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    • 18 DEC 13

    iPad and phone dangers for kids

    From Baden Eunson to this list

    I have read so many stories about iPads being the ideal Xmas gifts for kids. Why not spoil Apple’s party (http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/05/san-francisco-gives-up-on-cell-phone-warning-stickers/) and do a media release advising parents not to do this? You could link it with wifi http://www.wifi-in-schools-australia.org/p/worldwide.html , towers, plus possibly my paper on Telstra cooking the books http://www.anzca.net/component/search/?searchword=eunson&ordering=&searchphrase=all

    Other relevant links:
    SNIP

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    • 17 DEC 13

    An ongoing nuclear disaster aboard U.S. Aircraft carrier: Another legacy of Fukushima

    51 Sailors from USS Ronald Reagan Suffering Thyroid Cancer, Leukemia, Brain Tumors After Participating in Fukushima Nuclear Rescue Efforts

    December 12, 2013 — (TRN http://www.TurnerRadioNetwork.com ) — Crew members in their mid-20’s from the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan are coming down with all sorts of radiation-related illnesses after being deployed less than 3 years ago to assist with earthquake rescue operations off the coast of Japan in 2011. It looks as though the onboard desalinization systems that take salt out of seawater to make it drinkable, were taking-in radioactive water from the ocean for the crew to drink, cook with and bath-in, before anyone realized there was a massive radiation spill into the ocean.

    Charles Bonner, attorney representing sailors from the USS Ronald Reagan said “the crew members were not only going to the rescue by jumping into the water and rescuing people out of the water, but they were drinking desalinated sea water, bathing in it, until finally the captain of the USS Ronald Reagan alarmed people that they were encountering high levels of radiation.”

    SNIP

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    • 16 DEC 13

    Smart meter rings alarm bells

    Greg Barns The Mercury (Tasmania) December 16, 2013 12:00AM

    IN theory smart meters are a great idea. These household devices record energy use as that use occurs and they tell customers how much energy their household is using. In Australia, Victoria and New South Wales have been at the forefront of the rollout of smart meters and in the European Union 80 per cent of households will have smart meters by 2020. In the US and Canada smart meters are sweeping across both nations. According to a report in the UK newspaper The Telegraph, half of smart meter users “say they are more likely to turn things off when not using them”. A very useful consumer-friendly innovation it seems.

    But not so fast. There are concerns about the health risks posed by smart meters, and the capacity for data from smart meters to be used by intelligence agencies to track the movements of individuals is seriously worrying.
    SNIP

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    • 15 DEC 13

    A really dumb smart idea: 4G Smart Trench Coat Tells You When It’s Raining

    Progress in technical fields has been enormous and we’ve come to rely on it in our day-to-day lives, so much so that we apparently need technology to tell us it’s raining outside. Techies have developed a coat that comes laden with a built-in 4G data connection, smart phone charger and a weather app that tells us it’s raining outside.

    The folks at Motiif have designed this sleek, waterproof coat and advertised it as the “Smart Trench Coat”. They call the complex coat simply, “M.”

    The data connection to the coat will come through Karma’s pay-as-you-go network. It comes with 1GB of free data per month for the first three months. But after three months, your coat will require a $14 monthly subscription to keep giving you 1GB of data. (For the really dumb consumer it even comes with a weather app that tells the wearer when it’s raining !)
    SNIP

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    • 15 DEC 13

    Something Is Rotten in Denmark

    From Microwave News,

    Just over a year ago, the Danish Cancer Society issued a
    news advisory with some alarming news: The number of
    men diagnosed with glioblastoma, the most malignant type
    of brain cancer, had doubled over the last ten years.
    The release stated that this was a “frightening development.”

    After that, there was silence. No one talked about it.
    Today, we still cannot get any clarification from the
    Danish Cancer Society.
    SNIP

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    • 11 DEC 13

    The Environmental Defense Fund gets Greenwashed over its policy on smart meters.

    The US based Enviromental Defense Fund is an organization with considerable influence with environmental/Green groups internationally. This can be seen with the Green political parties in both Australia and New Zealand, both of which have a policy virtually identical with the EDF on smart meters and the smart grid.

    EDF president Fred Krupp calls himself a “Market-Minded Environmentalist” who “stopped looking at industry as the enemy and enlisted it as an ally in fighting climate change.”

    Read more here

    So when it comes to climate change ‘solutions’ Krupp has steered the EDF into a policy of working with industry in order to fight climate change. Very slippery ground here….

