Dancing the Casso Doble
QUESTION Is Jonnie Peacock the first disabled Strictly contestant?
Lance corporal cassidy Little appeared in a special show in 2015 called The People’s Strictly in which ‘everyday heroes’ took the place of celebrities.
The contestants, chosen for their inspiring life stories, included a father who had raised hundreds of thousands of pounds for meningitis after losing his son to a mother so frustrated by the lack of provision for her autistic children that she founded her own school.
cassidy is a canadian who went to a school for performing arts in Missouri, with a special interest in dance. He joined the Mid-american Dance company before moving back to canada.
With family in the UK, cassidy moved to england and, after trying his hand at stand-up comedy, eventually joined 42 commando Royal Marines.
It was while serving on his second tour in afghanistan in 2011 as a Marine (medic) that he lost a leg in an IeD blast that also resulted in three fatalities. Despite his serious injuries, cassidy attempted to tend to his colleagues.
He spent a week in an induced coma and two months in hospital. He then undertook intensive rehabilitation with fellow injured Marines, who later revealed his optimism and sense of humour helped them through their ordeal.
Major Steve Mcculley, who put cassidy forward for the Strictly show, spent more than two years in rehab with him, and they became close friends.
He said: ‘every seriously injured service person goes through dark periods, and were it not for cassidy, they would have been far longer and far harder for many to deal with, me included.’
When cassidy was being airlifted to camp Bastian following the incident, he joked: ‘There go my dancing days!’
It was a moment of gallows humour and a prediction that turned out to be wrong Let’s dance: Cassidy and Natalie — he went on to win the show by a public vote on Red nose Day. Dancing the ‘casso Doble’ with professional partner natalie Lowe, he wowed the judges.
cassidy has since gone on to become a motivational speaker and actor, starring in the West end flamenco dance show explosion and appearing on BBc TV shows Holby city and Doctors.
Marianne Moore, Bath, Somerset.
QUESTION Was the U.S. Computer Fraud and Abuse Act inspired by the movie WarGames?
THe cFFa was an amendment made in 1986 to the counterfeit access Device and abuse act passed in 1984. It states that if someone intentionally accesses a computer without authorisation, or exceeds authorised access, and thereby obtains information from any protected computer, if the conduct involves an interstate or foreign communication, it will be punished under the act.
The film WarGames was used to illustrate the necessity of these acts. The movie features a teenage Matthew Broderick who hacks into a government computer and almost starts a thermonuclear war with the then USSR.
a 1983 congressional hearing on computer security began with Kansas Representative Dan Glickman saying: ‘We are going to show four minutes from the movie WarGames, which outlines the problem fairly clearly.’
a House committee report said: ‘WarGames showed a realistic representation of the automatic dialling and access capabilities of the personal computer.’
The law was passed in 1986 in time to help convict Robert Morris Jr, the son of a national Security agency computer security worker, who unleashed the first computer worm in 1988. It has since been wielded thousands of times to convict high-profile hackers and low-level felons.
The cFaa was used to prosecute net activist aaron Swartz. He faced 35 years in prison and fines of $1 million for illegally downloading articles from academic journals. His suicide in 2013 led to calls for the act’s reform.
Jason Rey, Basingstoke, Hants.
QUESTION When did the concept of being ‘born again’ begin?
THe origin is found in the third chapter of St John’s Gospel. It records that a Pharisee (religious ruler) named nicodemus approached Jesus and said: ‘Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.’
In reply, Jesus said: ‘I tell you the truth, no one can see the Kingdom of God unless he is born again.’ In other words, no one can enter God’s Heaven without rebirth of a spiritual nature.
Jesus goes on to explain that entry to the Kingdom is not by human effort, i.e. good works, but that salvation is a spiritual thing. John 3 v 6-7: ‘Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying: “You must be born again.”’ Hence born-again christians. Rev. Henry Drabble, Wakefield, W. Yorks.
QUESTION Which occupations other than maths teachers use algebra in their work?
FURTHeR to the earlier answer, engineers and physicists use algebra, trigonometry and calculus to solve physical problems and to optimise systems. algebra is just a formalised way of thinking. Dr Ron Barnes, chartered engineer,
King’s Lynn, Norfolk.
n IS THERE a question to which you have always wanted to know the answer? Or do you know the answer to a question raised here? Send your questions and answers to: Charles Legge, Answers To Correspondents, Scottish Daily Mail, 20 Waterloo Street, Glasgow G2 6DB; fax them to 0141 331 4739 or email them to charles.legge@dailymail. co.uk. A selection will be published but we are not able to enter into individual correspondence.