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More from News for Nerds - Neuro-Rights & Computer Stuff

Scientists Propose 'Neuro-Rights' to Protect Brains From Future Manipulation (reuters.com)40

Posted by EditorDavid on Sunday June 13, 2021 @04:53PM from the rights-hemisphere dept.

Slashdot reader AmiMoJo shares a report from Reuters:Scientific advances from deep brain stimulation to wearable scanners are making manipulation of the human mind increasingly possible, creating a need for laws and protections to regulate use of the new tools, top neurologists said on Thursday.

A set of "neuro-rights" should be added to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations, said Rafael Yuste, a neuroscience professor at New York's Columbia University and organizer of the Morningside Group of scientists and ethicists proposing such standards. Five rights would guard the brain against abuse from new technologies — rights to identity, free will and mental privacy along with the right of equal access to brain augmentation advances and protection from algorithmic bias, the group says.

"If you can record and change neurons, you can in principle read and write the minds of people," Yuste said during an online panel at the Web Summit, a global tech conference.

"This is not science fiction. We are doing this in lab animals successfully."

 

 

Ransomware Attack Targeted Teamsters Union in 2019. But They Just Refused to Pay (nbcnews.com)10

Posted by EditorDavid on Monday June 14, 2021 @07:34AM from the no-sales dept.

NBC reports that America's "Teamsters" labor union was hit by a ransomware attack demanding $2.5 million back in 2019.

"But unlike many of the companies hit by high-profile ransomware attacks in recent months, the union declined to pay, despite the FBI's advice to do so, three sources familiar with the previously unreported cyberattack told NBC News."Personal information for the millions of active and retired members was never compromised, according to a Teamsters spokesperson, who also said that only one of the union's two email systems was frozen along with other data. Teamsters officials alerted the FBI and asked for help in identifying the source of the attack. They were told that many similar hacks were happening and that the FBI would not be able to assist in pursuing the culprit.

The FBI advised the Teamsters to "just pay it," the first source said. "They said 'this is happening all over D.C. ... and we're not doing anything about it,'" a second source said.

Union officials in Washington were divided over whether to pay the ransom — going so far as to bargain the number down to $1.1 million, according to the sources — but eventually sided with their insurance company, which urged them not to pony up... The Teamsters decided to rebuild their systems, and 99 percent of their data has been restored from archival material — some of it from hard copies — according to the union's spokesperson.

The FBI's communications office did not reply to repeated requests for comment. The FBI's stance is to discourage ransomware payments.
NBC News draws a lesson from the fact that it took nearly two years for this story to emerge. "An unknown number of companies and organizations have been extorted without ever saying a word about it publicly."

 

 

Why Quantum Computers Won't End Up Cracking Bitcoin Wallets (cnbc.com)39

Posted by EditorDavid on Monday June 14, 2021 @03:34AM from the hashing-things-out dept.

"Within a decade, quantum computers could be powerful enough to break the cryptographic security that protects cell phones, bank accounts, email addresses and — yes — bitcoin wallets," writes CNBC.

But fortunately, that would happen only if we do nothing in the meantime, they're told by Thorsten Groetker, former Utimaco CTO "and one of the top experts in the field of quantum computing."Crypto experts told CNBC they aren't all that worried about quantum hacking of bitcoin wallets for a couple of different reasons. Castle Island Ventures founding partner Nic Carter pointed out that quantum breaks would be gradual rather than sudden. "We would have plenty of forewarning if quantum computing was reaching the stage of maturity and sophistication at which it started to threaten our core cryptographic primitives," he said. "It wouldn't be something that happens overnight."

There is also the fact that the community knows that it is coming, and researchers are already in the process of building quantum-safe cryptography. "The National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) has been working on a new standard for encryption for the future that's quantum-proof," said Fred Thiel, CEO of cryptocurrency mining specialist Marathon Digital Holdings. NIST is running that selection process now, picking the best candidates and standardizing them.

"It's a technical problem, and there's a technical solution for it," said Groetker. "There are new and secure algorithms for digital signatures. ... You will have years of time to migrate your funds from one account to another." Groetker said he expects the first standard quantum-safe crypto algorithm by 2024, which is still, as he put it, well before we'd see a quantum computer capable of breaking bitcoin's cryptography. Once a newly standardized post-quantum secure cryptography is built, Groetker said, the process of mass migration will begin. "Everyone who owns bitcoin or ethereum will transfer [their] funds from the digital identity that is secured with the old type of key, to a new wallet, or new account, that's secured with a new type of key, which is going to be secure," he said.
There will still be the problem of users who forget their password or died without sharing their key.

