August 6,7 Safe Tech International News and Notes
Seoul Battery Fire, Mining, Broadband vs Trees, Space, Ohio update, Heart Rate Variability, Tinnitus
NOTE: In response to my commentary/article about increasing cancer rates and Chinese medicine, (that included Olympic athletes) several thoughtful readers commented along the lines of: “this cancer epidemic is possibly multi-causal.” I agree and did not mean to imply that RF is the only cause. A news report about the study, quoted in the article, stated, “If obesity is a culprit, it’s likely one of several lifestyle and environmental factors that is leading to the rise. Other factors could be more sedentary behavior or something in the food or the water, common medications or chemical exposures or chemical agents, the experts said.” I do concur with others who have proposed that obesity is another symptom, and that the American Cancer Society needs to course correct on the RF issue and look at the pollution of the airwaves. (I received a number of emails about vaccines, and am aware of the conversation, but the issue is outside the realm of my work, and there are many more people covering it on substack and elsewhere, than are covering RF., so I keep my focus on EMF. I do appreciate every who took the time to contact me)
Thank you for the input.
Here is a shorter additional observation about the Olympics, then the news.
Image above: Why we do what we do Pittsfield Cell Tower Concerned Citizens
I was a competitive swimmer though-out high school and college. I stand about 5 foot 3 inches, and generally I can cover the length of the pool doing the crawl stroke in 16 to 18 strokes per length, depending on my turn and how far I push the glide.
Ten years ago, after running headlong into the installation of wireless smart utility meters in CA, I moved back to the East Coast and rented a small house near the ocean. I felt incredibly grateful that the house had been previously owned by a musician and doubled as a recording studio. It had been professionally shielded to prevent any external sources of interference. My assumption was that it would be a healing refuge for someone needing a protected environment not polluted by man-made electromagnetic fields.
The first night that I stayed in the house, at one point I awoke to something I had never experienced before. I felt a slow wave of electrical charge that started at my feet and extended up through my entire body. I felt “wired” and overcharged. I couldn’t fall back to sleep if my life depended on it.
The next morning, I went to the local YMCA. When I hit the water, I made the length of the pool in 12 strokes. I was an absolute monster. I flew through my yardage, and because I had extra time, doubled my distance. I went home, unpacked and moved furniture like a superhero, and called the landlord about the house.
The electric company was scheduled to come three days later to investigate.
For those 3 days I didn’t sleep, and continued to experience unfathomable power, even though my nerves were frayed. I knew enough to know that I was burning the candle at both ends.
At the time, I remember hoping that no government would attempt to capitalize on this scenario by using it on its own soldiers. I also envisioned the implications if gamblers could start to remotely control athletes.
What impacts could be created by giving an undetected shock charge to the kidneys, even without knowledge and consent?
When the electric company came, they suspected that the house wasn’t grounded properly, and put in a large grounding rod, but it didn’t resolve the problem for me. I left the rental.
I have a theory about the artificial electrification. It did not make my arms or torso longer or my feet bigger. I think the artificial power was activating the Kidneys and adrenals especially, and the Psoas muscle, which sits in the Kidney Meridian’s energy field. The charge was the equivalent of moving me, energetically, from having a AAA to a size D battery. I can almost mimic what happened if I wear large flippers. I can’t access the speed or core power, but I can take less strokes per length.
I am not making any accusations or assumptions, but I think this could be another side of multi-faceted questions about competitive athletics, with the possible use of undetected frequencies to support or inhibit performance?
Regardless, our ‘science” concerning manmade artificial EMFs is inadequate. Harm in occurring, and homes are becoming torture chambers.
I believe that symptoms of imbalance include both exhaustion and overcharge, and that the overcharged population does not have the perceptive ability to recognize the imbalance between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems.
With EMF, we are way past the age of harm from cumulative, chronic, juxtaposed chemical exposures, - and making even more mistakes, IMO, by adding a force multiplier into the mix.
