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Bride slammed for “absolutely ridiculous” dress code rules

A bride-to-be has gone viral for all the wrong reasons after her exhaustive list of wedding day dress code rules has divided the internet. A wedding guest took to a wedding shaming facebook group to share the list of attire rules she received alongside her invitation to the nuptials, sparking a heated debate over the “absolutely ridiculous” dress code. The specific dress code nitpicks at colour, fabric, length, print, and even the “vibe” clothes give off. The invite read: “Dress code: Formal (non-black tie) wear. Suits (preferably dark blue or dark grey, no tuxedos), ties, and dress shoes for men. No need to get creative!” “Linen is better suited for our welcome party; please wear a traditional fabric for the wedding.” “For women, tea-length dresses are great. Knee-length also works, but make sure it is not too casual (no summer floral dresses, for example) and floor-length is fine but make sure it is not an evening gala gown.” “Avoid any outrageous necklines, cut-outs, or sparkles. The idea is to be formal and glam, but not like you are on the way to a black-tie gala. Solid jewel tones generally work better than florals. No black please!” “Most importantly, please make sure to cover your shoulders and back with a cardigan or light scarf!” The huge list sparked a debate online, with some people claiming the bride is “controlling” and “entitled”, while others defended the bride and groom. “When in the hell did we start telling guests what to wear?” one person commented, “This is utterly ridiculous and if I received this invitation, it would go directly into the bin.” Another person wrote, “What is 'traditional fabric'? Am I supposed to show up in undyed wool? If we're being pedantic here, linen is pretty much the most traditional fabric in terms of historic use.” “They should just pick a uniform for the guests,” another said, while one wrote, “I honestly don't know if this type of dress or outfit exists?” Some claimed they would go against the dress code on purpose, as one person wrote, “I'd show up in an above-the-knee black floral number with cold shoulder cut outs and a sparkling neckline. For fun, it would be made out of linen.” However, a few people were quick to defend the bride and groom. “They could be getting married in a church, mosque, or synagogue - where this is a requirement. I would rather an invite tell me this than show up and not have known. Telling people gives people the opportunity to RSVP no if it's an issue,” one wrote. “To me this isn't exactly unreasonable,” another said. “It's not some huge list of dos and don'ts or very specific colours that must be adhered to or avoided. It helps guests who have no idea what to wear.” Image credits: Facebook / Shutterstock

Beauty & Style

Wimbledon to make key change to all-white dress code

<a href="https://oversixty.com.au/lifestyle/beauty-style/female-tennis-stars-speak-out-against-all-white-wimbledon-dress-code" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Wimbledon’s controversial all-white dress code</a> is expected to undergo a major change after the prestigious tennis competition faced months of pressure from female athletes. The 1880s rule restricts players to wearing only white clothing - including undergarments such as underwear and bras - and has been the subject of criticism for the toll it takes on female players in relation to their periods. Current guidelines require players to wear all-white, with undergarments that can be seen during play or because of sweat only allowed to have a “single trim of colour no wider than one centimetre”. Now, Wimbledon bosses are due to scrap the undergarments rule for female players, which will come into effect from 2023 and will allow for different coloured underwear and bras to be worn. The archaic rule became the subject of widespread attention after stars spoke about the anxiety around getting their period while competing, including Australian player Daria Saville who admitted she has needed to skip her period altogether and British star Heather Watson revealing she would likely take birth control to stop her period ahead of Wimbledon. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> Hey <a href="https://twitter.com/Wimbledon?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Wimbledon</a>, wanna chat periods? <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AddressTheDressCode?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AddressTheDressCode</a><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Wimbledon2022?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Wimbledon2022</a> <a href="https://t.co/mcjAioqMw4">pic.twitter.com/mcjAioqMw4</a> — gabs (@gabriellaholmez) <a href="https://twitter.com/gabriellaholmez/status/1543197239182508033?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 2, 2022</a></blockquote> At the same time,the rule drew fresh criticism when Romanian player Mihaela Buzarnescu was forced to swap her bra for her coach’s prior to her first-round match in July, after officials noticed hers was too dark. "My bustier was too black and could be seen up here," she told Eurosport at the time. "The white one I had was too transparent and you could see everything underneath and I couldn't wear it, so I borrowed from my coach, I took her bustier.” A group of protestors also made headlines during the ladies’ singles final, gathering outside Wimbledon dressed in white shirts and red undershorts with signs reading “About bloody time”, “Address the dress code” and “You can do it Ian Hewitt”, referring to the All England Club chairman. Gabriella Holmes and Holly Gordon, who organised the campaign Address the Dress Code to highlight the anxiety women face while competing in all-white, were among those protesting, telling <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/jul/09/protesters-at-wimbledon-urge-end-to-all-white-dress-code-due-to-period-concerns#:~:text=3%20months%20old-,Protesters%20at%20Wimbledon%20urge%20end%20to%20all%2Dwhite,code%20due%20to%20period%20concerns&text=Campaigners%20are%20urging%20Wimbledon%20organisers,female%20players%20who%20are%20menstruating." target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Guardian</a> they began calling for change after opening up to each other about the challenges of playing sport while menstruating. “We’ve come down today because we want Wimbledon to address the white dress code that doesn’t take into consideration female athletes on their periods,” Holmes said at the time. <img src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/2022/11/wimbledon-protest.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="720" /> Members of the public have begun calling for action too, including Gabriella Holmes and Holly Gordon, the women who started the campaign Address the Dress Code. Image: Getty Images “We want to make it really known to Wimbledon that the rules they are making at the top, they’re all already filtering down to grassroots levels. We are already seeing tons of young girls who drop out of sports when they start their period or by the time they’ve hit puberty they’ve stopped sports altogether. “We think it’s the time to address those barriers for young girls getting into the sport and it starts at the top, so that’s Wimbledon. We want women to be able to focus on the tennis and on the sport and not have to worry about other factors when competing at this level.” More athletes have since spoken out about the issue, with Andy Murray’s mother and coach Judy describing it as a “traumatic experience” and noting that other sports had already dropped similar rules. “One of the biggest problems previously in sport was that it was always white shorts, white kit and so on in lots of different sports,” Murray told the Daily Mail. “Everything was white. Nearly all sports have moved over to colour now. “I think it’s certainly a much more open talking point, if you are wearing all white and then possibly have a leak while you’re playing. “I cannot think of a much more traumatic experience than that.” <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> Indeed, it is time to address the dress code in sports and especially in Tennis competitions like Wimbledon. #<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AddressTheDressCode?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AddressTheDressCode</a> <a href="https://t.co/ZMD9OXg1iN">https://t.co/ZMD9OXg1iN</a> — OJEApads (@OJEApads) <a href="https://twitter.com/OJEApads/status/1555134095717441541?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 4, 2022</a></blockquote> Since the announcement of the rule change, tennis icon Billie Jean King has slammed the rule, saying it was one of her biggest “pet peeves”. “My generation, we always worried because we wore all white all the time,” she told CNN. “And it’s what you wear underneath that’s important for your menstrual period. “And we’re always checking whether we’re showing. You get tense about it because the first thing we are is entertainers and you want whatever you wear to look immaculate, look great. We’re entertainers. We’re bringing it to the people.” In a statement, the All England Club stated they were in discussions over ways to support players and prioritise women’s health. “Prioritising women’s health and supporting players based on their individual needs is very important to us, and we are in discussions with the WTA, with manufacturers and with the medical teams about the ways in which we can do that,” the statement read. Image: Getty Images