But in those scenarios, CNBC suggests, "an organization could lock down all accounts still using the old type of cryptography and give owners some way to access it."

Hear, hear!

I experienced a surprise, today. Hunky Husband had told me that he had called his audiologist and that he was to see her this morning. What he failed to tell me was that he had gone ahead and told her which model of hearing aids he wished to buy. Dr Combs had a set ready for him when we walked in. She took about an hour to fit them to his ears; explain how to change settings on them, manually (eventually, HH may choose to let the units change settings to the environment, automatically); go over the warranty; and go over the battery recharging and unit maintenance procedures with us. Unlike the photo, above, Dr C had chosen units that are silver in color "To go with his hair." After seeing the units behind his ears, she thought that he might like to change for dark-colored units to match the ear pieces on his glasses. I doubt that he does that.

The red band on the earbud that is shown, above, indicates that the unit fits into one's right ear. The left ear's unit has a blue band. Most of us are accustomed to having red be on the port, as in red wine, (left) side; but, in the case of the hearing aids, red is for right.

To remind HH of how to manage the settings on his hearing aids, Dr C gave him a business-card-sized instruction card - which card neither of us found very satisfactory.

 

When we got home, I incorporated the instructions into a table that is much simpler for HH to follow. Even the early stage of dementia in which HH finds himself makes it difficult for him to follow slip-shod instructions. BTW: Dr C wears hearing aids, herself, which makes communications spotty, at times. It also makes her quite empathetic to her patients.

Dr C had set the audio gains a bit low, for now, to give HH a chance to get used to the audio. Next week, she will set the gains a bit higher. As I understood it, she will adjust the gain a couple of more times during the 60-day trial period. If, at the end of the 60-day trial period HH is displeased with anything, he may ask for different equipment or get a full refund - no harm, no foul. I must say it was pleasant, today, having HH watch TV without my having to wear earplugs to protect my own hearing. I'm hoping that HH can summon the patience to get through the trial period.

Below is HH's audiogram. As with the hearing aid units, red marks pertain to the right ear. HH was surprised to see how much hearing he had lost. (He blames time spent around jet engines in working/flying in B-52s in his much younger days.) At the highest frequencies, his hearing in either ear approaches profound deafness. (I could have told him that - of course - lol.)

Today's yard work & after-effects

Yard work & observations

This morning was cool and dry enough for me to be able to get some yard work done. I didn't stay out very long each time, but I went out several times. Mostly, I pulled weeds; but, my greatest achievement was completion of the task of removing the root system left when the yew bush outside one of my bedroom windows died this past spring. Our freshly-sharpened axe and my rarely-used razor tooth saw were my friends. The photo (below) shows that the hole has been filled with the dirt that I had dug and piled - as shown in Weekly summary - 5/22/2021. 

Some of my neighbors appreciate having a ready source of dill weed for their cooking (at which they are much better than am I!) Last fall I seeded, with far too many seeds gathered from last year's crop, a couple of beds, of which I show one (below).

While thinking of our neighbors, I am about ready to call them over to pick cherries. Just a few more days, I think.

In going out to the previous edge of our woods to pull creepers, I saw an array of gorgeous, ruby-red jewels among the grass (below). The closeup shows one ruby-red jewel. I don't know whether the seeds came from the strawberry bed that we had (now, HH's rose garden) or from green garbage that I've buried. At any rate, the taste of these left something to be desired.

Just an update: The new Oklahoma redbud tree, the planting of which is shown in Pretty Trees, is doing great, so far. Unfortunately, the new cherry tree still hasn't shown up. (I need to call the nursery.)

Visual Disturbance

Sitting at the luncheon table across from Hunky Husband, I noticed that I couldn't really see his right eye. Admittedly, it was not entirely light in the room - we've had a lot of practice getting food into our mouths, so vision isn't really required. However, I checked to see if it was one eye or the other that had an issue and found that it made no difference which eye (or both) I used. Absent my long history of migraines and migraine equivalents (variants), I would probably have been very concerned. As I have that history, I quickly cleared my plate from the table, did a quick check for possible stroke, told HH that I thought I was having a migraine, and retired to my darkened den. Indeed, my loss of vision progressed to nearly 100%; but, within 15 minutes, I was recovering visual field. Strange. I've not had a migraine of any sort for about 10 years and haven't experienced a retinal migraine equivalent for at least 30 or 40 years.

