January 14-17, '25 Safe Tech International News and Notes

CHatGPT re Havana Syndrome = junk, and so is the cellphone study = ICBE-EMF, Olle re Bacteria & antibiotic resistance; Insects; German news, CES WORST IN SHOW, dementia all in the news

Prayers to those affected by the fires and other challenges. I am cautious about links, and there is much speculation online. (See commentary provided by Einer.) I am sure there is more to come including this: Newsom suspends landmark environmental laws to ease rebuilding in wildfire zones

Food for thought: I recommend the article from Pilgrims in the Machine (under inspiration) about addressing the psychological impact of having so many functions in one device, and more. So grateful for readers and writers.

FEATURED:

New Publication: Radio-Frequency Radiation Cancer Study is "Seriously Flawed" (ICBE-EMF Press Release) International Commission on the Biological Effects of Electromagnetic Fields Scientists conclude the review does not assure wireless safety, and should not be used to set public health policy SAN FRANCISCO, CA / ACCESSWIRE / January 15, 2025 / A Letter to the Editor published in the journal Environment International by the International Commission on the Biological Effects of Electromagnetic Fields (ICBE-EMF) concludes that a recently published systematic review and meta-analysis on cell phone radiofrequency radiation (RFR) and cancer risk by Karipidis et al. (2024) is scientifically flawed and does not provide a reliable assessment of the evidence on brain cancer risk associated with the use of cell phones and other wireless technologies. The ICBE-EMF are experts in researching the health effects of RFR from wireless devices and infrastructure including cell phones, Wi-Fi and cell towers. ICBE-EMF's scientific leadership points to numerous significant flaws in the review that combine to understate the cancer risk from wireless exposure and undermine the validity of the study's conclusions, raising serious concerns about its impact on public health policy." Cell phone and wireless safety is not assured. Conclusions of 'no cell phone cancer risk' in the Karipidis et al. paper is a misleading representation of the science because credible scientific evidence from case-control studies suggests increased cancer risk from cell phone radiation," stated ICBE-EMF. Seven meta-analyses published since 2016 have reported significant links between cumulative and long-term cellphone use and brain tumor risk including a 2024 review which highlighted the same methodological flaws that ICBE-EMF identified."The review failed to follow widely-used scientific guidance for meta-analysis reviews," stated John Frank MD, a physician and epidemiologist at the University of Edinburgh, Professor Emeritus, University of Toronto, and ICBE-EMF member. "The public cannot be assured that cell phones and wireless radiation are safe based upon such a flawed review." said Joel Moskowitz, PhD, Director of the Center for Family and Community Health at the School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, also an ICBE-EMF member.

FEATURED:

CELLPHONES Dr. Olle Johansson: Olle Johansson: Stop! In the Name of Life! Bacteria Exposed to Mobile Phones and WiFi Radiation Become Resistant to Antibiotics Occurrence of new, antibiotic-resistant, high-risk bacterial clonesA short time ago, in November 2024, I read that a multi-resistant strain of the Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria has taken hold in Europe. According to a new study, the occurrence of new, more resistant forms of a high-risk clone has increased sharply in recent years, including also in my own country, Sweden. Traditionally, E. coli bacteria are spread via water, food and contact with infected humans, the latter especially in hospitals where a lot of antibiotics are used. By mapping the genetic mass of the E. coli bacteria, the European infection control agency, The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), in collaboration with, among others, the Swedish Public Health Agency, has been able to show how the resistant bacteria that carry ESBL-CARBA (Extended Spectrum Beta-Lactamase with Carbapenemase Activity, a substance found in some bacteria that makes them resistant to certain antibiotics) has spread within and between European countries. The study was recently published in the journal Eurosurveillance (Kohlenberg et al. 2024).”The study gives further evidence of the serious increase in multi-resistant bacteria that risks reducing the possibility of treating severe bacterial infections in the future. Urgent measures are required to counter the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in Sweden and globally”, says Vilhelm Müller, investigator at the Swedish Public Health Agency. Infections difficult to treat now will become very difficult, or even impossible, to treat in the near future … and that will also include ordinary, everyday ones! E. coli bacteria normally occur in our intestinal flora, but this particular clone is a common cause of, among other things, urinary tract infection and blood poisoning (sepsis). The bacteria now studied are resistant to several common treatment options, including broad-spectrum antibiotics such as carbapenems (carbapenems are antibiotics that work against many different bacterial species and are reserved for the treatment of infections in seriously ill patients and infections caused by bacteria resistant to first-line therapy). []Taheri et al. (2017; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28203122), who have demonstrated that the exposure to 900 MHz GSM mobile phone radiation and 2.4 GHz radiofrequency radiation emitted from common Wi-Fi routers made Listeria monocytogenes and Escherichia coli bacteria resistant to different antibiotics. These findings naturally have direct implications for the management of serious infectious diseases (cf. above), and may potentially lead to a future collapse of the global human population. []My personal comment to this is: just imagine what our man-made high-frequency signals, used by cell phones, wireless smart meters, WiFi systems, wireless baby alarms, DECT phones, Internet of Things (IoT), Internet of Bodies (IoB), and many more gadgets/installations/systems, delivered at colossal power levels compared to the natural ones, may do to these intricate communicative mechanisms! The above may, in addition – if replicated by independent scientists in further controlled studies – explain the observed occurrence of antibiotic resistance after exposures of common bacteria, like Listeria monocytogenes and Escherichia coli, to the radiation of 2G mobile telephony or WiFi-router fields (cf. above; see also Johansson 2017). Soil bacteria are also affected by radiation from mobile phone towers It must also be noted that Sharma Antim Bala and coworkers (2018) have demonstrated the impact of the radiations transmitted by mobile tower base stations on microbial diversity in soil and antibiotic resistance patterns. Soil samples were taken from near four different base stations located in Dausa City, India, while control samples were taken far from any base stations. [] The above ECDC finding is potentially very important! It is part of a dangerous development I, Olle Johansson, have tried to emphasize and warn about for decades. Science has already demonstrated that bacteria exposed to mobile phones and WiFi radiation are resistant to antibiotics. The implications of this are chilling and may easily explain the ongoing huge and highly frightening development of more and more antibiotics-resistant microorganisms around the world. Stop! In the Name of Life!

FEATURED:

1st Edition Electromagnetic Fields of Wireless Communications: Biological and Health Effects Edited By Dimitris J. Panagopoulos ISBN 9781032061757 544 Pages 14 Color & 42 B/W Illustrations Published December 30, 2022 by CRC Press This book reflects contributions from experts in biological and health effects of Radio Frequency (RF)/Microwave and Extremely Low Frequency (ELF) Electromagnetic Fields (EMFs) used in wireless communications (WC) and other technological applications. Diverse topics related to physics, biology, pathology, epidemiology, and plausible biophysical and biochemical mechanisms of WC EMFs emitted by antennas and devices are included. Discussions on the possible consequences of fifth generation (5G) mobile telephony (MT) EMFs based on available data and correlation between anthropogenic EMF exposures and various pathological conditions such as infertility, cancer, electro-hypersensitivity, organic and viral diseases, and effects on animals, plants, trees, and environment are included. It further illustrates individual and public health protection and the setting of biologically- and epidemiologically-based exposure limits. Features: Covers biological and health effects, including oxidative stress, DNA damage, reproductive effects of mobile phones/antennas (2G, 3G, 4G), cordless phones, Wi-Fi, etc. Describes effects induced by real-life exposures by commercially available devices/antennas. Illustrates biophysical and biochemical mechanisms that fill the gap between recorded experimental and epidemiological findings and their explanations. Explores experimental and epidemiological facts and mechanisms of action. Provides explanations and protection tips. Transcends across physical, biological, chemical, health, epidemiological, and environmental aspects of the topic. This book is aimed at senior undergraduate/graduate students in physics, biology, medicine, bioelectromagnetics, electromagnetic biology, non-ionizing radiation biophysics, telecommunications, electromagnetism, bioengineering, and dosimetry.