Beauty & Style

Incredible teenage boy cracks coded coin in hours, but he isn’t the first

Within hours of its release to the general public, a 14-year-old boy had cracked the codes hidden on <a href="https://oversixty.com.au/finance/money-banking/coins-covered-in-coded-clues-will-test-your-spy-skills" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a coin released by an Australian intelligence agency</a> - but some had solved them days earlier, due to an unusual legal rule. A 50-cent coin celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) was released last Thursday containing four levels of codes with hidden messages. But, the puzzles were already being discussed online ten days earlier, with some codes already being solved by August 20. This was due to requirements on the Australian Government to include the characters featured on the coin in legislation, available online, before the coin was made available to purchase on September 1. As well as a celebration of the agency’s history, it’s hoped the coin will act as a kind of recruitment drive and attempt to raise the profile of the ASD among the general public, with the agency planning to recruit another 1,900 people over the next decade as part of a $9.9 billion expansion. Dr Richard Bean, a research fellow at the University of Queensland who solved the coin’s puzzles within two hours of getting his hands on it, said the move was about attracting those interested in a career with the ASD. "The kind of people who would sit down and solve this kind of code on the coin, they're the kind of people the ASD wants to attract — innovative thinkers to solve difficult problems in cryptography in both an offensive and defensive sense," Dr Bean said. "So solving other nation's codes and protecting Australian government communications security. "It's about attracting the right candidates and putting the ASD in their mind, instead of having to go out in traditional recruitment channels." But let’s go back to our teenage whiz kid. Though the Tasmanian boy’s identity hasn’t been revealed, it’s clear he has talent and instinct according to Distinguished Professor Willy Susilo, who also directs the Institute of Cybersecurity and Cryptology at the University of Wollongong. “[What] is very important is actually not about whether you can crack the code or not, [what] is important is the thinking behind it, how to solve this kind of puzzle,” he told the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-05/how-to-solve-spy-australian-signals-directorate-50-cent-coin/101405266" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ABC</a>. “To me, I think to get a person who, especially in this case, is 14 years old, can crack the code within just one or two hours is actually incredible in my opinion. "That really is the kind of skill needed in the Australian Signals Directorate." Image: ASD

Money & Banking

Coins covered in coded clues will test your spy skills

A new, limited edition 50-cent coin covered in coded messages is more than just a mental puzzle for coin collectors - its creators hope it can help identify some of Australia’s next foreign intelligence recruits. The commemorative coin was released on Thursday to mark the 75th anniversary of the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), the country’s foreign intelligence cybersecurity agency. Though they won’t be available for circulation, 50,00 of the unique coins will be available to purchase from the Royal Australian Mint. Each coin features four levels of coded messages that become more difficult to solve - though clues can be found on either side of the coin. <iframe style="border: none; overflow: hidden;" src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FRoyalAustralianMint%2Fposts%2Fpfbid0NUz7VxNyNToHFmQzbPFTNi2rYo4Vvngztz8nmQssosevJzo2ExGpxdp5fumXeXcol&show_text=false&width=500" width="500" height="498" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe> ASD Director General Rachel Noble said the coin celebrated the work of the members of the agency and the evolution of code-breaking over the past seven-and-a-half decades. "Back in World War II, our people, military and civilian, and mostly women … used pencil and paper to decode Japanese military codes, and then re-encode them to send them out to the allies to let them know where Japanese war fighters were," she said. "We have used that part of our history in different layers, which represent the progress of encryption and technology through our 75 years." The puzzling currency also serves another purpose, with Ms Noble adding that those who can crack the codes could be "pretty well-placed" to work at the ASD. "We thought this was a really fun way to engage people in code-breaking with the hope that, if they make it through all four levels of coding on the coin, maybe they'll apply for a job at the Australian Signals Directorate," she said. Royal Mint chief executive Leugh Gordon said the coin was created with the help of cryptography experts, but that even with their help it still proved a challenge to get the codes onto the coin. "While the 50-cent piece is Australia's biggest coin, it still doesn't have a lot of surface area," he said. "Ensuring people could see the code to decrypt it was one of the challenges our people were able to solve with ASD, to create a unique and special product." It's not the first time secretive workplaces have used unusual recruiting drives, with the Australian Secret Intelligence Service releasing an online test targeting Australia's next generation of spies in 2017, while ASIO (Australian Security Intelligence Organisation) took to Instagram last year to show the secrecy surrounding the lives of modern spies. Ms Noble said those who crack the code won't get their hands on any top secret information, but instead will find "some wonderful, uplifting messages". "Like the early code breakers in ASD, you can get through some of the layers with but a pencil and paper but, right towards the end, you may need a computer to solve the last level," she said. Image: Royal Australian Mint

Money & Banking

Indian airline cracks the code to halving disembark times

A low-cost Indian airline has come up with a game-changing solution to get passengers off planes quicker during disembarking. A lot of planes rely on one door at the front of the plane to get travellers off the aircraft when they arrive at their destination. This often means passengers at the back of the plane have to let hundreds of others off the plane before they get the chance to disembark in an orderly fashion. To combat the wait, some airlines, including Virgin Australia and Qantas-owned Jetstar, regularly allow passengers to disembark from a set of stairs at the rear of the plane. But India’s largest carrier IndiGo has gone one step further and has introduced a third door for passengers to exit through. They have utilised the door in the middle of the plane, which is only ever used in an emergency, as another exit for passengers. The carrier reckons it could almost halve the time it takes to get passengers off the plane from up to 13 minutes to a mere seven minutes. “The new Three-Point Disembarkation process will be carried out from two forward and one rear exit ramp, making IndiGo the first airline to use this process,” an IndiGo spokesman told India’s <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/indigo-introduces-process-for-faster-de-boarding-of-passengers-101659598634339.html">Hindustan Times</a>. A video uploaded by Indian business journalist Sumit Chaturvedi shows the new process with passengers leaving an IndiGo Airbus A320 aircraft via the various ramps. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> Indian carrier Indigo today introduced a new Three Point Disembarkation which it claims will enable its customers to exit the aircraft faster than before. The new process will be carried out from two forward and one rear exit ramp. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/IndiGo?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#IndiGo</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/ChhaviLeekha?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ChhaviLeekha</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/IndiGo6E?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@IndiGo6E</a> <a href="https://t.co/n7Xajg8dk0">pic.twitter.com/n7Xajg8dk0</a> — Sumit Chaturvedi (@joinsumit) <a href="https://twitter.com/joinsumit/status/1555098794609455104?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 4, 2022</a></blockquote> “An A320 aircraft usually takes around 13 minutes for its passengers to de-board the aircraft. However, the new process will make the drill faster and will reduce the disembarkation time from 13 minutes to seven minutes,” an IndiGo spokesman said. As well as being a major bonus for anxious passengers who are eager to make a swift exit from the plane, the changes could also greatly help the airline. The quicker passengers can leave the plane, the shorter the turnaround time to get it back in the air with more fare-paying passengers on board. Despite the revolutionary change exciting many, others are sceptical at the airline’s claims. Ben Schlappig of US aviation blog<a href="https://onemileatatime.com/news/indigo-deplaning-a320-three-doors/"> One Mile At A Time </a>questioned if all the claimed time savings would occur in real-life settings. “The process of actually getting out the door is one bottleneck, but I’d think that getting down the aisle is another thing that takes time, and that’s still an issue, even with a second door in the front.” Image credits: Getty Images

