Hassaan Mackey X Herbie Hancock X iSHE’
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Is Wi-Fi frying our brains? Fears that cloud of 'electrosmog' could be harming humans
As winter arrives with a vengeance, the last of this year’s glorious autumn leaves are falling in our parks and woodlands.
But this week came worrying evidence that Mother Nature is not the only force denuding our trees of their foliage.
Research
in the Netherlands suggested that outbreaks of bleeding bark and dying
leaves which have blighted the country’s urban trees may be caused by
radiation from the Wi-Fi networks now so integral to life in offices,
schools and homes.
As a qualified electronics engineer, I am not surprised by such
findings. I have long been concerned about the harmful effects of the
electro-magnetic radiation emitted not only by Wi-Fi devices but many
other common modern gadgets, including mobile and cordless phones,
wireless games consoles and microwave ovens.
Much though I love trees, and worrying though I find this research,
what really unnerves me is the effect these electro-magnetic fields (or
EMFs) are having on humans, surrounding us as they do with a constant
cloud of ‘electrosmog’.
I am no Luddite. When I started work
in the 1960s, I was involved in building walkie-talkies. I thought they
were just brilliant and that electronic technology would save the world.
But over the decades since, my scientific background has made it
impossible for me to ignore the overwhelming evidence about the damage
wreaked by this electrosmog.
It is not the existence of these radio waves that is the problem so
much as the use we make of them. Rather than being emitted at a constant
rate, technology demands they are ‘pulsed’ in short and frequent bursts
which appear to be far more biologically harmful.
Not the least is their impact on our ability to reproduce. It is well documented that average male sperm counts are falling by two per cent a year. Many causes have been suggested, from stressful lifestyles to poor diet and hormones in our water supplies.
But studies in infertility clinics show problems with sperm dying off or not moving properly are most common in men who use mobiles extensively. This has also been demonstrated in the laboratory.
Mobiles are not the only problem. Many laptops are now equipped with Wi-Fi which sends out pulses every second as it maintains contact with the nearest access point. Young men with these devices on their laps are submitting their testicles to strong EMFs at close range, oblivious to the damage they may be doing to their chances of future fatherhood.
EMFS have also been shown to affect the brain, suppressing production of melatonin, the hormone controlling whether we feel happy or sad. In 2004, researchers at the University of Malaga found that significant exposure to EMFs increases the chances of developing depression 40-fold.
They also linked electrosmog to headaches, irritability, unusual tiredness and sleeping disorders.
This has been confirmed in research by the respected Karolinska Institute in Sweden. Sponsored by the leading mobile phone companies, it showed that using handsets just before going to bed caused people to take longer to reach deeper stages of sleep. They also spent less time in each of these stages, so interfering with the body’s ability to repair damage suffered during the day.
This is particularly alarming given the tendency for teenagers and
children to sleep with their mobile phones under the pillows so that
they can answer late-night texts from friends.
Parents who allow their children to do so may be taking a significant gamble with their health.
This year saw the publication of the Interphone study carried out in 13 countries including the UK, and examining the links between mobile phone use and brain tumours. It suggested that those who had made heavy use of mobiles for a decade or more faced twice the risk of glioma, the most common type of brain tumour.
And this was a study based on the period between 1994 and 2004 when ‘heavy’ usage was defined as two to three hours per month. A conservative estimate of average mobile phone use now is approximately half an hour a day, seven days a week.
Since brain tumours often develop very slowly it may be many years before the full impact of our reliance on mobiles becomes clear. But they are already implicated in another area of concern to health professionals, the onset of dementia in those under 65.
Experts are at a loss to explain the increase in this condition which has seen a surge in demand for pre-senile dementia units across the country. But can we really be surprised when a study at the Institute of Environmental Medicine in Sweden confirmed this month that exposure to EMFs significantly accelerates brain degeneration?
The risks posed by EMFs are recognised not only by scientists, but
hard-headed commercial organisations. In 1997, the insurance company
Swiss-Re identified EMFs as likely to cause the biggest increase in
claims in years to come. Swiss-Re and other insurers have therefore
refused to indemnify the mobile phone operators against health claims
from their customers.
Even so, we should not hold out much hope of our politicians protecting us from EMFs. The mobile phone industry in the UK contributes around £20 billion in tax every year, so it’s hardly likely the Government will take action to reduce the number of calls.
Indeed, it seems to be going in almost the opposite direction, encouraging the installation of Wi-Fi networks in our schools with tactics which sometimes verge on coercion. I’ve been told about a school which was threatened that it would receive no further government funding for computer technology if it did not install Wi-Fi.
