A new study out of India says that cell phone radiation is decimating the world bee population. While this may seem trivial to you, a huge portion of our food supply is dependent on pollination provided by bees. The study suggests that electropollution is killing the bees since these insects have magnetite (the most strongly magnetic mineral in nature) in their bodies which helps them in navigation. The research report, published in the journal Current Science, was authored by Ved Parkash Sharma and Neelima Kumar of Punjab University.

Are Cell Phones Killing Off Bees?

The jury from the scientific community is out on this theory. Tim Lovett, of the British Beekeepers Association, is quoted as saying in the Daily Telegraph newspaper that beehives have been successful in London where cell phone use is high. Vancouver just unveiled two hives atop the east annex of city hall, marking the first official Day of the Honey Bees. It’s part of Mayor Gregor Robertson’s drive to make Vancouver the greenest city on the planet by 2020. Seems like big cities would have more cell phone radiation affecting the bees than rural areas, and yet the bees thrive in those 2 cities.

Honey bees are like the proverbial canaries of the coal mines. Vancouver city beekeeper Christian Duhme, who heads the biology department at St. George’s School, says the health of their colonies is an indication of the overall health of our global food supply. Duhme says our food supply is being seriously compromised by so-called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). The cause of CCD is a combination of things. Duhme pointed out that the destruction of the bees had been blamed on everything from mites to viruses and pesticides. “It’s kind of a perfect storm for these guys,” Duhne says. Duhne doubts the study results from India however, that cell phones are killing off the hives.

Do you think cell phone electropollution is responsible for killing the bees? Is it global warming, (the universal scape goat) that is changing the environment so bees are dying? Are bees this age’s dinosaurs? So what’s your take?

Will cash become totally obsolete? Square, the plastic card reader cell phone attachment, makes it easy for street vendors to accept credit cards. No merchant account is needed for the vendor to accept payment.

Paying for Food on the Street with a Cell Phone?

Square, a product of Twitter Inc. creator Jack Dorsey, uses a little “square” attachment and downloadable software to make the transaction from a Smartphone. The Square plugs into the headphone jack of the iPhone or Android based Smartphone, and then is processed through Square’s secure servers. Apps for Palm Pre and BlackBerry are supposed to be coming in the near future.

After swiping the card through the reader, the buyer signs for the transaction by using finger strokes on the touch screen. The buyer can type in an e-mail address where a digital receipt will be sent. Square charges a fee of 15 cents and 2.75% of the transaction amount to the person processing the credit card. That would amount to 42.5 cents for a $10 purchase.

A version of Square for the iPad is also available. It enables store owners to input and track inventory and handle cash transactions, replacing pricey point-of-sale cash registers and terminals.

“The future has arrived,” tweeted Mayer Hawthorne, a singer and songwriter who used Square to sell his CDs and merchandise while on the road.

While convenient, where is this trend headed? Already you can send money between friends by “bumping phones.” With the app pulled up on both phones involved, the amount of the transaction is input on the payer’s phone. Money changes hands by physically bumping the two phones together. Both of the users must have a PayPal account tied to a bank account or the fees charged will be even higher than Square’s fees.

This certainly does eliminate having to carry a pocket full of change to buy lunch from the hot dog seller. Am I ready to eliminate carrying money? Perhaps not just yet. A concern is that we are giving more control to banks than ever before. There’s something reassuring about cash. What’s your take on it? Feel the need to actually “feel” your money? Like the weight of that money clip in your pocket?

Electromagnetic energy exposure can cause serious health issues. We have all heard the horror stories about electromagnetic energy causing brain tumors and cancer. A large number of trinket devices claim to protect us. Two companies are now taking that need for protection very seriously. Belly Armor and Pong Research are taking a scientific approach to the problem.

Protection from Unseen Radiation Hazards

Belly Armor, out of Singapore and New York, is specializing in blankets and t-shirts that protect developing fetuses from electromagnetic energy. Belly Armor says that in tests conducted by the Shanghai Institute of Measurement and Testing Technology, a Chinese government testing agency, the blankets and shirts blocked between 90 and 99.9 percent of electromagnetic radiation.

