"Wi-Fi Refugees" Shelter in West Virginia Mountains 627
The 13,000 sq mile U.S. Radio Quiet Zone is an area in West Virginia where all wireless transmissions are banned because of the large number of radio telescopes located there. (This official page shows a map of the Zone; an old Wired article is fascinating reading.) These high-tech telescopes have attracted unlikely neighbors, people who claim to have Wi-Fi allergies. In recent years, scores of people have moved to the area to escape the "damage" that electromagnetic fields can cause them. From the article: "Diane Schou is unable to hold back the tears as she describes how she once lived in a shielded cage to protect her from the electromagnetic radiation caused by waves from wireless communication. 'It's a horrible thing to have to be a prisoner,' she says. 'You become a technological leper because you can't be around people. It's not that you would be contagious to them — it's what they're carrying that is harmful to you.'"
Just what WVa needs, a new variety of crazy (Score:5, Insightful)
As if the hillbillies out in some of those valleys weren't batshit enough already, now they're inviting in a bunch of tinfoil-hatter paranoid schizos to stay. Expect a significant jump in alien abduction and anal probing reports (above even the current extremely high levels).
And before everyone gets all offended, I'm not saying EVERYONE is WVa is a hillbilly. But don't even THINK about pretending that *none* of them are. There are some fucking crazy dudes out in those hills, just ask the locals. Oh, not so much the doesn't-wear-shoes-and-makes/drinks-moonshine variety these days--more the has-a-shitload-of-guns-is-trigger-happy-and-makes/uses-crystal-meth types. Equally as violent/well-armed as their isolationist predecessors, but now they're tweaked up on meth and hallucinating too. Mixing those guys with a bunch of tinfoil-hatters who think radio waves are making them sick just cannot lead to happy-happy-joy-joy results. Though it is nice to cordon them off.
Re:Just what WVa needs, a new variety of crazy (Score:5, Funny)
There are some fucking crazy dudes out in those hills, just ask the locals.
It's not nice to talk about the scientists at the radio telescope observatory that way. I would have thought a site dedicated to geek culture would be a bit more understanding ...
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Umm... Most scientist would agree with, and self-apply those adjectives... We are fucking crazy dudes, and if were weren't, life would be so much less enjoyable!
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Umm... Most scientist would agree with, and self-apply those adjectives... We are fucking crazy dudes, and if were weren't, life would be so much less enjoyable!
I was fucking crazy chicks, and it was very enjoyable except for the bite marks, but to each each their own.
Re:Just what WVa needs, a new variety of crazy (Score:5, Interesting)
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Obviously an astronomer with mod points doesn't have a sense of humor. Hard to believe there's a humorless astronomer out there, but there you go.
Re:Just what WVa needs, a new variety of crazy (Score:5, Informative)
Spoken like someone who knows nothing of the south. Lemme guess, you come from California, right?
No, WV is NOT part of the Bible Belt. It's not even part of the South. In fact, it split away from regular Virginia during the Civil War because that part of the state agreed with the Unionists, while the other part of the state became the capital of the Confederacy.
The "Bible Belt" is really the Deep South, which is MS, AL, GA, etc. The people of WV probably have a lot more in common with the people of western PA and eastern KY than anyone in the Deep South.
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Starbuck's coffee bar in the lobby and cup holders on every chair.
The amazing thing is that they cannot see their own hypocrisy even when its right in front of them. Next time your in church, next to the church bookstore/starbucks/etc, ask someone if they can remember the only time Jesus was angry/violent in the bible. Yah, that's right, the money changers and vendors selling goods for passover in the temple. I wonder what Jesus thinks about the "christian" stores that seem to be in every church now.
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Too bad that the 'wireless quiet zone' only refers to a very narrow band of EM radiation.
Hopefully they've also banned TVs, VCRs, microwave ovens, cars, police and fire transmitters and church PA systems.
(Actually would be a nice place if they could do that).
