Slashdot Mirror
UK Schools Bans WiFi Due To Health Concerns
Mantrid42 writes "Schools in the UK are getting rid of their WiFi network, citing health concerns from parents and teachers. The wireless emanations, parents fear, may be the root cause of a host of problems from simple fatigue to the possibility of cancer. A few scientists think younger humans may be more vulnerable to the transmissions, because of thinner skulls. From the article: "Vivienne Baron, who is bringing up Sebastian, her ten-year-old grandson, said: 'I did not want Sebastian exposed to a wireless computer network at school. No real evidence has been produced to prove that this new technology is safe in the long term. Until it is, I think we should take a precautionary approach and use cabled systems.'"
What doesn't cause cancer?
" No real evidence has been produced to prove that this new technology is safe in the long term."
I'm sorry, but we're not talking about kryptonite or magical dark matter here.. these are devices operating with known technology in a known spectrum-- and let me add, not the only devices in this spectrum. WiFi isn't the only technology to operate at 2.4ghz (and I think some of the standards.. 802.11a? operate at 5.8ghz) -- are these parents seking to ban microwaves and cordless telephones? Even cellphones (and I'm sure many of them at least use cellular phones around their kids, iand some no doubt actually provide their kids with mobile phones) operate on similar 900mhz / 1800mhz / etc frequencies.
Someone with more of a science background, please reply (and correct me if necessary), but whether or not wireless internet has been studied over the "long term" have not several other devices that operate in the same (or very close) sprectrums? How is this anything but FUD?
I am Jack's complete lack of surprise.
Glad to see we don't have a monopoly on idiocy here in the States...
(%i1) factor(777353);
(%o1) 777353
From the article, one teacher reports "First came a thick headache, then pains throughout the body, sudden flushes, pressure behind the eyes, sudden skin pains and burning sensations, along with bouts of nausea. Over the weekend, away from the classroom, I felt completely normal."
This is pretty much exactly the reaction I experience with a few hours exposure to a wireless network, whether I know it is there at the time or not.
Exception: Argument from Ignorance
there is no *evidence* that these devices CAUSE problems...
If you cannot keep politics out of your moderation remove yourself from the Mod Lottery.. NOW!
Stands a greater risk of injury from tripping over the cables of a wired network than from the RF emitted from a wireless network. Our poor, ignorant UK friends...
"Eve of Destruction", it's not just for old hippies anymore...
The school administration just doesn't want students getting smart and connecting "unauthorized" devices on the network. Schools haven't seemed to be very excited about having students get access in anything less than controlled circumstances, so the rantings of one nutjob parent provide a convenient excuse.
I thought the UK was full of science-respecting atheists. I suppose this could be true, but they certainly aren't science-understanding atheists, based on this article.
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
The amount of energy pushed out bu 802.11a/b/g networks is miniscule and it's almost background level when you consider cell phones, TW transmissions, RADAR and a whole host of other technologies that have been in use for much much longer.
Many of the environmentalist policies and acts legislated by governments provide little or no real benefits.
As one friend of mine said - it's like putting a bandage on a wooden leg....
$5 bucks says she's talking on her cell phone with her little Sebastian within a few feet of her.
I haven't been able to pee since I installed my new linksys. This solves it.
...to chase away idiot teachers like this one. And they wonder why science scores are declining in England?
"Stowe School, the Buckinghamshire public school, also removed part of its wireless network after a teacher became ill. Michael Bevington, a classics teacher for 28 years at the school, said that he had such a violent reaction to the network that he was too ill to teach.
"I felt a steadily widening range of unpleasant effects whenever I was in the classroom," he said. "First came a thick headache, then pains throughout the body, sudden flushes, pressure behind the eyes, sudden skin pains and burning sensations, along with bouts of nausea. Over the weekend, away from the classroom, I felt completely normal.""
... until it's proven that the sun won't explode tomorrow we should continue to live in caves.
... until it's proven that Jesus Christ, our lord and saviour, is not returning, we should non-christian people for oil.
... until it's proven that the moderation at /. works, we should accept the editorial level currently presented.
with concise clinical studies that give evidence that exposure for approx. one decade (with effects probably showing up 50 years later) is safe around?
So let us take the risk, we will see later. Yes, this is the scientific method.
CC.
TaijiQuan (Huang, 5 loosenings)
Candy and soda couldn't be causing fatigue or cancer, could they?
Sounds like the grandmother needs the schooling at least as much as the kids. I suggest starting with a list of RF-producing devices, then move on to the inverse square law...
Paleotechnologist and connoisseur of pretty shiny things.
Here in my apartment complex, I pick up at least a dozen other wireless networks from my neighbors. At this point, I keep my cell phone with a headset, and I prefer to be cabled for big downloads. Otherwise, it's just too much of a good thing.
I do not think that many mainstream environmentalists are actually saying these sorts of things.
I happen to be an environmentalist myself, however, I still believe in the scientific method just like many of my breathern do.
I also disagree with you about environmental policies. Not all of them are necessarily drafted with the intentions of the scientists who advised the legislators, but you can thank them for the reason why rivers are fairly clean, that landfills are at least somewhat contained, and that pollution isn't nearly as bad as it could be, just to name a few.
Please do not lump in these nutballs with us. As far as I can tell, it is just general idiots in the populace who blame RF emitters for their problems in life, perhaps looking to cash out from a big company.
WiFi down? How am I supposed to get my porn now?
Infinite time means everything that can happen, will. You being you is absolutely incidental. You do not exist.
Too bad the cables are covered in asbestos!!! Muhahahhaa.
I don't get it, are we not bombarded with radio waves. AM/FM Radio, cell phones, cordless phones. Natural occurring radio waves? I though it was just something in the environment we learned to harness.
hospitals have wireless networks
No matter how many studies one has that fail to detect a hazard, there is always a chance that the hazard was too subtle to be statistically detectable, or was of a type of hazard that wasn't investigated (e.g., hearing loss or arthritis).
It's the old saying - you can't prove a negative. Actually, you can't prove anything in science. You can only present evidence.
Cellphones output many times the power of a wifi network (since wifi is in an unregulated band the power is limited) and you hold the transmitter right up to your ear. If the link between cancer and cellphones is tenuous, how are we to believe that wifi is terrible?
I rarely criticize things I don't care about.
Looks like these people need tin foil hats on more levels than one.
"First came a thick headache, then pains throughout the body, sudden flushes, pressure behind the eyes, sudden skin pains and burning sensations, along with bouts of nausea. Over the weekend, away from the classroom, I felt completely normal."
It's the HVAC. Classic infrasound symptoms.
He's not nuts at least.