Travel Tips

Female tennis stars speak out against all-white Wimbledon dress code

Wimbledon, one of the most long standing and prestigious tennis competitions on the sporting calendar, is steeped in tradition, including a strict all-white dress code for its players. While Nick Kyrgios came under fire for wearing red shoes and a red cap on the court, female players have spoken out about the anxiety the dress code causes when it comes to a common experience: periods. Aussie player Daria Saville told <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CfpkO3ChCzY/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Daily Aus</a> she has needed to skip her period as a result of the dress code, while others have spoken about the stress that comes from worrying about bleeding through their ‘Wimbledon whites’. “Recently just being at Wimbledon, I was talking with my friends saying that I love the all-white look,” the no. 98 told the outlet. “But then a few girls said they hate it because it sucks to wear all white while being on your period. “It’s true, I myself had to skip my period around Wimbledon for the reason that I didn’t want to worry about bleeding through, as we already have enough stress.” <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> As we enter the last week of <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Wimbledon?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Wimbledon</a>, we think its time to have a real discussion around the all white dress code and how it feeds period shame amongst professionals and young girls. <a href="https://t.co/oKhDXB2Jo9">https://t.co/oKhDXB2Jo9</a> — holly (@hollygordonn) <a href="https://twitter.com/hollygordonn/status/1543877058496978944?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 4, 2022</a></blockquote> Wimbledon’s strict dress code was written in the 1880s, when any form of sweat on an athlete’s clothing was considered improper and rude, with “undergarments” that are visible or could be visible because of sweat also subject to the rule. The all-white attire was believed to minimise the visibility of sweat while helping the players stay cool, according to <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/the-feed/article/female-tennis-stars-detail-anxiety-of-strict-wimbledon-dress-code/m1zsxut2i" target="_blank" rel="noopener">SBS</a>. As beneficial as it may be to help players stay cool in hotter temperatures, its impact on female players seems to outweigh any benefits, with some athletes even turning to birth control to skip their period around the competition. “I’ll probably go on the pill just to skip my period for Wimbledon,” British player Heather Watson recently told the BBC. “That’s the thought process and the conversation girls have around it.” British star Alicia Barnett recently opened up about the mental stress of wearing white while on her period, all while also dealing with the accompanying symptoms that impact her performance. In an interview with the PA news agency, she said that though she loves the tradition, “some traditions could be changed” in her opinion. “I, for one, am a massive advocate for women’s rights and I think having this discussion is just amazing, that people are now talking about it,” Barnett said. “Personally, I love the tradition of all-whites and I think we will handle it pretty well. “I think being on your period on tour is hard enough, but to wear whites as well isn’t easy.” Reflecting on the physical impact of menstruation on performance, Barnett told PA: “Your body feels looser, your tendons get looser, sometimes you feel like you’re a lot more fatigued, sometimes your coordination just feels really off, and for me I feel really down and it’s hard to get motivation. “Obviously, you’re trying to play world-class tennis but it’s really hard when you're PMS-ing and you feel bloated and tired. “Why do we need to be shy about talking about it?” Former athlete Monica Puig addressed the issue on Twitter in May, responding to commentator David Law’s tweet where he revealed that he had never considered the physical impact of menstruation on athletes during his 25 years working in tennis. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> Definitely something that affects female athletes! Finally bringing it to everyone’s attention! Not to mention the mental stress of having to wear all white at Wimbledon and praying not to have your period during those two weeks. <a href="https://t.co/PzyHnPlSJk">https://t.co/PzyHnPlSJk</a> — Monica Puig (@MonicaAce93) <a href="https://twitter.com/MonicaAce93/status/1531588251642912768?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 31, 2022</a></blockquote> “Definitely something that affects female athletes!” Puig wrote in response. “Finally bringing it to everyone’s attention! Not to mention the mental stress of having to wear all white at Wimbledon and praying not to have your period during those two weeks.” Law is among a growing number of commentators also addressing the issue, including The Tennis Podcast host Catherine Whitaker, who has said the dress code has outlived its time and has called for the rules to be more flexible. “I would like to see it change,” she said in one interview. “If they had a clothing policy that affected men in the way that it does women, I don’t think that particular tradition would last. “I cannot imagine going into the biggest day of my life, with my period, and being forced to wear white.” Image: Getty Images

Beauty & Style

Data visualisations made more accessible to screen reader users

A type of assistive technology, screen readers are software programs that scan the contents of a computer screen and transform it into a different format – like synthesised voice or Braille – for people with complete or partial blindness, learning disabilities, or motion sensitivity. Now, scientists from the University of Washington (UW) in the US have designed a JavaScript plugin called VoxLens that allows people to better interact with these visualisations. VoxLens allows screen reader users to gain a high-level summary of the information described in a graph, listen to said graph translated into sound, or use voice-activated commands to ask specific questions about the data, such as the mean or the minimum value. The team presented their <a href="https://dl.acm.org/doi/fullHtml/10.1145/3491102.3517431" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">research</a> last month at the <a href="https://programs.sigchi.org/chi/2022" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems</a> in New Orleans in the US. <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"> <div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> <div class="entry-content-asset"> <div class="embed-wrapper"> <div class="inner"><iframe title="VoxLens - Paper Summary and Demo Video" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/o1R-5D2WS4s?feature=oembed" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></div> </div> </div> </div> </figure> “If I’m looking at a graph, I can pull out whatever information I am interested in – maybe it’s the overall trend or maybe it’s the maximum,” says lead author Ather Sharif, a doctoral student in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering at UW. “Right now, screen reader users either get very little or no information about online visualisations, which, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, can sometimes be a matter of life and death. The goal of our project is to give screen reader users a platform where they can extract as much or as little information as they want.” The difficulty with translating graphs, according to co-senior author Jacob O. Wobbrock, a professor of information at UW, comes from deciphering information with no clear beginning and end. <div class="newsletter-box"> <div id="wpcf7-f6-p193459-o1" class="wpcf7" dir="ltr" lang="en-US" role="form"> <form class="wpcf7-form mailchimp-ext-0.5.61 spai-bg-prepared init" action="/technology/voxlens-accessibility-screen-readers/#wpcf7-f6-p193459-o1" method="post" novalidate="novalidate" data-status="init"> <input class="wpcf7-form-control wpcf7-text referer-page spai-bg-prepared" name="referer-page" type="hidden" value="https://www.google.com/" data-value="https://www.google.com/" aria-invalid="false" /> </form> </div> </div> “There is a start and an end of a sentence and everything else comes in between,” he explains. “But as soon as you move things into two dimensional spaces, such as visualisations, there’s no clear start and finish. “It’s just not structured in the same way, which means there’s no obvious entry point or sequencing for screen readers.” Working with screen reader users to improve accessibility The team worked with screen reader users who had partial or complete blindness when designing and testing the tool. During the testing phase, participants learned how to use VoxLens and then completed nine tasks, each of which involved answering questions about a data visualisation. The researchers found that participants completed the tasks with 122% increased accuracy and 36% decreased interaction time, compared to participants of a previous study who hadn’t had access to VoxLens. “We want people to interact with a graph as much as they want, but we also don’t want them to spend an hour trying to find what the maximum is,” says Sharif. “In our study, interaction time refers to how long it takes to extract information, and that’s why reducing it is a good thing.” VoxLens can be implanted easily by data visualisation designers with a single line of code. Right now it only works for visualisations created using <a href="https://www.javascript.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">JavaScript</a> libraries – such as <a href="https://d3js.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">D3</a>, <a href="https://www.chartjs.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">chart.js</a> or <a href="https://www.google.com.au/sheets/about/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Google Sheets</a> – but the team is working towards expanding to other popular platforms. “This work is part of a much larger agenda for us – removing bias in design,” adds co-senior author Katharina Reinecke, associate professor in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering at UW. “When we build technology, we tend to think of people who are like us and who have the same abilities as we do. “For example, D3 has really revolutionised access to visualisations online and improved how people can understand information. But there are values ingrained in it and people are left out. It’s really important that we start thinking more about how to make technology useful for everybody.”  <img id="cosmos-post-tracker" style="opacity: 0; height: 1px!important; width: 1px!important; border: 0!important; position: absolute!important; z-index: -1!important;" src="https://syndication.cosmosmagazine.com/?id=193459&title=Data+visualisations+made+more+accessible+to+screen+reader+users" width="1" height="1" />  <div id="contributors"> <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/technology/voxlens-accessibility-screen-readers/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">This article</a> was originally published on <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cosmos Magazine</a> and was written by <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/contributor/imma-perfetto" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Imma Perfetto</a>. Imma Perfetto is a science writer at Cosmos. She has a Bachelor of Science with Honours in Science Communication from the University of Adelaide. Image: Getty Images </div>

