Feedback and suggestions invited on COST 281
Hi Klaus: I should have mentioned yesterday in my report on
COST 281
workshop that, in his closing address, Dr. Tom McManus, Dep.
of
Enterprise, Dublin (workshop host) expressly requested attendees
to
email him feedback on the COST 281 workshop within a couple
of weeks. In
particular, he would like them to note strengths and weaknesses
plus
suggestions for upcoming COST workshops.
Having attended the meeting, I am qualified to avail of this
opportunity
to give feedback and suggestions to Dr. McManus. But before
tapping out
ideas, I would love input from your list --and sent to you
for
posting--on what might be best to mention. Of course, the
absence of any
specialists--scientists, doctors or/and engineers--among the
presenters
whose facts would have helped lessen the deplorable bias in
favour of
absence of illhealth effects from mobile telephony calls out
for a
strong mention.
The programme of events, etc can be accessed at www.cost281.org.
The
next COST 281 workshop on same topic is scheduled for Nov.
15-16, 2003
in Budapest, Hungary. Preparations for ensuring our strong
presence
there should begin as soon as possible.
Best, Imelda, Cork, Ireland.
A
Spy Machine of DARPA's Dreams
-------------------------------
By Noah Shachtman
02:00 AM May. 20, 2003 PT
It's a memory aid! A robotic assistant! An epidemic detector!
An
all-seeing, ultra-intrusive spying program! The Pentagon is
about to
embark on a stunningly ambitious research project designed
to gather
every conceivable bit of information about a person's life,
index all
the information and make it searchable.
What national security experts and civil libertarians want
to know is,
why would the Defense Department want to do such a thing?
The embryonic
LifeLog program would dump everything an individual does into
a giant
database: every e-mail sent or received, every picture taken,
every Web
page surfed, every phone call made, every TV show watched,
every
magazine read. All of this -- and more -- would combine with
information
gleaned from a variety of sources: a GPS transmitter to keep
tabs on
where that person went, audio-visual sensors to capture what
he or she
sees or says, and biomedical monitors to keep track of the
individual's health.
This gigantic amalgamation of personal information could
then be used to
"trace the 'threads' of an individual's life," to
see exactly how a
relationship or events developed, according to a briefing
from the
Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency, LifeLog's sponsor.
Someone
with access to the database could "retrieve a specific
thread of past
transactions, or recall an experience from a few seconds ago
or from
many years earlier ... by using a search-engine interface."
On the surface, the project seems like the latest in a long
line of
DARPA's "blue sky" research efforts, most of which
never make it out of
the lab. But DARPA is currently asking businesses and universities
for
research proposals to begin moving LifeLog forward. And some
people,
such as Steven Aftergood, a defense analyst with the Federation
of
American Scientists, are worried.
With its controversial Total Information Awareness database
project,
DARPA already is planning to track all of an individual's
"transactional
data" -- like what we buy and who gets our e-mail. While
the parameters
of the project have not yet been determined, Aftergood said
he believes
LifeLog could go far beyond TIA's scope, adding physical information
(like how we feel) and media data (like what we read) to this
transactional data. "LifeLog has the potential to become
something like
'TIA cubed,'" he said. In the private sector, a number
of LifeLog-like
efforts already are underway to digitally archive one's life
-- to
create a "surrogate memory," as minicomputer pioneer
Gordon Bell calls it.
Bell, now with Microsoft, scans all his letters and memos,
records his
conversations, saves all the Web pages he's visited and e-mails
he's
received and puts them into an electronic storehouse dubbed
MyLifeBits.
DARPA's LifeLog would take this concept several steps further
by
tracking where people go and what they see. That makes the
project
similar to the work of University of Toronto professor Steve
Mann. Since
his teen years in the 1970s, Mann, a self-styled "cyborg,"
has worn a
camera and an array of sensors to record his existence. He
claims he's
convinced 20 to 30 of his current and former students to do
the same.
It's all part of an experiment into "existential technology"
and "the
metaphysics of free will."
Darpa isn't quite so philosophical about LifeLog. But the
agency does
see some potential battlefield uses for the program. "The
technology
could allow the military to develop computerized assistants
for
warfighters and commanders that can be more effective because
they can
easily access the user's past experiences," Darpa spokeswoman
Jan Walker
speculated in an e-mail. It also could allow the military
to develop
more efficient computerized training systems, she said: Computers
could
remember how each student learns and interacts with the training
system,
then tailor the lessons accordingly.
John Pike, director of defense think tank GlobalSecurity.org,
said he
finds the explanations "hard to believe." "It
looks like an outgrowth of
Total Information Awareness and other Darpa homeland security
surveillance programs," he added in an e-mail.
Sure, LifeLog could be used to train robotic assistants.
But it also
could become a way to profile suspected terrorists, said Cory
Doctorow,
with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. In other words, Osama
bin
Laden's agent takes a walk around the block at 10 each morning,
buys a
bagel and a newspaper at the corner store and then calls his
mother. You
do the same things -- so maybe you're an al Qaeda member,
too!
"The more that an individual's characteristic behavior
patterns --
'routines, relationships, and habits' -- can be represented
in digital
form, the easier it would become to distinguish among different
individuals, or to monitor one," Aftergood, the Federation
of American
Scientists analyst, wrote in an e-mail.
