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Garlic Farmer Wards Off High-Speed Internet
DocVM writes "A Nova Scotia farmer is opposing the construction of a microwave tower for fear it will eventually mutate his organic garlic crop.
Lenny Levine, who has been planting and harvesting garlic by hand on his Annapolis Valley land since the 1970s, is afraid his organic crop could be irradiated if EastLink builds a microwave tower for wireless high-speed internet access a few hundred meters from his farm."
More hyper-paranoid ridiculousness. "Shakes up the molecules" indeed.
His crop is already being irradiated...BY THE SUN. Idiots. Sheesh.
Great warrior...hrmph! Wars not make one great.
Scientists and corporations around the world would buy his crop at many times market value, in order to both prove and disprove that the mutations were a result of the tower. What a disappointment it will be for him when the tower is built and his crop turns out just fine.
End of lesson. You may press the button.
Because we don't get any naturally from the Sun, Cosmic rays, or spontaneous decay of elements naturally occuring on earth.
...would definitely buy garlic from this guy.
He pissed off that the tower site wasn't built on his land so he could collect rent money.
"'I think over a period of time it will change the DNA of the garlic because it shakes up the molecules,' he said Tuesday."
He THINKS? I'd like to KNOW, and know WHY.
"From the depths of my skeptical and rationalist soul, I ask the Lord to protect me from California touchie-feeliedom."
Ain't nothing healthier than all-natural.
Such as getting eaten by a shark. Or stung to death by bees. Or hit by lightning.
He should stick to farming and leave the radio vs radiation science up to the smart people.
Someone go point him to the definitions of "Microwave Radiation" and "Ionizing Radiation"
"I think over a period of time it will change the DNA of the garlic because it shakes up the molecules."
I wonder why he's concerned about the garlic DNA, but not his own? In other news, I objected to a wind farm cos I was worried about the flying saucers crashing into it...
Scientific ignorance from the organic produce industry? Really? That's just so shocking.
Help save the critically endangered Blue Iguana
I totally agree with the farmer! From my research, it even has dangerous effects
on humans!
Here are some of the symptoms that it causes:
1. Carpal tunnel
2. Distaste for light
3. A tendency to shout out: "First Post"
4. Loss/Gain of gold pieces
5. Disturbing images of cats
6. Lots of accidents that subsequently end up online.
7. Bad writing.
Can anyone think of other symptoms?
He probably decided to farm garlic to ward off the vampires. Can't say I blame him.
I don't believe in time. It's a grand conspiracy designed to sell watches.
That guy is complaining with the incorrect argument... He doesn't want an antenna near and that's all.
...is a great name for a rock band. With respect to Dave Barry.
I hate being bipolar; it's awesome!
Please regard this man as a non-representative sample.
This program was made possible by a grant from the Ultra-Humanite, and viewers like you.
I remember reading somewhere on BBC that a recent study found that there is no nutritional difference between organic and normal grown plants. I have no idea then how they would prove or disprove that the cell tower is a danger to or has effected the crop.
"A Nova Scotia farmer is opposing the construction of a microwave tower for lots of publicity and fears it will eventually mutate his organic garlic crop."
Fixed that for you.
If you're looking for something that will mutate cells, then try the UV rays from the Sun. Perhaps he should grow mushrooms if he is so paranoid about exposing vegetables to radiation?
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
A fried garlic is not too bad. That line can be used with the farmer.
This kind of stuff happens all of the time. Anyone remember "Attack of the killer tomatos", "them", "Godzilla", ...
Everyone should know of this great menace before we are attacked by giant mutant killer zombie garlic. We don't want to be replaced by a more intelligent invasive species like this!
Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
Somewhere in Gilroy a Garlic farmer is dialing Sprint to beg for a tower so he can make monster garlic.
1 word to sum up this fruit-loop: nutjob.
Well, that just stinks!
Putting the "anal" back into "analyst"...
Mmmm elephant garlic. It's free radiaton, and radiation (like butter) makes everything taste better. He should shut his mouth.
There is no threat to his garlic from the microwave tower, unless perhaps the construction personnel find his garlic patch a convenient place to relieve themselves during the erection of the tower.
There are times when I wonder what the world might have been like if we hadn't pushed high speed microwave-based internet access in Nova Scotia. It's not like there weren't other solutions -- satellite, possibly. Cabling if they could have found someone to foot the bill. But there was a rush to make it happen, as usual with big business looking for their next tax haven. Who would have thought the entire world would pay for that bit of greed? Who would have thought we'd never dare look at the sun again.
