• All known cancer-inducing agents—including radiation, certain chemicals, and a few viruses—act by breaking chemical bonds, producing mutant strands of DNA. Electromagnetic radiation is absorbed by molecules as discrete packets of energy called “photons.” The energy of a photon is determined by the wavelength; the shorter the wavelength, the higher the energy. Not until the ultraviolet region of the electromagnetic spectrum is reached, beyond visible light, beyond infrared and far, far beyond microwaves, do photons have sufficient energy to break chemical bonds. It’s a little like trying to hit an object across a river with a stone. Even if your aim is poor, you might expect to hit the target now and then if you throw enough stones. But it won’t matter how many stones you throw if you can’t throw that far. Microwave photons heat tissue, but they do not come close to the energy needed to break chemical bonds, no matter how intense the radiation.

    —

    Cellular Telephones and Cancer: How Should Science Respond? – Park 93 (3): 166 – JNCI Journal of the National Cancer Institute

    The reason your beautiful iPhone 4 doesn’t get a good signal when you’re holding it that way is because the FCC wants the antenna as far from your soft, soft brain as possible even though there is absolutely no mechanism by which cellphone radio waves could cause cancer. Next time in physics class, pay attention.

  • Fresh fruits and vegetables, milk, eggs, and meat [would be] produced within a 50-mile radius of their place of final sale,” Coleman wrote, suggesting possible standards. “The seed and storage crops (grains, beans, nuts, potatoes, etc.) [would be] produced within a 300-mile radius.” Only “traditional processed foods” – cheese, bread, wine – could claim to be “made with authentic ingredients.

    —

    A call for a new term beyond organic: “Authentic” - Food Business - Salon.com

    See also:

    Whatsoever parteth the hoof, and is clovenfooted, and cheweth the cud, among the beasts, that shall ye eat.

    Nevertheless these shall ye not eat of them that chew the cud, or of them that divide the hoof: as the camel, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you.

  • I mean, at what point do the army dudes show up in motorcades of black Suburbans to say, “Jennifer Connely, you are the only scientist who can save the earth from Keanu Reeves. Put on your tightest sweater. You are coming with us.” Isn’t that the way this script works? Where is Tommy Lee Jones? Why has no one put together a team of rugged rig workers, ninjas, demolition experts, that Black guy, and Steve Buscemi? You’re implying that a group composed entirely of females will breed? I’m just saying that life … finds a way.

    —Who Is IOZ?: Annals of Job-Derived Modifiers

  • This Philadelphia Brownstoner article speculates on the “Fountain Green” location of the old Engel & Wolf brewery. I think it’s fair to say there is unlikely to be a secret trove of 150 year-old lager still buried in Fairmount Park. The brewery was pretty much underneath what is now the brand-new playground at the Smith Playhouse.

    And beware: PhilaGeoHistory.org is the biggest time suck you are likely to encounter anytime soon. 200 years worth of maps layerable in Google Maps. It’s amazing.