FEATURED

The Power Couple The healthy computer Silicon Valley doesn't want you to know about Our nearsighted world | Tristan Scott | Daylight Computer Here’s what we’ll learn in this article: What light has taught Bohdanna and I about our health Is blue light harmful? How we’ve tried to bring our office outside Trends in child myopia What are the symptoms of myopia? What are the financial costs of myopia? Cost-effective strategies to treat nearsightedness Why is the Daylight Computer healthier What’s the golden thread leading us home? JOIN US for the ElectroHealth Summit! A myopic future awaits those who can’t see far ahead As children are constantly pummeled with never-ending jabs of blue light, they’re not only primed for addiction later in life, but are also more at risk of becoming nearsighted. Children under 10 years of age absorb 60% more blue light into their retina as the lens of their eyes is not yet fully developed.¹¹

NEWSLETTER: diagnose:funk | Newsletter Germany, translates at link:

includes: Video Kinder & Strahlung | LiFi statt WLAN | Petition smartphonefreie Schulen | Handyverzicht Irland (Video Children & Radiation | LiFi instead of WLAN | Petition for smartphone-free schools | Cell phone ban in Ireland) Video Cyprus: Protecting children from radiation Video of the National Committee for Environment and Child Health Cyprus The National Committee for Environment and Child Health in Cyprus has made a video that educates parents and children about the radiation risks of smartphones.; The journal "Gymnasium Baden Württemberg" (9-10/2024) of the Philologists' Association published a guest article by Dr. Klaus Scheler on data transmission with light.; In Hamburg, the initiative has been successful, there are Smart Start Communities at over 130 schools, with more than 1,200 committed parents. The initiative writes: "The many negative consequences of too early, excessive and uncontrolled consumption of digital screen media for the physical and mental health of our children have been proven by numerous scientific studies. We want to give children back a smartphone-free childhood. We want to make it possible for parents to decide against a smartphone for their child. We want to bring together parents who are consciously in favor of a smartphone-free childhood.; Giving up mobile phones in Ireland - Growing up without your own smartphone SRF television report on the renunciation of mobile phones in Greystones Children should be allowed to be children again - spared from social media and cyberbullying. This is what many parents and schools in Ireland want, who have agreed to do without smartphones. In Greystones, virtually all primary school children no longer have their own smartphones [...]; Is the digital revolution obstructing the future for us and our children? Updated - 2 videos: Prof. Dr. Gertraud Teuchert-Noodt gave a lecture in Neckartenzlingen & instructional video on the frontal lobe In her lecture, Prof. Dr. Dr. Gertraud Teuchert-Noodt presented in detail the significance of the research results from neurobiology on the effects of digital media on the development of the brain of children. She herself has researched this for 25 years, especially on the effects on the frontal lobe and the reward system. The lecture is an exciting journey into the brain and makes it clear: The educational sciences must deal with these findings, because without them one cannot understand the irreversible damage. A second video about the effects of digital media on the development of the frontal lobe is in the middle of the article and at the bottom is an impulse video for parents' evenings.

NEWS AND NOTES

AI: Gary Marcus from Marcus on AI AGI versus “broad, shallow intelligence” The BSI we have now, versus the AGI we want GenAI answers are frequently superficial; they invent things (“hallucinations” or what I would prefer to call confabulations”), they fail to sanity check their own work, and they regularly make boneheaded errors in reasoning, mathematics and so on.. One never knows when one will get a correct answer or ludicrous response like this one observed by AI researcher Abhijit Mahabal

AI: AI-fabricated 'junk science' floods Google scholar, researchers warn

AI: Health Care AI Requires a Lot of Expensive Humans to Run Despite the hype over artificial intelligence in medicine, the systems require consistent monitoring and staffing to put in place and maintain

AI: ‘Mainlined into UK’s veins’: Labour announces huge public rollout of AI Plans to make UK world leader in AI sector include opening access to NHS and other public data

AI:The Intrinsic Perspective Your brain is a washing machine, AGI's job prospects, Americans are alone, the Earth passes "peak child" Desiderata #31: links and commentary Table of Contents: Sleep aids like Ambien may counteract the evolved purpose of sleep. The anti-social century. The world passes peak child. AGI (probably?) won’t make human intellectual labor worthless. Graduate student stipends slip below the poverty line. Monkeys officially cannot write Shakespeare before the universe dies. 4chan’s literary taste praised by… The New Statesman? From the Archives. Ask Me Anything.

APPLIANCES: Refrigerator, BUILDING BIOLOGIST Ken Gartner from Bio-Safer Housing An Icebox Renaissance Sometimes the True Answer Involves Less 'Tech' Rather Than More A Small Inefficient Refrigerator + Icebox Fridge = Good EnoughWe reasoned: if we bought a small dorm fridge (Craigslist for $20) and kept that powered up for the meats and delicate items, we could just leave the big fridge as an icebox, for the foreseeable future [deferring the need for repair/replacement into the future, at least]. Problem solved.

SEE ALSO: Bottled LPG Refrigerator New Series: Radical Living for Low-EMF Survival with Keith Cutter of EMF Remedy

AI: Gary Marcus from Marcus on AI AI Agents: Hype versus Reality, redux The contrast couldn’t be starker Gary Marcus a scientist, author, and entrepreneur who has almost literally gone in blue in the face trying to warn people that LLMs are not the AI’s we are looking for.

ATT: AT&T Unveils First & Only Customer-First Promise Across Both Wireless & Fiber Networks; Plus, Customer Care & Deals The AT&T Guarantee will set a new bar in customer experience covering network, customer care and offers for consumers & small businesses

AUTOMOBILES: Commerce finalizes rule banning 'connected' cars from China, Russia Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said the final rule is a "targeted approach" to ensure Chinese and Russian-manufactured technologies are kept off American roads.

AUTOMOBILES: Tesla forced to recall 240,000 popular electric cars over fears camera issue could lead to crashes In a small percentage of affected vehicles, drivers may see the loss of rearview camera functionality when they power the vehicle up. It has been reported that this is down to a "reverse current" which may cause a shorting failure on the car computer board. It also does not comply with FMVSS 111, S5.5 and S6.2 in the US.

BIG TECH META, PARIS MARX OPINION: The MAGAfication of Mark Zuckerberg The Meta CEO wants the left to leave him alone so he can shape our collective future. Zuckerberg’s realignment toward the political right should not be a surprise. Over the past decade, he’s become the third-richest person in the world. He can also never be displaced from his position at the top of Meta because its dual-class share structure gives him a majority of the voting power. More recently, he’s embraced mixed-martial arts, which has a more conservative culture. He’s been quick to gut diversity initiatives at Meta and now claims the company needs a more “masculine energy.”

