August 14 Safe Tech International News and Notes
Keith Cutter, Sean Polacik, Gary Lee Duncan, Unmachining, Tracking Children On and Off the School Bus
There is some OT info today.
FEATURED:
Keith Cutter EMF Remedy - 6 More Reasons to Beware of SMART Meters, Sean Polacik Sean has 17 years of experience as an Instrumentation & Electrical Technician and he’s recently shared a presentation centered around so-called SMART electrical utility meters called "Burdens of the Modern Grid, How harmonics, differing measurement practices, poor device performance, lax calibration standards and residential load imbalances are driving inflation from electrical overhead". Although we will be talking about the dirty electricity phenomenon in quite a bit of detail, including how these meters contribute to the problem there is much more to this topic Sean shares. 6 More Reasons to Beware of SMART Meters, Sean Polacik (youtube.com) 25 minutes
And here's a Substack note courtesy Keith:
FEATURED:
The Unseen, Unheard Interview with Gary Lee Duncan Part One -- How he first learned about the poisonings Ten months ago, I began a dialog with Gary Lee Duncan, hoping for the opportunity to get to know him and interview him on my podcast. I have this idea, wisdom in surviving electromagnetic poisoning is the product of electromagnetic suffering and time. One of the unfortunate challenges this dynamic presents is that it's hard to find such people since they're either not online at all or very rarely. Communication is difficult, as many can't access the internet, cell phones are unusable, and even a regular landline phone may be impossible. In short, they're almost impossible to find and communicate with—almost. I was intrigued several years ago when I read Shannon Rowan's WiFi Refugee, and she mentioned Gary Lee Duncan. It wasn't the "devilishly handsome" mention that caught my attention, but rather the fact that there was this character, severely afflicted by electromagnetic poisoning and synthetic chemical exposures, yet out there in the desert, helping others suffering from the same. 7 MINUTES
NEWS AND NOTES
ACTIVISM INSPIRATION: Quality Against The Machine, Taking a stand for quality is one of the best defences we have against the Machine The ultimate question, therefore, seems not to be “how can the Machine be defeated?”,4 but “how can we develop habits of healthy disengagement?”, “How can we become expertly attuned to recognising when the costs of utilising the Machine outweigh the benefits?”, and “How can we reflexively turn it off when the Machine starts to erode what is good?”. The success or failure of our modern age may well be hinged on how adept we all are in answering these questions — and how steadfast we commit to our costly and difficult conclusions. []This is only going to get worse. The ascendancy and cult-like popularity of businesses that churn out mass-produced goods at an astounding rate such as Temu and Shien is going to be turbo-charged in the AI world we are racing towards. Companies like these will likely utilise AI to produce and design goods at inhumane rates and will deploy algorithms to constantly alter our tastes and fashion trends, ensuring a never-ending stream of consumption. These companies’ entire business models are fixated on quantity rather than quality and our mass-consumeristic society appears to be captured and enthralled by their schemes. The quality-quantity threshold has been obliterated. [] Myriad are the reasons why this all matters. SUBSTACK
AI: What Is AI Really? Digital Illusions, False Promises And Mass Reeducation , AI is about to pop its own personal “dot-com” bubble: bankruptcies, unmet expectations, and public repudiation. It has not provided any tangible or constructive social benefits to humankind but rather only promises harm instead like throwing millions of people out of work. AI is an oxymoron that will never be “human” because it never will possess a soul or spirit . In the meantime, it is the slickest display of snake oil in modernity. ⁃ Patrick Wood, Editor. NOTE- article also discusses vax/covid health controversy) AI developers often claim that once an AI is created they don’t really control what it does and how it grows. The Gemini incident proves this is a lie. AI can definitely be controlled, or at least molded by coding to promote whatever propaganda the programmers want it to promote. There is no such thing as an autonomous AI; there is always an agenda. To summarize, globalists want the proliferation of AI because they know that people are lazy and will use the system as a stand-in for individual research. If this happens on a large scale then AI could be used to rewrite every aspect of history, corrupt the very roots of science and mathematics and turn the population into a drooling hive mind; a buzzing froth of braindead drones consuming every proclamation of the algorithm as if it is sacrosanct. In this way, Yuval Harari is right. AI does not need to become sentient or wield an army of killer robots to do great harm to humanity. All it has to do is be convenient enough that we no longer care to think for ourselves. Like the “Great and Powerful” OZ hiding behind a digital curtain, you assume you’re gaining knowledge from a wizard when you’re really being manipulated by globalist snake oil salesmen. What Is AI Really? Digital Illusions, False Promises And Mass Reeducation - Alt-Market.us