Technology

How QR codes work and what makes them dangerous – a computer scientist explains

Among the many changes brought about by the pandemic is the widespread use of QR codes, graphical representations of digital data that can be printed and later scanned by a smartphone or other device. QR codes have a <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2021/03/25/how-the-pandemic-saved-the-qr-code-from-extinction/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wide range of uses</a> that help people avoid contact with objects and close interactions with other people, including for sharing <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/21/qr-codes-have-replaced-restaurant-menus-industry-experts-say-it-isnt-a-fad.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">restaurant menus</a>, email list sign-ups, car and home sales information, and checking in and out of medical and professional appointments. QR codes are a close cousin of the bar codes on product packaging that cashiers scan with infrared scanners to let the checkout computer know what products are being purchased. Bar codes store information along one axis, horizontally. QR codes store information in both vertical and horizontal axes, which allows them to hold significantly more data. That extra amount of data is what makes QR codes so versatile. Anatomy of a QR code While it is easy for people to read Arabic numerals, it is hard for a computer. Bar codes encode alphanumeric data as a series of black and white lines of various widths. At the store, bar codes record the set of numbers that specify a product’s ID. Critically, data stored in bar codes is redundant. Even if part of the bar code is destroyed or obscured, it is still possible for a device to read the product ID. QR codes are designed to be scanned using a camera, such as those found on your smartphone. QR code scanning is built into many camera apps for Android and iOS. QR codes are most often used to store web links; however, they can store arbitrary data, such as text or images. When you scan a QR code, the QR reader in your phone’s camera deciphers the code, and the resulting information triggers an action on your phone. If the QR code holds a URL, your phone will present you with the URL. Tap it, and your phone’s default browser will open the webpage. QR codes are composed of several parts: data, position markers, quiet zone and optional logos. <figure class="align-center zoomable"><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451140/original/file-20220309-17-1jkfl5t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451140/original/file-20220309-17-1jkfl5t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451140/original/file-20220309-17-1jkfl5t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451140/original/file-20220309-17-1jkfl5t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451140/original/file-20220309-17-1jkfl5t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451140/original/file-20220309-17-1jkfl5t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451140/original/file-20220309-17-1jkfl5t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451140/original/file-20220309-17-1jkfl5t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" alt="a black-and-white pattern with four numerical markers attached to arrows pointing to portions of the pattern" /></a><figcaption>The QR code anatomy: data (1), position markers (2), quiet zone (3) and optional logos (4). Scott Ruoti, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CC BY-ND</a></figcaption></figure> The data in a QR code is a series of dots in a square grid. Each dot represents a one and each blank a zero in binary code, and the patterns encode sets of numbers, letters or both, including URLs. At its smallest this grid is 21 rows by 21 columns, and at its largest it is 177 rows by 177 columns. In most cases, QR codes use black squares on a white background, making the dots easy to distinguish. However, this is not a strict requirement, and QR codes can use any color or shape for the dots and background. Position markers are squares placed in a QR code’s top-left, top-right, and bottom-left corners. These markers let a smartphone camera or other device orient the QR code when scanning it. QR codes are surrounded by blank space, the quiet zone, to help the computer determine where the QR code begins and ends. QR codes can include an optional logo in the middle. Like barcodes, QR codes are designed with data redundancy. Even if as much as 30% of the QR code is destroyed or difficult to read, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-a-qr-code?op=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the data can still be recovered</a>. In fact, logos are not actually part of the QR code; they cover up some of the QR code’s data. However, due to the QR code’s redundancy, the data represented by these missing dots can be recovered by looking at the remaining visible dots. Are QR codes dangerous? QR codes are not inherently dangerous. They are simply a way to store data. However, just as it can be hazardous to click links in emails, visiting URLs stored in QR codes can also be risky in several ways. The QR code’s URL can take you to a phishing website that tries to <a href="https://www.ic3.gov/Media/Y2022/PSA220118" target="_blank" rel="noopener">trick you</a> into entering your username or password for another website. The URL could take you to a legitimate website and trick that website into doing something harmful, such as giving an attacker access to your account. While such an attack requires a flaw in the website you are visiting, such vulnerabilities are <a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Glossary/Cross-site_scripting" target="_blank" rel="noopener">common on the internet</a>. The URL can take you to a malicious website that tricks another website you are logged into on the same device to take an unauthorized action. A malicious URL could open an application on your device and cause it to take some action. Maybe you’ve seen this behavior when you clicked a Zoom link, and the Zoom application opened and automatically joined a meeting. While such behavior is ordinarily benign, an attacker could use this to trick some apps into revealing your data. It is critical that when you open a link in a QR code, you ensure that the URL is safe and comes from a trusted source. Just because the QR code has a logo you recognize doesn’t mean you should click on the URL it contains. There is also a slight chance that the app used to scan the QR code could contain a vulnerability that allows <a href="https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-protect-yourself-from-malicious-qr-codes-2487772" target="_blank" rel="noopener">malicious QR codes to take over your device</a>. This attack would succeed by just scanning the QR code, even if you don’t click the link stored in it. To avoid this threat, you should use trusted apps provided by the device manufacturer to scan QR codes and avoid downloading custom QR code apps.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/177217/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /> <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/scott-ruoti-1318954" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Scott Ruoti</a>, Assistant Professor of Computer Science, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-tennessee-688" target="_blank" rel="noopener">University of Tennessee</a> This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-qr-codes-work-and-what-makes-them-dangerous-a-computer-scientist-explains-177217" target="_blank" rel="noopener">original article</a>. Image: Getty Images

Technology

“Cowardly and shameful”: Dan Andrews slams vicious QR code attack

An employee at a Melbourne bookstore has been assaulted after asking a customer to check in using a QR code. The owner of the Dymocks store on Collins Street says it was one of three incidents of aggression aimed at staff over COVID-19 compliance on Friday alone. Security footage of the attack shows the worker being shoved at the top of an escalator, before he collides with a railing and appears to fall back on his head. Franchisee Dino Traverso told 7 News that the employee was knocked out by the impact. “It’s very fortunate he’s not more seriously injured,” he said. The employee was left “pretty shaken” by the incident, but has since returned to work. Mr Traverso said the customer appeared to have a vaccination certificate, despite reacting angrily when asked to check in. As a result of the increasing number of attacks on staff, the store has increased its security arrangements, and Victoria Police says an investigation into the incident is ongoing. Premier Daniel Andrews said that reports of staff being abused were “cowardly and shameful”, adding, “They’re just doing their job. I expect police to throw the book at anyone behaving that way.” The news comes as health authorities linked 29 cases to recent protests against vaccine mandates in Melbourne CBD. Only one case was fully vaccinated, while three had received one dose and 25 were unvaccinated. 1419 new infections were reported in Victoria on Thursday. Image: Jeff Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