Pong Research, based in Los Angeles and Middleburg, Va., has taken a different approach. Pong has come out with patent-pending cell phones cases that effectively redirect about 60% of the dreaded killer energy. Right now these cases are only available for BlackBerry and iPhones, but Pong founder and case inventor, Professor Alfred Wong (UCLA), plans to have models for other phone lines out in the near future.

Does exposure to electromagnetic energy cause cancer? The International Agency for Research on Cancer published a study last week about prolonged exposure to electromagnetic energy. The study proved inconclusive even though it drew on 10 years of data. However, there is enough concern that both California and Maine have called for warning labels on cell phones.

Hype or fact? John Walls, vice president of public affairs for CTIA-The Wireless Association, a wireless communication trade group, says while these new products could theoretically work to protect you, they are unnecessary. “Science has not indicated there is a problem,” Mr. Walls said. “Phones are already emitting radiation below acceptable levels as per the F.C.C. regulations.”

Professor Wong still advocates caution! Wong says that the radiation from a cell phone works much like a microwave, heating molecules of water in the objects. Since we humans are made up of 70% water, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to draw the conclusion that our goose is being cooked! Perhaps we should be paying a bit more attention to the parts of our environment we CAN control, like cell phone usage, computer exposure, microwave ovens themselves.

Ready to buy a new cell phone case? I can hardly wait for the new models to come out from Pong. I doubt I will be using a blanket or t-shirt as protection, but I think pregnant women ought to check it out and make their decisions based on “what might happen” scenarios. Do we trust government studies that tell us products aren’t harmful to us? How’s that been working? Let’s see, cigarettes, arsenic as a pesticide, Thalidomide? These products were reported to be safe for consumers. Now we know differently. I am not so trusting of government studies. How about you?

Weber Shandwick’s US employees donated over 800 cell phones to support Verizon’s HopeLine, a program of support for domestic violence survivors. Verizon’s exclusive program, HopeLine, distributes grants and refurbished phones to survivors of domestic violence.

Cathy Calhoun, president of Weber Shandwick North America, a leading global public relations agency with offices in 76 countries around the world, is proud of her employees’ efforts. “We were inspired by our long-time client Verizon Wireless and its commitment to preventing domestic violence and raising awareness of the issue through HopeLine,” said Cathy Calhoun. “The HopeLine wireless phone drive generated a lot of positive energy in our offices - we have a culture of people who truly value giving back to their communities so it was a great fit for us.”

Since 2001, Verizon Wireless has collected more than 7 million wireless phones. Verizon has either refurbished them or disposed of them in a “green” way to help protect the environment. Of course only a portion of those go to the HopeLine project, but Verizon has my vote for being aware of the problem and dedicated to helping!

If only more Americans were aware of the growing problem of domestic violence, the role they could play to prevent it could be much stronger. Weber Shandwick is a shining example of what a company coming together for a cause can accomplish. Hats off to Weber Shandwick and of course to Verizon for their efforts!

A new technology, Surround Vision, can use your Smartphone to view an image not yet on the main screen of your TV. Imagine being able to see different camera angles of a news cast by just pointing your cell phone. You could see all the shot footage from different cameras that never makes the main screen.

Surround Vision is just out of the box

Surround Vision is intended to work with standard, Internet-connected handheld devices. If you want to see what’s happening to the left or right of the edge of your television screen, you simply point your cell phone in that direction and an image would pop up on the screen of your cell phone. This is all done without affecting what everyone else in the room is seeing on the television screen. You could “tune in” to different camera angles of the same football play from the Super Bowl for an enhanced view of the play.

Santiago Alfaro, a graduate student in the lab of Media Lab research scientist Michael Bove, took the concept of surround sound and came up with surround vision. “If you’re watching TV and you hear a helicopter in your surround sound,” Alfaro says, “wouldn’t it be cool to just turn around and be able to see that helicopter as it goes into the screen?”

