Feedback and suggestions invited on COST 281
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Hi Klaus: I should have mentioned yesterday in my report on COST 281 workshop that, in his closing address, Dr. Tom McManus, Dep. of Enterprise, Dublin (workshop host) expressly requested attendees to email him feedback on the COST 281 workshop within a couple of weeks. In particular, he would like them to note strengths and weaknesses plus
suggestions for upcoming COST workshops.

Having attended the meeting, I am qualified to avail of this opportunity to give feedback and suggestions to Dr. McManus. But before tapping out ideas, I would love input from your list --and sent to you for posting--on what might be best to mention. Of course, the absence of any
specialists--scientists, doctors or/and engineers--among the presenters whose facts would have helped lessen the deplorable bias in favour of absence of illhealth effects from mobile telephony calls out for a strong mention.

The programme of events, etc can be accessed at www.cost281.org. The next COST 281 workshop on same topic is scheduled for Nov. 15-16, 2003 in Budapest, Hungary. Preparations for ensuring our strong presence there should begin as soon as possible.

Best, Imelda, Cork, Ireland.

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A Spy Machine of DARPA's Dreams
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By Noah Shachtman

02:00 AM May. 20, 2003 PT

It's a memory aid! A robotic assistant! An epidemic detector! An all-seeing, ultra-intrusive spying program! The Pentagon is about to embark on a stunningly ambitious research project designed to gather every conceivable bit of information about a person's life, index all the information and make it searchable.

What national security experts and civil libertarians want to know is, why would the Defense Department want to do such a thing? The embryonic LifeLog program would dump everything an individual does into a giant database: every e-mail sent or received, every picture taken, every Web
page surfed, every phone call made, every TV show watched, every magazine read. All of this -- and more -- would combine with information gleaned from a variety of sources: a GPS transmitter to keep tabs on where that person went, audio-visual sensors to capture what he or she sees or says, and biomedical monitors to keep track of the individual's health.

This gigantic amalgamation of personal information could then be used to "trace the 'threads' of an individual's life," to see exactly how a relationship or events developed, according to a briefing from the Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency, LifeLog's sponsor.

Someone with access to the database could "retrieve a specific thread of past transactions, or recall an experience from a few seconds ago or from many years earlier ... by using a search-engine interface."

On the surface, the project seems like the latest in a long line of DARPA's "blue sky" research efforts, most of which never make it out of the lab. But DARPA is currently asking businesses and universities for research proposals to begin moving LifeLog forward. And some people, such as Steven Aftergood, a defense analyst with the Federation of
American Scientists, are worried.

With its controversial Total Information Awareness database project, DARPA already is planning to track all of an individual's "transactional data" -- like what we buy and who gets our e-mail. While the parameters of the project have not yet been determined, Aftergood said he believes
LifeLog could go far beyond TIA's scope, adding physical information (like how we feel) and media data (like what we read) to this transactional data. "LifeLog has the potential to become something like 'TIA cubed,'" he said.

In the private sector, a number of LifeLog-like efforts already are underway to digitally archive one's life -- to
create a "surrogate memory," as minicomputer pioneer Gordon Bell calls it.

Bell, now with Microsoft, scans all his letters and memos, records his conversations, saves all the Web pages he's visited and e-mails he's received and puts them into an electronic storehouse dubbed MyLifeBits. DARPA's LifeLog would take this concept several steps further by tracking where people go and what they see. That makes the project
similar to the work of University of Toronto professor Steve Mann. Since his teen years in the 1970s, Mann, a self-styled "cyborg," has worn a camera and an array of sensors to record his existence. He claims he's convinced 20 to 30 of his current and former students to do the same.
It's all part of an experiment into "existential technology" and "the metaphysics of free will."

Darpa isn't quite so philosophical about LifeLog. But the agency does see some potential battlefield uses for the program. "The technology could allow the military to develop computerized assistants for warfighters and commanders that can be more effective because they can
easily access the user's past experiences," Darpa spokeswoman Jan Walker speculated in an e-mail. It also could allow the military to develop more efficient computerized training systems, she said: Computers could
remember how each student learns and interacts with the training system, then tailor the lessons accordingly.

John Pike, director of defense think tank GlobalSecurity.org, said he finds the explanations "hard to believe." "It looks like an outgrowth of Total Information Awareness and other Darpa homeland security surveillance programs," he added in an e-mail.

Sure, LifeLog could be used to train robotic assistants. But it also could become a way to profile suspected terrorists, said Cory Doctorow, with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. In other words, Osama bin Laden's agent takes a walk around the block at 10 each morning, buys a bagel and a newspaper at the corner store and then calls his mother. You do the same things -- so maybe you're an al Qaeda member, too!

"The more that an individual's characteristic behavior patterns -- 'routines, relationships, and habits' -- can be represented in digital form, the easier it would become to distinguish among different individuals, or to monitor one," Aftergood, the Federation of American Scientists analyst, wrote in an e-mail.

In its LifeLog report, Darpa makes some nods to privacy protection, like when it suggests that "properly anonymized access to LifeLog data might support medical research and the early detection of an emerging epidemic."