Thank you for all you do and heeding a topic that many don’t want to think about.
NEWS AND NOTES
AI: A CIO canceled a Microsoft AI deal. The reason should worry the entire tech industry. This comes amid internal concerns over whether AI services could persuade corporate customers to pay more. https://www.businessinsider.com/pharma-cio-cancelled-microsoft-copilot-ai-tool-2024-7
AI: AI Is Heating the Olympic Pool A data center in Paris has been hooked up to the energy system heating the Olympic pool. But critics say that projects recycling data centers’ excess heat are a distraction from the real environmental costs of AI. WIRED
AI ECONOMICS: The AI Bubble Is Bursting, Experts Say "When activity is only slightly disappointing, those large tech companies are being taken to the woodshed." [] proponents argue that AI is the future, which broadly speaking may well be true. This week's cratering, however, seems to signal that in its nascency, the hype-powered AI industry is still more of a house of cards than anything solid.https://futurism.com/the-byte/ai-bubble-bursting
AI: MIT economist: Markets have overestimated AI-driven productivity gains the problem with the AI bubble isn’t that it is bursting and bringing the market down—it’s that the hype will likely go on for a while and do much more damage in the process than experts are anticipating. On its current trajectory and with current capabilities, AI’s biggest impact will come from automating some tasks and making workers a little more productive in some occupations. For now, this can only happen in occupations that do not involve much interaction with the real world (construction, custodial services, and all sorts of blue-collar and craft work are out) and in occupations that do not have a central social element (psychiatry, much of entertainment and academia are out). Even in occupations that fall outside of these categories, getting much productivity growth from AI will be difficult. Physicians could benefit from AI in diagnosis and calibrating their treatment and prescription decisions. But this requires much more reliable AI models—not gimmicks such as large language models that can write Shakespearean sonnets. [] Worse, the hype may be the biggest enemy of getting productivity increases from AI, and the misallocation of resources that it causes could make us lose the modest gains that we can get from AI. []at least three reasons. First, with the hype, there will be a lot of overinvestment in AI.[] Second, there will be a lot of wasted resources, investment, and energy, as tech companies and their backers go after bigger and bigger generative AI models. The current market correction will not stop tech leaders from asking for trillions of dollars to buy even more GPU capacity and strive to build bigger models. They may pass on some of these costs by selling their services and technologies to businesses that are not ready to undertake this transition, but as a society, we surely bear the consequences of this overinvestment. [] Third and most fundamentally, boosting productivity requires workers to become more productive, gain greater expertise, and use better information in their decision-making and problem-solving. [] The real promise of AI is as an informational tool: to collect, process, and present reliable, context-dependent, and easy-to-use information to human decision-makers. But this is not the direction in which the tech industry, mesmerized by human-like chatbots and dreams of AGI and misled by self-appointed AI prophets, is heading. FORTUNE.COM
AUTOMOBILES EVS FIRES: Huge Fire Sparked by a Mercedes-Benz EV Adds to Safety Concerns Dogging Industry SEOUL—It took just seconds for an underground South Korean residential parking lot to be engulfed in flames. The culprit: a Mercedes-Benz EQE electric vehicle that hadn’t been charging. The blaze incinerated dozens of cars nearby, scorched another 100 vehicles and forced hundreds of residents to emergency shelters as the buildings above the parking lot lost power and electricity. Nobody died, but the fire took eight hours to extinguish. The blaze dominated national news in South Korea. Some organizations are pushing for EVs to be parked outdoors, residents are protesting and lawmakers are proposing new safety measures.The consternation in South Korea—home to Hyundai Motor, Kia and top battery makers – represents the latest test of faith for an EV industry dogged by safety concerns. Internal-combustion-engine cars are more likely to catch fire than EVs, according to South Korea’s national fire agency. But when EVs do burst into flames, the rechargeable lithium-ion batteries get hotter and the fire takes longer to stamp out. In recent years, GM recalled tens of thousands of its Chevrolet Bolts in the U.S. over risk of battery fires. Hyundai pulled roughly 80,000 electric SUVs after roughly a dozen caught fire. Last September, a Nissan Leaf ignited while charging in Tennessee, and the fire required more than 45 times the water needed for a gas-powered car to be extinguished. MSN HERE