Migraine is a syndrome characterized by paroxysmal headache associated with other signs and symptoms, such as aura, but when a migraine manifests in a way other than head pain, it is termed a migraine variant (or migraine equivalent). These variants are not as common or as well understood as typical migraines and may be characterized by paroxysmal episodes of prolonged visual auras, atypical auras, confusion, dysarthria, focal neurologic deficits, gastrointestinal manifestations, and other constitutional symptoms, with or without a headache.

I'm surprised to have come up with a migraine equivalent at this late date; but, perhaps it was triggered by all of the bright sun that shone while I was working in the yard.

So far this week....

So far this week there have been two things keeping me occupied: nursing Hunky Husband and dealing with a request from the Wichita State University Foundation concerning the small physics scholarship that HH and I have funded at WSU. The WSU Foundation wished to change one of the guidelines that we had established for our fund. Before answering the request, I conferred by email with a friend on the physics faculty, Professor Nicholas Solomey (Nick). I ended up denying the WSU Foundation's request for the change while conceding to an exception that would allow another (newish) physics faculty member to use the Summer 2021 expenditure from our fund for a non-complying graduate student. To change the guideline would have been to instantly thwart the original intent which was to lure new graduate students to WSU for their physics research program.

Heads up: If you are queasy about seeing scrapes/cuts/bloody sites, please do not scroll down to the end of this posting.

Physics

In exchanging emails with Nick, I learned that his wife's mother (who has lived with them since she was my age, five years ago) had emergency surgery last November. She had returned from the hospital with COVID-19, promptly sharing it with the family. Fortunately, no one succumbed to their bout with the virus and Nick wrote, "Covid-19 is the worst 2 weeks ever in bed every symptom of flu for two solid weeks and 6 weeks to recover and from my sick bed I wrote the grant! Someday I should reread it and see what delusions I said but too scared! Best just to work hard over next two years to get this done." NASA's announcement of the grant to which Nick referred is given, below. The graphics are from previous proposals that Nick had written to get him into Phases I and II of research under the NIAC grant program.

NASA encourages researchers to develop and study unexpected approaches for traveling through, understanding, and exploring space. To further these goals, the agency has selected seven studies for additional funding – totaling $5 million – from the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program. The researchers previously received at least one NIAC award related to their proposals.

“Creativity is key to future space exploration and fostering revolutionary ideas today that may sound outlandish will prepare us for new missions and fresh exploration approaches in the coming decades,” said Jim Reuter, associate administrator for NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD).

NASA selected the proposals through a peer-review process that evaluates innovation and technical viability. All projects are still in the early stages of development, with most requiring a decade or more of technology maturation. They are not considered official NASA missions.

Among the studies is a neutrino-detecting mission concept that will receive a $2 million Phase III NIAC grant to mature related technology over two years. Neutrinos are one of the most abundant particles in the universe but are challenging to study since they rarely interact with matter. Therefore, large and sensitive Earth-based detectors are best suited to detect them. Nikolas Solomey from Wichita State University in Kansas proposes something different: a space-based neutrino detector.

“Neutrinos are a tool to ‘see’ inside stars, and a space-based detector could offer a new window into the structure of our Sun and even our galaxy,” said NIAC Program Executive Jason Derleth. “A detector orbiting close to the Sun could reveal the shape and size of the solar furnace at the core. Or, by going in the opposite direction, this technology could detect neutrinos from stars at the center of our galaxy.”

Solomey’s previous NIAC research showed the technology could work in space, explored different mission flight paths, and developed an early prototype of the neutrino detector. With the Phase III grant, Solomey will prepare a flight-ready detector that could be tested on a CubeSat.

HH's Health

Hunky Husband had the unpleasant experience, Monday morning, of undergoing surgeries to remove both great toenails, and a hunk of scalp from the crown of his head. The toenail removals were the latest chapter in his continuing fight against fungus - a hard fight for a person who perspires as freely as does HH. The scalp removal was to rid him of a worrisome patch of skin that is potentially cancerous/pre-cancerous. I shant go into additional post-operative images. (In fact, I've taken no others. The above photo was taken to show HH the appearance of his surgical site.)

