Thank you, Beyond Organic. I don't understand why my comment would garner negative votes either. It's a valid point. No, a cell phone does not protect someone from an attacker per se, but what I was saying that if my car broke down, I would be able to call for legitimate help myself instead of flagging down a perfect stranger. And I do not own a gun as of yet because I have not got around to learning how to use one, and only if you know how to use one should you own one (it's the responsible thing to do).

I also feel safer having my cell phone on me Katie.  Mace, an axe and a gun would be a good addition as well.  Although my kids may kill each other or me first .

LOL!!!  Thanks Jonny, your comment made me laugh!

(I don't know who thumbed Katie Beth down, but I'm going to thumb her up because I don't think her comment deserves negatives!  The whole point system here is rather ridiculous period, especially since people thumb people down for no legitimate reasons much of the time and it's all not very fair if you ask me and only makes people who care feel bad.)   

I was kidding Jonny..... but since you mentioned it, I do believe guns can be very dangerous around kids.  I have two very young and wild boys, and I have no doubt that if a loaded gun got into one of their hands, it is very possible someone could get killed.  By the way, we know a couple who's son is now dead today from his daddy's weapon.  He was 7.  &nbs p;

They are relied on as the pollinators of many plant species, for
controlling vegetation growth, for keeping so-called pest numbers in
check and for turning over the soil and doing many other tasks
associated with gardening.

"It is important that we understand how human activities are
impacting on insects in our ecosystems," said MacFadyen. More than R1
million has already been spent on the research, which is set to
continue for several years.

Hawkes and Clark said they selected 24 sites across Gauteng, varying
from urban gardens and natural grasslands to crop farms.

They were looking at urban development, human interference, pollution
levels, the sizes of undisturbed and disturbed habitats and the
intensity of radiation.

Undisturbed grasslands, they said, were difficult to find because of
increased urban sprawl and extensive agricultural use.

While their research results are due out only later this year,
preliminary results indicate that TVs, cellphones, radios, satellite
receivers, computers, laptops, cellphone masts, GPS systems and other
gadgets could be the main contributors to high levels of radiation in
urban areas.

Indications are that, as with the findings overseas in bee research,
electromagnetic radiation could be contributing to subtle changes in
the behaviour of insects, including altering their foraging and
mating patterns.

Clark said the scientists were focusing largely on assessing
indicator groups of insects such as ants, for their role in promoting
biodiversity, ground beetles, bees as pollinators and leaf hoppers.

They have caught more than a million bugs either by hand or in
pitfall traps, leaf litter samples, Malaise traps and sweep nets as
part of their research.

At seven of the rural sites, particularly at Ezemvelo, there was
almost no radiation. Melville Koppies on the other hand has
registered one of the densest radiation readings in an urban area.

The researchers said they would probably find that flightless
carnivorous beetles were more seriously affected by radiation and
urbanisation than their fruit-eating flying beetle cousins.

In rural areas, low vegetation diversity due to mono-agricultural
projects, ploughing and overgrazing were contributing to the demise
of insects. If insects disappeared, they emphasised, so would insect-
eating birds, moles and many other animal species.

"Results obtained so far show that urbanisation is having a major
effect on insect biodiversity," said Clark.

Gauteng city gardens were often more like forests than the highveld
grasslands they had replaced and many of the grassland insects had
been displaced.

McFadyen said the few grassland areas that were conserved - such as
the Melville Koppies in Johannesburg, Faerie Glen Nature Reserve and
the botanical gardens in Tshwane - still provided an important refuge
for some of the grassland species.

MacFadyen said that, should the final results of the study find that
cellphone-mast emissions affected insects at a landscape level, the
platform for more intensive studies would be created.

These studies would focus on confirming the results of the field
study and determining the nature of the effect on insects.

know, since you mentioned it, I've been looking, and you're right, I
don't see birds sitting on masts."

I've actually given this as a possible project to schoolkids, seeing
that half the schools in Johannesburg seem to have cellphone masts in
their playgrounds -- just to look and see where the birds sit -- but
I don't know if any of them took it up.

I also told the Vodacom guy -- interesting that you have
to "discipline" your microwave workers who turn off the transmitter
while they're doing maintenance, do they prefer to have the
transmitter off? He wouldn't answer me. I'll post some more on this
sometime, we need to access microwave workers, these guys are in the front line, and they know the score. We've heard private horror
stories. Making a dying to make a living.

But there was some research done here, commissioned by the
Oppenheimers, SA's wealthiest family, who noticed that the birdlife
in their famous gardens in Johannesburg was diminishing. I read a
report where the lead researcher said they were finding insect
communication patterns were being interfered with by cellphone
radiation, but I can't find that now, for some reason. Below is the
only report I can find on this research. Obviously if the insects
are disappearing, birdlife will be affected.

