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Tinfoil Hat House
An anonymous reader writes "A family in Sacromento has covered the side of their house with aluminum to keep the radiowaves from their neighbors at bay. The city has given them one week to remove the life saving shielding or face charges."
How can they be brought up on Misdemeanor charges for this?
It's stupid. It's ugly. But why in the fuck is it illegal?
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
Bet that works great to keep the heat out of the house too...
Maybe they could use that as a reason to keep it?
I'll Find You Peer, If It's The Last Thing I Do!!!!
www.kxtv.com/storyfull1.asp?id=11032
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All they have to do is install it under the siding of the house, and it is legit, code-worthy, and kinda cool.
IANAL but I bet this treatment violates neighbourhood 'quality' standards.
One thing to remember, pot-houses do this to minimise the heat signature.
"The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." ~Plato (427-347 BC)
Why not just re-do the house in aluminum siding? Then they can keep their crazy ideas and have a decent looking house.
Put in some Low-E glass windows with a metal reflective layer and a metal roof and they should be good to go - until someone tunnels under their house, of course.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
If, however, there is no radiation hazard, then nobody is affected and it's no more of an eyesore than all of the other satellite dishes out there.
Now, there are known places where radio leakage from assorted sources has caused problems. There was a metal stadium in the Middle East - forget exactly where - where, whilst it was under construction, power tools would turn themselves on and huge arcs could be seen. Turned out that the stadium acted as a gigantic radio dish and was not only receiving signals from powerful radio sources, but was focussing them too.
There have also been known cancer spikes in areas with (a) high humidity and (b) badly-maintained, sparking power lines. It is not yet proven that there is a causal relationship, but nobody has convincingly ruled it out, either.
This particular case, though, smacks heavily of a family being traumatized by George Bush's "War on Terror" (Sept. 11th, in and of itself, was really a fairly negligable event - ten times that number die each year in car accidents in the US, and more than a thousand times that number are currently in prison in the US for violent crimes).
Personally, I think the city should come to an agreement with the family. The family takes down the aluminum, agrees that the problem probably isn't real, but agrees to work with the city to sue the Federal Government for psychological damage to cover the expenses incurred and the treatment needed to deal with the PTSD the family has suffered with, because of GWB's attitudes.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Then again, I don't understand the reasoning of the average crank.
I've hit Karma 50 and gotten a Score:5, Troll... I win!
Too bad the NSA's engineering manuals are classified. They specialize in that type of construction. Nothing gets out. Nothing gets in. It still looks like a normal building, although the windows look somewhat unusual.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
-cp-
Alaska -- America's most tax-friendly state
A neighbour of my parents did this as he slowly slipped further into insanity. When I lived at home, he was a normal guy with a job. I never met him, but he never did anything that would indicate there was anything wrong. However a couple years later it started. He became a reculse, lost his job, began screaming at imaginary things at all hours of the night. He worse an AFDB, coated all his windows in aluminium foil and so on.
The neighbours wanted to have him comitted for his own good, but you can't do that just because someone is acting crazy, so it kept worsening. Finally he did something threatening and they were able to get him to a mental instution. There he was treated and drugs were able to return his grasp on reality... Unfortunately like many, he elected to stop taking them. This time, his slip to madness was forever, as he decided to kill himself.
Now while I suppose it is theoriticly possible these peopel are being bombarded by radiation, I somewhat doubt it. Microwave radiation isn't known to cause ill health effects at low levels, and if it was at any kind of serious levels you'd know, it would interfere with all kinds of things. Now higher energy radiation such as gamma could, but aluminium won't do shit for that, I'll take a reasonable plate of lead at least.
Also all kinds of radiation are rather easy to detect. If you are concerned you can get or rent the necessary equipment and check. Someone who was in thier right mind and genuinely worried would likely do just such a thing. I mean what if it's something like radon? That's really dangerous as it can release alpha radiation inside you, which is a serious health problem.
I agree with the parent, this is likely a case of eairly schizophrenia and needs to be dealt with. With proper treatment, most schizophrenics can lead a normal life. Without it, they usually totally lose their grip on reality and often hurt themselves.
Yep, this is the a classic case of trying to fight irrationality with logic. The classic example is the apocryphal story of the med student working in a psych ward trying to cure a delusional man with reason. The man was under the delusion that he was dead.