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Nice depends on the concept, considering that you would have zero emergency response when it matters as a result.
Re:Just what WVa needs, a new variety of crazy (Score:4, Interesting)
Actually, FTFA, they HAVE banned most of those things directly around the Radio Telescope. Still and all, the poor afflicted darlings have probably never heard of the inverse square law. Or inverses. Or squares.
Re:Just what WVa needs, a new variety of crazy (Score:5, Insightful)
Or the fucking sun, apparently. I trust they're all living several miles below ground.
Re:Just what WVa needs, a new variety of crazy (Score:4, Informative)
In the case of televisions, we know that many humans can hear the 16-18KHz scan frequency they emit. And you're not hearing the electron beam itself; you are hearing tiny, electromagnetically-induced vibrations in the oscillator circuitry.
Probably a similar explanation for the RFID scanners. An oscillating circuit can induce physical vibrations at some harmonic of its base frequency, if some component of the device just happens to be resonant at that harmonic.
My point is, your experiences are easier explained as auditory coincidences than as RF sensitivity.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
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According to that Wired article, *all* electronics are basically banned - power cables have to be shielded, no WiFi at all, etc. Now, police/fire/etc radios, as public safety do trump the EM quiet-zone, but even then a lot of work goes into making sure the antennas don't interfere with the telescopes. Apparently something like a WiFi card can generate a strong enough signal that blows the ampli
Re:Just what WVa needs, a new variety of crazy (Score:5, Funny)
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lol
Re:Just what WVa needs, a new variety of crazy (Score:4, Informative)
Probably this story [slashdot.org] from last January.
Re:Just what WVa needs, a new variety of crazy (Score:4, Informative)
Heard the same story, only it was a ham radio. It's likely apocryphal in any case, though it would not surprise me to learn there's an actual event obscured by the retelling.
Regardless, the GP has the right idea. I've heard of blind tests of "EM sensitivity" done in the past, with results that unambiguously showed a purely psychosomatic condition - that is to say, the subjects felt sick when they believed they were being exposed, regardless of their actual exposure, and felt fine when they believed they were "safe". But to the patient, this is always going to be met with denial. "Can you believe that doctor thought it was all in my head! Where the hell did he learn medicine? I don't like being called crazy, I'm going to go to my homeopath for advice from now on!"
Partly this is the fault of our culture labelling all mental health issues under the broad brush of "s/he's crazy". Nobody wants to admit that there could be anything wrong with their head, ergo all psychosomatic illnesses are attributed to external causes, sensible or otherwise. The prevalence of quacks and snake oil salesmen ready to cash in on the latest hysterical bandwagon only makes the problem worse.
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something like a WiFi card can generate a strong enough signal that blows the amplifiers of the telescopes.
Time for a trip to W. Virginia with my AWUS036H! Damn dirty scientist with their magnets. HOW DO THEY FUCKING WORK!
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It would be interesting to have these people participate in a blind test in the same way that audiologists do hearing tests. Give them a button to push when they "feel" the pain associated with the electromagnetic field while you turn on the and off the field during random intervals. Unless they're actually feeling something, they shouldn't be able to correctly push the button at the right time.
I'd be interested in hearing their response to that. (although I suppose there are some people with whom you si
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They've done exactly that and the results are exactly what you would expect.
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Well, it has the name of the lead researcher and the journal. I'm pretty sure this is the study: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21793784?dopt=Abstract [nih.gov]
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Oddly it's the only one not featured on the [andrewamarino.com]
It's a little interesting but it is only one subject and I'm a little skeptical about the descriptions used by the subject for the symptoms.
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I can even propose a theoretical reason why someone would feel a Wi-Fi signal. A half wave Wi-Fi antenna is 6.25 cm, or about 2.5 inches. It is entirely possible for the brain or some other part of the body to have a roughly straight conductive region that is that long—the walls of a particularly straight blood vessel, for example, or a series of overly (even dendritically) myelinated neurons lined up perfectly in a row—in which case you'd basically have a (poor) Wi-Fi antenna in your brain, coupled directly to your nervous system.