News

Requiring people to check in with a QR code does not breach Australian law

Across social media platforms, people are claiming that mandatory QR code check-ins for businesses are actually, against the law. “This requirement is illegal and puts my company in a position to be sued,” claims a typical Facebook post. Among the laws cited by social media users as evidence of the illegality of QR code check-ins are certain sections of the Commonwealth Privacy Act and the constitution. Others, meanwhile have cited the Numremberg Code, as well as the Australian Disability Discrimination Act and the Biosecurity Act, to argue that a requirement in some states to present proof-of-vaccination status in order to enter businesses likewise breaks the law. But do such laws render QR code check-ins and proof-of-vaccination requirements illegal? This is what the experts have to say on the matter. QR code check-ins Online, Section 94H(1) of the Commonwealth Privacy Act is being used as a common defence for not having to display a QR code for check-in purposes. Under the provision, which was added to the act last year, employers must not dismiss employees if they refuse to download the COVIDSafe app — the federal government's widely criticised contact tracing tool that has all but been abandoned. The section does not make it illegal to require businesses to display a QR code under public health orders, nor does it relate to check-in apps introduced by state governments (such as the Service NSW and Service Victoria apps). Another law regularly referenced by those arguing against QR check-ins is Section 51.5 of the Australian Constitution which confers on the federal government the power to make laws in regards to telecommunications. This is often incorrectly interpreted to mean that only the federal government can make laws about mobile phones, and the states cannot. However, Joellen Riley Munton, former dean of the University of Sydney Law School, told Fact Check this view reflected "a weak understanding of Australian constitutional law". "Section 51 of the constitution confers a power on the Commonwealth to make laws with respect to telecommunications, but it does not rob states of their plenary powers to make all manner of laws," Dr Riley Munton said in an email. "It is just that a state law that is inconsistent with a validly made federal law will be ineffective. "In any event, the QR code requirements can easily be characterised as laws related to public health, since it is a tool to assist with contact tracing. States certainly have powers to make public health orders." Proof of Vaccinations Arguments around the legality of proof-of-vaccination requirements have been similarly debunked. The Nuremberg Code, drafted in 1947 in response to deadly medical experiments carried out by the Nazis during World War II, is commonly referenced as grounds for sidestepping vaccination requirements. But the code applies to medical experiments, not COVID-19 vaccinations, with many fact checkers having addressed claims that it renders numerous pandemic public health orders illegal. Other social media users have listed sections 4 and 6 of the Disability Discrimination Act to argue against the requirement to disclose vaccination status, either to keep a job or enter premises. However, according to Tasmania's former anti-discrimination commissioner Robin Banks, a "very important point" about the act is that it only provides protection to people with a disability. "[It] doesn't provide protection if… you don't have a disability," Ms Banks told Fact Check. Section 4 of the act merely sets out the definitions used in the act — it provides no legal argument for why an individual should not disclose vaccination status. Section 6, meanwhile, makes it unlawful to engage in indirect disability discrimination; for example, a person with a disability being required to do something with which they cannot comply. But for discrimination to have occurred, Ms Banks explained, a person must be able to prove they are less able to comply with the requirement because of their disability, and the requirement must be "unreasonable" in the circumstances. Ms Banks said this was the point at which arguments against proof-of-vaccination requirements fell flat. "Vaccination status does not readily fall within the definition of disability, nor does being unvaccinated," she said. "There is no basis that I can see that it could be argued that being unvaccinated is a disability for the purposes of the protections under disability discrimination laws." She added that "requiring a person to disclose their vaccination status may be reasonable in many circumstances as it may be a necessary part of measures needed to reduce community transmission of a deadly and highly infectious, airborne virus". Finally, Section 95 of the Biosecurity Act, which states that "force must not be used against an individual to require the individual to comply with a biosecurity measure", also had "no role to play in relation to people who refuse to disclose their vaccination status", according to Ms Banks. "It protects against use of force in respect of such failures except in specific circumstances; for example, requiring [people] to be tested for the presence of a particular human disease, to provide particular body samples, to require them to stay in a particular place, or not visit a particular place or places. "Section 95 … does not appear to be directly relevant to the question of whether or not a person's vaccination status can be sought."

Legal

Cracking the code of unbreakable phone screens

<div> <div class="copy"> Unbreakable phone screens might seem too good to be true, but some chemical engineers reckon they’ve cracked the secret, developing a new material that combines glass with nanocrystals to make a resilient screen that would produce high-quality images in phones, LEDs and computers. The breakthrough substance could even be used to make phone screens that double as solar panels. The technology revolves around <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/science/overcoming-atomic-level-perovskite-defects/" target="_blank">perovskites</a>: nanometre-sized crystals that have a range of exciting electrical properties, making them prime candidates for better solar cells, LEDs and touchscreens. While perovskites have had a few early commercial successes, their physical properties have mostly stopped them from getting far out of the lab. “The stability of perovskites is the most difficult challenge which has hindered their commercialisation,” says Professor Lianzhou Wang, a materials scientist at the University of Queensland and co-author on a paper describing the research, <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="http://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abf4460" target="_blank">published</a> in Science. Lead author Dr Jingwei Hou, also from UQ, says the material is “super sensitive to almost everything – oxygen, water, gas, temperature, and even sensitive to light. “I think it’s a fantastic material, but it doesn’t really make sense if we want to use it on a solar panel, or display, if it’s sensitive to light.” The researchers have overcome this sensitivity by figuring a way to encase lead-halide perovskites in glass. “We created a lot of very small, nano-sized pores within the glass,” explains Hou. “That offers a very nice host material environment for the perovskite. “If we just put those very small nanocrystals within the pores, they will be not only stabilised against all of the external environment…it also makes the perovskite somewhere between 100 to 1000 times more efficient.” At the level of nanometres, the material resembles a chocolate chip cookie. “The perovskite nanocrystals are the chocolate chips, and the glass surrounds them,” says Hou. The material is also much more durable than normal glass. “Conventional glass is so brittle [because] it’s really dense. If you zoom in and look at the molecular structure, it’s silicon, aluminium, oxygen – very densely packed atoms,” says Hou. “Once you apply any pressure or any mechanical force to it, there’s no way to get it relaxed, and that’s what leads to the breakage of chemical bonds.” The pores, on the other hand, allow the glass to absorb more stress. “This is really a kind of platform technology,” says Hou. “The pore size can be tuned, the chemistry can be tuned. So that means it can be used to host a different type of perovskite.” In the paper, the international team of researchers – who are based at the University of Leeds and the University of Cambridge in the UK, and Université Paris-Saclay in France – demonstrate several different types of “lead halide perovskite and metal-organic framework glasses”, all of which they’ve been able to create. As well as their potential applications in screens and LEDs, the glasses could be used to make higher-quality X-ray images and more efficient solar panels. “We’re looking at trying to combine a solar panel with a display,” says Hou. “Think about mobile phones, for example – when you use it, it will become a display. When you don’t use it, put it in the sunlight, it will charge the battery. So it’s one device for two functions.” Manufacture of the material is scalable, according to Hou, and the researchers are currently looking at building prototype devices with it. “We’re really confident that we’ll be able to generate devices in the next stage,” says Hou. “We are also looking for some industrial collaborators who are really interested in bringing this exciting material into the real world.” Image credits: Shutterstock  <img id="cosmos-post-tracker" style="opacity: 0; height: 1px!important; width: 1px!important; border: 0!important; position: absolute!important; z-index: -1!important;" src="https://syndication.cosmosmagazine.com/?id=171112&title=Cracking+the+code+of+unbreakable+phone+screens" alt="" width="1" height="1" />  </div> <div id="contributors"> This article was originally published on <a rel="noopener" href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/technology/materials/unbreakable-phone-screens/" target="_blank">cosmosmagazine.com</a> and was written by Ellen Phiddian. </div> </div>