BROADBAND: Foliage won't stop this ISP from connecting Cleveland Nonprofit DigitalC plans to connect the entire city of Cleveland with fixed wireless, and it's not fussing about foliage It's also zeroing in on network redundancy to keep customers connected if there's a hiccup in the system DigitalC offers symmetrical 100-meg for $18/month Fixed wireless access (FWA) is often thought of as a way to connect remote areas where fiber can’t do the job. But the technology also has a place in the big city, as nonprofit DigitalC has shown. Cleveland’s dense tree canopy is a “significant obstacle for signal propagation,” Valdez told Fierce, as trees absorb, block and scatter radio waves. Tarana’s tech employs a few tactics to combat the foliage. For instance, it uses beamforming to focus signals in specific directions and it can adjust the signals based on environmental conditions – not only trees but also temperature and moving objects. DigitalC’s network runs across 77 square miles with what are called “macro Points of Presence (PoPs)” – towers or tall buildings with radios on top that transmit the fixed wireless signal. https://www.fierce-network.com/broadband/fixed-wireless-nonprofit-making-strides-clevelands-concrete-jungle
“Additionally, carefully controlled increases in transmitter power can compensate for signal loss, and selecting appropriate frequency bands can further mitigate the impact of tree interference,” Valdez added.
CELLPHONES: Gamification gets drivers to put down their phones, study finds Gamification plus cash prizes worked even better. https://arstechnica.com/cars/2024/08/gamification-gets-drivers-to-put-their-phones-down-study-finds/
CELLPHONES; Modern Dating, Cell Phones, Wireless Devices and Deal Breakers If I would be dating, I would find it extremely difficult to find a partner just to date, let alone start a life with. This is because the more awake you are, the more you see that most people are poisoning the shit out of themselves and that means you will spend the last 20 years of your life caring for a diseased partner....because they wouldn't dedicate themselves to a healthy lifestyle. The system itself is weaponized against an uninformed public, where a premature and painful death of most citizens is the goal of the system. One super toxin is wireless radiation. When it comes to wireless radiation, distance is your friend. So many today put their wireless devices right on their bodies, which means cancer is coming. If your partner is doing this and you're not, there's a good chance you'll become a caregiver in the last 20 years of your life.....which is a deal breaker for someone like me. I do the work daily to lead a healthy lifestyle, so I live as long as possible. If my potential partner isn't doing the same..... it's a deal breaker. HERE COURTESY NEIL SHORT COMMENTARY links to 2022 video: 1:11:25 AN INVISIBLE THREAT - FULL DOCUMENTARY | Are microwave radiation waves killing us? We cannot see the waves, we cannot hear them, we cannot touch them, but they are all around us, invading the air, irradiating our body and the environment. An Invisible Threat looks at the relationship between microwave technology and health, investigating the conflicts of interest among industry representatives, politicians, scientists and consumers that leave us unprotected to the effects of radiation HERE (I have not watched)
CHILDREN CELLPHONES: Free Kids from Their Cells Several reviews of this book have compared NYU psychologist and business school professor Jonathan Haidt to a new William F. Buckley, standing athwart the iPhone and shouting “STOP!” While that likening is not wrong, it is misleading. I know Jonathan a bit, personally; he has a cell phone, and uses it. He is far from Luddism []We have made a deal with the Devil, in other words. To keep our kids home, we have made them frightened of the world. To keep our kids from harm, we have exposed them to brain-altering habits, online predators, and addictive pastimes that don’t just have the risk, but the near certainty, of making those now children turn out to be anxious and dysfunctional adults. Haidt offers a variety of prescriptions, and partial solutions, including what children must learn to do, what schools must teach children to do, and what parents should try to do. His suggestions for parental support groups—possibly online, but perhaps....in person?—all seem sensible, though it’s a bit much all at once. But as a starting point, the bare necessities, Haidt proposes that there are four “foundational reforms” []Though Anxious Generation is often more preachy and strident than is required to get its message across, the argument overall is persuasive, and timely. I recommend it. INDEPENDENT INSTITUTE
