November 7 Safe Tech International News and Notes

Politics, Industry Notes, Calendar, Why Alzheimer's and Dementia Diagnoses Are Rising

Today’s news is mostly post-election, some glimpses about implications for tech.

I have only listened to a small part of the interview with Dr. Tom O'Bryan and Nathan Crane (under health.) He mentions that prior to covid, alarm was raised about increasing diagnoses of Alzheimer’s and other cognitive diseases in much younger patients.

He also mentioned that an individual can be declining for 30 years and not know it, decades before they are diagnosed.

I believe that individuals who report symptoms of EMR-S, or EHS may be more sensitive and more able to perceive oxidative stress occurring in themselves, including the capacity of RF exposure to damage the blood brain barrier,

(Those who are new to the issue can read more here at the Bioinitiative Report: SECTION 10 Effects of Electromagnetic Fields From Wireless Communication upon the Blood-Brain Barrier prepared for the BioInitiative Working Group September 2012)

Now that the testing/ technology is becoming available to measure many of the symptoms associated with RF exposures, unfounded assumptions about science should be addressed?

NEWS AND NOTES:

AUTOMOBILES: Study Finds Self-Driving Waymos Are More Expensive Than Taxis, Take Twice as Long to Get to Destination FUTURISM

BIG TECH ADVERTISING; Digital ad market booms for Big Tech The world's biggest digital advertising companies saw significant sales growth last quarter, driving momentum for the U.S. stock market ahead of the 2024 election and foreshadowing a lucrative holiday season. The big picture: After years of pandemic-driven volatility, the global ad market is finally starting to stabilize this year. Zoom in: Investments in generative AI ad products, an influx of political ad dollars tied to the upcoming U.S. election, and healthy consumer spending drove strong revenue and profit growth for the world's biggest tech giants last quarter. AXIOS

BIG TECH POLITICS BLOOD IN THE MACHINE DEMOCRATIC SLANT: Silicon Valley got what it wanted It's not just Elon Musk. It's a new day for deregulation, crypto, and tech companies cozying up to Trump.[]Four and eight years ago, the tech companies and their CEOs made a big show of promising to uphold democracy and support our civic institutions—they banned or suspended Trump when he used their platforms to help incite an insurrection at the capital, Facebook went on a mea culpa tour over Cambridge Analytica and formed internal watchdog groups, Google co-founder Sergey Brin attended a protest after Trump’s Muslim ban, Jeff Bezos and Trump were at loggerheads, and so on. The bulk of this stuff was of course superficial at best, but it’s hard, even impossible, to imagine any of those things happening again. Part of all this is the direct result of the industry’s monopolization—eight years ago, there was at least the concern that users would abandon a platform if a company threw in with an authoritarian with views half the country found repugnant. [] It’s time to face facts. In Trump, Silicon Valley got what it wanted: A president that will kneecap antitrust efforts, embrace deregulation, and defang labor laws. (Yes, I am perhaps being a little glib here—by “Silicon Valley” I mean its executives, managers, and VC class; there are many, many rank and file tech workers who I know abhor the election result.) I am already hearing rumblings that Lina Khan, who led the FTC in an invigorated push to take big tech monopolies to task, is going to be out. the problem extends even beyond particular platforms and their capacity to serve as conduits for propaganda. As it stands, the vast majority of our digital infrastructure is now owned by tech billionaires, who are at least open to participating in an authoritarian project; some, of course, are enthusiastic about it. Our public and shared spaces, online and off, have been thoroughly privatized and commodified, in ways that we are still only beginning to fully grapple with. Disaffection, alienation, and isolation are rampant, and all are byproducts of the hyper-capitalized digital world that Silicon Valley has constructed for us to inhabit. A world where we are encouraged to build community and seek engagement on social media platforms owned by billionaires, to disparage the other for clout, vie to strike it rich with the right crypto trade, or outsource our thinking and creativity to generative AI. It is a brittle, hollow world that fosters animosity and resentment, where we have long known rage is promoted above empathy, where transforming the human experience into a march through a casino is the goal. A world obsessed with score-settling, with outsourcing, with gambling. It’s no wonder, ultimately, that Trump embraced Silicon Valley, and it embraced Trump. BLOOD IN THE MACHINE

