Okay, so technically, not news, per se!  Since it's really, Olds!  Let's not split hairs and continue!

Pre-2016

Databases rule our lives in some way or other.  Whatever we do, there'll be a database underlying the system to record, analyse and maintain our opinions, our statistics, our health information, our police record, our social security information, our taxation system, our vehicle usage, the list goes on.

When information is stored, it can be available for analysis in some way or other.  In fact, it is a waste of recording it, if it is not used for some purpose.  Take for instance, Mr Google.  They record every keystroke you make, analysing who you are, what you do, why you do it, when you do it and use that information, along with much, much more to make them money.  Often used in a bad way, information is sold, re-sold and abused at every level and this is where our privacy is intruded upon.  But, there is a good side to database knowledge and this can be used to an advantage, rather than exploited to our disadvantage.  It is so easy to collate information and derive some meaningful information from it.  The best example I can think of is the Periodic Table, now I realise many people know little about it, what it is and what its advantages are, but I will persist in using it as an example!!!  Many years ago, elements, such as iron, gold, silver, oxygen, carbon and many others were discovered that had no relation to anything except iron was useful for making tools, gold was a visual showing of how rich you were, silver was the next best thing, carbon (or a form of it - coal) was burned and produced warmth, but no-one really knew much else.  When the Russian, Mendeleev created the Periodic Table, it allowed the prediction of many other elements and collected together elements that were similar in nature.  I other words, after organising something in a particular manner, he was not only showing what was currently known, but paving the way to the discovery of new undiscovered elements, some of which have only been discovered recently!

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