Saturday, May 05, 2012

Adam Yauch, of the Beastie Boys, Dies of Parotid Tumor


Adam Yauch, founding member of the Beastie Boys, has died

beastie-boys-adam-yauch
Image Credit: Scott Gries/Getty Images
Adam Yauch, a member of the seminal hip-hop trio the Beastie Boys, has died. He was 47 years old.
The Brooklyn-born musician known to fans as MCA was first treated for cancerous growths in his parotid gland and a lymph node in 2009 and subsequently underwent surgery and radiation therapy, which forced the delay of the Beastie Boys’ most recent album Hot Sauce Committee Part Two. His illness has also kept the group off the road, and Yauch missed the group’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame two weeks ago.
Yauch first met his musical comrade-in-arms Michael Diamond (a.k.a. Mike D) when he was still in high school; inspired by the manic punk energy of bands like Black Flag, the pair conceived the Beastie Boys as a noisy hardcore band. The group originally featured friends John Berry and Kate Schellenbach (the latter of whom later formed Luscious Jackson). ThePolly Wog Stew EP gained them some attention, as did gigs opening for the likes of Bad Brains and the Misfits.
Berry departed the band and was replaced by Adam Horovitz (Ad-Rock). Around the same time, the crew put together a song called “Cookie Puss,” which was based around a recorded prank phone call to Carvel. The song became an accidental sensation in New York’s underground dance scene, and the Beastie Boys began to build a reputation for blending humor and hip-hop in their sound.
The Boys signed to a nascent Def Jam Records after meeting co-founder Rick Rubin, and when Schellenbach departed due to creative differences, the Beastie Boys the world came to know were born. In 1986, they released the crossover smash Licensed to Ill, which became the first hip-hop album to top the Billboard album chart, and featured the breakthrough MTV hit “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party).”
The Beastie Boys soon developed a reputation for being not unlike their personae in the “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party)” video, but they gradually shed their bad-boy image and became sonic students of the game. From 1989′s Paul’s Boutique on, the Beastie Boys stood as one of the most innovative crews in all of popular music. Thanks to producers the Dust Brothers, Boutiquetook sampling to a whole new level, while 1992′s Check Your Head found them searching for the perfect balance between their hardcore roots and their next-level vision. That ideal was found on 1994′s Ill Communication, featuring the band’s breakthrough “Sabotage.”
The three Beastie Boys had divergent interests as the group evolved, and Yauch’s passion turned to film early in his career (later, he also became involved in Buddhism and Tibetan causes). Working under the pseudonym Nathanial Hornblower, Yauch directed many of the band’s music videos, including “So What’cha Want,” “Intergalactic,” and the more recent “Make Some Noise.” He also founded Oscilloscope Laboratories, a studio and distribution arm that was first developed to put out his high school basketball documentary Gunnin’ for That #1 Spot and also has put out films like Kelly Reichardt’s acclaimed drama Wendy and Lucy and the beloved Banksy stunt flick Exit Through the Gift Shop.
When Ad-Rock and Mike D accepted the Beastie Boys’ induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame two weeks ago, they read a letter from Yauch thanking both his bandmates and the group’s fans: “I’d like to dedicate this to my brothers Adam and Mike,” he wrote. “They walked the globe with me. It’s also for anyone who has ever been touched by our band. This induction is as much ours as it is yours.”
Yauch is survived by his wife, Dechen Wengdu, and their daughter, Losel.
http://music-mix.ew.com/2012/05/04/adam-yauch-beastie-boys-dead/

A close call: Why the jury is still out on mobile phones


   A close call: Why the jury is still out on mobile phones

   Is a rise in brain tumours linked to the radiation sources we hold so close to our heads?      Experts can’t agree on the answer


 
 



Allegations of lobbying, bad science, not enough science, conflicts of interest, political inertia, scaremongering and lawsuits: the debate surrounding the safety of mobile phones has it all. With more than 5 billion users worldwide, mobile phones have undoubtedly become central to modern life in just two decades, but could they be a health hazard?
Scientists at the Children with Cancer conference in London this week will advocate that governments adopt the ‘precautionary principle’ – advising phone users to take simple steps to protect themselves and their children from potential, not proven, long term health risks of electromagnetic fields - especially head cancers.

They will call for urgent research into new Office of National Statistics figures that suggest a 50 per cent increase in frontal and temporal lobe tumours – the areas of the brain most susceptible to the electromagnetic radiation emitted by mobile phones – between 1999 and 2009.