CHILDREN JOHN HAIDT: One of the Best Documentaries on the Loss and Recovery Of Childhood Independence “Chasing Childhood” contrasts the play-based, “free-range” childhood of the 1980s with the over-supervised and fearful childhoods of today. It’s great for inspiring collective action. One of the paradoxes of the “great rewiring” of childhood is that the real world has gotten so much safer since the 1990s, while parents have gotten ever more afraid of letting their children out to play and explore in that world. We keep them in, we keep them supervised, we don’t let them develop independence and the self-confidence that comes with it. This is why we (Jon and Lenore) co-founded the nonprofit Let Grow in 2017. This is also the paradox behind the documentary Chasing Childhood. HERE
CHLDREN YOUTH PARENTING: How Do Tiktok, Snapchat, YouTube and Instagram Compare? In today's blog we have created a table that compares the 4 most popular social media platforms among teens and the specific ways they are similar and different (spoiler alert, they are way more similar than different). SCREENAGERS
FCC: Groups Push FCC to Reform Utility Pole Replacement Policies The coalition wants utility pole replacement costs split between pole owners and attachers. WASHINGTON, August 6, 2024 – A coalition of advocacy groups is urging the Federal Communications Commission to reform utility pole replacement policies so that the cost to replace poles is not shouldered entirely by internet service providers who need to attach to them. Led by the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition, the groups argued in a letter to the FCC on July 26 that pole replacement costs should be shared more equitably between pole owners and ISPs which need to attach their facilities to them. HERE
HEALTH: Evaluating the Effect on Heart Rate Variability of Adults Exposed to Radio-Frequency Electromagnetic Fields in Modern Office Environment Abstract: The objective of the study was to investigate whether heart rate variability (HRV) is an appropriate method to describe potential effects of RF-EMF on humans considering a modern office environment radiation level with the frequencies 1.8 GHz (DECT) and 2.45 GHz (Wi-Fi) and an exposure time of 10 min. The emitters were 1 m distant from the test subjects. The HRV parameters SDNN, RMSSD, LF and HF were recorded from 60 adults in three runs, totaling up to 154 recordings. Effects were evident for the parameter SDNN. In two runs, HRV changed from control to exposure phase, in one run from exposure phase to control. The cofactors smoking, coffee consumption, and the use of strong medications did not modulate EMF effects. HRV seems to be suitable to detect effects of radio-frequency electromagnetic fields on humans under certain conditions. In the future, prolonged exposure and new frequencies (5G) should be included in order to provide a better description of RF-EMF effects in modern office environments. HERE
HEALTH KEITH CUTTER: Tinnitus Gone, After One Visit Tinnitus Gone
HEALTH OT Are Teens an Anxiety Generation? Misplaced attention to causes and remedies HERE In the USA, anxiety has become prevalent among all ages in comparison to about 70 years ago. What happened in those early years after World War II? Nearly universal hospital births, with mother sedated and unavailable to their newborns, infant formula replacing breastfeeding. These practices were taken up before randomized controlled trials would show their harms. In other words, institutional practices began to undermine child and maternal health, practices that continue to this day, leading to the highest rates of maternal and infant mortality among high income nations. All this points to the need to restore our evolved nest to all children (and adults) to prevent inflammation in the first place, and the anxiety and ill health that can result from basic needs not being met. Perhaps we need a film called Outside In to get the point across. HERE
HUMAN RIGHTS: AN UNJUST TRANSITION: Global climate transition efforts are reshaping industries, but pose challenges for vulnerable workers. In the US, companies are turning to automation to accelerate deployment of solar panels. The introduction of a robot designed to install solar panels at twice the speed of humans by AES corporation has been met with concern by trade unions and CEOs, who argue the automation may undermine the creation of well-paying union jobs. In India, coal bans and pollution controls are reportedly crippling the brick kiln industry, affecting 10m workers, who are not included under social security and welfare legislation. A new report from Fashion Revolution also highlights how major fashion brands are failing to address their emissions or ensure a just transition for supply chain workers. Business and Human Rights
HUMOR: Mash THIS Technoskeptic Staff Editor note: This comedian’s routine is focused on food but crosses over into tech. A couple of months ago we introduced you to standup comedian Nathan Macintosh, whose hilarious and perfectly named “Down with Tech” warmed our technoskeptical hearts.
