Slashdot Mirror
Man Sues Neighbor For Not Turning Off His Wi-Fi
Scyth3 writes "A man is suing his neighbor for not turning off his cell phone or wireless router. He claims it affects his 'electromagnetic allergies,' and has resorted to being homeless. So, why doesn't he check into a hotel? Because hotels typically have wireless internet for free. I wonder if a tinfoil hat would help his cause?"
The plaintiff is a serial litigant. He's sued just about everyone and his uncle before. While I agree, there needs to be protection for those with less extreme claims, there also needs to be more teeth to punishing those who abuse the system. A nice place to start is to punish those with outlandish or vindictive claims.
He's not really abusing torts though. At least not deliberately. He does suffer from a genuine medical condition. The fact that it's psychological rather than physical doesn't make it any less of a problem.
I have an alergy to sunlight ... when I mentioned to a professional, apparently it's common but not normal and has been diagnosed as an alergy.
No you don't. Get a better professional, or at least spend thirty seconds Googling it.
It's a common genetic condition, probably related to some sort of signal crosstalk between the optic nerve and the nerve that causes sneezes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photic_sneeze_reflex
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/527/why-do-some-people-sneeze-when-going-out-into-bright-light
My mother in law has a medical condition where exposure to bright sunlight breaks down proteins in her skin. One of the breakdown products generates an auto-immune response. In other words, she's "allergic" to bright sunlight. True, sunlight contains no proteins, but the interaction of sunlight with her skin CREATES proteins to which she is allergic.
I seriously doubt that WiFi radiation could do the same thing, but these processes can't be oversimplified like that.
So much for mod points...
I'd just like to point out that high-pitched noises, often caused by the flyback transformers found in things such as CRT monitors, are a far cry from detecting x-rays and radio waves. Why? Because one is just a sound and we have ears to feel that; that some people cannot hear the sound while others can is related to the auditive acuity of the person, nothing more. Case in point, you can make the test yourself. Just Google for "mosquito sound" and look for the different frequencies. You have a whole array of higher and higher noises which different people will react to differently. I can hear them and it's annoying, but there was a girl in my physics course who'd immediately sense it the second I turned it on no matter where she was in the classroom. This is perfectly valid because we have ears and ears are supposed to do that.
However, as far as I know, the skin isn't supposed to be an x-ray detector. The closest we have to that would be our own eyes, since x-rays are EM waves just like visible light. The skin's only way of triggering a response would be to react adversely to the energy being transmitted (IE alpha/beta/gamma rays, but not as dangerous). I don't really see how this would be possible for extremely short exposures (although I'm not saying it is impossible, I don't know). However, I'd just like to point out: from what I gathered, the GP saw the x-ray scanner. Have you ever felt a tingling sensation when feeling like something's close, even though there isn't anything? It's a bit like a presence, as if you were about to get touched by someone. I'd argue that you might very well be reacting in this way and not because of the actual x-rays. Until you've been bombarded by them randomly with no visual or auditive cues, it's impossible to say whether you're reacting to the x-rays themselves or just to the thought of the x-rays.
Ummm, because the french have actually been in a lot of wars (50 major european wars since 1500) and won 2/3 of all wars they've been in(since records began)?