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Ontario Teachers' Union Calls For Health-Related Classroom Wi-Fi Ban

New submitter KJE writes "The CBC is reporting that an Ontario teachers' union is calling for an end to new Wi-Fi setups in the province's 1,400-plus Catholic schools. The Ontario English Catholic Teacher's Association (OECTA) says computers in all new schools should be hardwired instead of setting up wireless networks. The OECTA, in its paper (PDF), said the 'safety of this technology has not thoroughly been researched and therefore the precautionary principle and prudent avoidance of exposure should be practiced.'"

365 comments

  1. Woohoo! by dittbub · · Score: 1

    Hey its more jobs, right?

    1. Re:Woohoo! by R3d+M3rcury · · Score: 4, Funny

      Exactly. They have hire people to carry those data-packets around.

    2. Re:Woohoo! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Or more asbestos related claims from crawling through the ceiling throwing cable.

    3. Re:Woohoo! by zidium · · Score: 2, Informative

      You sure missed a lot of punctuation and capitalization! Here let me help you! I'll admit, the last sentence fragment was very hard for me to parse.

      I don't know about more jobs. It's total bollocks; that's what it is. Why do these so-called teachers seem like they didn't get any freaking education?

      --
      Slashdot Valentines Beta Massacre: iT WORKED! The boycotts killed Beta!!
    4. Re:Woohoo! by Sponge+Bath · · Score: 2

      As a matter of redundancy, it's good to have diverse network infrastructure: electrically powered *and* Labatt fueled.

  2. Call your union rep by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    On your cellphone

    1. Re:Call your union rep by Niedi · · Score: 4, Funny

      Naaaah, they don't have that, that's too dangerous... Much safer to stick to your good old wireless DECT (6.0) homephone...

    2. Re:Call your union rep by Lev13than · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It's all about the Catholic perspective:

      1. Radio waves that pass harmlessly through your body = dangerous
      2. Omniscient deity that can read your mind and plant thoughts in your brain = safe (good, even!)

      Makes sense.

      --
      When you have nothing left to burn you must set yourself on fire
    3. Re:Call your union rep by danomac · · Score: 2

      It's rather amusing that the teachers aren't more educated on this topic.

      There's so many things emitting RF. They're probably like a couple people where I work - they seem to think that if a device isn't on there aren't any radio signals about. I've tried to explain that even if your radio/cell/whatever is off the signals are still in the air and passing through their body. I don't understand why people can't grasp that simple concept...

    4. Re:Call your union rep by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, same frequency as WiFi, dude

    5. Re:Call your union rep by afidel · · Score: 2

      You're intentionally ignoring the Inverse-square law.

      --
      There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
    6. Re:Call your union rep by The+Askylist · · Score: 1

      I can only suggest that they watch out for those wired connections in case the cards are in promiscuous mode ;-)

    7. Re:Call your union rep by poetmatt · · Score: 1

      It's called willful blindness, in the case of the teacher's union.

      There's been a lot of research into wifi - not into cellphones, but into wifi? absolutely.

    8. Re:Call your union rep by Anomalyst · · Score: 5, Funny

      Its been my experience that educators are the hardest to educate. It amazes me that they manage to dress themselves in the morning.

      --
      There is no right to feel safe thru security vaudeville at the expense of everyone's freedom, privacy and tax money.
    9. Re:Call your union rep by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 2

      >Yeah, same frequency as WiFi, dude

      No it isn't.
      WiFI 2.4GHz
      DECT 1.9GHz

      --
      I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
    10. Re:Call your union rep by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 4, Informative

      Wifi devices generally transmit in the low milliwatt range; compare this with the power used by a typical public safety trunked system (800MHz not 2.4GHz):

      http://www.qsl.net/n9zia/gbtrunk.html
      http://w8msp.com/Oakland.html

      You are probably being hit with plenty of UHF/microwave radiation when you walk near a police station. Not only that, but your body will absorb more energy at 800MHz than 2.4GHz (the specific absorption rate at 800MHz is higher than at 2.4GHz), so you should be more concerned about your exposure to radiation from public safety systems than from wifi.

      --
      Palm trees and 8
    11. Re:Call your union rep by nschubach · · Score: 1, Offtopic

      In one of my extended studies classes (8th grade if I remember correctly) the teacher came to school wearing one blue and one black shoe. Both shoes were the same style... just different shades of color. She excused it as "getting ready in the dark."

      You reminded me of that day and I thought it was pertinent in some dark twisted way.

      --
      Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
    12. Re:Call your union rep by Fluffeh · · Score: 4, Interesting

      When I was in year three (That's when I was about eight, not sure what third grade means outside of Australia) I had an amusing argument with my teacher about "geometry". She claimed that if you stood right at the right spot at ground level, you could see all base four corner stones of a square pyramid. The argument ended up with me being sent to the headmasters office because I called her ignorant and facetious, but I did have my sweet moment when the headmaster informed her that she was wrong and that I was right.

      Teachers do think they know it all. I guess that teaching little kids all day every day makes them think they are some sort of fountain of knowledge and information.

      Having said that, I also know a few teachers who are very well informed, intelligent and I would consider all round great people.

      --
      Moved to http://soylentnews.org/. You are invited to join us too!
    13. Re:Call your union rep by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      Microwave radiation is not harmless; you would not be happy if you were being bit with 10kW at 2.4GHz. Good thing 10kW is 100000 times greater than the power output of a typical laptop wifi card.

      --
      Palm trees and 8
    14. Re:Call your union rep by operagost · · Score: 1

      I've never seen a Catholic wearing a tinfoil hat. Can you provide evidence for this claim?

      --

      Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
    15. Re:Call your union rep by armanox · · Score: 1

      My (home) phone says 2.4GHz...

      --
      I'm starting to think GNU is the problem with "GNU/Linux" these days.
    16. Re:Call your union rep by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      This came to mind: http://www.wtfeck.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/mile-vs-kilometre-detention.gif

    17. Re:Call your union rep by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      What's wrong with good old Morse code telegraphy?

    18. Re:Call your union rep by Fluffeh · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Firstly, I totally agree with your sentiment, and it is a shame the folks that modded you today forgot to turn on their sarcasm filter.

      Having said that, look at it from the other side. When I hear utterly asinine stories like this, I agree that it makes me angry and frustrated with the state of the world - but at the same time, I look at the bright side. When I have kids, I will bring them up with good education, critical thinking skills and a solid understanding of science and reasoning - then I happily think about how little competition they will have in the real world when their peers are sitting under desks scared of the "eViL WiFI!".

      While it makes me a little sad to see in this day and age these sort of shenanigans still going on, I can't help but think that my offspring will be like wolves amoung the sheep.

      --
      Moved to http://soylentnews.org/. You are invited to join us too!
    19. Re:Call your union rep by ajclements · · Score: 1

      I can think of only one case in which she would be correct. The pyramid would have to be narrower than the distance between your eyes. But either eye would not be able to see all 4 corners simultaneously.

