January 30-31 Safe Tech International News and Notes

HHS HEARING, Interview with Rosalito, Rise in Aggression & Hallucinations Among Teens Tied to Cellphone Use, Mumbai: Doctors,

I will be off-line until next week, Blessed Imbolc.

FEATURED: Hearing on HHS Secretary Nomination (Regardless of opinions on other issues)

Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey, who helped craft the Telecom Act of 1996. and who has provided no assistance to MA residents harmed by wireless, (cell towers, school Wi-Fi, utility meters) is a member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions that questioned Robert Kennedy today. By way of background, according to the 2017 article: Congress took $101 million in donations from the ISP industry — here’s how much your lawmaker got Comcast, Verizon, AT&T, and others spread their money far and wide to influence your government: TOP EARNERS The senator and representative from each party with the most in contributions from the telecommunications industry, from 1989 to 2017: Sen. John McCain (R AZ), Sen. Ed Markey (D MA), Rep. Greg Walden (R OR), and Rep. Steny Hoyer (D MD) Source: The Center for Responsive Politics. - The Verge

An unprecedented moment in history:

This link will hopefully take you to the 1 hour 55 min 30 sec point, WATCH LIVE: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testifies at Senate confirmation hearing for HHS secretary | Day 2 where Robert Kennedy answers a question about wireless safety.

FEATURED: EMF REMEDY KEITH CUTTER Designed for Survival: A Graphic Journey Through Electrical Sensitization (FRANCE)

Interview with Rosalito, Link to post/ written summary: Designed for Survival: A Graphic Journey Through Electrical Sensitization

Rosalito’s Sudden Reaction to Wi-Fi Rosalito describes how a move from a 2 GHz to 5 GHz Wi-Fi router instantly triggered an extreme reaction in her body which she refers to as a non-electrical “shock”, causing her to flee her home until the device was switched off. Attempting to revert to 2 GHz WiFi didn’t help — she’s become sensitized. Unlike many who suffer for years before identifying the source, Rosalito immediately recognized Wi-Fi as the cause of her symptoms, which immediate recognition she considers a blessing. Long-Term Health Issues Tied to Wireless Technology She recounts her early adoption of wireless technology in the late 1980s and 1990s, using cordless phones and early Wi-Fi devices. Looking back, she connects years of anxiety, panic attacks, tinnitus, eye floaters, and immunity issues to prolonged exposure to wireless radiation. After eliminating Wi-Fi and wireless devices, her symptoms—including anxiety—disappeared. The Social and Practical Challenges of EMF Sensitivity Living without wireless technology has led to social isolation, as people are unwilling or unable to turn off their devices around her. She describes an incident where a strong, confident carpenter panicked at the idea of turning off his phone. Despite not needing to use his phone for the work planned, he was unable to turn it off.Simple activities like shopping became difficult due to high RF exposure, once leading her to collapse and need for hospitalization. MORE AT YOUTUBE LINK