- Adam L. Beberg - The Cosm Project - http://www.mithral.com/
Wireless is minimal compared to everything else. We live in an electromagnetic world, with electromagnetic waves everywhere.
802.11-b/g operate on the same frequency as microwaves (i.e. in the microwave spectrum); a microwave is shielded by physical means (no, no magical force fields when you power it up), and if you toss a laptop inside (don't turn the microwave on!) you can still connect to it over wifi with good signal. The shielding lets more through than wifi.
We have TV stations and radio stations broadcasting electromagnetic signals everywhere. There's electromagnetic waves from these and the earth's magnetic field all through the air. There's even electromagnetic radiation from space penetrating the atmosphere, although in very very tiny quantities; without the atmosphere, direct exposure to the level of electromagnetism out there would cook you, kind of like direct exposure to the 1200 watt microwave in the kitchen...
Many cordless phones operate on the 2.4GHz range (some in the 5.0GHz range to avoid colliding with 802.11-a/b/g Wifi) and are everywhere. Cell phones operate in that range too. The police band, tower-to-air radio, and Ham radio wade around high frequency EM as well. Aside from simple cordless phones, these are all a lot stronger than a Wifi AP.
Any device with electricity running through it produces an electromagnetic field in some abstract frequency. You get 60Hz EMI coming out of power lines and power cables; once it hits a transformer you might get more, such as the 15MHz that comes out of a flyback transformer in a TV. You won't get the gigahertz range or anything, but you'll get some sort of electromagnetic field just the same.
You can't escape it. You can hide under a rock 500 meters in the ground but you'll still have enough of the earth's magnetic field to use a compass. What kind of idiot thinks Wifi is magically special?
Support my political activism on Patreon.
I have a d-link with wireless and wired functionality and I just read this tutorial http://www.cruzio.com/support/docs/router_dlink524 .html#general about disabling the wireless part for d-links. You basically click disable on "wireless radio" and in addition to that I disabled SSID broadcast. I'd like to confirm this will actually stop these potentially problematic microwave "emissions" or whatever they are? I'm not being paranoid, I just don't use it and thought it'd be good to disable it anyway.
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/02/ 23/029224
It's good to see that it's not just us crazy Canadians who are jumping at shadows without any proof that there is actually a shadow there, while ignoring evidence that the shadow is in fact harmless. This is ridiculous.
Seriously though, I hate these damned radio waves getting all up in my space!
If we solved this 'terrible cancer causing problem' I wonder how many more ten's of thousands of people would die from something silly little things like plans crashing into each other because the flight tower couldn't communicate with them, or someone freezing to death in a ditch because they broke their leg and couldn't climb out but had no cell phone to call for assistance.
I am surprised that UK parents and teachers are so up in arms about WiFi when they so don't give a damn about the food that is killing their kids as The Naked Chef points out here. I think the number one culprit is called a "Twizler" (mechanically processed sausage thingy), not WiFi.
What fud!
This is not a concern of pretty much all UK schools, their pupils or their parents.
The reason behind the story is simply that newspapers sell papers based on how sensational the issues are. If they could convince people to believe parents won't sending their children to school because of fears of radioactive textbooks, they would print that also.
Assuming they aren't using the 802.11a protocol. The 2.4GHZ or ISM (Industry Science Medical) band is used in various equipment. From what I know it has the same limitations on power output as mobiles. The kids keep those closer to their body than any wireless equipment. Oh well, give the kids some tinfoil hats and let them use wireless in the classroom.
Another question is: what is the real reason behind banning wifi in schools? You don't ban technology because your child's skull is thin, do you?
I'm sorry, but what the hell does this have to do with "environmentalists"? You seem to have picked a group you don't like and ascribed some entirely irrelevant stupid belief to them.
LOAD "SIG",8,1
Do these people go outside in the daytime ? Do they not realize that they are being bombarded with radiation if they do ? Radiation that, unlike wifi transmissions, has been proven to cause cancer in humans! This has been your irrational minute.
In Soviet America the banks rob you!
Wifi causes third world diseases
A few scientists think younger humans may be more vulnerable to the transmissions, because of thinner skulls.
Hmmm....I wonder if there is some truth in this because unfortunately there seem to be a lot of extremely thick skulled people left to make the decisions nowadays.
They'd better ban TV and radio broadcast antennas while they're at it. Hey, why not go the whole nine yards and ban mains electricity? After all, you don't know yet that a 50Hz oscillating magnetic field isn't bad for you!
If you imply that wireless internet is unsafe at school, then you also must consider all the other places wireless internet is in use, including our homes, at work, and in public areas such as cafes (starbucks anyone?) and parks, which some people forget. I know for a fact most parks in nyc have wireless internet. Lets also consider that whole cities want to blanket themselves with wireless internet. Is this the first sign of a new phobia that we will either groan at, or gasp at the danger we placed ourselves in? My advice, do some real, hard testing. Then get back to us.
Constance Fleshpot of Bigones on Chest remarked, "Perhaps the children would be better served with jungle drums. You know, diversity and all that"
"A few scientists think younger humans may be more vulnerable to the transmissions, because of thinner skulls."
Awesome, now when I call my stepfather thick headed, I can link him to the source of that claim.
it has to do with stereotyping people that disagree with corporations pollutin... i mean profiting. :D
If you cannot keep politics out of your moderation remove yourself from the Mod Lottery.. NOW!
The fool or the fool who dimantles the WiFi network based on the ramblings of a fool?
... Kind of like the mobile radiation scare of the early millennium, perhaps?
In my opinion, this is a step backwards. Wireless internet will be a leading standard of using the internet in the up and coming years, especially due to the increase in laptop usage. To continue relying on older wired technologies is not only a waste of money, but a waste of resources. Spending thousands to have to occasionally re-patch the school walls and administrative offices because of cable replacement can easily be spent more efficiently on purchasing WAPs, antennas, and other such equipment...
But then again, it's always about "Thinking of the children," isn't it?
Think twice...
It's a wireless network, Not hardcore porn.
Get over it!
www.tdobson.net #### Dare to Dream #### blog.tdobson.net
...of a classic panic attack.
I've had the same symptoms in crowds, public places. Chances are he's got a phobia or a nervous/stress disorder brought on by being in a classroom, hence the effect goes away at the weekend.
He needs to go see a doctor about it, or at least get counselling. Either way, attributing blame to WiFi seems a bit odd, and if he got so worked up about it - i.e. obsessed about the symptoms being caused by the access point - there's even a chance that removing it would cause the psychosomatic symptoms to go away.
Given that radio waves obey the inverse square law, the signal strength of a cell phone 1 cm. away from your brain is about a million times that of a wireless network card a meter away.