BIG TECH POLITICS POLITICO: The Trump-Musk vision blasts off ... maybe Former President Donald Trump will return to the White House, bringing his retrofuturistic, tech-friendly, pro-industrial vision for America’s future with him. (Oh, and Elon Musk is coming, too.) The cadre of right-wing Silicon Valley thinkers and activists who threw in with Trump have been vindicated, and there’s evidence that “mainstream” tech is falling in line too. [] Neil Chilson, former chief technologist at the Federal Trade Commission under Trump and current head of AI policy at the Abundance Institute, wrote in a blog post that he foresees a rollback of current AI policy and use of the technology to combat China and enforce border security.“A Trump admin is, on all policy matters, instinctually inclined to maximize the federal executive’s role,” Chilson wrote, adding that “Trump’s team will put out their own EO with an optimistic vision for the future of AI in the US, one that emphasizes the race with China.” He also speculated that AI in surveillance could easily ramp up: “Someone is going to sell Trump on using AI in immigration enforcement, for monitoring, surveillance and predictive analytics at the border.” POLITICO

BIG TECH Meta Fine: South Korea fines Meta $15 million for illegally collecting information on Facebook users ASSOCIATED PRESS

BROADBAND INDUSTRY A New Complaint About BEAD Maps By Doug Dawson, CCG Consulting Earlier this month the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) made an ex parte filing with the FCC that warned that the current FCC maps do not reflect the reality on the ground of rural broadband. They warn that there are a lot of places that need broadband that will not be covered by BEAD. They warn that areas that don’t get funding now by BEAD will be left behind. Anybody who reads this blog knows that I’ve been making this same argument for the last several years. As NRECA points out, the new FCC broadband maps are a big step up from the previous FCC mapping. The old maps reported broadband by Census block, and in doing so often showed an area as having good broadband when only a few places in the block had a faster technology. NRECA points out that the fatal flaw in the new maps is that ISPs self-report broadband speeds and are free to report marketing speeds instead of something closer to what is actually delivered to customers. It was an interesting policy choice for the FCC to make since this doesn’t match what the FCC is doing elsewhere. For example, the FCC requires ISPs to report broadband speeds for each product on the new broadband labels. The rules for the labels suggest that ISPs should report speeds that have some basis derived from internal ISP speed testing. In my early examination of broadband labels, most ISPs are ignoring this requirement and claim the identical speed on the broadband labels that is reported on the FCC maps. ISPs know the speeds they are delivering to customers. Most broadband networks have the ability to measure speeds from their core network to the customer location – a speed that doesn’t get influenced by the performance of WiFi inside of a customer premise.[] In its filing, NRECA suggested that the public should be allowed to take speed tests to report to the FCC. The FCC certainly has the ability to crowdsource speed tests since it does so for cellular broadband. Customers can take a cellular speed test using an FCC speed test app. I can’t think of any reason why the FCC couldn’t directly collect speed tests directly from customers using the same or a similar app. I’m also mystified why the FCC couldn’t partner with one of the big speed test sites like Ookla to gather the many millions of speed tests that are already being taken every day. A New Complaint About BEAD Maps | POTs and PANs