Imagine where this technology will take us. I thought IMAX was pretty cool. I can imagine being in a theater with 3 screens around me and surround vision enveloping me. Then take it a step further and make it 3D. Now I’m getting vertigo. We can call it Surround 3D. I had enough trouble with sitting still in the 3D of Avatar. It would definitely be the total experience. Wow! What do you think?

In our gadget driven country, are we no better prepared for disaster than without we were before we had these gadgets? According to Homeland Security, in the event of a tornado or terrorist attack, we are not set up with a better emergency information communications system than before all the cell phones.

US Government wants mandatory TV receivers in cell phones

How can this tech-driven country be in this position? The 3rd world countries like Haiti were only without cells for a short time and had an emergency broadcast texting system in place within 2 days. (See my blog, “Cell Phones in Haiti are key to emergency services.”)

A former NBC News vice president has the “fix.” “This homeland security communications problem can be remedied by a simple requirement from the Federal Communications Commission that all mobile devices include a tiny digital television receiver that would work alongside the current broadband connections,” writes Tom Wolzien. “Since most mobile phones get traded in every two to three years, on average, almost every one of the 280 million mobile subscribers would have the emergency capability in a half decade or less.”

What about the potential of the new Smartphone networks? Wolzien isn’t impressed. “The risk to homeland security… is apparent to anyone who has tried to use a phone—cell or wireline—during a large scale emergency like a hurricane or crisis like 9/11,” he writes. “Because there are intentionally not enough circuits to go around, the system slows or shuts down. Mobile calls don’t connect.” The “worst risk,” Wolzien adds, is for mobile phone users not at home during a crisis. “There is no economic incentive for mobile phone companies to provide emergency capacity to permit all mobile phones or data connections to work at once, even if the bandwidth were available.”

So what to do to prepare for an emergency? Should we have a mobile phone TV tuner mandate? What SHOULD we do for emergency and disaster communications? Is the idea of a mandated TV tuner in cell phones just another way for the cell phone manufacturers to make money? What’s your take on it?

New technology looms in the near future that will enable your cell phone to detect toxic gas and air quality. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, specifically, its Science and Technology Directorate division, wants to create 40 new prototypes of cell phones by the end of the year that would detect airborne toxic chemicals.

Cell Phone to act as canary?

The new technology, dubbed “Cell-All,” would use a small chip embedded in the phone that would detect toxic chemicals in the air while a user goes about his or her normal activities. (This reminds me of the miners taking a canary into the mines to detect toxic gases inside.) Depending upon what it detects, the cell phone user would get an alert of some kind like a buzz or vibration to tell them to get the hell out of Dodge. The phone would also send an alert using the GPS system to a centralized service to report its findings. The reporting center would then tabulate all the reports from the area before calling in the National Guard, eliminating false panic and mayhem.

Qualcomm, NASA, and Rhevision Technology are working together to test the principal. Homeland Security’s Science and Technology arm is actively engaging the “big four” cell phone manufacturers, Qualcomm, LG, Apple, and Samsung with research and development agreements for the new technology.

It may still take years to get the technology out to public release. Thank goodness. Is anyone but me concerned with having a cell phone tied into a centralized reporting center at all times? I am more than a bit concerned about Big Brother and his long arms…

What about you? Is your fear of toxic chemical attack greater than the fear of Big Brother?

Microsoft has entered the phone market! The new phones, Kin One and Kin Two will hit the US market in May through Verizon, and through carrier Vodafone Group PLC (which owns Verizon Wireless in partnership with Verizon Communications Inc.), in Germany, Italy, Spain and The United Kingdom later this fall. Microsoft did not mention a release date for Canada.

