LA house-to-share available with very low EMF

Very low EMF roommate/house-to-share situation available in LA.

No WIFI (household uses wired Ethernet connections only)

No smart meter on house

No smart appliances in house
No Bluetooth
No use of smart devices/phones, cell phones inside house

No cordless phones (encourage use of VOIP with corded phone)

Most of the house is shielded with Faraday cage to block external RF

For further detailed information, please check out my Craigslist ad: https://losangeles.craigslist.org/lac/roo/d/glendale-roommate-wanted-for-beautiful/6938389951.html

No, 5G Still Won't Give You Cancer

And the medical establishment now chimes in to back up the New York Slimes...

The Week That Wasn't: 5G Scare, Brain Hacks, Artificial Kidney

Dana Najjar

The fifth and latest generation of wireless mobile technology is coming. 5G carriers around the country are beginning to roll out faster, more efficient, and more expansive coverage. But not everyone's thrilled about it.

Since the advent of wireless technology, fears that high-frequency electromagnetic radiation could be dangerous to humans have been on the rise, despite the lack of evidence to back them up. "There have been thousands of studies on bioeffects of cell-band frequencies, and health agencies have not concluded that any hazard exists below current exposure limits," Kenneth Foster, PhD, professor of bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania, wrote to Medscape in an email.

Alarmingly, some physicians have also taken up the rallying cry against 5G. A petition addressed to the United Nations and signed by over 100,000 scientists worldwide, including doctors, urgently calls for "a halt to the deployment of the 5G (fifth generation) wireless network." Another group of 250 scientists and doctors submitted a petition to the World Health Organization decrying the dangers of non-ionizing radiation.

Despite these dissenters, there is a firm consensus in the larger scientific community. We decided not to cover these concerns about the ongoing rollout of 5G. Several other outlets did, including the New York Times and the BBC, reassuring their readers that they had nothing to worry about. So if your patients voice any concerns, it might be a good idea to direct them there.

Source

Smartphones, tablets causing mental health issues in kids as young as two

Children as young as two are developing mental health problems because of smartphones and tablets, scientists warn.

Just an hour a day staring at a screen can be enough to make children more likely to be anxious or depressed.

This could be making them less curious, less able to finish tasks, less emotionally stable and lowering their self-control, the DailyMail reports.

Although teenagers are most at risk from the damaging devices, children under the age of 10 and toddlers' still-developing brains are also being affected.

But research shows 'zombie' children spend nearly five hours every day gawping at electronic devices.

Researchers from San Diego State University and the University of Georgia say time spent on smartphones is a serious but avoidable cause of mental health issues.

"Half of mental health problems develop by adolescence," professors Jean Twenge and Keith Campbell said. "There is a need to identify factors linked to mental health issues that are [able to be changed] in this population, as most are difficult or impossible to influence. How children and adolescents spend their leisure time is [easier] to change."

Parents and teachers must cut the amount of time children spend online or watching television while they're studying, socialising, eating or even playing sport.

Professor Twenge said her study, one of the biggest of its kind, backs the American Academy of Pediatrics' established screen time limit – one hour per day for children aged two to five.

It also suggests a similar limit – perhaps two hours – should be applied to school-aged children and adolescents, she added.

The researchers analysed data provided by the parents of more than 40,000 US children aged two to 17 for a nationwide health survey in 2016. The questionnaire asked about the youngsters' medical care, any emotional, developmental or behavioural issues and their daily screen time.

Adolescents spending more than seven hours a day on screens are twice as likely to have been diagnosed with anxiety or depression as those who spent an hour. Links between screen time and wellbeing are stronger among adolescents than young children, the study found.

Professor Twenge said: "At first, I was surprised the associations were larger for adolescents. However, teens spend more time on their phones and on social media, and we know from other research that these activities are more strongly linked to low wellbeing than watching television and videos, which is most of younger children's screen time."

Even moderate use of four hours is also associated with lower psychological well-being than one hour a day.

Pre-schoolers, or under fives, who are high users are twice as likely to often lose their temper – and are 46 per cent more prone to not be able to calm down when excited.

Among 14 to 17 year olds, more than four in ten (42.2 per cent) of those in the study who spent more than seven hours a day on screens did not finish tasks.

About one in eleven (9 per cent) of 11 to 13-year-olds who spent an hour with screens daily were not curious or interested in learning new things.

Writing in the journal Preventative Medicine Reports, the professors said they were particularly interested in links between screen time and diagnoses of anxiety and depression in youngsters, which have not yet been studied in great detail.

They said: "Previous research on associations between screen time and psychological well being among children and adolescents has been conflicting, leading some researchers to question the limits on screen time suggested by physician organisations."