BROADBAND INDUSTRY: Still Talking About Poles I’ve seen folks arguing that the FCC should just order that pole owners be given 30 days to make a pole ready to accept a new fiber. These folks have never gone into the field and taken a close look at poles and the pole attachment process to understand how ludicrous such a rule would be. It sounds trite to say, but every pole is a unique case and must be treated individually.   If you don’t believe that, I challenge you to go walk along one of the streets in your town where there are a lot of businesses and look at every pole. You’ll likely see a wide variety of situation if you walk a mile. []Pole attachment rules and processes are complex because poles are complex. It’s likely if you take an inventory of what you see during this informal survey that a fairly large percentage of poles have enough room to hang a new fiber. Pole attachment rules are not created to deal with the easy poles – but with the complex ones. An ISP that wants to hang fiber along a street can’t do so until every pole has been made ready. It’s likely that every third, fourth or fifth pole will have an issue. That is at the heart of why it’s so hard to hang new fiber on poles. There might need to be a different solution for each of the poles with problems. Some are so short or so old that they must be replaced. Some will need the existing wires rearranged to make room for a new fiber. The first step in getting poles ready for fiber is a fair assessment of which poles need to be replaced or amended. That means somebody who knows what they are doing has to visually assess every pole. After the assessment, the pole owner needs to make all the fixes. Anybody who wants a utility to fix a lot of poles in 30 days seems to think that there is a magic army of technicians somewhere who can be activated to make the changes quickly. POTS AND POLES

BROADBAND INDUSTRY: Merger Mania The industry is suddenly awash with talks of acquisitions and mergers. In September, Verizon announced the acquisition of Frontier Communications in an all-cash deal valued at $20 billion. []T-Mobile has announced two acquisitions of fiber overbuilders. The first was the acquisition of Lumos, which has been building fiber in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. []T-Mobile is also buying Uscellular from TDS for $4.4 billion. This purchase has drawn attention from six Senators who disapprove of the sale. []Bell Canada, a subsidiary of giant BCE, announced it wants to buy Ziply for $3.6 billion. Ziply was formed in 2020 by buying properties in the Pacific Northwest from Frontier. DirecTV announced recently that it will acquire all of the video assets of EchoStar, which had just merged with Dish at the beginning of this year. []Will not directly broadband, but highly related, Qualcomm has made overtures to buy Intel. []Fierce Network published an article in September that said that 400 fiber ISPs are ripe for acquisition. Assuming that even just fraction of those ISPs are interested, this foretells a lot more coming announcements of industry consolidation. There is an interesting quote in the article. Andrej Danis of AlixPartners said that many fiber overbuilders “will never reach critical mass.” This is an interesting observation that highlights the difference between how the financial world and investors look at the fiber business compared to many of the ISPs who have built fiber. Many fiber businesses clearly have the goal of growing large enough to flip to somebody larger. The investors in these businesses are largely venture capitalists who hope to sell companies at a premium multiple of what they paid to build the business. For example, the Lumos deal is reported to be valued at over $9,000 per existing broadband customer – a lot more than what the company spent to build the existing networks. Almost anybody who owns a fiber ISP is going to be tempted to sell at those kinds of valuations. But there are still a lot of ISPs with a different motivation. Once a broadband network is mature, it turns into cash cow and spins off a lot of cash annually. I know ISPs that have expanded fiber networks strictly for the permanent cash flow that builds long-term family wealth. Such ISPs envision operating networks for many decades to come. Merger Mania | POTs and PANs

CHILDREN: Melanie Hempe from the Be ScreenStrong Substack This One Change Can Transform Your Child’s School Experience The benefits of a phone-free school extend far beyond academics What is a phone-free school anyway?  “But wait,” many parents tell me. “My child’s school is already phone-free. They aren’t allowed to take out their phones in class.”  Yes, this is the “policy” at most schools today. Kids are not supposed to take their phones out of their backpacks or pockets in class. But what many teachers will tell you is that those phones do come out in class, leaving teachers to constantly remind students to put them away… put them away… put them away.  If tweens and teens can have phones on their person, those phones come out in the classroom, during passing periods, and during lunch breaks. This means phones are not only interfering with our students’ learning time but, worse, with their social time as well.  A phone-free school is a school that requires that all phones be collected and stored at the start of the school day and picked up by students at the final bell. And this bell-to-bell approach offers many advantages. This One Change Can Transform Your Child’s School Experience