You'd have an even bigger problem if you had any sort of metal implant that was just the right length, up to and including stupid things like the metal arm on a pair of eyeglasses, a wire on a retainer or pair of braces, etc.
Unfortunately that antenna is embedded inside a highly conductive saline dielectric, that being your body. Model it in NEC for a good laugh. Also note the "RF skin effect" is very appropriately named in this case. You'll thermally/ohmically burn your skin long before you get individual neurons excited.
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Expect a significant jump in alien abduction and anal probing reports
This is no joking matter. Have you ever had your ass probed by an alien? I suspect not, or you would temper your remarks.
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This is no joking matter. Have you ever had your ass probed by an alien? I suspect not, or you would temper your remarks.
Well, I once had my butt chewed off by a supervisor who was pretty damned odd by any measure. Does that count?
Re:Just what WVa needs, a new variety of crazy (Score:4, Informative)
Actually, having grown up there in West by god Virginia, I can tell you that the Greenbank radio observatory area is very lovely and populated with very smart people doing very good work.
The Hillbillies that you are talking about are more from Bluefield.
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I'm not saying EVERYONE is WVa is a hillbilly.
A reporter went way up into the hills of West Virginia to write an article
about the area. He met an old man in a small town and asked him about any
memorable events in his life.
The old man said, "Well, one time my favorite sheep got lost, so me and my
neighbors got some moonshine and went looking for it. We looked and looked
and finally found the sheep. Then, we drank the moonshine and, one by one,
started screwing the sheep. It was a lot of fun!"
The reporter figured he can't write an article about that, so he
there's hypochondria (Score:2)
then there's these people
It's contagious, all right (Score:5, Insightful)
Sorry, Diane, but you are contagious. Just as you learned of this invented disease from someone else, you've undoubtedly passed it along to another hypochondriac. Just because it's not transmitted by biological vectors doesn't mean that it can't spread from person to person.
Re:It's contagious, all right (Score:5, Funny)
No use telling her... she won't be able to read this comment...
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you've undoubtedly passed it along to another hypochondriac.
But with a national whack-job preserve like this, its not likely the contagion will be passed on. I mean, what's this person going to do? Blog about it?
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I'm sorry, I didn't get to the end of you post because I have ADHD. I also have mild spectrum autism, bipolar disorder, and a variety of hip new allergies. But, no worries, the good people at Pfizer have me on a variety of drugs to make me all better (and also conformist and quiet, the way Mommy and the school like).
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agreed - the school where my wife teaches - there is a single child with a severe peanut allergy, they sent a notice to all students requesting that they not bring anything to school containing peanuts or peanut by products.
this was a tone down because the child's parents wanted the school to ban it out right.
Re:It's contagious, all right (Score:5, Interesting)
You are pretty close. I have environmental allergies (dust, pollen, ect). So I get allergy shots which builds up my tolerance. It works great. The same thing with peanuts. My kid had allergies and we had him tested for everything and he was allergic to peanuts. When he ate peanut butter he would get red in the face and complain about an itchy throat. They don't do shots for food. So we started building his tolerance by giving him smaller doses that he could handle an slowly built up. It is working just like the shots.
So what you said is correct. If parents keep shielding their kids from things they are allergic to they will never build up immunity to them.
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You are pretty close. I have environmental allergies (dust, pollen, ect). So I get allergy shots which builds up my tolerance. It works great.
I had a colleague who suggested that for pollen allergies that you locate local honey producers as that honey would work in the same manner as allergy shots. I don't know how true it is, but he swore by it
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I had a customer years ago who suffered severe hay fever and travelled for extened period internationally for work. He said the first thing he did when he moved to a new place was find the local aipary to source honey. He took a teaspoon daily to manage the symtpoms.