"So you're dead," says the med student.
"Yes indeed," says the man, "I've been dead for nearly ten years."
"OK then, do dead people bleed?" the med student asks.
"Don't be absurd," replies the man, "of course dead people don't bleed."
So the med student grabs the man's hand, and jabs the mans thumb with a pin, which then begins to bleed.
"Well what do you know!" exclaims the man, staring in wide-eyed amazement at the drop of blood welling up on his thumb, "Dead people do bleed!"
If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
Validity of claims is irrelevant. Indoor or at least properly installed by licensed professionals would not be a problem, as it is it does not even seem they attempted to acquire a building permit for the modification-and it as an amateur work without permit has not been inspected for safety. Property value is only one aspect, the safety of the family that did such is also a concern.
There are many reasons that they can be forced to take it down. As it is shiny and metal, it could reflect into the eyes of pilots &c (long shot, but it is used). The residents of my city are forced to only use certain colour roofs, as we live in a primarily bushy area and it helps blend into the environment or something. The shields could also count as a 'structure' and have their removal ordered by the local government. Not to mention the fact that there is a "right to not be offended by an eyesore", if it causes a change in lifestyle or even minor discomfort, then it is required to be taken down.
In conclusion, I win.
Anonymous Coward
Hmmmm, anyone else find it "interesting" that these poor unfortunates are concerned about somebody's microwave oven tossing EMR at them but are, apparently, not concerned about the effects of the EMR from the satellites that are feeding their two satellite receivers? There's nothing on their roof and there are huge gaps in the sheeting that they have standing up against their house. No, those pesky little millimeter waves won't sneak through those spots.
;-)
If, after getting the obvious psychological help, these folks still "need" to protect themselves they ought to look into something like SAF'N SHIELDED (tm) from International Paper Co. which is a nonwoven mat of metallic fibers that can be applied to their inside walls. It's been TEMPEST-tested (some versions attenutate by 100db) by the U.S. government. Maybe they ought to contract for the services of a good TEMPEST engineer as well.
Then again, it's California
But then again maybe not.
Not sure why I care (perhaps because I've seen the damage a redneck can do), but here's an archive with the pictures... It's pretty funny.
http://web.archive.org/web/20021015131654/http://Of course, I just waited for station identification and found out which AM station I was getting. It turned out that the 50KW AM station nearby away had one of their three towers collapse in the 1989 California earthquake. Until they replaced it, their output pattern was distorted. I was in a really strong lobe.
Adding a small bypass cap across the phone line helped the problem. But it took more filtering to completely cure it. I had to have the telco guys add some filtering on their side of the demark. And, years later, when I got DSL, that had to come out. Huge hassle. Three telco visits with test gear to get DSL working properly.
At the far corner of the property next door to me is a HUGE cell phone tower. When I worked on any electronics in my home lab - analog or digital - I used to have problems with high levels of RF that clearly reduced noise margins in the circuitry. Crude experiments with a high frequency probe and antenna showed that the tower seemed to have a nice fat lobe pumping stuff in my direction. Then I began to wonder about living for long periods with my body continuously absorbing RF energy every night. As a precaution, I DID redo my insulation with aluminum-faced foam board, and lined the bedroom curtains with space blanket mylar. Crazy? Well, I'd rather err on this than wake up in five years with cancer.
By the way, years ago I read an article somewhere that explained that metal springs in a bed could pick up RF energy and worse, resonate. In one rare case a local radio station antenna had provided enough energy that a resonant set of bedsprings apparently sparked and caused a fire. Admittedly a very rare situation. Sometimes when grounding in a building is incorrect or the connection corroded, wiring can pick up RF and strange things happen inside. So it's not so nutcase as you might think to be prudent about RF pollution.