This horse manure reminds me of the kind of person who can smoke a cigarette while worrying that oranges cause cancer in rats.
"The Times, and its sister paper The Sunday Times, are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of News International, itself wholly owned by the News Corporation group, headed by Rupert Murdoch." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Times
like the rest of us....
join the club....
www.tdobson.net #### Dare to Dream #### blog.tdobson.net
While I am not convinced either that wifi, cellphones, etc is 100% safe (mind you, I use all of these things, the odd of it being significantly dangerous are low enough that I'll take the gamble any day), this is seriously double standard, as usual.
In the same breath that these people claim they don't want kids exposed to harmful radiations, they'll scream at their kid to stop playing in door and go do some sport or whatever, under the sun, which is exponentialy more harmful.
Its just another case of "what I know is ok, no matter how harmful, but what I don't know is bad, even if its not proven"
It's funny - anytime anyone even so much as questions wireless technology, there's a profound defensive reaction from geeks. It's like they take it as a personal attack. Personally, I've worked in this industry for a long time now, I'm not a fan of wireless either. There are no long term studies, either we'll look back in 50 years and say "what were they worrying about?", or look back and say "that's what happens when you bombard your heads with too many different radio waves in a steel frame building". I get many more headaches than I used to, and feel drained all the time - probably a combination of age and overwork though...
Still - one thing is for sure - wired is more secure (free punch in the nose for anyone who decides to get clever there - you're WRONG), and it's certainly faster and more reliable. They've probably done the right thing, despite it arguably being for the wrong reasons.
Just give them all tin-foil hats and be done with it.
any argument taken seriously that prevents young minds from communication is very troubling
the real issue here is NOT health - it is being driven by the idea that young minds have access to a world of ideas not under control from those in power. the Internet has a global set of ideas - empowering, liberating, libralizing, and educating ideasl this is quite contrary to the mentality in most lower schools which are follow the rules, learn/do what you're told, and tow the line.
the idea that kids the age of 8 or 9 or 10 (ish) are educated and empowered is deathly frightening to small minded parents, who are so childish themselves they can't deal with strong people. So instead, they cite some completely absurd health scare to keep kids from easy, broad access to online content.
it is sadly ironic that by applying an argument to protect their health, they will actually harm these children by limiting their access to the Internet
The power level is low, around 20-200mW from your typical wifi transciever. HOWEVER, scientific research suggests that dosage to microwave radiation is cumulative.
Here's a paper that discusses microwave RF radiation in general. I'd pay special attention to the cognitive and memory deficits that showed up in the mice after being bombarded by microwave radiation.
That is, unless you don't care about your brain too much.
They're talking about a preparatory school populated with children with names like Sebastian.
This suggests well off middle class parents who are financially secure and have little or nothing of any real consequence to worry about on a day to day basis. This leads them to go out searching for things to worry about and the paradox of having cordless phones in the home and not being worried about them, while at the same time seeing Wi-Fi at school as a cancer causing evil doesn't enter into it.
At the end of the day you can point out the statistical probabilities of the various ways their kids could die, e.g. car crash, struck by lightning, death by evil Wi-Fi rays all you like but it'll make no difference. No wonder the papers love a good health scare story.
Hmmmmmm..... Deep fried and look like Squirrel.
They should check for other probable causes before thinking about EM. Symptoms outlined here seem to point to problems with air quality (fungus, dust). These problems are very prevalent in aging buildings.
Alright, so here's an idea: tell them you're turning it back on just to "see if the effects happen again". Then put fake routers in so it looks like there's a wireless network, but don't actually turn it on. See how many people complain about the illness they're getting from the non-existent wireless network.
Apology to Ubuntu forum.
Why in hell can't they just wear tinfoil hats like the rest of us?
You're using her as bait, Master!
The lady's obviously a luddite who's easily influenced by the nattering nabobs of negativism. These morons believe power lines cause all sorts of ailments too.
Seeing as most people pick up wireless networks from their neighbours etc, are they going to ban people who live near schools from having APs? Big signs up near schools telling people to disable the wifi in their laptops? The whole thing is entirely pointless. Also hope that teacher has been to a doctor, sounds like he needs his head checked, or he really hates his job and hasn't realised yet...
"As a rational human being, Al-Qaeda are a loose association of psychopathic zealots who could be rounded up with a sustained police investigation. But speaking as a parent, they're all eight foot tall, they've got lasers under their moustaches, a huge eye in their foreheads and the only way to kill them is to nuke every country that hasn't sent us a Christmas card in the the last 20 years. Speaking as a mother..." - Bill Bailey
I'm reminded of a story from when I was at my British school in the eighties. We had a day trip to British Aerospace as they sponsored the technology course I was doing. At BA they had an enormous experimental radar system that the guy explained emitted MW radiation to work. To show us how much power there was in front of us he *threw* a raw sausage past the front of the thing and with much glee retrieved it and let us feel how hot it was!!
Pretty sure I was exposed to more radiation that day than in my whole life. And felt a man's hot sausage. But no-one thought of the children in those days so it didn't matter.
spoonerize "magic trackpad"
Just give him a tinfoil hat and a slashdot subscription.
Problem solved.
Mice have skulls that are about the thickness of shrimp exoskeleton. I know, I decapitated over 10,000 of them and peeled their little brains(MMMM BRAINS MMMM) out of said skulls by hand. But, that's another story. If a mouse skull is thick enough to prevent any statistical correlation betweem exposure and ill effect, surely an English school boy is safe.
I'm really sick of the argument that "you can't ban this, because this other thing is more dangerous and not banned".
It's a crappy argument, and I'm sick of it.
I suspect whoever thought up the idea to tell the parents that wifi is going to seriously harm their children might have been trying to stave off another form of parental zealotry "wanting the best technology for their children".. even when it's not the most suitable for their computer labs.
The inverse square law applies to open space with nothing to absorb radio waves. Buildings are full of materials that absorb radio, which is why your cell phone is such a hit or miss thing indoors.
a press dedicated to making their fortunes and reputations by discovering new things for these parents to worry about, and a government dedicated to making their fortunes and reputations by taking strong action to deal with these new worries.
Makes you long for some real crises to give people a sense of proportion.
Clear, Dark Skies
The 2.4ghz segment of the microwave spectrum used for wireless devices is essentially harmless. E = hc/w where w = wavelength (normally he symbol lambda is used). The wavelength in this section of the spectrum is very large, comparatively speaking. You know those little holes in the screen of the microwave? Simply put, even those are too small for a microwave to fit through. And the amplitude of wireless lan devices is rather small--ban cellular phones long before you ban a wifi network. The most that particular set of frequencies can do is warm the human body up, and to do that it would need to be far more intense of a signal to have any noticeable effect. Those florescent bulbs used for lighting are more harmful--that white coating on the inside is all that's keeping ultraviolet light, which is harmful, inside the bulb.