Re:It's contagious, all right (Score:4, Informative)
Be careful. Some allergies, like food allergies or poison ivy, get WORSE with each exposure. Some people just have itchy throat from nuts until one day they stop breathing after eating some.
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My mother 70 ish now shows allergic reactions to pretty much every test known to man. The only things she is actually allergic to are bee stings and penicillin. And she has ended up in hospital because of bee stings and was already in hospital (different reason) when she had a massive reaction to penicillin (not other antibiotics though) She has to wear a medic aid bracelet warning about penicillin now.
So I don't have much confidence in those tests. If they show positive then your body is overreacting. but
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Actually you are wrong, the case of actual, give a kid a peanut and they die due to anaphylaxis, nut allergy has increased massively in recent times (and there are several theories as to why, from industrial pollutants to kids having hypersensitive immune systems due to lack of germs). People who are "peanut intolerant" etc are normally whackos, but nut allergy is increasing and can be shown in double blind conditions. Unlike "electromagnetic sensitivity".
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People just mistake an intolerance for a food for an allergy (the latter involves an immune system reaction while the former does not).
That being said, food allergy cases (recorded cases serious enough to require a trip to the hospital) *have* risen in the past 20 years. The cause of this is up for debate.
Wow (Score:3)
It's like a crazy-enclave. I think the easiest way to make these people realize that they are suffering from mental illness or delusional thoughts is to explain to them how many waves and what type pass through them every day, even in a radio-free enclave.
I just don't get this kind of irrational behavior. I think it has to be an illness similar to germaphobia.
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I liked the lady who thought she needed to live in a faraday cage made of wood and chicken wire. I bet you could get cell recption in there, and it only blocked a couple of frequencies at most.
Or lady the lady who got sick sitting in front of her TV. She was old enough that i would bet the elctron gun was damaged and outputting higher than normal.
She should get an LCD tv and see if she feels the same.
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i have an old CRT TV - and i get sick sitting in-front of it, that is if i'm watching any current media.. turn it off or watch a good old movie and the sickness goes away.
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I get sick sitting in front of any TV, largely because I apparently have an allergy to pretty much everything that's shown on it.
From Wikipedia... (Score:5, Informative)
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_hypersensitivity :
The majority of provocation trials to date have found that self-described sufferers of electromagnetic hypersensitivity are unable to distinguish between exposure to real and fake electromagnetic fields,[2][3] and it is not recognized as a medical condition by the medical or scientific communities.[4]
[2] Rubin, James; J Das Munshi J, Simon Wessely (March–April 2005). "Electromagnetic hypersensitivity: a systematic review of provocation studies". Psychosomatic Medicine 67 (2): 224–32. doi:10.1097/01.psy.0000155664.13300.64. PMID 15784787.
[3] Röösli M (June 2008). "Radiofrequency electromagnetic field exposure and non-specific symptoms of ill health: a systematic review". Environ. Res. 107 (2): 277–87. doi:10.1016/j.envres.2008.02.003. PMID 18359015.
[4] http://www.cdc.gov/search.do?q=%22Electromagnetic+hypersensitivity%22+&btnG.x=20&btnG.y=5&sort=date%3AD%3AL%3Ad1&oe=UTF-8&ie=UTF-8&ud=1&site=default_collection
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A minority of trials may have been setup badly (for example, not double blind). Also a minority of trials might've had positive results by chance. If people are completely unable to detect electromagnetic radition, then by pure random chance, you'd expect 50% of all trials to come up with results that are at least slightly positive, and 1 out of 20 trials will come up with statistically significa
Re:From Wikipedia... (Score:5, Informative)
That's not radiation, that's because cheap CRTs tubes oscillate at 60 hertz and if you're not deaf in the upper frequencies you can hear them whine. Basically it's noise from the flyback transformer in the CRT. Many children can hear them but people often lose those frequencies as they get older.
I can still hear when a cheap CRT is on but I don't claim to be allergic to wifi.