Caroline Lucas, MP for Brighton Pavilion and Green Party leader, will next week table an Early Day Motion calling for mandatory safety information at the point of sale, and for widely publicized advice, for young people in particular, to text, use headsets or corded landlines for long calls.

But the Health Protection Agency’s new report on the “potential health effects” on mobile phone technologies on Thursday is likely to conclude that there is only one established risk, and that is crashing the car if people talk and drive.

The scientists cannot agree, so what should the public be told?

The Department of Health currently has a confusing online-only leaflet which states that there is no immediate concern but under-16s should be encouraged to minimise phone use and if concerned about risks, choose hands free kits or texting.

In stark contrast France has banned phones from primary schools and advertising targeted at children, and companies must provide headsets with every phone.

Israel recently became the latest of a very small, but growing number of governments to introduce legislation requiring all mobile phones and adverts to come with a health alert: “Warning – the Health Ministry cautions that heavy use and carrying the device next to the body may increase the risk of cancer, especially among children.”

The law, which last month passed its first reading, also seeks to ban, like with tobacco, companies from marketing to children.

An attempt by San Francisco’s lawmakers to require similar health warnings is being vigorously fought by the industry on the grounds it would violate the companies’ first amendment rights.

Professor Darius Leszczynski, from the Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority in Finland, has warned about possible health hazards of mobile phones for more than a decade. He was one of 30 experts at the International Agency for Research on Cancer [IRAC], the global authority on cancer risks, who last year concluded mobile phones radiation is “possibly carcinogenic”. (Other scientists disagree entirely.)

Leszczynski will tell conference delegates that there is enough laboratory evidence to support an even stronger classification of ‘probably carcinogenic’.  He said: “Since 2001 I have continuously spoken about the need for precautionary measures, especially for children. We have had enough evidence to call for that for a long time.”
Dr Annie Sasco from the Epidemiology for Cancer Prevention unit at Bordeaux Segalen University is at the conference discussing the 1 to 2 per cent annual increase in childhood brain cancers.
“It’s not age, it’s too fast to be genetic, and it isn’t all down to lifestyle, so what in the environment can it be? We now live in an electro-smog and people are exposed to wireless devices that we have shown in the lab to have a biological impact. It makes sense that kids are more sensitive – they have smaller heads and thinner skulls, so EMFs get into deeper, more important structures.

“It is totally unethical that experimental studies are not being done very fast, in big numbers, by independently funded scientists. The industry is just doing their job, I am more preoccupied with the so called independent scientists and institutions saying there is no problem.”

The rate of frontal and temporal brain tumours has risen from two to three per 100,000 people in a decade. Denis Henshaw, Emeritus Professor of Human Radiation Effects at the University of Bristol, said: “The public have a right to know this information. We cannot and do not say there is a causal link between brain cancer and mobile phones, but we are right to consider them as one possible explanation for the increase and the public have the right to expect that this is properly investigated.”

He added: “Even if the risk is still only one in a million, with 5 billion phone users, it means a lot of extra brain cancers.”
The UK’s Mobile Operators Association says that most health agencies agree that there is “no credible evidence of adverse health effects from mobile phone technology.”
Yet buried in the small print, companies issue precautionary advice.  

For example, BlackBerry’s booklet states: “use hands-free operation if available and keep the BlackBerry device at least 0.98in (25mm) from your body (including the abdomen of pregnant women and the lower abdomen of teenagers) when the BlackBerry is turned on and connected to the wireless network... reduce the amount of time spent on calls.”
The iPhone4 guide says: “…when using the iPhone near your body for voice calls or wireless data transmission over a cellular network, keep it at least 5/8inch (15mm) away from the body, and only use carrying cases, belt clips or holders that do not have metal parts and that maintain at least 5/8inch (15mm) separation between iPhone and the body.”

And in 2009 the European Parliament said it was “… greatly concerned that insurance companies are tending to exclude coverage for the risks associated with EMFs from the scope of liability insurance policies, the implication clearly being that European insurers are already enforcing their version of the precautionary principle.”

The research is split almost 50:50, on whether mobile phones pose a health hazard or not. But the balance changes if funding sources are considered, with around three quarters of the ‘negative’ studies - no health risks - funded by industry, according to analysis by Joel Moskowitz, director of the Center for Family and Community Health at the University of California, Berkley.

Anthony Swerdlow, professor of epidemiology at the Institute of Cancer Research and chair of the HPA’s Advisory Group on Ionizing Radiation – behind next week’s report, said: “Individual results from particular studies have shown there is a link but in order to believe there is an established effect, it needs to be shown consistently across the literature.