Technology

What the code words and phrases used by cabin crew really mean

Most cabin crew members converse with each other in an interesting way to not alert passengers to their conversations. Flying doctor Ben MacFarlane has spent a lot of time on planes, and has become privy to the unique ways cabin crew discuss parts of the job while in the air. Many of their phrases would seem like gibberish to the average flyer, but once you know what keywords to look out for, they all start to make sense. Here are just a few of the phrases cabin crew have decoded for the flying doctor, as he told <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-9965305/Is-Tom-Cruise-board-crack-cabin-crew-code-hear-holiday-flights.html">MailOnline</a>. “Is Tom Cruise on board?” If you ever hear cabin crew use this phrase, it is actually not linked to the famous movie star being a passenger. Instead, it refers to the identical pots of tea and coffee on the meal service trolleys, and helps staff identify which pot is which. As Ben says, “If 'Tom Cruise is on board' then crew are following T&C positions that day.” “Tea, Tom, is in the pot on the left of the cart. Coffee, Cruise, is in the identical pot on the right. Simples.” “Do you want to sing or dance?” This phrase refers to the safety demonstration at the beginning of a flight. “Some crew like to have the microphone and read out the words of the PA,” said Ben. “Others prefer to stand in the cabin doing the actions with the seat belt and life jacket.” “Pick the PA role and you sing. Do the demo and you dance.” “Have you found Bob yet?” This phrase is more likely to be heard on a long haul flight when cabin crew have more time on their hands. Bob is not an individual person, but rather refers to the Best On Board. According to the flying doctor, “Every cabin crew member looks for theirs: the most beautiful woman or hottest guy they fancy the most.” “That’s my ABP” ABP is cabin crew code for an Able-Bodied Person. Cabin crew often earmark a strong, able-bodied person to help in case of an emergency landing. This person may be asked to organise passengers in a calm and orderly queue while waiting for emergency aids. “I’m off to the coffins” This doesn’t refer to actual coffins, but a designated sleeping zone for cabin crew during a longer flight. “Following a ‘crew rest rota’, flight attendants punch a secret code into a secret door, climb the ladder and find half a dozen bunks built into the ceiling above the economy cabin,” says Ben. “Have we met?” This doesn’t refer to introducing yourself, but rather to passenger’s seat belts being buckled for landing. “If one flight attendant is checking the cabin from front to back and the other is going from back to front, they have to say out loud that they've 'met' in the middle.” This then indicates that the plane is ready to make a safe landing. Have you ever heard these phrases used while flying? Let us know! Image credit: Shutterstock

Travel Trouble

Can COVID vaccines affect my genetic code?

The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are set to become the mainstay of Australia’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout as the year progresses, according to the latest government projections <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-23/gov-projects-little-need-for-astrazeneca-after-october-covid19/100239442">released this week</a>. <a href="https://www.health.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/2021/06/covid-19-vaccination-covid-vaccination-allocations-horizons.pdf">From September</a>, up to an average 1.3m doses of the Pfizer vaccine plus another 125,000 doses of the yet-to-be approved Moderna vaccine are expected to be available per week. These figures are set to rise from October, as use of the AstraZeneca vaccine drops. Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are mRNA vaccines, which contain tiny fragments of the genetic material known as “messenger ribonucleic acid”. And if social media is anything to go by, <a href="https://twitter.com/AJ19803/status/1334476726022385666">some people</a> are concerned these vaccines can affect their genetic code. Here’s why the chances of that happening are next to zero and some pointers to how the myth came about. Remind me, how do mRNA vaccines work? The technology used in the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines is a way of giving your cells temporary instructions to make the <a href="https://theconversation.com/revealed-the-protein-spike-that-lets-the-2019-ncov-coronavirus-pierce-and-invade-human-cells-132183">coronavirus spike protein</a>. This protein is found on the surface of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The vaccines teach your immune system to protect you if you ever encounter the virus. The mRNA in the vaccine is taken up by the cells in your body, ending up in the liquid inside each cell known as the cytoplasm. Our cells naturally make <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3941114/">thousands of our own mRNAs</a> all the time (to code for a range of other proteins). So the vaccine mRNA is just another one. Once the vaccine mRNA is in the cytoplasm it’s used to make the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. The vaccine mRNA is <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-mrna-the-messenger-molecule-thats-been-in-every-living-cell-for-billions-of-years-is-the-key-ingredient-in-some-covid-19-vaccines-158511">short-lived</a> and is rapidly broken down after it’s done its job, as happens with all your other mRNA. <a rel="noopener" href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408058/original/file-20210624-13-1w14e5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip" target="_blank"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408058/original/file-20210624-13-1w14e5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" alt="Typical mammalian cell, showing different parts, such as nucleus and cytoplasm" /></a> Vaccine mRNA is in the cytoplasm and once it’s done its job, it’s broken down. Here’s why the mRNA can’t insert into your genetic code Your genetic code is made up of a different, but related, molecule to the vaccine mRNA, known as DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid. And mRNA can’t insert itself into your DNA for two reasons. One, both molecules have a different chemistry. If mRNAs could routinely insert themselves into your DNA at random, this would play havoc with how you produce proteins. It would also scramble your genome, which is passed on to future cells and generations. Life forms that do this would not survive. That’s why life has evolved for this not to happen. The second reason is vaccine mRNA and DNA are in two different parts of the cell. Our DNA stays in the nucleus. But vaccine mRNA goes straight to the cytoplasm, never entering the nucleus. There are no transporter molecules we know of that carry mRNA into the nucleus. But aren’t there some exceptions? There are some extremely rare exceptions. One is where genetic elements, known as <a href="https://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/transposons-the-jumping-genes-518/">retro-transposons</a>, hijack cellular mRNA, convert it into DNA and insert that DNA back into your genetic material. This has occurred sporadically <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nrg2640">throughout evolution</a>, producing some ancient copies of mRNAs scattered throughout our genome, to form so-called <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41576-019-0196-1">pseudogenes</a>. Some <a href="https://www.genome.gov/genetics-glossary/Retrovirus">retroviruses</a>, such as HIV, also insert their RNA into our DNA, using similar methods to retro-transposons. However, there is a vanishingly small chance of a naturally occurring retro-transposon becoming active in a cell that has just received a mRNA vaccine. There’s also a vanishingly small chance of being infected with HIV at precisely the same time as receiving the mRNA vaccine. <a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408059/original/file-20210624-29-gcexgw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408059/original/file-20210624-29-gcexgw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" alt="Blood sample labelled with HIV - Test" /></a> There’s a vanishingly small chance of being infected with HIV at precisely the same time as having an mRNA vaccine. Even if a retro-transposon were to become active or a virus such as HIV were present, the chances of it finding the COVID vaccine mRNA, among the tens of thousands of natural mRNAs, is extremely unlikely. That’s because vaccine mRNA is degraded within <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18797453/">several hours</a> of entering the body. Even if vaccine mRNA did become a pseudogene, it would not produce the SARS-CoV-2 virus, but just one of the viral products, the harmless spike protein. How do we actually know this? We know of no studies looking for vaccine mRNA in the DNA of people who have been vaccinated. There is no scientific basis on which to suspect this insertion has happened. However, if these studies were to be carried out, they should be relatively straightforward. That’s because we can now <a href="https://cellandbioscience.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13578-019-0314-y">sequence DNA in single cells</a>. But in reality, it will be very hard to ever satisfy a naysayer who is convinced this genome insertion happens; they can always argue scientists need to look deeper, harder, in different people and in different cells. At some point this argument will need to be laid to rest. So how did this myth come about? <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2105968118">One study</a> reported evidence for coronavirus RNA integrating into the human genome in cells grown in the lab that had been infected with SARS-CoV-2. However, that paper did not look at the mRNA vaccine, lacked critical controls and <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.05.434119v1">has</a> <a rel="noopener" href="https://doi.org/10.1128/JVI.00294-21" target="_blank">since been discredited</a>. These types of studies also need to be seen in context of the public’s wariness of genetic technology more broadly. This includes <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nbt1099_941d" target="_blank">the public’s concerns</a> about genetically modified organisms (GMOs), for instance, over the past 20 years or so. But GMOs are different to the mRNA technology used to make COVID vaccines. Unlike GMOs, which are produced by inserting DNA into the genome, vaccine mRNA will not be in our genes or passed to the next generation. It’s broken down very quickly. In reality, mRNA technology has <a href="https://theconversation.com/3-mrna-vaccines-researchers-are-working-on-that-arent-covid-157858">all sorts of</a> <a href="https://www.wired.co.uk/article/mrna-vaccine-revolution-katalin-kariko">applications</a>, beyond vaccines, including biosecurity and sustainable agriculture. So it would be a pity for these efforts to be held back by misinformation. <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/archa-fox-1153308">Archa Fox</a>, Associate Professor and ARC Future Fellow, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/the-university-of-western-australia-1067">The University of Western Australia</a>; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/jen-martin-17007">Jen Martin</a>, Leader, Science Communication Teaching Program, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/the-university-of-melbourne-722">The University of Melbourne</a>, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/traude-beilharz-1240711">Traude Beilharz</a>, Assoc Professor ARC Future Fellow, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/monash-university-1065">Monash University</a> This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a rel="noopener" href="https://theconversation.com/can-the-pfizer-or-moderna-mrna-vaccines-affect-my-genetic-code-162590" target="_blank">original article</a>.

