Covid-19 and the ‘Protect Scotland’ app

This post is primarily for Australians because the Protect Scotland app does exactly what our own CovidSafe app was supposed to do… and doesn’t.

A trailer explaining how the app works and what protections it offers

How do we know the Protect Scotland app works?

We know it works because it was developed by Apple and Google [at the 1:00 minute mark] together. This means that the relevant bits of both operating systems that are needed to make the app work, actually talk to each other.

The Australian CovidSafe app failed so spectacularly in the Victorian outbreak because Apple and Android [Google] couldn’t be made to play nice with each other. The media have been silent about this failure, despite the fact that the Federal government’s whole recovery plan post-March was based on the app being able to contact-trace infections without human intervention.

Do I trust Apple and Google to be honest about how much of our privacy they retain? Ordinarily no, not it a month of Sundays. But with this app? I suspect that the rivalry between these two companies is what will ensure that they keep each other honest. After all, if one company manages to sneak something in that gives them a long term financial advantage, that could spell disaster for the other company.

So, if mobile phones can be used to track and trace people infected with Covid-19, then it might just be possible to ‘live with’ the virus. Maybe. Technology aside, though, just because the app alerts people to the fact that they may have been infected, that’s no guarantee that said people will do the right thing and self isolate.

Human nature is the big unknown, and given what we’ve seen conspiracy theorists doing already, I don’t like our chances of getting 100% voluntary compliance. I fear that things will have to get a great deal worse before the knuckleheads acknowledge that there is a problem, and that they are it.

In the meantime? Maybe Australia should buy the Protect Scotland app for those who actually give a flying fruit bat about their fellow human beings.

Meeks
[My thanks to Dr John Campbell for alerting me to the existence of the Protect Scotland app].

Coffee and pop tarts

For your gastronomic pleasure, I present the Offspring’s home made apple pop tarts!

And one of my beloved lustreware cup-and-saucer sets:

Oddly enough, it wasn’t until today that I noticed this set is made in Japan as well:

I really have had a love affair with Japan for most of my life!

And now for the pop tarts. This is not a hard and fast recipe so you’ll have to adjust the quantities to suit your own tastes.

The pastry is plain old, shop bought, frozen shortcrust. You should be able to use flaky or puff pastry as well. It just so happened that shortcrust was what we had in the freezer.

The Offspring allowed the sheets to thaw and then cut each one into quarters. One quarter for each pop tart.

The filling is where things get truly yummy. The apples are Granny Smiths but any tart, cooking apple will do. Sweet apples just don’t have enough flavour.

After washing the apples, the Offspring simply cut out the core and chopped the apple into bite-sized chunks. No peeling required. The skin actually adds to the flavour.

The apple went into a saucepan with some brown sugar [suit your own tastes], a lot of cinnamon, 1/2 a teaspoon of allspice and…a splash of champagne. The champagne is not mandatory, but like the pastry, it was what we had left over from the Un-Christmas dinner last year.

And before you ask, the Offspring doesn’t drink and I don’t like champagne so cooking is a great way of not wasting a perfectly good bottle of booze. I also use it in my Bolognese because I’ve been out of Shiraz for months. The champagne is ‘dry’ so it works pretty well.

The trick to making the apple is not to overcook it. Any liquid you add, whether it be wine or water, should only be enough to stop the apples from burning before they release their own juices. You really do not want to make apple sauce! As soon as the apples are cooked but still firm, remove the pan from the heat and allow to cool.

Preheat the oven to moderate [about 375F or 180C].

To assemble the pop tarts, place a generous spoonful of the cold apple in the middle of the square of pastry, moisten the edges with a little water [so the pastry will stick to itself], fold over, removing as much air as you can [without going insane about it], and press the edges closed.

Make a few small holes in the top of the pop tarts with the point of a sharp knife. This is to allow the steam to escape. Otherwise you might end up with exploding pop tarts. 🙂

Place the pop tarts on a baking tray and glaze with a little warm apricot jam [optional]. Bake in the middle of a moderate oven for about 10 minutes. The exact timing will depend upon your oven.

When the pop tarts are golden brown, remove from the oven and transfer to a cake rack to cool a little.

Warning: the apple inside these tarts is VERY hot. We discovered this the hard way…;)

The pop tarts will keep in the fridge for about three days, and we’ve found that they reheat beautifully. Just pop them back in the over for about 5 minutes.

Enjoy,
Meeks

p.s. I’m trying hard to get back into writing so I won’t be posting as much for a while. Don’t worry though, we’re both quite healthy!

Artic Apple & double stranded RNA risk

Watch this video to find out about the complete unexpected effect of double stranded RNA fed to bees via genetically modified food.

 

You might also be interested in how the FDA was infiltrated by Monsanto to ensure that GM food did not have to be tested properly. Or labelled.

Meeks

GM Apple going on sale in the US

Apples used to be a symbol of health, and healthy eating. Not any more. To give sliced apples a longer shelf life, the Artic Apple has had a gene removed so it doesn’t go brown…perhaps ever:

Is this a case of Nature getting it wrong and man getting it right?

Fruit that is cut or bruised goes brown through a process of oxidisation. According to the dictionary, this means:

‘To combine or cause an element or radical to combine with oxygen or to lose electrons.‘

Okay, so what’s the big deal?

