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911 Error Sends Firemen to Wrong House Updated: Monday, 09 Nov 2009, 4:00 PM PST Published : Monday, 09 Nov 2009, 3:57 PM PST By LILY FU (MYFOX NATIONAL) - A mistake by a 911 operator sent a fire truck to a wrong address in Queens, N.Y., where a house fire killed three people on Saturday. The New York Post reports that the operator mistakenly typed a "2" instead of a "5" in the address. The firefighters were sent to an address three blocks away from where the actual fire was. By the time the fire trucks made it to...

(NaturalNews) The results of the decade-long Interphone study on cell phone safety are that heavy cell phone use increases the risk of developing brain tumors later in life. The study, which focused on three types of brain cancer and tumors of the parotid gland, found a significant increase in cancer after a decade or more of cell phone use. When a cell phone tower connects with a cell phone, electromagnetic radiation is created. When the cell phone is held against the ear, this radiation penetrates the brain, particularly in children. According to the Daily Telegraph in London, the World Health...

SafeLink Wireless is a government supported program that provides a free cell phone and airtime each month for income-eligible customers. Yes, the newest entitlement - a free cellphone and airtime for a wide variety of people. Including those who get free school lunches. And you thought the Obamassiah was going to stop at just nationalizing the auto industry, the banks, and the health industry. No, he's going after telecom, too!

Not so long ago, we all lived in a world in which we decided where to meet friends before leaving the house and we hiked to the nearest payphone if we got a flat tire. Then we got cellphones. Well, not everyone. For a hardy few that choose to ignore cellphones, life is a pocketful of quarters, missed connections and a smug satisfaction of marching to a different ring tone. For Linda Mboya, 32, who lives in Brooklyn and works on arts and education programs at a nonprofit group, it also involves never letting sleeping dogs lie. A friend who...

Cell phones cause brain tumors, according to the newest banner headline on the DrudgeReport. The story it's linked to explains how a new study, soon to be published, will provide the data needed to prove this long-rumored assertion. The comments alrady on the story-link include one from a blogger claiming much more.

FIVE Sydney men have been found guilty of conspiring to plan a terrorist attack using high-powered guns and homemade bombs designed to cause mass death and destruction on Australian soil. A Supreme Court jury took four weeks and three days to find Mohamed Ali Elomar, 44, Abdul Rakib Hasan, 40, Mohammed Omar Jamal, 25, Moustafa Cheikho, 32, and his uncle Khaled Cheikho, 36, guilty of conspiring to do acts in preparation for a terrorist act or acts. The Daily Telegraph reports the men, all from Sydney's south-west, were accused of stockpiling weapons and chemicals for use in the pursuit of...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is calling out his wife, Maria Shriver, for apparently violating a state law he signed — holding her cell phone while driving. The celebrity Web site TMZ.com posted two photographs Tuesday showing Shriver holding a phone to her ear while she's behind the wheel. It says one was snapped Sunday and the other in July. The Web site claimed that this was not the first time California's first lady was caught chatting on her cell while driving. SACRAMENTO, Calif. (CBS) - On his Twitter feed Tuesday, Schwarzenegger wrote to TMZ.com founder Harvey Levin: "Thanks for bringing her...

Some years from now, when we have made significant progress defeating the epidemic that is distracted driving, we will remember this moment. Now, that is not to say that people haven't already been working to reduce this threat for several years. Those people, who were way out in front on this, deserve all the credit in the world. But, over the last two days, we achieved what can only be described as critical mass. For that, I thank everyone involved in the Distracted Driving Summit, from DOT organizers to panelists to those following on the Web. And, once again, I...

SNIPPET: "Two videos Three uploads Links posted to three forums* All likely the work of one person. * as-Ansar, al-Faloja, al-Qimmah"

Determined to stop people from texting while driving, the Obama administration plans a campaign similar to past government efforts to discourage drunken driving and encourage the use of seat belts. The administration planned to offer recommendations Thursday to address the growing safety risk of distracted drivers, especially the use of mobile devices to send messages from behind the wheel. "We can really eliminate texting while driving. That should be our goal," said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, declining to provide specifics of the recommendations.