Well, we did it. We ate ourselves into bigger booths, bigger cup holders, and shoes that we don't have to lace up. 'Just slip them on! Why tie your shoes when you can't see them anyway?! SLIDE IN!''We've eaten ourselves out of amusement park rides, seats on planes and any European clothing. 'What do you mean you don't have this beefeater hat in a 9 wide!? But I'm an American!'We've eaten ourselves into mobility scooters at 40, pain medication for our knees at 30, and sleep apnea machines that are now in such demand there are travel sizes. 'Alright everyone, remove your belt, your shoes, and put your CPAP gas masks things in the tray... yes, sir, even the slip-on shoes need to come off.' Now this isn't ENTIRELY our fault. Companies that sell us fattening/debilitating food spend MILLIONS of dollars in advertising. Broccoli does not have ads. HERE
INDUSTRY: FWA Improvements on the Horizon One of the biggest limitations of FWA is the number of customers that can be served from a single cell site. I saw where Nokia said that with today’s technology, an FWA provider can typically handle 80 users on a 100 MHz swath of spectrum or deliver 200 GB of data per site per hour. Both Nokia and Samsung are working on technology improvements that could double the capacity to deliver 400 GB per cell per hour by 2025. This will come from several technology improvements. First is an improvement in multi-use MIMO antennas that will allow for 16 layers of data transmission, up from 4 layers deployed in today’s antennas. The vendors also will begin introducing beamforming technology. This was one of the original promises of the upgrade to 5G that allows a cell site to aim a transmission more directly at specific users. Finally, there will have to be an upgrade in customer receivers to utilize the faster MIMO antenna arrays. Another big upgrade to FWA might be deployed in major urban downtowns. Verizon recently demonstrated a trial in downtown Austin, Texas where the company was able to use rooftop transmitters to serve 15-20 customers in a nearby high rise building. The current test used C-Band spectrum, but Verizon says it will soon be able to use millimeter wave spectrum in the urban environment. This will not only allow for fast broadband speeds, but FWA customers provisioned this way will not be competing with the spectrum used for cellphones. Cellular FWA is already a disruptive technology that is forcing big cable companies to lower rates – at least by offering special deals to keep customers. The potential trajectory for FWA skyrockets if speeds can be made competitive with cable broadband, and if the cellular carriers can serve more customers per cell site. The current primary weakness of FWA is a cap on the number of customers that can be served from a given transmitter. This will limit FWA in urban areas for now. But at some point, the technology might reopen the idea of the deployment of small neighborhood cell sites – something that was promised but that never happened. If cellular carriers fully embrace better FWA, it is going to become a major player in the broadband market. That’s a big if for now since cellular carriers have whacked capital spending plans. FWA Improvements on the Horizon | POTs and PANs (potsandpansbyccg.com)
INDUSTRY: Lack of Exchange Points An exchange point is a physical location where multiple carriers meet for purposes of exchanging traffic. The idea of exchange points started in the late 1990s as a result of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. That new law allowed for voice competition, and the national voice network was controlled by regulated telephone monopolies. Big telcos like Verizon and the other Baby Bells resisted the idea of competition and made it challenging and expensive to connect to the public switched telephone network at their voice switches. This prompted the