See http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/comp/crt/failWhine-c.html [pcguide.com] for some more info.
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And now that we're finally getting rid of those CRTs, we're buried under switching power supplies in phone chargers and the like. They're even more annoying because they're not next to a noisy computer but typically next to my bed... Argl.
Is it my imagination... (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm 45, and while the likes of the Internet and mass-media obviously provide significantly more information than we ever had in the past, I just don't remember so many people having food allergies, aversions, ADD, "sensitivities", or other maladies that are so abundant today. Is it because we are less ignorant and more informed of what were otherwise "hidden" issues, or have we physically evolved into people weaker constitutions?
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Sadly I don't think it's just your imagination.... (Score:4, Interesting)
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There's some of both. Partly it's better diagnosis and information about these different sensitivities: People are more likely to find out exactly what they are sensitive to, and be able to communicate it better to others. We are also making an effort to make public areas more open to people with these sensitivities, so someone who 20 years ago would just not eat out, now can go and find something on the menu tailored to them in many restaurants.
But there's also the fact that people who grow up in near-st
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I think you're just hearing more about it because of ubiquitous access to information, and when we talk about peanut allergies, for example, the really bad cases 20 or 30 years ago may not ever have even made it to school age.
As for some of the other problems, I do think a lot of it bunk, but I also think that humans have stopped becoming a stronger species and are, in fact, getting weaker. Survival of the fittest doesn't apply to us any more.
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I'm 45, and while the likes of the Internet and mass-media obviously provide significantly more information than we ever had in the past, I just don't remember so many people having food allergies, aversions, ADD, "sensitivities", or other maladies that are so abundant today. Is it because we are less ignorant and more informed of what were otherwise "hidden" issues, or have we physically evolved into people weaker constitutions?
Read up on the old medical literature (on the Internet of course). 'Hysteria', 'the vapours' and a host of other obviously psychosomatic maladies have been around for quite a long time. The current fad of blaming said problems on the environment (the 'sensitivities') is fairly recent. Previously the scapegoat was God, the Devil, Witches or similar malign influence. It's not surprising since we know that some of the many chemicals / radiations we're exposed to ARE really dangerous (pleased to step away f
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There are reasons for a few of these heightened sensitivities outside of people just wanting attention.
There is a theory that the amount of cleaners that we use prevent us for being exposed to mild toxins, and our immune systems really want to have something to do, so an allergy occurs to things that we should not be sensitive to. Not sure I buy it 100%, but it holds more water than just blaming more information to the hypochondriacs.
The soy allergies that have occurred go right to Monsanto. They have a pro
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It's neither. The reason is because the environments we live in have become less dangerous. There's only so many hours in the day to worry about things, so the more dangerous things take priority. As we've removed more and more dangers through scientific and social progress, it has freed up room in our busy schedules to worry about less significant things.
Think of it as a Maslow-style [wikimedia.org] hierarchy of risks. You only start worrying about things higher on the hierarchy when you no longer have to worry about
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I haven't reached your august age but I've seen a lot of the same. I knew exactly one kid at school with a food allergy, and she couldn't eat large amounts of chocolate. That was the extent of the allergies my school had to content with.
That said, two of my kids have been diagnosed with ADD (not ADHD). They simply could not concentrate on school stuff. For example, I'd watch my son try to do homework at the kitchen table, and he'd be fine for a little while until a neighborhood dog barked. Maybe the numbers
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I'd say it's actually a bit of both. Before when people had minor allergies that weren't recognized they would eventually overcome them through exposure. Now we recognize those allergies and avoid them, resulting in stronger reactions when they are eventually encountered.
Logical treatment. (Score:5, Insightful)
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I'm glad you're so smart and have studied the issue so well that you can determine that it's simply not possible that a human being, whose nervous system runs on electrical impulses, couldn't possibly be affected by electromagnetic fields.