The end can't be too far away. There aren't many of us left, down here in the caves. All the moss has been eaten. The water may last awhile longer, but without food....No one who's left the caves to search for food, no matter how desperate or self-assured, has ever come back. Perhaps our greatest fear, moreso than even starvation, is that the Garlics will be able to trace one of those people back to our hideout. We've taken precautions, of course, by choosing a tunnel system with a downdraft. At least that way, we can smell them coming.
You know, I wish people using that argument (or variants thereof) actually knew what they're talking about. No offense.
The Earth's atmosphere and ionosphere are only really transparent to a very narrow band of frequencies. As you go up in the UV range or lower into IR, actually less and less of it gets to ground level.
And let's put it this way: If enough microwave radiation from the Sun got to the Earth to be comparable to a cell phone tower, you couldn't actually use a cell phone. Because the white noise from the sun would not only give the tower a crap signal-to-noise ratio, but would be hundreds of decibels stronger than the milliwatts emitted by the phone itself or received by it in some places.
So no, it's not. Not in the same frequencies and/or not as much.
Yes, the "OMG, the crops will mutate" scare is incredibly stupid anyway. But countering it with the equally bogus "OMG, the sun already does the same", doesn't really debunk it.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
This guy was against using chemical pesticides back in the 70's when everyone else was using them. I'm originally from the area this guy is from and a lot of farmers went the chemical route because they were told there was nothing wrong with pesticides. This guy stuck to his guns and is one of the few farmers now that doesn't have chemical soil contamination from decades of spraying crops...
On the other hand, he's pretty freaking nuts. Almost as crazy as another farmer in the area that was neglecting his cattle and claimed a national defense helicopter contaminated his land causing him to loose his organic farming status.
If you think "organic garlic" sounds stupid, I humbly submit the following anecdote which actually topped it for me: so I buy a tube of calcium tablets, and on the tube it says "Made from natural minerals!" Made me wonder if anyone synthetises their calcium in a nuclear reactor or something.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
Trigger finger modded this offtopic; posting to cancel.
Ok, Lenny, the nice white ambulance is here to take you to Happy Town.
Why, without your clothes, you're naked, Miss Dudley!
Levine has convinced Kings County Council that his unique business is at risk if the tower goes ahead as planned.
Anyone care to bet that the reality is that, "Levine has convinced Kings County Council that he will be a huge pain in their collective necks if the tower goes ahead as planned." Sounds like everyone already knows that the carrier is going to appeal and the county will not oppose the appeal. Can't say as I fault their approach.
RF is non-ionizing and does not cause mutations. Period. The most that RF can do is deposit energy (ie., heat) biological tissue. This is how microwave ovens work. (Microwaves are also RF). With the garlic bulbs being underground, it is unlikely that the RF would penetrate through the ground. In any case, the emiited power is way too low to heat anything except, perhaps, if you put your head next to the transmitter.
Our company routinely test workplaces for RF exposures. Our clients have included ambulance services and major airlines, where multiple RF devices are routinely in use.
To change topic, the last two days I was over 600 metres deep in the world's largest uranium mine, where the uranium ore averages over 30% purity (and peaks at 80%). Uranium is economical to mine at purities over just 1%. The radiation dose that I received was so low that I was not even required to wear a dosimeter. Our company provides dosimetry services for the mine, and I have final approval authority for the monthly reports on each miner.
I think the whole garlic thing is utter nonsense. ... certified Radiation Safety Officer, PhD (physics), Member of IEEE International Committee on Electromagnetic Safety (TC-95)
I support the man's efforts to free his garlic fields of microwaves and you should too!
Although one thing he might consider is placing organite "tower busters" near the microwave towers. These devices seem to reduce the harmful effects the microwave towers have on humans and the sky.
To the sensors I say "Fuck You! for making slashdot a non-free speech zone".
- -Joe
I would have signed this with PGP, but Slashdot gives me the "Filter error: That's an awful long string of letters there."
It is actually possible for microwaves to cause DNA damage. Because DNA is marginally thermally stable, intense heat produced by high intensity microwave radiation could reasonably cause DNA damage. Then again, the flame from a candle could also cause some DNA damage, so we better outlaw those too.
Is he also one of the enlightened who do not use a cell phone because they cause cancer?