In the absence of official intervention, it’s down to all of us to
protect ourselves. My aim as a campaigner is not to scare people but
inform them about the risks, so they can choose to take precautions.
Not everyone will want to follow my example. Because of our concerns about electrosmog, my wife and I have moved to a cottage in Scotland out of range of any mobile phone network.
But there are small steps which we can all take. We should all try to use hands-free sets. And women should stop carrying mobiles in their bras (breast tissue being particularly susceptible to mobile phone microwaves), a trend which is becoming alarmingly fashionable.
We should also avoid cordless phones. Their base stations transmit 100 pulses a second, 24/7, even if you’re not using the phone, and at power levels equivalent to having a small mobile phone mast in your home.
You might also consider whether you really need wireless internet access in your home. One option is to buy dLAN adaptors which transmit the internet signal around the house by way of your ordinary electrical wiring.
Such changes will require small adjustments to our modern lifestyles. But until the evidence against EMFs is proven or disproven, these are surely sacrifices well worth making.
Not the least is their impact on our ability to reproduce. It is well documented that average male sperm counts are falling by two per cent a year. Many causes have been suggested, from stressful lifestyles to poor diet and hormones in our water supplies.
But studies in infertility clinics show problems with sperm dying off or not moving properly are most common in men who use mobiles extensively. This has also been demonstrated in the laboratory.
Mobiles are not the only problem. Many laptops are now equipped with Wi-Fi which sends out pulses every second as it maintains contact with the nearest access point. Young men with these devices on their laps are submitting their testicles to strong EMFs at close range, oblivious to the damage they may be doing to their chances of future fatherhood.
EMFS have also been shown to affect the brain, suppressing production of melatonin, the hormone controlling whether we feel happy or sad. In 2004, researchers at the University of Malaga found that significant exposure to EMFs increases the chances of developing depression 40-fold.
They also linked electrosmog to headaches, irritability, unusual tiredness and sleeping disorders.
This has been confirmed in research by the respected Karolinska Institute in Sweden. Sponsored by the leading mobile phone companies, it showed that using handsets just before going to bed caused people to take longer to reach deeper stages of sleep. They also spent less time in each of these stages, so interfering with the body’s ability to repair damage suffered during the day.
iPad: Apple's tablet is one of a growing number of devices that connects to the internet via Wi-Fi
Parents who allow their children to do so may be taking a significant gamble with their health.
This year saw the publication of the Interphone study carried out in 13 countries including the UK, and examining the links between mobile phone use and brain tumours. It suggested that those who had made heavy use of mobiles for a decade or more faced twice the risk of glioma, the most common type of brain tumour.
And this was a study based on the period between 1994 and 2004 when ‘heavy’ usage was defined as two to three hours per month. A conservative estimate of average mobile phone use now is approximately half an hour a day, seven days a week.
Since brain tumours often develop very slowly it may be many years before the full impact of our reliance on mobiles becomes clear. But they are already implicated in another area of concern to health professionals, the onset of dementia in those under 65.
Experts are at a loss to explain the increase in this condition which has seen a surge in demand for pre-senile dementia units across the country. But can we really be surprised when a study at the Institute of Environmental Medicine in Sweden confirmed this month that exposure to EMFs significantly accelerates brain degeneration?
Trees: Outbreaks of bleeding bark and dying leaves may have been caused by radiation from Wi-Fi networks research suggests
Even so, we should not hold out much hope of our politicians protecting us from EMFs. The mobile phone industry in the UK contributes around £20 billion in tax every year, so it’s hardly likely the Government will take action to reduce the number of calls.
Indeed, it seems to be going in almost the opposite direction, encouraging the installation of Wi-Fi networks in our schools with tactics which sometimes verge on coercion. I’ve been told about a school which was threatened that it would receive no further government funding for computer technology if it did not install Wi-Fi.
Always on: Green Orb symbol for Wi-Fi
Not everyone will want to follow my example. Because of our concerns about electrosmog, my wife and I have moved to a cottage in Scotland out of range of any mobile phone network.
But there are small steps which we can all take. We should all try to use hands-free sets. And women should stop carrying mobiles in their bras (breast tissue being particularly susceptible to mobile phone microwaves), a trend which is becoming alarmingly fashionable.
We should also avoid cordless phones. Their base stations transmit 100 pulses a second, 24/7, even if you’re not using the phone, and at power levels equivalent to having a small mobile phone mast in your home.
You might also consider whether you really need wireless internet access in your home. One option is to buy dLAN adaptors which transmit the internet signal around the house by way of your ordinary electrical wiring.
