• 30 JAN 14

    Politically Correct Science for the Masses

    ISIS Report 27/01/14
    Science for Democracy
    #####################
    Politically Correct Science for the Masses (Excerpts)

    Real democracy does not just mean the right to vote. People must also have
    access to the information they need to make an informed choice; that’s why
    scientists must be free to tell the truth and express their views
    accordingly on scientific issues. … Prof Peter Saunders

    If a policy can be claimed to be based on science, it acquires a privileged
    status. Anyone who disagrees is treated like the crank who claims to have
    designed a perpetual motion machine.

    Hence, to accept that there are legitimate doubts about the science is much
    harder than to acknowledge that some reputable economists disagree with the
    direction of government policy.
    SNIP

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    • 29 JAN 14

    Vital research that needs to be done… but not by the Victorian government’s spin doctors.

    See my latest submission that mentions the type of research that needs to be done in order to determine the extent of health hazards that may exist with smart meters. Unfortunately we will not see this with the Victorian Energy Minister’s proposal (last message) which I will be following with extreme interest.

    An incomplete Benefit-Cost analysis and the urgent need for research
    Comments on the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ document no. D.P.U. 12-76-A.
    Investigation by the Department of Public Utilities on its own Motion into
    Modernization of the Electric Grid, December 23, 2013

    Download the report here

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    • 29 JAN 14

    Victorian Energy Minister to commission a “safety audit” to “show once and for all that smart meters are safe”

    Watch the almighty spin on this one! Note that the supposed safety audit is being done “to and show once and for all that smart meters are safe”. So, the ‘brief’ given to the supposed independent third party is set. Show that they are safe. FULL STOP. This is how science works in Victoria nowadays. Who can safely be relied upon to do this objective research for the government? Why not ACEBR or the Bioelectromagnetics group at Swinbourne University, both with a proven track record, assisted by Telstra of course.

    Don

    ***************************************************************************************************************************************
    From Stop Smart Meters Australia:

    3AW News Talk radio

    Minister signals energy overhaul
    Posted by: 3AW Radio | 29 January, 2014 – 12:24 PM

    Nick Kotsiras, Victoria’s Energy Minister, is making sweeping changes to the billing system that will likely spark some tension with the power industry. He also told Neil Mitchell that he plans to commission a top-to-bottom, independent safety audit to determine whether smart meters pose any health risks to the public. …. “I think the best way forward is to get a third party to do the audit and show once and for all that smart meters are safe.”
    SNIP

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    • 22 JAN 14

    CES LIVE: Cisco’s Chambers Says Internet of Everything, $19 Trillion Opportunity, Is Next Big Thing

    Cisco CEO John Chambers is counting on the software, services and hardware needed to enable the Internet of Everything to help turn the world’s largest maker of networking gear into the leading supplier of information technology. “This will be bigger than anything done in high tech in a decade,” Chambers said in a keynote presentation at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas today. Businesses, governments and consumers will generate or realize savings to the tune of $19 trillion by allowing devices and applications to work together and create new services built off the Internet.

    Here’s a play-by-play of what Chambers said:

    4:35: Gary Shapiro, CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association, takes the stage to introduce Chambers. “John has built his entire career seeing around the corner.”
    Chambers on stage. Says a year ago, he would have to explain what the Internet of things. But all of a sudden, business and government leaders are realizing what the Internet of Everything means in terms of job creation, growth. Four years ago, we talked about what it meant in terms of putting this over a smart grid and moving electricity around. Two and half years ago, it was about connected industries. Bet on the Internet of things is paying off. His prediction: 2014 will be the transformational, pivot point for Internet of everything. It is not just connecting a car, a refrigerator or health device – it’s the combination of all of this. It will be five to 10 times more impactful than the whole Internet revolution has been….Connected garbage cans can help save $10 billion as you transform waste management, he says. You can change traffic patterns of trucks, put sensors in cans to notify you if the cans are full or empty and need to be picked up…. “Not only is $19 trillion doable. It will require changes by all of us.”

    SNIP

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    • 19 JAN 14

    A taste of things to come: Massive cyberattack linked to at least one smart refrigerator

    From Science Recorder

    Massive cyberattack linked to at least one refrigerator

    “Smart” appliances have been transformed into “thingbots” to launch large-scale cyberattacks.