HACKING: China Hack Enabled Vast Spying on U.S. Officials, Likely Ensnaring Thousands of Contacts Hackers linked to Chinese intelligence used precision strikes to quietly compromise cellphone lines used by an array of senior national security and policy officials across the U.S. government in addition to politicians. This access allowed them to scoop up call logs, unencrypted texts and some audio from potentially thousands of Americans and others with whom they interacted. The emerging picture of the intrusion’s reach helps confirm the intelligence community’s concerns about the potentially dire national security consequences of the attack. Hackers burrowed deep into U.S. telecommunications infrastructure over eight months or more. With each layer of network infrastructure they unlocked, the Beijing-linked group studied how America’s communications wiring works without detection, carrying out targeted thefts.  BENTON

HEALTH: YOUTUBE VIDEO Shocking: Why Alzheimer's and Dementia Diagnoses Are Rising, Dr. Tom O'Bryan | Nathan Crane Podcast In this eye-opening interview, Dr. Tom O'Bryan discusses the shocking rise in Alzheimer's diagnoses, even among younger populations, and how chronic inflammation plays a key role. Find out how simple lifestyle changes and the right tests, like the Neural Zoomer Plus, can help protect your brain and reduce inflammation. Don't wait—take action now to safeguard your future! YOUTUBE 1 HOUR 40 MINUTES (Note I have not listened to the entire interview and do not know if product sales are included.)

INSPIRATION Nested Pathway -- Darcia Narvaez: Science Confirms Our Ancestors’ Intuitions* The clearest picture of humanity’s fall Our ancestors were deeply intelligent. About two million years ago we evolved cooperative child raising, which fosters big social brains and distinguishes us from chimpanzees. []Our ancestors followed humanity’s Wellness-Promoting Pathway. We can study still extant African hunter-gatherer civilization which has been around for at least 150,000 years. We can see in hunter-gatherer civilization the pathway our ancestors followed and that many other species follow, leading to species survival, wellness and flourishing. []   Our ancestors practiced Deep Nestedness. Our ancestors practiced more than developmental nestedness (provision of the evolved nest in babyhood and throughout life). The evolved nest must be accompanied by horizontal nestedness, a respect for the ancestors and future generations and the rest of non-present Earth community members. Horizontal nestedness is also accompanied by vertical nestedness, earth-centered living according to Nature’s laws, and practices and sensibilities that support cosmic connectedness. This deep nestedness then is necessary for human futures. This post is based on a talk I gave recently at the Association for Moral Education conference in Queens, NY, called “Grounding Moral Development in Evolution, Neurobiology & Culture.” NESTED PATHWAY

LEGAL: The Law Must Respond When Science Changes | Scientific American An essential principle of science is that it might change as research accumulates, write David Faigman and Jeff Kukucka, professors of law and psychology, respectively. But such change is a principle that the law has largely failed to come to grips with, they say. Fairness in law for everyone "requires the opportunity to have their cases tried in light of the best science available in the moment." | 5 min read

LEGAL SOCIAL MEDIA: SOCIAL MEDIA LAWSUITS: Brazilian consumer rights group the Collective Defense Institute has filed 2 lawsuits for BRL3b (approx. USD525m) against the Brazilian units of TikTok, Kwai and Meta over reported harms the social media platforms cause to young people's mental health. The lawsuits allege that all 3 companies failed to create mechanisms to prevent ‘indiscriminate use’ of their platforms by minors, and demand that the companies create clear data protection mechanisms and issue warnings about the addictive risks the platforms pose to young people. Meanwhile, in the USA a California federal judge has ruled that Meta must face lawsuits from 33 states accusing it of purposely deploying features to make its Instagram and Facebook platforms addictive to young users. Separately, a Boston judge has ruled that Meta must also face a lawsuit from Massachusetts regarding its platforms’ alleged addictive features and claims that it deceived the public about the dangers it posed to the mental health of young users. Massachusetts was one of 8 states that pursued separate claims in state court, rather than federal court, when 33 US states sued Meta in October 2023. BUSINESS AND HUMAN RIGHTS

