~e; Electromagnetic News & Views #156

[brian carroll <human@electronetwork.org>]

===================================================
Electromagnetic News & Views -- #156
===================================================

00) Electronetwork.org Commentary (12/31/2004)

01) Top Stories of Electromagnetism
02) Electromagnetic health & safety
03) Electromagnetic trash & treasure
04) Electromagnetic security & surveillance
05) Electromagnetic power & energy
06) Electromagnetic current & human affairs
07) Electromagnetic transport & communication
08) Electromagnetic matter & information
09) Electromagnetic trends & inventions
10) Electromagnetic weaponry & warfare
11) Electromagnetic business & economics
12) Electromagnetic artworks & artifacts

===================================================
00) --commentary--

thanks everyone for being a part of the list during
this past year, and for sharing of ideas and urls.
may the new year bring everyone something they need.
brian

===================================================
01) --top stories--
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// also in today's newspaper was an account of a child from Sweden
// being located by a photograph online the internet, and a relative
// flying to Thailand to rescue the boy whose parents were missing.

Mobile phones save stranded Britons,
Hong Kong workers in Sri Lanka // via drudgereport.com
<http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1547&ncid=1547&e=3&u=/ 
afp/20041228/lf_afp/asiaquakesrilanka_041228154425>

	'"There were 10,252 international roaming phones working on Sri Lankan  
networks at the time of the tragedy," Chris Dharmakirti, who is heading  
the Tidal Wave Rescue Centre said. "We sent everyone an sms and got  
responses from 2,321.' .. 'He said 5,983 roaming phones had gone dead  
since the disaster while 4,269 phones had been used to make at least  
one call after the tragedy.'

[quote] Experts: Tsunami Kills Few Animals // via drudgereport.com
<http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=516&u=/ap/20041229/ 
ap_on_re_as/quake_sri_lanka_animals_1&printer=1>

	'"Maybe what we think is true, that animals have a sixth sense,"  
Wijeyeratne said.'

[and] How Did Animals Escape Tsunami? // (no information)
http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,66148,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_4

// this em-health story about a hidden heart defibrillator would explain
// the 'hidden-microphone' stories during the Presidential debates...

PHOTOS Show George W. Bush Seriously Ill Physically // via cryptome.org
http://houston.indymedia.org/news/2004/12/35839.php

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02-- electromagnetic health & safety
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Ambulances May Get Virtual Doctors // The FREC-M
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25013-2004Dec24.html

PDAs don't affect pacemakers, ICDs, study says // via engadget.com
<http://www.heartcenteronline.com/myheartdr/home/research- 
detail.cfm?reutersid=4962>

Health alert over flat screen TVs
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4120401.stm

	'ITO is a type of metal used in liquid crystal displays or plasma  
display panels for TVs, computers and video monitors.'

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03-- electromagnetic trash & treasure
---------------------------------------------------

New mobile for Christmas? Give the old one to charity // via wired.com
http://networks.silicon.com/mobile/0,39024665,39126720,00.htm

Thieves in Austria Steal Entire ATM // hack(saw)attack (steal the bank)
<http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/wire/sns-ap-austria- 
cash-machine-heist,0,5495065.story?coll=sns-ap-world-headlines>

[and] Cell Phone Recycling Guide // via engadget.com
http://www.phonescoop.com/articles/recycling/

American Zombies Blamed for Bulk of Spam
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/39260.html

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04-- electromagnetic security & surveillance
---------------------------------------------------

Threats Against Smart Cell Phones Are Mounting -- A security firm lays  
out this year's attack timeline to demonstrate the quickening pace of  
exploits.
<http://www.informationweek.com/story/ 
showArticle.jhtml?articleID=56200256&tid=13692>

	'"What's unusual now is that most [smartphone] infections are caused  
by airplanes, just as something like SARS was," he said. Like a  
real-world human virus, today's phone worms spread because people  
criss-cross the globe. In this case they bring their infected devices,  
not infectious diseases, with them.   And those infected phones, when  
used to conduct e-commerce, will be at risk of exploitation for  
financial gain, just as PC users have been subjected to a massive  
increase in for-profit scams like phishing and spyware attacks.' ..  
'"Where there's e-commerce," said Weafer, "there'll be e-crime."'

