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Where have all the bees gone?
USA Created: 17 Apr 2007
It is a vanishing on the scale of entire cities. Late in 2006, commercial beekeepers in Florida began noticing alarming numbers of their bees had gone missing. Bustling colonies, tens of thousands strong, were emptying in a matter of days. Systematic searches for dead bees around the colonies mostly drew a blank.
"Bustling honeybee colonies, tens of thousands strong, were emptying in only a matter of days"
"Imagine waking one morning to find 80 per cent of the people in your community are just gone," says May Berenbaum of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
Before long 22 states were reporting similar stories, raising fears that bees were in serious trouble - potentially a big disaster for farmers since bees pollinate crops worth $14 billion each year in the US.
There is no shortage of potential culprits; European honeybees make up the vast majority of commercial stocks in the US and they are susceptible to myriad viral and fungal blights and two forms of parasitic mites, one of which wiped out about half of the American honeybee population in the 1980s. Yet, in this instance, the precise cause of the sudden decline, dubbed "colony collapse disorder", remains elusive. The pattern of disappearance offers few clues, since CCD appears to be widespread and plagues non-migrating colonies as well as those that are moved from place to place to pollinate crops.
Berenbaum and another Illinois researcher, Gene Robinson, are trying to work out whether pathogens or pesticides are behind CCD with the help of the newly sequenced honeybee genome. "If it's a pathogen, genes related to immune response would be over-expressed," says Berenbaum. "If the bees are reacting to a pesticide, we'd expected to see up-regulation of detoxification genes." Meanwhile, Nancy Ostiguy and researchers from Pennsylvania State University, University Park, are looking for signs of a new virus or fungus.
According to Marla Spivak of the University of Minnesota, St Paul, the nature of the beekeeping industry itself could be adding to the problem. For example, she says, in California, where bees are transported each year to pollinate almond plantations, "there are about a half a million acres that need pollination, but growers rent about a million bee colonies". Such high density could create competitive stress for bee colonies. In their quest for pollen and nectar, members of a single colony typically range over several hectares. To avoid food shortages, beekeepers often supplement hive production with high-fructose corn syrup, which may poison the bees if the syrup is not properly prepared. Yet there is no evidence that CCD is related to poisoning, which would typically lead to a faster and more localised die-off.
Spivak also points out that many beekeepers weren't affected by this year's disappearance, and no one is quite sure of the extent of CCD's impact since the true number of bee colonies in the US is unknown. Perhaps the real lesson from CCD, says Jerry Bromenshenk of the University of Montana, is that standardised data about honeybees is not available to help researchers determine if they are dealing with a new and potentially disastrous pathogen.
Daniel Weaver, president of the American Beekeeping Federation, says that between one-quarter and one-half of America's roughly 2000 commercial keepers have reported losses that fit the description of CCD.
Despite the sketchy details, federal lawmakers have begun taking note of the industry's plight. The House Agriculture Committee has scheduled a hearing on CCD for 29 March at which Weaver, Berenbaum and members of the beekeeping community are due to testify.
Weaver plans to ask the Department of Agriculture to double its funding for the nation's four bee research labs; only $8 million out of a $93 billion budget for US agriculture goes on bees. Spivak believes acknowledging that commercial agriculture has to change its ways may be as important as any extra funding. "It's an unsustainable system. The bees are really at the base of a lot of agriculture and if they go tumbling down, what's going to happen on top of that?"
By Michael Reilly New Scientist
http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/mg19325964.500-where-have-all-the-bees-gone.html
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Source: Agnes Ingvarsdottir: By Michael Reilly New Scientist

Escondido cell phone towers getting 'stealthy'
USA Created: 16 Apr 2007
ESCONDIDO -- They're smaller, more "stealthy," and more numerous than ever in Escondido.

Just as cellular phones are becoming more advanced, the cell phone towers that provide them with reception also are evolving.

What began as simple, obvious -- some would say ugly -- metal poles with antennas at the top in the late 1980s and early 1990s have become what experts in the field call a much "stealthier" cell phone tower.

Escondido city officials say that 103 such towers are scattered about the city, disguised as trees, hidden on roofs or built right into church steeples, flagpoles and bell towers. Fifty-five of the cell phone towers were approved since 2001, officials said.

In the 1990s, cell phone companies began creating artificial trees to hide their antennas, but the faux flora wouldn't have fooled a botanist or even a five-year-old upon close inspection.

In recent years, the fake trees have become more realistic, more diverse in the species they emulate, and almost indistinguishable from the real thing, right down to their artificial bark and leaves.

The next step in this evolutionary process to create a less noticeable antenna tower was to integrate the electronics directly into buildings. This more subtle approach since has become the preferred method, when appropriate, Escondido officials say.

"With the architectural elements, you get the total stealth technology where it's virtually invisible," Bill Martin, the city's principal planner, said last week. "With the trees, you can still see the antennas."

Evolving stealth

Cell phone antenna "trees" -- let's call the species Arbola cellularis -- flourish in Escondido. Through the years, simple palm trees evolved into pines and then broadleaf evergreens that Martin said are "the latest tree innovation."

One of the more primitive fake palm trees is behind Albertsons grocery store on East Valley Parkway, in the southwest corner of the parking lot. Though the tree's artificial origin isn't obvious from the street, an observer doesn't have to get close to notice it isn't real.