I suggest you look into the "broken windows syndrome." Basically states (and has been proven pretty much correct numerous times) that small amounts of graffiti, broken windows, etc just invite more of the same. In the '20s real estate agents used this to their advantage by giving some unsavory sorts (in this case black people) a really good deal in a desirable (in this case all white) neighborhood. What happened? White flight, and the real estate agents really boosted their market by "forcing" a lot of people to move. Oh, and the neighborhoods were destroyed in the process as demand for the housing plummeted. (I'm not saying that black people will destroy a neighborhood, but that unsavory elements, however defined by the majority of residents, has a definate negative effect on the financial, psychological and physical well being of the residents.) And seriously... watch the video and tell me that this is nothing. This is really shitty work, probably becoming dangerous in storms. Not to mention that it wouldn't actually do much to solve the problem of microwave radiation. And look at the eyes of the lady of the house... she is schizophrenic. She doesn't need metal sheeting on the house. She needs mental help.
But, yes, having this crap on their house does A)significantly reduce the value of the neighbor's houses, B)create a public nuisance and C)invite further degredation to the neighborhood. But hey... thanks for playing.
Come one, come all, see this site and admire the stylish and attractive choices.
Seriously, this guy worked for a real good friend of mine for a while, and he is real serious about this stuff.
Yow...
Got Wisdom?
In some places it may a matter of democracy, but in all the bad stories I've read there appears to be no democracy to the organizations. Somehow, someway, they ended up becoming little fiefdoms for those in charge.
This has nothing to do with race, national pride, or an unchecked autocracy. Therefore, the fascism label simply doesn't apply. I suggest you learn the meaning of a word before you start throwing it around. Before you start putting the smack down on someone verbally you should do your homework and make sure you're not wrong. I know that either the author of Kevin & Kell or This is True had a problem with their community organization over porch banners in the past year. (I'm pretty sure it was the author of Kevin & Kell, but not 100% sure.) What made it stand out in my mind was that they actually made the changes necessary to make the community organization happy only to find out right afterwards that several homeowners were refusing to comply and filing a lawsuit against the community organization. That certainly doesn't sound like a democratic process was used to decide the new policy does it?LOL, quite the little hypersensitive pessimist. By Victorian you can be assured they are only referring to the style of the architecture (which I happen to admire as well). You really think those sheep know anything about history?
America has many problems, most of which have been frequently pointed out on slashdot, where tinfoil hats are de'rigueur. I think this story points to the conflict between individual rights (a basic measure of freedom), and the mis-application of "democracy" to force the desires of the majority on everyone else.
Most people live in white houses, obviously that's the preferred color. Perhaps it should be illegal for me to live in an offensive green one. Catholics outnumber all other religions, why SHOULDN'T they be able pass a law requireing the rest of us to attend mass, after all it's DEMOCRACY. The Religious right doesn't think we should do stem-cell research -- guess we'd better cut federal funding from one of the most promising fields since antibiotics.
Unless he's endangering his family or neighbors, they should leave this family alone. Protecting propterty values by heavy-handed regulation should NOT the mandate of the government in a free society.
Must get lonely out there in the middle of Montana or North Dakota or wherever you are, hours away from any other civilisation. You should get into town more--despite being "fascist" the good citizens of those towns really are nice people.
Seriously though I'm guessing you have a bit of a warped sense of humour or you are a masterfull troll. Besides the fact that there ARE health and safety concerns associsted with prostitution and scrap vehicles, a typical community code is quite reasonable. If all people were reasonable and considerate there would be no need for such codes.
Alas, a small but significant minority of people are complete jackasses. Given the chance these people will paint their houses hot pink with purple, orange and yellow trim and park a rusty old truck with two flat tires on the front lawn under the shade of their 12-foot C-Band dish (the one that pipes hard-core porn into their living room which they view with the volume on so high everyone on the block can count the orgasms).
These codes might not be about health and safety, but they are about the right of law abiding citizens to live in realtive peace. Unfortunately, there are other types of jackasses who are the opposite--these are the ones that insist on hearing their favourite pins drop after 9PM, mow their lawns in a checkerboard pattern and wish everyone would do the same, and hold up city business with requests for more traffic-calming measures, more noise bylaws and more regulation of every little thing that slightly annoys them.
If you find you are living in a redneck hellhole, or nazi-Stepford-suburbia there is a way to stop the madness. It is called "civic duty". Get involved in politics--especially at the local level. Attend the odd community planning meeting, endorse non-wacky candidates for office and vote for them...or at least vote for cryin' out loud. The latter form of jackass knows this already, and that is why California is so whacked that a government led by Conan the Barbarian is actually a vast improvement over the previous rock-bottom situation with Davis.