Cyber Crimes: Tax Frauds

Tax time is here and with the pressure and stress of this busy time comes the additional concern of cyber criminals using this as an opportunity to defraud the unwary public of hard earned money.

One of the latest scams going around my home city is fraudsters sending text messages to cell phone owners, with various messages stating something about a tax refund of some sort, typically with a specific dollar amount, and asking the user to click on a link.

Of course, the basic rules of e-mail and/or text safety and security is to never click on a link or open and attachment from any unknown source. The best thing to do is flag the message as junk and delete it from your phone (or computer) but it's just my nature to want these slime-ball fraudsters to get caught, so I record the address or phone number of the culprits and take the time to report them to the authorities. This is especially more important to me when it comes to banking or government institutions, who take these matters  as equally serious of course and have specialized departments who handle these complaints and investigate them thoroughly.

If you feel that you could be or are a victim of some form of cyber crime and fraud, contact the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.

There are plenty of other types of cyber crimes and associated scams and having knowledge and understanding of them, coupled with the use of standard protocols, will be most helpful in protecting yourself against this insidious activity. 

Goodbye Ice, Hello Pykrete

Back in 1942, as World War 2 ground on relentlessly, a Canadian named Geoffery Pyke worked on a secret project which would use ice to build an offshore refueling platform, somewhat akin to an aircraft carrier but made from a special concoction called he called Pykrete.

Yes, crazy as it sounds at first, the idea actually has some merit. Partly because their idea didn't just use ice, but was a cellulose mixture, added in the form of wood pulp, which made the structure considerably more durable. This came about after the higher ups in the British Military thought the idea might float and put a task force to work on the project, including molecular biologist Max Peruz, who had been "recruited" ( basically under arrest) because he was Austrian.  The experiments produced a mixture called Pykrete, named after Pyke himself of course, which had numerous other advantages.

Consider the following...

• Pykrete had a crush resistance greater than 3,000 psi
• The wood pulp in the ice makes it quite stable at higher temperatures
• The low thermal conductivity makes the melting rate very slow
• Building a ship or platform required very little metal, which was scarce
• Since the ship or platform hull contained no metal, it would not attract mines
• It would also handle submarine attacks much better than a ship made of metal, absorbing the shock and withstanding the explosions of a torpedo.

About 450 km from my home in Calgary lies Patricia Lake, where an experimental Pykrete boat was built back in 1943. One could say this prototype was a success but several factors sunk the project, particularly the shift in the war effort, as the Allied Forces began to make advancements. Interestingly, the experimental boat, "The Habbakuk", remained afloat for several Summers and remnants can still be seen to this day at the bottom of the lake.

artists conceptual rendering of the very large Pykrete platform ship.

Even if the Pykrete boat never got afloat, the idea of using this frozen water and pulp mixture to build structures has been the focus of several experiments in recent years, including the ice dome created by students at Eindhoven University, Holland in co-operation with residents of Juuka, Finland.

Much of the work was based on the experiments of Tsutomu Kokawa, who has been working on ice domes since the 1980's. Inflating a giant bubble which was held in place by a net, staked to the ground, work crews covered the dome with a layers of slush and sawdust, which is the premise of Pykrete. Once the Pykrete layer was built up and solidified, the balloon was deflated and removed, leaving the structure free standing.

Unfortunately, the dome only stood for a few days before the roof collapsed, likely due to the large 50 m span. Smaller versions of this concept have been built and lasted for several months.

Spraying the dome with Pykrete

View from above

Visitors did get to come inside for a look, though it only lasted 3 days

Street Art 2017

Brooklyn Street Art compiled this vimeo of a cool collection of thought provoking street art.

BSA Images of the Year 2017 by Jaime Rojo for BrooklynStreetArt.com from Brooklyn StreetArt on Vimeo.

Repost: Spring

Do you know why Spring occurs when it does and that the reason for the season is actually scientific, since the Earth rotates on an axis that is tilted in it's orbit. 

The 23.5° tilt causes the different hemispheres to be at different angles to the sun at different times of the year. In our northern hemisphere on March 20 (sometimes the 19th or 21st) the Vernal Equinox, also referred to as the Spring or March Equinox, is when the sun sits on the plane of the earth's equator.

In the southern hemisphere at this time of year, they would be experiencing the Autumnal (Fall) Equinox. Conversely, we would experience the Autumnal Equinox in September, and the southern hemisphere would experience the Vernal Equinox of course.

In both cases, the Equinox occurs when the Earth's orbit takes it to the point where the sun crosses the Celestial Equator, an imaginary line that runs above the Earth's equator. At this juncture, there are an equal number of hours in the day and night (12 hours), so the Latin word Equinox literally means equal (equi) night (nox).