BULLETIN -- NEW YORK POLICE AND FBI RAID HOMES IN QUEENS IN TERRORISM INVESTIGATION.6 minutes ago from BNO Headquarters

Fearful of a Madrid-style subway train bombing, authorities are poised to make more raids to seize bomb-making materials at locations in Queens, sources said Wednesday. The FBI's elite Hostage Rescue Team arrived in New York in anticipation of the offensive to thwart a Denver-based terror cell with ties to Al Qaeda, police sources told the Daily News. Another source said an earlier raid uncovered nine backpacks and cell phones, raising memories of the March 2004 bombings in Madrid. A series of terrorist bombs detonated aboard commuter trains killed 191 people. The source said authorities feared a potential attack on the...

As our royal family hobnobs with other rich liberals on Martha's Vineyard, there are to be no photographs of the Obama offspring that don't include Chairman Zero. Hopefully people won't get their cell phones confiscated. From earlier this month: Michelle Obama, like her husband, enjoys a good burger, but not as well done. The first lady brought daughters Malia and Sasha to former "Top Chef" contestant Spike Mendelsohn's Good Stuff Eatery in DC for cheeseburgers, onion rings, fries, and milkshakes. "They got the burgers medium," says a spy. (President Obama was mildly ridiculed after ordering a burger medium-well in January.)...

Heard this AM on the Michael Graham show, WTKK. Haven't seen posted elsewhere. Obama and his lovely bride have created a Romulan Neutral Zone around themselves while on "Marxist Vineyard." Accordingly, as tourists tried to get within eyesight of the Obamas and their girls having hamburgers at a restaurant, the Secret Service confiscated all cell phones and cameras from everyone in and near the restaurant so that The Royal Couple was not disturbed by the riff raff on the Island. Further, the cook at the restaurant -- some sort of minor celebrity -- had to make the hamburgers, fries, and...

iPhone users talk on the phone less than regular cell phone users [ ... ] they spend a whopping 50% more time using their phones than average cell phone users ... [ ... ] iPhone users spend 60 minutes per day on their phones versus 40 minutes for cell phone users. iPhone users talk on their phones about 45% of the time they use it versus 70% for cell phone users. [ ... ] What makes up the difference? It's not texting - each type of user spends about 15% of their phone usage texting. [ ... ] iPhone users...

Researchers are developing a new class of tiny mechanical devices containing vibrating, hair-thin structures that could be used to filter electronic signals in cell phones and for other more exotic applications. Because the devices, called resonators, vibrate in specific patterns, they are able to cancel out signals having certain frequencies and allow others to pass. The result is a new type of "band-pass" filter, a component commonly used in electronics to permit some signals to pass through a cell phone's circuitry while blocking others, said Jeffrey Rhoads, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue University.

Ever greater numbers of Americans are disconnecting their home telephones, with momentous consequences MUCH has been made of the precipitous decline of America’s newspapers. According to one much-cited calculation, the country’s last printed newspaper will land on a doorstep sometime in the first quarter of 2043. That is a positively healthy outlook, however, compared with another staple of American life: the home telephone. Telecoms operators are seeing customers abandon landlines at a rate of 700,000 per month. Some analysts now estimate that 25% of households in America rely entirely on mobile phones (or cellphones, as Americans call them)—a share that...

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee talks on the phone as a woman asks a question at a town hall event.LINK

Senate Seeks FCC Approval To Jam Prison Cell Phones Legislation aims to stop organized-crime members from using smuggled cell phones to conduct criminal activities from prison. By W. David Gardner InformationWeek July 15, 2008 04:00 AM With strong bipartisan support to permit the jamming of cell phone signals in prisons, the issue will head to the Federal Communications Commission, which has had longtime jurisdiction over wireless jamming and interference measures. The debate has received widespread attention this week in hearings conducted by the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee. The Safe Prisons Communications Act, co-sponsored by Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) and...

"Fellow patrons had their cellphones temporarily confiscated to prevent pictures from being taken."

TAIPEI (Reuters) - A mobile phone lost at sea for four days washed up in perfect condition in Taiwan after drifting 37 km (23 miles) and was discovered by a park lifeguard who tracked down the shocked owner to return it, the finder said on Friday. Yu Hsin-leh of Taipei lost the phone on July 24 while snorkeling near the Taiwan port city of Keelung, Taiwan's United Daily News reported. On Monday, it turned up in Longdong Bay Park on the island's northeasternmost cape after floating past numerous towns and rocky outcroppings.