“There are no established ill-effects from cell phones other than the genuine and serious hazard of driving while talking due to poor concentration. I don’t think any causes of cancer have been established. If there are very long term effects we don’t know it yet. Long term effects from childhood use are also largely unknown, but we don’t have reason to believe there are ill-effects.”

Most current studies are at least part funded by industry, or involve researchers with industry links.

Moskowitz said: “The mantra that ‘we need more research’ is true, but there is already enough evidence to warrant better safety information, tighter regulation, mass public education and independently funded research carried out by teams of specialists who are not beholden to industry.

“This is the largest technological experiment in the history of our species and we’re trying to bury our head in sand about the potential risks to cells, organs, reproduction, the immune system, behaviour, risks we still know next to nothing about.

Campaigners had hoped that IRAC’s “possibly carcinogenic” classification in 2011 would trigger public health warnings.

Instead, most governments emphasised the need for more research, largely without committing any funds, even though simple steps like texting, using hands free devices, better phone design and not carrying phones next to the body, significantly reduce exposure to EM radiation.

Campaigners claim that the mute response can partly be blamed on industry successfully spinning the message as good news, a claim which the Mobile Operator’s Association vehemently denies.

In December 2010, MP Tom Watson said in parliament: “It is my view that the more an industry or organisation wishes to hide something unpleasant or do something unpopular, the more lobbyists it employs to talk to MPs. The $1 trillion telecoms industry hires a lot of lobbyists.”

Industry has been accused of trying to discredit and marginalise scientists who produce ‘unfavourable’ results for almost 20 years.

In 1995, Professor Henry Lai, a bioengineering researcher at the University of Washington, accidentally discovered that exposing rats to microwave radiation, the same type emitted by phones, damaged the DNA in their brain cells. He has publicly described industry efforts to discredit his work and stop him working in the field as “scary”.

A decade later the EU funded Reflex study found that EMF radiation had the potential to cause genetic damage in human cells, at much lower levels than considered safe by regulators.

High-profile efforts to discredit the study by one scientist alleging scientific fraud followed, and despite being dismissed by an ethics committee, the smear campaign stuck, according to Professor Franz Adlkofer, coordinator of Reflex.

Adlkofer said: “The poor state of knowledge is due to selective funding of research through governments and telecommunication industry combined with the willingness of hired scientists to adjust their findings to the needs of the awarding authorities, while the governmental blindness is the result of lobbyism in the antechambers of political power. National governments and international industries have in common that they only trust the false messages of scientists they co-operate with, and not the contradicting data of researchers like me.”

Despite the controversies and disagreements, the European Environment Agency suggests governments learn from previous public health failures such as tobacco and asbestos where better regulation came decades after the first medical warnings about lung cancer.

John Cooke, Executive Director Mobile Operators Association, disagrees: “There is no evidence to suggest that warning labels for mobiles are warranted. In fact, there is good evidence that the proliferation of warnings about risk, where there is no good evidence for such risk, is counter-productive and is bad for public health. Industry funds research. It’s morally the right thing to do and governments ask us to do it… industry does not set or control the research agenda. Alleging undue influence and conspiracy theories impugns the integrity of scientists, and is the last refuge of the desperate who have lost the argument based on the facts.”

Vicky Fobel from campaign group MobileWise said: “This latency problem is what caused so many unnecessary deaths from smoking and asbestos. We need to learn from those mistakes and take steps now before it’s too late. That more research is needed shouldn’t be an excuse for inaction.”

A DH spokeswoman said: “As a precaution children should only use mobile phones for essential purposes and keep all calls short. We keep all scientific evidence under review.”

Facts
5 billion Number of mobile phones in use around the world
50% The 10-year rise in tumours located in areas of the brain most vulnerable to mobile phone radiation
25mm Distance that BlackBerry recommends keeping its phones away from the body
16 The age under which people are advised by the NHS to keep mobile use to a minimum
Always read the small print: Official advice
Research is split on whether mobile phones pose a health hazard or not. Buried in the small print, companies already issue precautionary advice.

BlackBerry
BlackBerry's booklet states: "Use hands-free operation if available and keep the BlackBerry device at least 0.98in (25mm) from your body (including the abdomen of pregnant women and the lower abdomen of teenagers) when the BlackBerry is turned on and connected to the wireless network... reduce the amount of time spent on calls."

iPhone
The iPhone4 guide says: "...when using the iPhone near your body for voice calls or wireless data transmission over a cellular network, keep it at least 5/8inch (15mm) away from the body, and only use carrying cases, belt clips or holders that do not have metal parts and that maintain at least 5/8inch (15mm) separation between iPhone and the body."