I'm not really defending these people - I make no claims to be affected, and I'm sure most of them are hypochondriacs, but isn't it possible that, out of over 300 million people in the U.S., some of them might actually be more sensitive to the effects of electromagnetic fi
Re:Logical treatment. (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm not really defending these people - I make no claims to be affected, and I'm sure most of them are hypochondriacs, but isn't it possible that, out of over 300 million people in the U.S., some of them might actually be more sensitive to the effects of electromagnetic fields than you?
No, at least now how they describe it.
They only complain about man-made electromagnetic fields. The Earth has this HUGE magnetic field, maybe you've heard of it. The Sun is positively bombarding us with electromagnetic radiation. Basically, the amount energy from man-made electromagnetic radiation you're exposed to on a regular basis is insignificant compared to the natural kinds. The only difference is that the man-made contains ordered signals instead of being purely random noise. It's limited to particular frequencies instead of being at a broader spectrum. These people moved to a place containing a large number of radio telescopes whose purpose is to, wait for it...detect electromagnetic signals.
Apparently only man-made EM can trigger these people's allergies, which pretty much means that what these people are claiming is literally impossible. In addition, every single study done so far has shown that when you tell these people that you turned off the source of EM they think is the cause of their problem, they get better. Even if you lie to them about it, and the thing is still on. Similarly, if you tell them that you turned a device on, they'll suddenly start getting their headaches, even though nothing was turned on.
Now, if you tell me that in a population of billions, there are some humans that are sensitive to electromagnetic fields in such a way that makes them good at finding north...I'm willing to believe that and run some tests. Sounds plausible and interesting.
Re:Logical treatment. (Score:4, Insightful)
Is it?
Yes, it is.
Suppose any people who were sensitive to the naturally occurring EMF were filtered out by evolution?
What I tried to say in my post is that there's essentially no difference. That's like saying that some people might be allergic to showers, but not rain. Oooh, the rain drops are more organized when they come out of the shower head. It doesn't matter, it's still water.
Again, I'm not defending these people because, like most of the readers here, I really doubt their claims... but it surely seems like it's at least possible that people can be affected by EMFs... not like turning a switch on and off, but overall mood.
Maybe, but that's not what they're saying. They're saying they get affected by wifi and cell towers and nothing else. That's like the showerhead vs. rain example. It's stupidly insane.
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I prescribe a daily dose of (Score:2)
Check the validity (Score:2)
I'm not sure if its practically possible, but if it is then, without the knowledge of these people, temporarily shut down the telescopes and blast the town with WiFi frequencies for a few days.
You'll find out if there's any truth in their statements
Doesn't need to be ionizing to have an effect (Score:3)
I personally have no problems with electronics...I work in front of a computer all day.
That said, it's been shown that cell phone radiation can cause brain activity. Is it such a stretch to imagine that under some circumstances some people could experience that brain activity in a negative way?
I can't find a reference, but I seem to remember my psychology class covering people that could get skin burns because they were touched with a piece of metal that they *thought* was hot, but really wasn't. If the mind can do that, it seems plausible it could cause other symptoms.
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Are you sure that's not just an X-files plot?
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Doesn't need to be ionizing to have an effect (Score:4, Insightful)
I can't find a reference, but I seem to remember my psychology class covering people that could get skin burns because they were touched with a piece of metal that they *thought* was hot, but really wasn't. If the mind can do that, it seems plausible it could cause other symptoms.
Yes, the brain of someone convinced of a fallacy regarding their health is capable of making them feel all kinds of symptoms. But it wasn't the piece of metal that caused the skin burns.
Ah, good memories... (Score:2)
Too bad this weirdo makes it sound like a freak show.
fake em out (Score:2)
Good Lord. Has anybody taken a wifi base station walked up to these people, claimed it was on just to watch them scream in agony only to show them they had not ACTUALLY turned it on?
I would LOVE to see that.
Of course...You can't rationally argue a person out of a position they did not rationally get themselves into (quote by somebody...can't remember who) so I'd guess they would deny that it was actually off when they screamed in pain.
