~e; Electromagnetic News & Views #160
From
brian carroll <human@electronetwork.org>
Date
Thu, 20 Jan 2005 19:49:25 -0600
===================================================
Electromagnetic News & Views -- #160
===================================================
00) Electronetwork.org Commentary (01/20/2005)
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-- [no comments]
===================================================
01) --top stories--
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Iran to show nuke samples are peaceful // nuclear diplomacy
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-01-16-iran-nuclear_x.htm
'Iran had said it would allow U.N. nuclear experts to take
environmental samples from green spaces outside the complex's
ammunition production workshops, but it would not allow them to inspect
military equipment.' .... 'Asefi said Iran and the Europeans will begin
a new round of talks in Geneva later this week focusing on nuclear
issues as well as political and security cooperation.'
[and] Report: U.S. Conducting Secret Missions Inside Iran // via drudge
<http://reuters.myway.com/article/20050116/2005-01-
16T173311Z_01_N16248289_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-IRAN-USA-NEWYORKER-DC.html>
'The former intelligence official told Hersh that an American commando
task force in South Asia is working closely with a group of Pakistani
scientists who had dealt with their Iranian counterparts.' .. 'The New
Yorker reports that this task force, aided by information from
Pakistan, has been penetrating into eastern Iran in a hunt for
underground nuclear-weapons installations.' .. 'In exchange for this
cooperation, the official told Hersh,...'
[quote] Next stop: Iran: Yank commandos already in place, mag say
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/272150p-233046c.html
'... Bush aides are "compulsively optimistic" that the mullahs have a
fragile hold on power, and they are sure to strike soon, predicted
defense analyst John Pike of GlobalSecurity.org.' .. '"I think they're
going to do it," he told The News. "I'm skeptical that diplomacy will
succeed."'
[quote] Cheney Thought Iraq Would Recover Quickly // via
drudgereport.com
<http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=544&u=/ap/20050120/
ap_on_go_pr_wh/inaugural_cheney_1&printer=1>
'Cheney, interviewed hours before he was to take the oath of office
for his second term, also said that Iran now tops the list of "the
world's potential trouble spots."' .. 'Iran is pursuing "a fairly
robust nuclear program" and has a history of sponsoring terrorism, he
said. "That combination is of great concern."' .. 'Cheney said the Bush
administration might seek U.N. sanctions against Iran over its nuclear
program if necessary. The administration prefers to address the problem
with diplomacy and doesn't want more war in the Middle East, he said.'
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02-- electromagnetic health & safety
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Artificial Hearts: The Beat Goes On // major milestones, images
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.01/start.html?pg=10
Toothache man finds nail in skull // (perils of electric nailguns)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4179877.stm
Radiation Ups Long-Term Breast Cancer Survival
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=healthNews&storyID=7360350
Hands-free kits 'cut radiation' // mobile phone headsets (via wired)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4187625.stm
[quote] 'Old-Fashioned' Gonad Capsule A Simple And Effective
Method For Blocking Radiation To Testes From MDCT Scan
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/01/050111120941.htm
'rotecting the testes from radiation is important because the testes
are sensitive to radiation damage, which could result in cancer,
infertility, or sperm mutation.'
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03-- electromagnetic trash & treasure
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// the catastrophic 'metallurgical bug' of 'metal that grows
whiskers'...
Tin Whiskers: The Next Y2K Problem? // via engadget.com
Engineers are racing to avert what could become a plague
of short circuits in electrical and electronic devices.
http://www.fortune.com/fortune/thisjustin/0,15704,1012859,00.html
'... the problem suddenly could be poised to get worse. The march of
miniaturization means that ever smaller metal whiskers can short out
the ever smaller distances between leads, solder bumps, and other
jam-packed conductive surfaces in electronic systems. Furthermore, the
European Union has ordered that by the middle of next year, electronic
and electrical products sold in its vast market must be free of
lead—and it is lead that best checks the growth of whiskers.'
// interesting initiatives on 'wall wart' energy inefficiency/reform...
Gadget growth fuels eco concerns // rethink/WEEE. ** see graphic...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4183969.stm
'... if power adaptors continue to be made and used as they are now,
consumer electronics and other small appliances will be responsible for
more than 40% of electricity used in US homes, said the EPA.'