Body

Woman placed false QR check-in codes to spread anti-vax message

A Queensland woman has been charged after reportedly entering a country bar and displaying signs with fake QR codes that directed patrons to anti-vaccination sites. Customers were left confused when they tried to register their attendance at the Wondai drinking hole in May and instead found themselves being warned about the dangers of vaccination programs. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> So a woman in QLD was charged with putting fake QR code’s in a pub which directed patrons to an anti-vaccination website… she was charged not only for this but for also possessing dangerous drugs and drug utensils… <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/COVIDIOT?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#COVIDIOT</a> <a href="https://t.co/WiaSC9mvPC">pic.twitter.com/WiaSC9mvPC</a> — Mr Mister Jan (@Disco_box) <a href="https://twitter.com/Disco_box/status/1409691423545315332?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 29, 2021</a></blockquote> "It will be alleged she placed a number of false QR check-in codes around the premises," police told AAP. The woman, 43, has been charged with common nuisance, possessing dangerous drugs and possessing drug utensils. <img style="width: 500px; height: 281.25px;" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/7842090/qr-code-3.jpg" alt="" data-udi="umb://media/40d074ce7ddd4d4fad40797e1116344c" /> These alleged offences happened on May 16, in the rural town of Wondai in the South Burnett region. The woman is due to face the Murgon Magistrates Court on Tuesday. Images: Shutterstock

Legal

Former Coles employee reveals little-known code on sales tickets

A former Coles worker has shed some light on the meaning behind a secret code on the bottom of sales tickets. Ex-employee of ten years Jarrah shared the news while responding to a Coles customer who was excited by some reduced potatoes. Shopper Teagan had posted by the bargain but had no idea how long the marked-down potatoes would last before going off. “Cheap spuds!” she wrote on the <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/Markdownaddictsaustralia/" target="_blank" class="editor-rtflink">Markdown Addicts Australia</a> page. “Not sure for how long though.” Jarrah commented explaining how you can figure it out. “Judging by the discount tag [it’s] 07/10,” he wrote. “Bottom right of all yellow tags gives the end date.” <img style="width: 500px; height:281.25px;" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/7838201/coles-spuds.jpg" alt="" data-udi="umb://media/68fa8d28269048098d074a167127280f" /> <div class="post_body_wrapper"> <div class="post_body"> <div class="body_text "> He added: “Joys of being an ex-employee of 10 years!” Teagan was stoked by the information. “Pretty good! I’ll definitely keep the trick in mind for the next specials.” </div> </div> </div>

Food & Wine

Eagle-eyed shopper reveals secret meaning behind code on ALDI packaging

<div class="post_body_wrapper"> <div class="post_body"> <div class="body_text "> An eagle-eyed ALDI shopper has found a little known fact on the back of several supermarket goods. She shared the findings on the popular Facebook group ALDI Mums and pointed out an easy-to-miss code on the back of ALDI's seafood products that provides information about which country and region the fish originated from. Australian products are required to have location details on the packs, but the extra known detail allows customers to source even more information. All you have to do is flip your ALDI seafood item over and locate a number and use the digits to look up the information. “I know seafood gets a bad call out,” the shopper posted to the group. “I just wanted to share something with you all that I learnt and hopefully it will solve all the ‘do you know where your fish comes from’ dramas.” She went on to explain that each box has a “code” for the fish area/catchment area it is caught. “You can then look it up to know which areas your fish has come from and what practices they use.” The shopper shared an image of her seafood buy, sharing the code "FAO 81", which reveals the catchment covers a significant part of the Southwest Pacific. “Hope this helps everyone in the future,” she wrote. Many of the Facebook members thanked the woman for sharing her handy tip. “That’s great info! Thanks for sharing,” one person wrote. “This is so helpful, thank you,” said another. “Very useful information thanks for sharing,” a third commented, while a woman added, “Very interesting. I looked it up on Google. Great how it shows the world areas.” The original poster explained that she understands that the German supermarket chain is making "great progress to be sustainable, responsible and accountable". “Personally, I don’t buy non-Australian and was pleasantly surprised to see this info.” </div> </div> </div>

Home Hints & Tips

Government orders mandatory code of conduct for Google and Facebook

The government has told the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to develop a mandatory code of conduct to address bargaining power imbalances between media companies and digital platforms such as Facebook and Google - and the question of payment for content. Earlier the ACCC was directed by the government to facilitate a voluntary code. But slow progress and the impact on the media of the coronavirus have convinced the government of the need for more urgent and compulsory action. In its Digital Platforms Inquiry report of last year, the ACCC identified a bargaining power imbalance between news media organisations and these large digital platforms, and recommended codes of conduct to govern commercial relationships. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Communications Minister Paul Fletcher have said in a statement the timeframe needs to be accelerated. “The Australian media sector was already under significant pressure - that has now been exacerbated by a sharp decline in advertising revenue driven by coronavirus,” the ministers say. “At the same time, while discussions between the parties have been taking place, progress on a voluntary code has been limited, according to recent advice provided by the ACCC”. The ministers say the ACCC considers it unlikely any voluntary agreement would be reached on the key issue of payment for content. The code will cover data sharing, ranking and display of news content, and the monetisation and the sharing of revenue generated from news. It will also include enforcement, penalty and binding dispute resolution mechanisms. The ACCC will release a draft before the end of July, and the government wants the code finalised soon after that. The University of Canberra’s 2019 Digital News Report said the majority of surveyed consumers who access news online get this news via indirect methods, such as social media, news aggregators, email newsletters and mobile alerts. According to Nielsen Panel Data for February 2019, Google search had a unique audience of 19.7 million in Australia, and Facebook had a unique audience of 17.6 million. Written by Michelle Grattan. Republished with permission of <a href="https://theconversation.com/government-orders-mandatory-code-of-conduct-for-google-facebook-136694">The Conversation.</a>

Art

He’s human after all: Federer slapped with code violation

The star can speak eight different languages, and now one of them has gotten him in trouble. Roger Federer faced off with a lineswoman on Tuesday after he was penalised for swearing on court during a thrilling five-set match at the Australian Open. The atmosphere was tense in Melbourne as the 20-time major winner trailed unseeded American Tennys Sandgren at Melbourne Park. During the third game of the third set, Federer began to become visibly frustrated as he swore on the court after hitting the net on a return shot. The commentators revealed that the tennis champion – who speaks eight languages – said an “R-rated German word.” Chair umpire Marijana Veljovic called a code violation for an “audible obscenity”, something the 38-year-old wasn’t expecting. “What did I say?” asked Federer, completely shocked as to how she understood him. Veljovic, who is Serbian, replied: “I can’t repeat that,” before saying that she heard him “very clearly.” A furious Federer then walked over to confront the lineswoman, before walking back to Veljovic who stood firmly on her decision. He then requested a medical timeout before returning to the court to hold serve. Speaking at the post-match press conference after a stunning victory, Federer, who was now much more relaxed admitted to swearing in two different languages. “It was a mix. Clearly she [the lineswoman] speaks mixed. Didn’t know that,” he said. “Next time I got to check the linespeople.” Federer, who was born in Basel, Switzerland, is fluent in German, French and English, and can also speak some Swedish, Spanish and Italian.