AI: AI Black Swan: Power Prices Skyrocket On East And West Coasts Goldman Says Mid-Atlantic Power Prices “Finally Caught Up To AI Data Center Load Growth Story” By Tyler Durden via ZeroHedge Marylanders and residents in surrounding states should brace for rising power bills due to capacity constraints on the regional power grid and the increasing peak load from new AI data centers (read: here). This combination creates a perfect storm of continued utility bill inflation, which will only pressure cash-strapped households in the years ahead. On Friday, Goldman published a note about Tuesday’s PJM Interconnection power capacity auction for the 2025-26 planning year (June 1st, 2025, to May 31st, 2026). The note revealed a massive surge in capacity prices. TECHNOCRACY NEWS
AI: BLOOD IN THE MACHINE This is the beginning of the end of the generative AI boom Nvidia is shedding value, OpenAI is sputtering, dubious generative AI ads are flooding the market, and signs point to a deflating tech bubble. The great degeneration begins. As a Bloomberg story put it last week, “Big Tech Fails to Convince Wall Street That AI Is Paying Off.” []What is clear is that if it’s safe to say that the enterprise stuff isn’t panning out so far, the consumer-side bets for generative AI are faring even worse. Here we are, 18 months into the timeline for what was supposed to be a transformative tech product. Where, as they say, is the killer app? [] Increasingly ostentatious pronouncements, dubious celebrity startups, unexplained executive turmoil, ominous economic indicators—there are strong echoes of the late crypto craze here. [] Much the way companies quietly abandoned their plans for metaverse or web3 initiatives, AI partnerships shall fall away or be limited to actually pertinent niche use cases. Most of the AI startups that did not attain unicorn/too-big-to-fail status will evaporate into the wind. [] There’s still going to be a lot to untangle as the great degeneration unfolds, a lot of harms to push back against, a lot of efforts made to ensure jobs aren’t swallowed up prematurely, a lot of work to ensure that workers and individuals have a say in deciding how AI may or may not be used in their workplaces. There’s still a mountain of capital piled sky high in service of making generative AI a Thing. But barring a major development—a vastly improved model, an AI product breakthrough, an unexpected vibe shift—I think generative AI, as a commercial phenomenon, has peaked. Let the great degeneration begin. SUBSTACK
BROADBAND INDUSTRY: Fiber Versus Wireless Debate is Back at Mountain Connect Do consumers need fiber to their door? Or would wireless or satellite service suffice? [] The controversial and sometimes-testy back-and-forth between two advocates for fiber-to-the-home deployments, and two advocates for “technological neutrality,” had a renewed relevance. Mountain Connect conferences in 2022 and 2023 were enthusiastically pro-fiber. This year, however, there was renewed attention to the fiber-versus-wireless-versus-satellite debate, with a prominent keynote Tuesday address by SpaceX COO Gwynne Shotwell. https://broadbandbreakfast.com/fiber-versus-wireless-debate-is-back-at-mountain-connect/
BROADBAND INDUSTRY: Is 5G Faster than 4G? Ookla thinks that page load speed is a great way to measure cellphone experience. The time needed to load a web page is directly impacted by latency, which measures the lag between the time a phone requests a website and that website responds. You might think that when your phone asks to see a website that the Internet just facilitates the connection. In reality, the web process is not perfect, and not every bit from a web site make it to your phone on the first try. In a normal web connection, the receiving ISP might need to make five to seven requests to resend missing bits until a connection is made between a web site and your phone. Latency measures the sum of the needed transactions. Page load time is a critical statistic for eCommerce sites like Amazon. Ookla cites an article from Medium that quantifies the impact of slow page loads. According to the article: 47% of users expect a page to load in 2 seconds or less. 40% of users will abandon a website if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. Surveys have shown that a delay of 1 second reduces customer satisfaction for using a website by 16%. 79% of shoppers who are not satisfied with a website’s performance are less likely to buy from the same site again. This has a huge impact on eCommerce.. According to the article, every 1 second delay in page load time costs Amazon $2.1 billion in sales per year Ookla also cited an older Ookla article which is a great primer on why latency matters. So how did 5G compare to 4G LTE in the U.S.? According to Ookla, 5G improved page load times by 21% to 26% for the three popular web sites. Is 5G Faster than 4G? | POTs and PANs (potsandpansbyccg.com)