It's been pointed out that with centimetre wavelengths, microwaves
will resonate with the brain cavities of small birds, this is why
they are so affected.

At my agricultural publication, I used to edit a column on pigeon
racing (very entertaining copy -- South Africa hosts the world's
biggest pigeon race, the Sun City Million Dollar, so we are very big
in this game). Pigeon fanciers all over the world are reporting more
and more lost birds, and they are blaming cellphone masts. I heard a
story from a friend in the US that they were pigeon-racing champions
until a cellphone mast was erected near their house, then their birds
got totally disoriented and vanished, and they gave up the hobby.

Be very glad whenever you see sparrows or other small birds in your
vicinity. They are truly the "canaries" of the microwave era.

that be enough for one to indeed make a logical inference to the decline in bird, bee, and amphibian populations? Wouldn't that be
enough to invoke the precautionary principle?

Mr. Fist, we are really sick and tired of hearing these
quasi-scientific mumbo-jumbo excuses! People are getting sick!
Wildlife is dying! Isn't time we did something about it? In all
actuality, people should start trusting their intuitions more and stop
relying on the empty and meaningless arguments put out there by the
media.

The problem is not the lack of science my friend. BUT RATHER IT IS THE LACK OF ETHICS!

Paul Doyon

2/April–June. http://taylorandfrancis.metapress.com/content/v53686w44787310r/

"A bibliographical review on the possible effects of radiofrequency
radiation (RFR) from wireless telecommunications on living organisms
and its impact on amphibians is presented. The technical
characteristics of this new technology and the scientific discoveries
that are of interest in the study of their effects on wild fauna and
amphibians are described. Electromagnetic pollution (in the microwave
and in the radiofrequency range) is a possible cause for deformations
and decline of some amphibian populations. Keeping in mind that
amphibians are reliable bio-indicators, it is of great importance to
carry out studies on the effects of this new type of contamination.
Finally, some methodologies that could be useful to determine the
adverse health effects are proposed" (Balmori 2006).

Or perhaps the article in a German newspaper (in 2004) showing very
clear evidence that the microwaves are indeed the cause of the bees
disappearance:

http://www.laleva.org/eng/2007/04/protecting_bees_from_mobile_phone_radiation.html

What most of us do know is that we cannot trust the quasi-scientific
mumbo-jumbo coming from the cell phone industry, the government
agencies they have bought, or from so-called reporters pretending to
be on our side:

"Dr. Henry Lai was quoted in the London Times as saying, 'They are
asking me to change my whole interpretation of the findings in a way
that would make them more favorable to the mobile phone industry. This is what happened in the tobacco industry. They had data in their hands but when it was not favorable they did not want to disclose it.' "

If there are thousands of studies which show that microwave radiation
and other forms of EMR cause biological effects - even at thousands of
times less than what we are being exposed to on a daily basis -
wouldn't

ost $100 or so to prove.  

Buy a cheap microwave oven.  Rip off the door.  Point it at a bird cage from a distance of a couple of metres, and switch it on and off for a few weeks using an electrical timer.

A microwave oven output from two to three metres would deliver thousands (up to millions) of time the power-density  to that of a cellphone tower in a normal bird habitat.  

If you are right, then you should see your exposed canaries dropping like flies -- or failing to breed.  If you have a dozen canaries in one cage being exposed, and the same number in another cage not being exposed (the controls), the difference would be pretty dramatic.

And if your theory was then scientifically-proven to be true, the report would be publishable in many scientific journals, and probably find its way onto the front page of most newspapers.


The problem with this whole area of medical and scientific research is not a lack of theories, it is a lack of science.


Stewart Fist, writer, columnist, film-maker
70 Middle Harbour Rd, LINDFIELD
NSW 2070 Australia

(though the not-mentioned Chemtrails and GM food is most certainly also probably playing a role). Canada has pretty lax laws when it comes to the legal level of ambient EMR - I think 10 times more lax than the USA, which are also pretty lax (according to the BioInitiative anyway). Come on, even the WHO states that we are now being exposed to thousands of times the amount of EMR we would get from the Sun or the Earth. It is completely unnatural and it has been shown - in numerous scientific studies - to be causing all kinds of illnesses in human beings -  so it doesn't take much imagination to think what it is doing to wildlife!

 We are the Canaries in the Coal Mine - just because others don't feel it, doesn't mean that it isn't dangerous and they are not being affected!

 Regards,

 paul

...When the ability of the organism or ecosystem to compensate is surpassed by the impact of damage itself, there is disease, disruption and sometimes extinction.  This is simply the way it works.