UK Department of Health
A spokeswoman says: "As a precaution children should only use mobile phones for essential purposes and keep all calls short. We keep all scientific evidence under review."

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/a-close-call-why-the-jury-is-still-out-on-mobile-phones-7670543.html

Russia tests its own ‘heat ray’ cannon for for combatting internal “mass disorder”


Russia tests its own ‘heat ray’ cannon for for combatting internal “mass disorder”


The US Active Denial System. The appearance of the Russian heat ray cannon is currently being kept under wraps (AFP Photo / Paul J. Richards)
After a wave of increasingly bombastic rhetoric promising military modernization, Russia has unveiled one concrete project. It is a non-lethal heat ray, similar to the US Active Denial System.
The as-yet-unnamed weapon “will emit a high-frequency electro-magnetic ray. It will cause unbearable pain, but no damage to internal organs,” said Lieutenant Colonel Dmitry Soskov, who is involved in developing the device.
The ray uses a similar operating principle to a microwave oven, which itself borrowed its technology from World War II military radars. The focused electro-magnetic radiation can reach a target up to 300 meters away, is not affected by smoke or dust in its way, does not damage clothes, and takes only a few seconds to warm up to uncomfortable levels for human skin, says Soskov.
With the right mirrors to deflect the ray, it could be fired from around corners, and inside buildings. The official said, the device is light enough to be fitted to a van or military jeep.
Affecting only the very top layer of the skin, it only hurts, but does not damage.
Soskov said the weapon can be used for crowd and territory control during peacekeeping, or in counter-insurgency missions. He also said the weapon could be adopted by Russian police for combatting internal “mass disorder.”
The ray is currently undergoing testing at a military research institute outside Moscow.
Following in the footsteps of failure?
Although Russian military researchers trumpeted the heat ray as a “unique development,” it appears to be very similar to the US Active Denial System.
The US military has spent more than $120 million on the weapon, and says it has been tested on eleven thousand willing volunteers. Only last month, several US officials willingly submitted to the ray during an official unveiling, to stop swirling rumors about the system’s potential danger.
Yet despite being cleared for use in Afghanistan and Iraq since 2010, the Active Denial System does not appear to ever have actually been used.
Critics of the ray say it is a cumbersome device – taking too much time to set up and direct towards its target.
Many have also questioned whether extreme pain is a legitimate means of quelling protest, and wondered what happens when it is directed at a target that cannot move in time, for example a protester in a packed crowd. Supporters of the heat ray say it represents an improvement over the truncheons, tear gas and rubber bullets currently used by riot police around the world.
Russia is expected to reveal more new-generation weapons, as Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin presented a military strategy that looks “30-40 years into the future.” The nature of these weapons is unclear, but in his pre-election article President-elect Vladimir Putin said future conflicts “will be won using weapons with new means of delivery, such as ray, geophysical, wave, genetic and psychotronic weapons.
http://aftermathnews.wordpress.com/2012/04/24/russia-tests-its-own-heat-ray-cannon-for-for-combatting-internal-mass-disorder/

Please Do NOT Use Your Cell Phone to Call Me or Email Me


Please Do NOT Use Your Cell Phone to Call Me or Email Me

As all of you know I, like millions around the world suffer from EHS which is caused by radiation from cell phones, antennas, WI-FI and other wireless sources. Because you are using your cell phone I cannot live, work and be in society. Because you use your cell phone I cannot go to a doctor or a hospital or to court to enforce my rights.


Whenever you use your cell phone or even just carry it open you add to the insane radiation in this world that is harming not only people with EHS but everyone including your children. When you use your cell phone more and more and for more applications you are causing the need of more antennas, stronger antennas and antennas that are using higher and higher frequencies. Because of these antennas I can no longer even
drive on the roads and find a place to live. 



Because of these antennas, every day more and more men women and children are getting sick. Every time you are using your cell phone and wireless internet you are causing to the adding of more satellites that provides a cloud of radiation from above and make it impossible for me to escape radiation and pain except maybe if I go underground. Every time you are using your cell phone the cell phone industry is making more money that enables it to pay more politicians fund more false research and pay more PR and media to publish these false research to cheat all of you into falsely believe that ‘the verdict on cell phones is not out and that there is no proof’(I am the proof). 


Every time you use your cell phone, you are giving money to the cell phone industry to pay more lawyers and use legal terrorism to keep government from taking actions and sick people to sue for the damage that cell phones caused. Every time you use your cell phone you support the industry’s efforts to portray me and other EHS as ‘crazy ‘which anyone who knows me knows it is ridiculously untrue. Every time you use your cell phone you are making me physically sick and my life more impossible and inhumane.