    20. Re:Call your union rep by Curunir_wolf · · Score: 5, Funny

      I've never seen a Catholic wearing a tinfoil hat. Can you provide evidence for this claim?

      Whoa! Really? Never seen the pope? Why do you think that friggin' hat is so big, anyway? Yep, totally lined with tin-foil.

      --
      "Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
      --- Jerry Garcia
    21. Re:Call your union rep by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 1

      It's even worse than that!

      Just look at the MSDS for ether! and they propose to allow our precious children to spend their days in schools snaked through with cables carrying this menace?

    22. Re:Call your union rep by Fluffeh · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If my kid came home with a note like that, I think I would ask him/her what he most wanted in the whole world (assuming new computer, gaming station, pony etc) and go out the same afternoon and buy one.

      --
      Moved to http://soylentnews.org/. You are invited to join us too!
    23. Re:Call your union rep by LordLimecat · · Score: 5, Funny

      Aluminum isnt harmless either. You think its safe to drink from that coke can, but what if it was 5*10^32 kg and exerted a sufficient gravity field to crush your body?

    24. Re:Call your union rep by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Then it is not DECT.

    25. Re:Call your union rep by Fluffeh · · Score: 1

      Indeed. She was claiming that if you stood at a right angle to a side, right at the middle and moved back away from the face, you would get to a point where you saw all four corners. I did initially try to explain that things got smaller the further away they were, and hence the far side would appear smaller and you wouldn't be able to see it, but hey, I am just an insolent eight year old. It was game on :)

      --
      Moved to http://soylentnews.org/. You are invited to join us too!
    26. Re:Call your union rep by scrib · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Actually, this depends quite a bit on other variables, notably the height of the pyramid. Standing at ground level puts your perspective above ground level. Imagine standing at the middle of one edge of a square pyramid that is 10 meters on a side. Imagine the pyramid is only 1 meter tall. Certainly, you can see all of the corners. Even when the apex reached eye level, because your eyes are offset from the center, you would still be able to see three sides, and thus all four corners.

      This wouldn't work for the pyramids in Egypt, unless ground level involved a pretty big hill...

      --
      Help! Help! I'm being repressed!
    27. Re:Call your union rep by duk242 · · Score: 1

      I wish I had mod points right now. That was hilarious.

    28. Re:Call your union rep by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That 2.4ghz home phone tech is old, and clashes with 802.11. DECT is much better.

    29. Re:Call your union rep by mooingyak · · Score: 1

      2. Omniscient deity that can read your mind and plant thoughts in your brain = safe (good, even!)

      To be fair, if you accept an omniscient deity that can read your mind exists, that said deity can do so without giving you cancer isn't much of a stretch.

      --
      William of Ockham had no beard. The most likely explanation is that it was chewed off by squirrels every morning.
    30. Re:Call your union rep by kaatochacha · · Score: 1

      You can. It's just the pyramid has to be transparent. or perhaps floating in the air, that would work too.
      or....(shudder) YOU ARE THE PYRAMID!

    31. Re:Call your union rep by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually it's true but you give the wrong reason in jest. Aluminum beverage cans are actually coated with a thin layer to protect the aluminum from oxidizing else more would leech into the beverage.

    32. Re:Call your union rep by Fished · · Score: 1

      Lined with tin-foil? Nope. It IS tin-foil. Pope's hat is a potent symbol of his (nowadays nominal) secular authority. In other words, it's a crown.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papal_tiara

      --
      "He who would learn astronomy, and other recondite arts, let him go elsewhere. " -- John Calvin, commenting on Genesis 1
    33. Re:Call your union rep by Black.Shuck · · Score: 1

      I don't think *anyone* can tell us what's safe.

      I mean, bananas are clearly dangerous from a scientific perspective, but on the other hand they have a strong religious endorsement.

    34. Re:Call your union rep by gnasher719 · · Score: 1

      When I was in year three (That's when I was about eight, not sure what third grade means outside of Australia) I had an amusing argument with my teacher about "geometry". She claimed that if you stood right at the right spot at ground level, you could see all base four corner stones of a square pyramid. The argument ended up with me being sent to the headmasters office because I called her ignorant and facetious, but I did have my sweet moment when the headmaster informed her that she was wrong and that I was right.

      She is right if you are big compared to the pyramid. I am not that good at geometry, but if you are taller than the depth of the pyramid then it should work.

    35. Re:Call your union rep by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They both cause interference to one another here in Europe!

    36. Re:Call your union rep by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think the scare stems from the word radiation, there is a big difference between non-ionizing radiation and ionizing radiation.

    37. Re:Call your union rep by Sipper · · Score: 4, Informative

      >Yeah, same frequency as WiFi, dude

      No it isn't.
      WiFI 2.4GHz
      DECT 1.9GHz

      Even if the frequency ranges aren't the same, in the context of safety concerns, both of the above frequency ranges are in the same ballpark. Interestingly if you read the IEEE C95.1 report (which is difficult to get a copy of) you'll find that the most concervative levels of concern are somewhere around 5 to 10 W/m^2, and that includes a 10:1 safety margin of the actual power density levels of concern for controled invironments. [If you find the report, see Figures 3 and 4.] However if you want to understand RF exposure, a good place to start that is readily accessible is right at the FCC: http://transition.fcc.gov/oet/rfsafety/rf-faqs.html

      Also for the Original Article to say that Electromagnetic Radiation hasn't been studied enough is dubious and at best a truism, because it's been studied for 60 years. America, Canada, Japan, and the EU all have their own studies and conconclusions about safe electromagnetic levels broken down by frequency ranges. The only known concern is RF heating, and WiFi can't put out enough power for that to be a concern. Cell base stations put out only a small amount of power per sector antenna (typically about 20 Watts) and these antennas have a "pancake" pattern that focuses at the horizon, so even standing right under the base station isn't unsafe. You have to be three feet in front of the base station antenna before it would be unsafe -- and for that to happen you'd have to be right in front of it on the tower. The cell phone right against the head is a lot stronger amount of RF exposure than a cell phone base station right across the street is.

      There's a LOT of general misunderstanding of "RF exposure", which usually comes out as "we don't understand it enough" in some form. To an extent that may always be true, because it's something you can only measure with equipment and is otherwise invisible to a human being. So for some it's hard to understand that low levels of RF exposure is safe.

    38. Re:Call your union rep by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 1

      She claimed that if you stood right at the right spot at ground level, you could see all base four corner stones of a square pyramid.

      Of course you can. You just have to stand *inside* the pyramid!

    39. Re:Call your union rep by Fluffeh · · Score: 1

      She is right if you are big compared to the pyramid. I am not that good at geometry, but if you are taller than the depth of the pyramid then it should work.

      This was Egyptian pyramids and assumed the viewer was wandering around the base.

      --
      Moved to http://soylentnews.org/. You are invited to join us too!
    40. Re:Call your union rep by micheas · · Score: 5, Insightful

      What's next? Banning windows and outdoor recess? Both of those activities subject students to far greater EMF Radiation from the fusion reaction commonly referred to as "the sun" Further more "Cover up" campaigns in Australia aimed at lowering skin cancer rates showed an increase in vitamin D related conditions that far outweighed any health benefits from the campaign.