formation of CLEC hotels, which were essentially data centers near the large telco switches where competitive carriers could make connections with each other. Over time, broadband grew to be far more important than voice, and became the focus for the desire to interconnect. Over time these same locations were renamed as carrier hotels or Internet Exchange Points (IXPs). The exchange points attracted last-mile ISPs, cellular carriers, middle-mile and long-haul fiber providers, corporate networks, and eventually, content delivery networks (CDNs) from companies like Google and Facebook. The CDN category has grown to include those who are exchanging AI traffic. I don’t know if this is an accurate statistic, but I’ve heard several people claim there are fourteen or fifteen states that don’t have a major exchange point. []There is a big downside to ISPs that are not located close to an IXP. They must lease fiber transport with somebody that can carry their traffic from the local market to the nearest IXP. Such transport can be expensive, particularly for small ISPs who must buy such transport from the telcos or cable companies they are competing against. Lack of affordable connection to the Internet is one of the factors that stop ISPs from creating connections in remote rural areas far off the beaten path. It’s interesting that the BEAD grants want to fund the last-mile networks in such remote places but are not willing to find any significant middle-mile fiber needed to make the connection to affordable transport. There are good arguments to be made for the creation of smaller IXPs that are closer to where ISPs operate last-mile networks. One benefit of more points is peering, which is the process of routing traffic in a way that avoids having to send it through the major Internet IXPs. An ISP might create a peering point to directly connect to somebody like Google or Facebook to exchange traffic. Peering saves on transport costs, but it also saves on paying a fee to exchange traffic at the big IXPs, which is charged per megabit. For most ISPs, more than half of their data traffic goes to and from a handful of companies like Google, Meta, Amazon, Netflix, and Microsoft. Perhaps the biggest benefit for ISPs to meet other carriers close to home is the ability to create redundancy. ISPs have learned that it’s dangerous to send all Internet traffic to a single connection point. A fiber cut or electronics failure along that route means the ISP and its customers will go dead. Regional IXPs open up the possibility of routing traffic to multiple large IXPs. HERE
INSPIRATION/ALTERNATIVE NEWS PEERS: The Rise of AI Censorship, Pesticides More Dangerous Than Smoking, The Soul of Civility Revealing News Articles August 6, 2024 HERE
INSPIRATION: Opinion: We need to focus on empathy, facts and media literacy to preserve our society [] When he asks a person living in that reality how all this was accomplished, she lists three concepts: people agreeing on basic facts, committing to use technology in a way that does not destroy the environment or humanity, and valuing empathy. [] we are in dire need of focusing on all three of these ideas, particularly as they relate to the way we consume and disseminate information. Our collective failure in how we manage information has us speeding down the road to self-destruction. In a 2017 article, scholar Francis Fukuyama wrote: “The Internet was supposed to liberate us from gatekeepers; and, indeed, information now comes at us from all possible sources, all with equal credibility. There is no reason to think that good information will win out over bad information.” In our current situation, the bad does seem to be defeating the good within our information system. Now is the time to rethink the whole thing. While we can’t expect life to be like a TV show, a sincere, collective effort to apply the ideas