There's no evidence that it isn't harmful, I'll give you that. But find evidence that the easter bunny doesn't exist while you're at it. Just because some mammals grow so large, or just because some electromagnetic waves have the potential of being harmful, doesn't mean they all do.
Gee, did they rule out things like allergies, infections, asbestos, mold, heavy metals, etc.?
It would be very funny if they banned WiFi at the school due to health concerns and then found asbestos or lead paint!
I doubt any wifi is going to hurt a kid more than having him them in front of a computer all day.
There's nothing Intelligent about Intelligent Design.
A lot of /.ers already mentioned other devices fogging our brains 24/7...
But what about monitors?
A few months ago, I took a gauss-meter & put it behind a CRT monitor. The safe level is 2.5 milli-gauss; The result I got was 20-30 mg !!
And regarding those cell phones, I put the same meter near my cellphone and called a friend, the result went beyond 100 mg (100 mg was the device's maximum value)
Just to remind you: 2.5mg was the safe level.
Mod points are a dangerous tool. Abuse them wisely.
We've all seen it happen. The microwave oven goes on, the Wifi network stops.
The microwave is shielded, but shielding isn't a binary thing. It's there to cut the leakage to legal levels at a tolerable price.
Since it can shut down a WiFi network, you know that the leakage from the microwave is about as strong as the wireless signal.
Data backs up the thought experiment: ballpark numbers people toss around for microwave oven shielding are around 35 dB, which cuts a kilowatt down to about a quarter of a watt.
If they accept ovens they should accept network gear. If they ban network gear they should rip out their home microwaves.
In Soviet Britain, you go to school to get more ignorant.
2.4 ghz seems to be the frequency that messes with me. Had to go back to a long, long ethernet cable between two Macs in the house because the network was giving me headaches. And cell phones have always given me headaches if i use them for more than a few minutes. having 2 on in the house seems to have the same effect as a wireless network between computers. Finally, 2.4 wireless home phone systems also cause me grief. Have to use a headset or a mere 5 minutes into the conversation I'm in headache-city again. A 5.8 system I was given, married with the wireless computer network was the worst I've ever expereinced. Had to ditch the 5.8 phones. Though, it seems that over time I can get slowly used to it.
The most interesting moment was during a thanksgiving last year. My wife was working in the kitchen on the main floor, getting the dinner ready, while I was downstairs playing with our children. Had the wireless Apple Airport Express unit in the kitchen with my wife, and the wireless network card turn on in my Mac downstairs. I told her that in the next 2 hours or so, plug the unit into a wall outlet whenever she wanted, but write down the time, and I'd write down the time I think she plugged it in. She did it twice. About 35 minutes between each time, about 40 minutes into the test. I nailed it to the minute both times. Whenever she plugged it in, my eyes would within minutes get very dry, I'd get the cranky, dull headache, and the most odd feeling was the sense that I was moving in slow motion, but only for a minute or so. I of course realize none of this is supposed to be happening, but it happens far too consistently, for far too long for me personally to rule out. I can tell when a friend, client, or cafe has wireless within seconds of entering the home.
actually the research that claims it is cumulative has been suspect for a while now with many scientists not being able to produce the same results.
"Slashdot, where telling the truth is overrated but lying is insightful."
Make an RF power meter. It's easy. Take a piece of cable with two wires and bend a 1/4 wave length of the end of each wire to make a dipole antenna. Take the other end of the cable and place a diode in series with one of the two wires. After the diode, connect a small capacitor to both wires. Attach both wires to a digital voltmeter (that can display millivolts). There. You've now made what is essentially an untuned crystal radio set with a VU meter instead of headphones. Now turn the voltmeter on and start impersonating Egon Spengler.
Lotsa nasty radiation there.
My wife tells me that houses adjacent to high potential transmission towers in Japan are generally cheaper than others, and have been for years because of reports that cancer rates for people living under them are higher. There's a long (100 meter by 10 meter, enough for about twenty expensive single-family homes) tract of very expensive land empty under one section of transmission wire near where I live, apparently because of health concerns.
Apparently, the concerns about power transmission lines here in Japan are considered common sense in some sectors.
Some bonehead set this batter.. er.. person's carrier frequency into the range we're letting them use! Quarantine, profile then terminate the AI that's responsible for this and make sure that mistake doesn't happen again.
There are two kinds of people: 1) those that need closure
It's called "stress." The remedy for stress is a holiday.
Remember, entropy is trying to kill you!
(I love that quote.)
definitely can be fatal.
this is fuckin' stupid. That is all.
I see where all of you are comming from ridiculing this, but I also see where these people are comming from. What proof do we have that wifi doesn't cause cancer or something else crazy.
Beyond these hallowed halls of knowledge there are indeed serious people questioning the effect of this low-level radiation bathing hundreds of millions of people roughly 24/7.
With its close cousin, the high voltage power line, there is reason for concern, hopefully unfounded.
As with all uncontrolled experiments, anything can happen; maybe in twenty years we'll remember this and laugh.
as its been said alot of things use the 2.4 gigerts system cordless phones microwaves etc. so you need to ban all those to.
It doesn't surprise me that this is happening in the UK. The entire country is saturated with fear-loving, limpwristed idiots. Anyone in the country who still has a spine needs to shrug off the oppression of people like Vivienne.
Only on slashdot can a posting be rated "Score -1, Insightful".
In a press conference today, the British Minister of Education announced a new program to hopefully improve the health of students in the UK.
"In recent studies," the Minister explained, "it has been found that several invisible substances in the air could prove a health concern." She continued, "However, since there are no effective methods of filtering these substances from the air, we are doing all we can to protect the children - namely, removing all air from the schools."
A few scientists think that these substances, which they refer to as Ec-Raf, may affect children more substantially than adults due to the shorter distance between a child's lungs and their brain. They have also found that no one in their anti-Ec-Raf studies involving air removal as complained of any adverse side effects. Furthermore, one noted scientist said "It's amazing we're not all dead already - we must have been breathing this stuff for 100-150 years, at least!"
Google: "All your data are belong to us."
.. they may as well ban a bunch of other EMR sources: fluorescent lighting, wireless security/surveilance systems, appliances with motors..
-- All your bass are below two Hz
BBC Radio 1 blankets the U.K. with so much energy that the Soviets used to use little dipole antennas to rectify the RF and power small audio bugs -- ubiquitous broadcast power on demand!