The US National Institute of Health estimates children and adolescents commonly spend an average of five to seven hours on screens during leisure time. Evidence is growing of the adverse effects this has on health.

This year the World Health Organisation decided to include gaming disorder in the 11th revision of the International Classification of Diseases.

And in December 2017 a team of Oxford University researchers found UK 'zombie' children's average daily screen time has leapt in a generation from just under three hours to four hours and 45 minutes.

Experts warn 'addicted' children risk sleeplessness, obesity and falling victim to cyber-bullying, while losing valuable social skills through a lack of face-to-face contact.

Source

1,300 Popular Android Apps Access Data Without Proper Permissions

Study finds Android apps circumvented privacy opt-in rules and collected sensitive user information against user permission.

Over 1,300 popular Android apps defy user permissions and gather sensitive data with no consent, according to a study by a coalition of academics from the International Computer Science Institute.

The report examined popular mobile apps available through the U.S. version of the Google Play store, including apps published by Disney, Samsung and niche app-makers such as the popular photo app  Shutterfly. What researchers found was that many of the apps extracted sensitive user information – including current geolocation data, historical geolocation data and MAC addresses – without consent.

In one example of how the circumvention takes place, researchers cited Shutterfly. Despite a user not giving the app permission to access private user information, Shutterfly collects GPS data using exchangeable image file format (EXIF) metadata from user images, researchers said.

“We observed that the Shutterfy app sends precise geolocation data to its own server without holding a location permission,” researchers wrote. Shutterfly gleans precise phone location data from the EXIF data generated by each image, which embeds the GPS coordinates in each image taken. “The app actually processed the image file: it parsed the EXIF metadata—including location—into a JSON object with labeled latitude and longitude fields and transmitted it their servers.”

What Shutterstock has in common with the other apps singled out by researchers is that they all use the same software developer kit (SDK) made by the China-based Baidu, with help from an analytics firm called Salmonads.

Researchers explain the SDK is used by all 1,300 apps it analyzed, so each share the same underlying framework. Where things become problematic is when, for example, the framework is shared between two apps. One app restricts access to location data and the other is allowed to share it. Researchers say the SDK sometimes sidesteps restrictive permissions of one app and adopts the rules of the other app that shares user data.

In this way, an app doesn’t have to get Android device-level permission to access geolocation data. The app can take advantage of the shared SDK framework and collect geolocation data from another app that does have location permissions, instead.

“Our work shows a number of side and covert channels that are being used by apps to circumvent the Android permissions system,” the researchers wrote. “The number of potential users impacted by these findings is in the hundreds of millions.”

Researchers said this practice defies users’ reasonable expectations of privacy and that the behaviors may constitute violations of various laws.

That said, researchers do not believe Shutterfly had any malicious intent; an assertion shared by the company in a statement.

“Like many photo services, Shutterfly uses this data to enhance the user experience with features such as categorization and personalized product suggestions, all in accordance with Shutterfly’s privacy policy as well as the Android developer agreement,” the company stated. A Shutterfly spokesperson added in a statement that its app only collects personal information with a user’s explicit permission.

However, researchers note the side effect of this type of inadvertent data collection might not always be innocent.

Researchers describe two ways data can be share without consent. One is via a “side channel” where data is inadvertently do to a flaw in design that accidentally leaks data. The second is “covert channels”.

“A covert channel is a more deliberate and intentional effort between two cooperating entities so that one with access to some data provides it to the other entity without access to the data in violation of the security mechanism,” researchers wrote.

The study was released Monday (PDF) by the Federal Trade Commission as a follow-on to its PrivacyCon 2019 confab last month. The study examined 88,113 popular apps from the U.S. Google Play store, and found that 1,300 of the apps and third-party libraries that employ side channels or “covert channels” to circumvent Android’s security measures. In all cases, apps could access the location data and MAC address of users’ devices.

Researchers contacted Google and the FTC in September after its’ final analysis. Google said its Android Q, expected to released later this year, will address this type of permission abuse.

Source

Save Your Child's Brain Part I: The Toxic Effects of Video Games and other Electronic Screens

We are fortunate to have as a guest blogger, Victoria Dunckley, MD, who has done ground-breaking work on helping families in de-toxing children, especially sensitive ones, from technological overstimulation. Author of the book “Reset Your Childs’ Brain, A Four-Week Plan to End Meltdowns, Raise Grades, and Boost Social Skills by Reversing the Effects of Electronic Screen-Time, “she has identified the formal diagnosis “Effects of Electronic Screen Time,” or EEST. She has developed a four-part mini-course for parents and teachers entitled, “Save Your Child’s Brain.”. We will post all four parts on our blog, with thanks to Dr. Dunckley.   