      This is all over the fact that the cancer rates around high voltage power lines in Colorado in the late 60s and early 70s were far above what would be expected. The moral of that was that maybe you should check if the power company is using agent orange for weed control (they were) before you look like an ass, and create a bunch of junk science about the dangers of EMF radiation.

      There have been hundreds of studies about EMF and none of the studies without major flaws have shown any correlation between EMF radiation and cancer, or any other disease.

      In the 70s and 80s your comments made sense, now it just makes you look stupid and causes people to be dismissive of your overall agenda, which would be good, if you were not chasing something that people instinctively know is wrong.

    41. Re:Call your union rep by painandgreed · · Score: 1

      I've never seen a Catholic wearing a tinfoil hat. Can you provide evidence for this claim?

      Whoa! Really? Never seen the pope? Why do you think that friggin' hat is so big, anyway? Yep, totally lined with tin-foil.

      Nope, that's gold.

    42. Re:Call your union rep by scot4875 · · Score: 1

      Yup, this anecdote serves as a scathing indictment of all teachers.

      --Jeremy

      --
      Jesus was a liberal
    43. Re:Call your union rep by Hatta · · Score: 1

      But then the thin coating leeches into the beverage.

      --
      Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
    44. Re:Call your union rep by Whibla · · Score: 2

      She was obviously referring to flying pyramids.

      Bet you, and the headmaster, felt stupid years later when Stargate came out and she was proved right...

    45. Re:Call your union rep by aXis100 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Whilst there may be a potential transmitter every 1.5m2, they are not all transmitting at the same time. In fact each transmitter spends a majority of it's time sleeping, with the receiver listing for a break so that it can implement collision avoidance.

      You are deeply misinformed on this issue and your post is just scaremongering. The overall spectrum use is limited no matter how many people you have, and even then we're talking about an average power of 30mW on a maximum of 3 channels. No-one is getting cooked.

    46. Re:Call your union rep by MightyYar · · Score: 1

      That's all they had lying around, and it makes a decent enough Faraday cage. :)

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    47. Re:Call your union rep by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      From wikipedia:
      Although DECT 6.0 operates at 1.9 GHz, Siemens decided the term DECT 1.9 might have confused customers who equate larger numbers (such as the 2.4 and 5.8 in existing 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz cordless telephones) with later products.

      The original DECT frequency band (1880 MHz–1900 MHz) is used in all countries in Europe. Outside Europe, it is used in most of Asia, Australia and South America. In the United States, the Federal Communications Commission in 2005 changed channelization and licensing costs in a nearby band (1920 MHz–1930 MHz, or 1.9 GHz),

    48. Re:Call your union rep by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's rather amusing that the teachers aren't more educated on this topic.

      There's so many things emitting RF. They're probably like a couple people where I work - they seem to think that if a device isn't on there aren't any radio signals about. I've tried to explain that even if your radio/cell/whatever is off the signals are still in the air and passing through their body. I don't understand why people can't grasp that simple concept...

      I'd say it's more of an issue with being a large population. I played the 2600, I'm on slashdot, I run 3x 24" monitors in triple wide configuration, I have a cell phone on my desk and an mp3 player on the plane. I drink from aluminum cans and used teflon pans. None of that ever gives me a problem, but plug in one of those shi--y $4 mp3-player to your radio transmitters and I'll get a headache within a half hour. I'm sensitive to it. Not because I'm some BS hippie, but because I had a much larger exposure to the feeling years prior.

      One place I worked I always used to get a headache in the server room, never knew why - I thought it was just from having to F with the server while users wonder when email will be back up or whatever (Boo Eudora!). One day, I decide to move the monitors around. I put my chair where the monitor table was and the monitor table where the chair was. BAM, I get a massive Gauss field rainbow on the display. Apparently where I was sitting in the room was next to the 1920's era power conduit for the whole building. Every unshielded bit of power in the building was going up the elevator shaft and that was what was doing it. You could throw iron filings on the damn wall and see the field. On the plus side, the servers got a lot more reliable on the other side of the room, but for a few weeks I had been resting my head on that wall- putting in sendmail was, literally, less painful than sitting in there.

      So I'm ok with people who want to keep radio emitters away from their workspace. Some gear is legitimately operating (or focused) way, way out of spec. I'll give you a network drop if you don't want a base station on your cube - just don't complain about spotty wifi

    49. Re:Call your union rep by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You forgot: 3. Priest that forcefully penetrates your anus = nothing to be concerned about

    50. Re:Call your union rep by Fluffeh · · Score: 1

      Not to mention when Kung Pow had them in it!

      --
      Moved to http://soylentnews.org/. You are invited to join us too!
    51. Re:Call your union rep by Dave+Emami · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Read a theory a while ago (by some psychologist whose name I wish I could recall so I could give proper credit) that stated that fear of things like radiation, chemicals, and germs stems from the same underlying source as the older fear of witchcraft -- people tend to be more afraid of something they can't understand and/or can't see, compared to things which are objectively more dangerous but which they can see and comprehend. Hence things like the fear and revulsion generated by poison gas usage in WW1, even though you were many times more likely to be killed by bullets or shells. In this case of the article, people hear "radiation" and react viscerally without any further thought.

      --

      "The Greens lynched a hacker in Chicago. Last month, but I think the body's still hanging from the old Water Tower."
    52. Re:Call your union rep by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      when you walk near a police station.

      I'm not sure if the FCC publish the RF data, but in Australia the ACMA does. It's not the police stations you need to worry about. Half of the larger industrial plants have 40watt transmitters on them. Those that don't often lease some talkgroups from the local wide area trunking provider, of which there's easily at least one in every city. Cinemas, council events, hotels, casinos, and anything needing reasonable security coverage either have their own trunked system or lease capacity of an existing install. Then there's the 450MHz band often provides the same thing in some cities.

      Most of the portables aren't anything to sneer at either often transmitting between 1 and 5 watts, and vehicle mounted units anywhere up to 30 watts

    53. Re:Call your union rep by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      She claimed that if you stood right at the right spot at ground level, you could see all base four corner stones of a square pyramid.

      Of course you can. You just have to stand *inside* the pyramid!

      That is... wrong, unless the pyramid is both hollow and your skull-eye-socket geometry is very "unorthodox"... Fishface.

    54. Re:Call your union rep by R3d+M3rcury · · Score: 4, Funny

      What's next? Banning [...] outdoor recess?

      Yes. Recess is dangerous.

    55. Re:Call your union rep by computerchimp · · Score: 1

      A bit loose and fast with the numbers you be. If someone lived near police departments and fire departments they should. The point should be that those transmissions are also a concern.

      Wi-fi transmit/receive hubs operation in the thousand watt range and are not required to be tested for spurious emissions or defected units by the manufacturer because they are marketed below the 1 Watt range. Once they are out there they are not tested either.

