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    • 06 APR 15

    Public submissions from Tasmania’s draft energy strategy are now available online

    Notice from Stop Smart Meters Australia:

    Public submissions from Tasmania’s draft energy strategy are now available online
    Posted on April 6, 2015 by Stop Smart Meters Australia

    Submissions from the public on Tasmania’s draft energy strategy paper titled ‘Restoring Tasmania’s Energy Advantage’ are available for viewing online.
    The majority of respondents raised concern regarding Tasmania’s vision, which includes ‘accommodating new technologies (such as smart meters), to ensure that the interests of Tasmanian customers are advanced.’ Stop Smart Meters Australia’s submission is listed as ‘SSMA’.
    SNIP

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    • 01 APR 15

    ICNIRP continues with its Procrustean Approach…keep it on thermal effects only and ignore the rest

    The charade continues….
    ICNIRP/WHO Workshop “A closer look at the thresholds of thermal damage”, 26-28 May 2015

    Scope: In view of updating the guidance on limiting exposure to high frequency (HF) fields, ICNIRP will review the current scientific knowledge on the thresholds of thermal damage. The current workshop will revisit the ICNIRP 1998 concept, namely that the health relevant increase of body core temperature is approximately 1° C and a whole-body exposure with an average SAR of 4 W/kg result in a core temperature increase of less than 1°C within 30 min. Details of this concept as well as thresholds for partial/local body exposures are subjects to review. SNIP

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    • 30 MAR 15

    UK’s Institute of Directors (IoD) issue report critical of the UK government’s “smart” meter program.

    A premier United Kingdom business organization, the 34,500 members strong Institute of Directors (IoD), has just issued a press release announcing their 21 page report critical of the UK government’s “smart” meter program. The report calls for Smart Meters scheme to be ‘halted, altered or scrapped’ to avoid ‘unjustified, over-engineered and expensive mistake’
    “The Government’s rollout of Smart Meters, digital energy meters designed to provide real-time usage statistics, should be “halted, altered or scrapped” to avoid a potentially catastrophic government IT disaster, the Institute of Directors warns today.” …The report places the rollout of Smart Meters within the context of previous large-scale IT fiascos, including the infamous NHS National Programme for IT, the eBorders Programme and the BBC’s disastrous Digital Media Initiative. Furthermore, a recent survey shows that 80 per cent of IoD members rate the ability of government to manage large IT projects as “poor or very poor”.
    SNIP

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    • 25 MAR 15

    Off topic: More on America’s worst plane ever: The F-35

    Apologies to readers of this blog. I know this has nothing to do with the EMF issue but it is relevant to a book I am writing on the revolving door between US government agencies (including FCC, EPA, the Pentagon, etc.) and corporate America. The F-35 may be the worst plane ever to attempt getting off the ground, with massive problems and cost blow-outs but it is a great financial success for the corporations building the thing. For them, the money just keeps rolling in as they keep on finding problems then and charging the US Government and taxpayer to fix it – and on and on it goes.

    And then there are the senior military officers and some congressmen with vested interests in continuing to keep the F-35 project alive for their own benefit, such as getting a plush job with a corporate military contractor after retirement. No wonder why the US deficit is in the order of $17 trillion dollars with the Pentagon now wanting a budget of $1 trillion to pay the corporations to upgrade all their weapons systems.

    The author of the below article concludes with a question: “Can someone tell me why we’re building this thing?” This is the answer….

    SNIP

    SNIP

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    • 21 MAR 15

    Precaution Nixed at the NY Times (Microwave News)

    From Louis Slesin, Editor, Microwave News:

    The New York Times went into damage control mode yesterday after Nick Bilton, a tech columnist and a rising star at the newspaper, suggested that precaution is the best approach to the use of cell phones and wearable electronics.
    No sooner had Bilton’s column hit print that Margaret Sullivan, the Times’ Public Editor, chastised him for his naive analysis. Sullivan targeted the lack of “sophisticated evaluation of serious research.”
    SNIP

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    • 15 MAR 15

    Off topic: America’s F-35 Joint Strike fighter. The worst plane ever but Australia still wants them.

    PREVIOUSLY: In April 2014 the Australian Abbott government gave its approval for the purchase of 58 additional F-35 Joint Strike Fighters (JSFs) at a cost of $12.4 billion – making it the nation’s most expensive Defence asset. The extra aircraft is supposed to bring Australia’s total Joint Strike Fighter force to 72 aircraft, with the first of them to enter service in 2020.

    SNIP
    From the Was is Boring blog, March 15, 2015:

    F-35 Still Years Away From Being Ready for Combat

    by MANDY SMITHBERGER

    Excerpt
    The F-35 continues to fail the most basic requirements for combat aircraft and common sense. Despite reforms, the F-35 continues to be unaffordable, its engines continue to be susceptible to fire, and the Pentagon continues to misrepresent its performance.