MINING MINERALS: TRANSITION MINERALS & COMMUNITY RIGHTS: Events this week underscore a growing international focus on ensuring the global demand for transition minerals does not come at the expense of local communities or the environments on which they depend. Colombia has launched a push for a new binding global treaty on the traceability of critical minerals needed for the clean energy transition throughout the entire supply chain. The initiative, inspired by a UN panel's recommendations, will be formally proposed at COP30 in Brazil in 2025. Meanwhile, delegates at the 13th Zimbabwe Alternative Mining Indaba (ZAMI) have issued a call for the rights of host mining communities to be respected. Under the theme ‘Energy Transition Minerals: Putting Communities First for Community Development’, the delegates highlighted how lithium-rich communities face displacement without reparations and emphasised the need for a just transition, balancing Zimbabwe’s mining potential with a commitment to sustainable development.In the USA, environmental and Indigenous groups have filed a lawsuit challenging the approval of Ioneer's Rhyolite Ridge lithium mine in Nevada. The plaintiffs allege that the mine, a critical source of lithium for batteries, would have adverse impacts on the local environment and cultural resources. BUSINESS AND HUMAN RIGHTS

POLITICS: What a Trump win means for the FCC and telecom policy [] the FCC will be led by a Republican majority, with sitting Commissioner Brendan Carr a likely pick for chair Republicans have already laid out a policy roadmap for the FCC under a new administration [] Carr also happens to have authored a chapter in the Project 2025 policy proposal outlining the conservative take on what the future of the FCC should look like under the next Republican President. Highlights of his chapter include calls to rein in Big Tech via the elimination of Section 230 protections internet companies currently enjoy; to force internet companies to contribute to the Universal Service Fund (USF); to expand the list of companies which are deemed to pose a security risk to the U.S.; and to fully fund the Rip and Replace program to swap out suspect telecom equipment. On the Universal Service Fund front, reform could also come via a Republican-led Congress, according to Ted Hearn, Policyband publisher and former VP of industry association ACA Connects.  Texas senator Ted Cruz “is in position to become Chairman and take the discussion on Universal Service Fund reform in a major new direction,” wrote Hearn in today’s Policyband newsletter.  Instead of relying on fees from broadband providers or big tech, Cruz has argued the USF should be funded via appropriations from Congress. That way, lawmakers can keep a closer eye on where the money goes and what rules are set for broadband programs under the FCC. []Over the next 75 days, it’s “entirely possible” FCC chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel could try to move forward on regulation like the 60-day phone unlocking mandate, tweak pole attachment rules or “ban restrictive clauses in cable programming contracts,” Hearn said. “But she might find that pointless because some or all of it could be reversed by a Carr-led FCC or voided under the Congressional Review Act,” he added. But back to Carr’s potential agenda. In the Project 2025 document, Carr also advocates for the FCC to free up more spectrum for wireless service, though it’s unclear how it would do this given the agency’s auction authority lapsed in March 2023 and has yet to be renewed.  Carr also indicated Republicans should eliminate policies which allow broadband funding to be used for overbuilding and improve coordination on spectrum policy and infrastructure spending. [] Project 2025 aside, Carr has also opposed net neutrality rules adopted by the FCC, as well as rules designed to regulate the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in political ads.  Additionally, he argued against the FCC’s decision to revoke Starlink’s $885 million Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) subsidy award, calling it “regulatory harassment” of Starlink owner Elon Musk. Why does that matter? Well, Musk potentially has a lot to gain should policy for the $42 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program swing in favor of Starlink’s satellite service. Granted the FCC isn’t in charge of administering BEAD – the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is – but Musk would likely find an ally in Carr. []On a recent episode of the Joe Rogan podcast, Trump said of BEAD: “We’re spending — just to show you — we’re spending a trillion dollars to get cables all over the country, up to upstate areas where you have two farms, and they are spending millions of dollars to have a cable.  Elon can do it for nothing.” FIERCE NETWORK