 There is no doubt that the science supports the hypothesis that the explosion of EMR exposures in these ecosystems is having an impact on the disappearing birds.  Based on the mechanisms of harm we know to be operating, the impact likely includes ability to navigate and flock because of EMR disruption of magnetite and magnetic grid-related physiology, immune compromise, neurophysiologic disruption with resultant adaptive deficits, as well as indirect impacts on species food supplies and other survival necessities. 

 George

______________
 Dr. George Carlo
 Safe Wireless Initiative
 Washington, D.C.

The properties of bird feathers as converse piezoelectric transducers
and as receptors of microwave radiation. II. Bird feathers as
dielectric receptors of microwave radiation
Bigu-del-Blanco J and Romero-Sierra C

Resonance effects indicate radical pair mechanism for avian magnetic compass
Ritz et al.

Magnetic orientation and magnetoreception in birds and other animals
Wiltschko W and Wiltschko R

Magnetoreception and its use in bird navigation
Henrik Mouritsen and Thorsten Ritz

Magnetic compass orientation of migratory birds in the presence of a
1.315 MHz oscillating field
Thalau et al.

Calibration of magnetic and celestial compass cues in migratory
birds--a review of cue-conflict experiments
Muheim R, Moore FR, Phillips JB

The physics and neurobiology of magnetoreception
Sönke Johnsen and Kenneth J. Lohmann

Microwave absorption by magnetite: a possible mechanism for coupling
nonthermal levels of radiation to biological systems
Kirschvink JL

Influence of radar radiation on breeding biology of Tits (Parus sp.)
Rejt et al.

I would never stick one of these microwave ovens up to my head! When people ask me if I have a cell phone, my reply is "Do I look stupid?" I know it's mean, but you really have to be pretty stupid to stick a mini microwave oven up to your head. And after you do, you are definitely frying your brain cells and decreasing your IQ rapidly. One thing we should also note is that 1984, the year that the 1st commercial cell phone network spread across the USA, people started to get what was then called "Yuppie Flu" in droves. It wasn't until 1988 that the CDC officially and misleadingly dubbed it Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) and later Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (CFIDS) though the symptomology is closer to AIDS than anything else. In 1992, an insurance company memo stated that the insurance industry would go broke if it kept on paying out for this disease - and low and behold, the CDC comes out with a criteria the same year making it much more difficult to be officially diagnosed - one highly suspects collusion here. At any rate, a recent survey by the CDC put the present rate at one in forty of the American population.

By the way, brain tumors are now the leading cause of death in children in the USA (surpassing leukemia in 2002); one in one hundred children are now predicted to suffer from Autism (up from one in ten thousand in the 70s); ADHA is rampant in our schools; and 40 millions Americans now take sleeping pills for insomnia (up 60% from 2000) while 60% of all Americans suffer from sleep disturbances. This all occurred with the advent of the cell phone and other Wireless communication devices. Maybe the reason it is so dangerous out there has to do with the fact that people are going nuts from all the microwave radiation exposure! So what are you going to do? Give your child a cell phone? I would certainly hope not! Microwave radiation affects all the brain hormones: dopamine, serotonin, melatonin, etc. Hormones affect behavior.

I have one and had no idea they were dangerous until a few months ago.  I got my first one in 1995 when they were still these huge heavy things you had to lug around or leave in your car.  I still have one now because I live alone and also have a daughter nearby with no transportation with 2 babies, so it's nice to have for emergencies.  I have very limited minutes and always use the speaker phone.  When I got lost on my Christmas trip in the backwoods of Georgia, I was glad to be able to call my brother.  I really do try not to use it but it's gotten me out of a few jams.... IE being surrounded by a gang and able to call 911 before anything bad happened.  Oh and I'm also tied into a contract I can't afford to break.  Will I keep a cell phone once that expires?  I honestly don't know right n ow.

I would really like to think so, Sheila, but I would imagine if we aren't smart enough to avoid them they, even with better natural instincts, would not be either. These chemicals odourless and tasteless, or they taste like Splenda.

Plus, I suppose even if they could, how much of their natural habitat remains uncontaminated? Probably very little.

So true Michael.  We never use any pesticides and last year I had a flock of robins land in my yard.  I have only ever seen them in pairs up until this point.  I live in town, so maybe the birds can figure out where the pesticides are, and avoid them?
I have no doubt that the pesticides killed the birds at the orchard where your friend worked.  But did there come a day when no birds were at the bottom of the tree, because they went elsewhere?

Mind you, California is bigger than the United Kingdom, and they have about 60 million people. Maybe there is more usable land in the UK though .

Wow Russ, there are more people in the state of California, than there is, in all of Canada.  We just surpassed the 33 million mark.
May I ask you, are there really organic orange groves there?  I mean are they so close to non organic that there may be overspray of the pesticides?

Small organic orange groves do exist, but your point is well taken on the fly overs from the crop dusters in may growing regions.