In its LifeLog report, Darpa makes some nods to privacy protection,
like
when it suggests that "properly anonymized access to
LifeLog data might
support medical research and the early detection of an emerging
epidemic."
But before these grand plans get underway, LifeLog will start
small.
Right now, Darpa is asking industry and academics to submit
proposals
for 18-month research efforts, with a possible 24-month extension.
(Darpa is not sure yet how much money it will sink into the
program.)
The researchers will be the centerpiece of their own study.
Like a game
show, winning this Darpa prize eventually will earn the lucky
scientists
a trip for three to Washington, D.C. Except on this excursion,
every
participating scientist's e-mail to the travel agent, every
padded bar
bill and every mad lunge for a cab will be monitored, categorized
and
later dissected.
Sources: http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,58909,00.html
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,58909-2,00.html
http://www.darpa.mil/baa/baa03-30.htm
"CONTROLLED
AMERICA LECTURE" (excerpt)
CONTROLLEDAMERICA.COM
Saturday, July 12, & Sunday July 13, 2003
9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
U.C. Davis,
Davis, California
$35.00 each day
Learn about GPS satellite & Microchips, Government Mind
Control Programs,
Directed Energy Weapons Harassment, HAARP, CIA
Controlled America lectures were formed to educate the public
about the
Government's Directed Energy Program. Through rallies, lectures,
videos,
and books they expose the human rights abuses/torture involving
the U.S.
Government, military, C.I.A., F.B.I. and Independent Contractors
and
their use of bio-electronic weapons (such as extremely low
frequency
electromagnetic weapons, which have been used as mind control
devices).
Speakers
Cheryl Welsh - Director of Citizens Against Human Rights Abuse
(CAHRA)
since 1996. This organization was formed by a group of victims
ofalleged
nonconsensual human experimentation involving electromagnetic
and
neurological weapon testing programs by the U.S. and other
governments.
Cheryl is recognized by the United Nations as an expert on
Non-lethal
Technology (Directed Energy Weapons). Cheryl has been on a
CNN program
to explain the use of Directed Energy Weapons on U.S. citizens.
She has
co-authored several books including "International Campaign
to End Human
Rights Violations Involving Classified New Weapons of Mass
Destruction:
Electromagnetic and Neurological Technologies"
Recently she has authored two articles for the UFO Magazine
Feb/March
2003 and April/May 2003 "Cover Stories Torn Away: New
Evidence of Active
Mind Control." http://www.dcn.davis.ca.us/~welsh.
Welsh@dcn.davis.ca.us
Jerry E. Smith - Author of "HAARP: The Ultimate Weapon
of the
Conspiracy" (a title in the Mind-Control Conspiracy Series
from
Adventures Unlimited Press (August 1998)). Jerry has been
a writer, poet, editor
and activist for over three decades. His bibliography of published
works
includes chapbooks of his poetry, a handful of fiction pieces,
several
"ghostwritten" books and over 100 non-fiction articles
and reviews.
Jerry has been on many radio shows and was featured on the
PAX TV show
"Encounters with the Unexplained."
http://www.jerryesmith.com
and his email is jerryesmith@gbis.com
Dr. A. Michrowski -A world renowned scientist who has conducted
extensive
studies on how electromagnetic energy effects a human being
and the
environment they live in. He has a newsletter called Essentia
and he
helps run the Plantetary Association for Clean Energy (PACE).
On his
website http://www.essentia.ca/
you can find books, EM detectors and
health aids. He will be on video tape and his lecture is entitled
"Health Physics: radiation protection, detection procedure,
guidelines,
typical problem/inexpensive solutions." Oriented for
health
practitioners, engineers, electricians, and responsible laypersons.
Clayton Douglas - Lecturer and Writer, Clay is the Publisher
of the
monthly Free American Magazine and Host of the daily radio
show The Free
American Radio Hour, and was a Founding Member of The American
Media
Association (AMA). Free American Group 2943 US Highway 380
Bingham, NM
87832 - 505-423-3250 - FAX 505-423-3258
http://www.freeamerican.com
Ted Gunderson - Ted is a retired FBI Sr. Special Agent-in-charge
in the
Los Angeles office. Some of his more high profile cases have
been the
McMartin preschool, Polly Klass, and Franklin cover-up.
http://www.tedgunderson.com
Celerino "Cele" Castillo - Worked for the DEA for
many year and was a
twenty year criminal investigator, specializing in drug cases.
http://www.drugwar.com/
powderburns@prodigy.net
Dr. Hal Tracey - One of the Founders of the International
Tesla Society,
Dr. Tracey is a scientist who is well versed on how electromagnetic
energy and other energies affect a person's health and their
environment.
Other speakers and schedules to be announced.
Contact: MARY ANN STRATTON at controlledamerica1@earthlink.net
or Mike Duffey at mindcontroltv@yahoo.com
Informant: Romy
Greenpeace
Activist News
SAVE
THE BALTIC
The MV Esperanza is at this minute taking action against
dangerous
shipping in the Baltic Sea, a job that by all rights should
be done by
governments. We need your help to put pressure on politicians
to act
strongly to stop the dangerous traffic that threatens the
Baltic sea.
Help us save the Baltic: write to the Swedish Prime Minister
calling on
him to fight for strong regulation of Baltic shipping here:
http://act.greenpeace.org/ams/e?a=777&s=fsh
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