Texting-while-driving truck driver crashes into swimming pool LOCKPORT — The driver of a tow truck texting on one cell phone while talking on another Wednesday morning crashed into a car at Tonawanda Creek Road North near Willow Wood Drive, injuring a woman and her niece, Niagara County sheriff's deputies said. The flatbed tow truck then crashed through a fence and into a house before ending up in a swimming pool. Chief Deputy Steven Preisch said the driver of the Adams tow truck, identified as Nicholas Sparks, 25, of Burt, admitted he was both texting and talking just after 8 a.m.,...

Driving and using cell phones - we all know the dangers. But now, new evidence suggests it's not only dangerous, but deadly. Federal officials have long had the evidence that shows drivers on the roads, who are talking on a cell phone, hands free or not, are running the risk of getting involved in a deadly accident. Officials recommend talking on a cell phone while driving should only be done in an emergency. However, this evidence never saw the light of day. A long-term study the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration suggested to fully assess the threat was never done....

Thousands of low-income Coloradans reliant on public assistance could get a free cellphone under a plan before the state Public Utilities Commission. If approved, the plan by TracFone Wireless in Miami would make Colorado the 17th state it has settled into with free cell service for the indigent, a form of wireless welfare that proponents say taps into one of the last untapped markets for the telecom technology. "Our hope is to have it up and running by September," said Jose Fuentes, TracFone's director of government relations. "Historically, it's a very underutilized service, and we'd like that to change."

Note: The following text is a quote: 09 July 2009 EGYPT ARRESTS TERRORIST CELL OF 25 MEMBERS CAIRO, July 9 (Xinhua) The Egyptian authorities have arrested a terrorist cell of 25 members, 24 Egyptians and one Palestinian, for plotting to carry out terrorist attacks in Suez Canal, Egyptian Interior Ministry said in statement issued on Thursday. According to the statement, the members of the cell who believe in Jihad (Holy War) were located in Cairo, Alexandria and Daqahlia governorates and communicated through internet with other terrorist groups outside Egypt. The cell's members, mostly engineers, were developing high-tech and electronic devices...

ASCAP Makes Outlandish Copyright Claims on Cell Phone Ringtones EFF Argues Phones Ringing in Public Do Not Violate Copyright Law New York - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) urged a federal court Wednesday to reject bogus copyright claims in a ringtone royalty battle that could raise costs for consumers, jeopardize consumer rights, and curtail new technological innovation.Millions of Americans have bought musical ringtones, often clips from favorite popular songs, for their mobile phones. Mobile phone carriers pay royalties to song owners for the right to sell these snippets to their customers. But as part of a ploy to squeeze more...

The concept of a home phone may soon be going the way of the corner pay phone. Government research shows that more and more households are getting rid of their land line. And for the first time, cell-phone-only homes outnumber those with just land lines. Kelly Fitzsimmons did not give up her phone without a fight. The instrument of gossip and grand plans, and the bearer of bad news and good, the land line to her was a lifeline. "I just had in my head you gotta have a land line. You gotta have a land line," she says. "That's...

Gibbs seizes reporter's phone @ 2:28 pm by Eric Zimmermann At his daily press briefing today, press secretary Robert Gibbs got fed up when a reporter's cell phone rang repeatedly, eventually deciding to simply seize the device. When the phone first rang, Gibbs snapped at the reporter to turn the volume down. "Put it on vibrate," he said. "We've been through this before." A few minutes later, the phone rang again, and this time Gibbs decided to take action. He strode off the podium and demanded the reporter hand the phone over. "Give me the phone," he demanded, as the...

It looks like Microsoft is working on a top-secret smartphone deal with Verizon to take on Apple's iPhone. The project's code-name is "Pink." The goal...

Note: The following text is a quote: THE BRIEFING ROOM THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secrectary _______________________________________________________________ For Immediate Release April 13, 2009 April 13, 2009 MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF STATE THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE SUBJECT: Promoting Democracy and Human Rights in Cuba The promotion of democracy and human rights in Cuba is in the national interest of the United States and is a key component of this Nation's foreign policy in the Americas. Measures that decrease dependency of the Cuban people on the Castro regime and that promote contacts between Cuban-Americans...

AMERICAN president Barack Obama's half brother was REFUSED a visa to enter the UK after being accused of an attempted sex attack on a young girl in Berkshire. The News of the World can reveal that Kenya-based Samson Obama tried to get into Britain on his way to Washington for his family's big day, the historic inauguration in January. But eagle-eyed immigration officials at East Midlands Airport, using the latest biometric tests, discovered he was linked to an incident here last November. The hi-tech database revealed that Samson -who manages a mobile phone shop just outside Nairobi-was the same man...