Way to be crazy farmer, put our little corner of Canada on the map as a laughing stock. MICROWAVES? THAT MUST BE BAD! IT HAS THE SAME NAME BUT IS NOT REALLY THE SAME THING AS A KITCHEN APPLIANCE! Wait until he finds out there is cell phone service in the area which has been giving him brain cancer. Unless it turns out he is right, the tower is built and the crops mutate. Then I for one welcome our stupid overused catchphrase overlords.
Please hide under your desks. :\
Likely the desk has some measurable activity as well. And the floor under the desk.
Regardless of what people THINK the effect of microwave towers can or cannot have, the real need is to study such questions. Of course, we can't study every stupid thing that someone might think (such as a person I know that feels that the radiation from Toll Booth RFID tags are giving her headaches), Microwave towers 1) use a significant amount of power, and 2) potentially impact large numbers of people.
I was one of the first to laugh at a cell phone/brain cancer link. Yet a recent study demonstrates a statistically significant rise in risk (though the actual impact of a 90% increase in risk for a very rare brain cancer may not really be a risk that one should necessarily worry about).
The point is, at some level, there is some evidence that microwave radiation in the ranges used by cell phones (roughly 380 mhz to 2 mhz) may have some effect on organisms.
Now, assuming that the fellow reseeds his crop each year (garlic is an annual, after all), one wonders why he is all that worried in any event.
He should stick to farming and leave the radio vs radiation science up to the smart people.
Which you're not one of, given that "radio" is electromagnetic radiation.
Please help metamoderate.
The scientific and engineering community doesn't mean the same thing by this word that you mean -- namely, that shit that makes your ass glow green, or whatever.
I propose that people not be allowed to rant and rave about this stuff until they:
--Learn the basics of the electromagnetic spectrum and the sources and engineering uses of radiation at each point along it.
--Learn the basics of nuclear radiation, and understand its effects and where it comes from
--Leave a Geiger counter near a nuclear power station and take one on a plane across the country at 40,000 feet, and compare the counts
I teach physics labs to premeds at the university. They come in and I'm munching peanuts off of a pretty bright orange tray, and offer them some; some of them accept.
A little later I'm showing them how to use a Geiger counter, and show them radiation from a few sources we have in the room -- lookie, radioactive rocks! Lookie there, a bit of caesium! Oh, wait ... where'd these radioactive peanuts come from?
The students freaked out. (For those who don't know, the bright orange glaze on old Fiestaware was made from uranium oxide. It's safe, unless maybe you eat the plate, in which case you have a .01% risk of cancer and a 10% risk of a perforated bowel.)
Actually, no, it doesn't. If you RTFA, the "is afraid his organic crop could be irradiated" is really a piece of text by the journalist, not an actual quote from the guy. The relevant quote from him is in quotation marks: ""I think over a period of time it will change the DNA of the garlic because it shakes up the molecules," It's pretty clearly about micro-wave radiation, not, say, about ionizing radiation.
And a quick googling for differently reported versions of the same story, shows that at least some mention microwave radiation explicitly about his complaint. E.g., http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2009/09/16/Garlic-farmer-High-speed-Internet-stinks/UPI-79211253122064/
While he _probably_ is uneducated on the matter, enlarging the scope of his complaint yourself and then answering to that is nevertheless a strawman fallacy. If you want to call him an idiot, call him an idiot for the stupid things he actually said (like that a little shaking up mollecules can damage DNA), not about some strawman interpretation of what you guess he might have meant.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
The chemistry of Garlic is an incomplete science [1], and independent research shows that effects of microwave radiation can be devastating [2].
Many of garlic unique properties may be affected if the microwave towers are placed near the growing fields. Even more may be affected if these towers are switched on. Definitely, more research is needed: what if garlic exposed to the unsightly view of microwave towers loses its witch-repellent properties? Act now!
1. http://www.gourmetgarlicgardens.com/chemstry.htm
2. http://www.layscience.net/node/53
My understanding is that government guidelines that define a "safe" waveform are produced by averaging the width & height of said waveform. Some systems, like Doppler radar or the Navy's Pave Paws system have been cited as possible causes of Ewings Sarcoma. The high & narrow spike waveforms produced by these systems meet government defined safety averages for permissible exposure limits, but only at a defined distance from the array. Litigation has been successful in removing the Pave Paws system from communities -- despite the Navy insisting that their system is "safe" (as long as you keep a safe distance from the array). What surprises me are the snarky comments made here that completely dismiss the possibility of harmful exposure -- or at least dismiss the possibility that this guy is simply doesn't want a large microwave producing device right next to him and his family, and is smartly using the organic excuse as a legal reason to keep it off his farm.