      Spurious emissions could mean 20 watts being transmitted in close proximity to many people within the school. So there is room to be concerned for both.

    56. Re:Call your union rep by rtb61 · · Score: 0

      http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10926722, http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/magnetic-fields.

      Of course their is always obfuscation with other cancer causing toxins, not our pollution their pollution.

      The real decision here is twelve years plus of schooling, eight hours a day, for about 220 days per year, plus all other loads, inlcuding being out in the sun (I never get how some people reckon an existing natural load, eliminates new lesser radiation sources, isn't marketing wonderful, somehow cumulative effects cease to exist).

      Want to add more loads other than those under which people evolved a resistance too, let's start getting rid of existing artificial loads before adding more on.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    57. Re:Call your union rep by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 1

      I called her ignorant and facetious

      I do not think that word means what you think it means.

      --

      "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
    58. Re:Call your union rep by TheRealGrogan · · Score: 4, Informative

      I'm not sorry, chump... the whiners tried that in our district school board (in Ontario) and got put in their place. The same thing will happen here at the provincial level too. It is just not credible. WiFi is not the significant factor here.

      Every kid gets to use a computer now, because they wheel in cartloads of laptops. They can't run ethernet cabling for all of them, everywhere they are to be used on the school grounds. It figures these anal teachers wouldn't be happy until they are back to the stone age. Teachers here are so unrealistic it's not funny... some of the pettiest people I know are teachers.

      The fact that this is a Catholic teacher's union whining on behalf of catholic schools is even more infuriating... because now they suckle the public teat just like the public school system. They still think they get to make their own rules.

    59. Re:Call your union rep by icebike · · Score: 2

      The artificial loads are indoors.
      People evolved largely outdoors.

      Modern man gets far less sitting in a room full of wifi routers than bush man got tending his flock or hunting/gathering.

      Sorry, the hysteria simply won't add up for you.

      --
      Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
    60. Re:Call your union rep by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Further more "Cover up" campaigns in Australia aimed at lowering skin cancer rates showed an increase in vitamin D related conditions that far outweighed any health benefits from the campaign.

      Citation?

      I think you're thinking of Canada. There's enough sun in Australia that even wandering around in a burka all day will still give you your Vitamin D allowance, and even 15 minutes sun when unprotected is long enough for serious sunburn.

    61. Re:Call your union rep by raedeon · · Score: 0

      I take it you have no idea how Microwave Ovens work. Maybe you should look it up

    62. Re:Call your union rep by russotto · · Score: 1

      There are a few phones using a frequency-hopping variant of DECT on 2.4GHz.

    63. Re:Call your union rep by mr_snarf · · Score: 1

      Although I see your point, I don't think that example is very apt. Sure, when your cell phone is off, signals from the nearby tower are still passing through you, but those aren't the ones people claim to be concerned about when the discuss 'cell phone radiation'. Its the signal coming from your phone, since it is right next to your head/body that is the issue. Your phone has to pump out a strong signal to reach the tower, due to the inverse square law, while the signal from the tower is already weak(er) by the time it reaches you.

      --
      printf("Goodbye cruel world!\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b");
    64. Re:Call your union rep by ceoyoyo · · Score: 1

      Um, your link is full of government cover-your-ass-ese for there's nothing to see here.

      Basically, if RF radiation causes cancer it's at such a low rate you're far better off worrying about something, anything, else.

    65. Re:Call your union rep by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      On a related note, Bricks and stone have a decent amount of radiation. Ban those too. But really, these are Catholics we're talking about, they should just pray harder to ward off the evil radiation. But praying? These are Catholics we're talking about...

    66. Re:Call your union rep by Jim+Narem · · Score: 1

      Snopes is your friend on this one: http://www.snopes.com/humor/letters/hilliker.asp

    67. Re:Call your union rep by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, you were thinking in the dark

    68. Re:Call your union rep by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, they will claim sun spins around earth, and call your child witch and rape him to death.

    69. Re:Call your union rep by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How about the MSDS for the Luminiferous ether?

    70. Re:Call your union rep by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hey snapper head, a discussion about the flaws in logic or factual errors for a particular point of view is one thing, Catholic bashing is another. I find this comment offensive not because I'm catholic, which I'm not, but simply because hate on any level shouldn't be tolerated. And hey, Rush, if this is you posting again, stick to your talk show...

    71. Re:Call your union rep by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      With a skin cancer rate of 25% during a lifetime, there would need to be a hell of a lot of vitamin D deficiency related illnesses to counter the skin cancer rate, I think you need to check your tinfoil hat. Living there I can tell you that vitamin D deficiency is as rare as snow.

      PS: I thought you paranoid types didn't believe in the ozone hole.

    72. Re:Call your union rep by dbIII · · Score: 1

      an increase in vitamin D related conditions

      Oh really? Aren't such things so rare that another person per year suffering from such a condition is a major statictical blip? Where did your example come from? I'm sorry but I have to be blunt - is it real?

      the dangers of EMF radiation

      While there's a lot of mindless hype and misunderstanding about how intensity drops off very rapidly with distance it's a bit callous to pretend that those affected by very high intensity electromagnetic feilds were imagining it. A couple of improperly sheilded plastic seam welding machines in the US were responsible for a lot of miscarriages for instance and there have been incidents with radar and induction furnaces. If the field can get through an inch of steel your skin is not going to stop it. However, a short distance away it's going to blend into the low intensity stuff we get from the wiring in the walls. Some people get the idea that if you can see the wires you are too close, which is rubbish, but still I wouldn't live on the top floor of a place directly below 33kV power lines. Russinan and Japanese research gave some solid results (don't live close enough that your CFL bulbs can't turn off) but then hit US public relations (cancer is not possible) than an overly simplistic backlash to the PR (toxic terror from everything except puppies!).

    73. Re:Call your union rep by u38cg · · Score: 1

      Pfft. I was given detention for asserting the second law of thermodynamics.

      --
      [FUCK BETA]
    74. Re:Call your union rep by kyrio · · Score: 1

      Why do you have an x-ray machine in all of your rooms? Why do you have a microwave with no shielding in all of your rooms? Why do you have radios and TVs in all of your rooms? Why do you have fluorescent lights in all of your rooms? Why do you have airport radars [I don't even...] in all of your rooms? Why do you have high power transmission lines* in all of your rooms?

      Did your parents forget to turn the retard (the retard is you, just so you know) filter on tonight?

      *I was living behind high power transmission lines for 20 years - I'm much more intelligent and much healthier than any of my peers

    75. Re:Call your union rep by repapetilto · · Score: 1

      Noone thinks an existing load eliminates lesser radiation sources. It is a matter of percentage. If you want a real hypothesis (no idea if it has been tested), propose that our DNA is normally hardened to IR radiation by the UV light normally mixed in. Say something like that.

    76. Re:Call your union rep by karlandtanya · · Score: 2

      A standard 12oz 4 1/2" coke can would only have to mass 6E+27kg in order to be within its Schwartzchild radius.
      Of course, this sort of coke can can only exist in Soviet Russia.