    Saturday, January 18, 2014

    Proofpoint, an internet security firm, has uncovered what may be the first Internet of Things-based cyberattack involving “smart” appliances, including at least one refrigerator. The cyberattack involved more than 750,000 spam emails originating from more than 100,000 consumer gadgets. With the number of internet-connected devices anticipated to significantly increase in the next couple of years, evidence of an IoT-based cyber attack has serious consequences for smart device owners and Enterprise targets. The firm’s findings show that cyber criminals have started to take over home routers and smart appliances and turn them into “thingbots” to launch large-scale cyberattacks. Criminals wishing to steal identities and gain access to Enterprise IT systems have discovered a target-rich environment in these poorly guarded internet-connected devices that may be easier to infect and control than PCs and tablets.The cyberattack took place on December 23, 2013 and January 6, 2014, and was characterized by several waves of spam emails, usually sent in groups of 100,000, three times per day, focusing on Enterprises and individuals worldwide.
    SNIP

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    • 17 JAN 14

    New Video: Public Confronts Tom Wheeler Over Clearly Inadequate RF ‘Guidelines’ at Silicon Valley Speech

    Excerpt from Stop Smart Meters posting

    (Note- the clip above is updated with higher quality audio and video, and new footage of the protests, courtesy of a woman who is going into surgery this week for a brain tumor, caused by her cell phone- our thoughts and support are with her at this difficult time.)

    Almost a week ago, members of the public attending the first speech by new FCC Chair Tom Wheeler in Silicon Valley, rose up in succession and confronted what we see as grossly inadequate public health ‘guidelines’ for RF wireless radiation exposure.

    The evidence for that claim? A rash of cell phone caused brain tumors, electrical sensitivities resulting from exposures to smart meters and other wireless devices, and a history of peer-reviewed science that has systematically been ignored and suppressed by the government, industry, and mainstream media.

    How obvious does it have to get? The man appointed by Obama to lead the agency charged with regulating the wireless industry actually led the wireless industry for 12 years.

    Apparently Mr. Obama- and the power structure he represents- thinks the public is stupid. Well maybe we’re not as stupid as you think, Mr. President.

    SNIP

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    • 16 JAN 14

    Media Advisory: “The High Road to a True Smart Grid”

    From Camilla Rees:

    Media Advisory
    Commonwealth Club of CA, San Francisco:
    “The High Road to a True Smart Grid”
    Tuesday, January 28th 12:00-3:00 p.m.

    Washington, D.C., January 16, 2014. A multi-disciplinary expert panel on electricity and the economy of energy led by the National Institute for Science, Law & Public Policy (NISLAPP) will present at the Commonwealth Club of CA in San Francisco Tuesday, January 28th from 12-3 p.m. The program includes Timothy Schoechle, PhD, Senior Research Fellow at NISLAPP and author of the landmark white paper, Getting SmarterAbout the Smart Grid. There is a complimentary light lunch at 11:30 a.m. Tickets: $32 non-members, $20 members, $10 students (with valid ID).

    The panel will address misconceptions about the present approach to electricity generation and distribution in the U.S., including the value of ‘smart meters’, and the pressing need for the U.S. to proactively tap into infinite renewable energy abundance. The audience will learn:
    SNIP

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    • 16 JAN 14

    The Real Consequences of Corporatism, “Smart” Grid and Corrupt Government

    By Josh del Sol, Producer & Director, Take Back Your Power
    14 January 2014

    Excerpt

    The Real Consequences of Corporatism, “Smart” Grid and Corrupt GovernmentAt the federal level, the illusion of representative government is now over. With a few exceptions, for-profit interests have colonized government systems that were originally intended to serve people. The danger of allowing this virus to continue, of course, is that the casualty always eventually becomes life itself. Like any virus. Reuters interviewed one veteran Washington telecom insider, who spoke anonymously: “All of the senators in the Commerce Committee know Tom as a lobbyist who funnels funds to them, not as a stand-up guy from a regulatory agency who is able to take heat.” Wheeler’s career has been dedicated to obsessively expanding the telecom industry to what it is now: an uncontrollable behemoth in league with the NSA and its ilk. And a facade which intentionally suppresses an avalanche of scientific evidence for the harm it is causing. Presented to you is Exhibit A: chief telecom industry lobbyist Tom Wheeler now chairs the FCC. This is yet another FDA-Monsanto-esque revolving door of corruption, which sidelines the rights and safety of an entire nation.

    SNIP

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    • 15 JAN 14

    Google wants to be the backbone of your smart home…..