Attempting to nurse someone whose stubbornness would put a mule's to shame is not my idea of fun. It is an exercise in futility. That is especially true when said someone has memory issues and behavioral issues due to disease. I must say, though, that the hardest part of the whole thing for me was watching the repeated jabs of the needles injecting anesthetic under the toenails and under the scalp - knowing that HH has always hated needles. He was, understandably, not a happy camper.

Today, HH was feeling up to a walk - his first in several weeks. I'm sure that the walk was slow, for him; but, it was good for him, acknowledging that it would have been even better had he been willing to follow Dr Niederee's nurse's caution to stay off of his feet as much as possible for two or three days. (It was never destined to happen, despite her and my best efforts.)

With HH, there is no way he can go for a walk without having to shower afterward - it's that pesky copious perspiration to which I referred, above. (Fortunately for HH, the type of perspiration that he produces does not give him an odious odor even when he cannot shower!) He fared well. I put fresh bandages (large Band Aid-type bandages, cut to fit), another pair of clean, white socks, and a fresh pair of fleece-lined house shoes on his feet, and he was all sweet and clean.

Tooth! I got tooth!

In Catching up for the week - 4/9/2021, I included a few paragraphs on my disappointment in the dental road down which I had embarked in late December, 2020. Since I could not get an implant to replace my #9 tooth, I had a bridge installed.

The first photo shows my natural teeth a mere 64 years ago. The second photo (on the right) was taken today. (There's nothing like treating people to the sight of an old woman's mouth!)

It's a matter of perspective

I just know that I have made a posting with a similar title; but, for the life of me cannot find it. Although I've always found the TypePad internal search function pretty useless, I gave it a try. The search function came back with exactly one hit on "perspective" - What Makes Us Laugh from 15 years ago. The subject of that posting was my favorite cartoon character, Ms Crumm. When I went to the posting, the most interesting part was the link to a now-defunct (AFAIK) blog by a friend in the UK - and the comment string that followed.

Back to perspective: Liz (in Wales) frequently posts about her exploits in the field of exercise. She leaves some of us in the dust! Two Three weeks ago, I started going back to the gym. Wednesday, all of the signage to the effect that "Textron requires everyone to wear a mask" were missing and I was informed that they were no longer required. As there were only three other people in the gym, that morning, masking/not masking wasn't a big deal. I did, however, note that the only other woman was wearing a mask and asked if she would feel more comfortable if I left mine on. She demurred, thanking me for asking. I don't know her vaccination status; but, she is a member of a minority community so it is entirely possible that she and her adult son (also working out - never with a mask) are not immunized against COVID-19.

To the point: Amount of exercise that one is taking is a matter of perspective. From the perspective of my old, old age and past experience, I have been trying to gradually increase the intensity of my work-outs (from the "weak" state at which I re-started my gym visits) so as to avoid aching muscles. So far, so good. I am making great progress. However, my usual intention of applying the same concept to the work that I do in the yard has been less successful. Today, I arose with achy upper arms (biceps).

Yesterday, I cut off dead wood from one of our crepe myrtle bushes with our Craftsman loppers. "Aha!" I thought. That is what made me achy. But...I didn't do that much. It didn't stand to reason. Oh, yes, now I recall. Before I did the dead wood lopping, I had weed-whacked around all of the newish trees, around the steps down to the woods, and so forth. Our string trimmer is a Weedeater cordless - not very heavy. However, I did use it until the battery ran down and I am sure that was the cause of my achiness. 

ADDITION of five hours later:

Today, I've had to get myself outside between rain showers. I used the Weedeater to trim around the lone tree in the front yard (oh, yes, that's where the achiness came from!) and have completed the removal of dead wood from one of our crepe myrtle bushes. In addition, I've pulled a lot of weeds and, from the edge of the woods, many purple winter creepers. As of 4pm, we have received 0.55" of rain.