      (yes, I did assume the horse was a sphere)

      --
      "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." - Philip K. Dick
    77. Re:Call your union rep by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The thin coating leaching into the beverage is what makes it healthy (ie: non-aluminized (is that even a word?) ) and delicious. Bottled pop doesn't taste the same - the plastics leaching into the beverage just don't add the right after taste.

    78. Re:Call your union rep by ilsaloving · · Score: 1

      ....corporate lie? Are you for real? We're talking about physics, not marketing.

      Perhaps if you provided, you know, evidence to support your claims instead of making hand wavy statements that make you sound like your tinfoil hat is on too tight, you may find yourself met with less derision.

    79. Re:Call your union rep by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's all about the Catholic perspective:

      1. Radio waves that pass harmlessly through your body = dangerous
      2. Omniscient deity that can read your mind and plant thoughts in your brain = safe (good, even!)

      Makes sense.

      3. Panscient deity that can read your mind and plant thoughts in your brain (from the other side) = unsafe (bad, even!)

      As such, according to Catholics, only power absolute is to be trusted

    80. Re:Call your union rep by Painted · · Score: 1

      I used to work as an in-school tech at a Junior High School, and to this day I remember being in the lunch room one day and hearing one of the teachers proudly comment on how they always waited a minute or two after microwaving food, so that the microwaves could "dissipate". This lead to a discussion of the 3 or 4 teachers around about what things worried them- with the emissions from the smokestacks of the local refineries being the winner after some discussion.

      Then one of them pipes up, no word of a lie, and says, "I hate when those smokestacks are billowing smoke out, but I hate it more when they're not- who knows* what they're emitting when you can't see it!"

      /facepalm

      --
      http://marsandmore.com - Posters of space, spacecraft, and astronomy.
    81. Re:Call your union rep by jsepeta · · Score: 1

      the teacher was right, if you're 4 feet tall and the pyramid in question is 1 foot tall.

      --
      Remember kids, if you're not paying for the service, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT THAT IS BEING SOLD.
    82. Re:Call your union rep by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm pretty sure you're slightly confused. It's true that unprotected aluminum naturally oxidizes. However, it quickly becomes coated with a thin layer of oxide which prevents further oxidation - unlike, say, iron, whose oxide flakes off and allows oxygen to penetrate deeper. Since the aluminum oxide coating is continuous, relatively impermeable, and durable, this normally isn't harmful; rather, it's beneficial (in fact, anodized aluminum is protected by a thick layer of this oxide, created by artificially accelerating the oxidation rate).

      While an uncoated aluminum can would normally oxidize, that isn't why aluminum cans are coated. Rather, they are coated because acidic liquids dissolve aluminum quite well. Filling an unprotected aluminum can with acidic beverage is like trying to carry gasoline in a Styrofoam cup.

      Aluminum oxide is, in fact, the compound which gemstones such as rubies and sapphires are made up of (the colors are imparted by trace impurities). It is insoluble, nonflammable, has a high melting point, and is ranked 9 on the Mohs hardness scale, directly below diamonds. Owing to its hardness, your most common encounter with aluminum oxide, other than the coating on aluminum objects, would be in the form of just about any abrasive - toothpaste, sandpaper, CD cleaning kits, etc.

    83. Re:Call your union rep by SockPuppetOfTheWeek · · Score: 1

      Well, she was technically correct - at some point the pyramid would be so far away that it would span less than the distance between your eyes. Then you could see all 4 corners (and 3 sides), although it would be too small to make out much detail at that distance. The curvature of the earth might also get in the way first.

      Not particularly useful, but still...

    84. Re:Call your union rep by lonecrow · · Score: 1

      Sorry I don't have a link but the power lines clusters appear to be caused by the power lines pulling in or trapping the surrounding pollution. I imagine it like dust on my monitor. So living near high voltage power lines is bad for you, just not directly because of the emf.

    85. Re:Call your union rep by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "I will bring them up with good education, critical thinking skills and a solid understanding of science and reasoning" -- just be sure your spouse is similarly intelligent, else welcome to the land of insane 'negotiations'/accommodations.

    86. Re:Call your union rep by SockPuppetOfTheWeek · · Score: 1

      Never mind - you were right. No matter how far away it is, the back of the pyramid will always span a smaller arc than the front of it, so it will always be obscured by the front.

    87. Re:Call your union rep by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 1

      If your kid came home with a note like that and I could afford it, I'd make you the same offer. You'd have won as a parent.

      --
      Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
    88. Re:Call your union rep by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As such, according to Catholics, only power absolute is to be trusted

      They only think that because it planted those thoughts in their heads. Personally, that makes me even more suspicious.

    89. Re:Call your union rep by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fear of germs irrational because we can't see them? Like witchcraft?

      All I know is that if there is someone with a cold typing away at their computer, and I go and use their keyboard to fix their computer, then I stupidly rub my eye or pick my nose without first washing my hands, I get a fucking cold.

      I guess maybe the cold was my hypochondriac mind playing tricks on me.

      Another story: I used to work at a Sonic Drive-In. If I made my lunch burger with the lettuce out of the bin that's been sitting out uncovered all day (what the customers get), then I have some runny bowel movements. If I take the time to grab handful (with clean hands) from the bag of lettuce stored in the fridge (what we fill the bin with), then I don't have runny bowel movements.

      Might be, I don't know, because a bunch of invisible germs have infested the bin lettuce... May have nothing to do with the guy on the prep station not washing his hands after handling his sweaty dick in the bathroom coming out and dipping his hand in the bin every minute.

      Nah, it's just irrational, like witchcraft, for me to think like that. Society seems to have no distinction between germophobe and germ-conscious.

      You're not the guy that worked that prep station are you?

    90. Re:Call your union rep by Fluffeh · · Score: 1

      First thing I look for in a woman :)

      --
      Moved to http://soylentnews.org/. You are invited to join us too!
    91. Re:Call your union rep by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nah, it's a scathing indictment of women in general. No man in his right mind would have two pairs of shoes of exactly the same style but different color.

    92. Re:Call your union rep by micheas · · Score: 1

      Having someone use agent orange in your back yard is a bigger risk to getting cancer though.(WTF were they thinking?)

    93. Re:Call your union rep by micheas · · Score: 1

      http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2007/12/08/1196813083745.html is a quick link that references studies that showed in the early 2000's very roughly 25% of Austrailians had issues due to depressed vitamin D.

      This was blamed almost entirely on the cover-up campaign. Further (and not mentioned in the article) the skin cancer rates barely budged.

  3. Remove all 2.4 GHz emitting devices by DeadSeaTrolls · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Take the microwaves out of the teacher's lounges.

    --

    "There's no scarcity of spectrum any more than there's a scarcity of the color green.", David Reed

    1. Re:Remove all 2.4 GHz emitting devices by RichMan · · Score: 4, Insightful

      - make them leave their cell phones in their cars

    2. Re:Remove all 2.4 GHz emitting devices by tripleevenfall · · Score: 0, Troll

      If you ask me, these computers are all giving us cancer too... of course, the corporatist plutocrats don't want you to know that.

