ELF Knocks Down AM Towers To Save Earth, Intercoms 616
ScentCone writes "The ELF (Earth Liberation Front) has claimed responsibility for destroying the primary AM towers used by radio station KRKO in Washington state. From their statement: 'AM radio waves cause adverse health effects including a higher rate of cancer, harm to wildlife, and that the signals have been interfering with home phone and intercom lines.' The poor intercom performance must have been the last straw."
Re:Stop this now. (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Stop this now. (Score:4, Interesting)
No, no, no. No need to group the treehuggers, the illiterate, nor the morons in with ELF. ELF is a bunch of lunatics who strive to be the most notable domestic terrorists. They'll usually burn cars, buildings (every good environmentalist likes a good bon fire, right?), and I guess knock over radio antennas now.
Since it's decentralized in nature, any nut can say they're ELF. Well, just like any nut can say they're Al-Qaeda. You'd have to be a nut to say you're aligned with either one though. Well, I guess you'd have to be a nut to go around burning things just because you felt they did you wrong.
Speaking of which, I feel a cigarette has done me wrong, so I'm going to burn one rather than reading any more about Nutjubs Inc. :)
Re:REALLY? [interference] (Score:4, Interesting)
But they are right about the interference issue. I live a little more than a mile away from AM towers, and they cause all kinds of goofy stuff. Anything with speakers or headphones is an AM radio here. I had to buy new equipment to get rid of the interference via trial and error with my wallet. I used to dismiss the Brady Bunch episode where Jan's braces picked up a radio station. But now it seems plausible.
However, I assure you I have no plans to bomb it. Although, I'd like give them a 20-foot finger.
Re:REALLY? (Score:5, Interesting)
Why is it that none of the "radio waves are going to kill us all" crowd seems to have done a single epidemiological study of people living in this intense, continual, long-term bath of radiation? Instead pretty much all I see are collections of anecdotal accounts with no controls. "They put a cell tower next door last week and today I have cancer" is not what I would consider a definitive study.
Epidemiological studies are not that expensive in the US, once consent forms have been gathered it comes down to statistical analysis of already-computerized data. It's more of a job for insurance analysts, who are actually very well equipped for this sort of task.
Doubt it was ELF (Score:5, Interesting)
Disclaimers: I live a few houses down from the station owner, so I've followed this for a while. I was a broadcast engineer in a past life (even did some contracting at a former iteration of this station.)
Here is the story from the local paper: http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20090905/NEWS01/709059909&news01ad=1 [heraldnet.com] (good set of pictures)
From the Seattle Times [nwsource.com] version: "Andy Skotdal, general manager of the family-owned sports-radio station, isn't convinced ELF is responsible, even though the group's North American press office in Washington, D.C., issued a news release and posted an item on its national Web site Friday saying it was.
He suspects disgruntled locals who have long opposed the siting of the towers on 40 acres of farmland may have taken matters into their own hands after losing a key ruling in King County Superior Court a few weeks ago.
"My suspicion is, it's somebody local," Skotdal, whose family has owned the station for 20 years, said by phone Friday as he watched dozens of sheriff's detectives and FBI agents comb the property for evidence. "It could be somebody painting ELF on a banner to throw off suspicion."
In the same story, the FBI sees a few things that point to ELF but they are only a day into the investigation. I'd lay away from making a call right now on who is responsible.
Either way, stealing a excavator, driving it through a muddy field and pulling down two towers has to leave a good amount of evidence. I'm also thinking that the guy wires must have been cut too, just to keep from kill the machine operator on the first tower.
Re:This is why we need science education (Score:3, Interesting)
No. We have science education. The bar is set way too low for high school graduates. Physics was an option when I went to high school. I took the class and understood more when I effectively took the same course over in college just like Chemistry and a few others. Now when people graduate from high school they know what they want and not what they should. Science education is not a problem. Science education of a higher order of general knowledge should be mandatory.
ELF and direct action responsibility (Score:3, Interesting)
Number one rule for direct action:
Have your facts straight. If you target the wrong people, or if your science is bad, you're sacrificing credibility and making people angry for no good reason.
Yeah, there are some weirdos out there (Score:3, Interesting)
Just go ahead and check out these instructions on how to make "Holy Hand Grenades" and "Tower Busters". Granted, this is less destructive than knocking down towers, but the ignorance involved is just about as scary.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccS70UQE0fE [youtube.com]
Re:How strange (Score:2, Interesting)
C'mon, analog radio will follow analog TV within the next few years, with or without an FCC mandate (market forces alone will do the trick, no doubt at all).
