Adventure Ausrama Blog

The Australian government is in trouble over its planned introduction of My Health Record, a centralized storage of personal medical history. Closure of the opt-out date has been pushed forward several times. There is no way the government can continue to claim that the system will be secure. This is impossible. The weak link in the chain is human. Doctors, nurses and general hospital staff will have access. They will be able to print out any one's record and take a copy home. International criticism revolves around the outdated methods to be used. The main storage medium will be PDF. Searching these for significant insights into a patient's history will be problematic. Ease of searching is paramount. Systems to be adopted in the US and China have separate computer codes for different medication, test results and diseases. This improves searching by clinicians. The FHIR system was developed in Australia but it is the only country not adopting it. As always, Australian ...

Algorithms make determinations based on concepts favored by programmers. They are not aware that they are doing it. This intelligence is truly artificial. k intelligence l artificial Algorithms may seem to be good because they are the basis for AI. Anything that helps us must alright. This is a big mistake. Making choices is their main function and biases are set by their human creators. Decisions can benefit some while hurting others.   ⎳ a decision a artificial a intelligence a algorithms a biased a making biased ⎳ Something that makes a critical choice must by definition be biased. Coders have to define the factors leading to a decision. Bias is clearly defined in mathematics as errors. Over or under representing populations in a sample is faulty.    ⦿3 b decision b artificial b intelligence b algorithms b biased b making ⦿3 Allocative harm involves discarding relevant resources in the evaluation process. Giving advice to a specialized target can end ...

Genetics: Australian Aboriginal stone tools use was made within the Aboriginal gene pool. Australian Aborigines have been isolated on this vast continent for 50,000 until Europeans came and messed everything up. DNA sequencing shows Aboriginals were pure for this whole period. Contrary to the view held by many scientists for centuries, people did not arrive from India 4,000 years ago. Seafarers from India and Southeast Asia did stop here to get fresh water and herbs to treat constipation. Yes, this is true. Data tracing the Y chromosome from father to son shows no Asian genes in their profile. Aboriginals were the first people out of Africa. Once they reached Australia no more came from Asia. The out of Africa theory has now been pushed back 200,000 years. There is no real evidence of where these people went as far back as that. Tasmanian Aboriginals are a mystery. All have now died out so we will never know if they came here before mainland Aboriginals. Their DNA cou...

technology Despite the advances in artificial intelligence, useful robots are a long way off. Humans can do limitless things, whereas robots can only do one thing well. They cannot have the broad perspective. So don't hope to have a "Maisy who washes the dishes and cleans the house anytime soon. Businesses want to profit from new technology. However, adapting quickly to advances in artificial intelligence is difficult. The business that shows the way will be the winner. Those who follow will have to pick up the scraps. The leading business will have moved on to something else. The time is approaching when the first damaging, even fatal, decision is made by a computer. It could be a major disaster. Artificial intelligence is not sentient: it does not feel any harm it does. Machines can now learn both good and bad. To a computer everything is equal. Give a robot a conscience - that will be a great leap forward! ◆ Technology by Ty Buchanan   ◆ Adventure Austral...

Being happy helps you to live longer right? Wrong! The grumpy old man is real. He just makes life miserable for everybody else. People have to earn a living. Many jobs, particularly the monotonous production line ones, are boring, tedious and soul destroying. Unhappiness is the consequence. Poor health can also contribute to discontent. Unfortunately, only a group of women in their sixties were surveyed. This is neither young or old. I wonder why they didn't examine elderly people? Ah well, scientists work in mysterious ways. If you are chronically ill, you could behave in a way that does shorten your life, like giving up exercise and adopting a poor diet. Some even harm themselves which does damage the body, but does not really shorten life. It seems 83 per cent of women in their sixties are "generally" happy. This is very high. It needs to be qualified, however, as 44 per cent said they were "usually" happy. There was another choice: "happy...

Australians tend to be early adopters of new technology because they have inquisitive minds. Our old enemy, the shark, will always be around, so it is not surprising that drone technology is being used to solve this problem. It is not the buzzing sound that will scare sharks off. Drones are being used to gather visual information about where sharks are and the number swimming around, the theory being that if we know this we can be more careful. At the moment hooks are baited on lines attached to floating drums. This method is a simple way to catch sharks. Unfortunately, sharks not tempted by the bait remain in the area. Baited hooks have warning devices in them that notify watchers on a boat when sharks take them. This is a clumsy way to keep sharks at bay. Targeting sharks observed by drones is a better solution. Drones are far cheaper than helicopters and do a better job, going right down to sea level to collect data. ◆   Technology by Ty Buchanan   ◆ Adventure Aus...

Yes, the truth is out!. All of those silly questionnaires you are made to fill out when you apply for a job to see if you are psychologically suitable are rubbish. There is no truth or relevancy in them. They are just made up. Measuring nothing is their purpose. People are now in jobs requiring skills that they do not have - they should be doing something else. Tests from three psychology journals show that measures for skills, memory, personality, learning and relationships were very weak indeed. There was no consistency with the real world. Manipulation of data wasn't the problem: claims and statements were made by writers when there was no foundational proof for them.   It seems that hearsay, myth, misconception and blatant lying are features of academic articles on psychology. Didn't we suspect this all along? Of course we did! A top psychologist withdrew 50 academic papers because they had false conclusions. Research on ESP was found to have no data sho...

The number of autism cases is increasing. It is largely due to new diagnostic processes. This masks the real situation, so it is not knows what the actual increase is. It appears that many people who are now teenagers were overlooked and do have autism. Very old data are the basis of case numbers. One in 5,000 of United States citizens suffered from the ailment in 1975. These data are far too old to be meaningful. A survey in 2002 showed one in 500 were autistic. Such a disparity means an accurate investigation must be done. It jumped to one in 68 in 2012. This is absurd! Sure, reclassification has affected the results but knowing what is really happening is paramount. Because nearly all of those with autism are supported by welfare, government needs to know actual numbers. Oddly, Penn State University in the US found no increase in attendance at special schools. Where are these people going? Are they living a life of isolation? On closer examination is seems that they a...

Even if you shop online you are being watched. Furthermore, new technology is being rolled out in Australian shops to find out your shopping habits. This does not just include purchasing. The way you examine goods will also be recorded and analysed. The other day I was in Coles supermarket. I examined a product and put it back on the shelf. Then I continued into the fresh vegetable section. I was accosted there by a shop assistance who said I must purchase the product because I had lifted the wrapping on the corner. It was captured on camera.  This was a bit of a shock I must say. The key to avoiding being tracked is to leave your mobile phone at home. Phones are being used as tracking sources without your permission. The government is going to allow this. To gain access to wi-fi you will unwittingly give your permission to be tracked. To confuse those collecting data you can lend your mobile to family members, or even wear a dress if you are a man. Westfield sho...

Since the email was "invented" in 1977 it has continued as the main means of sending information that is admissible in court. Though you may think that what you say is not important, the content can be used against you in a court of law.  For light social exchange people use Facebook, Whatsapp and Twitter. If governments could get their hands on the data it would use that against you as well. The main problem with email is that there is so much of it. The vast majority of users cannot deal with it. Most emails are discarded without being read simply because users think it is spam, or the nearest thing to it - continuing emails from a company you have either purchased something from or downloaded supposedly for free. New email systems from Google, Amazon, IBM or WorkMail usually just provide more folders that you could create yourself. The boundary between work and home life is now blurred with a mass of emails that need ongoing, endless attention. Tryin...