BUILDING/NATURE/INDIA/OT: Engineers discover how to cool buildings without electricity - inspired by beehive architecture Indian architect Monish Siripurapu founded his company, CoolAnt, which utilizes design elements inspired by nature itself to cool buildings without electricity. "Cooling is a necessity now, and the least we should try and do is not to let this necessity warm our planet," Siripurapu writes on the CoolAnt website. By using biomimicry seen in beehives and trees, CoolAnt has created walls made of several tiny pieces that use a combination of physics and material properties to help cool the building down. In these walls, CoolAnt uses terracotta tubes that are reminiscent of the hexagonal cells seen in a beehive, or clay "AeroLeaf" tiles that are inspired by evapotranspiration in leaves. "Traditionally, we used to have earthen pots for cooling water. We're using the same system and technology for cooling air," Siripurapu explained in a video for the UN Environment Programme. "We are pouring the water on top of these tubes and letting the air pass through these terra cotta pots, and the air that comes out is naturally cooled." MSN
CELLPHONES: Kids want phones, let them have them* (sarcasm) *Phone: a device that makes it possible for you to speak to someone in another place who has a similar device We are social beings. [] We crave love and connection. We find significance through our relationships. In my work as a therapist, these are the most common human needs I’ve identified. Smartphones and social media are perfectly designed to take advantage of this. We’re all aware of it now…the hit of dopamine is old news. But as a millennial, I was fortunate that my brain formed in childhood without it. I learned social skills in the real world. Noticing the micro expressions and the critical feedback. Trying, failing and course-correcting over and over again over the thousands of hours it takes – hours almost all of us Millennials and Gen Xers had – to become experts in human interaction. Today, we aren’t giving our children that opportunity. Superficial smartphone interactions don’t give children the information they need to learn these vital social skills. The skills that will help them find love and connection. And it doesn’t stop there. The research is clear. DELAY SMARTPHONES SUBSTACK
CHILDREN CELLPHONES: 10 Teens Gave Up Smartphones for a Month. Here’s What Happened British journalist Decca Aitkenhead offered a compelling glimpse into how digital detox can transform young lives — and maybe address what social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, Ph.D., calls “the anxious generation.” CHILDREN’S HEALTH DEFENSE
CHILDREN TABLETS: New Study Links Early Childhood Tablet Use to Anger Outbursts CNN VIA CHILDREN’S HEALTH DEFENSE
CHILDREN: The Surgeon General Has New Social Media Guidelines. Minnesota Already Made Some of Them Into Law. As Minnesota’s policies gain national attention, their recent social media law is an example worth following.AFTER BABEL SUBSTACK (JOHN HAIDT)
CHILDREN: Journalist Sends Kids off on a Smartphone-Free Camping Trip – Unsupervised. Adults Quake. Kids Flourish The Sunday Times (UK) just ran a major story illustrating the twin prescriptions in The Anxious Generation. At last, a journalist has done the proper test, and the results are thrilling. [] Boys in general are not as hooked and harmed by social media, but they spend even more time on screens and are more likely than girls to get hooked by video games and pornography. To be clear, like girls with social media, most boys are not addicted to those platforms, and that seems to be true of the eight boys in Decca’s essay. After Babel Substack
CHILDREN: Kids who use tablets are more likely to experience outbursts of ANGER MSN
CHILDREN SCHOOL BUSES: Salem Schools Implement Student, Bus Safety Tracking Measures SALEM, MA — Salem parents and the school district will be able to track where and when their students get on and off school buses this fall with the launch of a new "Wayfinder" program that scans a student I.D. badge upon bus entry and departure. [] "It's important for safety," Zrike said during his recent Facebook Live session with families. "It's also important for us to make sure we are maximizing the resources that we have around transportation so that we can serve as many students as possible. We want to make sure you have as much information about where your child is at all times." Salem Schools Transportation Director Vanessa Fagundes said the ability to better track students under school supervision when they are not in the buildings is "something I have been trying to tackle for years." MSN
CHILDREN SCREENAGERS: I’m thrilled to share some exciting news with you - our fourth Screenagers movie is set to release at the beginning of September! Screenagers: Elementary School Age Edition is tailored specifically for parents, students, and educators involved with elementary school-age children. We made this film because I believe we can change the trajectory of youth mental health if we address the impact of screen time as early as possible. HERE