In addition to the two massive metal boxes containing electrical equipment at the base of the tree, the trunk is little more than brown metal with rings simulating those of a real palm tree painted every one to two feet along the 50-foot pole.

At the top, green equipment and antennas can be seen poking out of the obviously plastic, identical green palm fronds.

More modern antenna trees are less obvious, said associate city planner Jay Paul, who handles the city's permitting process for cell phone towers.

"There's other ones, you get right up to them, you touch them, you don't know that it's not a tree," Paul said.

Cell phone companies use the towers to fill in small gaps in their coverage, Paul said.

Gone are the days when cell phones were considered just an emergency phone for highway travel, he said.

"They (the companies) need to get into areas that before didn't need cell service," Paul said. "Now, the cell phone is taking over the place of the normal phone you have in your house."

Where churches come in

The need for tall structures in which antennas can be hidden has become a boon for churches, which are able to supplement their income through their architecture.

Some churches are just getting on board with plans for their first lease to let a phone company to install an antenna on the church property, such as Trinity Episcopal Church at Ninth Avenue and Chestnut Street, which plans to put a Sprint antenna in its steeple. Others already have multiple cell phone towers or contracts.

Emmanuel Faith Community Church on East Felicita Avenue has antennas serving two cell phone companies in an artificial tree in the parking lot and another antenna for a third company on its roof, officials there said.

At New Life Presbyterian Church, construction to complete a steeple has been delayed until after an antenna contract with Cingular is reached, the Rev. Ted Hamilton said. The church already has T-Mobile antennas on two of its parking lot light towers, he said.

"We know that we're strategically located for the cell companies because we're close to the freeway, so we were an obvious choice," Hamilton said.

Although officials from several churches interviewed last week didn't want to disclose how much they earn from their leases with cell phone companies, some said the amount isn't a large part of the church's income. But it does help, they said.

"We'd get rental income and the cell company gets its site," Hamilton said about the church's decision to allow a cell phone tower.

The Rev. Pam Reynolds of United Way Church in Vista said that not only does her church make money from its cell phone tower, but also the cell phone company paid for the construction of a new bell tower to house the antennas.

"What works well for the church is that Sprint put up the tower, but the structure now belongs to us," Reynolds said.
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Source: North County Times, PAUL EAKINS, 15 Apr

Columbus antenna inspires legal staredown
USA Created: 12 Apr 2007
COLUMBUS - A 171-foot cell tower on a hilltop west of Columbus has become the lightning rod for controversy among rural residents, a local developer and a national cell phone giant.

To the Eagle Mountain landowners who oppose the tower's presence, the issue boils down to private-property rights and the power of their association's covenants.

To the developer, the controversy represents a lot of squabbling over a small issue.

To Alltel, the dispute could jeopardize an important link in the company's cell phone service.
Bob Hilten, president of the Eagle Mountain Landowners Association, doesn't mention "eyesore" when he cites his reasons for opposing the tower. Instead, he and vice president Carl Brenden talk about liability, health risks and nuisances associated with a generator located at the base of the tower. Brenden, who lives a few hundred yards from the tower, says the generator sends off fumes and smoke and is "painfully loud." He also says service personnel have even hauled in floodlights and worked at the tower site throughout the night.

Hilten, a pilot, says the tower stands just shy of the approach path into the Columbus Airport and thus constitutes a hazard and a liability for the town and the county.

"We're not against cell phones," Hilten said. "This is just a poor site for it."

But above all, Hilten and Brenden say they're sticking to their guns for principle. They believe the tower, and the maintenance trucks driving up and down the subdivision's roads, constitute a breach of their subdivision covenants and their property rights.

"At some point, what's worth standing for? This is my home," Hilten said. "As a board member, I have a right and fiduciary responsibility to protect (landowners') property. I have to do what's legal, or I'll get sued."

In fact, Hilten's and Brenden's names - along with the names of more than 50 other individuals, trusts and the landowners' association - do appear as third-party defendants on a lawsuit filed in Stillwater County by Western Wireless Holding Co. and Alltel Communications.

The suit, filed in early February, follows a legacy of legal documents that date to a suit filed by the landowners in 2002. But Alltel's recent suit sent a chilling message.

"We're scared to death," Hilton said. "This has nothing to do with individuals." It has to do with the Eagle Mountain Landowners Association Inc.

Hilten and Brenden see their 32-lot subdivision as the impetus for a private-property decision that could set statewide precedent.

"This doesn't just involve Stillwater County, and it doesn't just involve this little group," Hilten said. "I think every Montanan should be warned about it."

A majority of votes from Eagle Mountain tract owners supports the board and its legal battle, which has already run more than $60,000. The money has not come from the landowners' association coffers but from member contributions.

"A group of us put in money," Brenden said. "I see it as a community service for the good of the community."

Neighbors divided

But not all of Eagle Mountain's residents support the cause. Some, like Dave Legalley, think the matter has been blown off the charts. He says he has been shunned by some neighbors for not backing their stance.

"I think they're going far beyond protecting our covenants," he said.

Dave Majerus, who owns the land on which the tower stands, struggles to remain neutral. The tower was already on the property when he bought it - his real estate agent even advised him to clear things with an attorney before he closed the deal. After investigating, he felt comfortable with the transaction. But he wasn't aware of the deep-rooted controversy.

