Moonwatcher

Ever since the introduction mobile phones, there has been a chorus of criticism regarding the health implications of using these devices. Now I’m not referring to the physical effects induced by low self esteem due to not owning the latest, most fashionable, ‘you beaut’, take anywhere and do everything phones on the market today that have become an indispensable tool and fashion accessory. Check out Sanaa’s entry as she covers the social implications of mobile phones really well. No, what I’m referring to is cancer. Every now and then, something happens to put the argument back on the agenda again that mobile phones cause cancers or other life threatening ailments. And what put this back onto the agenda? The high incidence of staff illness (brain tumours) at the Bourke St, RMIT building. But are mobile phones and associated magnetic fields the cause?

It would be nice to give a cut and dried yes/no answer here, but frankly there is not enough research to make an accurate determination. Take a look at the conclusions given to research and experiments on the Bandolier website. Although their results are quite calming in the sense that we can freely continue using these devices without series health side effects, the dates from which these conclusions are based are a little alarming. Isn’t there anyone with more up to date research? Have a look at Cancer Research UK. According to Cancer Research UK, there is no connection between mobile phone use and brain tumours (or other cancers), but, it does state there needs to be more research. Tamar Nordenberg’s article also corroborates the Bandolier and Cancer Research UK findings. The good news after reading these articles is there is no direct link between usage and cancer; the better news is the writers of these articles advise more research so that a more definitive conclusion can be reached. So what’s the bad news? The cancer-health website provides a very stark and sobering flip side to the argument. It rejects that there is no link and provides a compelling argument as to why.

So who is right? If I knew that I wouldn’t be writing this blog entry. Read the linked articles for yourself and hunt around for more information if you don’t think they cover the argument well enough.

There was once a time when conspiracy theorists, hoaxers and fakers were considered fringe groups of society who engaged in activities and studies that were questionable, fanciful or just plain incorrect. Occasionally, one would get a film or documentary made that might get an airing on TV in a timeslot befitting its content, or appear on a chat or variety show as an ‘expert’ informing us of the deceptions and lies being perpetuated right infront of us (including by them perhaps!) by people, agencies or societies unknown. And then the technology changed. Mass communication and data transfers via computers connected to the internet came along allowing anyone, anywhere access to uncensored information. Who needs traditional media when the possibilities of new media are so tantalizing. So now we have a plethora of conspirators etc publishing unsubstantiated information via the internet on a variety of topics including extra terrestrials, masons, religious orders, government agencies, September eleven and my personal favourite, the Apollo moon landings.

Has man walked on the moon? What a stupid question, and yet there are millions of people who believe we haven’t. Are these people gullible, ignorant and stupid? Probably, but take a look at how this ‘evidence’ is presented by such people or organizations as Dave Cosnette and the American Patriot Friends Network websites. Did you have a look? Don’t read on until you do! It is rather compelling the arguments and evidence presented, and I literally mean the way it’s presented. Lots of photos, movies to click on, charts, graphs, illustrations; anything to disguise the fact that there aren’t any facts. And everything is written as a question, where are the answers? Maybe they are here. Have a look at Robert A. Braeunig’s website. Notice something different? It’s all facts, paragraph after paragraph of facts, no pictures or illustrations, just the facts. And it debunks the debunkers. Compelling? Yes. Sexy? No. Faking intelligence by disguising ignorance is not new, it’s just a lot easier to do now with the visual technology at our disposal. Have you ever seen someone give a PowerPoint or Keynote presentation?

Having a voice on the internet, sure, why not, there is a right to freedom of speech and freedom of expression. But what if what you are writing is complete nonsense? And what’s more, what if it has been discredited and shown to be rubbish? Should it be removed from the internet? If so, by whom? I guess any good conspirator would say there is a conspiracy of silence, or a conspiratorial vendetta or something like that to stop them, so it’s probably better to just let them keep publishing, if for no other reason it gives them something to do and it gives the rest of us a good laugh. Speaking of which, take a look at Seymour Sense’s website. And to finish off, click here to see the footage of Buzz Aldrin punching Bart Sibrel. Don’t know who they are, click here for the fox news report.

Language is arguably the most important contributor in allowing humans to communicate with each other. It is something that unifies and defines whole races and cultures, but is equally able to cause division and conflict. With the growth of mass communication, world travel and the internet, which language should we be using to talk to each other with? My choice would be for English, but that is only because it’s the only language I speak and ‘coincidently’ it is becoming a de facto world language, so the need for me to learn another language seems redundant. However, English is not the most spoken language. According to Dennis O’Neal, Mandarin Chinese is with approximately one billion speakers and English comes in fourth behind Hindi and Spanish. These figures vary between researchers as they are estimates, but all agree that English is not the top language. Does this mean that we should all go off and learn Mandarin? At this point, no, but, with China’s emergence as a world power, who knows in five to ten years!

The reasons for English’s ascendancy are many and varied and may include such things as its openness to integrate words from other languages into its vocabulary. This possibly says more about the people speaking it, but that’s not the point of this entry. With regards to internet, again according to Dennis O’Neal, approximately 90% of all traffic is in English. Does this mean that the majority of websites, forums, blogs etc exclude the majority of the world’s population from the information, ideas and communities on-line? Statistically speaking, yes. If you’re wealthy enough, have an understanding of computers and can speak English, then the internet is brilliant. The connections that can be made with like minded people around the world and the amount of information that can be sourced are astounding. But if you’re poor, technology illiterate and a non-English speaker, what do you do?