But before these grand plans get underway, LifeLog will start small. Right now, Darpa is asking industry and academics to submit proposals for 18-month research efforts, with a possible 24-month extension. (Darpa is not sure yet how much money it will sink into the program.)
The researchers will be the centerpiece of their own study. Like a game show, winning this Darpa prize eventually will earn the lucky scientists a trip for three to Washington, D.C. Except on this excursion, every participating scientist's e-mail to the travel agent, every padded bar
bill and every mad lunge for a cab will be monitored, categorized and later dissected.

Sources:  http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,58909,00.html
 http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,58909-2,00.html

 http://www.darpa.mil/baa/baa03-30.htm

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"CONTROLLED AMERICA LECTURE" (excerpt)
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CONTROLLEDAMERICA.COM

Saturday, July 12, & Sunday July 13, 2003
9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
U.C. Davis,
Davis, California
$35.00 each day

Learn about GPS satellite & Microchips, Government Mind Control Programs, Directed Energy Weapons Harassment, HAARP, CIA

Controlled America lectures were formed to educate the public about the Government's Directed Energy Program. Through rallies, lectures, videos, and books they expose the human rights abuses/torture involving the U.S.
Government, military, C.I.A., F.B.I. and Independent Contractors and their use of bio-electronic weapons (such as extremely low frequency electromagnetic weapons, which have been used as mind control devices).

Speakers

Cheryl Welsh - Director of Citizens Against Human Rights Abuse (CAHRA) since 1996. This organization was formed by a group of victims ofalleged nonconsensual human experimentation involving electromagnetic and neurological weapon testing programs by the U.S. and other governments.
Cheryl is recognized by the United Nations as an expert on Non-lethal Technology (Directed Energy Weapons). Cheryl has been on a CNN program to explain the use of Directed Energy Weapons on U.S. citizens. She has co-authored several books including "International Campaign to End Human Rights Violations Involving Classified New Weapons of Mass Destruction: Electromagnetic and Neurological Technologies"

Recently she has authored two articles for the UFO Magazine Feb/March 2003 and April/May 2003 "Cover Stories Torn Away: New Evidence of Active Mind Control."  http://www.dcn.davis.ca.us/~welsh.  Welsh@dcn.davis.ca.us

Jerry E. Smith - Author of "HAARP: The Ultimate Weapon of the Conspiracy" (a title in the Mind-Control Conspiracy Series from Adventures Unlimited Press (August 1998)). Jerry has been a writer, poet, editor and activist for over three decades. His bibliography of published works includes chapbooks of his poetry, a handful of fiction pieces, several "ghostwritten" books and over 100 non-fiction articles and reviews. Jerry has been on many radio shows and was featured on the PAX TV show "Encounters with the Unexplained."  http://www.jerryesmith.com and his email is  jerryesmith@gbis.com

Dr. A. Michrowski -A world renowned scientist who has conducted extensive studies on how electromagnetic energy effects a human being and the environment they live in. He has a newsletter called Essentia and he helps run the Plantetary Association for Clean Energy (PACE). On his
website  http://www.essentia.ca/ you can find books, EM detectors and health aids. He will be on video tape and his lecture is entitled "Health Physics: radiation protection, detection procedure, guidelines, typical problem/inexpensive solutions." Oriented for health
practitioners, engineers, electricians, and responsible laypersons.

Clayton Douglas - Lecturer and Writer, Clay is the Publisher of the monthly Free American Magazine and Host of the daily radio show The Free American Radio Hour, and was a Founding Member of The American Media Association (AMA). Free American Group 2943 US Highway 380 Bingham, NM
87832 - 505-423-3250 - FAX 505-423-3258
 http://www.freeamerican.com

Ted Gunderson - Ted is a retired FBI Sr. Special Agent-in-charge in the Los Angeles office. Some of his more high profile cases have been the McMartin preschool, Polly Klass, and Franklin cover-up.
 http://www.tedgunderson.com

Celerino "Cele" Castillo - Worked for the DEA for many year and was a twenty year criminal investigator, specializing in drug cases.
 http://www.drugwar.com/  powderburns@prodigy.net

Dr. Hal Tracey - One of the Founders of the International Tesla Society, Dr. Tracey is a scientist who is well versed on how electromagnetic energy and other energies affect a person's health and their environment.

Other speakers and schedules to be announced.

Contact: MARY ANN STRATTON at  controlledamerica1@earthlink.net
or Mike Duffey at  mindcontroltv@yahoo.com

Informant: Romy

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Greenpeace Activist News
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SAVE THE BALTIC

The MV Esperanza is at this minute taking action against dangerous shipping in the Baltic Sea, a job that by all rights should be done by governments. We need your help to put pressure on politicians to act strongly to stop the dangerous traffic that threatens the Baltic sea. Help us save the Baltic: write to the Swedish Prime Minister calling on him to fight for strong regulation of Baltic shipping here:

 http://act.greenpeace.org/ams/e?a=777&s=fsh