"It's one of those situations that really has people divided," he said. "No one can agree on anything. That's part of the problem. It's not the biggest issue in my life. But like it or not, you're part of the lawsuit."

Attorney Mark Parker, who represents developer John Sherwood, thinks the matter has mushroomed out of control. Besides, he says, the tower was already there when the vast majority of the landowners purchased their property.

"I would guess that 95 percent of the people use that tower," he said. "In my mind, the story to be told is there is a lot less here than meets the eye. I'm astounded we got this far."

Peeling the onion

The legal documents, which rival a novel in length, date to the subdivision's formation in 1990. But even before that, the county filed an easement for an emergency services antenna at the site.

So when the cell tower went up in the mid-1990s and landowners were told that it was integral to the county's emergency communications system, they had no reason to question.

"You've got to remember, this is back in the 1990s," Hilten said. "We had no cell phones. I had no clue what it was."

Over the years, more and more antennas were added to the tower, he said. And with each new fixture, more trucks added to the washboards of the private, unpaved roads.

Jim Larson, who recently headed an 11-county consortium in charge of emergency communications, says an engineer's report confirms what they learned. The county's antenna serves as a critical "bounce" station between dispatch and the county's emergency services tower on Shane Ridge. But the county's antenna on Eagle Mountain is not attached to the cell tower. In fact, it stands less than 20 feet off the ground, attached to a one-story building located at the tower's base.

Covenants and commercial ventures

When Eagle Mountain was created, it was divided into lots roughly 20 acres in size, then the minimum size exempted from subdivision review. (Subsequent legislation has increased the minimum exempt lot size to 160 acres or more.) To meet that minimum size, each lot boundary at Eagle Mountain was extended to the center line of the subdivision road, suggesting that the roads belong in pieces to each individual property owner along its length.

The covenants, however, also refer to the roads as "common easements" and state that Sherwood conveys to all tract owners a general easement for public utilities.

But the current problem seems to trace back to 1993, when Sherwood signed the lease for the hilltop site. The document also granted to MCII, Alltel's predecessor, use of the subdivision's roads, which provide the only access to the cell tower site.

Hilten and Brenden claim that the tower violates the subdivision's covenants, which limit uses of the property to residential and agricultural purposes.

Parker counters that the cell tower site is a lawful use of the property.

"He (Sherwood) owns the easement," he said. "He can make money on his property."

Hilten and Brenden also believe the companies using the private roads are crossing private property without permission - and each company would need to seek easements from each property owner along the route.

No resolution

Both parties claim they have tried to resolve matters internally.

In September 2002, not long after the landowners learned the true nature of the tower, the association filed a suit naming Sherwood and Western Wireless as defendants. Hilten said they sought judgments based on two key issues: whether the tower is a violation of the covenants and whether the roads and related rights of way are the property of the individual landowners.

Parker argues that after so many years, the roads belong to those who have been driving on them without interruption. Lance Lovell, the attorney representing the landowners' association, argues that awarding an easement to a wrongdoer allows that party to benefit from its wrong.

However the matter is resolved, the county insists it will maintain its site. Although its emergency antenna is not attached to the cell tower, Sheriff Cliff Brophy says the county has also come to rely on cell phone service.

"We use cell phones through the normal course of business and in emergency situations," he said.

A lose-lose proposition

The dispute was inching its way through the legal system when Alltel's lawsuit arrived. The suit not only names Sherwood as a defendant, but it also includes the landowners' association as a counter-claim defendant and several dozen landowners as third-party defendants.

Scott Morris, a spokesman for Alltel, maintains that Alltel has done nothing wrong.

"But we will litigate to protect the interest of our customers and shareholders if necessary," he said.

Hilten figures that even if a judge rules in favor of the landowners' association, the individual landowners could still be dragged into court.

"If we lose the lawsuit, we lose," he said. "If we win the lawsuit, we lose. Some say, 'Wouldn't it just be easier to give it (right of way) away?' The bottom line is, we can't give away something we don't have a right to."
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Source: The Billings Gazette, LINDA HALSTEAD-ACHARYA, 11 Apr 2007

Cell tower draws resident concerns
USA Created: 10 Apr 2007
SOUTH BEND -- A cell phone tower on Lilac Road, about a quarter-mile south of the Indiana-Michigan border, drew a favorable recommendation Wednesday from the Area Board of Zoning Appeals.

Horvath Communications wants to build a 195-foot tower with capacity for five wireless carriers on property sitting 700 feet west of Lilac Road that is surrounded by woods.

The proposal, which now moves on to the St. Joseph County Council for final approval, drew opposition from neighbors.

"This area has the most preferred bicycle route, and is lined by beautiful trees," said Jim Bellis, of 50839 Lilac Road. "This (tower) puts an industrial footprint right in the middle of it."

Many homeowners questioned why the tower can't be placed farther east, in St. Patrick's County Park.

John Falvey, an attorney representing Horvath Communications, said the park site has never been formally proposed -- just discussed, as were several locations -- and only became public because of the public nature of park board meetings.

He also said St. Patrick's County Park is too far east for the needs of U.S. Cellular, one of two carriers that would use the tower right away. Sprint is the other carrier.

Falvey said the tower is needed on Lilac Road to fill in a gap that is causing dropped calls or no signal at all for cell phone users.