    Below are just a few of the issues identified in a recent report from the Defense Department’s Director of Operational Test and Evaluation: SNIP

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    • 14 MAR 15

    Remarkable New RF-Animal Study

    From Louis Slesin, Microwave News:

    The RF–cancer story took a remarkable turn a few days ago. A new animal study challenged many of the assumptions which lie at the heart of claims that RF radiation –whether from cell phones, cell towers or Wi-Fi– are safe.

    The new study, from Germany, a replication of an earlier experiment, also from Germany, found that weak cell phone signals can promote the growth of tumors in mice. It used radiation levels that do not cause heating and are well below current safety standards. Complicating matters even further, lower doses were often found to be more effective tumor promoters than higher levels; in effect, turning the conventional concept of a linear dose-response on its head.

    And for those with the stamina to have stayed tuned to the slow-moving RF–health soap opera, the new paper offers an unexpected surprise.

    Read the full story at:
    http://www.microwavenews.com/news-center/rf-animal-cancer-promotion

    Best,
    Louis

    ______________________
    Louis Slesin
    Editor, Microwave News

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    • 12 MAR 15

    What will happen when the internet of things becomes artificially intelligent?

    From The Guardian:

    Excerpt

    When Stephen Hawking, Bill Gates and Elon Musk all agree on something, it’s worth paying attention.

    All three have warned of the potential dangers that artificial intelligence or AI can bring. The world’s foremost physicist, Hawking said that the full development of artificial intelligence (AI) could “spell the end of the human race”. Musk, the tech entrepreneur who brought us PayPal, Tesla and SpaceX described artificial intelligence as our “biggest existential threat” and said that playing around with AI was like “summoning the demon”. Gates, who knows a thing or two about tech, puts himself in the “concerned” camp when it comes to machines becoming too intelligent for us humans to control.

    What are these wise souls afraid of? AI is broadly described as the ability of computer systems to ape or mimic human intelligent behavior. This could be anything from recognizing speech, to visual perception, making decisions and translating languages. Examples run from Deep Blue who beat chess champion Garry Kasparov to supercomputer Watson who outguessed the world’s best Jeopardy player. Fictionally, we have Her, Spike Jonze’s movie that depicts the protagonist, played by Joaquin Phoenix, falling in love with his operating system, seductively voiced by Scarlet Johansson. And coming soon, Chappie stars a stolen police robot who is reprogrammed to make conscious choices and to feel emotions.

    An important component of AI, and a key element in the fears it engenders, is the ability of machines to take action on their own without human intervention. This could take the form of a computer reprogramming itself in the face of an obstacle or restriction. In other words, to think for itself and to take action accordingly.
    SNIP

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    • 12 MAR 15

    Hacked dog, a car that snoops on you and a fridge full of adverts: the perils of the internet of things

    From The Guardian

    Excerpt

    If we think of today’s internet metaphorically as about the size of a golf ball, tomorrow’s will be the size of the sun. Within the coming years, not only will every computer, phone and tablet be online, but so too will every car, house, dog, bridge, tunnel, cup, clock, watch, pacemaker, cow, streetlight, bridge, tunnel, pipeline, toy and soda can. Though in 2013 there were only 13bn online devices, Cisco Systems has estimated that by 2020 there will be 50bn things connected to the internet, with room for exponential growth thereafter. As all of these devices come online and begin sharing data, they will bring with them massive improvements in logistics, employee efficiency, energy consumption, customer service and personal productivity.

    This is the promise of the internet of things (IoT), a rapidly emerging new paradigm of computing that, when it takes off, may very well change the world we live in forever.

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    • 07 MAR 15

    New paper: Tumor promotion by exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields below exposure limits for humans

    From Science Direct

    Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications

    Available online 6 March 2015

    Researchers: Prof. Dr. Alexander Lerchla, Melanie Klosea, Karen Grotea,Adalbert F.X. Wilhelmb, Oliver Spathmannc, Thomas Fiedlerc, Joachim Streckertc, Volkert Hansenc, Markus Clemensc

    Abstract

    The vast majority of in vitro and in vivo studies did not find cancerogenic effects of exposure to electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF), i.e. emitted by mobile phones and base stations. Previously published results from a pilot study with carcinogen-treated mice, however, suggested tumor-promoting effects of RF-EMF (Tillmann et al., 2010). We have performed a replication study using higher numbers of animals per group and including two additional exposure levels (0 (sham), 0.04, 0.4 and 2 W/kg SAR). We could confirm and extend the originally reported findings. Numbers of tumors of the lungs and livers in exposed animals were significantly higher than in sham-exposed controls. In addition, lymphomas were also found to be significantly elevated by exposure. A clear dose-response effect is absent. We hypothesize that these tumor-promoting effects may be caused by metabolic changes due to exposure. SNIP

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    • 07 MAR 15

    Study Suggests Wi-Fi Exposure More Dangerous To Kids Than Previously Thought

    From Forbes online

    Excerpt

    Most parents would be concerned if their children had significant exposure to lead, chloroform, gasoline fumes, or the pesticide DDT. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IRIC), part of the United Nations’ World Health Organization (WHO), classifies these and more than 250 other agents as Class 2B Carcinogens – possibly carcinogenic to humans. Another entry on that same list is radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF/EMF). The main sources of RF/EMF are radios, televisions, microwave ovens, cell phones, and Wi-Fi devices.

