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Communications Medicine Wireless Networking Idle

"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.'"
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"Wi-Fi Refugees" Shelter in West Virginia Mountains

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  • by c6gunner ( 950153 ) on Tuesday September 13, 2011 @11:50AM (#37388020) Homepage

    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 ...

  • by madhatter256 ( 443326 ) on Tuesday September 13, 2011 @12:01PM (#37388196)

    No use telling her... she won't be able to read this comment...

  • by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 13, 2011 @12:15PM (#37388406)

    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 asked the
    old man to tell him another story.

    The old man said, "Well, one time my neighbor's wife got lost, so me and
    all the village men got some moonshine and went out looking for her. We
    looked and looked and finally we found her. Then, we drank the moonshine
    and, one by one, screwed the neighbor's wife. Now, THAT was a lot of fun!"

    The reporter, feeling frustrated, told the old man that he couldn't write
    articles about those stories and asked him if he had any sad or dramatic
    memories that he could talk about.

    The old man paused a little and with a sad expression on his face said,
    "Well, one time I was lost ..."

  • by TheRaven64 ( 641858 ) on Tuesday September 13, 2011 @12:21PM (#37388518) Journal
    There was a story on Slashdot a couple of years ago about a mobile company that put up a mast in a village, and started getting complaints from people saying that the transmitter was giving them headaches and so on. They issued quite an amusing press release, saying that they were sorry and they hoped that the symptoms wouldn't get much worse next month when they turned the transmitter on...
  • by rjforster ( 2130 ) on Tuesday September 13, 2011 @12:21PM (#37388520) Journal

    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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