Letters : It's a crime
London
If someone with lock-picking skills were to use them to enter the home of
Mark Ward (“Sabotage in Cyberspace”, 14 September, p 12) and went on to delete
important files, extract personal details from his computer and make long
distance calls on his telephone to premium-rate porn lines, I suspect he would
have no difficulty labelling that person what he is: a criminal. However, if the
same is done remotely by a hacker, Ward would have us believe the person is
merely seeking an “intellectual thrill”.
Modern computer networks and communications systems offer incredible
flexibility and sophisticated facilities to serve legitimate users. However, as
Robert Clark of University College London rightly observed (Letters, 31 August,
p 46) that very flexibility means that such systems are inevitably never
perfectly secure.
Most users are responsible enough not to subvert the technology deliberately,
recognising the damage and the inconvenience such actions could cause. It may
well be that the threat to national security from hackers is indeed “overblown”,
as Ward alleges in his article, but that is no excuse for attempts to justify
hackers as some breed of public-spirited cyber-helper.
If hackers have “more potential than any other group to bring about social
change” then experience shows that such change will be overwhelmingly damaging
and negative. It is not a better society which obliges people to fit triple
locks, alarms and to use surveillance systems to keep out irresponsible and
unwelcome intruders.
The truth is, as Ward’s article ultimately admitted, that hackers are
generally pitiable social misfits, lacking any conscience or sense of social
responsibility. Their actions are typical of teenage vandals driven by an urge
to show off and demonstrate to their peers how apparently “clever” they are at
taking advantage of the system, regardless of the costs to others who have to
deal with the consequences of their vandalism.
I have yet to hear of any “ethical hackers”. The term is an evident oxymoron.
Let’s give such people the “cybervandal” label they really deserve.
Letters : False logic
Whitchurch, Shropshire
Gillian Bentley provided some interesting and informative statistics relating
to human reproduction (Forum, 31 August, p 43). However, I strongly disagree
with her argument that since “major reproductive losses occur naturally every
day” and “we . . . accept them as part of a natural process”, any human
decisions to destroy embryos or terminate pregnancies should be seen in the same
light.
I suspect she would not apply the same argument to human beings after birth.
After all, people die of natural causes at all ages, but it is not generally
considered acceptable to kill people off because they are considered surplus,
inconvenient, diseased or in some sense defective.
Letters : Nature's aspirin
Address not supplied
With regard to the safety of alternative medicines, (Letters, 10 August, p 49
and 31 August, p 46) I find it worrying that “natural” pain relief remedies made
from willow bark are sold without mention of the fact that they contain
aspirin.
Some people who react badly to aspirin have doubtless tried these remedies as
an alternative.
Letters : Circular argument
Bombay
In his article “The day time began” (April 27, p 30), Paul Davies reiterates
the explanations for the origin of the Universe. But the question is, how can
the quantum theory, based on classical framework, be applied again to the
creation of the Universe which at first gave rise to it?
It is the observed Universe which has been the basis for the
observer-entangled quantum theory.
Letters : Bunny in the bin
Brisbane, Queensland
I agree that you should never wear bunny slippers at work, but they are also
a danger at home (Feedback, 31 August).
A friend used to wear them around the house, until he attracted the attention
of his half-grown Alsatian-Rottweiler cross. The end result was a few stitches,
a tetanus injection and the bunny slippers in the bin.
Letters : Biggest bird
Pearl Beach, New South Wales
I must correct Christopher Kofron on the cassowary (This Week, 7 September, p
5). It is not the largest bird in the world, though I would like Australia to
have that honour.
Landsborough Thomson’s New Dictionary of Birds states that the
ostrich is the largest bird in the world, since it is eight feet high and three
hundred and forty five pounds in weight. If my conversion of these statistics to
metric units is correct, this overtops his figure for the cassowary of 85
kilograms and 2 metres tall by a large margin.
However, he is right about the danger. I have records from New Guinea of a
man being killed in such an attack in 1964. A common belief in Australia is that
the emu is our largest bird. But the cassowary is heavier, deserving the title
of national giant.
Letters : Damned disco
Windermere, Cumbria
Your article on the new problems of radio astronomy (“Are we killing
astronomy?”, 24 August, p 28) struck a chord with this amateur astronomer.
Since April, sky watchers in southern Lakeland have suffered interference on
four nights of each week from a local disco which projects a set of laser-like
lights across the night sky as an advertisement. The beams are visible within a
radius of six or seven miles. Despite being in a national park, local
authorities have no legislation available to control this fine example of
deliberate light pollution.
Letters : . . .
Warwick House, 25 Buckingham Palace Road, London SW1W 0PP
Your readers may like to know of the joint campaign that the Council for the
Protection of Rural England and the British Astronomical Association are waging
against light pollution. I would be happy to send copies of our leaflet and
briefing paper on this to anyone who is concerned about the obliteration of dark
skies. Please could they enclose a stamped addressed envelope.
On a related issue, we have also produced tranquillity maps for every region
of England showing how that precious tranquillity has been eroded over the last
30 years. Details are also available for interested readers.
Letters : Come again
Warwick
You claim the National Journal of India reports that “the chance of
dying from an HIV infected needle injury three times a year is about 45 per
cent” (Feedback, 14 September).
Quite frankly, I am staggered. Who would have expected resurrection to be
such a common phenomenon?
Feedback writes apologetically that the chance referred to three needle
injuries a year rather than dying three times a year.
Letters : A matter of fact
Aberystwyth, Dyfed
Peter Hughes argues that the inadequacies of many A-level students stem from
teaching too many “facts” at GCSE at the expense of teaching “understanding”
(Forum, 7 September, p 45). I fear, however, that the opposite is the case;
nowadays it is an unwelcome experience to discover that many A-level students
simply do not know the relevant facts that might then help them understand many
scientific problems.
If one is to debate the question of carbon dioxide emissions from various
sources, the accuracy of the answers given depends on a knowledge of the facts.
It is a fact, for instance, that CO2 produced by internal
combustion engines derives largely from fossil fuels, and that electric cars
using fossil-derived energy are no better in this regard. Students who have not
been taught this cannot be expected to know.
As Hughes says, “controversial issues do not lend themselves to superficial
treatment and are often too complex to be dealt with adequately at GCSE level”.
It is this which explains exactly why scientific debate must be guided by the
facts, and it is the facts that must be taught to our children. Only when they
are thus armed may they reasonably be expected to develop “understanding”.
Letters : Feedback's folly
Leeds, West Yorkshire
I don’t wish to medal,
But for spelling you don’t win a meddle
You showed us your worst
On August 31st
In your piece that involved a “clutch peddle”.
Letters : . . .
Correction: In the letter (14 September, p52) from Farrol Kahn (not Kaiin),
maximum cabin altitude was wrongly given as 8000 metres rather than 8000
feet.