Now, that is ~100MHz rather than ~2GHz -- but then again, microwave ovens tend to leak in the 2 GHz band at the 10 milliwatt level.
Wifi is the very least of the RF "problem".
This must be what happened to Alexander Litvinenko!
"No freeman shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson
If we ban everything that ignorant misinformed people express concern about, the idiots win.
God Be Gone
Or, all that fatigue, cancer, hyperactivity, confusion, stupidity, fat, and behavioral problems could be caused by being poisoned by sugar water. Sugar is one hell of a toxic substance to the human body... empty calories that rob the body of nutrient to process it, do not provide a continuous supply of energy for the body, are addictive, and when drunk in excess cause hyperactivity, then depression, hypoglycemia, getting fat, and eventually, diabetes. Add hefty amounts of caffeine into the mix (which is actually a poison given off by the coca plant) and you've bot one toxic mix.
After 20 years of drinking and being addicted to this crap, I've found out the hard way. Throughout those 20 years its tore up my life, made me think I was insane, chronically fatigued, confused, unable to concentrate, and eventually gotten down right sick.
Its not the wifi, its the sugar water.
Numerous studies on the toxicity of sugar to the body can be found on the net. No, refined sugar is not the same as blood glucose, and no, you body does not need refined sugar to function. Healthy vegtables, meat, water, and fiber. Zero sugar. Zero caffeine.
Here are some simple and possibly relevant facts that one would have thought the /.ers would have considered by this point in the discussion. In no particular order:
2.4 GHz is a molecular resonance of water. That's why that frequency was chosen for microwave ovens--you shake the water molecule really really hard and viola, your (water-bearing) food gets hot. Your brain is mostly water. No offense intended.
Any damage from WiFi is not going to be caused by heating because there simply isn't enough power do do much heating.
The more-relevant figure to consider is not power but something like power density or electric field strength.
Health effects, if any, would most likely to be caused by molecular effects. For example, there is solid research that says that certain cell phones affect certain brain proteins in a dish in a laboratory. Cancer would be caused by an ionizing incident resulting in a mutated DNA molecule.
The energy of any periodic single-frequency signal or wave goes as the square of its frequency. For periodic non-sinusoidal waves, the energy is sum of the energies of each harmonic (Parseval's theorem).
Wifi is harmful. I'm jacking my neighbors line right now. I imagine if he finds out he'll bash my head in with a wrench... There's your brain damage.
I don't own a snook, and if I did I wouldn't leave it cocked.
And more ominously maybe in 20 years large segments of modern, educated, scientific America will be silent.
I love my sig.
i have an acer aspire notebook with built in 802.11 G. I am a freelancer and work from this notebook every day - perhaps for 8-12 hours. the notebook's radio is offset to the right front portion of the notebook, say under the right hand when on the home keys.
maybe three to six weeks after getting the notebook, i started noticing a pain in my thigh. it was an internal heat pain in the right side of my thigh and it got worse the longer I was in front of the notebook.
i thought it was a cramp or orthopedic thing from bad posture. but when i use my other notebook, an IBM with the radio antennae (external) pointed out to the side, I don't feel this pain. Nor do I feel it when I turn off the radio and use a wired network.
I experimented with it over several weeks. every time I was in front of the notebook, I felt the pain in my right upper thigh, which worsened the longer I was in front of it.
I experimented further. I pushed myself away from my desk and increased the distance betwen myself and the notebook - this reduced the severity of the burning pain.
The final straw was falling asleep at my notebook and waking up with a blinding headache on one side of my head, which was against the notebook. To me the conclusion was certain.
I've permanently disabled the radio on that laptop and no longer feel this pain at all. It's gone.
My personal conclusion, proximity is the issue. And notebook proximity to wifi radios might be too close for prolonged exposure to RF radiation without appreciable detrimental symptoms.
Hours of staring at a screen without proper exercise or diet leading to fatigue?
:-)
Besides, CRTs blast more energy into your skull than wifi. We should ban old monitors and TVs
Tom
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
Tubeless internet tubes.
For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
If the kids at school suffers from fatigue, headache, asthmatic and flue-like symptoms, perhaps it was time to check the indoor environment. Anything from mold and mildew over the paint used to the chemicals emitted from electronic components of new computers in the class room.
At least one part of the article rings trust. The older people get, the thicker their skulls.
Great new book on Evolution: The Greatest Show on Earth by Richard Dawkins
I think the following statement FTFA pretty much sums it up:
"We had been having problems with the reliability of [the wireless network] anyway, so we decided to exchange it for a conventional cabled system."
What better way to get funding for such a project then to spread FUD like this?
What about the radiation that comes from the network cables?
"citing health concerns from parents and teachers" right, so a bunch of fucking idiots with no knowledge of the science of radiation over ride what ever government agency tests these things to make sure they meet emission saftey standards, which is made up of a body of experts? it's now offical, the morons are in control. these people need to put THE SUN on their next agenda, because you recieve far more radiation exposure from the sun then anything else in your daily lives.
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
Some video monitors parents use to keep an eye on their children when they're not in the same room operate on the 2.4Ghz band.
scientists think younger humans may be more vulnerable to the transmissions, because of thinner skulls.
The children will grow up to be like their thick-skulled parents and believe everything they see on the Internet.
Yeah, if you just don't tell them the network is turned off, there's no possible way for them to find out... right?
I find it hard to believe that wifi is more dangerous than the natural radiation emitted by the sun, or the man-made radiation of radio and television broadcasts that blanket our cities, or cell phone transmissions. Wifi has significantly less range than all of those. Wifi is just the latest thing that hyperactive soccer moms haven't gotten used to yet.
Slashdot needs a "-1, Wrong" moderation option.
The Urban Hippie
The reverse is alsio true. There number of environmental policies/laws that make alot of money for "environmental" professions ( "contamination experts", "hygenists") that provide little or no true value. When you point out the scientific discrepancies, they will all agree with you that it sucks to be needeing to spend alot of money on things that will more than likely never be an issue to anyone, but none of them speak out because they're "in the money". Others that speak out are likened to "polluting prifiteering corps" !
Ya. We're so much better off. NOT.
Political correctness in the UK has gone crazy since Tony Blair has come into power, don't think of this story as a single incident, it is just another of a long line of rediculous health and safety/PC overkill ideas. others that spring to mind at the moment include: Hanging flower baskets being band in streets because they might fall on peoples head... bon-fires being replaced by 'ones-we-filmed-earlier' and displayed on huge screens, because its too dangerous to be near (even though bon-fire night has been going for most likely 100's + years, (Google 5th November and UK))... children asked by their head teacher not to hug each other... government officials told not to use the phrase political correctness because its not politically correct (seriously)... teachers not allowed to help young children across a road because their not trained, leaving them to cross on their own instead... its not the rain drenched, stiff upper lip, ugly women, empire losing wonderland anymore, its far duller...