      Back to pencils and paper in the classroom, if it were up to me...

    3. Re:Remove all 2.4 GHz emitting devices by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      How does someone use the phrase `corporatist plutocrats` and not get modded into oblivion? Is this person 12?

    4. Re:Remove all 2.4 GHz emitting devices by trolman · · Score: 1

      If you ask me, these computers are all giving us cancer too... of course, the corporatist plutocrats don't want you to know that.

      Back to pencils and paper in the classroom, if it were up to me...

      I think the old style chalk board is very bad for the lungs. Has the dust from cleaning erasers and general use caused lung problems? You know it has.

    5. Re:Remove all 2.4 GHz emitting devices by characterZer0 · · Score: 2

      Back to pencils and paper in the classroom, if it were up to me...

      Amen! I have been visiting potential schools to which to send send my eldest child next year. They all have weekly "computer" or "technology" sessions for the kindergarteners. I ask what they actually do in there, and the answer always boils down to "using education software to practice recognizing numbers, letters, and words that could be just as well done with paper and pencils but without the development of fine motor skills that you get with pencil and paper."

      Huge waste of time and money.

      --
      Go green: turn off your refrigerator.
    6. Re:Remove all 2.4 GHz emitting devices by 19thNervousBreakdown · · Score: 2

      You must know some 12-year-olds with exceptional vocabularies.

      --
      <xml><I><am><so><damn>Web 2.0</damn></so></am></I></xml>
    7. Re:Remove all 2.4 GHz emitting devices by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      How does someone use the phrase `corporatist plutocrats` and not get modded into oblivion?

      Something to do with 'sheeple', I'm sure.

    8. Re:Remove all 2.4 GHz emitting devices by MDMurphy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It doesn't matter if chalk dust causes lung problems, it appears to be enough if the 'safety of this technology has not thoroughly been researched'. The health effects of WiFi signals has more likely been much more heavily researched than graphite dust from pencils, dry-erase marker dust or the liquid that evaporates from them. For that matter any additional un-tested off-brand pens and markers brought in from students.

      I like the comments above from others. If the union is successful then also absolutely prohibit any teacher from bringing a mobile phone on to campus. Remove microwave ovens from the schools as well. If a 600mw WiFi radio on a ceiling is thought to be dangerous, then a powered up phone in a closed metal vehicle should be viewed as reckless. In keeping with standard school policies, a teacher with a powered on mobile phone anywhere on campus, including their cars, be subject to a zero-tolerance policy and result in immediate termination.

    9. Re:Remove all 2.4 GHz emitting devices by ThePeices · · Score: 4, Insightful

      hmm, you have not thought this through I see...

      Sure, the children are learning the same things, letters and numbers. But what pencils and paper do not teach is the use and familiarly of modern technology.

      We want children to grow up around the things that they will be using extensively for the rest of their lives. Insulating them from technology will not help them, it will cause more harm than good.

      Waste of time and money? Absolutely not.

    10. Re:Remove all 2.4 GHz emitting devices by AliasMarlowe · · Score: 2

      How does someone use the phrase `corporatist plutocrats` and not get modded into oblivion? Is this person 12?

      Just call them "running dogs of Wall Street" then.

      Maybe the Chinese have enough traditionalist shills here that it would be modded up, in aggregate.

      --
      Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
    11. Re:Remove all 2.4 GHz emitting devices by nschubach · · Score: 1

      We want them to be afraid of computers in case they (the computers, not the kids) decide to take over.

      --
      Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
    12. Re:Remove all 2.4 GHz emitting devices by blindseer · · Score: 1, Funny

      Make them leave their brains in their cars. ...

      Oh, it appears they already have.

      --
      I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
    13. Re:Remove all 2.4 GHz emitting devices by Nemyst · · Score: 1

      Except most don't have cars.

    14. Re:Remove all 2.4 GHz emitting devices by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Easier than that - turn off all radio and TV stations. Even when you're not using them, every single over-the-air radio station and TV channel is pelting your body with radio waves.

    15. Re:Remove all 2.4 GHz emitting devices by pentalive · · Score: 2

      There are companies that demand that you do not smoke, even in your own home on off hours. Perhaps this can be extended to cellphone use. No Canadian teacher may even own a cell phone, or associate with people who do.

    16. Re:Remove all 2.4 GHz emitting devices by skids · · Score: 1

      Maybe, but dry erase markers release VOCs, so you're damned either way.

    17. Re:Remove all 2.4 GHz emitting devices by dbIII · · Score: 1

      There's a mining company in my country that has done exactly that "in the interest of health and safety". I'm not sure if it's busywork to keep the numbers high in their little HR empire or if drug tests need to be applied to key HR staff as well.

    18. Re:Remove all 2.4 GHz emitting devices by characterZer0 · · Score: 1

      Is exposing kids to a program that they click on letters and numbers repeatedly really doing anything for them technology wise?

      Teaching typing once they can read is a good idea. Teaching programming once they have a basic understanding of math and logic is a good idea. Plopping them in front of a computer that has an animated frog reading them a story is no more than a half step up from plopping them in front of a television that has an animated frog reading them a story.

      --
      Go green: turn off your refrigerator.
    19. Re:Remove all 2.4 GHz emitting devices by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      I think the computers already took over. Once Facebook became such a huge time sink for the masses, I think we lost the fight.

      On another note, is that the proper spelling of sink in that usage?

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    20. Re:Remove all 2.4 GHz emitting devices by nschubach · · Score: 1

      On another note, is that the proper spelling of sink in that usage?

      Proper usage ;)

      --
      Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
  4. Not this shit again. by TheSpoom · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Do I really have to say more?

    --
    It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
    - E. Debs
    1. Re:Not this shit again. by Gideon+Wells · · Score: 2

      Tell me about it. At this rate we will "sufficiently studied" ourselves back to living in caves.

      --
      by Anonymous Coward: I, for one, welcome the shift from car analogies to pizza analogies. um.. overlords?
    2. Re:Not this shit again. by NIK282000 · · Score: 2

      This makes me ashamed to be Canadian. It makes us look like a bunch of morons who are afraid of the wireless ghosts of non-ionizing radiation. I have LED lights that put out more power then a wifi router AND at a higher frequency? Is my LED light going to give me cancer?

      --
      Dear aunt, let's set so double the killer delete select all
    3. Re:Not this shit again. by qxcv · · Score: 2

      This makes me ashamed to be Canadian. It makes us look like a bunch of morons who are afraid of the wireless ghosts of non-ionizing radiation.

      No, it makes the Ontario English Catholic Teacher's Association look like a bunch of morons who are afraid of the wireless ghosts of non-ionizing radiation. Don't feel too bad, every country has people who push for insane laws to assuage their equally insane fears and suspicions (usually under the pretense of "protecting the children").