of empathy, safe use of technology and agreement on basic facts within our media landscape will bring us much closer to a peaceful, functional society than what we have now: a world in which our use of technology IS destroying both the Earth and humanity (both literally and metaphorically), many of us are unable to discern truth or agree on facts, and we suffer from a severe lack of empathy. These trends will inevitably rob us of our safety, prosperity and peace. A massive media literacy/media safety effort, along with reasonable regulation of social media platforms, especially in the area of protecting children, would go a long way in curbing the destructive nature of social media and help us rebuild a fact-based society. A commitment within our political, educational, business and civic organizations to respect and encourage a wide range of varying but reasonable viewpoints would help us find the best ideas and build respect for each other. A focus within our families to reach out to and learn about those who are different from us would instill an enduring sense of empathy in our society. In the “Dark Matter” episode, the scientist observes that the key to an idyllic society is about “the people, not things.” The PEOPLE decided to build a world worth living in. It is time for all of us to make that decision. A good place to start is what we accept and expect from our information system. Jason Manning is the director of student media at Arizona State University and teaches at ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism. HERE
MINING EVS NICKEL: Briefing Powering electric vehicles: Human rights impacts of Indonesia's nickel rush BUSINESS AND HUMAN RIGHTS
OUTAGE UPDATE: Microsoft lashes out at Delta: Your ancient tech caused the service meltdown
SMART METER UPDATE OHIO; Sean Policek who did this smart meter study
Presentation Format -> https://drive.google.com/file/d/18EQxI2p5sF-1x0TcpHCUU-1rEBLC0elo/view?usp=sharingDocument Format -> https://drive.google.com/file/d/1W1pkFNkvb8w6TZR2Vbx9fVlppfe0eaVb/view?usp=sharingwas interviewed yesterday on this podcast yesterday
https://rumble.com/v59twut-electric-smart-meters-massive-invasion-of-privacy-with-sean-polacik.html FYI - Warren's Woodward’s EKG testing youtube video is referenced during the interview. (EKG Proof That "Smart" Meters Affect the Human Heart and EKG Proof That "Smart" Meters Affect the Human Heart, Part II) Despite a lot of banter that didn't have anything to do with smart meters, this interview allowed us an opportunity to keep the conversation going about smart meters in Ohio. Last month these hosts interviewed Ohio lawyer Warner Mendenhall and the Lewis family (fighting a smart water meter) https://rumble.com/v5667y1-smart-meter-battle-in-ohio-citizens-fighting-water-shutoff.html There is some misinformation though. State Rep Sedrick Denson (not state rep Jennifer Gross) has offered to introduce utility meter choice legislation. Nina published this article on her website that explains more. https://smartmeterharm.org/2024/06/13/ohio-group-leads-effort-on-utility-meter-choice-legislation/ Also the people fighting smart water meters in Toledo are not doing well. They cannot afford the $10,000 retainer fee to hire a lawyer. Please contact the hosts directly if you have more info you would like to share with them or perhaps you would like to be interviewed.. Thanks!
SPACE SATELLITES INDUSTRY: Satellite Industry Provides FCC with Global Highlights of 2023 'Starlink has about 6,000 satellites deployed, with more than 5,200 of them operational' - The Satellite Industry Association on July 24 submitted its State of the Satellite Industry 2024 report to the Federal Communications Commission, noting that low Earth orbit satellites had a record increase in launches and that the U.S. continued to dominate the satellite manufacturing sector in 2023.