BROADBAND: Biden-Harris Administration Awards $117 Million For Wireless Innovation

BROADBAND; OPINION IN FAVOR OF FIBER vs. satellites: Eight Hundred Words to the Nattering Nabobs Of Negativism I continue to hear the whining about fiber being too expensive and deployment too rural and remote, and just not practical.

I continue to hear the whining about fiber being too expensive and deployment too rural and remote, and just not practical. They say we should settle for something easier, like satellite or wireless, despite being technically and financially inadequate, and in the long term even more expensive, as well as not being future proof. []My Great Grandfather's generation built the railroad and telegraph infrastructures. Many of these were Irish, German, and Chinese immigrants. Have you seen the Deadwood HBO series aired from 2004 to 2007?How about Hell on Wheels aired on AMC from 2011 to 2016?My Grandfather's generation built the rural electrification grid, and the telephone network with the help of the first generation of immigrants. Manufacturing companies setup immigrant labor camps during the early and mid-20th century to house and provide for immigrants who came to work for these companies. These companies needed a large labor force to support operations and facilitated the settlement of immigrants, offering them employment, language assistance, basic necessities, and housing in company-provided facilities. My Father’s generation build the interstate highway system, and other things with the help of immigrants and minorities. The Civilian Conservation Corps work camps were located in rural and wilderness areas, where they worked on projects such as building roads, planting trees, preventing soil erosion, improving national parks, and constructing flood control systems, providing food, shelter, and education. Leaving aside the logistics, as to fiber expense, as I indicated previously many of the pathways already exist for aerial deployment. Don’t be sold on the idea that this is all about drilling through rock.Those off the electrical grid, have already chosen generators, wind turbines, and solar power. They should not ask for or be provided fiber deployment and should use something else like satellite. Everyone else deserves fiber and to not become second class citizens, to their neighbors. Before I end this, much of the hype around the ridiculous cost numbers is just plain gouging, price discrimination, and profiteering. LINKS TO: An Informed Citizens View of the Current Broadband Fiber Kerfuffle We all need to reject the whiners, profiteers, naysayers, and just get to work. Rural broadband Internet in this country for the most part remains monopolized, overpriced, insufficiently fast, hampering economic growth and resilience, as well as educational and healthcare opportunities. Critics also argue that fiber networks are too expensive and unnecessary, promoting wireless, and satellite alternatives instead. However, these alternatives offer slower speeds far slower than fiber’s current and future potential. As Harvard’s Professor Susan Crawford writes, it is like comparing our current 2-inch copper water pipes to a 14-mile-wide fiber optic cable river. While burying fiber may be costly in some areas, existing electrical, telephone, and railroad right-of-ways— often now hiking trails—offer an underused infrastructure that could be repurposed to string aerial or bury fiber cables. The government granted these right of ways, and they can now be reclaimed for the public good, via eminent domain if necessary. ll wireless technologies – cellular, fixed wireless, and satellite – suffer from the same issues

Satellite has affordability (hardware and service) as well as connection viability issues.

They all require subsidizing noncompetitive costs (require 50-75% consumer subsidies).

They all have upgrade/maintenance issues, including high maintenance and upgrade cycles

4G, 5G, 6G cellular hotspots: High cost, low performance

Multiple upgrades of Starlink in the past five years is detrimental costly to consumers

Broadband Point-to-Point Wireless (urban and rural) only advanced from 1-100 Mbps over 5 years

They all have low performance/high maintenance/upgrade costs, and limited capacity compared to fiber wireline technologies

They all require line-of-sight or near line-of-site to towers or views of the northern sky, with questionable viability in rural hilly and wooded areas.

There is an old computer IT maximum that rings true still today that says that: “wired is for data, and wireless is for voice”.

BROADBAND INDUSTRY: BEAD Alternate Technology Guidelines NTIA originally ruled that alternate technologies like satellite and unlicensed fixed wireless were not eligible for BEAD. Then last year, NTIA issued voluntary guidelines on how States could allow satellite broadband. This new set of rules is mandatory for all States, other than those that have already made grant awards. Unlicensed Fixed Wireless (ULFW – a new acronym!). NTIA made it very clear from the start that grant money cannot be used to build unlicensed fixed wireless networks, and NTIA declared from the start that the technology does not meet the reliability test described in the legislation. BEAD still can’t be used to build ULFW. However, there are now circumstances where the presence of ULFW could block another ISP from getting a BEAD grant. [] there are now circumstances where the presence of ULFW could block another ISP from getting a BEAD grant.

BROADBAND HAWAII: Hawaii Announces Plan to Become First Fully Fiber State Project is expected to be completed by the end of 2026

CES SHOW: FIGHT TO REPAIR Who asked for this?! A recap of this year's CES 'Worst in Show' AwardsThe annual CES Worst in Show awards balance the mainstream media's "ooh"s and "aahh!"s with much needed "what?" "why?" and "WTF!?!"s. Also: a German court delivers a big win for software freedom.

What better way to start the New Year than with an orgy, amiright?! I’m talking, of course, about the orgy of consumerism and technophilia that kicks off each new year in the form of CES - the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The annual electronics showcase, which took place from January 7th to 10th, saw close to 150,000 people crowd into the Las Vegas Convention Center and expos at The Venetian to gape at cutting edge technology from more than 4,500 vendors, including 1,400 start up firms, according to organizers. Amidst the raucous displays and “ooh”-ing and “aah”-ing of mainstream media outlets, it is hard to tune into dissenting voices: the “what?” “why?” and “WTF?!” offered by those of us puzzled by the need for so many of the showcased devices (a robotic cat to clip onto your handbag or cool your coffee?!) not to mention the flood of discarded electronics that is already poisoning our planet. That’s the spirit behind another event: the annual CES Worst In Show awards. Hosted by The Repair Association and iFixit, the Worst In Show awards shine a much needed light on the dark side of CES: over-engineered, insecure, unsustainable, prying and (often) unrepairable gadgets. With that in mind, here’s a run-down of this year’s winners for the CES Worst In Show.

AND: The ‘Worst in Show’ CES products put your data at risk and cause waste, privacy advocates say

The award that no company wants to win calls out the “least repairable, least private, and least sustainable products on display.” “We’re seeing more and more of these things that have basically surveillance technology built into them, and it enables some cool things,” Liz Chamberlain, director of sustainability at the e-commerce site iFixit told The Associated Press. “But it also means that now we’ve got microphones and cameras in our washing machines, refrigerators and that really is an industry-wide problem.” A new smart ring every few years? Kyle Wiens, CEO of iFixit, awarded the Ultrahuman Rare Luxury Smart Ring the title of “least repairable.”The rings, which come in colors like dune and desert sand, cost $2,200. Wiens said the jewelry “looks sleek but hides a major flaw: its battery only lasts 500 charges.” Worse, he said, is the fact that replacing the battery is impossible without destroying the device entirely. “Luxury items may be fleeting, but two years of use for $2,200 is a new low,” he said. An AI-powered smart crib? Bosch’s “Revol” crib uses sensors, cameras and AI that the company says can help monitor vital signs like how an infant is sleeping, their heart and respiratory rates and more. The crib can also rock gently if the baby needs help falling asleep and signal to parents if a blanket or other object is interfering with breathing.EFF Executive Director Cindy Cohn said the crib preys on parents’ fears and “collects excessive data about babies via a camera, microphone, and even a radar sensor.” “Parents expect safety and comfort — not surveillance and privacy risks — in their children’s cribs,” she said in the report. Too much waste? Although AI is everywhere at CES, Stacey Higginbotham, a policy Fellow at Consumer Reports, felt that SoundHound AI’s In-Car Commerce Ecosystem, powered by its Automotive AI, pushes it to unnecessary extremes. The feature “increases energy consumption, encourages wasteful takeout consumption and distracts drivers—all while adding little value,” Higginbotham said. That landed the in-car system as “least sustainable” on the list. Soundhound AI’s platform allows drivers and passengers to order takeout for pick-up directly from the car’s infotainment system