      --
      "The most dangerous enemy of a better solution is an existing codebase that is just good enough." -- Eric S. Raymond
    4. Re:Not this shit again. by dexotaku · · Score: 1

      Well.... They ARE catholics.

  5. Microwave ovens haven't come to Ontario yet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Probably the same reason the word 'nuclear' (as in nucleus') has been dropped from 'MRI'.

    1. Re:Microwave ovens haven't come to Ontario yet? by seanellis · · Score: 3, Funny

      No, the real reason was what happens if you walk into a hospital and say you are there for an NMR (say it out loud, quickly).

  6. Well then... by mrbcs · · Score: 1
    Ban radios, cellphones, microwaves, wireless phones and anything else that generates radio frequencies.

    This is dumb beyond words. These are the people teaching our children? Could be fun in 20 years.

    --
    I'm not anti-social, I'm anti-idiot.
    1. Re:Well then... by paleo2002 · · Score: 1

      Better start living in underground bunkers to avoid EM radiation from the sun too . . .

    2. Re:Well then... by dittbub · · Score: 1

      In Canada's defense, these ARE Catholics we're talking about. They can be a bit silly everywhere.

    3. Re:Well then... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The neutrinos are still going to get you. Safety of these particles has not thoroughly been researched and therefore the precautionary principle and prudent avoidance of exposure should be practiced.

    4. Re:Well then... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Then you've got to worry about those nasty neutrinos...

    5. Re:Well then... by Nerdfest · · Score: 1

      In my opinion, this is not even the stupidest thing they've done. We also have race-based schools here now. Of course, being the favoured pets of the provincial premier (who's wife is teacher) have received very large wage increases in his time in office, even as the provinces finances are being flushed down the toilet.

    6. Re:Well then... by Korin43 · · Score: 2

      "we don't know if it is happening..."

      Sorry I think your argument is a few decades late. Care to update to the current, "We know it's happening, but doing something about it would be hard"?

    7. Re:Well then... by pseudofrog · · Score: 1

      Hi off-topic troll!

      Ask relevant scientists about global warming. Then ask relevant scientists about wifi causing health issues. You'll notice a difference.

      A 1,000 comment story involving global warming will pop up before too long. Let's leave this argument alone until then?

    8. Re:Well then... by hughJ · · Score: 3, Funny

      They should ban the ingesting of the Eucharist as the science is still not settled on the effects of transubstantiation.

    9. Re:Well then... by ThePeices · · Score: 1

      "we dont know if its happening"

      Are you wilfully ignorant, or just a few decades behind the ball here?

    10. Re:Well then... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think the question regarding climate change is how much of it is human caused. _ (posting AC since I used mod points upstream)

    11. Re:Well then... by gewalker · · Score: 2

      I never noticed that Catholic teachers are any dumber that the average teacher, in fact they typically do a better job than public (government) schools. When Jay Leno goes jaywalking, teachers frequently give the dumbest answers of anyone.The teaching profession in the USA draws from the worst of the college bound crowd. I'm not Catholic, never went to Catholic schools, but I know non-Catholics sending their kids to Catholic schools simply to get a better education for their kids.

      Catholics hold any number of silly views, fear of EM radiation does not appear to be a particularly Catholic viewpoint.

    12. Re:Well then... by dittbub · · Score: 1

      you've cured my bigotry!

    13. Re:Well then... by Dzimas · · Score: 1

      Let's ban 60 Hz AC power, too. I hear it can be lethal.

    14. Re:Well then... by tomhudson · · Score: 1

      These are public schools, not private. Do you really believe that a private Catholic Teacher's Union would have a button for LGBTTIQ inclusivity (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual, Transgender, Intersex, and Queer) on their portal page? Even in Kanuckistan?

    15. Re:Well then... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think they tried that. It turns out that the dangers of Vitamin D deficiency are worse than the dangers of EM radiation from the sun.

      dom

    16. Re:Well then... by DeathFromSomewhere · · Score: 1

      Ah conspiracy theories... the lazy mans excuse to convince yourself you "won" an argument.

      --
      -1 overrated isn't the same thing as "I disagree".
  7. Actually sounds reasonable by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I haven't read the article, but if it's about doing it hardwired rather than WiFi, and if it doesn't severely inconvenience anyone, why not? I don't currently agree that it's harmful by the way.

    About students who may be inconvenienced by this, well, not much can be done aside from perhaps having network cords readibly accessible in common areas where laptops are used.

    1. Re:Actually sounds reasonable by ThePeices · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Why not?

      Because it is pandering to a false belief (that wifi harms people), and its one that *has* been thoroughly researched, unlike what was stated in the article and summary.

      It is a dangerous thing to fold and let this pass, because irrational opponents to radio waves will point to this case to further their fear-based opposition.
      You cant just let them win because its "too hard" fighting irrational beliefs, you have to educate people about the facts so they are not afraid of things they don't understand properly. You have to show everyone that these people are wrong, why they are wrong, and why it is a bad thing to allow such wrongness to win.

    2. Re:Actually sounds reasonable by swalve · · Score: 1

      The inconvenience is that it perpetuates ignorance.

    3. Re:Actually sounds reasonable by qxcv · · Score: 2

      You have to show everyone that these people are wrong, why they are wrong, and why it is a bad thing to allow such wrongness to win.

      Obligatory XKCD

      --
      "The most dangerous enemy of a better solution is an existing codebase that is just good enough." -- Eric S. Raymond
    4. Re:Actually sounds reasonable by DarwinSurvivor · · Score: 1

      Why not?

      Because it is pandering to a false belief (that wifi harms people).

      You do know which group we are talking about here don't you?

    5. Re:Actually sounds reasonable by ThePeices · · Score: 1

      Yes, that would be the group of people who are trying to get rid of wifi because they believe that wifi harms them. That belief is false. Hence my statement about not caving in and allowing wifi to be abolished based purely upon a false belief.

    6. Re:Actually sounds reasonable by Falconhell · · Score: 1

      And lets see how many things has research decided are safe, only to find long term effects that are not obvious, WiFi ha s not been arouind for long enough to draw the conclusions that some here are so sure about. I mean havent you heard, scientists can be easily corrupted by money to reach any conclusion (Well according to the fruity loop AGW deniers) .

      I work in a school and am still nowhere near as convinced of the saftey for small children as a lot of people here.

      Whilst I am not certain i do think its probably harmeless, but there simply has not been enough time to support the rabid posts calling these people fools.

    7. Re:Actually sounds reasonable by ravenshrike · · Score: 1

      This would only be obligatory if the union had formed in Second Life and was demanding these safety measures for their virtual characters.

    8. Re:Actually sounds reasonable by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If we can't convince them that the world is older than 8000 years, good luck "educating" them about electro magnetic radiation.

    9. Re:Actually sounds reasonable by DarwinSurvivor · · Score: 1

      Actually, I was refering to the "catholic" part.

  8. Has the safety of wired networks been researched? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If we removed everything that was not proven to be safe for kids, the classrooms would be empty.