To be honest, I don’t know. All I know is that most [? all ?] fruit and vegetables exposed to air – i.e. oxygen – do go brown thanks to millions of years worth of natural selection. Natural selection is not the survival of the strongest, it’s the survival of the fittest. So something about the browning of fruit and vegetables when exposed to oxygen is a good thing, because it’s lasted through countless mutations during which a better gene could have taken over. But didn’t. Because it wasn’t a better fit for the environment.

Of course, the browning of all fruit and vegetables when cut or bruised could, possibly, be one of those genes that are simply ‘neutral’ – i.e. it doesn’t have much of an effect either way so it just hangs around. That is a possibility, but then why has it hung around in all of these fruits and vegetables? Surely at least one of them would have done better without this gene?

I mean, think about it. The whole purpose of fruit is to be eaten…so the seeds inside can be carried somewhere else and pooped out. Then, those seeds have a chance of starting a new plant in a new place. That makes sense. So wouldn’t it also make sense to stop the bruised fruit from going brown? Wouldn’t fresh-looking fruit be more appetising to the fruit-eating poopers?

What I know about genetics could fit into a thimble, but commonsense tells me two things:

1. the fact that natural selection didn’t get rid of the turn-fruit-brown gene means that there was no advantage to doing so,
2. being able to sell sliced fruit is a terrible reason to genetically modify anything.

Who gains by being able to have apple slices sitting on a shelf for god knows how long?

And why would you even want to have sliced apples for sale?

I mean, seriously, the apple is the original convenience food. All you need to do is bite into it.

Have these Artic Apples been developed for people who have no teeth and have to gum their food?

Or has our obsession with convenience deprived us of all good sense?

Are we truly that lazy??

What’s next? Apple sauce that grows on trees? Don’t even need to chew….

This whole thing would be almost funny if it were not so real. I truly don’t like the future I’m starting to see.

Meeks

p.s. and to add insult to injury, guess who developed this ridiculous apple – our own, Australian C.S.I.R.O. I am so ashamed.

#Apple and climate change

 “Apple announced Thursday that its China operations are now 100 percent powered by renewable energy, leaving it carbon neutral in the country. That brings them in line with its U.S. operations, which are likewise run off 100 percent renewable energy.

Worldwide, Apple says its operations are now 87 percent green…”

Read the rest of this Venturebeat article here:

https://wordpress.com/read/post/feed/26908997/841304834

I don’t particularly like Apple the company, or any of the Apple products. I don’t even like iTunes very much. But. I. Do. Like.Their. Position. On. Climate. Change.

I also admire the fact that one of the biggest, most popular companies in the world is putting its money where it’s mouth is. Now if only governments worldwide could do the same.

cheers

Meeks

p.s. Would you believe this is my 700th post? I know. Me neither.

Phishing SCAM! – Apple iTunes

No, this is not a scam by Apple, it’s a scam pretending to be Apple. And, apart from a few small giveaways, it could almost be genuine :

The email came to the correct email address, but as you can see, ‘they’ didn’t know my real name so the message is just addressed to ‘Dear Customer’. That’s dead giveaway no. 1.

The grammar and spelling isn’t quite right. ‘…from the iTunes Store on a Apple Iphone…’ Dead giveaway no. 2. Apple can’t afford to make errors like these in official correspondence.

The trickiest clue, however, is in the URL [internet address] provided as the link.

The real URL for Apple support is :

https://http://www.apple.com/au/support/itunes/contact/  [the orange colour is for emphasis only].

The bogus URL is :

[Note: To ensure that no one accidentally clicks on that URL, I took a ‘picture’ of it instead of typing it in. Pictures contain no clickable information.]

It you look at the two addresses you can see obvious differences. Unfortunately, first impressions are quite powerful and even I had to check that URL by going to the official Apple website.

Another tricky thing about that bogus URL is that it does not mention having to sign in to anything, which is normally another dead giveaway. However, clicking on the URL could do 1 of 2 things :

1. it could take you to an Apple lookalike site where you are asked to enter login details, or

2. it could take you to a site that will load malware [or worse] onto your computer.

So quite a clever scam. If anyone knows more about it I’d love to hear in comments.

cheers

Meeks

Apple & Tesla? Yes, please!

I don’t own a single Apple product, and I don’t normally blog about cars, but there’s always a first time for everything. Right?

Yes, please, because the Tesla Roadster [pictured above] is one of the sexiest cars ever built, and it’s electric [and completely out of my price range!

Also yes, please, because if Apple and Tesla join forces, a prediction made in the link below, I may actually afford to own an electric car [the cheapest one] before I’m too old to enjoy it.

More importantly, yes, please, because I may also have access to a driverless car by the time I shouldn’t be allowed behind the wheel of anything that moves!

“https://medium.com/@jason/apple-will-buy-tesla-for-75b-in-18-months-544154ecf342“

[Apologies – for some reason the link won’t show unless I mess it up with the [red] double quotes. You will have to copy and paste the URL address into your own browser. Just don’t leave in the double quotes!]

So all you Baby Boomers out there might want to have a look at the future that awaits us if the biggest computer tech company in the world joins forces with the most advanced, electric car company in the world.

I, for one, can hardly wait. Yes, please! 🙂

Meeks