Have Fun!
Parents were all in a huff about a cell phone tower near a school. Meanwhile, some of the parents in the press conference were smoking.
Seriously, it's time to start culling the human herd. Civilization cannot go on much longer weighed down by the Marching Morons.
And completely so: before I refreshed the /. front page, this was the first story I've seen that had more tags than comments at +3 or more (5 to 4.) While the tags make me giggle often (especially the 'yes, no, maybe' tags, when all of them are used in response to a question in the submission), that's just out of hand.
I think we should ban all devices that emit these waves. Not just wireless networks, but cell phones, televisions, and,. of course, lightbulbs.
The stories are now tabloid material.
What crap is this? WiFi isn't banned or even frowned upon in UK schools!
My sons both go to a school that has laptops with WiFi. I'm more concerned about the school dinners!
The final quote says "A DfES spokesman said: "It's up to individual schools to decide on this."" Which, reading between the lines, means "Why are you asking such a stupid question? I'm not going to say schools can or can't use WiFi, so you can quote me out of context", which is of course what they did.
This article is hearsay and scare-mongering well beneath a Times journalist.
Shame on Joanna Bale!
To put it simply, 2.4GHz radiation does NOT have enough ionizing energy to cause cellular mutuation, which causes cancer. The most it can do is the heating up of the cells and may possibly kill them, but surely no cells are gonna get mutated into cancer cells.
I say we submit a request to UK parliment about the fuckwits who supposedly are these children's guardians.
Which will go like this: "LET'S SHOOT THEM... NO! LET'S CUT THEIR BALLS OFF!"
Seriously, these people shouldn't be allowed to reproduce when all they do is inflict misery on their offspring through excessive measures based on opinion rather than fact.
I think that anybody near the schools that are getting their wifi networks banned should do the following: Set up a high powered access point in their own house, then tell everybody in the school about it. The parents wont be able to do anything about it since running an access point is not illegal.
"A few scientists think younger humans may be more vulnerable to the transmissions, because of thinner skulls."
I am sure these scientists come from the same school of thought as those who believed that the earth was flat since the ground appeared to be level always. Once that idea was debunked, they continued to believe that since the sun and planets appeared to move around the earth, that the earth was somehow stationary and at the center of our universe.
It appears these scientists also have thin skulls and perhaps interned at a radio telescope.
To a noob, root is like a gay bar...and he's wearing assless chaps
No real evidence has been produced to prove that this new cable technology is safe in the long term. Until it is, I think we should take a precautionary approach and use carrier pigeons.
Typical English hysteria that shows the total failure of the education system in our beloved country. Many schools even consider to close their Internet connections, because blogs and popular sites such as myspace and flickr are considered harmful and dangerous.
-- Neminem laede, immo omnes, quantum potes, iuva.
Funny how people perceive, assess and respond to risk.
Fear of "new" things such as this is always a problem. If we look at the way technology is going more and more wireless, any group choosing to live by the fear will be technically backwards, and loose in the long run. Since the only thing that stops fear us understanding and knowledge (just look at medical doctors) I hope someone will educate Sebastian's mother a tad on this, or at least that the state we rely on to approve technology such as this is educated enough to make rational choices about it!
No, the real issue here is health.
You're right that many adults are scared by the oppurtunities offered to children by the Intenet. Over the last few years there has been a stream of articles in the UK press fretting that Internet use somehow damages children's mentality, and these seem to be part of the FUD you describe. The fuss about the microwaves is different. Save your ammunition for the right target.
For many people in the UK, there is a default assumption that authorities are lying to them about health risks. This has been fostered, possibly maliciously, by people in the environmental movement. (Not that environmentalists in general are lying bastards but the movement is stuck with some awkward fellow-travellers.) In the UK, their "proof" is BSE: the government assurances that feeding slaughterhouse waste to cattle was safe; in fact, this led to the BSE crisis. Government says "We are not aware of a risk" (translated: we haven't paid anybody to research the risk.) FUDsters spin this as "Government said there was NO risk and they lied" (implied: government had the research, was aware of the risk and did nothing). The FUDsters have made a conspiracy theory the basis for technical assesment.
Perhaps he just got a convenient reason for a much-needed 'vacation'...
(Score:2, Badly Spelt)
"Radiate simply, the candle is burning
So low for me"
Please help protect Young Sebastion from Radiation!
(Apologies to Cockney Rebel)
WiFi APs with their few milliwatts of power are a threat to your health, but cell repeaters with a "little" more power aren't?
Could it be that those schools don't want to open the can of worms that comes attached to kids wanting the latest movies and software?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
If you take the stand that the human brain is able to detect microwaves then you are treating it as a receiver. It could happen.
Any receiver can be overloaded by signals. So, in the presence of strong microwave radiation, we should all fall down in a dead faint. Better build yourself a faraday cage to live in because we know that tin foil hats don't work.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraday_cage
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinfoil_hat
I work as an IT infrastructure adviser for schools here in the UK alongisde a support role. Whilst one or two schools may have removed WiFi for this reason it's certainly not widespread, I support 171 schools and have yet to hear of a single one of them even breifly mentioning this. The only reason any schools I've come across have decided to drop WiFi is because 30 laptops working over even 54mbps wireless is painfully slow.
I see 3 schools listed in the TFA (out of thousands upon thousands of schools in the UK) so how that translates to a statement that infers all schools are dropping WiFi I have no idea. The teacher complaining of illness when in the classroom to me sound like a typical UK goverment/schools worker trying to find any old excuse to take months off work on full pay without any kind of come back, we had one guy who took 6months off claiming stress, when they found out he was lying they suspended him on full pay pending an investigation, how long did the investigation take? a year - 18months holiday on £30k a year, not a bad deal if you ask me and plenty of time to line up another job even with the sickness record!
This truly is the first article I've agreed on Slashdot that really does deserve the FUD tag and is a typical example of the frustration I have every day with seeing tax payers money go down the drain to lazy, incompetent staff who want any reason they can to take fully paid time off work.
Maybe he is especially sensitive. Maybe he's imagining things. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out which.
Neurons work with a voltage potential across the celmembrane. Those potentials are significant (millivolts to volt region) and not vanishinly small. Yes the current that flows across the membrane when a neuron fires is extremely weak, but that is just because a cell is that tiny.
/.) you are just trolling to see who bites. I did :-)
There is no way that radiation that has a wavelenght that is a few orders of magnitude greater than that of a neuron can influence said neuron, ofter than to warm it and its surroundings.