Such changes will require small adjustments to our modern lifestyles. But until the evidence against EMFs is proven or disproven, these are surely sacrifices well worth making.
Walnut Trees May Not Be Able to Withstand Climate Change
ScienceDaily (Nov. 29, 2011) — Warmer, drier summers and extreme weather events considered possible as the climate changes would be especially troublesome -- possibly fatal -- for walnut trees, according to research at Purdue University.
Over five years, Douglass Jacobs, a professor of forestry and natural resources, and Martin-Michel Gauthier, a former doctoral student under Jacobs who is now a research scientist in the Ministry of Natural Resources in Quebec, studied the physiology of walnut trees, which are economically significant in Indiana for their lumber and veneer, and in other areas for their nuts. They found that the trees are especially sensitive to particular climates.
"Walnut is really restricted to sites not too wet or dry. It has an extremely narrow range," said Jacobs, whose findings were published in the December issue of Annals of Forest Science. "We suspect and predict that climate change is going to have a real impact on walnuts. We may see some type of decline of the species."
Specifically, walnuts would have difficulty tolerating droughts that could be associated with a changing climate.
"Changes in moisture could restrict its ability to survive without irrigation," Jacobs said. "Almost all climate change models predict that climates will become drier."
Walnuts are also sensitive to cold, so much so that they have developed a defense mechanism against late frosts. Jacobs said walnut trees don't begin sprouting leaves until almost a month after other trees in the spring.
That defense mechanism could be compromised by extreme weather events associated with climate change scenarios. Late spring frosts after walnuts have developed leaves could kill trees.
"That, on top of the increase in temperatures, would be a problem for walnut," Gauthier said. "The trees would basically shut down."
In California, more than 500,000 tons of walnuts were sold for more than $1 billion in 2010, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
In Indiana, black walnuts are prized for their wood. Charles Michler, project leader of Purdue's Hardwood Tree Improvement and Regeneration Center, said walnuts accounted for as much as 15 percent of the logs sold in Indiana at a value of about $11 million.
"Walnut is probably the most important species in the hardwood products industry today," Michler said.
The center has a walnut breeding program that is attempting to identify trees that can be used in different climates, he said.
One goal is to find walnuts that may be able to stand up to the heat or cold stresses that trees could be subject to in a changing climate. The center is looking at seeds that come from mature trees to see if the seeds have attained defense mechanisms against changes already seen in climate.
"That could be the strategy that trees have," Michler said. "The trees that are mature now may be affected by climate change, but the seeds they produce may be adapting through genetic changes."
Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Purdue University. The original article was written by Brian Wallheimer.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- Martin-Michel Gauthier, Douglass F. Jacobs. Walnut (Juglans spp.) ecophysiology in response to environmental stresses and potential acclimation to climate change. Annals of Forest Science, 2011; 68 (8): 1277 DOI: 10.1007/s13595-011-0135-6
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Monday, November 28, 2011
Monday, November 21, 2011
Friday, November 18, 2011
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Monday, November 14, 2011
Insights>>>>>> Why food loses its flavor when you have a cold?
INSIGHTS
Have you ever wondered why food loses its flavor when you have a cold? It’s not your taste buds’ fault. Blame your stuffed-up nose. Seventy to seventy-five percent of what we perceive as taste actually comes from our sense of smell. Taste buds allow us to perceive only bitter, salty, sweet, and sour flavors. It’s the odor molecules from food that give us most of our taste sensation.
When you put food in your mouth, odor molecules from that food travel through the passage between your nose and mouth to olfactory receptor cells at the top of your nasal cavity, just beneath the brain and behind the bridge of the nose. If mucus in your nasal passages becomes too thick, air and odor molecules can’t reach your olfactory receptor cells. Thus, your brain receives no signal identifying the odor, and everything you eat tastes much the same. You can feel the texture and temperature of the food, but no messengers can tell your brain, “This cool, milky substance is chocolate ice cream.” The odor molecules remain trapped in your mouth. The pathway has been blocked off to those powerful perceivers of smell--the olfactory bulbs.
Of all our senses, smell is our most primal. Animals need the sense of smell to survive. Although a blind rat might survive, a rat without its sense of smell can’t mate or find food. For humans, the sense of smell communicates many of the pleasures in life--the aroma of a pot roast in the oven, fresh-cut hay, a rose garden. Smells can also signal danger, fear, or dread.