Bruce Huntington, an attorney representing neighbors, noted the area has value for its wildlife and archaeological finds, such as flint tools and other ancient Indian artifacts.

"Any time you put up something like this, you are introducing an industrial element in a residential area," he said.

Huntington also asked that it be tabled because only a few residents in the area were officially notified by the board.

Notice was given only to neighbors within 300 feet of the 100-foot-by-100-foot area that will hold the tower.

Notice should have been given to neighbors within 300 feet of the property line of the farm, owned by James and Sandra Machowiak, who want to lease part of their property out to Horvath Communications.

Huntington indicated that neighbors found out about it more through word of mouth.
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Source: South Bend Tribune, JUDY BRADFORD, 09 Apr 2007

Getting to root of rare cancer
USA Created: 6 Apr 2007
Sagamore Radar beam suspected cause of rare bone-cancer cluster.

On the same day he prepared his 21-year-old daughter, Holly, for another round of chemotherapy to treat her cancer, Bernie Young met with a group of state health officials to discuss a study to look into what may have caused it.

Also at the meeting on Wednesday in Boston were representatives of Broadcast Signal Lab of Cambridge, the company chosen to conduct a state-sponsored study of the strength of the radar beam coming from the PAVE PAWS radar station in Sagamore.

The $40,000 study will measure the amount of radiation hitting the homes of more than a dozen Cape residents - most of them children and adolescents - who have been diagnosed with Ewing's sarcoma in the past few years.

Ewing's sarcoma is a rare bone cancer found mainly in Caucasian children. According to the American Cancer Society, the incidence rate is 2.9 cases in 1 million people. Just under 50,000 Caucasian children under 21 live in Barnstable County, according to the 2004 U.S. Census figures.

There have been 12 reported cases of Ewing's sarcoma on Cape Cod in the last decade, the majority since 1996. Holly Young, a former volleyball, track and cross country standout at Dennis-Yarmouth High School, was diagnosed with the disease in 2004 and has been treated off and on ever since. She underwent lung surgery earlier this year.

Young contends, and state health department officials earlier this year agreed, that microwave radiation from PAVE PAWS needs to be ruled out as a possible factor in the elevated Ewing's sarcoma rates. A registered engineer, Young has studied past reports from the National Research Council and Broadcast Signal, and found what he claims are some flaws in the data and the findings.

Using Air Force numbers and a computer program, Young found many of the homes where Ewing's sarcoma cases have been diagnosed to be in direct line to the side lobes of the main radar beam. The lobes are the secondary beams that fall off from the main beam which shoots out over the ocean to track incoming missiles and space junk.

The main beam is sent above the Cape's tree line while side lobe beams cover Cape towns 24 hours a day. In the past, some questioned whether the powerful ''phased array” beam harms human beings at the cellular level and causes diseases.

Cape Cod View
A 2004 Air Force funded study by Broadcast Signal and International Epidemiological Institute found no correlation between disease rates on Cape Cod and exposure to the PAVE PAWS radar beam. The new state study, however, will focus on the radar exposure to the homes of children diagnosed with cancer.

The contract with Broadcast Signal has not been signed, and there is still no definite date for the study to begin. Young, who has looked into past studies that have measured PAVE PAWS radiation, said yesterday he will lobby for the study to be put off until fall, since he believes the truest readings can only be obtained when leaves are off the trees.

Young will be ''providing critical input” for the study protocol, according to state health department spokeswoman Donna Rheaume. She said the contract with Broadcast Signal should be signed by next week. Company investigator David Maxson yesterday said his firm and state health officials are working out the details of the scope of the project. He declined to give any specifics until the contract is signed.

Robin Lord can be reached at rlord@capecodonline.com.
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Source: Cape Cod online, Robin Lord, 06 Apr 2007

Londonderry's 120-foot wireless tower gets planning board OK
USA Created: 6 Apr 2007
LONDONDERRY – The planning board last night OK'd a bid by the town to build a 120-foot wireless communication tower in the center of town.
The facility is primarily designed to house radio equipment for the fire department, but will also contain communications equipment owned by Verizon.
Under state law, the local land use board must review plans by its own municipality if the town or city seeks "any proposed governmental use of property within its jurisdiction, which constitutes a substantial change in use or a substantial new use," according to RSA 674:54.
Barton Mayer, an attorney representing the Town of Londonderry, told the board, "the tower plays an important part in our emergency communications." But, with Verizon as a co-locator, it will serve more than one purpose.
"The project really represents an ideal private-public partnership," he said.
Board member John Farrell questioned whether Verizon's presence on the pole with help alleviate the coverage gap for cell users who experience a drop in calls in that part of town. He held his own cell phone up and jokingly asked, "Are the bars going up?" Verizon representatives said the hope is indeed for better service.
Board member Mary Wing Soares asked why the fire department can't put its radio equipment on an existing tower near town hall where the police department keeps its communication equipment.
Without getting too technical, a fire department representative said the reason the two entities can't share a pole is because police and fire wouldn't be able to transmit information at the same time given the different frequencies they work off of.
In light of the explanation, Soares opted to back the project.
"I think it's needed," she said. "I think it's necessary."
"It's vital communication for the town," echoed Planning Board Chairman Art Rugg.
Board member Paul DiMarco suggested the town look into upping security at the site given the importance of the equipment.
Town council liaison to the planning board Kathy Wagner proposed placing surveillance cameras in the area.
The only concern about the project came from assistant public works director John Trottier, who said drainage on the proposed site needs to be addressed before plans can move forward.
The freestanding pole will be on a landscaped site measuring 100-feet by 100-feet, and will be fenced in to keep out would-be vandals.
Unlike another cell phone tower proposal by Omnipoint Communications that's been the subject of a lengthy public hearing process, no one spoke out against the Verizon proposal last night.
Before Verizon can proceed as a co-user of the pole, it will have to again appear before the planning board with a site plan.
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Source: Union Leader, JON CAMPISI, 05 Apr 2007

