Iowa senator Tom Harkin recently became chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, following the death of Senator Ted Kennedy. On Monday, Harkin vowed to look into the possibilities of cancer risks from mobile phone use. He said he was concerned that nobody was able to definitively prove that mobile phones could not cause cancer.
“I’m reminded of this nation’s experience with cigarettes. Decades passed between the first warnings about smoking tobacco and the final definitive conclusion that cigarettes cause lung cancer,” Harkin said. It is estimated that 4 billion people worldwide use mobile phones regularly.
Harkin called a hearing of the Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, to examine the issue on Monday. “I will pursue this beyond this panel, with the National Institutes of Health,” he said afterward.
However, Harkin should be aware that an enormous amount of research has been conducted already on this issue, and no link has ever been found to prove that mobile phones do cause cancer. Simply saying that nobody has been able to disprove it does not make it more plausible, and it is slightly concerning at least that an elected Senator would pursue something on the grounds that nobody could disprove its existence - but it isn’t surprising.
Of course, there are reports occasionally that do show that there “might” be links in cases, and just recently the Environmental Working Group showed that radio wave emissions vary from one mobile phone brand to the next. Even with this taken into account however, all the research has shown that mobile phones do not emit waves capable of damaging DNA in cells in a human body.
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Result for: sunde
According to his latest blog post, The Pirate Bay founder and spokesperson Peter Sunde is stepping down from his position, hoping to move along with his life, one that has been under media scrutiny for years now.
Says the post:
“The past years I’ve been very active in the discussion of the current state and the future states of the internets. It’s an important cause and I will not give the fight up.
However, I have decided to not be the spokes person for The Pirate Bay anymore. The reasons are many but most importantly it takes too much of my time. I want to build something new and I want to focus my energy in a different direction. I have projects waiting to be finished, a book is waiting to be finalized and many more books are waiting to be read.
Our issues has been raised to another level and it’s time for biological dispersal. At the same time, I have a feeling of being sessile when I need to be the most motile creature ever. The regeneration will continue with me in another place.
Today marks the end of a small era for me, but I am simply leaving a role in order to be a person instead.
Sometimes when you draw on the foggy insides you find what you’re after.”
The Pirate Bay is currently under a bundle of lawsuits from all types of trade groups and media groups and is under acquisition by a software company that wants to take it legal.
Result for: sunde
The FIMI (Federazione Industria Musicale Italiana) and the FPM (Federation against Musical Piracy) have declared their intent to sue the founders of the torrent trackerThe Pirate Bay, seeking monetary damages of 1 million euros.
The move follows the recent lawsuit against the site by the Hollywood studios, the decision of a Netherlands court that the site must be blocked in the region, and the fact that the proposed purchase of the site by Global Gaming Factory seems to be on the brink of failure.
The lawsuit will be against the site’s founders, Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij and Gottfrid Svartholm.
Adds Enzo Mazza, President of FIMI, via TF (in regards to the proposed sale): “The claim is also based on the principle that by selling the site to others, the founders have confirmed that the whole illegal operation of The Pirate Bay was to make a profit and it is therefore unacceptable that someone can take the money and then escape without repairing the damage.”
