Cross pollination of information very important
-----------------------------------------------
A cross pollination of information is very important for we
will succeed
en mass and while I loath duplication of effort when we are
so thin on
the ground and of resources I relaise that one group might succeed
where
another has failed through timing and other influences. I think
we
should be focusing on targets and all those interested join
with that
initiative.
I also think we should be feeding information through our
networks like
Don and Klaus, the old addage "Knowledge is Power"
comes to mind. We
would be best to have one or two people going to each group
to share
information and cross pollinate the information and efforts,
regards
Denise.
http://www.antennareview.ca/
and
Prohibitions
of cell sites for residential areas
------------------------------------------------------
The County of Santa Cruz (in California) is close to adopting
a very
good telecom ordinance that has prohibitions of cell sites
for
residential areas, and mandatory setbacks of 300' from residential
property boundaries where commercial and residential land
use zoning is
adjacent (subject to the possibility of exception under stringent
findings that there are no other suitable places, and requiring
alternatives analysis).
What may be important there is their information on RF as
a pollutant on
electrical lines, and the relationship to electrosensitivity.
Dave
Stetzer, Marty Graham and Lloyd Morgan have been working on
this aspect,
and are finding that blood sugar levels in diabetics are very
dependent
on RF high frequency transients on electrical wiring systems.
and
GE
Slow Down petition
---------------------
Take 5 has one simple objective - to get Helen Clark and the
New Zealand
Government to slow down on releasing GE into our environment
by
extending the GE moratorium for 5 years.
To make Take 5 successful we need at least a million votes.
That's where
YOU come in. To achieve this we need you to forward this email
to at
least 5 Kiwis no matter where in the world they live.
If YOU have just received this email, here is how to vote
and Take 5.
If you live in New Zealand simply TXT your name and suburb
or town to
8642. If you live outside New Zealand or don't have access
to a TXT
capable mobile phone then visit http://www.take5.net.nz
and click on
baby Gracie to vote.
Remember to vote for the whole family as there is no age
restriction. If
you are pregnant, you can vote for your unborn too by using
'pregnant'
as the first name.
After you have voted please forward this email or the reply
TXT to at
least 5 Kiwis -preferably your entire whole address book!
New Zealand is a clean green oasis in the Pacific, let's
keep it that
way. The power is in YOUR hands. Use it or lose it.
Thank you for your support,
Greg Menendez and Lisa Er.
Take 5 Campaign Organisers.
P.S. If you live in New Zealand we would prefer if you voted
by TXTing.
Each TXT costs 50c of which some comes back to Take 5 to help
advertise
the campaign. Take 5 is non-political and non-profit. Any
profit left
over will be donated to child charities.
Take 5 seconds to TXT,
Take 5 minutes to tell 5 friends,
Take 5 years on GE to be sure.
Informant: Denise Ward, Christchurch, N.Z.
check out http://canterbury.cyberplace.co.nz/ouruhia/
and www.neilcherry.com
---------
Forbidden
Zone
--------------
Dear Klaus,
Further to my researches into the intrusion of people's minds
and
privacy by scientists et alia, (On the Need for New Criteria
of
Diagnosis of Psychosis in the Light of Mind-Invasive Technology)
I have
become interested in the exploitation - See Cambridge and
Oxford
University, England, and research and allied commercial companies
referred to in article - of the last unexplored regions of
the
electromagnetic spectrum - the terahertz world. I am sending
you the
article written by Justin Mullins for The New Scientist vol
175 issue
2360 - 14 September 2002, page 34. I invite you to publish
this with
special attention to your subscribers to debate the rights
to privacy
involved, and with regard to the usual slant towards the benefits
it
will bring mankind, not to mention the billions of dollars
to the
shareholders of the companies. I expect a new wave of spin-off
products
in the form of cameras, and laser operated devices. They have
apparently
concluded that there are no harmful effects...I have a feeling
that we
may be in for another wave of scientific heroes whose experiments
are
not free from covert use of private citizens nonconsensual
participation.
Carole Smith
http://www.grn.es/electropolucio/forbiddenzone.rtf
--------
The
end of independent science in Australia: Senate speech by
Lyn
Allison (Democrat, Victoria)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Howard Government's hatchet job on the CSIRO
Opinion
The Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research
Organisation (CSIRO) has long been recognised internationally
as a
first rate scientific research organisation, able to stand
independent
of industry vested interests. For example, CSIRO representatives
on the
old Standards Australia TE/7 committee on setting a RF/MW
exposure
standard were steadfast in their opposition to ICNIRP and
its thermal
effects only dogma. They also supported having public representatives
as
members of the committee - something the industry long resisted.
After TE/7 was unable to reach consensus on a new standard,
that role
was given to a new committee under the austices of ARPANSA.