Taking T-Mobile to task
USA Created: 6 Apr 2007
Oceanside residents gathered last week to plot their strategy to fight T-Mobile's proposal to install six cell phone antennas on a 20-foot flagpole atop the 51-foot-high roof of a local bank building.

T-Mobile hopes to place the antennas on the roof of the G&M Wolkenberg Mortgage Bank, at 2838 Long Beach Road, a few yards south of the lighthouse in the triangle at Davison Avenue.
Julie Taub, an Oceanside resident and an agent at Hal Knopf Realty a few doors north of the site, organized a meeting at the Oceanside Library on March 28, during which 15 residents kicked around ideas and questioned two T-Mobile representatives. Taub and other residents are preparing for a hearing rescheduled by the Town of Hempstead's Zoning Board of Appeals for May 9, when T-Mobile will try to make a case that it needs the antennas to fill a service gap in that area.
"We must, must, must be at the Board of Appeals hearing on May 9," Taub told the gathering at the hour-long March 28 meeting, encouraging them to contact other residents to get involved. "... We really need the community to come together."
Zoning board Chairman Gerald Wright granted Taub an adjournment at a hearing on March 14, when she explained that she had only learned of the case a few weeks earlier and requested that she be given time to conduct her own study of the area. Taub said her study would involve getting T-Mobile customers near the proposed site to make and receive calls at different times of the day, on various surrounding streets and in differing weather conditions. She planned to log and present their findings to the zoning board at the May 9 hearing.
Taub said that whenever her husband drives past the site, his T-Mobile phone always has three to five code bars, indicating that his service is sufficient. One T-Mobile user at the meeting said that he, too, has no problems with service in that area. "The need is zero," Taub said. "We're getting service, and we have to tell the board this."
Resident Bob Jones suggested expanding the study to include research on T-Mobile's subscription rates, and how the company's competitors, like Cingular, are faring in the area. Oceanside resident and real estate agent Vicky Kaplan said that she and other Cingular users she knows experience no problems with service.
"I get service all over Oceanside, so go where Cingular has their antennas," Kaplan told Andrew Overton, a T-Mobile spokesman, and Robert Springer of the company's zoning division. "Put up mini ones like Cingular does; don't put up something big that will only [be effective within] a half-mile radius and is going to be an eyesore."
Kaplan wasn't alone in her concern about the appearance of six antennas attached to a 20-foot pole atop a prominent building in the middle of town. Some residents noted that for years they have been trying to beautify the north end of Long Beach Road, taking part in ongoing beautification and facade projects along that stretch, closing down the Oceanside Motel, getting the triangle lighthouse built and awaiting the development of a Wild By Nature supermarket and chain pharmacy at the former Foodtown and Oceanside Theater sites.
"We're trying to beautify this neighborhood, and now you want to put up a big pole with antennas all over it," one woman said. "It's bad enough that we have that bombed-out-looking area," she added, referring to the Foodtown site.
Other residents told Overton and Springer that once T-Mobile is permitted to mount antennas on the flagpole, other companies may try to attach their antennas to the pole.
Overton said that T-Mobile ‹ which has other antennas at the Oceanside landfill and on Royal Avenue, across the railroad tracks ‹ looked at more than 20 other sites in town, including firehouses, before settling on the bank building. Last June, T-Mobile submitted an application to put antennas atop the Redco building, at 3115 Long Beach Road, at the former Roasty's restaurant, five blocks south of the bank building. Omnipoint Communications, the umbrella corporation for T-Mobile, will continue to pursue both applications.
"It's highly likely we won't need the Redco site once the Welkenberg site is approved, and our application will be withdrawn," Esme Lombard, a senior manager at National External Affairs, speaking on behalf of Omnipoint, told the Herald. "And if Welkenberg is turned down, we will continue to pursue Redco."
One longtime Oceanside businessman, pharmacist Jorge Winter of Ocean Chemist, told residents how he, Taub and other Oceansiders stopped Nextel Communications from mounting 12 antennas and an equipment shelter on the roof of the apartment building above his pharmacy at Long Beach Road and Windsor Parkway in 2003. Nextel said it needed this site to fill "spotty coverage," but the zoning board conducted its own study with Nextel cell phone users in that area, and ultimately ruled that there was not enough need for the antennas. "People told me, You'll never beat them,' and we did," Winter said.
He added that he believes the antennas' electromagnetic radiation emissions are a health concern.
"Your baby monitor or microwave put out more radiation than our cell antennas," Overton countered. "That's just physics."
Springer said that he grew up in Oceanside and has relatives who live near the bank building, and that he would never jeopardize their health. "These people would not put up antennas that would hurt my family that lives six blocks from the site," he said.
Kaplan claimed that people with microwaves and baby monitors are different from workers who have to spend eight hours a day in the bank. Nevertheless, he is aware that opposition to cell phone towers on health-related grounds is futile, since the federal Telecommunications Act of 1996 prohibits anyone from making such a case.
While Taub welcomed Overton and Springer when they asked to attend the community meeting as well as another one she would like to hold, she accused T-Mobile of "piggybacking" on her meetings as their way of abiding by a zoning board policy. Wright had adjourned the March 14 hearing in part because he found that T-Mobile had failed to fulfill a zoning board requirement that cell phone companies planning to mount antennas meet with residents to explain their proposals.
Lombard said that T-Mobile always makes itself available to the community when there are questions or concerns about any of its applications. In Oceanside, the company has mailed information to people and directed them to a Web site about the facility and about wireless equipment, she said.
"We had reached out to a lot of constituents, asking them if there were any concerns, and some people never got in touch with us," Lombard said. "We attended Mrs. Taub's meeting at the library with the intent of answering and addressing any questions and working with that group."
Comments about this story? JKellard@liherald.com or 516-569-4000 ext. 210.
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Source: Herald Community, JOSEPH KELLARD, 05 Apr 2007