Unfortunately, I didn't think to turn off the sprinkler system last night. At about 5:30am, I heard the sprinklers hitting my bedroom windows - that would have been from Station 3 of the system. An hour later, there was an announcement on the radio that said that Wichita was getting rain and thunder. I wondered, to myself, whether we too would receive rain. A few minutes later, we had several flashes of lightning. I arose about that time, and it was raining by the time I got upstairs. The rain sensor only turns off the system if it detects rain before the system activates; thus, I turned off the system just after it had cycled to Station 6 (we use 7 stations). Most of our yard has received a lot of water, today.

More from News for Nerds - Influenza still waning

Structure of the influenza virus - The flu virus is an enveloped, single-stranded RNA virus. The core nucleoproteins are used to distinguish the 3 types of influenza viruses: A, B, and C. Influenza A causes most human and all avian influenza infections. The RNA core consists of 8 gene segments surrounded by a coat of 10 (influenza A) or 11 (influenza B) proteins. Immunologically, the most significant surface proteins include hemagglutinin (H) and neuraminidase (N). Subclassification of influenza A occurs on the basis of H and N proteins.

Flu Has Disappeared Worldwide During the COVID Pandemic (scientificamerican.com)266

Posted by BeauHD on Thursday April 29, 2021 @11:30PM from the effective-public-health-measures dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Scientific American:Since the novel coronavirus began its global spread, influenza cases reported to the World Health Organization have dropped to minuscule levels. The reason, epidemiologists think, is that the public health measures taken to keep the coronavirus from spreading also stop the flu. Influenza viruses are transmitted in much the same way as SARS-CoV-2, but they are less effective at jumping from host to host. As Scientific American reported last fall, the drop-off in flu numbers was both swift and universal. Since then, cases have stayed remarkably low. "There's just no flu circulating," says Greg Poland, who has studied the disease at the Mayo Clinic for decades. The U.S. saw about 600 deaths from influenza during the 2020-2021 flu season. In comparison, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated there were roughly 22,000 deaths in the prior season and 34,000 two seasons ago.

Because each year's flu vaccine is based on strains that have been circulating during the past year, it is unclear how next year's vaccine will fare, should the typical patterns of the disease return. [...] Public health experts are grateful for the reprieve. Some are also worried about a lost immune response, however. If influenza subsides for several years, today's toddlers could miss a chance to have an early-age response imprinted on their immune system. That could be good or bad, depending on what strains circulate during the rest of their life. For now, future flu transmission remains a roll of the dice.

Back to the gym - yay!

Cessna Textron West Side Activity Center

Cessna Textron East Side Activity Center

On 3/14/2020, I made my usual trek to one of the gyms in which I have a lifetime membership. Because of my fear of COVID-19, that was the last trek I made there - until this morning. I didn't know when/if the place, itself, closed down. I only knew that I didn't want to be there. Surprisingly, the woman at the front desk told me they had been open since May 2020. Wow! I would not have felt safe working out there (or anywhere away from home).

It felt great working out, again. Masks are required in the public areas of the building; but, in the gym itself, I was the only one who was masked up. The employees and a couple of the fire fighters who work out there recognized me - despite the mask and the hair grown long.

My lifetime membership is courtesy of the company for which I put in a total of 19 years of service (Nov 1975-Apr 1981 and Apr 1990-Apr 2004). The deal was, that to use the gyms one must pay dues (deducted from one's paycheck) to the Employee's Club. I belonged to the Employee's Club for all of those years - only because one had to belong in order to belong to the Flying Club. That was a real carrot for many of us. The bonus was/is that, for belonging to the Employee's Club for the years before retirement, a retiree was awarded a lifetime membership upon retirement. Good deal!

Although I've shown photos of only two gyms, above, I think a third gym was added to the stable when Textron acquired Beech some years ago, but after my retirement. I'm unfamiliar with the facilities other than the West Side Activity Center (top photo) and the East Side Activity Center (second photo). For two reasons, I choose to use the East Side Activity Center: 1) It's a shorter drive from home (about 10 miles versus about 15), and 2) It's a smaller, less used facility. Granted, the West Side has a larger pool, more machines, and fancier locker rooms; but, I like not being among 100 other sweating bodies.

Hunky Husband comes out

It should come as no surprise to any of my blog friends that Hunky Husband has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease. My life is pretty much an open book, so I've mentioned the effects of that disease on our family, on occasion. Yesterday, HH took the bold (and brave) step of announcing to our (local) family gathering (and to Bogie, by phone) that he had been diagnosed with "Onset Alzheimer's". I don't know where HH found that particular label since I did not hear his physician apply it; but, I shan't quibble - it is descriptive. I think that HH found a little relief in making the announcement.