CONSUMER PRODUCTS: Rucksacks, mobile phones, any object can generate power using this new coating new innovation by scientists at Oxford University could revolutionize solar electricity sector and reduce the need for silicon-based solar panels. Developed by researchers at the university’s Physics Department, the coating of a new power-generating material onto the surfaces of everyday objects such as rucksacks, cars, and mobile phones can transform energy generation. []Thin and flexible enough to apply to the surface of common object and any building, the new light-absorbing material matched the performance of single-layer, energy-generating materials known as silicon photovoltaics. MSN
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: How Electric Vehicles Could Affect State Transportation Budgets Pew-supported study urges states to identify potential future shortfalls PEW
ENERGY: The Dark Side of Solar "There is a dark side to solar energy that is just starting to get the attention it deserves. Namely, solar technology generates extremely “dirty” electricity, which can and does create health problems for solar system owners and their neighbours. I have already had dozens of families across the country contact me about this issue after they installed solar on their home.""How Does Solar Technology Create Dirty Electricity? The primary issue is the solar inverter. https://www.emfanalysis.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Dark-Side-of-Solar.pdf COURTESY TANJA
ENERGY: Chevron delivers industry first in ultra-high pressure oil field August 12, 202411:00 AM PDT - Chevron (CVX.N), opens new tab has achieved a technological breakthrough, producing first oil from a U.S. Gulf of Mexico field under extreme subsea pressures, the energy company said on Monday. Its $5.7-billion project, called Anchor, ushers in an era of production from deepwater areas that had long been off-limits, because of the lack of equipment able to cope with pressures of up to 20,000 pounds per square inch. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/chevron-delivers-industry-first-ultra-high-pressure-oil-field-2024-08-12/
FCC LEGAL: Molaks Seek Review of FCC’s Wi-Fi Hotspots Order The Molaks' challenge follows the Supreme Court’s Loper Bright ruling restricting agency deference. Maurine and Matthew Molak have petitioned the FCC to reconsider its decision last month to allow schools and libraries to use E-rate funds for off-premises Wi-Fi hotspots They have argued that the FCC has overstepped its legal bounds, a claim they are also pursuing in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit regarding Wi-Fi on school buses. https://broadbandbreakfast.com/molaks-seek-review-of-fccs-wi-fi-hotspots-order/ NOTE: Mr. and Mrs. Molak are the founders of David’s Legacy Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to kids’ online safety and advocacy against cyberbullying. They lost their son/eagle scout to suicide.
FCC: Major ISPs Press FCC to Speed Pole Access Ahead of Big BEAD Projects NCTA proposed the FCC extend the 45-day make-ready timeframe for orders of up to 6,000 poles. https://broadbandbreakfast.com/major-isps-press-fcc-to-speed-pole-access-ahead-of-big-bead-projects/
FCC: Next Generation 911 On July 9, the FCC ordered all carriers and local governments to complete the transition to next generation 911 (NG911). NG911 moves 911 off the traditional public switched telephone network (PSTN) to an IP architecture. Many jurisdictions have already made the transition, but many have not. The FCC says this is causing extra cost since local governments are having to support both the old and new protocols. Interestingly, the FCC believes that moving 911 off the PSTN will reduce the risk of 911 outages. I have to wonder if that is true. After seeing the impact on 911 of some of the recent national broadband outages, putting 911 on the broadband networks carriers plenty of risk. It's clear that the PSTN voice network has lived past its time, but its primary feature has always been reliability – particularly when carriers are required to provide redundant facilities for functions like 911. With that said, this change is needed to finally be able to dismantle the traditional PSTN. The FCC’s requirement to establish state NG911 delivery points should significantly reduce the risk of 911 outages. The idea of carrying 911 calls out of state makes no sense. This order is also needed because some interconnection agreements with the large telcos still require CLECs and competitors to use the traditional 911 system. That means provisioning time-division multiplexing (TDM) T1 circuits between a carrier and 911 centers – an expensive and inefficient network. This order will eliminate that requirement for CLECs and other carriers and allow them to finally order SIP trunking. POTS AND PANS BLOG