As it turns out, not only do Bees get Radiated from masts, They also get directly Blasted! No wonder they dissapear!
USA Created: 5 Apr 2007
Bee Alert Technology Inc. - Hive Security Products
Hive Security
HiveTrackerT is a newly developed technology by Bee Alert Technology, Inc. to protect and locate beehives and other equipment.
HiveTrackerT uses tiny devices called Radio Frequency (RF) transmitters, which are less than 2 inches long and no thicker than two quarters, to specifically identify valuable assets such as beehives. These tags can be located using special equipment from distances up to 1,500 feet, meaning that it is very difficult to hide any hive marked with HiveTrackerT. Working with Bee Alert Technology, Inc., you can now locate your valuable assets from a low-flying aircraft, or by driving down the road. The HiveTrackerT tags come preprogrammed, so that they are unique to you. All you have to do is to determine a secure location to place the HiveTrackerT tags. We also provide you with HiveTrackerT identification stickers which you should affix to a prominent location to warn potential thieves.

HiveMarkerT is a recently developed technology by Bee Alert Technology, Inc. to uniquely identify beehives and other equipment.
HiveMarkerT is a very small tag that carries an identification number that is unique to that tag. The tag is very cheap, and so small that it can be placed in practically any location on, around or even in your beehive. It has a practically unlimited life. Using specially developed hand held readers, these tags can be read from distances up to 5 feet, and will definitively identify the hive or equipment as being yours.

HiveSentryT is an emerging technology by Bee Alert Technology, Inc. to secure beehives and other equipment in holding yards.
HiveSentryT is a satellite or cell-phone/internet reporting station that calls you when any of your beehives or pallets move. The system consists of a battery-powered, cell phone or satellite integrated tag reader in a small box The weatherproof box can be placed in the middle of a beeyard, near a gate, or at a weigh station or border crossing. Our sentinel system is used with our HiveTrackerT tags and has a range of 300 ft.
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Source: Martin Weatherall/Agnes Ingvarsdottir

Riddle of the billions of bees that buzzed off ! What riddle?
USA Created: 4 Apr 2007
It is the mystery that has America abuzz. Bees are apparently vanishing by the billion - right at the height of the pollination process.
Without them, U.S. crops such as almonds, avocados, oranges and kiwi fruit could soon be in short supply.
British shoppers would also feel the pinch, with the price of imported fruit, vegetables and nuts rising rapidly.
"Every third bite we consume is dependent on a honeybee to pollinate that food," said Zac Browning, vice president of the American Beekeeping Federation.
"Without adequate pollination there will be crop shortages and that will affect prices in the U.S., Britain and many other major markets." Pollination is a £7billion-a-year business-in the U.S. Many beekeepers, who have lost interest in supplying honey thanks to cheap Chinese imports, now concentrate on portable hives.
They load them into the back of 18-wheel articulated lorries and travel around the country. Then they hire out the bees to crop growers keen for their plants to be pollinated.
This month many are converging on central California where 1,000 square miles of almond trees need pollinating.
The travelling beekeepers own about 2.4million hives, each containing about 30,000 bees. But once released, up to 70 per cent of their bees are not making it back to the hives. They simply go missing in action. Worried researchers call it "colony collapse disorder".
Investigators are looking into the possibility that insecticides somehow affect the bees' homing instincts so they can't find their way back to the hives.
Another worrying theory is that the bees have been too highly-bred as super-pollinators and are dropping dead, exhausted because of the workload.
Recently a Florida beekeepers' convention was told experts are no closer to solving the problem. They are exploring the possibility that viruses, a fungus or poor nutrition could be behind the mass disappearance.
In the past, crop growers trying not to rely on bees have used everything from giant blowers to helicopters and mortar shells to spread pollen across crops.
But they always end up admitting Mother Nature does it best. Especially when given the extra help that these giant visiting swarms can bring.
Now desperate U.S. beekeepers are having to look overseas to replenish their vanishing stocks.
Lance Sundberg, from Columbus, Montana, has just spent £75,000 on 14million Australian bees.
"I just hope they have some sort of immunity that the American bees don't have," he said. "If not they'll keep vanishing ... and then we've really got problems."
Click here to view the source article.
Source: by BARRY WIGMORE. Daily Mail