AFAIK, HH first suspected that he was headed down the Alzheimer's path in September, 2015. As his mother had gone down that path from ages 60-75, we may have been lulled by the later age (79) at which we noticed HH's own cognitive decline.

HH worries about becoming a burden to me. As any loving spouse would say, "Never a burden!" Two things concern me about the Alzheimer's path: 1) that I probably won't live long enough to provide support throughout HH's path, and 2) that our later-generation family members are at a risk for also entering that path. As fortunate as HH's and my lives have been, we can hardly complain about our own lots in life. We do hope for even better lots for younger generations - hopefully preventives or cures.

Another week gone

DENTAL PROGRESS - 4/15/2021

...of which there is little. One of the sutures had fallen out on 4/11/2021. As there was no bleeding, it was at one end of the surgical site, and I could see nothing alarming, I didn't bother calling the dental people about it. No need to bother them.

Today, Dr Omar looked over the new x-rays, looked over the surgical site, removed two of the remaining four sutures, and said that (barring the unforeseen), he would start work on the bridge on the 29th.

BTW: I had the dental assistant look at my records to see if I had updated my medications when my statin had been changed, a bit over one year ago. I had. Dr Omar allowed as how he had not been aware of the known interaction between my statin and the antibiotic that he had prescribed. In addition, he had learned that the titanium implant did, indeed, contain nickel. We are always learning. Dr O took it in stride and was in good humor. He did give me a good idea: Henceforth, when I go to a dentist I shall present him/her with a listing of my current medications - just as I do for a medical practitioner. I shall, also, note my sensitivity to nickel on it.

CAMERAS - 4/17/2021

Fifteen years ago, while shopping at Sam's Club, I spotted a palm-sized point-and-shoot HP R817 camera on sale for a reasonable price - a price that I was willing to pay. Please note that, unlike Bogie whom I would expect to put a lot of research into such a purchase, I knew nothing about the camera. Until then, our household's only foray into digital photographer was via Hunky Husband's Sony MVC-FD71 that uses a 3 1/2-inch floppy disk as its digital storage medium.

 

 

Having served yeoman's duty for 15 years, the R817 quit working. I had noted, for a few weeks, that I often had to repeatedly press the shutter button to get a response. Now, the shutter button is dormant or dead. Since I shake too much with my essential tremors to attempt fine repairs, these days, and since I am unwilling to pay $100 or more to let someone else fix a 15-year-old camera that probably cost about $100, originally, I went online to find a replacement.

HP hasn't put out a camera for several years, now, and since I wanted to stick with a camera that functions closely to the HP R817 that it would replace, I looked at used HP cameras. Fortunately, I found an HP R927 camera - the follow-on to the R817 - for $40, including shipping. It arrived, yesterday.

An aside: Call me crazy, but were I shipping electronics via any means, I would wrap that sucker in bubble-wrap or pack it in peanuts inside a sturdy box. Only twice have I purchased used electronics, online, and in either case the person who shipped the item to me just tossed it into a medium-weight, closely fitting box. Fortunately, "they" must be smarter than am I. In neither case was the item damaged. In both cases, the United States Postal Service came through.

Upon opening the small box (it fit within our standard, cluster-box mailbox) I gave myself a dope-slap. I had failed to check with the seller that a battery, charger (or cords to charge through a PC) and SD digital storage medium were included. There had been no description of the item, online, other than it was in "used" condition.

Well...there was a completely depleted battery, a charger (which I've yet to get to work), and no SD. Not to worry. The battery and SD from the R817 fit perfectly well into the R927. Also, fortunately, the R817 will recharge the battery through its charger - which charger is incompatible with the R927 charger. I am one whose phone is so old/broken that I must use a different phone through which to charge the battery. If I can put up with such an arrangement for my phone, I can probably put up with that arrangement for my camera. OTOH: It is possible that I will, eventually, coax the R927 charger into working.

It is well that I had the SD. It is all but impossible to find 1 GB SDs these days - the maximum size SD that is usable to the software/firmware of the old cameras - or to that of my old phone. My newer Nikon camera, circa 2012, uses a 16 GB SD.

As proof that the R927 does, indeed, take photos, I present the image, below.