor-storage/
https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/03/wyoming_powers_ahead_with_gatesbacked/
https://newatlas.com/energy/seaborg-floating-nuclear-reactor-barge/
Heath:
With the increasing use of psychedelic drugs in modern clinical research a problem has arisen in the way trials are conducted. Normally in a clinical trial you get your volunteers, divide them at random into two groups, give one group the drug being tested, and the other group a placebo. Neither group knows which it receives, and you use the group which had the placebo to see what difference the drug made to the other group.
Unfortunately...
It’s pretty obvious if you haven’t been given a psychedelic drug! That means that the results of the placebo group are skewed – usually as they try to be helpful – or annoyed that they didn’t get the real stuff! Why is this a problem? Because without a proper control group you can’t get an accurate assessment of the efficiency (if any) of the drug being trialled. No trial = no approval for the clinical use of the drug.
https://newatlas.com/science/placebo-problem-blinding-modern-psychedelic-science/
Scanner:
USB-C levels up and powers up to deliver 240W in upgraded power delivery spec
https://www.theregister.com/2021/05/27/usb_pd_240w_upgrade/
Scientists warned us the pandemic wouldn’t solve the climate crisis. Guess what...
https://www.sciencealert.com/carbon-dioxide-levels-just-hit-a-devastating-new-peak-despite-pandemic-lockdowns
The pandemic has revolutionised public data and there’s no turning back
https://blog.ons.gov.uk/2021/05/20/the-pandemic-has-revolutionised-public-data-and-theres-no-turning-back/
Space calendar 2021: Rocket launches, sky events, missions & more! [better late than never – good stuff – AL]
https://www.space.com/32286-space-calendar.html
We’ve been shown time and again that strong encryption puts criminals behind bars, so why do politicos hate it?
https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/14/kiloscrote_nab_strong_encryption/
Calls for ‘right to repair’ electronics laws grow louder across Europe
https://www.theregister.com/2020/11/26/parliaments_environmental_audit_committee_calls/
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
20 June 2021
Alan Lenton is a retired 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.
If you have any questions or comments about the articles on my web site, click here to send me email.