CHILDREN: Jean M. Twenge from Generation Tech The pandemic was bad for teen mental health. The smartphone and social media were worse Thus far, we can conclude: 1. The increases in depression from 2012 to 2019 – the years when smartphones and social media went from optional to nearly mandatory for teens – are much larger than the increases in depression from before to during the pandemic.2. There were sharp increases in depression from before to during the pandemic (2019 to 2021), but these increases had already receded significantly by 2023, just two years later. 3. All of the changes are larger for girls than for boys, suggesting that environmental factors had a bigger impact on girls’ depression than boys’. Another way to view the trends is to leave out the years most directly impacted by the pandemic (2020, 2021, and 2022) and connect the lines from 2019 to 2023 (see Figure 2).

CHILDREN JEAN TWENGE: Twice as many teens say they do not enjoy life As the world opened up post-pandemic, teens were a little better but still not OK

CHILDREN: Melanie Hempe from the Be ScreenStrong Substack From Chaos to Calm: 5 Screen-Free Ways to Fill Your Kids' Downtime Say goodbye to screen battles and hello to a calmer, happier home with these practical tips.

CHILDREN COMMUNITY JOHN HAIDT: The Real User Interface: Recovering Our Neighborhoods Although the technological forces driving us apart are powerful, the forces needed to hold us together are right in front of us. Today, we return to our series on the “first act” of The Anxious Generation: the loss of community. (The second act is the loss of the play-based childhood. The third act is the rise of the phone-based childhood.) In our first post, we discussed Robert Putnam’s critical work on the decline of social capital and trust, driven partly by new individualizing technologies (such as television) and dwindling participation in local and communal activities. As communities weakened and trust eroded, so did the play-based childhood. In the second post, we featured an essay by Seth Kaplan, author and lecturer at Johns Hopkins who studies fragile states. In it, he argued rebuilding strong, in-person local communities is a prerequisite to restoring a play-based childhood. In a follow-up post, Seth provocatively contended that the upstream cause of the youth mental health crisis is this very loss of community. In this third post, Seth examines four factors—beyond technological change—that help explain the erosion of neighborhood communities, and crucially, how we can revive them. These include: changes in the physical landscape, decline in local institutions, individualization of religion, and shifts in our education and aspirations.

CHILDREN SCREENAGERS: We are thrilled to announce the newly updated version of our groundbreaking original film, Screenagers: Growing Up in the Digital Age.
Award-winning and thought-provoking, the film is now more relevant than ever. This new version of our film features fresh insights, including from Jonathan Haidt, author of The Anxious Generation, and several others. The update also includes the latest scientific findings on the effects of video gaming, sleep, social media, and the use of phones and smartwatches in schools — and much more. We've also streamlined the content by removing some elements that no longer resonate. Most importantly, the film has more solutions than ever. This updated Screenagers — focused on tweens and teens — is not to be confused with the film we released in the fall, Screenagers Elementary School Age Edition, which focuses on elementary-age kids. We're so excited to see this updated version of our movie spark meaningful conversations. Watch the trailer here.

CONSUMER PRODUCTS: WATCH WITH FALL DETECTION: Yes, The Samsung Galaxy Watch Has Fall Detection - Here's How To Use It The key to this feature is that it detects hard falls, so you don't have to worry about it going off every time you stumble as you go about your day. The watch's algorithms and sensors allow it to distinguish between a sudden fall and abrupt movements, like tripping while running up the stairs or the quick motion of flopping down on a couch. You can adjust the sensitivity of the fall detection feature, too, and decide if you want it to detect falls all of the time or only during workouts. While we often think of fall detection as something for seniors, whether you fall while hiking an isolated trail solo or slip on a wet bathroom floor and hit your head, it can be useful at any age. Just like a virtual medical ID could save your life in an emergency, your Samsung Galaxy Watch's fall detection feature could, too. (This thing probably detects everything else you do too)

ENERGY NUCLEAR UK: The Great British Nuke Off

It’s time to expose the sham plan for new nuclear power, write Andy Blowers and Stephen Thomas in their new report The following is the introduction and the conclusion from the report, “It is time to expose the Great British Nuclear Fantasy once and for all”. Read the full report. The accidents at Chernobyl and Fukushima, and the threats to Zaporizhzhia in Ukraine and Russia’s Kursk plant at the heart of the Russo-Ukraine war provide chilling evidence of dangers that are likely to materialise sometime somewhere. With its embedded relationship to the bomb, nuclear energy is implicated in existential catastrophe. The other existential threat comes from accelerating Climate Change which will inundate some coastal sites, create problems of cooling water and, render the legacy of wastes scattered at vulnerable sites an unmanageable problem for generations far into the future. We may well ask why, in the face of such deficiencies and dangers and with evidence of flagging momentum, this fantastical project is still proceeding? The answer lies in a powerful combination of political ambition, nuclear industry and trade union lobbying purveying the promise of skills, jobs investment, export markets and wealth associated with nuclear development and its supply chain. A mainstream discourse of nuclear as a mainstay of base load supply, energy security and the goal of net zero has been nurtured, to which powerful interests unthinkingly subscribe. Inertia ensures the persistence of the fantasy.

ENVIRONMENT: Alain Thill: Biological effects of electromagnetic fields on insects. INSECTS AND ELECTROSMOG – AN ECOLOGICAL DISASTER? How are bees affected by power lines? Does wifi affect bees' ability to return to their hive? A presentation by Alain Thill, biologist and co-author of a meta-analysis on the impact of electromagnetic fields on insects! Video in French, Subtitles in English Ondertitels in the Netherlands 40 MINUTES

ENVIRONMENT: Biocentric with Max Wilbert This Poet and Tribal Attorney is Being Sued by a Mining Company “Protecting Peehee Mu’huh is an act of love and gratitude.” the third in a series of articles introducing the Thacker Pass Six, a group of traditional indigenous people and grassroots activists — including me — who are being sued by a Canadian mining company called Lithium Nevada Corporation.