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04-- electromagnetic security & surveillance
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'Evil Twin' Could Threaten Wi-Fi Users // ('Wireless Evildoers')
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/nf/20050120/tc_nf/29871
Panix recovers from domain hijack // ISP ID-theft...
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/01/17/panix_domain_hijack/
Worried about Wi-Fi security?
<http://news.com.com/Worried+about+Wi-Fi+security/2100-7347_3-
5540969.html?tag=nefd.lede>
---------------------------------------------------
05-- electromagnetic power & energy
---------------------------------------------------
Spray-On Solar-Power Cells Are True Breakthrough // wearable IR ***
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/01/
0114_050114_solarplastic.html
'The new material is the first plastic composite that is able to
harness the infrared portion.' .. '"Everything that's warm gives off
some heat. Even people and animals give off heat," Sargent said. "So
there actually is some power remaining in the infrared [spectrum], even
when it appears to us to be dark outside."' .. 'The researchers
combined specially designed nano particles called quantum dots with a
polymer to make the plastic that can detect energy in the infrared.'
OIL AND WAR // via cursor.org
Halliburton Unit Wins Contract in Iran
State Dept. Says It Is ‘Looking Into This’
<http://daily.nysun.com/Repository/
getmailfiles.asp?Style=OliveXLib:ArticleToMail&Type=text/html&Path=NYS/
2005/01/12&ID=Ar00103>
'A subsidiary of Halliburton, the company Vice President Cheney ran
between 1995 and 2000, won a contract this week to develop a much
sought-after oil and gas field in Iran, a country accused by the White
House in recent months of covertly developing nuclear weapons.' ....
'Mr. Cheney, who was the chief executive officer of Halliburton, came
under considerable fire from Democrats during the campaign season for
his ties to the oil services giant. In the last year, government probes
have been launched regarding not only HPSL, but also Halliburton
business dealings in Nigeria, where the company allegedly bribed
government officials to secure winning bids.'
Sun-starved Alpine villagers 'see the light' with the
help of solar mirrors // remote sunshine. via engadget.com
http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/01/16/
walp16.xml
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06-- Electromagnetic current & human affairs
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Biography review: 'Dark Hero of the Information Age' by Flo Conway
and Jim Siegelman // Cybernetics, Norbert Wiener. ** bugmenot.com
http://www.startribune.com/stories/384/5168812.html
'But even as he was pushing for openness and cooperation, and as
recognition for his own genius grew, Wiener increasingly found himself
in a costly fight against the growing movement to tie corporate,
military and scientific interests together in a web of secrecy and
profit. These conflicts burst within him at the dropping of the atomic
bomb and became a crusade upon the creation of Vannevar Bush's National
Science Foundation. To a man for whom a healthy system depended on open
communication -- "feedback" was a term of his own invention -- this
regimentation and centralization (aid and party to the paranoia of the
Cold War) were morally intolerable and, more ominously, dangerous.'
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07-- electromagnetic transport & communication
---------------------------------------------------
Fatal gap in tsunami warning system // UNESCO
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10006837
'Scientists at the Tsunami Warning Centre in Hawaii - who have
complained about being unable to find telephone numbers to alert the
countries in peril - did not use an existing rapid telecommunications
system set up to get warnings around the world almost instantly because
the bureaucratic arrangements were not in place.'
// wonder if broadband over powerlines will also effect
radioastronomy...
Internet noise threatens emergency radio // ***
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6866
'Plans to deliver broadband internet signals to homes and businesses
down mains electricity cables, rather than telephone lines, could cause
interference that will drown out the faint signals from distant
short-wave transmitters.'
---------------------------------------------------
08-- electromagnetic matter & information
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World's Most Powerful Infrared Camera Opens Its Eyes On The Heavens
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/01/050111181146.htm
// .US nukesub recently slammed into an uncharted underwater mountain...