From here on in, we begin to see longer and longer daylight hours until we reach the Summer Solstice, which is the peak amount of sunlight in our northern hemisphere. 

Of course, we all know that long stretch of darkness at the Winter Solstice, where it gets dark around 4:00 in the afternoon and the sun doesn't arise until 8:30, and that's just around Calgary. Worse as you get into the far north where it stays dark all day. Naturally, the opposite is true wen they get 24 hours of sunlight on the occasion of the Summer Solstice, hence the term "Land Of The Midnight Sun".

Put Out The Welcome Mat!

Without a doubt, there is some crazy stuff for sale on the internet, some of which I'd hesitate to show on this blog. 

However, here's some weird and wacky rugs that are reasonably viewable, though would any of them be something you'd lay out as a welcome mat at your front door or entryway?

This rug is a copy of a Banksy piece.

A rug inspired from a Brandalism campaign

To Infinity And Beyond!

You may remember the movie line "To Infinity And Beyond", spoken by Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story, and chuckled over the oxymoronic statement, but it does also prompt one's mind into contemplating the idea of infinity and all the related theories on the topic.

How fitting to discuss that topic on Pi Day, celebrated each year on this day, March 14, a.k.a. 3/14.

Infinity may be expressed in multiple ways, including the symbol ∞, but I was thinking for today's thought we would talk about it in relation to the symbol π and mathematically expressed as 3.14. Of course, I am referring to that number of 3.14 as actually being the abbreviated form of Pi and calculating to the infinite. Perhaps there is an end to the equation but at this time, no can be certain.

So far, Pi has been calculated to the trillions, such being 22,459,157,718,361 digits, by Peter Trueb on his 24 hard drive computer which has 6 terrabytes of memory.

Needless to say, pi is a bedrock of geometry, as the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. According to history, it was first contemplated and calculated by mathematicians in ancient Babylon, though not quite as accurately as the current standard of 3.14. Over time, various ancient mathematicians got better and better at the accuracy, including Chinese math wizard Zu Chongzhi in approx 429 A.D., who managed 3.14159292. 

And how's this for impressive? According to the "Guinness Book Of World Records", the most decimal places of Pi that are memorized is 70,000, achieved by Rajveer Meena of India on March 21 2015. He was blindfolded during the 10 hour recital.
Apparently, a Japanese citizen recited Pi to over 100,000 decimal places but since the claim was never substantiated, the aforementioned record still holds.

Strange but quite fitting coincidences involving Pi Day is the facts that mathematician and scientist Albert Einstein was born on this day in 1879, and noted scientist and theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking died on this day in 2018.

Other Balancing Acts

Balance is an important function of many things, like sports and fitness, and when considering things like diet and work/play relationships it may be the key to a good, long, healthy life .

In the case of exhibiting patience and dexterity, you may have seen some cool examples of this in my posts "Gravity Glue" and "Balancing Act".

Here's another fine example of the delicate nature of balance, this time using a feather and some pieces of wood. I've seen several variations on this same theme but this is a good example, seemingly part of some Japanese talent show. (BTW, ¥ 7, 625,000 =  approx Can $85,000 )

Don't Judge A Book By It's Cover

Ryan Arcand, who has been living on the street for 30 some years, died this past week.

Maybe that means nothing to most people but if you watch this video of Ryan, playing the piano that was placed outdoors at Churchill Square in Edmonton, you'll be sure to look at street people a little differently the next time.

Ryan was self taught and the song in this video was one he wrote himself.

Brandalism

"Any advert in a public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours. It's yours to take, re-arrange and re-use. You can do whatever you like with it,"     

Banksy (for those who don't know, an anonymous England-based graffiti artist, political activist and film director)

Brandalism: An anti-advertising campaign, also referred to as "subvertising", whereby street artists take over existing billboard and poster advertising in a city and replace it with their own artwork.


Here's a series of photographs taken of a thought provoking  'brandalism' campaign done in 2012 in several cities in England, including London. As many as 26 street artists subverted 35 different billboards and poster spaces into anti-consumer artwork. Another campaign occurred in 2014, this one taking place in several countries. 

I have no issues with graffiti in the sense of accepting it as art, as long as it doesn't destroy something historical or damage someone else's work, like the dimwit in this article. Of course, there's always been an argument about whether street art is actually art, or merely vandalism. I lean toward the art side, but maybe it's both, if one considers examples like that in the link.

Watch for future posts about another campaign that took place in 2014 and includes several differnt countries.