FCC: FCC OKs Modified 5.9 GHz ITS Licenses to Deploy Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything

FIRES These 2 posts are provided via google translate from Norwegian, may not be accurate to the source: FIRES EINAR NORWAY: Do AMS meters have a role in the Los Angeles house fires? If nothing else, it is important that the role of AMS meters is assessed, because it is important to clarify whether the fear has a basis. It's easy to imagine that Matt Landman is wrong: If the heat is conducted quickly enough from the meter on the outside and into the fuse box's distribution rails, perhaps the temperature drops sharply, to below any fire risk? Professional assessments, calculations and practical tests in fire laboratories are needed here. Otherwise, we are at the mercy of the global village's ability to transform a feather into five chickens in the blink of an eye. AND "That AMS meters can be behind the fire in Los Angeles is just nonsense! The fire test laboratory manager writes the following: If you or Mr. Landman knew anything about materials, you would know that the claim "They go from 140 degrees Fahrenheit to 6316 degrees Fahrenheit in just a few seconds." is highly suspect. Since I became curious about what temperature lithium-ion batteries burn at, I looked for some sources. I found one that looks like a pretty thorough report on the burning of lithium batteries published in the journal Nature, which is a reputable source. The study appeared to have been done in China. It cited in its references a publication by Factory Mutual Insurance. I don't know anything about the Chinese source other than that it was in a reputable journal, but from the 10 years I ran the fire test laboratory, I know that Factory Mutual does extensive work on fire and their work is among the most recognized and respected in the field. The Factory Mutual document cites report from the FAA (US Federal Aviation Administration) on fire tests on lithium batteries that I was also able to find. I took a brief look through all three documents. The links to the 3 articles are: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-18868-w?fromPaywallRec=false https://www.fm.com/-/media/project/publicwebsites/fm/files/resources/research-technical-reports/p13037.pdf AND https://www.fire.tc.faa.gov/pdf/TC-16-37.pdf Factory Mutual and FAA reports address tests that simulate the impact of fire in pallets of packed batteries. They probably amount to thousands of times the mass of any AMS meter. Two of these articles report temperatures below 1000°C. The FAA article cites a "test of thermal propagation" where the temperature reaches 1400°F (760°C). Where does Mr. Landman pick up the 6316°F (3191°C). His claim is just rubbish. The claim that it is somewhat suspicious that houses burned to the ground, while trees remained, is also rubbish: Tree trunks and larger branches have a high content of water. The water content (by weight) of newly sawn wood in relation to wood material can be from 40 or 50 per cent to well over 170 per cent. Until the water has evaporated (540 calories per gram), the temperature of the tree cannot rise above 100°C. So, no, it's not surprising that some trees survive. To even include AMS meters in connection with the LA fires is just stupid and shows no understanding of the characteristics of fires in urban areas along the border with the wilderness, or for that matter no knowledge of fires at all." So far my relative in California. He is naturally very sceptical about what happens when unfounded, dramatic allegations are allowed to spread on X and Facebook. They erode trust in both the authorities and recognised research. Thetragic fires in LA lead to an endless stream of unwitting garbage being posted online. It creates a dangerous flood of misinformation. And he is of course right: The comments on Facebook are characterized by only reading the Facebook post and not the blog post I wrote. If you read my blog post, you hopefully saw that I warned against the AI-created image and warned against taking "Mr. Landman"'s claims for good fish – including the one about the heat from the battery in the AMS meter could spread and start a fire.

FIRES OT: Los Angeles Firefighters Risk Cancer from Urban Smoke

Wildfires are storming into urban areas more frequently, and toxins in homes and cars are increasing cancer risk for firefighters []The lack of respiratory protection is a problem that has been decimating wildland firefighters’ health for years. Despite new efforts following the Camp Fire, there are still no respirators on the market that are portable, able to filter out all the chemicals released by structure fires, and last long enough for the extended shifts of wildland firefighters. []Wildfires have historically burned vegetation. That smoke can be hazardous to inhale, too, because it contains tiny particles that can clog up respiratory systems, exacerbating asthma and other conditions. But increased development in previously rural areas means wildfires are increasingly occurring in urban spaces — burning more structures and releasing more chemicals.Some 7,180 structures in California were destroyed by wildfires between 2004 and 2014, according to state data. Then the number exploded. In the past decade, wildfires burned nearly 54,700 structures. More than 18,800 of them were destroyed in a single blaze, the Camp Fire. As more structures burn, firefighters are exposed to more chemicals — and more cancer. “Plumbing has copper and lead in it. Paint has toxic chemicals. Electronics, plastics have really nasty stuff in them. All these chemicals we don’t think of occurring in a wildland fire are now part of the smoke,” said Mary Johnson, principal research assistant at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “The list is really long, and it’s really not good.” Urban firefighting already had a cancer problem. [] Firefighters who fought Camp Fire have higher concentrations of toxins in their blood, according to a study commissioned by the San Francisco Firefighter Cancer Prevention Foundation. In that project, 80 firefighters were given blood tests a few hours after they deployed to fight the Camp Fire. Their blood carried carcinogenic flame retardants commonly found in plastics, electronics, foam and furniture at higher levels than the general population. They also had elevated levels of PFAS, a carcinogen and endocrine disrupter, and some firefighters also had higher levels of mercury and lead.

FIRES OT: Wildfires threaten drinking water as ash and chemicals pollute watersheds

FIRES LEGAL: BBILAN news— 2025 Ushers in More Fire Catastrophes — What Can We Do? Applying Wisdom and Resilience to Urgent 21st Century Challenges BBILAN is pleased to announce the first in its 2025 Evolutionary Conversation Series on Monday, January 27, 2025 from 11:00 am to 12:30 pm Pacific. (Register HERE for the whole series.) We will demonstrate how Kokoro—a 21st Century Wisdom/Resilience Platform can be used to anticipate and to reduce risk at three levels: Personal, Organizational, and Community. We will focus on preliminary lessons from the ongoing Los Angeles wildfires and their implications for other communities such as Santa Barbara and Lake Tahoe that are at extremely high risk. We will explore legal options for the compensation of victims, and the responsibilities of retreating insurance companies and unresponsive government agencies. Lastly, we will discuss 21st century models that combine resilient community leadership, disaster prevention, and compassionate relief.

HAVANA SYNDROME FAIR OBSERVER: Outside the Box: Havana Syndrome and our Common Future with AI By Peter Isackson

