[PlaneMan]

Ed, I watched a lengthy podcast yesterday, the most interesting bit concerning Covid 19 and Vitamin D is in this clip. 

[Ed P]

I found out that the Aussies are conducting a trial with zinc – the kicker is that like all the other medical trials the results will not be available until early next year!

I think the medical profession really need to overhaul their experimental design or they risk killing too many people.

[Ed P]

It looks as though Dave was correct to be fearful of the Government’s Contact Tracing system. According to El Reg it is remarkably simple to spoof.

El Reg Link

[Dave Rice]

Just going on my previous experience of their track record. Google and Apple bring out API’s that (it seems) the rest of the world embrace. We don’t.

I think it’s sunk without trace given the lack of crowing about it’s success and any usage stats. A shame they talked it up as the answer to everything.

Over promising time after time.

[Ed P]

For clarity Dave, the El Reg link is about the ‘manual’ contact tracing system and the dangers from a spoofed telephone call or SMS message that apparently originates from the ‘official’ telephone number 0300 013 5000

I’m afraid I’m going to warn friends and family to ignore such calls and seek verification first.

[Dave Rice]

Yes, that’s the question that has been asked more than once, but the “experts” hear it as “has the system genuinely identified me” not how do we verify that the person calling us is who they say they are. A follow question is always denied so we get no further.

They must know that the system is wide open to this sort of abuse and clearly have no answer for it, therefore the question must be ignored.

The BAME report was just a joke. I am getting fed up of just being told what we already know, over promising solutions and fudging any accountability. Any enquiry, like those before it, will be a waste of time as it will be started years after the event, be politically interfered with and come to no conclusions that will blame anyone in authority.

[Ed P]

I think in the words of Christopher Robin:

” Let’s play Poo-Sticks”

I actually think this Ars Technica article is the best way to kick off an ‘appless’ Track & Trace program and wrote to my MP asking for a follow-up with the Ministry, as one test will reveal active covid-19 in a way that would otherwise require testing thousands of people.

[Ed P]

Apparently BoJo’s world-beating Track & Trace App will not be working properly until September. Why we have to pay for a new App when over two years ago the Beeb had a functionally identical app that was tried and tested nation-wide for their Pandemic simulation  and it was both Apple/Android compatible. link

[Dave Rice]

Politically there is no way the Beeb can be seen to be useful. You’ll also note that the app is an NHS app and not the governments, because we can trust the NHS apparently. This is the same NHS who’s data is sold for vast sums link 

[Ed P]

Not actually NHS but NHSX , a Government ‘holding company’ charged with pulling together software for the NHS. Its same-oh-same-oh from Mushroom Matt and the Tories and is really a vehicle for lucrative backdoor privatisation of critical parts of the NHS. The appless app is being developed by a US cloud company, Pivotal which is a divison of VMWare. Although VMWare is a reputable company it and Pivotal have little or no in-house experience of app development (zero would be my personal rating of their experience). A weird choice at best, and hard to see why they were selected. Obviously some idiot wanted to centralise the data gathering and assumed that the phone interface  would be simple — hah!

[Dave Rice]

Having been part of the Corporate World and seeing how they work, I would imagine the board room of Pivotal thought all they had to do was buy in techies to do the job. Cost, at this stage, not a problem. Even worse they have sub-contracted it adding another link to the chain of responsibility and Chinese whispers of specs.

They will probably have bid low knowing that Politicians will change the goal posts on NHSX who will then receive a big bill from Pivotal – I’ve seen that in action on the Aircraft Carrier steam catapult / no catapult fiasco (diesel engines don’t produce steam so you need a total redesign to put the propulsion method in an already full hull which can’t be made bigger, £2 billion and 3 years delay to go ahead).

[Ed P]

My ignorance – why could they not have used compressed air, or an electric rail-gun as the driver?

With respect to Pivotal I just hope that I do not read that some Civil Servant or Politician has been given a plum job or Board position with VMWare or one of its many associated companies.

[Dave Rice]

Ed – with a non nuclear drive plant (diesel) there’s no steam for the catapult so yes they needed to use one of the methods you describe. To do that the catapult propulsion unit has to live somewhere in an already full up hull. That somewhere also has to be in a specific location. Or you go nuclear or gas turbine, but you still need the connections to the catapult.

So the contents of the hull have to be rearranged, including all the utility supplies, gangways etc. Some modules can’t be moved as they are location specific too. Add to that being modular there’s 4 primary  sections being built around the UK then floated to Rosyth, so rather than 1 hull you have 4 with specialist modules being built by specialists in different locations again and being integrated at one of the 4 sites.