Although our sense of smell is our most primal, it is also very complex. To identify the smell of a rose, the brain analyzes over 300 odor molecules. The average person can discriminate between 4,000 to 10,000 different odor molecules. Much is unknown about exactly how we detect and discriminate between various odors. But researchers have discovered that an odor can only be detected in liquid form. We breathe in airborne molecules that travel to and combine with receptors in nasal cells. The cilia, hairlike receptors that extend from cells inside the nose, are covered with a thin, clear mucus that dissolves odor molecules not already in vapor form. When the mucus becomes too thick, it can no longer dissolve the molecules.
Animals depend on odors secreted from their bodies to communicate. For humans, odors communicate a variety of messages, depending on the odor and the person receiving it. The aroma of a baking apple pie sends one message when someone is hungry and quite another when that person has just finished a six-course meal!
CONNECTIONS
1. You cannot smell food very well when you have a cold, but why is taste bland or even absent?
2. Think of some smells you like. When might those smells be unpleasant to you?
3. Have you ever smelled natural gas? Why do you think gas utility companies give it an unpleasant odor?
4. In what ways are odors like language?
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Sokushinbutsu - Buddhist ritualistic self-mummification
Sokushinbutsu - Buddhist ritualistic self-mummification
For 1,000 days (a little less than three years) the priests would eat a special diet consisting only of nuts and seeds, while taking part in a regimen of rigorous physical activity that stripped them of their body fat. They then ate only bark and roots for another thousand days and began drinking a poisonous tea made from the sap of the Urushi tree, normally used to lacquer bowls. This caused vomiting and a rapid loss of bodily fluids, and most importantly, it made the body too poisonous to be eaten by maggots. Finally, a self-mummifying monk would lock himself in a stone tomb barely larger than his body, where he would not move from the lotus position. His only connection to the outside world was an air tube and a bell. Each day he rang a bell to let those outside know that he was still alive.
Friday, November 11, 2011
Optics 101010101010101010101010111111111
If you stare at the
plus sign long enough, the image around it will disappear. Go on.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
New Museo:::::::::Tuesday Roundup◥◥◥◥◥◥◥◥◥◥◥◥◥◥◥◥◥◥◥◥◥◥◥◥◥◥◥◥◥◥◥◥◥◥◥◥◥◥◥◥◥◥◥◥◥◥
the cornel west theory - "Natacao Em Linguas"
the cornel west theory - "Natacao Em Linguas"
filmed 11/2/11 at Bloombars
projections : john wesley moon
light : tim hicks
dancers : lavonne, vaunita, katrina lorraine starr
shot & edited by sam lavine
directed by the cornel west theory
"Natacao em Linguas" appears on the album
"The Shape of Hip-Hop to Come"
available NOW online @ iTunes, amazon and Bandcamp
filmed 11/2/11 at Bloombars
projections : john wesley moon
light : tim hicks
dancers : lavonne, vaunita, katrina lorraine starr
shot & edited by sam lavine
directed by the cornel west theory
"Natacao em Linguas" appears on the album
"The Shape of Hip-Hop to Come"
available NOW online @ iTunes, amazon and Bandcamp
Switch ft Andrea Martin - Still Love You
1. Pete Rock & Marley Marl – Intro
2. Car Horn (prod by The 45 King)
3. Funk Shit (prod by Marley Marl)
4. Resurrection (Original Mix, Extra P Mix & Large Pro Mix)
5. The Bizness feat. De La Soul
6. State To State feat. No I.D.
7. One Too Many
8. The 6th Sense (prod by DJ Premier)
9. Interlude #1
10. Respiration feat. Mos Def & Talib Kweli
11. Don Randi – The Fox
12. Sweet Blindness – Ain’t No Use
13. 1-9-9-9 feat. Sadat X (prod by Hi Tek)