In “Outside the Box,” I interrogate ChatGPT to better understand how AI “reasons.” It’s like a conversation with an intelligent friend, sharing ideas and challenging some of the explanations. Neither of us necessarily has “the answers,” but by working together, we can better frame the questions. In this article, we worked together, in a context created by the journalists at SpyTalk, to home in on a controversial topic: what I like to call the “Havana Syndrome syndrome.” This conversation with ChatGPT provoked an important discussion about humanity’s future with AI. In our latest conversation, I began by calling ChatGPT’s attention to an excellent piece of journalism from SpyTalk that summarizes the question of what we should believe concerning the authentically bizarre episode known as “The Havana Syndrome.” I drew the chatbot’s attention to one paragraph whose conclusion produced what I can only qualify as a devastatingly comic effect. It cites the pleading of Mark Zaid, a national security lawyer representing a group of Havana Syndrome victims who persist in seeking to blame either a foreign government or the CIA itself for their complaints. “For all the confidence U.S. intelligence agencies have expressed in dismissing most of the conspiratorial claims about Havana Syndrome, there is little reason to believe the controversy will end anytime soon. In his statement, Zaid called on the incoming Trump administration “to ensure the CIA can no longer lie to the public and instead require full disclosure of what the government knows.” Talk about idealism! Expecting the Trump administration to expose lying and the CIA to disclose “what the government knows.” Only a lawyer could have a good reason to invent such fantasies. SpyTalk’s article is thorough and well-balanced, well worth reading for its historical perspective. It describes what I’m tempted to call a culture of hyperreality shared by the government, Congress, the deep state and especially the media. The Havana Syndrome case exemplifies how media outlets, often motivated by the need to sustain audience interest and engagement, can amplify sensationalist narratives. This is particularly true when stories tap into existing fears about covert state activity or foreign threats. The media’s role in perpetuating the Havana Syndrome theory—despite mounting evidence to the contrary—raises concerns about how the mechanisms of reporting, editorial choice, and audience targeting can prioritize spectacle over rigorous investigationInstitutions like CBS and The New York Times, which are seen as arbiters of credibility, sometimes fall into a pattern of reporting that skirts their responsibility for nuance and self-correction. Instead of framing emerging evidence that discredits initial claims, coverage may emphasize controversy to sustain the story’s marketability. [] The ongoing relevance of the Havana Syndrome story illustrates how narratives can take on a life of their own, sustained by a complex interplay of institutional and media dynamics. This phenomenon raises important questions about the limits of truth in a post-trust society, where even the institutions designed to uncover and report reality are viewed with suspicion. In the end, the search for effective fact-checkers is perhaps less important than fostering a culture of critical inquiry and openness to revising beliefs when evidence warrants it. It’s not about finding someone who is infallibly ‘trustworthy,’ but about building systems that encourage skepticism, dialogue, and accountability.” LINKS TO: Spy Agencies Again Dismiss Foreign Role in Havana Syndrome Intel officials knock down ‘60 Minutes’ report on Russian role, but two spy agencies lodge mild dissents A new assessment released by the National Intelligence Council on Friday did, for the first time, reveal that two of seven intelligence agencies that participated in the community’s updated review had mild dissents, having found evidence that unidentified foreign actors have made progress in developing advanced weapons that could have caused a small number of incidents. One of those agencies concluded with “low confidence” that there was a “roughly even chance” that a foreign actor may have used such a weapon against a “small, undetermined subset of U.S. government personnel.” A second agency—also, with “low confidence”— concluded that there was a “roughly even chance” that a foreign actor had developed “a novel weapon or prototype device” that could have been deployed against a small number of U.S. officials but not that it had actually been used. But five other intelligence agencies, one of them being the CIA, rejected those dissents and stood by its previous positions, concluding there was simply no evidence that foreign actors were involved in “any” such attacks on U.S. personnel. Among those agencies, two had “moderate to high confidence” in those judgments and three had “moderate confidence.”One reason for those confidence levels, according to an official who briefed reporters, is that the U.S. intelligence community had information that “points away” from foreign actors being involved, an apparent reference to sensitive signals intelligence that was obtained during the time such alleged attacks had taken place or when they were first reported. In fact, the official said, that intelligence indicated that relevant officials of the country most suspected of engaging in such attacks — a likely reference to Russia — were “either expressing surprise or denying their involvement privately.” []The official also emphasized that its findings were in no way intended to disparage the many CIA officers, diplomats and others who have reported AHI symptoms. “No IC component calls into question the experiences or suffering of U.S. government personnel or dependents” the official said. “These are our colleagues and friends. All components recognize that these personnel and their dependents experience genuine, sometimes painful and traumatic physical symptoms and sensory phenomena, and they honestly and sincerely reported those events as possible.” Such words did little to satisfy critics who have become increasingly angry over how the CIA and other U.S. agencies have responded to reports of Havana Syndrome, debunking the claims of foreign involvement and— in some instances— not providing adequate medical care. [] Mark Zaid, a national security lawyer who represents many AHI victims, said that the new intelligence community assessment “disgracefully continues to hide the truth behind a cloak of secrecy.” “There should be no mistake on how to actually evaluate the ICA findings,” Zaid added in a statement. “The document reveals agencies within the Intelligence Community are in disagreement with one another.” [] For all the confidence U.S. intelligence agencies have expressed in dismissing most of the conspiratorial claims about Havana Syndrome, there is little reason to believe the controversy will end anytime soon. In his statement, Zaid called on the incoming Trump administration “to ensure the CIA can no longer lie to the public and instead require full disclosure of what the government knows.” And there is even evidence that senior Biden administration officials have doubts about the intelligence community’s assessment. The Miami Herald reported this week that at a recent meeting with AHI victims in the White House Situation Room, Mahar Bitar, the National Security Council coordinator for intelligence, said that there was indeed evidence of foreign attacks and that the U.S. intelligence community’s assessment “was no longer valid.”

HEALTH LIFESTYLE: Offline is the new online 2025 will be the year of the Digital Detox (GERMANY)

HEALTH: Reversing Chronic Physical Symptoms with the Help of the Mind The Role of Stress Reduction, Psychotherapy, and Personal Development Gary Sharpe and Lilian Sjøberg Celebration of a milestone presentation It’s All in Your Head: Challenging Dualism in Health Care | Dr. Sarah Lidstone | TEDxUofT17 MINUTES We were very excited to see the above recent TEDx talk, because it indicates that mainstream neurology and neuroscience is beginning to “sing from the same hymn sheet” and support what we have been telling for some time. Below are our notes on the most salient and important, to us, points this speaker, a neurologist and neuroscience, covers in her talk. In her clinics, a neurologist, a psychologist, and a physiotherapist are all in the same room with the patient at the same time. This team comes up with holistic, bespoke solutions.

HEALTH: New evidence links dementia to problems with the brain's waste clearance system Treatments for vascular dementia Once the team linked problems with glymphatic function to declines in executive function, they moved on to the next question—why? To find out more, the researchers conducted a mediation analysis, which studies the process or mechanism connecting two or more variables. In this case, they found that another biomarker—"free water" or excess water in the brain's white matter—helped explain the link between glymphatic problems and cognitive decline. In this potential pathway, "first waste clearance is impaired, which causes accumulation of free water in the brain's white matter. That leads to tissue damage and eventually to cognitive impairment," said the paper's first author, Xiaodan Liu, MD, Ph.D., a former postdoctoral researcher at the USC Stevens INI, now an assistant researcher in radiology at the University of California, San Francisco. More research, including longitudinal work, is needed to confirm whether each step in that pathway is causal. But the team's findings indicate that the DTI-ALPS score biomarker for vascular dementia is robust and ready to be used in clinical trials, Wang said. Those studies could explore enhancing glymphatic function as a way to treat vascular dementia. Lifestyle changes such as exercising more and improving sleep quality are one way to do that, Wang said, and future studies may also reveal medications that can help. The findings could also provide clues for how to treat Alzheimer's disease, which has been linked to low DTI-ALPS scores in other studies. More information: Xiaodan Liu et al, MRI free water mediates the association between diffusion tensor image analysis along the perivascular space and executive function in four independent middle to aged cohorts, Alzheimer's & Dementia (2024). DOI: 10.1002/alz.14453 (I have written a number of times that the bones in the skull contract in the presence of RF, in order to protect the brain - an inborn response to a potential lightning strike. The interferes with brain detox and CAUSES neurological harm. We need to measure the quantify this - and stop it -this is to choose the great remembering.)

HEALTH: The risk of dementia is even worse than we thought, new research says The lifetime risk of dementia after age 55 is about 42% — more than double the risk reported by earlier studies, and one that puts greater urgency on the need to mitigate addressable health problems, according to a study published in the journal Nature Medicine. Around 1 million adults in the U.S. are projected to develop dementia each year by 2060, compared with around 514,000 in 2020, the study found.

