Wireless Radiation: The Research Continues

Gentlemen's Quarterly (GQ) magazine has a lengthy article about the ongoing research into the dangers of wireless radiation (cell phones, in-home WiFi systems, the increasing installation of community-based WiMax systems). Statements like these are worrisome:

The only honest way to think of our cell phones is that they are tiny, low-power microwave ovens, without walls, that we hold against the sides of our heads. . . .

Lai reviewed 350 studies and found that about half showed bioeffects from EM radiation emitted by cell phones. But when he took into consideration the funding sources for those 350 studies, the results changed dramatically. Only 25 percent of the studies paid for by the industry showed effects, compared with 75 percent of those studies that were independently funded. . . .

If all this sounds like some abandoned X-Files script, consider the history of suppression of evidence in the major issues of consumer health over the past half century. Big Tobacco hid the dangers of smoking and the addictiveness of nicotine, supporting its position with countless deceptive studies. Asbestos manufacturers hid evidence that the mineral was dangerous even as tens of thousands of workers died from exposure; the makers of DDT and Agent Orange stood behind their products even as it became clear that the herbicides caused cancer. That the cell-phone industry, which last year posted revenues in the hundreds of billions of dollars, has an incentive to shut down research showing the dangers of cell-phone use is not a radical notion. . . .

"It never ceases to surprise me that people will fight a cell tower going up in their neighborhoods," Blake Levitt, author of Electromagnetic Fields: A Consumer's Guide to the Issues and How to Protect Ourselves, told me. "Then they'll install a Wi-Fi system in their homes. That's like inviting a cell tower indoors." . . .

Evening Well Spent

Spent last evening with old friends Phil and Laurie whom I haven't seen in several years—they remedied the absence by having me over for supper. Laurie's daughter, Dara, prepared a beautiful five-course vegan Thai feast that was out of this world. As much as I enjoy all things "food," for health and pleasure, I lament my ignorance of the Asian pantry. The spices and flavors—not to mention the presentation—are a world apart for me, my palate being the poorer for it. So thanks for your efforts, Dara and Laurie—I felt like I was dining in a Michelin three-star restaurant down a side-street in Bangkok, known only to the most well-connected locals. Candles, music, and five different bowls—it was hard to know where to begin. At the end of the meal, when the girls were momentarily out of sight, Phil and I took bowls in hand and drained them dry. I wish I could recite all the ingredients—by Dara's quick count there were 20-30 different foods and spices involved. I wish I'd taken a picture of the table before we began.

Laurie and Phil's house is one of my favorites—a 1940's (?) era Arts and Crafts bungalow in an older part of Charlotte where houses have personality and charm, inside and out. Laurie is an artistic, creative freelance writer (articles and first-person essays) and Phil is an artistic Mad Man—okay, not Madison Avenue advertising, but close. He is in the process of creating his own line of greeting cards. My jaw dropped at the whimsical hand-drawn prototypes he showed me. I hope they'll be in a store and on a web site near you in the not-too-distant future.

My jaw really dropped when I read the article Laurie wrote for Charlotte magazine about Phil's journey to sell his beloved 1952 Fender Telecaster guitar. In near perfect condition, these early-Fifties "Teles" are a holy grail among vintage collectors and players. Long story short: Phil bought his four decades ago for $75 in a pawn shop and sold it last year for $52,000 at the Dallas International Guitar Festival. (Yes, you read that right.) Inflation notwithstanding, that's not a bad ROI. So, in the words of Jon Bon Jovie, "hold on to what you've got."

Thanks, Phil, Laurie, and Dara for a wonderful evening of sharing and spiritual nourishment—and for an amazing meal.

[P.S. In Dara, the creative acorn didn't fall far from the tree. She has her own line of hand-made women's fashions on Etsy.com. Check out her store here.)

Victory! The Farmers Have Spoken

The New York Times is reporting this morning that Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack will announce today the scrapping of plans for the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) program—a plan proposed under the Bush '43 administration to tag all livestock and track them in a database as a means of isolating infected animals in case of a disease outbreak. The program has met with significant resistance from livestock farmers. I reported in a previous post how Wendell Berry testified before a Congressional hearing that he would go to jail before allowing his animals to be tagged. The Department of Agriculture is going back to the drawing board to design a new, less intrusive plan.

The whole concept of NAIS was rife with problems: a huge expense for farmers, the commodification of livestock, and misplaced priorities. If USDA wants to do something about the spread of animal-based disease it ought to focus on preventing the occurrence of the disease before containing its spread. And most animal-based diseases arise because of commercial livestock practices: Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), the feeding of infected animal parts back to well animals, and the over-medication of commercial livestock making them resistant to new strains of disease. The best way to prevent disease in livestock is to pasture them and feed them on a wide variety of grasses and herbs, an environment naturally suited to suppressing the spread of disease.

Thankfully Secretary Vilsack listened to the voices of the people his policies would impact most—though eliminating NAIS does little to change the policies that allow for diseases to arise and flourish in the currently legal livestock factory-farms.

Chasing Legends

A new documentary on the Tour de France, Chasing Legends, will be released in May of this year. Following are the teaser and trailer for the film:

[Note: in this trailer, when legendary Tour commentator Phil Liggett refers to mountains being "20 miles high," he's referring to the distance required to climb up and over the summit, not the vertical distance from sea level!]

Doing His Thing

If there are two things son David knows well, they are "film" and "discussions." He had a chance to do both in Philly a few days ago. I've never known a David-discussion to be less than "lively!" Congrats on finishing the Master's degree, Dave.

Wow!

Oren Lavie is an Israeli-born singer/songwriter whose music video for his song "Her Morning Elegance" was nominated for a 2010 Grammy in the "Short Form Music Video" category. It has been watched 10.3 million times on YouTube and it's easy to see why. The video was shot in stop-action animation form—using a film camera to shoot one still frame at a time which then gives the impression of a movie when played. This is an amazingly creative video:

Winter Cauliflower

Over the last few days I had not checked the two cauliflower plants growing in a concrete planter on my front porch. When I did I discovered both have heads that have appeared in the midst of the freezing weather we've had. Normally, the large leaves of the cauliflower plant are pulled across and over the heads and tied in place to protect them from sunlight, producing the typical "white" cauliflower we see in the stores. These heads are slightly yellow since they haven't been protected: (this is actually two shots of the same head)