Microsoft unveiled two new Smartphones on Monday

At a press event in San Francisco on Monday, Microsoft’s Robbie Bach and Derek Snyder unveiled the Kin mobile phones. Based on the Windows 7 operating system, the new Smartphones will have extensive social networking built in and will also be able to access the Zune music service. There are some other cool features. Both Kins are black with screens that respond to multiple finger gestures, similar to the “multitouch” technology on the iPhone. The shorter Kin One has a full QWERTY keyboard that slides out from the bottom, while the Kin Two has a full QWERTY keyboard that comes out from its side. Both include Wi-Fi access and cameras capable of taking higher-resolution photos than most handsets. The Kin One will include a 5-megapixel camera, while the Kin Two will have an 8-megapixel camera. The Kin Two will also be capable of shooting HD-quality video.

The Kin handsets will not be obviously branded as Microsoft products. They will sport a sizable “Kin” logo on the back and, in smaller type, an indication that they are Windows phones from Verizon and Sharp. Another thing to be wary of is that the Kin devices won’t allow you to download add-on software applications. You will be stuck with whatever Microsoft deems necessary.

Am I rushing out to buy one? Not likely. I am more interested in the Droid technology. But for teenagers and those totally addicted to social media networking, these Kin phones may be an affordable way to go. Of course Verizon’s subscriber service will be very costly since in addition to the unlimited talk and text access ($89.95 per month), you will need to subscribe to their $29.95 per month data subscription. This can run about $120 per month, so parents beware! Without the unlimited subscription service, most teens will “overshoot” their monthly plans, costing even more.

So what about you? Ready to become a Kin user?

A 50 year old man from Washington State strapped a cell phone to his chest. His wife came home and found him passed out drunk with the phone taped to his chest and called 911. Thinking it was a cell phone bomb, the police responded with a bomb squad and evacuated the mobile home park.

Bomb? Man Tapes Cell Phone to Chest

Robert Dix told police that everyone had over-reacted. He had been drinking some vodka and was afraid he would lose his phone. He decided with his drunken wisdom to tape it to his chest before he passed out to keep track of it.

Dix was not arrested, but was taken to the hospital and admitted for psychiatric observation. Admittedly, this was a bizarre thing to do, but not so much from being crazy as from being in a drunken stupor.

Was Dix charged for the police call and bomb squad? Here in California they would have sent him a whopping bill! Personally I find the whole thing rather amusing, but I have to ask, “What was his wife thinking? Did he have a history of suicidal behavior?” I think perhaps sobering him up was a mistake. She should have taken advantage of his drunken sleep, bundled him up and kicked him to the curb.

Can YOU imagine being married to him?

]]> http://www.cellplaza.org/blog/1469/bomb-man-tapes-cell-phone-to-chest/feed/ http://www.cellplaza.org/blog/1395/your-cell-phone-may-make-you-sterile/ http://www.cellplaza.org/blog/1395/your-cell-phone-may-make-you-sterile/#comments Mon, 08 Mar 2010 19:53:37 +0000 MobileMaiden http://www.cellplaza.org/?p=1395

photo credit: Cell Phone Causes Sterility

Carrying your cell phone in your pocket is like carrying around a mini-microwave. GQ Magazine posted a story that research shows carrying your cell phone in your pocket may make you sterile. Does this mean we have the answer to overpopulation?

Your Cell Phone May Make You Sterile

I had heard that cell phones may cause brain cancer, but not sterility. Is there a chance that carrying the cell phone in the pocket will cause ovarian cancer or testicular cancer? Just what do we know about the effect of microwave radiation? The US military is developing microwave weapons. Should we be concerned?

Europe has been historically more cautious about cell phone radiation warnings. While European countries seem to be more cautious, the US has more stringent standards for cell phones. The U.S. and Canada allow a maximum SAR level of 1.6 watts per kilogram, while Europe caps it at 2 watts per kilogram. Does this make you feel safer living in the US?

US studies of cell phone radiation linked to sterility won’t be out for another couple of years. Perhaps you should think about carrying your cell phone somewhere besides your pocket. Use a Bluetooth device when calling. Take precautions in case this really can cause sterility.

You’ve been warned! At least they are still talking about sterility and not virility…