NEWS AND NOTES

AI: MSN AI is bad for the environment, and the problem is bigger than energy consumption Artificial intelligence technologies, like chatbots, are attracting growing scrutiny for their voracious energy demands. However, energy consumption is only one part of their broader environmental impact. Late last year, ChatGPT, the popular AI chatbot run by OpenAI, celebrated its second birthday. In its brief existence, the platform has amassed over 300 million weekly users who send roughly one billion messages to the chatbot per day. Soaring emissions Elsewhere in tech, other companies marked less savory milestones. Alphabet—the parent company of Google—recently announced that its GHG emissions are up 48% since 2019. At roughly the same time, Microsoft announced that its emissions are up 29% since 2020. Both companies cite emissions associated with the need for more data centers to support AI workloads as a key factor in surging GHG emissions. AI is notoriously thirsty for energy—according to one researcher, one query to ChatGPT uses approximately as much electricity as one light bulb for 20 minutes. The collective energy demand of data centers in the United States is so high that Microsoft recently reached a deal to reopen Three Mile Island, the site of the worst nuclear accident in American history. The burgeoning AI industry needs so much electricity that plans to decommission several coal plants have been delayed. By some estimates, the collective demand of AI and other digital technologies will constitute 20% of global electricity use by 2030. Insidious effects The energy use of AI is important, but it does not tell the whole story of AI's environmental impacts. The social and political mediums through which AI affects the planet are far more insidious and, arguably, more consequential for the future of humanity. In the Business, Sustainability and Technology Lab at the University of British Columbia, we specialize in evaluating the social and political ways in which digital technologies affect the environment. In our recently published paper, "Does artificial intelligence bias perceptions of environmental challenges?," my students and I argue that AI changes how humans perceive environmental challenges in ways that obscure the accountability of powerful entities, ignore marginalized communities and promote cautious and incremental solutions that are drastically out of sync with the timeline required to avert environmental crises. We asked four chatbots the same series of questions about the issues, causes, consequences and solutions to nine environmental challenges. We found evidence of systematic biases in their responses. Most notably, chatbots avoid mentioning radical solutions to environmental challenges. They are far more likely to propose combinations of soft economic, social or political changes, like greater deployment of sustainable technologies and broader public awareness and education. Chatbots by OpenAI and Anthropic exhibited a reluctance to discuss the broader social, cultural and economic issues that are entangled in environmental challenges. For example, the term "environmental justice" is absent from nearly all chatbot responses. Chatbots also avoided references to dismantling colonialism or rethinking infinite economic growth as solutions to these challenges. AI bias Biases also exist in who chatbots see as responsible or vulnerable to environmental challenges. The chatbots we studied were far more likely to blame governments for environmental challenges than businesses or financial organizations. Similarly, while the vulnerability of Indigenous groups to climate change and biodiversity loss was mentioned frequently, the susceptibility of Black people and women to these same challenges received scant attention. All of this is particularly worrisome given the increasingly widespread use of AI chatbots by educators, students, policymakers and business leaders to understand and respond to environmental challenges. Chatbots present information in an oracular way, usually as a single text box written in an authoritative manner and understood as a synthesis of all digitalized knowledge.

AI: OpenAI Says DeepSeek Used Its Work Without Permission to Create an AI That's Stealing Its Job, Which Is Blatantly Hypocritical Since That's Exactly What It Did to Human Artists OpenAI is sobbing that someone else did... exactly what it did.

AI: Experts Weigh in on $500B Stargate Project for AI The Trump-announced initiative to build data centers will have big impacts What Energy Experts Say About Stargate The biggest ongoing discussion in the energy sector over the last year has centered on how to meet the coming onslaught of electricity demand from AI operations. Researchers have predicted that U.S. electricity demand will grow as much as 15.8 percent over the next four years led by power demands of AI and data centers, and those figures predate whatever additional electricity demand might come from Stargate projects.

BIG TECH: TECH CRUNCH Report: Majority of US Teens Have Lost Trust in Big Tech

CHILDREN: How to (and How NOT to) Mandate Phone-Free Schools A guide for legislatures looking to make their states’ schools phone-free, and not just during class time

CHILDREN CELLPHONES: HEALTH: CHD Rise in Aggression, Hallucinations Among Teens Tied to Cellphone Use The trend is particularly pronounced in girls, 65% of whom are distressed or struggling in a manner that substantially impairs their ability to function effectively in the world and rises to the level of clinical concern, according to the authors of a study published this month.

THE STUDY: Sapien-Labs-Report-The-Youth-Mind-Rising-aggression-and-anger-1.pdf

This report, based on comprehensive profiles of the mind health & wellbeing of 10,475 Internet-enabled adolescents in the United States and India in 2024, describes trends among this age group and provides some crucial perspectives. As in older GenZers mind health continues to decline significantly with each younger year of age from 17- and 13-year-olds. Most significantly, among the 47 aspects of mind health queried, feelings of aggression, anger and hallucinations are rising most sharply with each younger age and are associated with the progressively younger age at which children are acquiring smartphones. Whereas today’s 17-year-olds typically got a phone at age 11 or 12, today’s 13-year-olds got their phones at age 10. Although it’s still not yet fully clear how owning a smartphone from a younger age gives rise to these problems, it’s well known that the virtual world provides exposure to content that is inappropriate for a younger audience and a substantial departure from the family- and community-centric experiences of the past. In addition, the numerous hours spent online disturbs sleep and displaces crucial in-person interactions needed to learn how to navigate social dynamics and conflict. As we continue to study these trends and explore the underlying causes, one thing is clear: swift action is needed to safeguard younger generations from a future marked by increased anger, aggression, and violence. While managing access to inappropriate content and limiting screen time remain challenging, we urge parents at the very least to delay giving their child a smartphone until at least 8th grade or age 13 so as to give them more time to develop healthier social skills and reduce tendencies for anger and aggression.