But that sadly is all wasted on you. Either you are convinced there must be something bad there, or (more likely on
This space is intentionally staring blankly at you
Plus it's the standing waves in the oven that heat the food. Even if you get the magnetron out of the oven and fire it you're unlikely to heat much up. I'm not sure about other side-effects.
Send email from the afterlife! Write your e-will at Dead Man's Switch.
There: Problem Solved!
One time I was playing around with a C-BAND dish (those big ugly satellite dishes your rich uncle had that he stole skinamax on). I had the LNB (pick up eye) hooked to a spectrum analyzer and was looking for satellites to peruse, and I noticed that there was a constant, clipped spike (past the limits of the analyzer's upper bar) around 2.4GHz, no matter if the dish was pointed at the sky, at the ground, directly into the building, or if the eye was off the dish entirely, it never changed.
I unplugged out 802.11g box to see if that was causing it, and it didn't make one difference in the size of the spike. The world is so flooded with consumer electronics that run at that frequency that it makes no never mind whether you, personally, give it up or not.
I'd be a lot more worried about crusading against the, undoubtedly high, levels of mold and mildew that no doubt infests the circulation system at such an instititution, as I've never worked in a school that had good air quality besides the new high school they built on the hill last year, and that was only good until the students showed up.
Yes, but radio waves can be blocked by a good quality tin-foil hat. However the sun outputs more energy in the form of neutrinos than in radio waves, and neutrinos go right through the whole earth. We get neutrino radiation even at night, when it comes from below. Why won't anyone get worried about neutrinos causing cancer?
Absolutely. People seem to confuse "irradiated" and "radioactive". The "radioactive" symbol means just that, that whatever it is on is a source of radioactivity. Irradiated food merely had radiation passed through it - it does not remain radioactive.
The assassination of Litvinenko in London a few days ago is a case in point. He consumed radioactive material. That his unagi was irradiated in the process is irrelevant.
The difference between eating irradiated food and ingesting radioactive material is like that between eating a flame-broiled steak and eating a flaming Duralog.
-- What you do today will cost you a day of your life.
dumbass parents...Perhaps I can sell them some snakeoil to bathe little Sebastion in, to shield him from the evil wifi radiation.
If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
"Your cotton combinaison will protect you from the radiations"...
also, "no real evidence has been produced to prove that (Air, sun, water) is safe in the long term".
Idiots. Dullards.
It is well known that the DNA of children who come into contact with wireless radiation have more in common with crabs than you or I, there is no real evidence to support this, but it is scientific fact.
The reason that people are not being narrower by ignoring the RF exposure risk is because we have the entire history of mankind to look at for examples of humans being bombarded with RF. You then add on the millions of conversations that have gone on with people complaining about RF radiation, and you find that these people as a group, do not understand what radiation is. They think that radiation by definition is similar if not the same as nuclear radiation.
Given that there is an infinite number of things we don't know for sure whether they have ill effects on us or not, picking one out of the blue because you think it has some association with nuclear radiation makes you ripe for ridicule. Add to that, the fact that the same people who are worried about Little Sabastian being exposed to radiation, no doubt are more than happy to let Little Sabastian ride in cars, or cross the street, (activities that are known to carry more risk than RF exposure) it becomes clear that these individuals could use a large roll of tinfoil and a hat making course.
That's okay, I'm not using Aethernet, I'm using Tolkien Ring.
(Yah, I know, but is that really any worse than some of ther other jokes in this thread?)
dragonhawk@iname.microsoft.com
I do not like Microsoft. Remove them from my email address.
Like, here in the midwest "Little Skyler" would be way more appropriate.
"You know why you do not see me styling wit my homies? Because I have no homies!!" -Mojo Jojo
That will never work. It depends on people being able to think for themselves. To paraphrase Dan Akroyd as Ray Zalinsky in the movie Tommy Boy: What the average person doesn't know is what makes them an average person. Look at how many people buy lottery tickets every day.
(Yes, I know the article is about a school in the UK while the original quote was about the American public. Hence "paraphrase". Same principle still applies.)
dragonhawk@iname.microsoft.com
I do not like Microsoft. Remove them from my email address.
What a lot of people responding here who obviously haven't looked at the scientific and other reports re exposure to low levels of modulated microwave signals and reported adverse health effects.
Modulation for FM radio and for TV signals differs considerably, and bundling all RF technologies all into the same category is scientifically poor form. Typical signal strength levels the public is exposed to from radio and TV are less than 0.01 volts per metre (V/m) whereas wLAN signals in a classroom are typically over 1 V/m, 100 times higher and 10,000 times more powerful. They also "pulse" in a very different way.
The published reports (some References listed below) showing ill-health effects apparently associated with living and working close to mobile phone masts have been scored for strength of association with adverse effects. The most common ones are headaches, concentration difficulties, learning and memory problems, chronic fatigue, depression, dizziness, and irritability.
In the studies that assessed microwave exposure levels, it appears that these symptoms start to show when people live in background levels above about 0.05 V/m. The levels in the schools are/will be about 10-fold higher than this. Many of these asthenic / neurovegetative effects are particularly undesirable to be found occurring in school pupils. Since 1997 there has been a four-fold rise in children diagnosed with hyperactivity and ADHD - indeed the National Institute for Clinical Excellence now estimates that as many as 5% of children now have this problem.
It is very possible that background microwave exposure plays a role in this rise and minimising exposure by ethernet wiring the school computers seems sensible to me. It is a pity that the IR couplers that were on laptops for a few years didn't take off. They would have been useful in schools to avoid RF and yet allow mobility.
Abdel-Rassoul G, et al, (2006) Neurobehavioral effects among inhabitants around mobile phone base stations, Neurotoxicology, 1 Aug 2006, [Epub ahead of print]
Balmori A, 2005, Possible Effects of Electromagnetic Fields from Phone Masts on a Population of White Stork, Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine, 24:109-119.
Bamberg Report, Open letter to Edmund Stoiber, president of the federal state of Bavaria, from a group of general medical doctors regarding their patients, with supporting details of symptoms and microwave exposure levels. They studied the records of 357 of their patients.