Interestingly that committee was made up of most of the old
TE/7
Committee members -minus most of those who had voted against
the
incorporation of the ICNIRP limits. Stan Barnett from the
CSIRO was
initially chairman of this new committee but soon resigned
in protest
because of the committee was stacked by Telco employees -
thus ensuring
a favourable voting outcome.
It is interesting to compare the willingness of CSIRO to
stand up
against industry influence to the other government department
ARPANSA
which actively runs a pro-industry line and essentially seems
to work
more as a PR firm than a credible scientific organisation.
Inevitably the CSIRO built up a number of enemies in
telecommunications, such as Motorola, who consider independent
research,
and an independent scientific voice a risk factor for corporate
profits.
The CSIRO as an independent expert organisation puts to the
lie spin
statements such as" The international body of scientific
research
concludes there is no link between mobile phones and adverse
health
effects" (from Optus Communications)
For the Telcos it is now "pay-back time" AND that
is what is partly
behind the Howard government's moves in its hatchet job on
the CSIRO.
Old scores are now being settled as Australia moves toward
a US style
corporate government where all research is safely controlled
by
industry.
Don Maisch
Senate Speech by Australian Democrat Lyn Allison
September 10, 2003
ADJOURNMENT:
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research
Organisation
Senator ALLISON (Victoria) (7.31 p.m.)
-Tonight I wish to draw the attention of the Senate to the
crisis in our
nation's premier science organisation, the CSIRO, and in particular
to
the forced shift in that organisation away from science that
is in the
public interest-in this case the public health interest-to
science that
benefits commercial interest.
The result is that most matters of public health and development
of
standards of practice will effectively be left to voluntary
organisations. I find this to be a ludicrous situation for
a nation
that is as wealthy as ours. I ask: how is it that we could
afford to do
this work and fund it publicly 20 years or so ago-maybe even
seven years
ago-but not now? I think the answer to that question is that
we can
afford it but it is ideology and lack of will that stops us
from doing so.
The parlous state of the CSIRO came to my attention in a
conversation I
had with senior principal research scientist Dr Stan Barnett
last week.
Dr Barnett, who is Section Manager in the National Measurement
Laboratory's Division of Radiophysics, has just been advised
that he is
redundant. He is not of an age where retirement is appropriate,
and he
is surprised-as was I-that he is in this position. He says
that so are
the 250 or so other scientists who are now being given the
boot.
Dr Barnett's work first came to my attention in the Senate
inquiry into
electromagnetic radiation from mobile phones. His 1994 report
entitled
"Status of research on biological effects and safety
of electromagnetic
radiation: telecommunications frequencies"
(Omega links: http://www.electric-words.com/cell/csiro/preface.html
http://www.electric-words.com/cell/abstracts/comments/csiro2.html
http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/dec2/hocking/hocking.html
http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/dec2/cartwrig/cartwrig.html
http://www.cyburban.com/~lplachta/safeweb2.htm
was pivotal in bringing the nation's attention to the potential
health
problems of mobile phone technology. Back in 1993 the federal
department
of communications approached CSIRO to evaluate the status
of research on
the biological effects of radiofrequency radiation.
That report concluded that there was insufficient reliable
scientific
evidence on which to base sound conclusions about the safety
of
radiofrequency exposures in telecommunications. It stated:
... because
of its equivocal nature, the database for RF emissions has
limited
value. It may be dangerous to make general statements on safety
based on
lack of evidence of harmful effects when so little relevant
research has
been carried out.
I point that out because I want to explore tonight the importance
of
research and why we need it in these areas that might not
attract the
commercial dollar. Of course the news from this 1994 report
was not
welcomed by the telecommunications industry or by the government,
both
of whom moved to relax mobile phone emission standards more
recently
despite opposition from the CSIRO through Dr Barnett, who
said that
there was no scientific basis for doing so.
That report I mentioned was a literature study by Dr Barnett,
as opposed
to hands-on experimental research. According to CSIRO, they
have just a
watching brief on telecommunications radiation issues and
no budget to
actually do research. The CSIRO did apply several times for
funding to
conduct hands-on research from the $4½ million fund
on EMR. They
wanted to examine the potential effects of radiofrequency
radiation on
DNA and cancer production, but they were knocked back. Submissions
to
the electromagnetic radiation inquiry that reported two years
ago
stressed the need for independent research into the controversial
area
of EMR. A lot of the studies supposedly showing that mobile
phones are
safe in fact rely on research which has been done or was funded
by
telecommunications companies.
The demise of jobs in this general area of public health
was to some
extent pre-empted by Dr Haddad, head of the CSIRO Division
of
Telecommunications and Industrial Physics, when he appeared
before the
committee. He said:
"CSIRO has a choice these days. It is required to maintain
its external
income level at a reasonably high level for a research organisation
and,
as such, it has to choose the areas in which it works quite
carefully.
