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Cell Phone Makers Patent "Brain Shields"
CyberLeader writes: "An article in the UK Times is reporting that cell phone manufacturers have patented 'brain shields,' or components intended to reduce the stray EM radiation that might enter your noggin from your phone. This despite their consistent claims that cell phone radiation is harmless."
The paranoid have been using these for years ;-)
The argument was never that the phones didn't produce radiation. It was that the radiation wasn't harmful, and didn't cause brain tumors.
Does that mean you can't create something that will block the radiation? Of course not. Will it prevent brain tumors? Of course not. Will it sell more phones to people who are afraid of tumors? Yes. Is it better to have a patent on it so your competitors can't sell phones with the same feature? Of course.
It's all about the benjamins, baby.
Does anyone else see a large shipment of Magic Antenna and Radiation shields arriving at that guys warehouse next to all the 2600 cartirdges, vibrating Mr. Potato-heads and Aura vests? ..
As seen on TV!
I'm writing with a laptop with an Orinoco card sitting on my *lap.*
Am I imagining a tingling feeling down there, or should I be worried?
Gee. A device designed to take a modulated electric signal and turn it into sound...takes a modulated electric signal and turns it into sound.
Fucking amazing.
"That's Tron. He fights for the Users."
"There's a sucker born every minute."
The cellphone industry is trying to do two things:
This isn't some sinister plot, this is a rediculous response to some rediculous junk science. A study is released, intended to be reviewed by the scientific community, and the media picks up on the story and turns it into a full-blown scare. We saw it with Alar, with power transmission lines, and now with cell phones. But because people don't have the logical or scientific skill to determine the truth, they allow themselves to be scammed twice.
As a sidenote, those interested in such issues of Junk Science and how it's screwing you over should check out the book Gallileo's Revenge by Peter William Huber. It goes into considerable detail on how pseudo-scientific claims are exploited by lawyers and interests groups to serve their own policy purposes.
Umm...wouldn't the people who tend to buy these - as opposed to seeking out comparisons of exactly how much radiation each model of cell phone puts out, so they can stick to ones that are within safe limits (as determined by groups not on the cell phone industry's payroll) - tend to be the people who don't need to worry about protecting that organ?
Half of your customer base is completely paranoid that your product is radiating their heads, but they still insist on using your product.
- --
Do you:
a) Do nothing, listen to them whine. b) "Fix" your product. Get sued when someone "discovers" that it isn't fixed. c) Create a shield that will "protect" the people. If the harm doesn't really exist, you are now profiting TWICE on the paranoid people.
-----------------------------------------------
Using a cell phone might be dangerous. It might not. Research seems to indicate that it is not dangerous but research has been wrong before. In other words by using a mobile phone you are taking a risk.
You are also taking a risk crossing the road, eating your meals (in case you choke) and performing basically any act in your life. Get over it. I like using a cell phone so I am prepared to take this risk. This reminds me about an email I received today about how Americans (I am American) are not prepared to except the consequences of taking risks anymore and feel that everything is someone elses fault. Enjoy:
(note: I don't take any credit for this)
Let's see if I understand how America works lately . . .
If a woman burns her thighs on the hot coffee she was holding in her
lap while driving, she blames the restaurant
If your teen-age son kills himself, you blame the rock 'n' roll
music
or musician he liked.
If you smoke three packs a day for 40 years and die of lung cancer,
your family blames the tobacco company.
If your daughter gets pregnant by the football captain you
blame the school for poor sex education.
If your neighbor crashes into a tree while driving home drunk, you
blame the bartender.
If your cousin gets AIDS because the needle he used to shoot up with
heroin was dirty, you blame the government for not providing clean
ones.
If your grandchildren are brats without manners, you blame
television.
If a deranged madman shoots your friend, you blame the gun
manufacturer.
And if a crazed person breaks into the cockpit and tries to kill the
pilots at 35,000 feet, and the passengers kill him instead, the
mother
of the deceased blames the airline.
"Do you think we could wipe out world hunger forever if scientists figured out how to make AOL's Free CD's edible?"-
http://www.emf.com/
http://www.rfsafe.com/
http://www.emfsafe.com
http://www.radiation.org.uk/
http://www.shieldworks.com/
http://emfpollutionsolutions.com/
http://www.cell-phone-radiation-emf-shield.com/
http://www.rpmwebworx.com/cellphoneradiation/
Some of these look like they are a little flakey.
so you are on your own
;-)
Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
Imagine for a second a brainshield that stopped idiots from expressing whats in their brain! I could go outside again, maybe even stop getting chain letters!
NEWS: cloning, genome, privacy, surveillance, and more!
NEWS: cloning, genome, privacy, surveillance, and more!
It might be a good gamble to patent a device that increases the radiation from cell phones.
I'm sure that at some point a study will show its beneficial.
In that window of opportunity you make your big money.
Then another study will come out that says that finding beneficial effects was bad stats, OR, that the beneficial effects dont outweigh new harmful effects just discovered.
Sneakemail is to spam filters what an ounce of prevention is to a pound of cure.
In spite of the fact that they make no claims that the oil is useful or necessary, they do claim patent rights on it and expect renumeration on all products pertaining to said patent.
The application appears to be valid and on its way to approval. That's fine with us as long as they stay away from our Zero Click Ordering patent.
...gave their customers the option of filtered cancer sticks decades ago.
[100% ISO 646 Compliant]
SVM, ERGO MONSTRO.
This despite their consistent claims that cell phone radiation is harmless.
Many soft drink makers switched to nutrasweet (aspartame) because of a flawed study that claimed that saccharin caused cancer.
Even though the laboratory animals were given doses equivalent to a human drinking over a case of diet soda per day.
Public opinion drives these types of things far more than cold hard science.
-You can cry, but you'll still die. There'll be no tears in the end.