Freiburger Appell, (October 2002) A signed document by about 200 medical practitioners regarding symptoms they were seeing in people living near to mobile phone base stations, mobile phone users and cordless phone users, was published by IGUMED ü Interdisziplina re Gesellschaft fur Umweltmedizin e.V. www.igumed.de
Hardell L, et al, (2006) Tumour risk associated with use of cellular telephones or cordless desktop telephones., World J Surg Oncol 2006 Oct 11;4:74, PMID 17034627
Hutter H-P et al, (2006) Subjective symptoms, sleeping problems, and cognitive performance in subjects living near mobile phone base stations, Occup Environ Med 2006;63:307-313, PMID 16621850
Nylund R, Leszcynski D, (2006) Mobile phone radiation causes changes in gene and protein expression in human endothelial cell lines and the response seems to be genome- and proteome-dependent, Proteomics Sep;6(17):4769-80, PMID: 16878295
Navarro E A, et al, (2003) The microwave syndrome: a preliminary study in Spain, Electromagnetic Biology & Medicine 22 (2 & 3) 161-169
Oberfeld G, et al, (2004) The microwave syndrome - Further Aspect of a Spanish Study - International Conference Proceedings, Kos, Greece 2004 (Kos)
Panagopoulos DJ, et al, (2006) Cell death induced by GSM 900-MHz and DCS 1800-MHz mobile telephony radiation, Mutat Res 2006 Oct 10, PMID 17045516
Preece AW, et al, 2005, The Akrotiri Military Antennae Survey Report, a study for the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Cyprus by Bristol University
"I felt a steadily widening range of unpleasant effects whenever I was in the classroom," he said. "First came a thick headache, then pains throughout the body, sudden flushes, pressure behind the eyes, sudden skin pains and burning sensations, along with bouts of nausea. Over the weekend, away from the classroom, I felt completely normal." Wait, don't students cause this? Classroom == students. No classroom != students.
I used to have a better sig than this, but I got tired of it
No real evidence has been produced to prove that this new technology is safe in the long term. Until it is, I think we should take a precautionary approach and use cabled systems
No real evidence has been produced to prove that life is safe in the long term. Until it is, I think we should take a precautionary approach and quit living life.
"Its not the radio waves you need to worry about. Its these new fangled "wireless tubes" that are zooming faster than the eye can percieve them. Take one wrong step in a wifi cafe and BAM, knock your head clear off. And then it'll have cancer sprout of your neck.
Hey, it happened to me, why do you think I'm trying to ban these things?"
Ginga no Rekshiya Mata Each page.
Hello! I am Inigo Montoya. You killed my Young Sebastian. Prepare to die!
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." I'm not sure if he realized that sufficiently ignorant humans would essentially view it that way.
v y3sb.jpg
Or to put it visually:
http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/1679/ironicvi9
They also have materials which reflect radio, so depending on the local configuration, in places it can drop slower than inverse square...
-- Jamie
I think if we are going to question high speed wireless data effects, how about the effects of high speed wired cables that are not shielded. Its in the name.
Resident Electricity in older homes creates just as much electric noise to cause problems.
The schools have bigger things to worry about their kids than WiFi.
Looks like somebody sat down at my table and read the web page > http://www.newpath4.com/halloweencandyfromworldsci entistscomeswith2006embeddedrazors.htm . At least the first 2 paragraphs anyway. Wow, this html stuff really works.
That as we say here in the States, "PT was right!" There really is a sucker born every minute.
The radio waves from an 802.11 are very low power. the police walkie talkie (or the janitors) provide much more energetic radiation. Not to mention the leakage from the old telly. Scare tactics to rouse the gullable. That wraps this up.
I wonder how long before Britain takes it place as a third world country?
Everybody knows 3 people with my name.
US that has knee jerk protect the children ignorant idiots.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
and crack that "thinner skull" hahha... whatta bunch of dopes
I apologise for the stupidity of my fellow citizens. I would now like to place a formal request to the United Nations that a detatchment of physicists is sent to the UK immediately before we are reduced to pointing at the moon and burning those who use black magic to make glowing devil orbs and boxes that trap the voices of men. Our resources to combat such ignorance are already being depleted:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/5399346.stm
Oh dear, here come the torches and pitchforks...
Weaseling out of things is important to learn. It's what separates us from the animals... except the weasel."
Ya, that shit happens when you use a CRT set to 60hz refresh. Like, DUH!
Crank it up to 75 or 85Hz and watch your symptoms disappear like magic. *Gasp* OMG!!!
Life is not for the lazy.
..then considering joining one of the skeptic organisations and help promote scientific thought and education.
Yes, the level of un-scientific comment is rising in the media.
Yes, the scientific understanding in the community is falling.
Yes, there is more and more of this crap and this this article shows that this sort of muddy thinking can directly everyone, even you nerdy kids.
Scientific ignorance can and will kill you or otherwise wreck your life.
Please do something about it because less and less people seem to get involved in community issues and this sort of crap about WiFi is just the tip of the iceberg. The ability to understand technology is a good step in understanding science.
If you have any spare time then helping people understand science and technology is one of the best uses of it.
Without it another dark age is a real possibility becuase many media people will not let truth get in the way of good story.
the cases my wife invokes are not as you suspect.
I am familiar with her former neighbors' situation -- fairly affluent neighborhood, the residents of the houses in question are not poor.
I'm a bit surprised at how rabidly knee-jerk the reactions here have been. It's not like the validity of the entire scientific method is riding on this question, and if it were, then the scientific method would have zip on any other religious protocol. (And this kind of defense of a third person implementation of any method of any sort, scientific or otherwise, reeks of religion in the worst senses.)
low frequency, long wavelength, severe attenuation (without which the whole concept of transmitting power would be meaningless), but not a perfect cutoff. The world is not binary, attenuation is not equivalent to a switch. And some people's bodies are more sensitive to electricity than others'.
Good thing I always send little Jimmie to school with his aluminum foil hat. Some of the kids poke fun and call it a "special" hat but I just tell little Jimmy that in 80 years he will thank me for the extra couple of cancer free years. His teacher has written me though, concerned that the mind control devices aren't really working propperly... Wonder if he'll get in trouble for all that "free thought"... Either way I think the shiny hat is impressive!
I never hear ANYONE comment on the LORBS (Low Orbiting Satellites). These microwave generators in the sky are raining microwaves from the heavens. If you have noticed all of sudden we have gone from VERY HIGH GAIN parabolic dishes measure many meters accross to little pie plates with LNB's on them. The reason (Other than frequency) HIGH POWER Low Orbiting Satellites. Anyone wonder what these Ku radiators 12+ Ghz are doing to EVERYONE... Who knows.. Maybe nothing, BUT NOONE knows or at least NO ONE is talking. Sure as hell there are NO long term studies... Just a thought. Maybe those guy's running around with aluminum foil on their heads weren't so crazy !! I doubt it. DJ
Oh my! I get a headache and feel weak every time I step into the office. There are wifi access points every 50 meters on all floors of the building where I work.
I feel so faint.....
so faint......can't......possibly.....work.....
We want MORE news stories like this so we can convince our bosses to work from home!