I sure hope not. One of the last broadcast media that I can actually build a receiver to listen to? If we have to buy a computer from BIG_IC_MANUFACTURER_X just to listen to a radio broadcast, it will almost certainly be non-serviceable and we'll just throw it away and get a new one when it stops working. Too bad for your "market forces" that people still depend on emergency broadcasts on analog radio. Why force people to be consumers by forcing them to use non-serviceable crap?
Re:No (Score:2, Interesting)
As for destroying all the world's farm equipment, that would not be violence
Interesting philosophy you have there.
In order for that statement to be true you'd have to start out with the assumption that certain individuals or groups of people are in fact not people but property
There's no reason to assume that. Slavery is coerced work for the benefit of others. It's certainly possible to have slavery without violence as you define it. And since you don't believe theft or destruction of property constitute violence, there's no reason to distinguish between theft of property and theft of labor, as all property is the result of labor.
Re:REALLY? (Score:4, Interesting)
I sit corrected. After looking at news photos of the event, it seems the towers were free-standing (i.e., they had no guys), and were series-fed, meaning that the towers were insulated from ground by insulators placed in each tower leg. While there would have been a brief light show when the excavator first touched the tower above the insulators, the operator was in no serious danger of electrocution as long as he stayed at the controls, since the machine itself would have carried the transmitted current to ground. It's likely that the transmitter's self-protection circuitry would have detected the short circuit at its output very quickly, and shut the transmitter down (before it could be electrically damaged). After that, unless a restart of the transmitter were attempted (either manually, remotely from the studio, or automatically, by a timer), the operator was probably in much greater danger of being killed by falling steel than by anything electrical.
Re:ELF and direct action responsibility (Score:3, Interesting)
Bullshit.
"Terrorist" groups do not do what they do just for laughs. They have a reason.
I've participated in various direct action groups, years ago - they're full of devoted, caring people. Not all of them are as clued as they should be, but they're not people who just like blowing things up.
Re:REALLY? [interference] (Score:3, Interesting)
Funny that, I've worked in radio stations where the audio board was 6 feet away from the transmitter. We didn't have the AM signal bleeding into the audio, or the phone system, or anything. You must not have you equipment setup right. See the post in this thread about ground-loops.
Have you tried calling the station for help? Most will gladly let you talk to the engineer to figure out a solution.
A possibly related event on the East Coast (Score:5, Interesting)
A tower outside of Allentown, PA was deliberately felled [mcall.com] the same night. As it was a guyed tower, the vandals cut the guys to bring it down.
Re:And, appearently they induce criminal behavior (Score:5, Interesting)
Ah, but if the 'leaders' of these 'ecowarriors' go to jail, who will lead the 'troops'? You send the 'troops' to jail, but keep the 'leaders' free to inspire more and more violent actions in the name of ELF, etc.
ELF, btw, is 'descended' from an outfit called Earth First! [activistcash.com], who include people like convicted arsonist Rod Coronado [targetofopportunity.com] as sterling examples of the 'best' that they offer. No wonder PETA [animalscam.com] likes nutjobs like him, they make PETA look 'moderate'.
I was talking with an ecofreak once who told me that the 'carrying capacity' of Earth for humans is on the order of 500 million tops. So, with about 7 billion people on the planet at the moment, seems 13 of 14 need to die & join the compost heap. I'd asked the ecofreak if he was volunteering to be one of the first into the compost heap. He told me 'Of course not, they need me to show them the way'. Seems I hear similar things from any of the econutters out there; they're the only ones who can save us from ourselves as long as we do what they say.
I say, compost 'em first.
Re:Citation Needed (Score:3, Interesting)
Yep. I think this is a universal phenomenon around the world. Poor people readily admit their crimes, but blame them on the circumstances of leading a life in poverty. Middle class people tend to blame it on "violations" by "society" or perhaps more specifically by something like capitalism or socialism, depending on where they hail from politically. Working class people's excuses are a mix of the poor man's excuse and the middle class man's excuse. Upper class people tend to argue that they didn't know that what they did was, technically, illegal. They never fail to point out that what they did seemed to them to be perfectly ethical, when one considers all the circumstances, and that the laws need to be changed.
Re:Yeah, there are some weirdos out there (Score:3, Interesting)
I wish I hadn't watched that. Some things get under my skin and ruin my whole day...