HAVANA SYNDROME: CIA officer’s sacrifice shows need to crack Havana syndrome mystery Calling them 'anomalous health incidents' isn't good enough A few weeks back, I made a rare visit to the CIA for a friend’s retirement ceremony. I walked into the headquarters in Langley and greeted the security officer while looking up at the stars on the Memorial Wall. When I departed, I repeated the same ritual, just as I had done for decades as a staff officer. The Memorial Wall is a poignant reminder of the courageous CIA officers who made the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of our nation. It is also a call to action for those who continue to serve, to honor our fallen heroes by relentlessly advancing the CIA’s mission to protect the country from attack. With that as a prelude, recall that just this past April, a U.S. government staff officer died after being stricken first with Havana syndrome and then with bile duct cancer. [] With that as a prelude, recall that just this past April, a U.S. government staff officer died after being stricken first with Havana syndrome and then with bile duct cancer.[] [] If the staff officer had served at the CIA, then Mr. Burns might have considered adding a star to honor her sacrifice on the Memorial Wall, even if the “Book of Honor” beneath the Memorial Wall would have displayed only the year of death. The star would inspire CIA officers to never give up their quest to determine who was responsible for these horrific attacks so we can ensure that the perpetrators are brought to justice, and the attacks never happen again. WASHINGTON TIMES FROM PODCAST: The Ross Kaminsky Show | iHeart 8-12-24 *INTERVIEW* Former CIA station Chief Dan Hoffman on Ukraine Russia and the Middle East Speaker 4 (13:39): I appreciate you highlighting it. I've gotten a lot of
positive feedback on it. If you look for me on Twitter,
Daniel Hoffman DC, you can find it there on LinkedIn.
But what I would say is that Havana syndrome is
an intelligence failure. It's a gap we haven't failed. We
still haven't proven that it was Russia, even though there's
a lot of circumstantial evidence that points to Russia. But
yet those attacks have continued, and we have a lot
(14:01) of people who are suffering from pretty serious effects damage
to their brains as a result. And it's really up
to our intelligence community, in particular the CIA, to recruit
the sources worldwide, but in Russia, I think, in particular,
to prove who the culprit is so we can take
(14:21): action against them. And ensure that no one is able
to carry on these attacks against us, and that's the
highest priority.
HEALTH: Wi-Fi is an important threat to human health Martin L Pall 1 PUB MED
HEALTH: Simplistic ‘Fight or Flight’ Idea Undervalues the Brain’s Predictive Powers | Scientific American
HEALTH: Body Fat May Be a New Risk Factor for Tinnitus in Men: Study A new study illustrates the role of body composition in hearing noises no one else hears. Here’s expert advice for managing the condition. Additional study findings included the following: Tinnitus was more common in men (about 12 percent) than women (about 7 percent). High blood pressure was more common in people with tinnitus (about 37 percent) than those without (about 29 percent). Half of the people with tinnitus experienced dizziness compared to only a third of those without it. There was no significant difference in diabetes rates between the two groups. People with tinnitus scored higher on tests for depression and anxiety. These findings suggest that tinnitus is associated with several other health and lifestyle factors, particularly in men. EPOCH TIMES NOTE: I wrote about the possibility that obesity is another symptom and not a risk factor, Here
HEALTH: Light and Sound Stimulation Help Regrow Brain’s ‘White Matter,’ Protects Against Neurodegeneration: Animal Study Researchers find gamma waves prevent brain cell deterioration. Demyelination, which occurs when nerves lose their protective fatty coating, is the cause of several severe and incurable neurodegenerative diseases. In a recent animal study, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) found a way to possibly recover the lost fatty coating by stimulating the brain to release more gamma brain waves. Using patterned light and sound paced at 40 Hz, mice were induced to produce gamma brain waves, Li-Huei Tsai, Picower Professor at The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory and the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT, told The Epoch Times. EPOCH
HEALTH: A Breakthrough Study Suggests Magnetic Fields Could Manipulate Human Brains Inspired by the field of optogenetics, which controls certain genetically altered neurons with light, South Korean scientists have employed a similar technique using magnetic fields. In a series of tests, scientists were able to control a mouse’s feeding, sociability, and parental behavior by manipulating certain regions of the lateral hypothalamus. This technique could prove useful in treating debilitating neurological disorders or possibly improve results in the already-burgeoning field of transcranial magnetic stimulation. When people answer the age-old inquiry of what super power they’d want, mind control usually ranks pretty high. Now scientists from the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) and Yonsei University in South Korea are taking a big step toward making that hypothetical a bit more real by using magnetic fields to control mice. IBS scientists first targeted receptors within the brain’s lateral hypothalamus, a region closely associated with eating and reward behaviors. According to the researchers, when mice entered the magnetic field with switches on their excitatory neurons, this led to a 50 percent reduction in feeding behaviors while the same switches on inhibitory neurons increased nomming by 100 percent. Similar tests in the lateral hypothalamus also influenced particular social behaviors as a mouse under magnetic field influence became more friendly toward other, unknown mice. Finally, the team conducted tests targeted at the medial preoptic area, another brain region of the hypothalamus that’s closely associated with parental care. Results showed that a Nano-MIND-implanted mouse responded more directly to the cries of mouse pups than those not under any sort of magnetic influence. MSN