The Agony and Confusion of “What’s Wrong with my Child?”

Many parents come to me and ask: Is this normal? Is my child misdiagnosed? Who do I believe when professionals are giving me different answers? Is there something in my child's environment I can change before resorting to psychotropic medication?  

Some parents haven't noticed a problem but a teacher is concerned.  Other times the child is doing okay in school but is alienating his friends.  And still, other times a child who had previously had no problems at all starts falling apart, has meltdowns, and begins to struggle in school.

All of these scenarios can leave a parent confused and overwhelmed--afraid to turn one direction for fear you'll miss something.  You may wonder whether you need professional help, and which professional to turn to (neurologist? pediatric behaviorist? educational specialist? psychiatrist? family therapist?), and even if you do decide on one, you may wonder how to choose "the best."  Some people don't even take any action at all because they're afraid of the answers they may get.  That's totally normal and understandable.

Congratulations for reading this mini-course, where you'll finally find some answers--answers that may surprise you and may mean a much more gentle approach to your child's well-being.

If you're worried about your child, here's what you should know about video games' effects:

An extensive review of the studies, combined with my own clinical experience in helping so many children recover their well-being and mental health, has shown me that there is not just one toxic pathway but multiple toxic pathways induced by electronic screen exposure.  The brain is more sensitive to toxins than any other organ, and the eyes are the only part of the nervous system connected to the outside world.   Furthermore, small brain changes in chemistry and blood flow can lead to big changes over time and can set in motion a cascade of negative events that self-perpetuate.

Here's some basic science explaining why video games are damaging to your child's brain and body:

• EYES: the eyes connect the outside world directly to the brain.  That is why video games can cause seizures in some children.  Electronic screens are unnaturally bright with vivid colors. This attracts the eye, but the eyes and brain were not made to handle this intense stimulation.  One change that occurs as a direct result is the signals that tell our brains to go to sleep don't get triggered, and insomnia often results.
• BRAIN DEVELOPMENT & the FRONTAL LOBE: The evidence is mounting that active video gamers' frontal lobes do not develop properly.  Why is this so alarming? Because adolescence is the time that the frontal lobe develops most actively, and it determines personality, impulse control, empathy, planning, and reasoning abilities.  Basically, all the things we need to succeed in life!   Even cell phone usage and texting have been shown to negatively impact frontal lobe function.
• BODY: Because the brain thinks it's in a fight-or-flight mode even when playing educational electronic games, the body sends out stress hormones.  These stress hormones are toxic to every organ in our bodies; they also affect sleep, learning, and memory.
• BRAIN and MOOD: Anything electronic causes irritability. Again, there are multiple mechanisms causing these mood changes.  Frontal lobe blood flow, hormones, and brain chemicals like dopamine all contribute to the irritable mood you see after your child plays.  To explain this a little further, when the child plays they release "feel good" chemicals (dopamine), and when they stop, they are in a relative state of withdrawal.  This looks just like drug withdrawal, by the way!  The child might be tearful, irritable, disorganized, depressed and feel they can't concentrate.

ACTION PLAN FOR Part 1:

1. Share this with your spouse/partner and any other regular caretakers.
2. Make a list of 3-5 problems plaguing your child at home, school, or with friends, then another list of what you'd like to see instead.

Feel empowered by having information that's useful no matter what's going on!  Pat yourself on the back for taking these steps.

Source

Get Off The Phone Songs

Two videos - under 4 minutes

https://youtu.be/nfUD0WhE264

https://youtu.be/RX_pZTlERaI

Inaccurate official assessment of radiofrequency safety by the Advisory Group on Non-ionising Radiation

J. Starkey, Sarah. (2016). Inaccurate official assessment of radiofrequency safety by the Advisory Group on Non-ionising Radiation. Reviews on Environmental Health. 31. 10.1515/reveh-2016-0060.

The Advisory Group on Non-ionising Radiation (AGNIR) 2012 report forms the basis of official advice on the safety of radiofrequency (RF) electromagnetic fields in the United Kingdom and has been relied upon by health protection agencies around the world. This review describes incorrect and misleading statements from within the report, omissions and conflict of interest, which make it unsuitable for health risk assessment. The executive summary and overall conclusions did not accurately reflect the scientific evidence available. Independence is needed from the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP), the group that set the exposure guidelines being assessed. This conflict of interest critically needs to be addressed for the forthcoming World Health Organisation (WHO) Environmental Health Criteria Monograph on Radiofrequency Fields. Decision makers, organisations and individuals require accurate information about the safety of RF electromagnetic signals if they are to be able to fulfil their safeguarding responsibilities and protect those for whom they have legal responsibility.