Appropriation funding has been flat; in fact, in real dollar
terms, it
has decreased significantly over the last few years. That
makes it
harder and harder to maintain a variety of areas of what I
would call
more fundamental research ... which underpins all this sort
of
short-term tactical work that you can do to earn money."
As well as working full time in his position, Dr Barnett
worked in a
voluntary capacity on research into the safety of diagnostic
ultrasound
equipment, and he has had over 100 studies published in medical
journals
in this area. He has been investigating the potential medical
implications of some types of exposure of the foetus to ultrasound
equipment. He has found, for example, that Doppler ultrasound
technology
can heat tissue up to five degrees. The World Federation for
Ultrasound
in Medicine and Biology says that increases of four degrees
for five
minutes or more are potentially hazardous.
Dr Barnett has found some evidence to suggest that ultrasound-induced
bioeffects can be enhanced by modest increases in temperatures.
He says
that pulsed Doppler exposure, as opposed to non-pulsed B-mode
scanning
exposure, can produce significant heating in the foetus, particularly
near bone, where the ultrasound beam is fixed onto a single
point tissue
target. Dr Barnett's work also shows that foetal tissue is
also
sensitive to physical change and that the resultant perturbation
of cell
differentiation may result in significant consequences. He
says that the
scientific database is incomplete and cannot keep pace with
technological development in modern equipment and that the
clinical
implications of non-thermal effects have not been fully evaluated.
So,
despite the fact that every pregnant woman who presents to
a doctor will
have an ultrasound, very little work is being done on the
safety of this
technology and there are no standards to protect the foetus
from adverse
effects. The reason I point out all this detail-it is not
necessary for
us to know it-is that we need to understand the implications
if we stop
important work being done.
Another scientist at CSIRO to have been given the sack earlier
this year
is microbiologist Dr Ruth Hall, regarded as a world expert
in the field
of antibiotic resistance. Dr Hall, who is bound by a legal
agreement not
to speak about her sacking, has had to look for work overseas
as a
result of being made redundant. Her research enabled the CSIRO,
in 1998,
to raise the alarm about evidence that animal microbes could
pass
antibiotic resistance to bacteria that cause disease in humans.
Given
that the European Commission is in the process of phasing
out
antibiotics in stockfeed by 2006 and that the US is putting
pressure on
the Australia to do the same, I would have thought that more
importance,
not less, would have been attached to her work. Associate
Professor
Stokes at Macquarie University said that the CSIRO's action
was
comparable to the Australian Institute of Sport making Ian
Thorpe
redundant due to insufficient funds.
The collective work of these two scientists alone is obviously
of great
value to Australia but how many of the other 600-plus staff
who have
been stood down over the last year or so were also contributing
important work? We just do not know-at least I do not know.
Perhaps some
people know; perhaps the government knows.
Under our present government the CSIRO has been the subject
of radical
changes that will mean it must now raise 30 per cent of its
funds
externally. To do this the CSIRO has to spend up big on corporate
staff
in the area of business development planning in order, according
to CEO
Dr Geoff Garrett, `to enhance our commercial prospects'. But
this
grant-chasing focus in research projects has proven to be
at the cost of
those in favour of public benefit, particularly health benefit.
According to the CSIRO Staff Association, cutbacks and the
failure to
meet funding targets have caused the biggest crisis in the
organisation's history.
In February this year the Senate's Employment, Workplace
Relations and
Education Legislation Estimates Committee heard that over
the past three
years 600 jobs have been cut and that retrenchments are set
to continue.
Dr Garrett told the Canberra Times a couple of months ago
that around
200 staff per year had been culled over the past six years.
Apparently a
leaked internal survey said that only 47 per cent of CSIRO
had faith in
`organisational leadership and direction' and that 48 per
cent believed
their jobs were not secure.
So not only do we have these important scientists being sacked
but we
have others whose morale is very low and who are clearly not
able to
function in the way that we would like them to. The survey
also found
that 55 per cent of staff felt organisational change had not
improved
the CSIRO and 51 per cent were not confident in the abilities
of senior
personnel. Dr Garrett conceded that, whilst 12 scientists
in just one
division would be made redundant and 40 redeployed, two new
business
development managers would be employed, on six-figure salaries.
(Time expired) Senate adjourned at 7.41 p.m.