With the uptake of computer technology worldwide and the adoption of English as a world language, what is to become of unwritten languages? Think of it like this. To read this blog, you need to have English literacy skills as it uses an alphabet based on Latin script. Therefore, English is both a spoken and written language. I have to be able to write it and you have to be able to read it (and vice versa if you leave a comment). It’s obvious to us because we as individuals have communicated like this since we were children. But if you are part of a culture that has a verbal language (that is, no alphabet), how do you do a blog entry? Does the move towards becoming a ‘global community’ mean the end of traditional indigenous communities? If so, what are we losing?

You can read more at Kryss Tal

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So you’ve been online for sometime now. You’ve updated your hardware and software and have justified the extra expense of switching to broadband. Now you have a fast, reliable, always on internet connection. You start to spend more time online doing such things as downloading music, conversing in chat rooms, reading articles and perhaps even blogging. Its then that you start to realise that you are spending more and more of your time online. More of your time is taken up talking nonsense in chat rooms, responding to blog comments, downloading music you can’t stand etc, but you still spend hours a day on the internet, even though you believe that most of the time you’re not doing anything constructive online. Do you have an internet addiction? Does internet addiction really exist?

We’ve all heard the horror stories of people staying online for days, if not week’s straight playing games, and other people sourcing pornography they claim they wouldn’t have accessed if it weren’t available online. Is this the internet’s fault? No, it can’t be, it’s a computer, it only does what the operator wants it to do. According to John M. Grohol, Psy.D, there isn’t an internet addiction disorder, but rather, perceived over use of the internet is an indicator of existing psychological disorders that can be treated with current treatments. For example, people who talk on the phone for hours aren’t seen as having a ‘phone addiction’. Also, internet usage has to be placed in context, for example, if you’re a university student, how many hours a day are you online? (Don’t answer that!). If there is an internet addiction, the current research methods are not going to uncover it. For a first hand look, go to the Internet Addiction Survey. Can you draw a relationship between your responses and behaviour being related to the internet?

Whatever you reasons to go online, if you’re happy with it, keep doing it! (as long as it’s not illegal!). The internet is a socially connecting device and if your spending hours per week communicating with people with a similar interest to yourself, where is the harm in that? Like wise if you are a passive user, such as reading news and current affairs articles. I guess the moderation rule applies here, just like it does with everything else to do with life. If you feel you have a problem, seek professional help, for the rest of us; don’t be afraid to turn the power button off every now and then!

You can read more at CNN, Wikipedia and American Psychological Association

On August 14, 2003, the unthinkable happened. The north eastern United States and part of eastern Canada were thrown into darkness. For almost twenty four hours, public and private lights went off, public transport was shut down, the stock exchange suspended trading, digital communications failed and the internet was disrupted. It affected over fifty million people and had a financial cost of $US6 Billion. What was it? A terrorist attack? An alien invasion? A grand scheme to rob a bank? It was none of these. It was a disruption to the electricity supply caused by power lines coming into contact with trees resulting in a major blackout.

The significance of this event on people who use the internet regularly is quite dramatic. For all the effort, time and money put into computer hardware and software design, creation and integration and for all the effort put in by people worldwide on using, exploring and expanding computers use’s and applications , there is one levelling factor – electricity. An unreliable power supply renders all electrical equipment (not just computers) redundant. For you to read this blog right now means that you are using a reliable electricity source. Without it, all you are looking at is your reflection in a blank screen!

So next time you logon to the internet to check your e mail or converse in your cyber community or whatever your reason, just take a moment to consider what’s powering your computer and no, I’m not referring to its processor! If the worlds leading industrialized nation can suffer such an infrastructure failure, what does that say about technological advancement and wealth creation? Oh, and one more thing, a similar event happened in Europe six weeks later.

You can read more at BBC, CNN and Wikipedia

It appears that the next phase of the internet’s evolution is well and truly underway. With the cost of computers decreasing, the uptake of broadband internet connections increasing and the rise of a generation who are computer literate, it is little wonder that people are reaching out to connect with others through the internet. So how are these connections made? E mail, home pages, forums and blogs are the most obvious, but, blogs are the ones that are growing at an expeditious rate. For many, blogging has become a natural extension of themselves. For some, it is a way of sharing technical information. For others, it is about expressing their opinions. The list of things you can do with a blog is limitless; it’s simply up to you to decide what path you want to travel down. This freedom to express oneself, combined with the low monetary costs involved with set up, is arguably one of many reasons why blogging is so popular. When combined with a recent phenomenon called “pod casting”, we now find ourselves witnessing (or are part of) something that is redefining the way we communicate, exchange and gather knowledge and entertain ourselves. Anybody, at anytime, anywhere in the world can upload any data they wish and make it available to anyone, who then can do almost anything they want with it. This means that this data is possibly not subject to social, cultural, economic, political etc ‘censorship’. This sounds almost too good to be true, is it?

For every upside, there has to be a down. The sheer volume of data available on the internet is going to make it near impossible for anyone to find you; and this data increases in size daily. There are ways to be found, such as through search engines or links, but it may take some time (if ever) to find a following or audience. If your blog is about passing on information, such as news, current affairs or documentaries, who is vetting your information? How do I know if it’s the truth or correct? Where are you sourcing the information from? Why should I trust you? You may not be who you say you are! Unfortunately, making internet networks or building cyber communities gives the more insidious people in the world a whole new expanse to ply their craft. Just look at the amount of computer virus’s, trojans, worms etc that are all ‘floating’ around in cyber space. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg!

Is it worthwhile therefore to have a web presence? Absolutely, but, remember what the old saying says: ‘look before you leap’. Get online, have your say, take-in what others are doing, but, be vigilante.