POLITICS: What the Trump win could mean for the BEAD program Musk – who owns satellite broadband service Starlink – has a strong incentive to push for changes to BEAD policy, particularly the current government preference for fiber. After all, every penny spent on fiber is a penny put toward Starlink’s competition. Trump recently said of BEAD on a podcast: “We’re spending a trillion dollars to get cables all over the country, up to upstate areas where you have two farms, and they are spending millions of dollars to have a cable. Elon can do it for nothing.” Musk also appears to have an ally in Carr, who backed Starlink when the FCC decided to revoke the company’s winnings from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auction. Levin added that Carr has increasingly aligned his views with the billionaire in recent months. []if you take the fiber preference out of the equation, that raises questions about what purpose the high-cost threshold serves. From there, it becomes a race to the bottom to see who can serve broadband to each location in the cheapest possible way. Of course, by that standard, satellite will win. []That said, there are inherent bandwidth issues that will limit the number of people Starlink can serve with its current spectrum and software. But Levin said Musk may simply press the FCC to grant it more spectrum to serve a broader swath of the country. []Despite the potential win for satellite, fiber still holds weight. Levin said that many states, which are in charge of awarding BEAD grants, will likely still prefer fiber deployments where feasible. []Joe Kane, director of broadband and spectrum policy at ITIF, said he expects the Trump administration will push to streamline the non-essential requirements of BEAD, “especially when it comes to politically charged issues like labor relations, and try to turn the money into shovels in the ground as quickly as possible.” FIERCE

POLITICS: What’s Ahead For FCC Under Second Trump Administration? (RADIO) In a presidential transition involving a change in political parties, the sitting chair typically steps down before the new president is sworn in. Should history follow precedent, current chair Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat, would relinquish her post on the morning of Jan. 20. The FCC would then be deadlocked with a 2-2 party split between the remaining members until Trump appoints a fifth Commissioner, a Republican, and that appointment is confirmed by the Senate, which could take months. Brendan Carr, the Commission’s senior Republican, is seen by some as the most likely candidate to chair the agency under a second Trump administration. That would give Carr control of the agency’s agenda and over the decisions made by its bureaus, including the Media Bureau which handles many of the decisions that affect radio and television stations. Carr outlined his priorities for telecommunications policy in chapter 28 of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 policy agenda. Much of that has to do with issues like broadband deployment and policies that govern internet service providers and whether the government should ban TikTok, the short-form video service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. In the chapter, Carr also proposes policies that will reign in big tech, improve national security and increase accountability at the agency.Carr wrote in Project 2025 that “The FCC should engage in a serious top-to-bottom review of its regulations and take steps to rescind any that are overly cumbersome or outdated.” A GOP-led FCC could roll back attempts by the Rosenworcel-led commission to require disclosures of AI usage in political ads on radio and television – Carr has called the idea a “recipe for chaos.” https://www.insideradio.com/free/what-s-ahead-for-fcc-under-second-trump-administration/article_a20e950e-9cdc-11ef-81f0-03c2df69cf10.html