… 

Source

We Tested 5G Across America. It’s Crazy Fast—and a Hot Mess

That radiation heat is causing temperatures to rise!  And 5G phones are roasting at 105 degrees.   Very spotty coverage too.  Although many will be unable to read the whole article (subscription needed), the video is worth watching.

In tests, the 5G often switched off due to summer heat, leaving our columnist to cool the devices with ice packs or air conditioners

5:25 / 5:39

0:37

All of the major U.S. carriers—Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint—are launching 5G across the U.S. WSJ's Joanna Stern embarked on a summer testing tour only to learn that 5G is blazing fast...if you're outside, near a cell tower, with some way to keep the phone cool.

By 

Joanna Stern

Updated July 18, 2019 1:18 pm ET

Today’s forecast: 95 degrees and sunny with thunderstorms likely in the afternoon. No chance of 5G testing. 

One of the biggest findings of my multi-city 5G review tour: The Samsung Galaxy S10 5G isn’t reliable in the summer—unless, well, you summer in Iceland.

Source

Lanai drone project to continue without 5G

Someone said they canceled the 5G part due to public pressure

==============================================

Flight operation plans on Lanai for a drone as wide as a football field are still on; however, the project will continue without testing for 5G advanced wireless airborne services to people on the ground, the project manager said.

The unmanned aerial system (UAS) flies independently at about 22 mph and is powered by electrical and solar energy. It can potentially fly 65,000 to 85,000 feet for as long as a year.

“No more 5G to the project because it was overshadowing the solar power, electric aviation part,” said George Purdy Wednesday afternoon. “That was the whole root to the program. . . . That will be part of my speech tonight.”

Clarifications were announced at Wednesday night’s Lanai Planning Commission meeting. Purdy is the co-owner of Drone Services Hawaii and was instrumental in bringing the Hawk30 program to Lanai. 

The Hawk30 program is certified by the Federal Aviation Administration Test Range, which oversees the Pan Pacific Unmanned Airspace Test Range complex of which the University of Hawaii is a part.

UH Research Organization has a support agreement with program sponsor HAPSMobile Inc. to perform the test project on Lanai. SoftBank Corp., Loon LLC and AeroVironment also are involved in the project.

The program’s goal is to develop and test a high altitude platform drone to maintain flight over deep valleys, remote land areas and the ocean, solely powered by solar and electricity.

Only one launch is still anticipated on the island.

Source

ConEd Starts to Shed Light on Why NYC Got Plunged Into the Dark

(Bloomberg) -- It started with a broken cable.

Sometime before 6:47 p.m. on Saturday, a 13,000-volt underground power line at New York City’s West 64th Street and West End Avenue burned, according to Consolidated Edison Inc. One spokesman for the utility said casing along the line had cracked. Another said the company hasn’t determined the cause of the failure.

Whatever the reason, it triggered a relay protection system nearby that’s designed to detect electrical faults and keep them from spreading. Except, ConEd spokesman Sidney Alvarez said, this one was “overly sensitive.” Instead of just isolating the burned cable, it took down entire parts of ConEd’s network, leading to a cascading failure that plunged much of Manhattan’s west side into darkness and left tens of thousands of people without power for as many as five hours.

Now New York’s top lawmakers are calling for probes of the utility company. U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, called it “entirely preventable” and said the U.S. Energy Department should work with city and state officials to investigate. Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio have also demanded an explanation for why 73,000 customers lost power.

While investors have largely shrugged off the incident (shares slipped 0.5% Monday), Saturday’s blackout is the latest in a string of incidents that have disrupted power service in New York City, adding to the pressure on ConEd. And the disclosure of a faulty relay system on Monday is raising even more questions.

“They have hundreds if not thousands of these relays, so obviously, this raises the question of what’s the status of the others?” said Michael Tobias, a principal at the engineering consulting firm New York Engineers that provides electrical services. “Could this happen again?”

Tobias said ConEd should check its other relays and ensure that they’re being replaced near the end of their expected life spans as opposed to being “run to failure.”

That could prove to be a daunting task. Alvarez pointed out Monday that New York is home to one the most complex energy systems in North America, an intertwined web of electrical wires, steam pipes and natural gas systems. “You basically have infrastructure upon infrastructure -- you rarely see that in major metro cities,” he said.

The networked nature of the grid makes the city more susceptible to significant outages, said Joseph Eto, a staff scientist with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The system is built with many redundancies, but if a problem isn’t quickly contained, he said, “You can have these larger effects.”

