Amazing animated gifs from Head Like an Orange. // (Click on the image to see it in action.)

Way cool concept pumptrack bike.

Over-the-Horizon backscatter radar network, Christmas Valley Radar Site. Lake County, OR. Photo courtesy of Library of Congress.

How do we perceive risk? How do we make informed decisions about possible risks in our lives?

The discussion forum on the San Juan County Broadband forum on health and safety concerns has been overwhelmed by a single individual posting hundred of links and articles, isolated from context or commentary, many of which are highly technical. It is realistically impossible for an individual to draw any sort of conclusion from this barrage of text. The result of this display of “facts” is to confuse and disempower citizens, and to make it extremely difficult to think clearly about the issue at hand.

To take but one example, the statement “WHO has classified microwave radiation (from cell towers and WiFi) as a Group 2B Possible Carcinogen” has been mentioned numerous times in connection with the discussion of wireless communications technology. This statement is incomplete and presented without background or context.

Some background: the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), part of WHO (the World Health Organization), conducts and coordinates research on possible sources of cancer.

Group 2B carcinogens is “a category used when a causal association is considered credible, but when chance, bias or confounding cannot be ruled out with reasonable confidence.” (Source: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs193/en/”)

Note that the IARC considered individual use of cell phones and portable telephones in this determination, not the exposure from broadcast sources of RF [radiofrequency] such as cell towers or wi-fi base stations. The exposure of an individual to radiofrequency emissions from a cell phone is vastly greater than that exposure from base station transmitters. “Recent surveys have shown that the RF exposures from base stations range from 0.002% to 2% of the levels of international exposure guidelines, depending on a variety of factors such as the proximity to the antenna and the surrounding environment. This is lower or comparable to RF exposures from radio or television broadcast transmitters. [emphasis mine]” (Source: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs304/en/index.html)

But back to that scary-sounding “possible carcinogen” rating. In addition to radiofrequency (RF) electromagnetic fields, other Group 2B possible carcinogens include:

• Coffee
• Carbon black (present in large quantities in tires, and constantly released to the atmosphere as they wear)
• Carpentry and joinery (occupational exposure to)
• Cocamide DEA (widely used in personal care products such as soap and shampoo)
• Engine exhaust
• Firefighter (occupational exposure as)
• Pickled vegetables (traditional in Asia)
• Saffrole (from the sassafrass root)
• Talc-based body powder
• Titanium dioxide (widely used in sunscreens)
• Welding fumes (occupational exposure to)

IARC’s full list can be read here:

http://monographs.iarc.fr/ENG/Classification/ClassificationsGroupOrder.pdf
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What are the risks to society from these common substances and occupations? How do we decide what risks are acceptable to us as a society? How do we balance real and perceived risks to the individual against the needs of the community?
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I’ll use an example of a common environmental hazard: wood smoke. Wood smoke is classified by the IARC as a Class 2A carcinogen: probably carcinogenic.

Wood stoves are very common, we can see smoke, and no one thinks twice about it. We can’t see RF it and therefore can be easy to fear this invisible “radiation.” However, wood smoke is quite toxic—as toxic as cigarette smoke. Wood smoke sickens, enfeebles, and kills millions of people, many of them children, every year worldwide. Wood smoke is a major source of air pollution in rural areas such as the San Juans. Why then do we not ban wood stoves and wood burning, when it is so demonstrably hazardous to people and the environment? Is it because it is familiar, historic, and useful? How is our perception of risk from wood stoves so different from the perception of risk from radiofrequency fields?
Source: Northwest Clean Air Agency, “How Wood Smoke Harms Your Health”
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Exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMF) is unavoidable in our modern world. Common household appliances such as vacuum cleaners and hair dryers “leak” electricity. Weather radar, security systems, TV and radio signals all emit electromagnetic fields. We are all, this very moment, blanketed with radiofrequency emissions from television and radio broadcasts—and have been for many decades. While it may be possible to live an EMF-free life in the US, one would have to go much farther from civilization than the San Juan Islands.