--------
Irish
psychiatrists criticized in annual report
-----------------------------------------------
Hi Klaus: The heading in the front page of today's (Sept.11,
2003) THE
IRISH TIMES fits in perfectly with ongoing major criticisms
of
psychiatric practice. It reads: "Psychiatrists criticised
over 'lavish'
promotional trips." And the source of this criticism
is sobering: it
appears in the annual report for 2002 of Dr. Walsh, Inspector
of Irish
Mental Hospitals. He
was specifically voicing his concern over the increasingly
popular
practice of pharmaceutical firms wooing Irish psychiatrists
on luxurious
all-expenses-paid vacations overseas, which are just thinly
disguised
strategies, he said, for influencing these professionals to
use their
products on their patients. Dr Walsh noted that some pharmaceutical
meetings of this nature "'appear to present unscientific
material aimed
at influencing prescribing practice.'" Dr. Walsh is also
a member of the
Irish Expert Group on Mental Health Policy, established by
the Irish
Minister of Health on August 4 2003.
Best, Imelda, Cork, Ireland.
(excerpt)
--------
No
Bt Resistance?
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/nobtresistance.php
The
GM National Debate Farce
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/GMNDF.php
--------
ENN
Daily News
Environmental
Terrorism
-----------------------
The old-growth timber battle heats up - "If you want
to see what
environmental terrorism looks like, just drive up Greenwood
Heights
road," said Sparrow, a diminutive elderly woman who has
been supporting
tree-sitters in her neighborhood, called Freshwater, nearly
300 miles
north of San Francisco on Highway 101. "You will see
beautiful,
1,600-year-old trees that have been cut down to feed one man's
greed."
http://www.enn.com/news/2003-09-10/s_6698.asp
White
House won't back down on Arctic oil drilling
--------------------------------------------------
The Bush administration told Congress Wednesday it was sticking
with its
plan for a broad energy bill to open an Arctic refuge in Alaska
to oil
drilling, even though the White House has been warned the
proposal could
kill the legislation.
http://www.enn.com/news/2003-09-11/s_8322.asp
Save
Puffins and Walruses in Alaska From Oil Pollution
------------------------------------------------------
Bristol Bay, home to the world's premier walrus breeding areas
and a
critical habitat for many fish, seabirds, and marine mammals,
is in
danger of being destroyed by oil drilling. Tell your senators
and
representative to protect Bristol Bay. Join the nearly 30,000
Americans
who have already taken action!
http://actionnetwork.org/campaign/bristol/i5sxe8407836e8
U.N.
GMO trade pact enters into force
-------------------------------------
A U.N. treaty giving importers greater powers to reject genetically
modified products such as maize comes into force on Thursday,
and the
United Nations wants nonsignatories like the United States
to abide by it.
http://www.enn.com/news/2003-09-11/s_8327.asp
--------
Malaysia
tests ID chips for embedding in bodies
-----------------------------------------------
The Malaysian government has acquired rights to chips that
can embed
identity tags into cash, passports or even human bodies. The
government
has acquired intellectual property rights to the chip -- now
dubbed the
Malaysian Microchip (MM) -- from Japanese research and development
(R&D) company FEC, which designed it. The chip can replace
barcode tags
in retail goods, and can be inserted into the human body,
animals,
bullets, credit cards and other items for verification purposes.
http://silicon.com/news/500022-500001/1/5926.html
Blair
ignored vital terror warning
http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/politics.cfm?id=1006292003
Times
change, principles don't
http://www.mises.org/fullstory.asp?control=1325
More
police power, less liberty
http://babelogue.citypages.com:8080/ecassel/2003/09/11
The
illusion of national security
http://www.americanpolicy.org/more/main.htm
The
tax-exempt destruction of our forests
http://www.sierratimes.com/03/09/12/alcaruba.htm
A
grandiose folly
http://www.counterpunch.org/fisk09112003.html
Informant: Thomas L. Knapp
and
Senators
grill Defense official about Iraq price tag
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2003-09-09-us-iraq_x.htm
Bush
shifts rationale from Iraq arms
http://tinyurl.com/msp9
Cato
vs. DOJ, round two
http://www.cato.org/dailys/09-10-03.html
Staggering
costs of a senseless war
http://tinyurl.com/mz71
Truth
is scarce
http://reese.king-online.com/Reese_20030912/index.php
911+2
http://tinyurl.com/mz73
Another
phony justification for invading Iraq
http://www.fff.org/comment/com0309f.asp
Saving America
--------
The
War In Iraq Is Not Over and Neither Are The Lies To Justify
It
http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/newsArticle.asp?id=1087
--------
America's
world
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0910/p01s03-usfp.html
Informant: Kev Hall
--------
Gulf
War II Syndrome?
Military Equipment and "Pneumonia"
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/091003_gw2_syndrome.html
--------
Folly
Taken To A Scale We Haven't Seen Since WWII
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4679.htm
9/11
Two Years Later. Victims' Families Call For Peaceful Tomorrows
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4680.htm
NPR
Interviews Economist Paul Krugman
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4681.htm
|