The Chronicle Herald has another article on this. In it one of the county councilors (or similar) says that the tower can be avoided by 2 kms of cable, something I find highly unlikely for a number of reasons. This ignores the point of the tower, which is to provide ubiquitous and cheap high bandwidth (I'm talking at least 10Mbps) internet to 99% of the population of Nova Scotia. Around a third of the population lives in the capital area, which along with other urban areas in the province has easy access to high-speed internet. However, nearly half of the provincial population is rural or very rural or extremely rural (like half an hour down a dirt road from just a corner store rural). Now some of these areas have access to digital cable and therefore cable internet (hell, some can even pull a decent DSL connection), and therefore, the towers are not needed. In Victoria Harbour, however, which is 30 km (straight line) from the closest town that could be reasonably classified as urban, is not one of those locations. The cost for Eastlink to ensure that the cable to every house (if it exists in the first place) is capable of carrying the higher bandwidth required for internet would be prohibitive to begin with, not to even mention replacing old and stringing new cable. The tower makes much more economic sense, as the costs associated are stringing one cable (which may already be in place) and erecting the damn thing. This also ignores the fact that many other such towers have been erected in primarily agricultural areas of the province with no ill effect. Some of you may have already eaten blueberries grown not 50 meters from one such tower. Okay, maybe not, but the point still stands. This one farmer doesn't understand the science, let alone the economic benefits to the area, behind the tower. I really hope Industry Canada overrules Kings County Council.
Satellite microwave communications is subject to sun interference. Communications through a satellite are impossible when the sun, satellite, and earth station are in a straight line.
And make sure that EastLink won't find out its phase modulation frequency!
Back in the 1970s, one of the Motorola plants in the Phoenix area installed a small microwave antenna on their roof for transmitting computer data to another location. Shortly afterwards, one of the neighbors stopped by to complain that radiation from the antenna was making him feel ill. They told him that they had not yet started using the antenna yet, but to let them know how it is affecting his health next month after they turn the antenna on.
Well, if that's the only problem why doesn't he just plant some non-organic garlic instead?
Maybe he just doesn't want a huge, ugly monstrosity sitting right near his home.
As an educated, intelligent individual living in Halifax, Nova Scotia i apologize on behalf of my province for the ignorant light this casts on my fellow citizens and ask the people of the internet to forgive the foolish notions of a farmer and be assured that this has no real chance of stopping this towers construction.
Sure you can. You just build the microwave tower out of uranium instead of steel.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
No one is exempt from stupidity and certainly not ignorance. No man can know all things let he be a God among men.
I've met the brightest that Harvard graduated and they thought you could get the swine flu from eating pork.
I work with a Yale man that couldn't replace his air filter in his car.
I've worked with two former NASA engineers and a Ballistic Warhead designer from UDLP that couldn't install an electrical outlet in thier home.
Ignorance is relative people. How many of you know when to harvest garlic? When you put down your fertilizer? How many days do you let alfalfa dry between cutting and baling? Know how to shoe a horse? How about stitch a wound? At what rate should you run the reverse rehometer to prevent scaling on a polymer test?
There is a difference between stupidity and ignorance. You can mock stupidity till you are blue in the face; just make damn sure you know the difference between the two or all you will accomplish is proving how big of a jackass you are.
-=[ Who Is John Galt? ]=-
"How does a newfie get his wife pregnant?" ... ...
"how?
"And you thought WE were stupid?"
Switch crops and grow tomacco! It's a win-win for everybody. Can't we all just get along?
Just taking the wacky green agenda to its extreme boundary.
You shouldn't tarnish the entire environmental movement with the beliefs of somehow with a sadly poor of a science education as this guy anymore than you can tarnish the entire tax resistance movement with the beliefs of the birther loonies.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
I suspect there is a feeling of âloss of controlâ(TM) that the farmer is experiencing as the world changes around him. Iâ(TM)ll bet whatâ(TM)s happening is there is a visible point source of change he can see, the microwave tower. It wouldnâ(TM)t matter if it was people laying a fiber optic cable with âlasers shooting out of itâ(TM) or a nuclear power plant or as is the case, a microwave tower. Heâ(TM)s objecting to the world changing and impinging on his personal territory. The world is changing and forcing him to acknowledge it. The microwave issue is simply a trigger primed by a media preying on ignorance
can arrange special delivery.