Millions of Bees Die - Are Electromagnetic Signals To Blame?
USA Created: 3 Apr 2007
Bees in the US are dying of some unknown cause - millions of them are leaving their hives and do not come back. What is happening? The problem has got a name - colony collapse disorder - but no apparent cause.
Some years back, France and other European countries had a similar, if less severe die-off of honey bees. At the time Gaucho, a poisonous seed treatment chemical produced by Bayer, was blamed, but the situation seems to have stabilized since then.
The situation in the US seems even more severe than what happened in Europe, and certainly the onset is more sudden. According to The Independent, millions of honey bees are abandoning their hives and flying off to die, leaving beekeepers facing ruin and US agriculture under threat.
"Across the country, from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific, honey bee colonies have started to die off, abruptly and decisively. Millions of bees are abandoning their hives and flying off to die (they cannot survive as a colony without the queen, who is always left behind).
Some beekeepers, especially those with big portable apiaries, or bee farms, which are used for large-scale pollination of fruit and vegetable crops, are facing commercial ruin - and there is a growing threat that America's agriculture may be struck a mortal blow by the loss of the pollinators. Yet scientists investigating the problem have no idea what is causing it."
On my weekly news grabs, I linked some articles on the mysterious die-off of honey bees, and a reader commented, suggesting that emissions of GWEN, the Ground Wave Emergency Network, might be to blame. Here is what he had to say:
After reading several articles on the disappearance of the honeybee, the thought occurred that this appears to be happening only in the US. A Google search turned up nothing on this phenomenon in any other country, including Canada and Mexico.
Why only the US? Also, why are nonsensical excuses being offered up by the pseudo-scientific community for the demise of the bee?
Researchers have dubbed the syndrome the "colony collapse disorder." They say the bees presumably are dying in the fields, perhaps becoming exhausted or disoriented and eventually dying from exposure to the cold. Or, it could just be that the bees are stressed out. Give me a break!
Tired bees? Dying from weather exposure? Stressed out bees? Disoriented?

Just imagine a tired bee for a moment. When’s the last time you saw a tired bee?
Dying from weather exposure? Weather cold enough to kill bees in their hives would also decimate other insect populations. No report on that, huh?
Stressed out bees? What, all of a sudden bees get stressed out? What about bees in other countries? They don’t seem to be having a problem at all.
Disoriented bees? Ah, well this is a possibility. But what would make them disoriented? Perhaps it is the 250 HZ signals being pumped out of GWEN stations all over America. This signal makes people angry, so that they support the administrations idea of going after Iran and violence in general. It works great for mass manipulation of opinion. Unfortunately, the same signal will induce a misdirection of up to 10 degrees in the navigation ability of the honeybee. They go away from the hive and never come back because they can no longer find it. That’s why it’s only happening in the US.
Perhaps the most puzzling aspect of this is that US media has never ventured to question why it is only happening here. Somebody must have told them to clam up on this issue or the current crop of US reporters got their degrees in journalism out of a Cracker Jack box.
Now what the hell are GWEN stations, you might want to ask, and what could they have to do with the catastrophic die-off of honey bees...
- - -
GWEN, Microwave Arrays and Mobile Phone Radiation