News

Australian building codes don't expect houses to be fire-proof

More than <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-51015536">2,000 homes</a> have been destroyed in Australia since the start of the bushfire season. More will certainly be destroyed before the season ends in March. Could these houses have been built to better withstand fire? Quite probably. But that doesn’t necessarily mean Australia’s building regulations need reforming to ensure homes are made more fireproof. Appropriate building codes are about weighing costs and benefits. Only analysing the reasons buildings were destroyed will tell us if more needs to be done. Performances standards Not all buildings are created equal. Newer buildings will generally be more fire-proof than older ones, due to building regulations having been improved over time. In particular, national building requirements for residences in bushfire-prone areas were improved after the 2009 “Black Saturday” bushfires in Victoria, in which 173 people died and more 2,000 homes were destroyed. Buildings are regulated by states and territories but governments have recognised the value of nationally consistent building codes through the National Construction Code. This code, among other things, sets minimum standards for the design and construction of new buildings on bushfire-prone land. (What land is deemed “bushfire prone” is defined by state and territory legislation.) The National Construction Code is “performance-based”. It doesn’t specify how a building must be built, but how a building must perform. This means innovative designs, materials and construction methods can be readily approved. A residential building on bushfire-prone land, the code states, must be designed and constructed to “reduce the risk” of ignition from a bushfire, appropriate to the risk from bushfire flames, burning embers, radiant heat and intensity of the bushfire attack. The risk to which a building is expected to be exposed depends on the individual site and conditions such as vegetation type and density, and slope of land. Properties are assessed and given a “Bushfire Attack Level” (BAL) rating by inspectors. There are six BAL levels that classify the severity of potential exposure to bushfire. The highest – BAL FZ – is for buildings exposed to an extreme risk, such as a house surrounded by trees that could produce direct contact from flames. Lower BAL levels take into account risks from burning debris, ember attack and radiant heat. The lowest deems the risk insufficient to warrant any specific construction requirements. Construction details for each BAL cover building elements such as floors, walls, roofs, doors, windows, vents, roof drainage systems, verandahs, and water and gas supply pipes. For example, fire-resistant timber may be required for floor framing, or windows may be required to use toughened glass. Balancing competing interests Are the requirements of the National Construction Code good enough? If the aim is to minimise the number of buildings damaged or destroyed in extreme fire events, the answer is no. But that’s not the aim. Like most government regulation, the code requirements are about balancing competing interests. All building regulations are subject to cost-benefit analysis. They must demonstrate a “net cost benefit” to the community – that the cost of compliance will be less than the benefit delivered to the general community. It’s a cold calculation about the risk and potential cost of homes being destroyed in bushfires versus the more certain costs involved in requiring all homes to be built to more stringent building codes. Government policy treats potential property loss as a matter for owners to address through property insurance. There’s no reason to expect this to change any time soon. Learning from experience If the cost of building destruction in bushfires turned out to be greater than the cost of more stringent building requirements, there would be a strong rationale to improve the regulations. This is why post-fire analysis is so important. A prime example is the royal commission into the causes and costs of the Black Saturday fires. The commission’s <a href="http://royalcommission.vic.gov.au/Commission-Reports/Final-Report.html">final report</a> made a number of recommendations for changes to the National Construction Code. These included new provisions to: <ul> <li>make protection from ember attack a performance requirement</li> <li>address the design and construction of private (underground) bushfire emergency shelters</li> <li>include design and construction requirements for non-residential buildings, such as schools and aged-care centres, in bushfire-prone areas.</li> </ul> All governments agreed to the first two recommendations, which were promptly implemented in the National Construction Code (in 2010). The recommendation about non-residential building was not implemented at the time because governments considered that planning laws would not allow these types of buildings to be built in a bushfire-prone area. However, the 2019-2020 business plan of the Australian Building Codes Board (which administers the National Construction Code, includes a “bushfire provisions for non-residential buildings” project, so it is reasonable to expect changes to the code in future. This season’s fires may also provide impetus for other changes to the construction code. One key factor that will be worthy of research is the age of the buildings destroyed. Depending on how many homes lost were built after 2010, it might be argued that changes made after the 2009 Victorian fire have been insufficient to keep up with evolving conditions.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/129540/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /> <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/raymond-william-loveridge-924307">Raymond William Loveridge</a>, Adjunct Professor - School of Built Environment, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-technology-sydney-936">University of Technology Sydney</a> This article is republished from <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-building-codes-dont-expect-houses-to-be-fire-proof-and-thats-by-design-129540">original article</a>.

Retirement Income

Sam Armytage and David Koch reveal the secret code they use live on air

Sunrise hosts David Koch and Sam Armytage have revealed the hidden cues they use to talk to their executive producer Michael Pell while live on television. “I like Michael talking in my ear when we’re on air,” Armytage told <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/tv/morning-shows/sunrise-hosts-reveal-their-secret-onset-signals/news-story/53b1dbc94b6df0e4eba066aa5b54b3f3" target="_blank">news.com.au</a>. “I like to know where we’re going.” However, Koch explained that Pell’s comments can be “colourful” at times. “We might have an interview and Michael’s going (in our ears), ‘This is boring as bats**t! Get out of this quickly,’” Koch told news.com.au. “Sam and I are sitting on air going (to the guest), ‘That’s really interesting, thanks so much for that, it’s been a delight to have you on.’ And Michael’s saying, ‘F**k them off!’” “Look, I’m not tactful,” Pell joked in response to Koch’s comment. “I like to have a very casual and colourful environment and I think that helps with the energy, that helps with making it fun.” <blockquote style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/B5bYboqnBBi/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="12"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"></div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"></div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"></div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"></div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"></div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B5bYboqnBBi/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank">A post shared by Michael Pell (@michaeljpell)</a> on Nov 28, 2019 at 3:38pm PST </div> </blockquote> Pell, who has been the executive producer of the show since 2010, explained that Armytage and Koch use one and two finger gestures to tell the producer how many questions are left for their guest. “During an interview I’ll say (to the hosts), ‘Do you want another question (for the guest)?’” Pell told news.com.au. “They then signal physically through the camera to me which I’m watching in the control room.” Pell also said that the reason that their show is beating Today in the ratings is that there has been “little change” in their lineup over the years. <blockquote style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/BzVGCTgHoJf/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="12"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"></div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"></div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"></div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"></div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"></div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <a style="color: #000; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BzVGCTgHoJf/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank">Logies 2019 🍾🥂📺 @sunriseon7</a> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">A post shared by <a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/michaeljpell/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank"> Michael Pell</a> (@michaeljpell) on Jun 30, 2019 at 2:54am PDT </div> </blockquote> “I’m quite surprised at how all of that’s gone down with that show,” Sunrise’s Michael Pell said about Today in an interview <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/tv/morning-shows/sunrise-boss-blasts-nine-the-audience-doesnt-like-a-company-that-treats-people-badly/news-story/febd1b6d6eff8be801ad3456e6f7f96e" target="_blank">with news.com.au earlier</a>. “Not to talk too much about them, but I’ve never seen that many people sacked that quickly for no apparent reason. “I think the audience is punishing them for that still,” Pell said about Nine’s everchanging lineup on Today. “The audience doesn’t like a company that treats people badly. “On our side of the fence, there’s been very little change in what we’ve done for many years and I think people appreciate that.”

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