Saturday’s blackout affected much of Midtown, Hell’s Kitchen, Rockefeller Center and the lower reaches of Manhattan’s Upper West Side. It took out the lights in Time Square, forced the evacuation of Madison Square Garden in the middle of a Jennifer Lopez concert and brought parts of the city’s subway system to a screeching halt.

Substation Explosion

Cuomo said over the weekend that he had sent his “top power team” to probe the incident. De Blasio, who cut short a presidential campaign trip to Iowa, called on city agencies to “get to the bottom” of the incident. After ConEd disclosed the burned cable on Monday, he pointed out that the utility had initially said the power-line fault wasn’t related to the outage. “Our city cannot be left in the dark like this ever again,” he said.

As ConEd investigates why its relay system overreacted, the Energy Department in Washington said it’s ready to assist in efforts to determine the cause. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said it’s “closely monitoring” efforts of the organization that oversees reliability on the grid, the North American Electric Reliability Corp.

“A root cause analysis of the outage is underway but, at this time, there is no evidence of suspicious activity or long-term impacts to infrastructure,” Kimberly Mielcarek, a spokeswoman for NERC, said Monday. “The bulk power system remained stable and unaffected by the outage.”

Just over six months ago, ConEd faced an investigation after an electrical fire at a substation turned New York City’s night sky blue, temporarily disrupting flights and subway services. In July 2018, it was the subject of a probe after an asbestos-lined steam pipe ruptured in Manhattan’s Flatiron district. And a power failure in 2017 led to significant delays on the subway during a morning commute, triggering an investigation that cost the company hundreds of millions of dollars.

--With assistance from Stephen Cunningham, Amanda Albright, Shoko Oda, Christopher Martin and Joe Ryan.

To contact the reporters on this story: Will Wade in New York at wwade4@bloomberg.net;David Baker in New York at dbaker48@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lynn Doan at ldoan6@bloomberg.net, Rebecca Keenan

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

Source

India plans to change all electricity meters to prepaid smart meters by 2022

This comes in the backdrop of a power sector package, comprising a new tariff policy and structural reforms, being in the offing.

• - The plan comes at a time when the new government is trying to step up its efforts to supply 24x7 power to all
• - The government believes that the plan will increase distribution substation capacity by 38% by 2022
• 
  

New Delhi: In what will help improve the fortunes of India’s beleaguered power sector, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government plans to convert all electricity meters into smart prepaid meters by 2022.

The strategy is part of the government’s electricity distribution plan prepared by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), India’s apex power sector planning body, and comes at a time when the new government is trying to step up its efforts to supply 24x7 power to all.

Creating a smart meter architecture minimises human intervention in metering, billing and collection process and helps in reducing theft by identifying loss pockets. It requires a two-way communication network, control centre equipment and software applications that enable near real-time gathering and transfer of energy usage information.

“The draft plan is the first ever plan at Distribution level which has been prepared by CEA, under the guidance of the ministry of power. Till now, the central government has been preparing Perspectives Plans for Generation and Transmission Sectors under the aegis of the National Electricity Plan (NEP). The Distribution plan keeps the needs of consumers at the center of its focus," the power ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

This comes in the backdrop of the ongoing crisis in discoms due to poor financial health, which has led to delayed payment to generation utilities.

Discoms have so far been the weakest link in the electricity value chain. Poor payment records of state-owned discoms have not only adversely affected power generation companies, but have also contributed to stress in the banking sector.

The power sector is reeling under bad loans worth about Rs1 trillion, with around 66 gigawatts (GW) facing various degrees of financial stress.

“Smart metering would empower consumers with tools to help them conserve energy and plan their electricity usage in an efficient and optimum manner," the statement said.

The government believes that the plan will increase distribution substation capacity by 38% by 2022. During the review of the plan, power minister Raj Kumar Singh directed a core group of power ministry officials to “study the power sector ‘Reforms 2.0’, which would be integrated with Distribution Perspective Plan before it is released."

This comes when a power sector package, comprising a new tariff policy and structural reforms, is in the offing, according to finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s maiden budget speech.

The Centre is looking to introduce several reforms in the proposed national tariff policy, including penalty on gratuitous load-shedding, not allowing losses of more than 15% as a pass-through in tariff, and limiting cross-subsidies. The policy also proposes suspension of licence in case of non-availability of adequate power supply arrangements and imposition of penalty in case of disruptions in supply.

It also plans to introduce distribution sector reforms such as separating the “carriage and content operations" of power distribution companies (discoms), and letting people and firms buy electricity from a firm of their choice.

Source