INDUSTRY: Swiss drone rollout shows value of ‘brilliant’ public 5G to industry, says Nokia As novel industrial technologies go, Nokia’s deal with Swisscom Broadcast, the Swiss operator’s enterprise-facing security and analytics arm, to deploy a network of 300 drones for emergency services and industrial applications feels significant – for both firms, as well as for the drone sector, the telecoms industry, and potentially the broader Industry 4.0 market. It hints at a model for how operators might finally create proper enterprise value out of their blue-riband assets – licensed spectrum and national infrastructure, plus trendy private-network point solutions, as required – as the foundation for a grand service proposition that actually makes a difference. It also captures the logic, to an extent, of the new industrial 5G narrative, which Nokia has helped to articulate and commercialise over the last five years. Plus, as the biggest deal of its kind, it promises to drag the whole drone industry into serious contention in Industry 4.0 – with clearer use cases and business cases, better regulatory collaboration, a smart-looking service model, and an all-conquering new channel to market. This is the message, anyway, from Nokia and Swisscom, speaking rather excitedly last week as news dropped about the deal to sell drone-captured imagery and diagnostics about incidents, accidents, situations, circumstances – anywhere in the country. See what I mean? The initial use case is to support nationwide emergency services, and decent public 5G infrastructure offers a good nationwide connectivity platform – whereas private 5G, useful for bespoke industrial cases, and a part of a developing proposition, is really just a point solution. Nokia’s Eder says: “Swisscom is the most capable and most developed network operator in Switzerland – which is a matter of fact, and means we can consider connectivity as a commodity, as a given. We don’t have to worry about whether the connection will be there or not. And if [the use case requires us] to infill or upsell, then that is just daily business for companies like ours.” RCN WIRELESS
INSPIRATION UNMACHINING Learning To See With Eyes Wide Open - by Hadden Turner (substack.com) In museum - At times, the sight of a multitude of smartphone wielding visitors was disturbingly ugly; a vain modern tragedy juxtaposed amidst the ancient and profound. The Rosetta Stone was treated as one would a Hollywood celebrity, with a desperately hustling and bustling paparazzi suffocating it, all trying to get their shot of the famous ancient inscriptions. Few, if any, stopped to pause and wonder what these symbols and characters mean nor the cultural and historical significance of this tablet. Not that they would have had the chance to anyway. The reflective person would be considered as an obstacle, grossly selfish, standing in the way of others wanting their shot. Knowing all this, I moved on to other worthy objects that seemed to be gathering less of this unwanted attention. [] What I found most fascinating as I ambled through the halls full of wondrous artefacts was how few people actually saw the objects in front of them. Mostly, they saw them mediated through a device — they merely saw an image on their screen and not the real thing. They may have briefly glanced at the object, enough to register its existence, but they then quickly positioned their smartphone in front of it. What made this all so pitiful and almost repulsive was not only the vanity of the smartphone mediated experience, but also the gross display of consumerism. No space is free from consumerism’s contaminating influence, even those places where quality and awe reign supreme. The objects in the museum were not put here to be consumed, but to be enjoyed, marvelled at, and to take one’s breath away. But all that was taken away on this day was thousands upon thousands of snaps converted into the currency of digital likes and comments. Masterpieces reduced to a “look what I saw” Instagram post. Vanity of vanities. []To stop, to notice, to see is a rare disposition in our modern world. Far too much “looking” is done unintentionally or casually, never perceiving the essence of the object or the wonder it imparts. This is not only the case in museums and galleries, but also out in nature, in our work places, and even in our own homes. Why lamenting this is so important is because seeing rightly is essential for knowing, and knowing is essential for love, and love is essential for care. And we live in a world that is in desperate need of care. instead of photographing items at museums for memory purposes, we should consider sketching them instead. SUBSTACK
