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NYC Subway Cell Service, No Cell-Related Cancer
Luke PiWalker wrote to mention a CNN article discussing a bid process for offering cell phone service to NYC subway stations. The contract is only to wire up stations; moving trains will not have service. Those New Yorkers will also be safe from their phones, as the BBC reports on a study indicating cell phones don't cause cancer. From that article, submitted to us by Dan Hope: "She acknowledged that there appeared to be an increased risk among brain cancer sufferers on the side of the head where they held the phone. The team, however, did not put this down to a causal link, because almost exactly the same decreased risk was seen on the other side of the head, leaving no overall increase risk of tumours for mobile phone users. Instead, they blamed biased reporting from brain tumour sufferers who knew what side of the head their tumours were on."
I still would rather have my cell to my ear, than sitting in my lap while I am using a headset, for obvious male reasons.
The Metro in DC has had Cell service for quite sometime. As much as the NYC subway is nice because it is free from Cell yell, I can'y imagine not being able to use my wireless services while commuting.
And All I Ask is a Tall Ship And a Star to Steer Her By
While I don't relish the thought of hearing people chattering away on their phones while waiting for a train, the idea of being able to reach people I'm trying to meet up with sounds good. Especially when going outside to get service means being out in the rain.
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One of the biggest problems with studies, including cancer studies, is biased sampling. Some people are more likely to volunteer. Some people can't, because they are dead.
The one-sided cancer is damning either way you look at it.
A. The sample is horribly biased. People with cancers on the cell-phone side volunteered.
B. The sample is horribly biased. Despite cell phones causing cancer, they managed to find enough non-cancer people to hide the facts. Perhaps people who get brain cancer are unavailable for study...
They'd have to setup mini-cell towers at intervals along almost the entire length of the system. It would be prohibitively expensive to try and shoehorn this is after the fact.
Like many things, it's invariably cheaper and easier to implement 'features' while you're building/developing something than after the fact.
IMHO, this is not a bad idea to limit this to the platform. Subway trains are kind of like being in an airplane or a full elevator. You want everyone to mind their own business and stay out of your (limited) private space.
Imagine having to deal with some obnoxious New Yorker who won't STFU and threatens to knife you when you tell him to. Or maybe drug dealers and criminals will start taking their business into the subways, since they can be in constant phone contact with the outside world while staying mobile.
This might enable the next terrorist attack though. You don't need a suicide bomber if you can use a cell phone to detonate a bomb on the subway platform during the morning rush.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
Why should we listen to studies? Shouldn't we believe that cell phones cause cancer if that belief meets our emotional needs?
After all, all studies are funded by someone. So we can decide they're biased based on what we wish their conclusions were. And then we can continue to believe what we want.
C'mon. Everyone's doing it.
Since a good number of bombs are triggered by clocks, maybe we should forbid private clocks.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
If you can see the subway from far enough away to not be caught in the blast, and hence it's outside and the cell works, or you can't see it, and hence don't know when to detonate it, or you are willing to be caught in the blast, and hence don't need a cell at all.
Do people not sit down and think this stuff through? The use of cell phones it to hide explosives and blow up certain people when they go by. They're using it as a radio.
Now, how the heck does that translate to subway cars underground? If someone wants to blow up the subway, they'll just put an explosive with a timer on it and get off. Considering how regular subways are, you should be able to time it to go off as the car is sitting at the next station if you pushed the button and leapt out right before the doors close at the previous station.
And considering they're using it as a radio to keep security forces from jamming it and because it's cheap to get one without being suspicious, how would that apply to using them over real radios on subways? Subways do not scan nerviously for radio signals, and any idiot can buy a radio at Radio Shake.
If corporations are people, aren't stockholders guilty of slavery?
Or maybe we should get rid of subways, so there's nothing to blow up. Or maybe get rid of cities so there are no good targets. Sure they could use a cell-phone as a detonator, but they could also use an egg timer. They don't blow themselves up because they have no way to delay a detonation, they do it to ensure nobody finds the bomb prematurely, and because they are committed to the idea of martyrdom.
Some bring out the best in others, some the worst. Some bring out far more.
Hey, if I read the article correctly, keeping your phone on the side you don't have a tumor yet will remove the tumor you have on the other side and will thus restore balance again.
Next headline: Cell phones cure brain tumor!
Crawl back into the hole you came from, moron.
I live in Madrid, and used the same line where the train blew up to go to class every day. One of my friends was even there when it blew up, but fortunately wasn't hurt.
However, I happen to be sane enough to realize that this nonsense leads nowhere. You can't have perfect security unless you decide to move into a bunker and never come out, but that's not a very nice way to live. I like living in a country without armed guards standing everywhere and draconian security.
The Madrid mess wouldn't have happened if our ex-president (Aznar) wasn't such a moron and decided to kiss Bush's arse against the wishes of 90% of the population! Fortunately he was promptly kicked out after that incident. Now if only America could do the same, the world would be a much nicer place.
I want to use my cell phone on the subway. I don't care if a terrorist might use it to blow me up. I don't see that terrorism is a significant threat to my person.
However, terrorism will become a threat to my way of life if the fear of it prevents me from using my cell phone on the subway.
May the Maths Be with you!
No, the problem is that it proves nothing except a possible reporting bias.
Someone with a brain tumor knows it's on the left side of his head. When asked which side he holds his cell phone on, he reports that he holds it on the left side of his head.
For those that report that they hold the cell phone on the left side of their head--if cell phones caused an increased risk of brain tumors--you would see an increased risk of left-side tumors and a STANDARD risk of right-side tumors. But what the study actually found was that there was an "increased" risk of left-side tumors and a "decreased" risk of right-side tumors with left-side cell phone holders.
What that indicates is that the reporting of which side of their head they have historically held the cell phone on may have become biased due to them knowing that there's a tumor in the left side of their head. They might have been right-side holders, but "recall" that they were left-side holders because, of course, everybody knows that holding the cell phone on one side of the head causes brain tumors. It's an indication of a possible self-reporting bias, rather than an actual connection.
So, basically, what the study said was that people with left-side tumors reported that they held the cell phone on the left side, while people with right-side tumors reported that they held the cell phone on the right side, WHETHER OR NOT it was reality. The decreased risk of other-side tumors indicates that it may not be reality--that the public assocation between brain tumors and cell phones causes a person to report that they held the cell phone on the side of their head with the tumor even if they did not.