SPACE: NASA likely to significantly delay the launch of Crew 9 due to Starliner issues The primary reason for the delay is rather surprising. NASA is planning to significantly delay the launch of the Crew 9 mission to the International Space Station due to ongoing concerns about the Starliner spacecraft currently attached to the station. While the space agency has not said anything publicly, sources say NASA should announce the decision this week. Officials are contemplating moving the Crew-9 mission from its current date of August 18 to September 24, a significant slip. At issue is the performance of the small reaction control system thrusters in proximity to the space station. If the right combination of them fail before Starliner has moved sufficiently far from the station, Starliner could become uncontrollable and collide with the space station. The thrusters are also needed later in the flight back to Earth to set up the critical de-orbit burn and entry in Earth's atmosphere. Software struggles NASA has quietly been studying the possibility of crew returning in a Dragon for more than a month. As NASA and Boeing engineers have yet to identify a root cause of the thruster failure, the possibility of Wilmore and Williams returning on a Dragon spacecraft has increased in the last 10 days. NASA has consistently said that ‘crew safety’ will be its No. 1 priority in deciding how to proceed. The Crew 9 delay is relevant to the Starliner dilemma for a couple of reasons. One, it gives NASA more time to determine the flight-worthiness of Starliner. However, there is also another surprising reason for the delay—the need to update Starliner’s flight software. Three separate, well-placed sources have confirmed to Ars that the current flight software on board Starliner cannot perform an automated undocking from the space station and entry into Earth’s atmosphere. HERE
SPACE: DARPA Funding Plan to Build Huge Streetlight on the Moon "It would make power, communications, lighting very accessible to all payloads that are sitting on the surface." Spacetech company Honeybee Robotics, which was acquired by Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin in 2022, has come up with a concept for a 330-foot pole that could act like an oversized streetlight for a future base on the surface of the Moon. Honeybee has had to come up with an in-situ manufacturing process to get a 330-foot pole to the Moon since no rocket is large enough to deliver it in one piece. Its Deployable Interlocking Actuated Bands for Linear Operations (DIABLO) is a system that can bend a rolled piece of metal into cylindrical structures. Once deployed, the LUNARSABER could light up the surrounding area during the night, which stretches two Earth weeks on the lunar surface, with floodlights. It could also generate power via solar panels when the Sun is up. Thanks to its considerable height, it could capture sunlight for longer hours than if it were on the ground. Honeybee estimates that such a structure could produce around 100 kilowatts of power. https://futurism.com/the-byte/huge-streetlight-moon
SURVEILLANCE: My home insurer is spying on me When I finally reached my insurance broker, he told me the reason Travelers revoked my policy: AI-powered drone surveillance. My finances were imperiled, it seemed, by a bad piece of code.I take privacy and surveillance extremely seriously — so seriously that I started one of the leading think tanks on the topic, the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project. But while I study surveillance threats around the country for a living, I had no idea that my own insurance company was using my premium dollars to spy on me. Travelers not only uses aerial photography and AI to monitor its customers' roofs, but also wrote patents on the technology — nearly 50 patents actually. And it may not be the only insurer spying from the skies. This didn't just feel creepy and invasive — it felt wrong. Literally wrong: There was nothing wrong with my roof. []While there's no way to know exactly how many other Travelers customers have been targeted by the company's surveillance program, I'm certainly not the first. In February, Boston's ABC affiliate reported on a customer who was threatened with nonrenewal if she didn't replace her roof. The roof was well within its life expectancy, and the customer hadn't encountered any issues with leaks; still, she was told that without a roof replacement she wouldn't be insured. She said she faced a $30,000 bill to replace a slate roof that experts estimated could have lasted another 70 years. Insurance companies will have huge incentives to choose against the homeowner every time. Albert Fox Cahn is the founder and executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, or STOP, a New York-based civil-rights and privacy group. VIA BUSINESS INSIDER MSN HERE
TOWERS AND ANTENNAS NY state senator calls for cell tower policy review "He is now asking the park agency to revisit what he calls their “antiquated policy” for cell towers, which hasn’t been updated since it was enacted 22 years ago."
https://www.wcax.com/2024/08/06/ny-senator-calls-cell-tower-policy-review/
TOWERS AND ANTENNAS: Charter, Hawaiian Telcom Included in $4 Billion Maui Fire Settlement 'There will certainly be additional updates from the Office of the Governor on this matter,' said the governor's office.Charter Communications and Hawaiian Telcom were included in the $4 billion settlement over the deadly fires a year ago in Maui, according to a press release issued Friday by Gov. Josh Green. The state's release said the settlement covered Charter, Hawaiian Telcom and five other defendants but did not disclose their individual financial liability. The settlement remained subject to final court approval. HERE
EVENTS:
The National Call registration link, Friday August 9, 2024, 1-3pm ET Here is the registration link for Friday's National Call for Safe Technology: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZArcu-uqz0uE9SUkDj3RHwgK17bZJC1gjDw *After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. The agenda will be sent out later in the week.