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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?"

5 of 428 comments (clear)

  1. Seems oddly like... by Darkness404 · · Score: 3, Interesting
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  2. Re:Retard. by MrNaz · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I call bull.
    I'll put up $1,000 as a bet that you can't tell when xrays are passing through you in a true blind test. Find a hospital that will do the test, call me and I'll gladly put the money into an escrow. My email address is:
    mr naz at hot mail dot com
    If you're not BSing, then put your $1,000 where your mouth is.

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  3. Re:Retard. by Chris+Burke · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Many allergic reactions (like my own seasonal allergies) don't come and go like a light switch in the presence or absence of the allergen.

    Right, because your immune system is actually being agitated by the actual allergic response to the actual allergens, and it takes time to come down, plus there are probably still actual allergens like pollen stuck in your sinuses and continuing to irritate you.

    Speaking of light switches, all I can think of is the case of a cell phone company that put up a new tower, and all the advanced folks in the neighborhood by it complained that the tower was irritating their EM allergies and giving them headaches and whatnot.

    The company's response to their complaints? "Gee, we can only imagine how bad it's going to get when we actually turn the tower on!"

    The tower wasn't on. There was no EM radiation that could have provoked any hypothetical allergy response. It was all in their extremely advanced heads.

    The ultimate kicker to this story would be if the neighbor had actually turned off their wi-fi weeks ago but told the guy they hadn't just to keep cheesing them off and to show how the "allergy" only exists as long as they think there's evil wi-fi. Unfortunately I'm sure that's not true, because the neighbor probably finds their wi-fi useful and why the hell would you stop using a useful and harmless tool because the nutjob next door thinks it's bad for them?

    As far as the "weird unexplained things happen!" reasoning... Yeah, weird things do happen, but it's not like wi-fi itself is some unexplained phenomenon. We know what the power densities of it are at any given range, and unless you believe in homeopathic E-M radiation, there's no way it's having the effects people claim. High voltage power lines? Maybe there's something to that. Wi-fi? Yeah fucking right.

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    The enemies of Democracy are
  4. Re:Retard. by BikeHelmet · · Score: 4, Interesting

    You can't be "Allergic to wi-fi"

    Put him in a room, and turn the wireless on and off. Guaranteed he won't be able to tell the difference.

    Maybe that's not what it is.

    My neighbour's phone was giving me a nasty headache. I thought it was food allergies, but one time I was in the backyard and his window was opened. I noticed the throbbing was pointing directly at that opening. I went over to his house and explained what was going on. He thought it was really strange, but let me in to look around. Once I figured out it was the phone(took all of 10 seconds to find it), I told him. He was happy to accept the new phone that I gave him later that day. No more headaches.

    Best bet... some sort of frequency that I can *almost* hear, but nobody else can? The new phone was the exact same frequency, so I suspect his was somehow defective.

    The guy suing could be a hypochondriac, or maybe there's more to it. I can hear CRT TVs - but that's pretty common. I can also hear circuit breakers, capacitors, power lines (I try not to get too close), LCD monitors, battery powered clocks, some watches, etc.; but none of that stuff causes me to have a headache. I have a Wireless G network with the signal strength ramped up - Tomato WRT54GL - but no headache.

    I think my (superior?) hearing might be genetic. I have an Uncle nearing age 60, and he can still hear that annoying Mosquito ringtone that's supposed to be Teen-only.

    What I don't get is, why would this guy sue? My first line of attack would be begging them to let me network their whole house, if it was real physical discomfort. If it wasn't physical - just something audible like being able to hear their TV - then who cares?

  5. Re:Retard. by GungaDan · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'm betting that if the neighbor merely stopped broadcasting his SSID, the "allergy" would cease.

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    Eloi are stupid, throw morlocks at them!