    Uh-oh. Not another diatribe about the dangers of our modern communication systems? Obviously, these devices and the resulting fields are extremely (and increasingly) common in modern society. Even if we want to, we can’t eliminate our exposure, or our children’s, to RF/EMF. But, we may need to limit that exposure, when possible.

    That was among the conclusions of a survey article published in the Journal of Microscopy and Ultrastructure entitled “Why children absorb more microwave radiation than adults: The consequences.” From an analysis of others studies, the authors argue that children and adolescents are at considerable risk from devices that radiate microwaves (and that adults are at a lower, but still significant, risk). The following points were offered for consideration:
    SNIP

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    • 05 MAR 15

    Fukushima Meltdown 4 Years Later

    Excerpt

    From Fairewinds Energy Education

    Excerpt:

    Four years have passed since the tragic triple meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plants, and the hits keep on coming as massive amounts of radioactively contaminated water continue to flow into the Pacific Ocean and no solution exists for safely containing the ongoing accumulation of radioactive debris contaminating the prefecture. Created in two parts, Fairewinds Energy Education presents you with a 5-minute retrospective followed by a 25-minute in-depth reflection on the Fukushima Meltdown 4 Years Later. (Click on the link below)
    SNIP

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    • 03 MAR 15

    Dariusz Leszczynski: The Power of the Industrial Lobby: The case of tobacco – how about telecom?…

    Excerpt:

    On February 24, 2015, BMJ published document ““Massive” tobacco industry third party lobbying for revised European Directive” about industry lobbying efforts to affect EU legislation. The full document is available here with additional links in it. The BMJ document deals with tobacco, classified by IARC to be human carcinogen (Group 1). According to the IARC monograph there are 1 billion of smokers.Knowing that the tobacco smoke is carcinogenic, the enormous efforts of the tobacco industry, successfully lobbying against EU regulation of tobacco, are astonishing and shocking. Money talks, even if it is against human health. What is more, the EU law was not about forbidding of smoking but but merely about “…an increase in the size of graphic health warnings, a ban on certain flavourings, restrictions on the size and shape of cigarette packs, and regulation of e-cigarettes…” This reminds the cell phone package labeling-wars with the telecom industry – e.g. San Francisco… Industry makes profit but the costs of health care for the people made sick by the industry product is left for us – the taxpayers.
    SNIP

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    • 16 FEB 15

    WHO follows the procrustean approach!

    Looks like time is approaching for a need to update my 2010 thesis, especially considering Dariusz Leszczynski’s latest blog.

    Don
    ******************************************************************************************************************

    Excerpt

    Handling an Inquiry – The WHO-style
    Posted on February 15, 2015
    Dariusz Leszczynski

    On December 27, 2014, I sent an e-mail message to Dr. Margaret Chan, Director General of the WHO. In this message I expressed my concern about the process of preparation of the Environmental Health Criteria by the WHO EMF Project.

    Today, on February 15, 2015, I received response to my message. However, my surprise was great when it appeared that the response was sent to me by the Head of the WHO EMF Project, Dr. Emilie van Deventer.

    It seems “strange” that, at the WHO, when expressing concern about the actions of a person, the person in question handles the response to the inquiry/complaint… This means that, of course, the response will “clearly demonstrate” that there is absolutely no reason for any concern.

    Matter closed – the WHO-style.

    SNIP

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    • 14 FEB 15

    Samsung warns customers not to discuss personal information in front of smart TVs

    Samsung has confirmed that its “smart TV” sets are listening to customers’ every word, and the company is warning customers not to speak about personal information while near the TV sets.

    The company revealed that the voice activation feature on its smart TVs will capture all nearby conversations. The TV sets can share the information, including sensitive data, with Samsung as well as third-party services.

