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Los Angeles-based search engine company Do-Mode.com has published a list of specific absorption radiation, or SAR, for most brands of cellphone. This revealing list was compiled from Federal Communications Commission information. The cellphone that puts out the most SAR radiation is the Ericsson T28 World model, which emits 1.49 watts per kilogram. Motorola’s Star-Tac Model 7860 has the lowest SAR out put, at 0.24 watts per kilo. It is believed that the 1.6 SAR output level has a substantial safety margin built into it, but there are also serious questions about cellphone safety that remain unanswered. The FCC itself is preparing a report on the health effects of cellphones, due out in 2004.
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In 1999, Australia engaged in the most massive gun control effort in history. Nearly seven hundred thousand guns were turned in by citizens, under a new and stringent gun control law. This is the first national experiment in serious gun control, in a society in which guns have previously been relatively freely available.

Initial statistics reveal the following new trends in this previously low-crime society:

Australia-wide, homicides are up 3.2%

Australia-wide, assaults are up 8.6%

Australia-wide, armed-robberies are up 44%

In the state of Victoria, homicides-with-firearms are up 300%
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According to Professor John Lowe of London University, global warming could cause a mini ice age in the British Isles within a few decades. This would be part of a radical global change in climate that he believes is not far off. Research using ice cores in Greenland indicates that this climate shift could unfold in the UK and northwestern Europe much more quickly than in the rest of the world, and that the British climate could start changing soon.
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NASA scientists reported today that the ozone hole over the antarctic has reached its largest-ever size and will continue to grow through October. Contrary to the jokes made about this by politicians, this is an extremely serious development because the opening of this ozone-free area causes thinning of the layer worldwide. A thinner ozone covering during a solar maximum means that possibly signifcant increases in radiation could reach the earth’s surface during solar storms. It is not likely that this would be life-threatening, but higher than expected levels of such radiation could affect power systems and other shielded devices, because shielding standards have been set to assumed radiation levels lower than might now occur.
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