$1.5M Homemade Bar Code Scam // via engadget.com
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/12/31/national/main664128.shtml

	'Two couples have been charged in a price-switching scheme that  
allegedly defrauded Wal-Mart stores in 19 states of $1.5 million over  
the last decade.' .. 'Authorities said the scheme involved using a home  
computer to produce UPC bar codes for cheaper products and slipping  
them over the real codes on high-priced items. The suspects then  
allegedly sold the merchandise, or returned it for refunds or store  
gift cards that also were sold.'

Israeli Nuclear Whistleblower Released
<http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/wire/sns-ap-israel- 
vanunu,0,7286545.story?coll=sns-ap-world-headlines>

---------------------------------------------------
05-- electromagnetic power & energy
---------------------------------------------------

California Energy Regulators Require More Efficient Appliances // ***
http://enn.com/today.html?id=612

	'In a 5-0 Wednesday vote, the California Energy Commission approved  
standards to be phased in starting in 2006 that will require all  
televisions, videocassette recorders and DVD players sold in the state  
to run on a stingy one to three watts.' .. 'Even when idle, most models  
of such home entertainment devices currently use two to 10 watts.'

---------------------------------------------------
06-- Electromagnetic current & human affairs
---------------------------------------------------

Anthropologists to beat gadget rage // ** interesting...
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6803

	'Anthropologists' insights are not just for the future: they have  
already contributed to making existing technologies easier to use.  
Perhaps the most familiar example is the big green Copy button on  
photocopiers. Anthropologist Lucy Suchman famously suggested it when  
working at Xerox in the 1980s, after seeing how frustrated people  
became with the complexity of the machines of the day.' .. 'Now based  
at Lancaster University, UK, Suchman says major technology companies  
often consult anthropologists, although their influence often goes  
unnoticed.' .. 'Travis Breaux, an anthropologist and computer scientist  
at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, expects this kind of  
input to become more common. "As technology becomes more pervasive, the  
role of the anthropologist in its development will continue to grow,"  
he predicts.'

[em-quote] Pope Says Troubled World Needs Message of Jesus
<http://reuters.myway.com/article/20041225/2004-12- 
25T001711Z_01_L24659510_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-POPE-CHRISTMAS-DC.html>

	'Despite all the tradition, there were some novelties at the Vatican  
this Christmas.' .. 'For the first time, the most trendy and high-tech  
conscious Catholics did not have to sit at home to watch the Christmas  
midnight mass on television.' .. 'Italian state broadcaster RAI sent  
footage to video mobile phone operators.'

Cartoon: Strangebrew // ** Santa without a chimney...
http://www.toonville.com/content1/strangebrew/brw122504.jpg

// though there must be a sports-team named 'electric' something or  
other.

Electric Yetis // .uk footballers...
http://eteamz.active.com/ElectricYetisFC/

---------------------------------------------------
07-- electromagnetic transport & communication
---------------------------------------------------

Satellite Tags Show How White Sharks Travel // interdisciplinary.sat
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/12/041219145503.htm

Indonesian tsunami-monitoring system lacked basic equipment
Telephone line needed to relay warning signals was cut off in 2000.
http://www.nature.com/news/2004/041229/full/041229-4.html

	'A seismograph designed to detect the earthquakes that cause tsunamis  
was installed on the Indonesian island of Java in 1996, but the data it  
collects is not sent to the central government in Jakarta because the  
telephone line has been disconnected since an office move in 2000.'  
.... 'Better-equipped warning systems elsewhere also failed to alert  
the relevant authorities. A network of seabed pressure sensors and  
seismographs, run by the United Nations, can detect Pacific Ocean  
tsunamis within minutes.'

---------------------------------------------------
08-- electromagnetic matter & information
---------------------------------------------------

Sumatran quake sped up Earth's rotation // adjusting atomic clocks...
Natural disaster shaved millionths of a second off planet's day.
http://www.nature.com/news/2004/041229/full/041229-6.html

	'The blast literally rocked the world on its axis, add Richard Gross  
and his NASA colleagues. They estimate that Earth now tilts by an extra  
2.5 centimetres in the wake of the jolt.'

LCD As A Molecular Magnifying Glass // ** biosensor visualizes DNA...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/12/041219154236.htm

New Scientist: The top 10 news stories of 2004
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6832

New Scientist: 2004: The year in technology
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6831

---------------------------------------------------
09-- electromagnetic trends & inventions
---------------------------------------------------

// there is a potential for local radio to be replaced by  
microbroadcasts
// which if one has an ipod, the attachment retails for 40 dollars or  
so.
// (itrip). it would be great if ipods could record the broadcasts, too.
// if the radiowaves were freed of radio broadcasting, it could be a  
great
// way to send _free public service SPOT-like information to all  
wireless
// devices, all the time, at the same time, en masse, freeing up  
spectrum
// for data services and letting information that is dynamic be freed  
from
// the limitations of corporate advertising-based programming  
restraints.
// if only music was supplemented with poetry, books, papers, speeches,
// debates, questions, conversations, histories, folklore, storytelling.
// e.g. one could podcast a student protest through the aether this  
way...