    The news comes after Shane Harris at The Daily Beast pointed out a troubling line in Samsung’s privacy policy: “Please be aware that if your spoken words include personal or other sensitive information, that information will be among the data captured and transmitted to a third party.”
    SNIP

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    • 13 FEB 15

    Recommended!: The GameChanger: revision of dosimetry by Schmid & Kuster (Dariusz Leszczynski

    From Dariusz Leszczynski:

    Excerpt:

    In the spring of 1999, while I was still working as an Assistant Professor at the Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts General Hospital, I took part in the planning meeting of the EU REFLEX Project. At that time I was virtually unknown in the area of cell phone radiation research and for the invitation to join REFLEX project I need to thank Bernard Veyret, whom I meet once, at the radiation meeting in Capri.

    Two persons, one present and one absent from the REFLEX meeting, impacted heavily on the direction of the research executed by my group at STUK.

    The present person was Mays Swicord of Motorola, who was invited by Franz Adlkofer, to be coordinator of the REFLEX project, to provide advice. It was Mays Swicord who got visibly agitated and outright dismissed my pilot results that I presented at this meeting. In his opinion it was wrong to use high SAR even if exposure system had water cooling to keep temperature of the endothelial cell culture at 37 + 0.2-0.3oC.

    The results that I presented showed dramatic changes in protein expression in human endothelial cell line EA.hy926 exposed at 10.0 SAR. Mays Swicord said, very authoritatively that what we did was wrong, even if the temperature was controlled.
    SNIP

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    • 04 FEB 15

    Digital Electronic “Internet of Things”(IoT) and “Smart Grid Technologies” to Fully Eviscerate Privacy

    By Prof. James F. Tracy
    Global Research, February 02, 2015

    The “Internet of Things” (IoT) and Smart Grid technologies will together be aggressively integrated into the developed world’s socioeconomic fabric with little-if-any public or governmental oversight. This is the overall opinion of a new report by the Federal Trade Commission, which has announced a series of “recommendations” to major utility companies and transnational corporations heavily invested in the IoT and Smart Grid, suggesting that such technologies should be rolled out almost entirely on the basis of “free market” principles so as not to stifle “innovation.” As with the Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency, the FTC functions to provide the semblance of democratic governance and studied concern as it allows corporate monied interests and prerogatives to run roughshod over the body politic…..The IoT is developing in tandem with the “Smart Grid,” comprised of tens of millions of wireless transceivers (a combination cellular transmitter and receiver) more commonly known as “smart meters.” Unlike conventional wireless routers, smart meters are regarded as such because they are equipped to capture, store, and transmit an abundance of data on home energy usage with a degree of precision scarcely imagined by utility customers. On the contrary, energy consumers are typically appeased with persuasive promotional materials from their power company explaining how smart meter technology allows patrons to better monitor and control their energy usage.
    SNIP

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    • 04 FEB 15

    Just how powerful are 4G towers?

    From Echonetdaily, The North Coast’s Independent News (Queensland,Australia):

    Mullumbimby 4G Telstra tower disrupts TV, EFTPOS

    If Mullumbimby residents and businesses are having TV reception issues and EFTPOS drop outs, the recent upgraded Telstra tower in the town’s CBD appears to be the culprit. Court House manager Laurie Driscoll told The Echo the 4G Telstra tower across the road on Dalley Street has caused havoc with the TV signal and EFTPOS. ‘A lot of people in the vicinity may have the same problem,’ he said. ‘Thankfully Telstra have accepted liability, and agreed to reimburse us for the cost of having to buy and install a $400 filter to reduce the 4G interference on our TVs.’
    SNIP

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    • 02 FEB 15

    France limits spread of the wi-fi by a new law, Finland does not care at all

    From the blog of Dariusz Leszczynski:

    Excerpt

    In the Finnish news media, there is a complete silence (nobody dares to speak?) about the new law introduced in France, limiting the spread of the wi-fi networks (story in the French Le Monde) (for the translation in English, see below).

    In fact, the situation in Finland is just the opposite to what is happening in France. In Finland wi-fi is allowed to be spread freely and everywhere, including daycare centers and schools.The justification for this “freedom” are the obsolete safety limits from 1998 (!) that were “reaffirmed” in 2009.

    The freedom to spread the wi-fi is scientifically unwise in the situation when the research evidence on the effects of the wi-fi-emitted radiation is extremely limited but, at the same time, the wi-fi radiation is classified as a possible human carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).
    SNIP

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    • 28 JAN 15

    What Happens To Privacy When The Internet Is In Everything?

    From the Techcrunch website:

    Jan 25, 2015 by Natasha Lomas

    Excerpt:

    This week Google’s Eric Schmidt was on a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where he suggested that the future Internet will be, in one sense, invisible – because it will be embedded into everything we interact with. “The Internet will disappear,” he predicted (via The Hollywood Reporter). “There will be so many IP addresses…so many devices, sensors, things that you are wearing, things that you are interacting with that you won’t even sense it. It will be part of your presence all the time. “Imagine you walk into a room, and the room is dynamic. And with your permission and all of that, you are interacting with the things going on in the room.”
    SNIP

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