Academia.edu

Having an interest in such things ... I was delighted to see this book about Microfossils available as a free download: **LINK**

https://www.academia.edu/10216396/MICROFOSSIL-BRAISER

However ... I was surprised [nay, shocked] when I clicked the

Download with Google button

This invites you to sign-in with your gmail address ... and then [a couple of layers down] warns that:

________________________

This app wants permission to:

• See and make a copy of your Google Contacts

  Your contacts may include the names, phone numbers, addresses and other info about the people that you know.

________________________

Which seems rather a big price to pay

MichaelG.

Absolutely unacceptable! Gurgle = spawn of Satan!

If one of your contacts were to experience something unpleasant as a result of contact details being released, who is legally responsible for the privacy breach - you or Gurgle?

A 'temporary' email account, with no contacts, etc. is useful...

If you look at the 'permissions' required by most Android (another of Gurgle's data-mining methods) apps, you really can't download any without a degree of fear.

Edited By Kiwi Bloke on 02/04/2020 10:14:34

A fool and his web contacts are easily parted.

Regards Ian.

In case it’s not obvious from my original post ...

I did NOT ‘Download with Google’

This thread is simply a warning to others

MichaelG.

So is mine.

Regards Ian.

Surely this isn't google to blame here - they already have all that info in your contacts. It is the different provider of the app who want to mine the info who are targeting the google info because they know it is where valuable info is.

How about generating a gmail address as a one time throwaway for this sort of request?

I have long thought that if emails were charged at 1p the cost for a normal user would be minimal but the use for indiscriminate spam shots would be crippling.

It’s worth having an email for shops and sites that demand one to enter and a private one for serious use that should stay spam free ish

Mike

Edited By Mike Poole on 02/04/2020 13:37:45

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Agreed ... As I wrote originally, Google warned me that the third party wanted to access my Contacts.

On the other hand : Google must be in some way complicit.

MichaelG.

I joined academia.edu to read some papers a friend had written on the cold war (bunkers and suchlike). I wish I hadn't, they bombard me with spam. Unsubscribing has had no effect so they are consigned to the blocked filter now.

what is your interest in microfossils Michael?

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Just general fascination ... and that happens to be considered the most ‘accessible’ text on the subject.

My main interest these days is probably microscopes and microscopy.

MichaelG.

Certainly a fascinating subject, have you been able to observe microfossils at home? I have spent a long time preparing microfossil slides and taking photographs - many years ago now. It even landed me in hospital at one point

Not yet, I’m afraid, Andrew ... Hence my interest in the book.

Could you perhaps share a few of your photos ?

MichaelG.

Hi Guys,

The download is also a dangerous PDF file. I feel sorry for Wins users.

.

Thanks for that ^^^

It all makes one wonder how they managed to get the address academia.edu

... A fink is still a fink by any other name, I guess.

MichaelG.

There you go Michael **LINK**

These are taken 25 years ago - I have digital copies of these but on old zip disks I can no longer read. Apologies for the photo quality, I used my mobile phone to photograph existing printed photographs.

All these are organic microfossils. These are dinoflagellates, foraminifera linings, scolecodont and plant spores from the Cretaceous chalks in Ireland and from oil exploration cores in the seas around Ireland. Plus an acritarch from the Silurian in Shropshire. The scale is shown by the black line which is 10 microns. All these rocks formed in the sea, the plant spores would have been washed in via rivers from land.

The black looking one is actually a plant spore from the Carboniferous of Ireland - the reason I added it is because that is what happens to organic matter when it is under high pressure and temperature when the rock is buried under many kilometers for millions of years. Certain pressures turn the organic matter to crude oil, even more pressure it becomes gas and even more any hydrocarbons are destroyed. Hence the colour of organic matter in rocks is important and widely used in oil exploration - if its not dark enough there is no chance of oil, so no point in looking, if its black then its the same thing. The microfossils are also used to help date and correlate rocks and are often the only thing you can distinguish in cored rock from an oil exploration well and often exist in vast numbers in the right rock types. So microfossils have a very practical use!

What's your basis for that, John?

I downloaded it and scanned it here with AVG and Bitdefender .... negative.

I then had it scanned with multiple engines at VirusTotal .... negative.

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Many thanks, Andrew ... I was immediately intrigued by the acritarch : not only for its appearance, but because the word is new to me.

A few moments searching found me this : **LINK**

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/GeolSci/micropal/acritarch.html

... Which should make interesting background reading

[ The opening paragraph gives a sense of adventure already ]

MichaelG.

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Edit: The content of that UCL site is extensive, and nicely arranged

... the inquisitive  might want to start here

 https://www.ucl.ac.uk/GeolSci/micropal/index.html

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 03/04/2020 08:29:08