Podcasts bring DIY radio to the web // good story... (Curry's ipodder)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4120773.stm

New Battery Lasts Nearly Twice As Long // Oxyride. via engadget.com
<http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20041225/ 
ap_on_hi_te/digital_battery>

TRN's Top Picks: // *** great overview...
Technology Research Advances of 2004
http://www.trnmag.com/Stories/2004/122904/TRN's_Top_Picks_122904.html

---------------------------------------------------
10-- electromagnetic weaponry & warfare
---------------------------------------------------

// wonder if off the shelf automated tracking telescopes could track
// a fast satellite or the space shuttle in the sky. if so, what is
// stopping a flight-track being entered and a laser mounted on it...

FBI Probes Laser Beam Directed at Cockpit // 8,500ft. via  
drudgereport.com
<http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&u=/ap/20041229/ 
ap_on_re_us/laser_beam_airplane_1&printer=1>

	'The pilot was able to land the plane, and air traffic controllers  
used radar to determine the laser came from a residential area in  
suburban Warrensville Heights.'

Superconductors ready to ramp up for the real world // +railguns
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/1223/p13s01-stct.html

Supercomputer to Test Aging Nukes // ***
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/ 
0,1282,66137,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_3

	'Using a computer doing 360 trillion calculations a second, scientists  
at Lawrence Livermore National Lab will simulate the explosion of an  
aging nuclear bomb in three dimensions.' ... 'Scientists say there is a  
lot they do not know about the effects of aging on the components of a  
nuclear bomb -- plutonium, uranium, high explosives, plastic and gases.  
For example will a bomb's plutonium last 50, 100 or 1,000 years?'

---------------------------------------------------
11-- electromagnetic business & economics
---------------------------------------------------

New coal plants bury 'Kyoto' -- New greenhouse-gas emissions from  
China, India, and the US will swamp cuts from the Kyoto treaty. // ***  
via wired.com

	'The official treaty to curb greenhouse-gas emissions hasn't gone into  
effect yet and already three countries are planning to build nearly 850  
new coal-fired plants, which would pump up to five times as much carbon  
dioxide into the atmosphere as the Kyoto Protocol aims to reduce.' ....  
'Without strong US leadership, it's unlikely that technology to cut CO2  
emissions will be ready in time for the power-plant construction boom,  
many say.' .... 'Energy security is one factor driving the shift...'

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12-- electromagnetic artworks & artifacts
---------------------------------------------------

Crucifix NG (Next Generation) // *** thanks *. great idea...
http://www.itp.nyu.edu/show/_projectdetail.php?project_id=94
http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/004038.php

	'Crucifix NG is a battery-operated crucifix that broadcasts a Unicode  
version of the Lord's Prayer at 916.48 Megahertz, thereby anointing not  
just a person's psychic space, but also their electromagnetic space.'

// curious about the bird-like aesthetics of antennae, as it
// seems there is some precedent for 'aerials' and this .tv
// looks like it may decide to fly when no one is looking. of
// the really interesting discoveries in EM aesthetics, many
// can be found in antenna design as connected with 'sacred'
// geometry, in that proportion and materials and geometry
// all play a part in the language, which allows forms that
// range from satellite dishes to broadcasting towers, to
// rabbit ears, to a strand of wire. it is not arbitrary,
// there are wi-fi antennas, AM, FM, UHF, VHF, other, etc.
// recently saw a house facade (fourplex) with three small
// black/gray satellite dish antennas mounted by each door.
// these could be considered a type of DIY architectural
// detailing or aesthetic (hi-tech) decoration/construction.
// funny to see Richard Meier in Wired outfitting Bill Joy's
// apartment with such interior 'construction of decoration.'
// i.e. stealthing EM aesthetics, subsumed to Retro-Modernism.

automatic // collage/painting by Jennifer Davis
http://www.mnartists.org/work.do?rid=55952

Night Fishing // em-light. painting by Maria Seep
http://mnartists.org/work.do?rid=55742

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