Navy to chart ocean floor after tsunami // incredible. thanks *
http://stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=25637&archive=true
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09-- electromagnetic trends & inventions
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It's Cool to Be Cold // review of Cold Heat Soldering Iron (gizmodo)
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/
0,1759,1750090,00.asp?kc=PCRSS03079TX1K0000585
[and] Hands-on with the Cold Heat Soldering Tool
http://machrone.home.comcast.net/coldheat/
'Living' robots powered by muscle // nano-slavery...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4181197.stm
'Montemano's team used rat heart cells to create a tiny device that
moves on its own when the cells contract.' .... 'Professor Montemagno
says muscles like these could be used in a host of microscopic devices
- even to drive miniature electrical generators to power computer
chips.' .. 'But when biological cells become attached to silicon - are
they alive?' .. '"They're absolutely alive," Professor Montemagno told
BBC News. "I mean the cells actually grow, multiply and assemble - they
form the structure themselves. So the device is alive."'
// 'Hurtubise called his MIT contacts with news of what he’d done.
'“They
// told me that I was playing with electromagnetism,” Hurtubise said.'
Hurtubise says invention sees through walls // *** via engadget.com
http://www.baytoday.ca/content/news/details.asp?c=6657
'Three units make up the Angel Light.' .. 'The main unit, which
Hurtubise calls the centrifuge, contains the Angel Light’s brains and
includes black, white, red and fluorescent light sources, as well as
seven industrial lasers.' .. 'The second unit, or the deflector grid,
contains a large circle of optical glass, a microwave unit and plasma
intermixed with carbon dioxide.' .. 'The third unit contains eight
plasma light rods, CO2 charges, industrial magnets, 108 mirrors, eight
ionization cells industrial lights, and other components Hurtubise
chooses to remain tight-lipped about.'
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10-- electromagnetic weaponry & warfare
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Rockets Wreck Pakistan Fuel Lines // natural gas...
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/01/16/world/main667245.shtml
The Next Nuclear Wave
Jon B. Wolfsthal // *** via cursor.org
From Foreign Affairs ,January/February 2005
<http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20050101fareviewessay84114c/jon-b-
wolfsthal/the-next-nuclear-wave.html>
'Nonproliferation experts must walk a fine line: scaring people into
action but not paralyzing them with fear. A sense of fatalism already
pervades the debate about nuclear weapons; what is needed is a sense of
what can be done about the threat and how much it will cost, in both
money and political capital...'
[quote] Baker advises administration to consider a phased withdrawal of
troops
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/a/2005/01/13/
national1623EST0636.DTL
'Seeking peace in the Middle East improves chances of achieving
stability in Iraq, said Baker, who helped plan the Persian Gulf war
that forced Iraq to reverse its annexation of Kuwait.'
China builds up strategic sea lanes // via drudgereport.com
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20050117-115550-1929r.htm
'The report noted that the vast amount of oil shipments through the
sea lanes, along with growing piracy and maritime terrorism, prompted
China, as well as India, to build up naval power at "chokepoints" along
the sea routes from the Persian Gulf to the South China Sea.' ..
'"China ... is looking not only to build a blue-water navy to control
the sea lanes, but also to develop undersea mines and missile
capabilities to deter the potential disruption of its energy supplies
from potential threats, including the U.S. Navy, especially in the case
of a conflict with Taiwan," the [Booz Allen Hamilton "Energy Futures in
Asia"] report said.'
Find them! Feds hunt ‘terror team’ as pols appeal for calm //
nuketerrorthreat
http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=64402
'White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card told the Herald last night
that President Bush [ related ,bio ]was informed of the uncorroborated
Boston threat at his daily intelligence briefing yesterday morning.' ..
'``I'm shocked it made it into the newspaper because I don't think it
is something that has been fully vetted,'' Card said. ``It was during
the intelligence briefing . . . the president was given this sketchy
intelligence. It was truly sketchy intelligence, but . . . anytime you
hear the words that surround this kind of intelligence, it invites
greater scrutiny.'''
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11-- electromagnetic business & economics
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Casualties mount in Apple vs customers war // DRM
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/01/13/apple_drm_analysis/
// interesting take on the Mac Mini as DVR, DVD player, HMC...
[and] Questionable design decisions could limit Mac mini's usefulness
http://www.pingwales.co.uk/hardware/mac-mini.html
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12-- electromagnetic artworks & artifacts
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Thursday, January 27th 2005, 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm
Igor Stromajer: LOVE WITHOUT MERCY
(net art presentation) CEC ArtsLink
435 Hudson Street, 8th Floor, New York, NY 10014
http://www.cecartslink.org
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* please forward to your friends and colleagues *
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