As we struggle with electromagnetic radiation from mobile phones and other communications applications, a new development is quietly making its way into reality. Hartmut Mueller and his Leonard Euler Space-Energy-Research Institute are developing a communication technology that is not based on pushing out and receiving signals carried by electromagnetic radiation. Mueller has pioneered a method of transmitting information through the medium of gravitation. Standing waves in logarithmic space, for those interested in the more technical aspects, which are described in an earlier article - A Universe of Scale. Just a week from now, on 21 February 2004, Mueller will demonstrate the new technology at the Technical University in Berlin. Announcement of the event on this page and a bit of background to put things into perspective here. (2/13/2004 10:39:16 PM)

According to a recent story in BBC News, a foundation set up by Bill Gates - founder and chairman of Microsoft Corporation - is giving $ 83 million for fighting tuberculosis. The money will not be going towards providing clean water or decent living conditions for the people most affected. It will be invested in pharmaceutical research to find - you guessed it - a virus antidote. Perhaps the fact that Gates' flagship product, the Windows operating system, is continually attacked by virusses, has had a certain influence on what Bill is now trying to do in the health arena. A fatally flawed model - the Windows Giant's software monopoly - is requiring continuous anti-viral intervention. Here we have a phenomenon of virusses exploiting loopholes and backdoors in a monster program, and we see a desperate and apparently futile fight against the spread of such viral agents. In health care, the situation is not much different.

We have a monopolistic medical system which sees illness as caused by "germs", bacteria and virusses, and which has staked its reputation on finding vaccines to protect against the spread of those nasty bugs. Of course we can hardly blame Gates for doing what he has been doing all his life - fixing things to keep the viruses at bay. It would be nice to see some lateral thinking, such as "let's see what is wrong with our economic system that it keeps so many millions in a state of poverty, exposed to illness". People are better off in the developed countries not because we have more vaccines but because we have better hygiene and can eat well enough to keep us strong. Our exploitation of developing countries keeps their populations from achieving the same immunity we enjoy. But then, like the software monopoly, the medical monopoly is lucrative and Bill does have a nose for "good business". His shares in some of the pharmaceutical companies are in danger of losing value. No wonder his foundation's millions go for promoting pharmaceutical research for bigger and better vaccines. Got to beat those pesky virusses! (2/13/2004 11:46:39 AM)