I just love how the guy is using these crystals to protect himself from cell towers- By using *acetone* and poly casting resin (The activator for this stuff is terrible; read the MSDS for this product http://www.evercoat.com/productDetail.aspx?pID=23 [evercoat.com] ).
This fake science is just as offensive as racism, nationalism, homophobia, or any other irrational philosophy that ignores or even spits on the accumulated empirical evidence or rational scientific study. And no, there aren't two equal but opposing viewpoints regarding EM. There's right and wrong. Fact and fiction.
-b
Re:Citation Needed (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Stop this now. (Score:2, Interesting)
RE PETA kills animals, yes, that gets a lot of coverage online now, people use that as a reason to be NOT vegan, its just a "oh yeah, so one animal welfare group does this so they are all bad!" type reply. Heres a suggestion, go to your local animal shelter, or vet, see if they "put animals to sleep". If they do, cripes, you better make a huge deal out of it! Make banners to boycott their business!
Death sucks, but so do no kill shelters, where animals can basically just be kept alive in the worst conditions, until they naturally die. Personally, I couldnt handle working with animals in either condition, I have respect for people who can do everything they can to help animals live, and regretfully, put them out of their misery.
"feeding kids meat is child abuse", yeah, I dont really see where thats going, I dont like how they often equate meat eating to being obese , as if the only way to be thin is to not eat animal products. However, I know that PETA is an american org, and so they are aiming that way because of the amount of americans who are overweight.
RE Holocaust, PETA is not alone in comparing the 10 billion animals killed for food in the US to the people that were killed horrifically by the Nazis etc. I know this is offensive to people and personally I try not to use it, I understand people get upset when you compare dead people to dead animals, they dont see their lives as equal. "they are just dumb animals compared to my Great Grandfather".
"As often as Herman had witnessed the slaughter of animals and fish, he always had the same thought: In their behavior toward creatures, all men were Nazis. The smugness with which man could do with other species as he pleased exemplified the most extreme racist theories, the principle that might is right." - Isaac Bashevis Singer (On Enemies, A Love Story)"
There are also some Jewish vegetarians/vegans who compare the holocaust to animal agriculture.
RE mothers chopping up animals, fathers killing fish, I know its over the top, but the point sticks doesnt it? Whatever it is about "daddy kills fish! better keep him away from kitty and puppy in case he wants to kill them too!".
Im not defending PETA, but these ads are really not so difficult to understand? Is it that you ultimately think animals are worthless, and that comparing a death of a human to the death of an animal is repugnant?
Re:Citation Needed (Score:2, Interesting)
I modded him "Flamebait" because there's no "Ignorant of basic EM physics" option.
Re:Nobody likes ELF. Not even their "allies." (Score:3, Interesting)
Yes, and anyone with a bit of sense doesn't fucking support PETA either! They're worse than the damn ELF!
'ELF' at least limits their harm to property, whereas PETA constantly harms animals, and them reaching their goal in life would end up with cows dying all over the place and people having to shoot feral cats and dogs.
And, perhaps more to the point, 'ELF' does not actually exist. There is no organization named 'ELF' that goes around doing things. There is a 'press office' that supposedly reprints messages from them, but there is no actual 'them', there is just a bunch of people doing whatever they want.
Re:Citation Needed (Score:2, Interesting)
At present, there is no internationally agreed definition of terrorism. Common definitions of terrorism refer only to those violent acts which are intended to create fear (terror), are perpetrated for an ideological goal (as opposed to a lone attack), and deliberately target or disregard the safety of non-combatants.
And further down, under Key Criteria: [wikipedia.org]
..."the only general characteristic of terrorism generally agreed upon is that terrorism involves violence and the threat of violence"...Property destruction that does not endanger life is not usually considered a violent crime...
and
It is commonly held that the distinctive nature of terrorism lies in its intentional and specific selection of civilians as direct targets. Specifically, the criminal intent is shown when babies, children, mothers and the elderly are murdered, or injured and put in harm's way. Much of the time, the victims of terrorism are targeted not because they are threats, but because they are specific "symbols, tools, animals or corrupt beings" that tie into a specific view of the world that the terrorists possess.
Note that in this case, the AM towers and their owners wouldn't be "civilians," since they aren't merely symbols, like the WTC, but because the ELF nutcases consider them actual threats. I don't agree with their pseudo-science, but to call this "terrorism" dilutes and confuses the term, and pretty soon we'll be calling file-sharing "terrorism" too.