Ump, did you read that article in, I think it was, "Time" magazine or "Newsweek" about the Mafia selling farmers fertilizer that was really hazardous waste in Italy?
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
This farmer is trying to control the use of land he doesn't own. Put up a Faraday Fence if he's that worried, but he can't be allowed to dictate land usage on what isn't even his property.
But given how Socialist they are over there, someone might even fall for it.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
The ugly tower will irradiate the view and also destroy the garlic by first destroying the honest-to-goodness farmer.
Has anyone at the (evil) EastLink corporation actually considered dragging cables to the nice folks in Victoria Harbour? Bulk fiber cable is not that expensive and does provide higher transfer rates at lower latencies.
9/11: Never forget it was a false-flag operation
Many studies of irradiated animal feed have been conducted over the years and no negative impact has been found.
Not one study has shown negative impacts of irradiating food?
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
I'm a physicist and I just wrote a blog about cell phone and microwave radiation. Please check it out:
http://www.peterdolph.com/2009/08/will-microwave-radiation-give-you_19.html
In other news... everything is radioactive.
Yes, not just naturally-occurring radioisotopes, but everything that has a temperature above absolute zero radiates EM radiation of a higher frequency than microwaves in the form of thermal (blackbody) radiation. That's not normally termed "radioactive", but the garlic farmer is just as confused.
Err... we have human-sized microwaves... or at least the US army does.
See here
Yea I heard about those years ago. The way they work against protesters is as the wiki article says by pain. It inflicts pain which makes those exposed to want to flee. Continuous exposure certainly can cause health problems if not death though. In other words they are dangerous and lethal. Imagine what would happen to a baby who was taken to a protest then when these are deployed against the protesters the baby gets left behind, perhaps by a parent wanting to get away from the cause of pain, to be roasted.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
"organic" stuff attracts hippies, hippies smoke pot, pot is dealt by drug-dealers, or grown organically on the garlic-farm, exponentially reinforcing the vicious cycle of bong-headedness and drug-war through the positive feedback mechanism as pot attracts both hippies and drug-dealers.
That is not proof! Organic also attracts big business, but according to you that's proof. Walmart sells organics so it must be evil.
The United States is evil too. After all it allowed slavery, it massacred the native population, and it performed medical experiments on unsuspecting citizens infecting them with syphilis. It was also the only nation to use nuclear weapons. Evil, pure evil.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
Microwaves don't alter DNA? You'd better tell a number of scientists and other researchers you know more than they do.
Quite frankly, if I was his neighbor, I'd sue the moron.
So if I lived next to you would it be alright if I opened a toxic waste dump next to you? Or would I have to sue you?
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
I'm actually from the area mentioned in the article and the summary is way off base. The fellow isn't worried so much that the waves from the tower will cause his garlic to mutate. His concern is that he's an organic garlic farmer. With the tower next to his patch he may be forced by law to remove the title "organic" from his product. This would cause a sharp drop in sales. If he gets confirmation that he can keep the "organic" label, there really isn't any further need to protest the signal tower.
He's not stupid or panicking about radiation, he's worried about maintaining his business.
http://scienceblogs.com/builtonfacts/2009/09/wifi_and_radiation.php
And a number of rebuttals to microwaves not causing DNA alterations or damage is here: microwaves alter dna science study or studies.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
Does this make my best defence is useless against the next generation of Microwave Vampires?
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
How do microwave ovens work if they don't "shake up the molecules"?
I'll use wi-fi all day and you can sit next to some cobalt 58 and we'll see what person's molecules get "shaken up" more.
And will you sit there when you have a directed-energy weapon aimed at you and turned on? The Active Denial System is a weapon that directs, get this, microwaves to cause pain. So if they are so safe why not stay there? Why did the military spend so much on them?
Man, I live in Edmonton now and every so often when I'm waiting at a stoplight or pass my third McDonalds in five minutes I think. "City life." This is followed quickly by "I'm living in a city." and a smile. Sometimes I even giggle. It'll be a cold day in Hell before I go back to the boonies.