MINING: Serbia: 30,000 protest Rio Tinto EU-backed lithium project On July 19, President Aleksandar Vucic together with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and EU energy chief Maros Sefcovic signed a deal on access to raw materials mined in Serbia. In the same month, Rio Tinto's licence to extract lithium in the Jadar Valley in the west of Serbia was restored. At the beginning of August, tens of thousands rallied in Belgrade against lithium extraction by Rio Tinto. Protesters claim that mining could cause land and water pollution. BUSINESS HUMAN RIGHTS
MINING: South Africa: 471 Batswana ex-miners compensated for occupational lung disease by gold mining cos.; although compensation delays remain for others BUSINESS HUMAN RIGHTS
NATURE WATER: Millan Millan: helped us understand rain A pioneer in precipitation recycling and the small water cycle Millan Millan passed away this month. He was a meteorologist who helped us understand that the degrading of our landscapes can lead to a decrease in precipitation recycling and the small water cycle, and to the subsequent loss of rain. [] He found that deforestration, degradation and the paving over of the land were the culprits. Grasslands have less evapotranspiration that forests. Paved land has less evapotranspiration than grasslands. There was no longer enough evapotranpiration to add to the moisture blowing in from the ocean, to push the humidity over the saturation point. In order for rain to form, the air needed water contributions from both ocean and land, but the land contribution had been going down for decades. []A US forest service person, listening to Millan talk when he came to San Diego, said Millan’s results suggested that California, which had a similar Mediterranean climate to Spain, would experience similar troubles. The person guessed that in 20 odd years, California would dry out and start experiencing fires. A prediction, that years later, would unfortunately come true. Millan Millan also found that the lack of rain in Spain, could lead to floods in the rest of Europe. Weather data collected showed that when moisture was unable to rain out, it would recirculate, along with pollutants, to form atmospheric layers, accumulating large amounts of water, hanging out above the coastal edge. All that moisture would then get blown over Europe and seed huge torrential rains. Land degradation can thus lead to the loss of smaller rains, while also creating larger rains. A result which points towards land restoration as a way to build a buffer against climate extremes. SUBSTACK
POLITICS OPINION OT: Whack-a-Fallacy: A Game for the Election Season We should listen carefully to what our politicians are saying. We may not be playing a game, but we may well be getting played. Whack-a-Fallacy: A Game for the Election SeasonWe should listen carefully to what our politicians are saying. We may not be playing a game, but we may well be getting played. Red Herring This fish fry fallacy occurs when the speaker attempts to slide away from the original topic. A person losing an argument may try to change the topic by bringing up the weather or pointing out some extraneous detail from last night’s party The False Dilemma Most of us frequently resort to either/or propositions, seeing only two possible choices when there may in fact be several. Appeals to Celebrity, Authority Bandwagon Fallacy EPOCH TIMES HERE
POLITICS TECH INCLUSION: What the DEI backlash means for tech’s next generation - diversity, equity and inclusion The tech industry’s spotty record on diversity means these latest DEI cutbacks don’t come as much of a surprise, POLITICO
SPACEX: Now in its 10th year, Mountain Connect has grown into the largest independent gathering of broadband professionals in the United States. Fireside Chat with SpaceX President & COO Gwynne Shotwell 47 MINUTE VIDEO
SPACE: NASA is about to make its most important safety decision in nearly a generation Three Starliner mission managers had key roles on Columbia's ill-fated final flight. As soon as this week, NASA officials will make perhaps the agency's most consequential safety decision in human spaceflight in 21 years. NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are nearly 10 weeks into a test flight that was originally set to last a little more than one week. The two retired US Navy test pilots were the first people to fly into orbit on Boeing's Starliner spacecraft when it launched on June 5. Now, NASA officials aren't sure Starliner is safe enough to bring the astronauts home. []NASA knew launching a Space Shuttle in cold weather reduced the safety margin on its solid rocket boosters, which led to the Challenger accident. And shuttle managers knew foam routinely fell off the external fuel tank. In a near-miss, one of these foam fragments hit a shuttle booster but didn't damage it, just two flights prior to Columbia's STS-107 mission. "I have wondered if some in management roles today that were here when we lost Challenger and Columbia remember that in both of those tragedies, there were those that were not comfortable proceeding," Milt Heflin, a retired NASA flight director who spent 47 years at the agency, wrote in an email to Ars. "Today, those memories are still around." []The question facing NASA's