Big jigsaw puzzle that needs a new picture with more pieces but in the same frame. The redesign cost a lot in itself. I cant remember how much and it was probably sensitive anyway. The upshot was to do it would cost £2 billion more and add 3 years to each vessel. You have to remember this was very late in the day. We were close to steel being cut and Rosyth being prepared (new dock, new cranes, etc). So the flying turkey it was to be.

[Bob Williams]

That was an interesting read Dave, another take on the Flying Turkey situation.

The FT reminds me of the Luftwaffe’s view of the F104 Starfighter: Witwenmacher (Widowmaker). That was a Lockheed too….

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Ed P]

I remember my mother telling me that the Lockheed P38 Lightning (long range WW2 two seat fighter/fighter bomber) had a similar name.

As I was a small child things now get a little mixed up in my memory, but I suspect that the epithet may have come from the low-level strafing target practice  that was carried out on targets moored  in the Severn Estuary somewhere between the Oldbury Nuclear Power Station and Lydney. Judging the height of the plane above the water was difficult and errors were nearly always fatal.

I may have confused the P38 with with the rocket firing practices of Typhoons and Tempests who also used that firing range.

Initially the P38 was used as a long range escort fighter, but they were ordered not to leave the bombers alone and were sitting ducks against single seat fighters, so that may also have been where they got a bad name.

[Bob Williams]

Ed the f104 Lightning was used by many NATO countries. It was a very fast interceptor but a horribly dangerous ground attack aircraft. The Dutch made a success of it, by developing their own tactics and flight plans, according to a  RNLAF  (Netherlands Airforce) mate at Blomberg, when I was serving in BAOR. Coincidentally, I have just finished reading the latest issue of Flypast and there is a story about the return to airworthiness of a RNLAF F104. They initially intended to make a gate guard of it and store another one, but decided to use both to make an airworthy version and use it in Airshows. I hope they fly it high!

The p38 was unsuccessful as an escort fighter and was eventually replaced by the P51C Mustang, itself replaced by the P51D, with an all round vision canopy modelled on the Spitfire’s. Until early 1943, Spitfires were also used, flown by American and RAF pilots. The range of the Spitfire was not enough to provide escort into Germany, which was why the P38 was tried. The P47 Thunderbolt was also used in escort duties, but not in as many numbers as the P51. The P47 became a very successful ground attack aircraft and the Wehrmacht feared it.

The P38 was a big success in the Pacific War though. One of them shot down the “Betty” bomber carrying Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, who was the C-in-C of the combined Japanese Fleet, considered to be Japan’s greatest military tactician and hero.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Dave Rice]

Just watching Matt Hancock on the Sunday politics programmes. There’s so much gaslighting going on you could power a small town.

It now seems clear that following the scientific advice is following that which suits the moment.When asked about the current scientific advice not to ease the lockdown so quickly the answer was, well there are 100 people on SAGE and they all have different opinions. There is an awful lot of talk about “what we knew at the time” which we know from Dispatches on C4 on Friday was exactly what was going on, if they could be bothered to read it or listen.

[Ed P]

Well at least Mushroom Matt has not yet set up scientists as scapegoats. This is exactly what is happening to the German virologist Christian Drosten who is receiving hate mail for opposing the easing of the German lockdown.

Der Spiegel English Link

It is a good article and explains the bind that scientific Advisors are in. Scientists hate making decisions based on incomplete evidence – which of itself argues that scientists should NEVER be employed to advise on pandemics arising from new sources. Instead we should use scientifically trained business-men who are used to making such decisions. (Face masks are a good case in point – it has taken our ‘advisors’ too long to advise a measure that reduces infection by a factor of 5 (comparing cases where neither the infected person/victim have masks and the case where both are masked)) This is twice as effective as increasing social distancing from one metre to two metres.

[Bob Williams]

Good link Ed and supported by my friend Rolf in Düsseldorf, who shares the abhorrence of all right thinking people against the lack of knowledge displayed by conspiracy theory and reactions such as this. This in particular, tells it like it is:

” These days, the coronavirus is bringing together two worlds, two systems that otherwise exist more or less independently of one another: science and politics. ”

Politicians usually pick out what suits them from any scientific or technical information. Or they take it completely to pieces and out of context.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Ed P]

The Government is coming under huge pressure from both within and without to reduce the social distancing rule to one metre. On the other hand the Civil Servants who claim to be scientists are making it difficult for the Government to move in that direction.

My bet is a lot of gaslighting which conflates the real benefits of everyone wearing masks with reduced social distancing.  The gaslighting will include compulsory mask wearing for front facing staff in the restaurant and pub sector, and a recommendation that customers also wear masks except when eating/drinking. — BYO eating utensils and glass of course)

Be nice if my dream comes true, I quite fancy a pint on July 4th (accompanied by a lot of celebratory fireworks!).

[Author]

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