GWEN, the Ground Wave Emergency Network, is a military communications network, consisting of some 300 transmitters dotting the whole of the continental United States. Each tower is 300-500 feet high. The stations are from 200 to 250 miles apart, so that a signal can go from coast to coast from one station to another. The official purpose is "to ensure adequate communication between command authorities and land-based strategic nuclear forces in the event of a nuclear attack on the United States mainland." But there are others who say, a different, hidden use of the system may be "electromagnetic mind-altering technology" using ELF or Extremely Low Frequency waves.
According to a 1982 Air Force review of biotechnology, ELF has a number of potential military uses, including "dealing with terrorist groups, crowd control, controlling breaches of security at military installations, and antipersonnel techniques in tactical warfare." The same report states:
"Electromagnetic systems would be used to produce mild to severe physiological disruption or perceptual distortion or disorientation. They are silent, and counter-measures to them may be difficult to develop."
Robert O. Becker, M.D., in his book "Crosscurrents: The Perils of Electropollution" said:
"GWEN is a superb system, in combination with cyclotron resonance, for producing behavioral alterations in the civilian population. The average strength of the steady geomagnetic field varies from place to place across the United States. Therefore, if one wished to resonate a specific ion in living things in a specific locality, one would require a specific frequency for that location. The spacing of GWEN transmitters 200 miles apart across the United States would allow such specific frequencies to be 'tailored' to the geomagnetic-field strength in each GWEN area."
Another candidate for a source of disturbing radiation is the Microwave Vertical Array, a large number of microwave towers erected throughout the US, which may have uses other than simple communication.
The bees seem to be playing the role that canary birds had in the mines, warning us of impending desaster. Are these insects, by their unprecedented behavior of flying off without returning to their hives, showing that something insidious is going on? Whether this is a signal of covert mind control or simply radiation from mobile phone applications, for sure we should be paying attention.
According to a message from Art Kab, electromagnetic waves may well have the capacity of disorienting not only bees but a number of flying creatures. Here is a specific instance involving bees he quotes:
At Cornell Univ. honeybees in a hive relocated into a new building became disoriented. After extensive research ruled out other causes, someone noticed the hive was next to the building's electric transformer. The bees were confused by 60 hz magnetism strong enough to interfere with homing and communication to gather nectar and pollen. (http://www.ratical.org/ratville/RofD4.html)
In Germany, a study of honeybees irradiated with DECT mobile phone base station radiation found that only few of the irradiated bees returned to the hive, and that they required more time to return than the non irradiated bees. Also, the weight of the honeycombs of the irradiated bees was found to be smaller than those in the hives of non irradiated bees. (Stever H, Kuhn J, Otten C, Wunder B, Harst W. Verhaltensaenderung unter elektromagnetischer Exposition. Pilotstudie. Institut fuer Mathematik. Arbeitsgruppe Bildungsinformatik. Universitaet Koblenz-Landau; 2005. http://agbi.uni-landau.de/materialien.htm)
See also
www.mikrowellensmog.info/bienen.html Bees die from microwave irradiation - German site of Dr. Ferdinand Ruzicka, University professor.
and
http://canterbury.cyberplace.org.nz/ouruhia/ Ouruhia Web, a New Zealand electromagnetic waves website.
and
Firstenberg, A. 1997: Microwaving Our Planet: The Environmental Impact of the Wireless Revolution. Cellular Phone Taskforce. Brooklyn, NY 11210.
See also Alfonso Balmori on EMFacts.
Other indications put together by Kab about the effects suffered not only by bees but also birds and farm animals from the effects of cell phone radiation:
The effects of EMR are being felt by wildlife and the environment as a whole, Birds, bees, worms, trees are all being affected. We need to fight for not only the future of mankind but for the future of the whole environment.
Vienna physicians are displaying information posters in doctor's surgeries. They state radiation from mobile phones is far from being harmless as they have been told by the cell phone companies. They have therefore, in order to act responsibly, the Chamber of Doctors in Vienna, Austria, has decided to inform people about potential medical risks.
http://www.mast-victims.org/index.php?content=journal&action=view&type=journal&id=111
His findings, and subsequent related work by Dr Cyril Smith (Smith and Baker, 1982), seem relevant also to the earlier and more generally accepted studies on bees and homing pigeons, both of which are known to have receptors which are able to sense the Earth's magnetic field and its variations, which they use to help direct their survival behavior. My own extraordinary first experience of complete disorientation below the lines may also be relevant; I had never experienced this before, though I have done so since, most notably after I had held up a fluorescent tube for over an hour, to be photographed under the lines; the next day, after a distressingly sleepless night, I found what looked like a burn on that shoulder.
http://www.bewisepolarize.com/man-made%20emf%20sources.htm
Our cheap transistor radios can pick up and separate out hundreds of radio signals at levels of a few hundreds of microvolts/metre. More sophisticated communications receivers can work down to levels of about 10 microvolts/metre. Radio-astronomers work on informational signals from stars at less than 1 microvolt/metre - this is a power level of about 0.000 000 000 001 microwatt/cm2 (1 attowatt/cm2 !!). We can now detect and create pictures from signals from spacecraft at our outer planets using transmit powers similar to those use by mobile phones of a few watts!
Honeybees have been shown to be sensitive to magnetic flux differences of 1 nanotesla (10 microGauss) [4][Theoretically humans could also be sensitive down to less than this level (pineal thermal noise c. 0.24 nanotesla - Smith, 1985). Various sea creatures can detect voltage gradients of a few 10's of microvolts/metre.
Biological stochastic resonance from regular pulsing EMFs can effectively amplify coherent signals (like power EMFs) by vast amounts.
What arrogant nonsense to suggest that living systems need to be "cooked" before they realize they are being bombarded by signals and that microwaves of 100 volts/metre are harmless to us.
http://members.aol.com/gotemf/emf/animals.htm

Honey bees navigate by observing changes as small as 0.6% in the Earth's magnetic field (2.5 mG out of 400 mG). Other studies have shown that other animals, such as sea turtles and homing pigeons, can navigate using the Earth's magnetic field as a guide. In order to navigate to precision, it is necessary to have many magnetosomes with a permanent dipole moment which are able to maintain their direction in the Earth's magnetic field while being buffeted by Brownian thermal fluctuations.

V.3. Animals: Honey bees follow B fields (Walker/Bitterman, J. Comp. Physiol. 157, 67-73, 1995, and Science 265, 95, 1994) down to a few mG DC accuracy and sea turtles turn when B varies at earth's locations (Science 264, 661 (1994).

42. "Honeybees Can Be Trained to Respond to Very Small Changes in Geomagnetic Field Intensity," M.M. Walker and M.E. Bitterman, J. Exp. Biology 145, 489-494 (1989). (A)
- - -
Two more pages on the GWEN system:
GWEN Ground Wave Emergency Network
GWEN Towers, HAARP & Satellite GPS_EMF Control Grid

See also:
EMF frequencies or microwave frequencies are overriding normal control mechanisms in the body and shutting off energy production
http://www.hese-project.org/hese-uk/en/issues/emr.php?id=bees
Click here to view the source article.
Source: Martin Weatherall

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