    Enter the controversy over the smart grid and smart meters. In order for Krupp and the EDF to decide on the safety of smart meters, they have not only consulted with the industry sector promoting the technology, but with so called health experts such as Dr. Leeka Kheifets.

    Sorry EDF but you have been well and truly Greenwashed from the inside out.
    SNIP

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    • 11 DEC 13

    New documentary: “Microwaves, Science and Lies”

    From: Nancy de Meritens

    Hi readers

    The documentary “Microwaves, Science and Lies”, shows how the mobile industry creates doubt about harmful radiofrequency waves through the manipulation of science. Through interviews with several whistleblowers, including citizens, journalists, and scientists, this film reveals how, like the tobacco industry, the lobby of the mobile phone industry has built a strategy of “product defense” by artificially creating a scientific doubt about the harmful effects of electromagnetic waves.
    This documentary as been produced with personnal financing and took more than two years to be completed. Now we are launching a fundraising campaign to finance an English version (with voice over, and English commentary) to distribute the movie worldwide.
    SNIP

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    • 10 DEC 13

    Smart Meter bust up caught on camera

    From A Currant Affair, Australia, December 10, 2013

    The not-so-smart meter contractor sending sparks in this quiet cul-de-sac after verbally abusing a homeowner. The fiery exchange, caught on camera. The Smart Meter rollout may be mandatory but you don’t have to put up with bad service. Tonight, we explore your rights as a homeowner.

    SNIP

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    • 10 DEC 13

    Genetic Fallacy: How Monsanto Silences Scientific Dissent

    That a former Monsanto scientist should find himself in charge of a specially-created post at the very journal that published two landmark studies questioning the safety of that company’s products should surprise no one who is aware of the Monsanto revolving door. This door is responsible for literally dozens of Monsanto officials, lobbyists and consultants finding themselves in positions of authority in the government bodies that are supposedly there to regulate the company and its actions.

    Find out more about Monsanto’s ability to suppress scientific dissent in this week’s edition of the BoilingFrogsPost.com Eyeopener report.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShJTcIlTna0

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    • 09 DEC 13

    EMR and Health newsletter for Dec 2013 now available

    From Lyn McLean, EMR Australia

    The December issue of EMR and Health is available from today and has our usual comprehensive coverage of the news and science on electromagnetic radiation.

    In it you can read about:
    – a link between EMR and autism
    – more evidence linking mobile and cordless phones with tumours
    – the world’s first EMR-free zone
    – what happened at the November Science and Wireless Forum in Melbourne
    – the latest news and research updates.

    Warm regards,
    Lyn McLean
    Director
    EMR Australia PL
    www.emraustralia.com.au
    contact@emraustralia.com.au
    02 9576 1772

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    • 09 DEC 13

    Can’t Sleep? This Is How Our Gadgets Are Keeping Us Awake. You’re not the only one up at night.

    Published on Mobiledia

    By Kat Ascharya | November 26, 2013
    Excerpt

    My name is Kat Ascharya, and I am a recovering insomniac. I say that somewhat flippantly, like how people introduce themselves at a 12-step Alcoholics Anonymous program, but I’m serious: I’ve had problems with sleep my whole adult life, and chronic sleep deprivation has compromised my mental equanimity, physical health and quality of life.

    I’m not alone, either.

    The National Sleep Foundation, or NSF, estimates that 60 percent of adults have trouble sleeping at least a few nights a week, according to the New York Times. With nearly 95 percent of all respondent reporting they browse the Internet, text or watch TV a couple of nights before trying to sleep, the NSF reported, all signs point to a potential link between a growing use of gadgets and sleep-related fatigue.

    “[An LED screen] could be giving you an alert stimulus at a time that will frustrate your body’s ability to go to sleep later,” Dr. Brainard told the New York Times. “When you turn it off, it doesn’t mean that instantly the alerting effects go away. There’s an underlying biology that’s stimulated.”

    When we’re exposed to artificial light, between dusk and bedtime, our bodies are blocked from being able to recognize day from night, according to the New York Times, and that suppresses the release of sleep-promoting hormone, melatonin, pushing our circadian rhythms to a later hour. And that glow from our gadgets, even a mere hour before bedtime – a pivotal moment when we transition from the day’s activities to nighttime relaxation – can keep us awake long into the night, and affect the quality of sleep we get when our heads finally hit the pillows.

