Hippies Say WiFi Network Is Harming Their Chakras

Anti-Globalism writes "A group of hippies is complaining that a recently installed WiFi mesh network in the UK village of Glastonbury is causing health problems. To combat the signals from the Wi-Fi hotspots, the hippies have placed orgone generators around the antennae." Although there have been many studies that show no correlation between WiFi and health issues the hippies say, "Yeah, well, you know, that's just, like, your opinion, man."

Comments

"Orgone Generators"

[Suddenly_Dead]

FTFA:

One man has even begun making orgone generators, which use crystals, semi-precious stones and gold to purportedly put out positive energy to combat the negative vibes flooding the town from the Wi-Fi base stations.

Elsewhere:

Orgone Generators change negative energy from microwaves, TV's, cell phones, computers, fluorescent lighting, automotive wiring, large electrical structures, high voltage lines and step-down electrical transformers, etc. into pure or positive life energy.

Positive Orgone is also known as Chi(China), Prana(India), and Ki(Japan).

The basic and simplified theory of how the orgone devices work is that the negative energy is attracted into the device by the organic component and then it gets bounced back and forth between the resin and suspended metal particles. Crystalline structures within the mix cause the energy to get organized and re-radiated as a positive, clean energy.

Oh yes, these sound like reasonable people.

Re:"Orgone Generators"

[profplump]

You're probably just trolling, but I'm in the mood for an Internet argument, so I'll bit anyway.

Microwaves aren't new. There's a good deal of microwaves floating around the universe (including at ground level on Earth) from natural sources. And there have been both mobile and fixed location broadcast microwaves in use for decades, at much higher power levels than WiFi installations. Not to mention all the nuisance sources of microwaves like, you know, microwave ovens. A typical household microwave puts out almost 1 kW -- even if you assume 99% of that is contained in the appliance, it's still 10 times more power <I>leaking</i> than a 6dbi omnidirectional WiFi transmitter (legally) intentionally emits.

Moreover, we actually <i>have</I> studied the interaction of microwaves with the human body. First, there's about a 10 dB reflection loss at the human-air boundary at WiFi frequencies, and attenuation inside the body is about 2 dB/cm. Therefore there is very little interaction beyond the first couple of centimeters, assuming the signal is strong enough to overcome the reflection losses in the first place. And guess what those microwaves do when you interact with them -- I know it's tricky, because science hasn't caught up with the human body -- but studies suggest that a typical interaction involves energy transfer via polarization in molecules with a strong dipole moment. Which, you know, is a lot like what happens to the flesh-like materials you might try to heat with a microwave oven.

So in summary, you can sense microwave fields. If they are sufficiently strong, you should be able to detect them by the heat generated when you absorb the EM energy. Not that you'd be able to distinguish microwaves from infrared radiation, or from simple conduction, but you could detect the presence of an energy source.

Also you example of "in the past, some people didn't believe new, poorly understood science, but most people believe what is now well-established science" doesn't really support the idea you're trying to defend -- that the totally invented beliefs of hippies might be true in spite of science. It's possible for totally invented beliefs to be true -- even a broken clock is right twice a day -- but the "in spite of science" part makes it hard to take them (or you) seriously.

Re:Very sensitive people?

[Joe Tie.]

They're not. It's been tested far more than something like this deserves. Their problems always magically disappear the second they're put into a double blinded test.

Re:Million-dollar idea for somebody

[Bruce Perens]

It's not that quiet there. The coordinator of the zone has been very cooperative with ham radio operators and other users. It's only necessary for the coordinator to protect their radio-astronomy project, not to shut off RF entirely.

See "Bad science"

[Kupfernigk]

It's worse than you realise. This is being led by people who have a vested interest in peddling FUD - one of the "protestors" claims to run an independent consultancy on EMC, but actually runs a company that sells tinfoil hats and so on. (See the Ben Goldacre Bad Science columns in the Guardian for information). The real issue seems to be that Glastonbury has a small but vocal number of people who don't want the town to develop, and want to stop anything that might make it more attractive to small businesses.

The local paper (Fosse Way) published this story without the slightest critical analysis whatsoever. As someone who has worked on, inter alia, the EMC Directive, I wrote to them asking whether the person complaining of headaches had taken part in a blind test. Perhaps needless to say, the letter has not been published and indeed I've had no acknowledgement of it.

BTW, they do not have a "way of life which draws on 5000 years of hocus pocus". The Glastonbury thing dates back to no more than the 19th century: it's as fake as Druidism in Wales. Glastonbury is just a small town in Somerset that used to make its money from the leather industry till it went bust under Thatcher. Now it's a retirement suburb, the most Conservative part of the district. Currently a few protestors are trying to stop the demolition of the old factory buildings to put up an industrial estate - the old buildings cannot be brought up to modern standards and are a complete eyesore.

Why do I complain about this? Because I live in the part of Somerset that is a net contributor of taxes to keep the residents of Glastonbury from having to have industry and jobs, that's why.

Re:Ironic

[coastwalker]

The UK is being cited as the cause of the delay in eradicating Measles from Earth because a medical quack decided that he would fake evidence that the triple MMR vaccination caused autism. The gutter press got hold of it and screamed "save the children" thereby convincing concerned parents everywhere to not vaccinate their children. I'm hoping a few of them will die of measles in order to help sharpen up peoples discrimination between nutjobs and science. I'm perfectly happy for the people of Glastonbury to do without the 21st century but I strongly object to their invocation of psudo science and trickery to condemn the rest of us to their unenlightened state. These people are wrong and should be told so in VERY large letters.

Re:That's odd...

[mrchaotica]

A metal wire every 15 centimeter seems a bit ridiculous

No it doesn't; chain link fences and chicken wire are both smaller than that.

(oh and there is obviously a difference between Christians and hippies, for starters the fact that Christians actually have a purpose and generally act very sensibly)

No more so than hippies, really. Christians just have more social inertia.