    “What Google wants to do is be the backbone for your home, how you consume energy, how you consume content like music through your entire house,”

    (Reuters) – Google Inc took its biggest step to go deeper into consumers’ homes, announcing a $3.2 billion deal to buy smart thermostat and smoke alarm-maker Nest Labs Inc, scooping up a promising line of products and a prized design team led by the “godfather” of the iPod. Nest will continue to operate as its own distinct brand after the all-cash deal closes, Google said on Monday. The deal is the second largest in Google’s history after the $12.5 billion acquisition of mobile phone maker Motorola in 2012. “Nest Labs appears to be focused on thermostats and smoke alarms, but it’s not far-fetched to see Google expanding this technology into other devices over time,” said Shyam Patil, an analyst at Wedbush. “Home automation is one of the bigger opportunities when you talk about the Internet of everything and connecting everything. This acquisition furthers their strategy around that,” he said. Shares of Google were up 0.5 percent at $1,128.49 in extended trading on Monday.
    SNIP

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    • 15 JAN 14

    Fridge of the future? The CloudFridge – with the help of Google of course

    From MIT Technology review:

    The Tricky Problem Of Making Smart Fridges Smart

    The 1990s dream of an internet-connected fridge has been much derided in the last decade or so. Even the most advanced smart fridges are little more than a conventional fridge with a few added gimmicks such as a barcode scanner or a tablet screen attached to the front. Consequently, smart fridges have been anything but and the public has responded with little, if any, interest.

    But Thomas Sandholm and pals from the Korean Advanced Institute of Technology in Daejeon, South Korea, hope to change that. These guys have developed a system called CloudFridge that hopes to fix everything that’s wrong with smart fridges, thereby returning them to their rightful position in the pantheon of consumer technology breakthroughs.

    SNIP

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    • 06 JAN 14

    The Chinese Government is now a major player in Victoria’s electricity distribution businesses

    From Stop Smart Meters Australia:

    The Chinese Government is now a major player in Victoria’s electricity distribution businesses
    Posted on January 6, 2014 by Stop Smart Meters Australia

    The Chinese Communist regime, through the government-owned State Grid Corporation of China, recently completed its purchase of a 19.9 per cent interest in Australian-listed SP AusNet and a 60 per cent stake in the privately held Jemena business. This was approved by the Federal Liberal Government. See: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/mining-energy/chinese-firm-acquires-sp-ausnets-stake/story-e6frg9df-1226794608150#

    The Chinese Government and its interests are now the major player in Victoria’s electricity distribution businesses.

    SNIP

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    • 02 JAN 14

    Censored 2014: Fearless Speech in Fateful Times; The Top Censored Stories and Media Analysis of 2012-13

    Every year since 1976, Project Censored, our nation’s oldest news-monitoring group–a university-wide project at Sonoma State University founded by Carl Jensen, directed for many years by Peter Phillips, and now under the leadership of Mickey Huff–has produced a Top-25 list of under reported news stories and a book, Censored, dedicated to the stories that ought to be top features on the nightly news, but that are missing because of media bias and self-censorship.

    SNIP

    14. Wireless Technology a Looming Health Crisis: As a multitude of hazardous wireless technologies are deployed in homes, schools, and workplaces, government officials and industry representatives continue to insist on their safety despite growing evidence to the contrary. Extensive deployment of “smart grid” technology hastens this looming health crisis.

    By now many residents in the United States and Canada have smart meters–which transfer detailed information on residents’ electrical usage back to the utility every few minutes–installed on their dwellings. Each meter has an electronic cellular transmitter that uses powerful bursts of electromagnetic radio frequency (RF) radiation to communicate with nearby meters, which together form an interlocking network. Such information can easily be used to determine individual patterns of behavior based on power consumption.

    SNIP

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    • 30 DEC 13

    Getting Smarter about the Smart Grid

    From Alexander Binik as posted on the CHEEMF list

    The following 66 page report, Getting Smarter about the Smart Grid, by Timothy Schoechle–published by the National Institute for Science, Law and Public Policy–discusses why smart meters prevent a clean, decentralized, sustainable energy future.

    http://gettingsmarteraboutthesmartgrid.org/

    For a briefer look, the following links are to transcripts from interviews with Timothy Schoechle and others about the report Getting Smarter about the Smart Grid and will acquaint you with the main ideas.

    SNIP

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    • 20 DEC 13

    Dirty Electricity from ‘Smart’ Meters: Answers from the Experts

    Posted on December 3, 2013 by onthelevelblog

    Last week, after we solicited opinions from readers on the following question:

    Others were wondering how the switch mode power supplies (SMPS- that convert AC to DC within the meters) could cause so much more dirty electricity than those contained in other electronics.

    We received the following, intriguing answer from Hugh Hinskens, a Canadian Electronics Engineering Technologist with a B.Sc. in physics and a background in microwave circuit engineering. According to experts, the switch mode power supply (SMPS) contained in millions of ‘smart’ meters (but not their analog predecessors) has essentially ‘polluted’ the electricity coming into our homes with high frequency transients. Which means at the end of the day, there is no “opt out” when the “smart grid” is being deployed in your area. Even with no RF microwave wireless antennas, a “smart” grid of SMPS-equipped meters can still threaten your health.

    “Why more so than other electronic devices?”, we asked…
    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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    • 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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    • 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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    • 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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    • 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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