LONDON (AFP) – US President Barack Obama's half brother was refused a visa to enter Britain because he had been accused of a serious crime on a previous visit, it was reported Saturday. Samson Obama was stopped by immigration officials at East Midlands Airport in January on his way to Washington for the president's inauguration, the Sunday newspaper News of the World reported, according to advance excerpts. Biometric tests alerted the authorities that Samson, a Kenyan mobile phone shop manager, had previously been arrested by police in Berkshire. That arrest followed an alleged sex attack on a British girl two...

(04-09) 16:37 PDT SAN JOSE -- Vandals cut fiber-optic cable lines belonging to AT&T at two locations early today, knocking out phones and access to 911 emergency services to thousands of residential customers and businesses in southern Santa Clara County, in Santa Cruz and San Benito counties and along the Peninsula, authorities said. Four AT&T fiber-optic cables in an underground vault were severed shortly before 1:30 a.m. along Monterey Highway north of Blossom Hill Road in south San Jose, police Sgt. Ronnie Lopez said. Four more underground cables, at least two of which belong to AT&T, were cut about two...

REDDING, Calif. (AP) - A woman who crashed into a line of stopped vehicles while text-messaging on her cell phone has been sentenced to six years in a California prison for killing a woman in one of the vehicles. Deborah Matis-Engle was sentenced Friday by a judge in Redding, Calif.snip

There is a slow but steady encroachment on our privacy by government. It often comes with rational and admirable cover terms for a hidden agenda. A recent comment by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, during his conformation hearings, broached the subject of taxing car mileage based on GPS tracking. An immediate hue and cry went up from privacy organizations which saw it as an Orwellian intrusion. It was dropped like a hot potato by the White House. The EU is currently looking at another

The Logan's daughter hung herself after she sent a naked photo of herself to her boyfriend. He passed it on to several students in several schools. "My only baby that I will never be able to touch again," Cynthia Logan said through tears. "I will never have grandchildren. I will never be able to hand down my heirlooms. I'm just devastated by these parents that allow their children to do and say anything they want.""Schools need to understand our kids are targeting each other and how technology is being used as a weapon," Aftab said. "None of them (the schools)...

What took them so long? If the NYPD were privately run they would have seized upon this new revenue stream much more quickly. Government inefficiency can be your friend, but only for a while, it seems. Talk isn't cheap. The NYPD handed out more than $1 million in summonses during a 24- hour crackdown on cellphone "DWG" - driving while gabbing without using a hands-free device. Cops wrote 9,016 tickets - at $120 a pop - in Thursday's citywide blitz. That's 18 times more than usual, the NYPD said.

The New York City Police Department issued more than 9,000 tickets yesterday to drivers caught using their cell phones while on the road. The 24-hour citywide crackdown began at midnight yesterday. It served as a reminder to New Yorkers that using a hand held cell phone while driving is illegal in the state. Drivers who were ticketed face a $120 fine. Police say they normally issue around 500 tickets for cell phone use per day. The National Safety Council says accidents caused by cell phone use while driving is blamed for nearly 2,600 deaths a year.

FORT HUACHUCA — Starting Monday, people using a cell phone without a hands-free device while driving a motor vehicle on Fort Huachuca will receive a fine. The fine for this violation is $50 plus court administrative fees, which are currently $25, according to the Fort Huachuca Public Affairs Office. The use of a non-hands-free cell phone or Blackberry device while operating a motor vehicle on Fort Huachuca is prohibited for military personnel and civilians. This prohibition is extended to all soldiers operating any motor vehicle, whether on post or off post. Personnel not affiliated with the fort, including visitors, must...

BUSINESSMAN who lost his mobile phone on a beach was amazed when it turned up — in the belly of a massive cod. Andrew Cheatle thought his Nokia handset had been lost at sea after it slipped from his pocket. But a week later his girlfriend’s mobile rang and it was fisherman Glen Kerley saying he’d found the phone in a 25lb fish. Andrew got the handset back, dried it out — and amazingly it still works. Andrew, 45, said: “I was messing about with my dog and my phone must have fallen out and been swept out in the...

Anyone who recently moved to another cell-phone carrier from Verizon Wireless might want to check their closing bill from Verizon. To make a long story short, it appears to be Verizon policy to fail to pro-rate the last month when a phone number is ported to another carrier and to charge to the normal end of the billing cycle. Many people probably don't notice this and just pay their last bill without questioning this over-charge. Since Verizon bills for the coming month, in some cases the closing bill should indicate a refund. Without getting into my personal tale of woe...