POLITICS: Trump plans to dismantle Biden AI safeguards after victory Trump plans to repeal Biden's 2023 order and levy tariffs on GPU imports. []Trump has stated he plans to dismantle President Biden's AI Executive Order from October 2023 immediately upon taking office. Biden's order established wide-ranging oversight of AI development. Among its core provisions, the order established the US AI Safety Institute (AISI) and lays out requirements for companies to submit reports about AI training methodologies and security measures, including vulnerability testing data. The order also directed the Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to develop guidance to help companies identify and fix flaws in their AI models. []Trump supporters in the US government have criticized the measures, as TechCrunch points out. In March, Representative Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) warned that reporting requirements could discourage innovation and prevent developments like ChatGPT. And Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) characterized NIST's AI safety standards as an attempt to control speech through "woke" safety requirements. With that kind of opposition, the future of the existing Biden-originated AI regulation programs remains unclear. The AISI, despite having a budget and international partnerships, could end with a repeal of Biden's executive order. []In September, California passed multiple AI safety bills, one requiring companies to publish details about their AI training methods and a contentious anti-deepfake bill aimed at protecting the likenesses of actors. So far, it's unclear what Trump's policies on AI might represent besides "deregulate whenever possible." During his campaign, Trump promised to support AI development centered on "free speech and human flourishing," though he provided few specifics. He has called AI "very dangerous" and spoken about its high energy requirements. https://arstechnica.com/ai/2024/11/trump-victory-signals-major-shakeup-for-us-ai-regulations/

SCIENCE: Human skin powers devices using intra-body RF energy, method eliminates battery needs Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have claimed that they have powered wearables using the human body. Called power-over-skin technology, the method used the human body to deliver power to many distributed, battery-free, worn devices. Researchers claimed that they tested power delivery from on-body distances as far as from head-to-toe, with sufficient energy, to power microcontrollers capable of sensing and wireless communication. Researchers stated that the human body could be modeled as a complex RC circuit. Human body circuit“Since we wish to have only one connection point to the body on the transmit and receive side, we must rely on the body’s capacitance and use high-frequency AC waves (RF) to conduct energy,” said researchers.“Though the precise values of the human body circuit vary from person to person, this variation is negligible at the higher frequencies we need to use.” The power-over-skin technology is claimed to be a refinement upon past intra-body power transfer (IBPT) systems for energizing battery-free receiver devices worn across the body. MSN

SMART METERS; Why Smart Meters Benefit Big Energy — Not Consumers Energy companies are getting ever more heavy-handed in their tactics to meet quotas and hit govt net-zero targets. But who’s actually better off when we install a smart meter? by Alliance for Natural Health International Smart meters – the smarter choice for whom? | Alliance For Natural Health

SPACE: New Satellite Company, Logos Space, Files with FCC to Build LEO Constellation Satellite-based communications businesses have been making news recently, including a brand-new start-up. Milo Medin and Rama Akella—veterans in the space technology and broadband networks sectors—announced the launch of Logos Space Services. The satellite communications operator, which filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in October to construct, launch, and operate a non-geostationary orbit system, is targeting enterprise customers. Logos Space offers MPLS and ethernet connectivity, allowing enterprises and telecom providers to extend cloud, data center, and communication networks globally with fiber-like performance without using the internet. Internet access, however, is a choice for customers such as airlines and maritime transport. Logos also provides backup communications for fiber-connected companies. BENTON

SURVEILLANCE: POLITICS Trump Might Get Unfettered Surveillance Powers. How Did We Get Here? For a decade, Congress has failed to rein in the surveillance state. Now Trump is promising to use the government against his foes. https://theintercept.com/2024/11/05/trump-surveillance-power/

TELECOM INDUSTRY: Copper theft is a colossal problem for telephone companies. Here’s why Telephone companies are getting tired of their legacy copper cables. It’s bad enough old copper is difficult to maintain, people want to steal it, too. AT&T recently posted a $10,000 cash reward for information on copper cable thefts in the Austin (TX) area. Information includes details on the attempted sale or purchase of the stolen copper. The operator is also experiencing copper theft in Dallas, where customers reported they have lost phone and internet services for days at a time. Windstream’s Kinetic brand is another provider plagued by copper thieves, particularly across eastern Kentucky and Tennessee, said Barry Bishop, SVP of field operations. According to a press release from July, Kinetic estimates more than 350 residential and small business customers in the Clay County, Kentucky area have lost service due to criminal activity. BENTON