HEALTH: Study advances possible blood test for early-stage Alzheimer's disease, explains why women may be at higher risk Declining blood levels of two molecules that occur naturally in the body track closely with worsening Alzheimer's disease, particularly in women. Levels were found to drop gradually, from women with no signs of memory, disorientation, and slowed thinking to those with early signs of mild cognitive impairment. Decreases were more prominent in women with moderate or severe stages of the disease. Declines in men were evident in only one molecule, revealing a disease-specific difference between the sexes. Led by neuroscientists at NYU Langone Health, in collaboration with other researchers in the U.S. and Brazil, the new study showed that blood levels of the protein acetyl-L-carnitine were lower in both women and men with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease. Blood levels of free carnitine, the main byproduct of acetyl-L-carnitine in reactions essential to brain function, steadily declined in women in amounts related to the severity of their cognitive decline. In men, significant declines were seen only in acetyl-L-carnitine, not free carnitine. Published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry online Jan. 7, the study results suggest that declines in these two brain chemicals could indicate the presence and degree of Alzheimer's disease, and that this difference might offer an explanation as to why women are at higher risk of the disease than men.

HEALTH: The CDC, Palantir and the AI-Healthcare Revolution The Pentagon and Silicon Valley are in the midst of cultivating an even closer relationship as the Department of Defense (DoD) and Big Tech companies seek to jointly transform the American healthcare system into one that is “artificial intelligence (AI)-driven.” The alleged advantages of such a system, espoused by the Army itself, Big Tech and Pharma executives as well as intelligence officers, would be unleashed by the rapidly developing power of so-called “predictive medicine,” or “a branch of medicine that aims to identify patients at risk of developing a disease, thereby enabling either prevention or early treatment of that disease.” This will apparently be achieved via mass interagency data sharing between the DoD, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the private sector. In other words, the military and intelligence communities, as well as the public and private sector elements of the US healthcare system, are working closely with Big Tech to “predict” diseases and treat them before they occur (and even before symptoms are felt) for the purported purpose of improving civilian and military healthcare. [] After all, the AI-healthcare system promises a more efficient, convenient and effective healthcare system—yet the means by which this system is meant to lead the public to a predictive-health utopia involve the elimination of privacy and the dehumanization of healthcare itself. Left to algorithms controlled by corporate sharks and national security hawks, profits, surveillance and bottom-down influence are an all but guaranteed outcome, but what will the digitization of care do to the physical, mental and spiritual health of everyone else? Perhaps those people—beyond the data that corporations can extract from them—are an afterthought of those behind the AI-healthcare revolution.

HEALTH: It all adds up: Study finds forever chemicals are more toxic as mixtures

INSPIRATION: PILGRIMS IN THE MACHINE The Phantom and Mr. Jobs: Is there a way to stop brain drain? Vampire cognition, cue shifts, and salted minds Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone eighteen years ago, and it’s easy to forget that before Apple’s all-in-one device came on the scene, things were quite different. Back in the old days I had a flip phone for phone calls, a Sony digital camera for pictures, and a laptop for the internet. Three separate technologies for three separate activities. That wasn’t very efficient, but there was an advantage in keeping them apart, and an unfortunate—yet foreseeable—consequence to squeezing them into a single little box. [] Cues can be anything—sights, sounds, smells, objects, locations—that have an association with something in our mind. [] My typewriter is long gone, and here I am, sitting before a computer, transcribing handwritten notes for this essay. My computer, like the iPhone, is an all-in-one device. I use this same computer for communicating, news, videos, work, banking, research—and writing. It’s all very efficient, yet the frequent multitasking can make me more distractible as I water-spider across the surface of different activities, back and forth, back and forth. A lot of us know that feeling, yet there’s even more going on under the surface. []If we habitually do multiple things on a single device, then that device becomes a mental cue associated with all those things. So, even if we’re doing just one thing on our device, our mind remains aware of all the other things we do on that device. In fact, this is true even if we’re not using the device at all, and it’s just sitting there in our presence. The laptop is folded shut on the coffee table, or the phone is turned face down. But at some level our mind is still “thinking” about checking our messages or maybe watching a video clip, or else is trying not to think about these things. There’s a phantom digital presence within us. []Vampire cognition has also been described as “brain drain”, with studies suggesting that

the mere presence of one’s own smartphone may occupy limited-capacity cognitive resources, thereby leaving fewer resources available for other tasks and undercutting cognitive performance.

The most negative impacts are on memory and working memory, and to a lesser extent on attention and general cognitive performance. Some people may be more susceptible to brain drain than others, partly depending on the intensity of their device use.

NUCLEAR HEALTH: Mary Beth Brangan from Planetarian Perspectives from EON3 Fukushima Revisited The Nuclear Weapons, Energy & Genetic Legacy Connections - Prof. Majia Nadesan

EON: Many people think that Fukushima occurred years ago and that’s it. But can you talk about the… the transgenerational implications of its continuing disaster? Nadesan: One of the things that I discovered when I was looking at the archival research was a report that was issued in 1956. And it’s called the Beir VII: Health Risks from Exposure to Low Levels of Ionizing Radiation. And it was actually funded in response to public concern about atomic testing. And what was argued in that Report is, is that when you’re exposed to ionizing radiation it increases the mutations—there is no doubt about that—and that those mutations are transmitted across generations. So that my children inherited all the mutations that I have acquired from environmental exposures or random mutations to my germline cells, and they also inherited it the same from their father. And then they acquire their own mutations from the exposures they have. So each generation is burdened with these mutations, and that they often, the scientists argued, are more likely to affect recessive mutations… ah, excuse me, recessive genes rather than the dominant genes. So that the effects of all these mutations can be relatively invisible—in the sense that you don’t see gross deformities. And if there’s too many mutations then you just won’t have viability of the embryo. So that they’re, in a sense, kind of invisible. But they describe them as being kind of like a ticking time-bomb, because if you get enough of them they affect health. So they could give rise to a variety of syndromes, and that over time they can cause reproductive failure. But you won’t know until you have reached that point. And the science-fiction film The Children of Men kind of plays on this—where you have relatively suddenly, within a few generations, a complete reproductive failure. But prior to that point, you’re going to have increased disease incidence in the population. And we are seeing increased rates of diabetes, increased rates of neurological disorders in adults. They’re occurring among people at younger ages. And the actual rate is increasing; it’s not just that people are living longer. We’re seeing increased neurological disorders in children. We’re seeing increased incidence of immunological disorders. And these are syndrome diseases. And it’s very interesting, because this is precisely what they described in 1956.

POLITICS: Zuckerberg urges Trump to stop the EU from fining US tech companies Comparing the bloc’s antitrust penalties to tariffs, the Meta boss argued that Brussels is “screwing with” American industry.