14. Uni-Verse at War feat. The Roots
15. Play Dis (Original Mix) feat. Saukrates
16. Interlude #2
17. I Used to Love Her
18. Bitch In You
19. Take It Ez
20. Soul by the Pound
21. Would You Like to Ride f. Kanye West
22. Def Poetry Jam Freestyle
23. Food feat. Kanye West
24. The Light Remix f. Erykah Badu
25. Interlude #3
26. Come Close Remix feat. Q-Tip, Pharrell & Eryah Badu (prod by J Dilla)
27. Star *69 feat. Prince & Bilal
2. Car Horn (prod by The 45 King)
3. Funk Shit (prod by Marley Marl)
4. Resurrection (Original Mix, Extra P Mix & Large Pro Mix)
5. The Bizness feat. De La Soul
6. State To State feat. No I.D.
7. One Too Many
8. The 6th Sense (prod by DJ Premier)
9. Interlude #1
10. Respiration feat. Mos Def & Talib Kweli
11. Don Randi – The Fox
12. Sweet Blindness – Ain’t No Use
13. 1-9-9-9 feat. Sadat X (prod by Hi Tek)
14. Uni-Verse at War feat. The Roots
15. Play Dis (Original Mix) feat. Saukrates
16. Interlude #2
17. I Used to Love Her
18. Bitch In You
19. Take It Ez
20. Soul by the Pound
21. Would You Like to Ride f. Kanye West
22. Def Poetry Jam Freestyle
23. Food feat. Kanye West
24. The Light Remix f. Erykah Badu
25. Interlude #3
26. Come Close Remix feat. Q-Tip, Pharrell & Eryah Badu (prod by J Dilla)
27. Star *69 feat. Prince & Bilal
“Music is ... A higher revelation than all Wisdom & Philosophy”
Monday, November 7, 2011
◥◥Tropical Forests Fertilized by Nitrogen Air Pollution, Scientists Find
"Air pollution is fertilizing tropical forests with one of the most important nutrients for growth," said S. Joseph Wright, staff scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. "We compared nitrogen in leaves from dried specimens collected in 1968 with nitrogen in samples of new leaves collected in 2007. Leaf nitrogen concentration and the proportion of heavy to light nitrogen isotopes increased in the last 40 years, just as they did in another experiment when we applied fertilizer to the forest floor."
Nitrogen is an element created in stars under high temperatures and pressures. Under normal conditions, it is a colorless, odorless gas that does not readily react with other substances. Air consists of more than 75% nitrogen. But nitrogen also plays a big role in life as an essential component of proteins. When nitrogen gas is zapped by lightning, or absorbed by soil bacteria called "nitrogen fixers," it is converted into other "active" forms that can be used by animals and plants. Humans fix nitrogen by the Haber process, which converts nitrogen gas into ammonia -- now a principal ingredient in fertilizers. Today, nitrogen fixation by humans has approximately doubled the amount of reactive nitrogen emitted.
Nitrogen comes in two forms or isotopes: atoms that have the same number of protons but different numbers of neutrons. In the case of nitrogen, the isotopes are 14N and 15N, although only about one in 300 nitrogen atoms is the heavier form. Imagine nitrogen in the ecosystem like a bowl of popcorn. Normally the ratio of popped (light) to unpopped (heavy) kernels stays the same, but when someone starts to eat the popcorn, the lighter, popped kernels get used up first, increasing the ratio of heavy to light kernels (or 15N/14N in the case of the ecosystem). Light nitrogen is lost through nitrate leaching and as gases such as N2, and various forms of nitrous oxides or "noxides," some of which can be important greenhouse gases. In the fertilization study in Panama, mentioned earlier, N2O emissions were tripled.
"Tree rings provide a handy timeline for measuring changes in wood nitrogen content," said Peter Hietz from the Institute of Botany at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna, who faced down a tiger when sampling trees in a monsoon forest on the Thailand-Myanmar border. "We find that over the last century, there's an increase in the heavier form of nitrogen over the lighter form, which tells us that there is more nitrogen going into this system and higher losses. We also got the same result in an earlier study of tree rings in Brazilian rainforests, so it looks like nitrogen fixed by humans now affects some of the most remote areas in the world."
"The results have a number of important implications," said Ben Turner, staff scientist at STRI. "The most obvious is for trees in the bean family (Fabaceae), a major group in tropical forests that fix their own nitrogen in association with soil bacteria. Increased nitrogen from outside could take away their competitive advantage and make them less common, changing the composition of tree communities."
"There are also implications for global change models, which are beginning to include nitrogen availability as a factor affecting the response of plants to increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations," said Turner. "Most models assume that higher nitrogen equals more plant growth, which would remove carbon from the atmosphere and offset future warming. However a challenge for the models is that there is no evidence that trees are growing faster in Panama, despite the long-term increases in nitrogen deposition and atmospheric carbon dioxide."
Decades of atmospheric nitrogen deposition have caused major changes in the plants and soils of temperate forests in the U.S. and Europe. Whether tropical forests will face similar consequences is an important question for future research.
Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- P. Hietz, B. L. Turner, W. Wanek, A. Richter, C. A. Nock, S. J. Wright. Long-Term Change in the Nitrogen Cycle of Tropical Forests. Science, 2011; 334 (6056): 664 DOI: 10.1126/science.1211979
Exclusive Coggles Street Style Film⊿◤◥ △
The fashion boutique and filmmaker Terry Hall here exclusively launch their sartorial portrait of Saint Martins student Olubiyi◤
Sunday, November 6, 2011
▲STYLELIKEU...Connected To The Things That We ▲▲Buy▲▲
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
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