There can be no double standards.

So please respect my wish and DO NOT use your cell phone to call me or email me.


--
Dafna Tachover

Worldwide Footage Request: Take Back Your Power



Subscribe to updates ~ Take Back Your Power [feature film] ~ www.ThePowerFilm.org

Feel free to forward this email (without your 'Manage Subcription' bottom link)

PLEASE DISTRIBUTE WIDELY

May 5, 2012

Be part of the film, Take Back Your Power: Worldwide public footage request

As we're currently in post-production, and with a spent budget, we're asking for the help of the worldwide community to gather some final footage.  We want to include a larger montage and have a greater representation around the world of personal stories from those whose lives have been negatively affected by smart meters.

Following an unwanted smart meter installation, have you personally experienced either:
 
  - significantly higher billing,
  - a major health symptom or condition (linked to smart meter) or
  - a fire or other damage ?

Well, here's your opportunity to get your story out, and contribute to the film.  To participate, follow these simple steps:

 
  1. Make a video recording stating your experience.  Here are some guidelines:

    - Use a high-definition video camera if you have access to one - ideally 1080i (at 24p or 24 frames per second).  If you don't have HD, it's ok... but the better quality, the more useful the footage;
    Position the camera so that the bottom of frame is around lower-chest, and top is a few inches above your head;
    Speak and look directly into the camera, telling your experience like you would to a friend;
    Record a maximum of 3 minutes in duration, on your experience, as straightforwardly as you can.  And optionally with 1 minute of additional commentary on your opinion of this forced smart grid agenda of governments and utilities.

     
  2. Upload your video to YouTube.  

    - If you do not yet have a YouTube account, click here to create a Google login, which will be linked to YouTube.
    - Once you have a YouTube account set up, go to the upload page and upload your video.
    - Update the title, description and tags so it describes your content.

     
  3. Email us the YouTube link.

    - Send the URL weblink to us at: footage@thepowerfilm.org
     with the subject line "footage"
    - State your name (first name ok) and location (city, state/region) in the email
    - Please DO NOT email us any attachments :)
    - We will select several clips to include in the film... we will not be able to include all submissions.  In any case, know that your contribution is appreciated!
    - If we do select yours, we will be in touch via email with a standard release form for signing and sending back to us.  This will ask you to verify that the facts as presented are accurate, and that you agree to be in the film.

Please forward and repost this request - we want to see as many YouTubes as we can!

And be sure to sign up to receive a notification of the film's release, at our official website: www.ThePowerFilm.org.

Thank you!
Josh del Sol
Producer, Take Back Your Power


 
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Other key news:

Vermont passes no-fee opt-out on smart meters:


For those in BC:
 
1) NO SMART METERS public rally
May 11, 12 noon to 2 p.m.
Langley Events Centre (Rich Coleman's Office)
7888 - 200th Street, Langley
Park in East Lot and meet on sidewalk beside 200th St.
BRING A PERSONAL LETTER TO DELIVER TO COLEMAN
info to be posted at http://citizensforsafetechnology.org
 
2) COPE 378 (Canadian Office and Professional Employees Union) has taken a strong public stand against smart meters, and is asking for everyone in BC who has had significantly increased BC Hydro bills to contact them.  Info:



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New videos:

 
Hermann Scheer (1944-2010) Hero & Leading Advocate for Solar Energy

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fCfdo6h7l8
Hermann Scheer was almost singlehandedly responsible for the German government passing legislation that guarantees that utilities MUST buy solar/renewable energy generated by homeowners, and at a high rate that benefits the solar investor. And this has been extremely successful: Germany is now purchasing 50% of the world's solar PV panels, establishing it as the worldwide leader in the transition to renewable. Legend.
Courtesy http://democracynow.org



Stop Smart Meters and "Take Back Your Power"  (2 parts)

1/2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wILDTyBPGm0

2/2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fr79uhaaXAc

In this two-part special Culture Guard: Your Health, Kari
Simpson conducts the first of a 2-part interview with Josh del Sol, whose upcoming film "Take Back Your Power" exposes the many insidious aspects of the global Smart Meter grid being illegally -- and dangerously -- foisted upon us.

Courtesy of http://cultureguard.com and http://roadkillradio.com







Vancouver City Council - Unanimous Opt-Out Vote   (6 parts)
 


On May 2, Vancouver City Hall voted unanimously in favour of pushing BC Hydro to provide an option to opt-out of the smart meter program.











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I am greatly inspired by everyone that is part of this growing movement... and it isdefinitely growing!


Warm wishes,
Josh del Sol
Producer, Take Back Your Power