So should we accept a large-scale application of wireless broadband in the county? I think it is wise to discuss the pros and cons of this scheme. I understand that some people fear radiofrequency emissions and do not wish to live near a wi-fi base station. However, there are uncountable risks in life, and it’s not possible to avoid them all. As I noted above regarding wood smoke, we tend to accept risks that are familiar and personally useful to us, and avoid risks that are unfamiliar and for which we find no utility.
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A final word: some have proposed that we halt development of wireless technologies based on the fact that we can not completely rule out the possibility of harm: the “precautionary principle.” But there is a danger in utilizing the precautionary principle: namely, that by describing a perceived risk, rather than an actual risk, there exists the possibility that the public will perceive a greater risk, rather than feeling safer. A study on risk perception by the National Institutes of Health concludes: “Precautionary measures implemented with the intention of reassuring the public about EMF risk potentials seem to produce the opposite effect. They may amplify EMF-related risk perceptions and trigger concerns.” (Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1278478/)

Are we dealing with the perception of risk, or the risk itself? It is not difficult for people to become fearful of something they cannot perceive. Another study by the National Institutes of Health on individuals who express symptoms of sensitivity to electromagnetic fields cannot demonstrate that the symptoms are caused by exposure to the fields or by simply the the perception of exposure. (Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2072835/)

The prospect of broadband access for all the citizens of the San Juans is much too important to be sacrificed because of fear of a risk, rather than the possibility of the risk itself.

PDF of this article: EMF, RF, WiMax, ES, WHO – Acronyphobia in the San Juan Islands

Handmade cedar bark fedora by Paul Rowley // via Madrona Murphy

One of the coolest things I’ve seen in years.

Australian Nuthatch // from Discovering Australia

I’m a sucker for nuthatches.

Swainson’s Thrush, Catharus ustulatus

One of the things I most look forward to each spring is the arrival of the year’s first Swainson’s thrush. They announce their presence through, first, their calls, then a bit later the males will start to sing: usually in the late dusk, long after most other birds have gone to roost for the evening. They are shy and secretive birds that prefer dense thickets of deciduous brush and mature trees. We are fortunate to have them in our yard, and it seems the past couple of years there are more of them.

Once you learn the clear whistling “whit” of their calls, and the entrancing flutelike song, you’ll never forget them.

Swainson’s Thrush, call

Swainson’s Thrush, song

Photo by Matt Reinbold // CC licensed // Recordings by Tayler Brooks

Cortney Knudson diggin' for Truckee

Mikey Silvestry, dust devil

Concept plan for Truckee Pump Park

File this under: Why Doesn’t Every Town Have One? Truckee, California has a crazy beautiful new place for riders. It’s more than a pump track – it’s a BMX-style pump park, with starting mound, lots and lots of lops, and a strider loop surrounding it for the groms.

Read about it on Pinkbike // Follow on Facebook.

Budnitz Bicycles No.3 Black Steel

Adding to the ranks of boutique bicycle builders, Paul Budnitz builds these elegant city bikes from titanium and CoMo steel. Components are from Chris King, Thomson, Paul Components, Phil Wood, and other high end makers. No suspension: just a cantilever frame design, wide tires,  and the forgiving nature of steel and TI.

Budnitz builds with top-notch components

There’s also no chain. Budnitz uses a Gates carbon belt drive with with either a single-speed or 11-speed Shimano Alfine automatic hub.

Gates carbon belt drive

These are damn pretty bikes. When I’m rich and famous, I’ll get one and let you know how it rides.

Male Western Bluebird (Sialia mexicana)

April 9th, evening. I drive to downtown Menlo Park,  Applewood Pizza, to pick up dinner. It is my last night in Menlo Park. I’m returning to my car with the pizza and, just before opening the door to my mother’s car, I see the sillouette of a small bird on a short post, about three feet from me. The bird doesn’t fly off, and after a second or two I make out his profile and the darker patches on either side of his breast. He is softly twittering and fluffing his feathers, looking at me. I realize he is a male Western Bluebird. He utters a small clear whistle, and I respond in kind. He fluffs and twitters, whistles again, completely unafraid of me. I continue to talk softly to him, as I often do to birds.

Finally, this fellow sees that he has things to do before settling in for the night and darts off. I open the car door, pack in my pizza, and head for my last night at mother’s house. I feel a lightness, as though I have just been given the secrets of the Universe.

Monocasco concept bike by art-tic

I’m such a sucker for concept bikes.

Monocasco concept bike