And can you survive on your own there? On your own, growing your own food and such, not buying what you need? Now it may not bother you but personally while I left the boonies physically I won't leave it mentally. I leave in a large city and metro area, downtown Minneapolis is 15 minutes bike ride, yet I still garden. I love to cook and can what I grow, though unfortunately my garden didn't produce much. Talking with others, they've had or seen the same think. This summer there hasn't been much rain and while places like Portland, OR, set record highs it has been cool in the Twin Cities.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
microwave "rotates" dipole molecules by altering electric field, hence creating rapid collisions resulting "heat".
Couldn't those collisions be considered "shaking"? While the microwave oven doesn't shake the whole thing, like some shake beer and soda to get it to spray, don't the individual molecules become excited so they rapidly move just like shaking does?
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
He's done the right thing not only in fighting this attack on his organic farm but also in letting all of those who previously consumed his tasty organic produce know about.
Boy am I glad I dodged that bullet. I almost bought some of that radioactive sludge he's peddling.
Microwaves don't irradiate things, that's the point.
Microwaves do cause damage and can even be lethal, and that is the point. To ignore that is to ignore science. And I care about that even if you don't.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
alter DNA.
microwaves alter dna science study or studies.
There's only one way I can describe this guy - fucking ignorant dumbass
Now who's an ignorant dumpass?
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
Me: Do you have any pure mint extract?
Employee: Yeah man, we've got some right over here.
Me: This is the cosmetics aisle. It says "Not for human consumption." right on the bottle.
Employee: Oh. But its organic man, its okay.
I had something like that happen to me. After trying Anbesol or Orajel and other pain relievers from Walgreens for a painful tooth I went down to my coop to get clove oil, I've never found anything as good over-the-counter to relieve painful teeth (except hydrogen peroxide which kills infections but takes a while to work), and all they had was labeled "for external use only". I was so disparate I got it anyway. I've used it for years, and even had labels say it can be used for that, and they are used in cooking so I wondered what could make it unsafe if it's pure clove oil.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
"Get off my lawn!"
I am an ACCA student. Got a query on Accountancy/Finance? Maybe I can help!
Find one study of the radar operators that show a statistically significant aberrant rate of any thing or STFU.
I think you have seriously mis-interpreted my comments. Please re-read them and try again. Or perhaps ask questions before leaping to conclusions. --Cuz you just blasted the stuffing out of a straw man three farms away. (And I don't think there was even any garlic growing over there!)
Here's a clue: While cancer growth rates can certainly be sped up or slowed down depending what you expose cancer cells to EMR-wise, I consider cancer entirely incidental and insignificant given the larger issue. --And I was certainly not attempting to suggest legitimacy in the released USAF studies, (not that those can be taken at face value in any event). I simply brought them up because I felt that they played a part in the origination of the, "If it don't burn it ain't bad," meme.
What you should be asking is this, "If EMR doesn't cause cancer, then what about it might be bad enough that I would bother posting at all?"
-FL
Seriously, the biggest risk to his crop is from localized heating effect. It won't mutate, it'll just dry out.
It won't cause mutations?
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
One of the Wilhelm Reich spinoffs, a bit of metal shavings, a chunk of quartz crystal, and bond the whole mess together with resin epoxy. Supposedly blocks all RF radiation.
Of course, that doesn't explain why all my wireless equipment and cel phone still work perfectly around the chunk I found, which someone ditched next to a local cel tower.
Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
Just because a crop is GM doesn't mean it is sterile, BTW.
Only if GM crops were sterile. Because they aren't superweeds are being created. These superweeds have the same resistance to herbicides as the crops that interbred with wild relatives.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
As someone who lives in the Annapolis Valley and has many friends stuck without high speed due to slow adoption of the wireless high speed that was supposed to be in place last year, let me just say:
FUCK THIS GUY! FUCK HIM RIGHT IN THE EAR!
It's an astonishing lack of reportorial (?) rigor that the article doesn't even address the likely reality: that Mr Levine either is angling for a better payment for the cell tower (the article doesn't SPECIFICALLY say that the tower is or isn't on his property, it just says "near his farm"), angling to prevent some neighbor he dislikes from getting $$ for the tower (most likely, IMO, if you consider the Nova Scotians I know...), or equally likely, the provincial government 'grandfathered' out the land for this tower, and the fact that THEY are getting the $$ for it and/or the simple government 'taking' annoys him.
The "OMG the radiation is going to mutate my crops" sounds to me like a convenient wrapper, but unlikely to be the real reason he's blocking it.
-Styopa
South of the border in the US, farmers have been driven away from their land by leaky transformers; however the regulatory agencies are managed by the same management as the utility companies, so it all amounts to a monolithic Empire.