You've probably seen them on the street: cell-phone chatting, music-loving pedestrians who sometimes act as if talking into a mouthpiece or slipping on a pair of headphones raises an impenetrable shield.But preoccupied pedestrians, especially those listening at high volume, risk more than hearing impairment. Their absorption can create a loss of "situation awareness" similar to that of distracted drivers.Inattention can have serious — even deadly — consequences on roads and railroad tracks. Lisa Carolyn Moran, 20, a University of North Carolina exchange student from Scotland, was listening to an iPod while jogging when she stepped into the path of a...

SAN FRANCISCO — The cellphone industry has a suggestion for improving the math skills of American students: spend more time on cellphones in the classroom. At a conference this week in Washington called Mobile Learning 09, CTIA, a wireless industry trade group, plans to start making its case for the educational value of cellphones. It will present research — paid for by Qualcomm, a maker of chips for cellphones — that shows so-called smartphones can make students smarter. Some critics already are denouncing the effort as a blatantly self-serving maneuver to break into the big educational market. But proponents of...

This billboard is catching people's attention as they drive on 101. California Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, is the target of a billboard advertisement attracting attention alongside Highway 101 in Palo Alto. Grant Paulson of Pleasanton spent $10,000 to post a verbose message to Simitian, criticizing him for his efforts to pass a cell phone ban for California drivers. "Your Cell Phone Law Sucks," the message reads. "Amazing how one man's bad idea can screw over and inconvenience millions of people in California." Some drivers have complained that the sign has caused them to nearly get into accidents because of...

CBS) Google is releasing free software Wednesday that enables people to keep track of each other using their cell phones. CNET got a sneak peek at it, and CNET-TV Senior Editor and Early Show contributor Natali Del Conte explained how it works on the show Tuesday. She says "Latitude" uses GPS systems and what's called cell tower triangulation to do the job. The software seeks the closest three cell towers and, with GPS, combines the data to show where someone is. It is designed to work on any phone with Internet capabilities, except the iPhone. "Latitude" is being marketed as...

The reports of owners purchasing used or refurbished cell phones and other gadgets and finding sensitive material on them have become so commonplace they're no longer eyebrow-raising in the slightest. Why, last week a New Zealand man bought a used MP3 player for about 10 bucks... and was bemused to find it preloaded with U.S. military records and personnel data for troops stationed in the Middle East. In December, an old BlackBerry sold at a McCain campaign garage sale for 20 dollars was found to be preloaded with a mountain of Republican donor information, emails, and more. Just another day...

SAADIYAH, Iraq — Iraqi police officers found explosives planted at a polling station Sunday morning here, the latest incident in a tense run-up to provincial elections in northeast Diyala province. The officers found two anti-tank mines with cell phone detonators at a school that will act as a polling station in Saadiyah, north of Baghdad in a part of Iraq disputed between Kurds and Arabs, U.S. military officials said. An Iraqi army explosives ordnance team defused and disposed of the explosives, officials said. Two men hired to guard the school were arrested for suspected complicity in the bombing plot, an...

A new bill is being introduced called, Camera Phone Predator Alert Act, which would require any mobile phone containing a digital camera to sound a tone whenever a photograph is taken with the camera's phone. It would also prohibit such a phone from being equipped with a means of disabling or silencing the tone. While its a good gesture, I do not believe having such a law would deter criminals from hacking their camera phones to take pictures in inappropriate ways. Also, the real criminals would not even use a camera phone but would probably use other devices such as...

The cellphone industry has a plea for the throngs descending on the nation's capital for the presidential inauguration: go easy on the mobile communications. The largest cellphone carriers, fearful that a communicative citizenry will overwhelm their networks, have taken the unusual step of asking people to limit their phone calls and to delay sending photos. The carriers are also spending millions of dollars to temporarily and substantially upgrade their networks in Washington.

Mobile broadband users in Stockholm will soon be able to surf the internet on a new high speed 4G network, following the signing of a deal between Ericsson and TeliaSonera. The order from Finnish-Swedish telecom provider TeliaSonera marks the first commercial deployment of Ericsson’s Long Term Evolution (LTE) network technology and will provide mobile internet users with data speeds up to ten times faster than those offered on current networks. "LTE brings the highest possible performance and network capacity, which is needed to meet the needs of the fast growing group of mobile broadband users around the world,” said Ericsson’s...