POLITICS: Zuckerberg asks Trump to stop US companies from having to pay EU fines

SECURITY, HACKING: POTS AND PANS Chinese Hacking of our Networks

It seems like there is more disturbing news every day about Chinese infiltration of our telecommunications networks. A recent headline said that nine large ISPs have now been infiltrated. Tom Wheeler, a previous Chairman of the FCC, recently wrote an article for the Brookings Institute that speculates that the ability of the Chinese to infiltrate our networks stems back to decisions made decades ago that have never been updated for the modern world of sophisticated hacking. Wheeler points to the 30-year-old Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) that created a backdoor into telecommunications networks so that the FBI and others could wiretap suspected terrorist activity. This is not necessarily how Chinese hackers are gaining access to our networks, but having this backdoor it is an example of the neglect that has been paid to our networks over the years. Wheeler describes how he participated in the negotiations between law enforcement and the industry while he was the head of CTIA – the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association. At the time, law enforcement was concerned about the rapid evolution of the analog public switched telephone network (PSTN) to digital and wanted to make sure that it had a way to track bad actors regardless of the technology being used. [] The FCC and other parts of the government are now rushing to try to find a solution for the Chinese hacking, and we can expect new requirements soon from the FCC or elsewhere in the federal government. And maybe we will finally dismantle the TDM-based PSTN.

SECURITY: Bruce Schneier CRYPTO-GRAM, January 15, 2025 A free monthly newsletter providing summaries, analyses, insights, and commentaries on security: computer and otherwise.

SMART METERS: From my sister substack Smart Meter Science Expert Letter on Risks of Smart Meters, Fires The expert's letter is one to save in favor of opt outs, form 2016. (Nothing much has changed, except there is more research, and a court ruling against the FCC, which they have ignored) Post includes previously published smart meter fire information.

SPACE: ARS TECHNICA An icy vent line may have caused Blue Origin to scrub debut launch of New Glenn

Such issues are totally expected and normal with large, new rockets. With 45 minutes left in a three-hour launch window, Blue Origin scrubbed its first attempt to launch the massive New Glenn rocket early on Monday morning. Throughout the window, which opened at 1 am ET (06:00 UTC), the company continued to reset the countdown clock as launch engineers worked out technical issues with the rocket. Officially, both on its live webcast as well as on social media following the scrub, Blue Origin was vague about the cause of the delayed launch attempt. "We’re standing down on today’s launch attempt to troubleshoot a vehicle subsystem issue that will take us beyond our launch window," the company said. "We’re reviewing opportunities for our next launch attempt." According to sources, the primary problem was likely ice clogging one of the vent lines that carry pressurized gas away from the vehicle. Several attempts were made to melt the ice, but these efforts were not successful, necessitating the scrub. Hopefully Blue Origin will provide more information about the cause of the scrub in the coming days.

SPACE: BROADBAND BREAKFAST Analyst: Starlink Expanding Service, ‘Light Years’ Ahead of Competition Starlink has about 6,700 operational satellites in low Earth orbit. When asked to explain the OTT concept, Strand Consult analyst Roslyn Layton said in an email to Broadband Breakfast, "In the same way that other broadband service providers have moved from providing connectivity to providing a combination of connectivity and services, we expect Starlink to move up the value chain to maintain or increase their ARPU [average revenue per user]. This is one of those predictions that is very easy to make in a world where all broadband providers are talking about going from selling connectivity to selling services.”

SPACE: Public Should Weigh In On Elon Musk's SpaceX Plans To Splash Down Near Hawaiʻi Federal authorities have not required a thorough review, or consultation with Hawaiian stakeholders, for Starshipʻs proposed landing zones. Public Should Weigh In On Elon Musk's SpaceX Plans To Splash Down Near Hawaiʻi - Honolulu Civil Beat

SURVEILLANCE: Online Behavioral Ads Fuel the Surveillance Industry—Here’s How Each time you see a targeted ad, your personal information is exposed to thousands of advertisers and data brokers through a process called “real-time bidding” (RTB). This process does more than deliver ads—it fuels government surveillance, poses national security risks, and gives data brokers easy access to your online activity. RTB might be the most privacy-invasive surveillance system that you’ve never heard of.

SURVEILLANCE: 3 million photos a day: Inside SFPD’s huge tech expansion this year (SF Chronicle) EFF's Saira Hussain expressed our concerns about the troubling expansion of San Francisco's surveillance technology, including 400 automated license plate readers. “When you’re talking about 400 concentrated in a very dense location … it really starts to look like people are going to be able to be identified as they’re moving about the city,” she said.

WARFARE 5G: Pentagon’s Dr. Tom Rondeau on 2 Recent, Modern 5G Moves at DOD

5G networks provide a potentially more covert foundation for military communications because they use a greater range of the electromagnetic spectrum than other comms systems. With 5G, users tap into the millimeter wave in the tens of gigahertz, the Department of Defense’s Dr. Thomas Rondeau told Federal News Network, while futureG (the forthcoming, as-yet-unrealized successor to 5G) is targeting frequencies in the 7GHz to 24GHz range. Latest 5G Initiatives at DOD Rondeau revealed to DefenseScoop two recent projects — one demonstration and one implementation — the DOD has launched involving 5G and futureG. These add to initiatives from the last few years such as 2023-launched open radio access network pilots meant to test how ORAN can be made useful; and 2020-awarded contracts issued to establish 5G at various service branch bases, which utilized the capability in different ways, like spectrum-sharing and smart warehouses. NATO Joint Exercise in Latvia This past autumn, the U.S. linked up with five other nations (Estonia, Norway, Sweden, Spain and host Latvia) for a Baltics-set experiment to put 5G’s military capability to the test in a “real world” environment, per Rondeau. “Let’s take it into a range where there’s kinetic operations that are happening all around there,” he explained of the impetus for the exercise. “That’s going to teach us a lot about the value proposition of these technologies.” Ideally, the governments together are/were seeking to accomplish a form (“a miniature version,” Rondeau said) of Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control, the conceptual formulation of a unified, multi-condition-traversing communications architecture amongst DOD components and allied partners. USAFRICOM Base Installations Meanwhile, it was Rondeau’s office’s goal to have set up and activated 5G service on force protection surveillance towers engineered by ascendent defense tech producer Anduril by the end of 2024. Located at a trio of U.S. Africa Command bases in the eastern region of the continent, these towers were constructed with tactical radios and were compromised with diminished data and frame rates and resolution. These “additional features” were a main reason the futureG office, and, once contracted, Anduril, decided to take on the project, resolving the limitations with 5G connectivity. The newly equipped towers will ideally, as a result, be able to provide ample service coverage for the three bases. Rondeau was also keen to mention that there is an unmanned aerial vehicle in development that will soon be sent out by AFRICOM to cover a wider area outside the grounds. To further tap into Dr. Rondeau’s expertise on 5G and futureG in government and military, participate in the Potomac Officers Club’s 2025 5G Summit on Feb. 27. It will be held at the Hyatt Regency Tysons Corner Center in Virginia and it’s an essential gathering for all 5G contractors and telecommunications-adjacent practitioners.

ACTIONS AND EVENTS:

FAA SpaceX docket details: Comments due January 17 on SpaceX Starship/Superheavy increased launches and landings – FAA docket # FAA-2024-2006 Details on the docket, links to documents including the FAA presentation materials, and where to comment. https://freethesky.org/2025/01/13/comments-due-january-17-spacex-starship-superheavy-increased-launches-and-landings-faa-2024-2006/

WARFARE: World BEYOND War Save the Date: Global Day of Action to Close Bases (February 23) Visit the website to learn more about why we're calling for this worldwide day of action and check out our action planning resources to help you organize your event. Plus, organizations are invited to endorse the day of action here. https://worldbeyondwar.org/closebases/