leadership today? Should the two astronauts return to Earth from the International Space Station in Boeing's Starliner spacecraft, with its history of thruster failures and helium leaks, or should they come home on a SpaceX Dragon capsule? Under normal conditions, the first option is the choice everyone at NASA would like to make. It would be least disruptive to operations at the space station and would potentially maintain a clearer future for Boeing's Starliner program, which NASA would like to become operational for regular crew rotation flights to the station. But some people at NASA aren't convinced this is the right call. Engineers still don't fully understand why five of the Starliner spacecraft's thrusters overheated and lost power as the capsule approached the space station for docking in June. Four of these five control jets are now back in action with near-normal performance, but managers would like to be sure the same thrusters—and maybe more—won't fail again as Starliner departs the station and heads for reentry. https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/08/nasa-is-about-to-make-its-most-important-safety-decision-in-nearly-a-generation/
SURVEILLANCE/PRIVACY/UTILITIES/MAINE: Maine regulators reject idea to use energy bills to help find illegal marijuana grow operations Versant Power pitched the idea to curb illegal marijuana growing operations in Maine, but privacy concerns won. HERE COURTESY ED
TECH SAFETY UNDERWATER SUB EXPLOSION; Infamous $30 Logitech F710 called out in $50M lawsuit over Titan sub implosion Family of dead Titanic expert blasts "hip" electronics. In a 2022 CBS Sunday Morning segment, CEO Stockton Rush of deep-water submersible company OceanGate gave journalist David Pogue a fun reveal. "We run the whole thing with this game controller," Rush said, holding up a Logitech F710 controller with 3D-printed thumbstick extensions. The controller was wireless, and it was the primary method for controlling the Titan submersible, which would soon make a visit to the wreck of the Titanic. Pogue laughed. "Come on!" he said, covering his eyes with his hand. Journalists loved the controller story, covering the inexpensive F710 and the ways that video game controllers have become common control solutions in various military and spaceflight applications in recent years. After all, if your engineers and pilots grew up using two-stick controllers to waste their friends in Halo multiplayer, why not use that built-in muscle memory for other purposes? So the use of a video game controller was not in itself a crazy decision. But after the Titan sub imploded on a June 2023 dive to the Titanic site, killing all five passengers including Stockton Rush, the use of a wireless $30 control interface began to look less "cool!" and more "isn't that kind of risky?" The only question at that point was how long it would take the Logitech F710 to show up in a lawsuit. This week, we got our answer. In the first Titan wrongful death lawsuit, filed this week by the estate of Paul-Henri Louis Emile Nargeolet, the Logitech controller comes in for some prominent criticism. [] First, the sub was not made from titanium (as most submersibles are), which gets stronger under compression; it was made instead from carbon fiber, which can crack under repeated compression. Rush, who saw himself as an innovator like "Steve Jobs or Elon Musk," the complaint says, once told Pogue, "At some point, safety just is pure waste." Rush thought he had found a lighter way to build subs. Second, the complaint singles out the Titan's "hip, contemporary, wireless electronics systems." (Those adjectives are not compliments). []The complaint quotes an expert saying that such systems provided "multiple points of failure" and that "'every sub in the world has hardwired controls for a reason,' namely that a loss of signal would not imperil the vessel." But such issues were "disregarded by OceanGate, as Titan employed nearly identical systems to Cyclops I," says the complaint. The lawsuit also attacks the engineering team that designed and integrated all the electronics systems into Titan, saying that the team was made up mostly of current or recent Washington State University grads with "virtually no real-world experience and no prior exposure to the deep-sea diving industry." https://arstechnica.com/culture/2024/08/infamous-30-logitech-f710-called-out-in-50m-lawsuit-over-titan-sub-implosion/
WARFARE/POLITICS/TECH: 1 big thing: A new era of defense innovation Pentagon officials say the U.S. stands at the precipice of a new golden age of defense innovation driven by upstart contractors, advances in technology and a world brimming with threats. Why it matters: The Defense Department's inability to make unorthodox bets, feed a vibrant industrial base and embrace readily available technologies has rendered it under-supplied, the target of dual-use evangelists and vulnerable to more nimble adversaries. []Pentagon officials say the U.S. stands at the precipice of a new golden age of defense innovation driven by upstart contractors, advances in technology and a world brimming with threats. [] Nuclear microreactors can "revolutionize warfare" and free the "military from the tether of fuel," AXIOS