    SNIP

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    • 08 DEC 13

    The main force behind the push for a global smart grid: Maintaining corporate market share

    In a just released paper by Prof. Damien Ernst from the University of Liege (December 2013) he argues that the the main force behind the creation of a global electricity grid is to be able to incorporate renewable energy thereby lessening our reliance on fossil fuels. Among other things, Ernst sees the transition towards a global grid as an inevitability but that the globalisation of the electricity commodity will give rise to serious challenges to national power industries. Ernst concludes with the warning that countries relying too much on the global grid for their electricity supply may experience very adverse effects.

    Ernst may be right in the original concept for a need for a global electricity grid: incorporating renewable energy sources, but I would argue that the overriding global push for the smart grid (Ernst doesn’t mention the smart grid – but it would likely be an integral part of his envisioned global grid) has little to do with renewable energy or ‘sustainability’ but all to do with corporations seizing the opportunity to improve their market share (and profits). This is achieved by endlessly creating and marketing new smart appliances / gadgets – and then convincing the consuming public that they really do need all these wondrous things.
    SNIP

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    • 07 DEC 13

    Scientists pledge to boycott Elsevier

    ISIS – Institute of Science in Society

    5th December 2013

    Following the retraction of the Seralini et al scientific paper which found health damage to rats fed on GM corn, over 100 scientists have pledged in this Open Letter to boycott Elsevier, publisher of the Journal responsible.

    To: Wallace Hayes, Editor in Chief, Food and Chemical Toxicology; Elsevier

    Re: “Long term toxicity of a Roundup herbicide and a Roundup-tolerant genetically modified maize”, by G E Séralini et al, published in Food and Chemical Toxicology 2012, 50(11), 4221-31.

    Your decision to retract the paper is in clear violation of the international ethical norms as laid down by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), of which FCT is a member. According to COPE, the only grounds for retraction are clear evidence that the findings are unreliable due to misconduct or honest error,plagiarism or redundant publication, or unethical research.

    You have already acknowledged that the paper of Séralini et al (2012) contains none of those faults.

    This arbitrary, groundless retraction of a published, thoroughly peer-reviewed paper is without precedent in the history of scientific publishing, and raises grave concerns over the integrity and impartiality of science. These concerns are heightened by a sequence of events surrounding the retraction:

    * the appointment of ex-Monsanto employee Richard Goodman to the newly created post of associate editor for biotechnology at FCT
    * the retraction of another study finding potentially harmful effects from GMOs (which almost immediately appeared in another journal)
    * the failure to retract a paper published by Monsanto scientists in the same journal in 2004, for which a gross error has been identified.

    The retraction is erasing from the public record results that are potentially of very great importance for public health. It is censorship of scientific research, knowledge, and understanding, an abuse of science striking at the very heart of science and democracy, and science for the public good.
    SNIP

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    • 05 DEC 13

    Australia vs Big Tobacco: The Trans-Pacific Partnership

    From Oliver MacColl – Avaaz.org

    Dear friends across Australia,

    Australia has the strongest anti-smoking laws in the world. They’re so successful that other countries want to do the same. But Big Tobacco isn’t happy about this — and the Australian government is about to agree to a deal that lets them trample all over us whenever they want.

    The Trans-Pacific Partnership is a US-driven trade pact that that could let companies sue us to get rid of whichever of our hard-fought protections they don’t like. The whole deal is being negotiated in secret, and this weekend Trade Minister Robb is set to agree to rules none of us had a say in.

    But opposition is building in Australia and other countries. The ALP and The Greens have just joined together to demand transparency. Abbott’s team is on the ropes from the Indonesian spying scandal, let’s use this crucial opportunity to stall the talks and stand up for our health…

    SNIP

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    • 05 DEC 13

    Boosting sleep ‘may slow memory rot’: Think of the implications for nightime smart meter RF exposure

    Boosting sleep ‘may slow memory rot’
    By James Gallagher Health and science reporter, BBC News

    It may be possible to slow the decline in memory and learning as we age by tackling poor sleep, researchers hope. Their study, in the journal Nature Neuroscience, has revealed an intimate relationship between an ageing brain, sleep and memory. Experiments showed that changes in the ageing brain damaged the quality of deep sleep, this in turn hampered the ability to store memories. Scientists want to test ways of boosting sleep to halt memory decline. Wisdom may come with age, but both the brain and the body take the strain of time. Many people will be aware that both their memory and sleep are not as good as in their earlier years. Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, said it was unknown whether changes in the brain, sleep and memory were all separate signs of ageing or deeply connected. They performed a series of experiments on 36 people – an even split of those in their twenties and their seventies.
    SNIP

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    • 04 DEC 13

    The too frequent use of digital media reduces the mental capacity of our children