FFS RTF Links - Radio is not banned there (Score:5, Informative)
Come back Taco
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The first link in TFA is all about an additional approval process required for transmitters in the region so that they do not adversely affect the Radio Telescopes. The second link says basically the same thing.
Come back Taco .. we miss you.
We've had dupes for years. Now they're just in the same article. It's progress, you Luddite.
In other news... (Score:2)
In other tech news, crazy (technophobes,technophiles) found a way to (avoid,misuse) technology found in (your favorite tech here), conducting activities that resulted in (isolating them,harming people) in a surprisingly (ignorant,creepy) fashion.
The world responded with (shock,anger,compassion) for (1,2,5,30) minutes and then returned to their (pathetic lives,regularly scheduled programming).
Radios are not banned there (Score:3)
Radio transmitters are not banned there. Licensed ham stations have minimal limitations: for example, the main amateur radio restriction is that it's not allowed without permission to establish a "beacon" (transmit-only) station, and those themselves are already limited to 28 MHz and up anywhere in the US.
Someone isn't thinking things through... (Score:2)
Irony: In order to escape wireless emissions, people move to a place where a bunch of massive radio telescopes stand next door as proof that wireless emissions are everywhere.
Correlation isn't causality: moving from a populated area to the middle of nowhere and having your symptoms "disappear" proves that wireless emissions were the root of the problem.
Sometimes I think I feel this (Score:2)
Whenever I am maxing out my cheapo WiFi router, sometimes I can hear a very slight humming from the router
Similarly, if its very quiet, under certain conditions I can hear slight noises from my laptop (not the Fan or HDD, seems to come from the CPU), and sometimes from CRT TV's
I wonder if their issue is something like this
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CRTs could be doing the same thing(flyback transformer and friends), or could be electrostatic crackling(40Kv has a way of making itself heard sometimes...)
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An alternate solution for the afflicted: (Score:2)
Eh... (Score:2)
Psych symptoms are real symptoms(albeit often not of what the patient thinks they are), so the prevalence of psych symptoms is worrisome. Given
I used to be afraid of EM but not anymore (Score:4, Funny)
Don't get me wrong, I'm terribly allergic to wifi, mobile phones, even a microwave oven being used next door but in the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter much. You see, I'm also allergic to neutrinos. Do you know how many of those things pass through my body every single second. Oh it causes me so much pain you just wouldn't believe. :-)
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I'm surprised (Score:2)
In addition to being an area of "radio quiet," the area also incredibly scenic, loaded with state parks and national forests, home to wild and scenic rivers, and in general a great place to camp, fish, hike, hunt, canoe, or commune with Nature in your chosen fashion. There are relict populations of assorted plants remaining from the retreat of the last glacier for the amateur botanist. There are plenty of bears around for people who like a little danger with their nature walks. It's also one of the few rea
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Sure, but the magnetic field strength for TMS [wikipedia.org] is about the same as for an MRI, held about 5 inches from the brain. Do you regularly stand 5 inches from an AM/FM broadcast antenna? There's no "maybe", these guys are crazy.
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Re:Sure, maybe these guys are crazy... (Score:4, Informative)
I'm pretty sure we have no idea what wifi, cellphones, etc. are doing to us.
Yes we do. We've studied it do death. At the absolute worst it might cause a tiny, tiny bit of increase in certain cancers and / or cause some local radiative effects near the antenna. It probably doesn't cause anything above the noise floor of people dying from the Usual Suspects. In other words, if you're worried about that cell phone, put down the damned cigarette first. And buckle your seat belt.
It's like how mercury was first treated... we all just think it's fine and laugh at anyone who says otherwise because we don't experience the problem or haven't seen it with our own eyes. But, we really have no idea.
Actually, Mercury was readily identified as an industrial poison soon after it became widely used (Mad as a Hatter [wikimedia.org]).
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