WARFARE: The U.S. military tapped a mix of small and large companies to design an alternate network of GPS satellites it says it needs pronto.Why it matters: Washington and its friends abroad cannot afford to lose GPS access, which supports battlefield movements and keeps economies afloat. An outage could cost $1 billion a day, according to one report sponsored by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. By the numbers: The Space Force selected Astranis, Axient, L3Harris Technologies and Sierra Space to design innovative, more cost-effective "Resilient GPS" satellites. It's a $2 billion program. Eight satellites could be ready for launch in 2028. Additional batches should follow. Threat level: The U.S. advantage in space is waning. Russia and China want to be top dog, and are developing space weapons to knock out satellites. Electronic jamming and GPS spoofing has greatly complicated the Russia-Ukraine war and life on its edges. What they're saying: "Space enables the prosperity and security of our nation every day, and it is clear that our competitors have taken note," U.S. Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman said in a statement. What's next: This project has multiple phases. One or more companies will build prototypes following a design review. AXIOS

and: GPS Needs a Backup, Terrestrial PNT Is the Answer The FCC issued a public notice to seek comment on rearranging the spectrum in the Lower 900 MegaHertz band.

EVENTS:

11/8 The National Call registration link, Friday November 8, 2024, 1-3pm ET Here is the registration link for Friday's National Call for Safe Technology:  https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcufuyqqD8vGdEGpjzvwKtEiURq3K3XGV50 After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. The agenda will be sent out later in the week

11/11: MOMS ACROSS AMERICA Let's Make America Healthy Again Join us on Monday, November 11th, for our Moms Connect Call, a gathering of mothers and others who want to empower and educate each other to create healthy communities. We will discuss the new administration's awesome commitment to filling thousands of positions at the USDA, FDA, CDC, etc., with experts with integrity and courage—nominated by YOU. TODAY - Please check out the website, register, (you have to create a password for security) and VOTE or nominate your picks! Moms Across America https://www.momsacrossamerica.com/

11/13 OVERCOMING CHEVRON - COLLABORATIVE FOR HEALTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT On Wednesday, November 13 at 10am PT/1pm ET a group of expert panelists will explore The Overturning of Chevron Deference: Impacts on environmental health decision making. The June 28, 2024, Supreme Court decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo overturning Chevron deference marks a pivotal shift that could reshape environmental regulation.The longstanding Chevron doctrine established the principle that federal courts must defer to an agency’s interpretation of the statutes it implements. The June decision removes this deference to agency experts and expands the authority of judges into the realm of policy making. This event, co-hosted with our partners at UCSF's Science Action Network, Earthjustice, and the EaRTH Center at UCSF, brings together legal and policy experts Lisa Heinzerling, Erik Olson, and Bob Sussman to discuss the implications of this decision, and its potentially profound impact on science, public health, and regulatory decision making. RSVP here.

MA4SAFETECH: Mark Your Calendars!

1. Nov. 13, 12 Noon ET: Why & How to Create Phone-Free Schools! Cece Doucette and Mary Anne Tierney Meeting Registration - Zoom

2. Nov. 20, 12 Noon ET: Monthly Update Meeting All Welcomed https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIqf--srj8sHtwVnBQhOsmpW8enmmewysn9#/regist

3. Nov. 21, 6 p.m. ET: Safer Tech Possibilities at School webinar! Register: Thursday, November 21 6 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT Please post/send out the .pdf invitation in your town and share the .png social media invitation too!

Correction

One to the hyperlinks to the 3 articles about Jolie Jones and her advocacy re: EHS was incorrect. Here are the links.

Quincy Jones Daughters: From ‘Parks and Rec’ to Animal Rights— How Quincy Jones’s Daughters Are Making Their Mark Across Industries

Quincy Jones Was a Father to Seven Children From Five Women — Where are They Now?

Meet Quincy Jones 7 kids, including his famous actress daughter Rashida