This is but one of the reasons why an increasing amount of us in Vermont are opting for secession: http://vtcommons.org
Just read the book you linked to a few pages further and you'll see why that isn't necessarily a problem. Even if it is, you could be selective in what you irradiate. And the whole dirty bomb scenario is silly; as has been calculated many many times a dirty bomb wouldn't kill anyone besides those happened to be close the (conventional) explosion, just like an ordinary bomb. The radioactive material would disperse and dilute too quickly to do much harm.
And to get back on topic: his garlic is already mutating! Granted I don't know the specific mutation rate for garlic, but for humans it's about 100/generation. Even if the transcription in garlic where somehow 10x as precise, which I doubt, every single plant he grows has 10 mutations compared to the previous generation. Just a few million years and the plants will be demanding high-speed internet.
I once learned the trick that putting garlic cloves in the microwave for a few seconds makes the skin come off easier.
Right?
so that's an absurd statement.
By the same token, at the right dosage virtually everything is safe so saying something is safe is an absurd statement as well. Florine? Some can help prevent cavities, but it can also cause Flourosis, of which there are two types. Dental Fluorosis blackens teeth and Skeletal Fluorosis makes bones brittle. Lithium is toxic yet in low doses it's used as a mood stabilizer in psychiatry.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
I'm just not willing to get sick over those mistakes.
Then buy pasteurized milk. A free market allows that. But for those who prefer raw milk some governments blocked and made illegal their ability to buy raw milk.
All I ask is that people be allowed to make their own decision as to what risks they are willing to take, without government interference, and what risks they are not willing to take.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
Perhaps I should have included more, here it is: "And no study has ever found that microwave radiation causes mutations in double-helix DNA. If you feel that's an incorrect statement, point to an actual study, rather than links to google searches that don't show what you claim they show." Notice where you say I need to point to a actual study not a Google search. I included the Google search because it would of been easy for you to produce another study saying there was no effect. It should be pretty obvious from reading the links that there is even disagreement in the science community of whether microwaves damage DNA. Also if I had included just a link to a show you could every well have posted a study saying there was none. By posting the Google search I tried to preclude you from saying I was cherry picking.
And my use of fud, your FUD, it was meant as your spread of fear, uncertainty, and doubt about my inclusion of links to studies that show microwaves do cause damage to DNA. No where did I say it causes damage to double-helix DNA, simply DNA, and DNA does not spend all of it's tyme as double-helix DNA. From what I recall of biology DNA actually spends little tyme, for mitosis or cell division, in that form. Using wiki I found this: "In living organisms, DNA does not usually exist as a single molecule, but instead as a pair of molecules that are held tightly together.[7][8] These two long strands entwine like vines, in the shape of a double helix."
Oh, and note, as it is an acronym, it should be in all caps. But then, it's obvious that accuracy in what you say or how you say it was never a goal of yours.
Spreading more FUD by casting doubt on what I say again?
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
In no small part because a Coal fired plant can spew a tremendous amount of general gunk into the air for "free" if they paid the "true cost" of the pollution they generate, perhaps the equation would be different?
I agree, and that's without including the subsidies coal gets. However in a market where businesses have to carry their own weight and don't pass external costs to others geothermal, solar, wind and other power sources would be more competitive. According to this, "Cost Comparison for Nuclear vs. Coal", nuclear compares favorably with coal. The $/Mw-hr cost for coal is 29.1 vs nuclear's 30.0. But as Benjamin Sovacool says they are both Faustian bargains. He says "By far the cheapest, cleanest, and quickest strategy to meet America's growing demand for electricity is energy efficiency and demand-side management."
It's even more fuzzy... But my point remains..
As does my point, nuclear power is expensive and more isn't needed.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
1) the weapon is a short burst weapon, and no, it can't kill you, it only causes discomfort while you;re in the beam, and it causes no cell disruption or actual biurns, only burning SENSATION.
From a military pdf, "With respect to concerns about skin damage, in most instances there is no after-effect. On occasion, some skin reddening and irritation has been observed. The 11,000 exposures produced only eight second-degree burns, six of which consisted of pea-size blisters that healed without medical attention. The other two required medical care; both individuals recovered fully without complications." However it does not say how long exposure was. I bet if you're trapped inside the beam and unable to get away you will be burned.
You misunderstand the difference between DNA and LIFE
BS! And I end there.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?