CHILDREN: The Spanish Association of Pediatrics (AEP) updates its recommendations on the use of screens in childhood and adolescence https://www.aeped.es/noticias/aep-actualiza-sus-recomendaciones-sobre-uso-pantallas-en-infancia-y-adolescencia Translated

EHS: Between a Rock and a Hard Place Leszczynski D. This January, I turned 70. It is a good moment for a quick look back, at my years of research on wireless radiation and health

FCC: 5G: H.R.1513 requires the FCC to establish 6G Task Force ZeroG H.R. 1513, the “FUTURE Networks Act” to establish the 6G Task Force, positions “industry-led standards setting bodies” in setting standards and determining the possible uses for 6G wireless systems. The bill passed in the U.S. House and moved to the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the captured federal agency charged with oversight of the 6G Task Force, follows United Nations (UN) International Telecommunication Union (ITU) guidelines, in support of United Nations Agenda 2030. “This bill requires the Federal Communications Commission to establish the 6G Task Force to report on sixth-generation wireless technology, including the status of setting standards for and possible uses of such technology. The task force shall be composed of representatives of (1) trusted companies in the communications industry; (2) trusted public interest organizations or academic institutions; and (3) federal, state, local, and tribal governments.”

5G: Mumbai: Doctors Urge Union Govt To Postpone 5G Radiation Norms, Citing Lack Of Scientific Studies On Adverse Effects Mumbai: Doctors from across the country have urged the Ministry of Communications to postpone the introduction of revised 5G radiation norms citing public health risks, cybersecurity threats and environmental concerns. The medical professionals have alleged lack of transparency and public engagement in the implementation of norms which are scheduled to be effective from February 1. Doctors and other citizens from Mumbai, Delhi and different cities of the country have urged the Minster of Communications to postpone the introduction of the revised electromagnetic field (EMF) 5G radiation norms that are scheduled to be implemented from February 1. The initiative has been launched under the banner of Awaken India Movement (AIM), which has also launched an online petition to support this cause. The organisation is opposing the recent relaxations in 5G radiation rules as the power density for a 5G Base Tower Station has been increased to 5 watts per square meter from 1 watt. It alleged that the union government has not conducted or published any studies to dismiss any health effects, whereas over 200 peer reviewed studies globally and 40 peer reviewed studies in India show health hazards from EMF Radiation.

HEALTH: Exercise Transforms Your Brain and Protects Against Cognitive Decline

HEALTH: The Alarming Rise of Inflammatory Bowel Disease Among US Youth

HEALTH: Circadian Biology: The Bedrock of Human Health

INSURANCE NORM, The Sustainable Insurance Strategy Program The Sustainable Insurance Strategy for California became fully effective on December 24,2024. The strategy was developed by the Office of the California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara with the hope it would stop the exit of insurance companies from this state, as well as make it easier for homeowner policies to be sold. After a review of the plan, I was surprised to see that the one group that will benefit from the new operating plan is the insurance companies and not the policyholders who will be paying for the new program.

NATURE: Sonar System “Sees” Bat Echolocation in Action The tech could help develop more bat-inspired devices in the future Pairing Light and Sound to Study Bat Echolocation This prompted Steckel and his colleagues to create their novel sensor system, called the flutter real-time imaging sonar (FL-RTIS), which integrates a high-speed camera with a 3D sonar sensor to investigate insects’ ability to fill an area with sound (a process called ensonification). “The FL-RTIS is the first sensor that can measure the echo dynamics of fluttering insects both in 3D and at a high speed at the same time,” Steckel says, noting that other systems either take minutes to complete a full 3D sound scan, or quickly record unidirectional sound—but have yet to capture 3D sound fast. In particular, the system is able to capture the echoes of fluttering insects at a rate of 100 hertz, a pulse repetition frequency often used by bats as they home in on their prey at close distances (a technique called the “terminal buzz phase“).

SMART METERS: Germany Will Only Install SM Transmitters on Homes with High Energy Consumption The race for "Sustainability" and a "smart grid" is over, at least for now, and the U.S. didn't win. January 27

SMART METERS: Duke Energy Smart Meter Billing Disparity Study: An Interview with Vince Welage and there is more to come January 28

SMART METERS: Vince Welage: Duke Energy Billing Panel Study January 30

WARFARE: Trump orders ‘Iron Dome for America’ in sweeping missile defense push The order sets a bold agenda to address emerging threats, including hypersonic missiles, through advanced technological solutions, including space-based interceptors.

Rosalita’s contribution to the most recent Global 5G Protest for Freedom 21/22 December