    Psychiatrist and brain researcher Manfred Spitzer warns parents and educators
    by Dr Rudolf Hänsel, qualified psychologist, Lindau/Germany

    The neuroscientist and medical director of the Psychiatric University Hospital Ulm, Professor Manfred Spitzer, met with intense press coverage about his new best-seller “Digitale Demenz. Wie wir uns und unsere Kinder um den Verstand bringen” (Digital dementia. How we drive us and our children mad) and his trenchant theses. Referring to many neurological findings and supplementing new findings Spitzer reinforces in his book previous research of reputable media experts saying that the too frequent use of the Internet can make people dumb. He never denigrated juvenile and adult Internet users however. Reacting to the spiteful attacks by the press, he said in an interview: “I do not pathologize but I state: Where there are effects there are also risks and side effects.”1 However, Spitzer does not just express warnings; he also shows what parents, teachers and politicians can do to protect our youth.

    SNIP

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    • 02 DEC 13

    The Energy Networks Association to publish a web-based brochure on the smart meter health controversy

    On November 12th just before my trip to New Zealand I send out a post saying that I would be unable to attend the ACEBR Science & Wireless 2013 seminar in Melbourne on November 27
    I noted the smart meter presentation to be given at the ACEBR event by Richard Hoy, representing the Energy Networks Association (ENA) and wondered if the ENA presentation would address the smart meter health effects issue.

    According to several people who attended the event, Mr. Hoy mentioned a number of places that now have smart meter opt outs “with hindsight” and that sometimes consumers had to pay extra for this. As for health effects a variety of statements were made such as “basically everybody is pretty much in agreement” that there are no effects, and that there is “no scientific basis” for electrosensitivity (EHS), whilst mentioning provocation studies. Mr. Hoy did mention at the end of his presentation however, that “some research could be worthwhile”.

    Apparently Hoy’s big announcement was that ENA is formalizing a web-based brochure on smart meters and their possible health effects.
    SNIP

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    • 01 DEC 13

    New Zealand smart electricity grid presentation now available on-line

    The pdf of my recent Powerpoint presentation examining problems with the smart grid is now available at http://www.emfacts.com/download/New_Zealand_pres.pdf

    Titled “The Smart Electricity Grid, Claims, Pitfalls, and Unintended
    Consequences”     the 90 minute presentation (including question time) was given at public meetings in Christchurch NZ on November 26th and Auckland on 28 Nov.

    Don

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    • 12 NOV 13

    So, Google/Motorola wants to tattoo a smartphone receiver on your neck!

    Why do my thoughts keep drifting back to that dystopian world of George Orwell’s 1984 whenever I read of many of the new “advances” of the so-called ‘smart’ world? I suppose the folk at ACEBR would say that I was just a paranoid Luddite. Perhaps so, but consider the wondrous Google/Motorola electronic tattoo that can be placed on a smart phone user’s neck and which could interface with a number of smart gadgets and also function as a built in lie detector? (Below). A handy thing to have tattoed on the public’s necks for the current ruling corporatocracy. In 1984 thoughtcrime is the criminal act of holding unspoken beliefs or doubts that oppose or question the ruling party. In the book, the government attempts to control not only the speech and actions, but also the very thoughts of its subjects. To entertain unacceptable thought is also known as crimethink in Newspeak, the ideologically purified dialect of the party. Google/Motorola’s electronic tattoo would fit in very well with the fictional world of 1984.

    Can we trust Google not to go overboard on this type of technology? Hardly

    SNIP

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    • 11 NOV 13

    ELECTRICAL SENSITIVITIES and the ELECTRICAL ENVIRONMENT

    Cyril W. Smith, Ph.D.

    A shortened and edited version of notes written for and in cooperation with The Breakspear Hospital, Hemel Hempstead, HP2 4FD, U.K. The writer has been helping their electrically hypersensitive patients since 1982.

    What are Electrical Sensitivities?
    Many persons suffer from sensitivities to certain foods and environmental chemicals which cause them discomfort, or even in extreme cases prevent them from functioning in any effective manner. Even the most minute amounts of these substances may on occasions ‘trigger’ reactions which are specific to each individual. Warnings regarding nuts, peanuts or gluten are commonly found displayed on food products. When a sensitivity reaction occurs, some regulatory system within the body has ceased to function properly and gives alarm signals, calling for an unjustified panic reaction. Usually, it is the autonomic nervous system (ANS) which is the first to become compromised in this way. This system controls all the involuntary body functions. Thus, any part or function of the body might become affected by the same allergen acting in different people which is why such effects do not show up in medical statistics.
    SNIP

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