    --AC

  9. Chair ban by 0dugo0 · · Score: 1

    What about the safety of chairs, has that been thoroughly researched? No, and therefore the precautionary principle and prudent avoidance of exposure to sitting on your ass 6 hours a day should be practiced.

    1. Re:Chair ban by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      It has been researched quite a lot, and it's been found (unlike wi-fi) to be harmful.

    2. Re:Chair ban by vlm · · Score: 1

      What about the safety of chairs, has that been thoroughly researched? No, and therefore the precautionary principle and prudent avoidance of exposure to sitting on your ass 6 hours a day should be practiced.

      How about "for most of human evolutionary history, clothes have not been worn, and we know for a fact clothing spreads germs and head lice and athletes foot. Therefore we must think of the children and not allow the wearing of clothing in our schools. Heating bills will probably 'perk up' a bit, but..."

      --
      "Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
    3. Re:Chair ban by nschubach · · Score: 1

      Another way to prevent athlete's foot is to remove the feet. Head lice is simple too: remove the h...air.

      --
      Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
  10. Re:Stupid Bitter Americans by dittbub · · Score: 1

    You sound bitter

  11. Not thoroughly researched? That's precious. by jaskelling · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So a Catholic teacher's association is complaining that something isn't fully scientifically researched, documented, and proven? A CATHOLIC association? Galileo Galilei is laughing in his grave right now.

    1. Re:Not thoroughly researched? That's precious. by bazmail · · Score: 0, Troll

      Damn straight. Catholics don't have the right to say anything about anything!!!! Light your pitchforks brethren!!!!!

    2. Re:Not thoroughly researched? That's precious. by will_die · · Score: 1

      You should do some research on Galileo he got in trouble with the scientists of his day because he was saying to throw out the teachings of Aristotle and go with some that "isn't fully scientifically researched, documented, and proven".

    3. Re:Not thoroughly researched? That's precious. by Lev13than · · Score: 5, Informative

      Oh, it gets better.

      In Ontario, Catholic schools are 100% fully-funded public institutions running in parallel with the secular public schools. It's nice to know that my tax dollars are being used to teach kids that gay=bad, safe sex=evil and wifi=devil.

      Other provinces have joined the 21st Century and de-funded religious schools, but all of the political parties in Ontario are too chicken-shit to do the right thing.

      --
      When you have nothing left to burn you must set yourself on fire
    4. Re:Not thoroughly researched? That's precious. by Godai · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Okay, I know its not fun to hear, but what you think you know about Galileo & the church is more complicated and less fun. From Wikipedia:

      Earlier, Pope Urban VIII had personally asked Galileo to give arguments for and against heliocentrism in the book, and to be careful not to advocate heliocentrism. He made another request, that his own views on the matter be included in Galileo's book. Only the latter of those requests was fulfilled by Galileo. Whether unknowingly or deliberately, Simplicio, the defender of the Aristotelian Geocentric view in Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, was often caught in his own errors and sometimes came across as a fool. Indeed, although Galileo states in the preface of his book that the character is named after a famous Aristotelian philosopher (Simplicius in Latin, Simplicio in Italian), the name "Simplicio" in Italian also has the connotation of "simpleton".[55] This portrayal of Simplicio made Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems appear as an advocacy book: an attack on Aristotelian geocentrism and defence of the Copernican theory. Unfortunately for his relationship with the Pope, Galileo put the words of Urban VIII into the mouth of Simplicio. Most historians agree Galileo did not act out of malice and felt blindsided by the reaction to his book.[56] However, the Pope did not take the suspected public ridicule lightly, nor the Copernican advocacy. Galileo had alienated one of his biggest and most powerful supporters, the Pope, and was called to Rome to defend his writings.

      So while, yes, the Church did lock him up and heliocentrism was at the center of it, it was more about Galileo being stupid in how he wrote his book & the hurt feelings of a powerful man (the Pope). Frankly, no one looked good in that mess. The church was actually one of the biggest sponsors of science back then, something that rarely gets recognized because its so much more fun to set it up as religion vs. science, as if they've been in a death struggle since the beginning of time.

      --
      Wood Shavings!
      - Godai
    5. Re:Not thoroughly researched? That's precious. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Intelligent, progressive (and CORRECT) individuals persecuted by butt-hurt religious lunatics? That NEVER happens!

    6. Re:Not thoroughly researched? That's precious. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's worth noting that Catholics are the only separate schools in Ontario that get special treatments. Jewish, other Christian, Muslim, private secular schools etc... receive $0 funding.

    7. Re:Not thoroughly researched? That's precious. by innocent_white_lamb · · Score: 1

      Catholic schools (unlike any other religious school) have a constitutional right to taxpayer funding in Canada.

      --
      If you're a zombie and you know it, bite your friend!
    8. Re:Not thoroughly researched? That's precious. by ThePeices · · Score: 2

      Damn straight. Catholics don't have the right to say anything about anything!!!! Light your pitchforks brethren!!!!!

      Excellent knee-jerk reactionary response! 7/10.

      The OP was just showing how hypocritical Catholics are about the requirement for supporting evidence for the belief that WiFi harms people.

      The hypocrisy should be pretty apparent to non-religious people.

    9. Re:Not thoroughly researched? That's precious. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Like a lot of things wrong here, you can thank the Quebecois for that.

    10. Re:Not thoroughly researched? That's precious. by nschubach · · Score: 3, Insightful

      What the... are you some crazed lunatic trying to attack religion? You religion hating bigot!! Why can't you let the religious be?

      *smacks self across face*

      Oh. Sorry, I almost fell into the trap that's being played out here in the US when someone mentions removing "God" from the dollar/pledge.

      --
      Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
    11. Re:Not thoroughly researched? That's precious. by mirix · · Score: 1

      Well, sort of. Some archaic shit said that the largest minority gets it's own publicly funded school. I think there are a few very small protestant public school boards here and there, but generally they are catholic, as there are more protestants, generally - not sure what goes on in quebec.

      dumb as hell and needs to be dropped, though. if you want god in your school, you pay for it.

      --
      Sent from my PDP-11
    12. Re:Not thoroughly researched? That's precious. by dissy · · Score: 0

      It's nice to know that my tax dollars are being used to teach kids that gay=bad, safe sex=evil and wifi=devil.

      That sounds like the answer to the problem!

      These people are stating that RF signals can cause health problems, and demanding RF be blocked from entering the building.

      The only way to block WiFi, and all equal RF signals, is to remove all transmitters from the building, install faraday shielding in the walls, and remove all existing ethernet and coax wiring (It's the same RF in those cables as comes from an antenna after all)

      Additional funding would be required for law enforcement officers to catch and to press 'health endangerment' charges against anyone who enters the building with a cell phone, tablet, or laptop with wifi, cellular, or bluetooth capabilities. Including the parents and staff.

      Present the bill for all of that as a tax increase that is required to meet their demand.
      Watch the request get dropped when no one wants to pay their share of the multi-million dollar refit to comply with the request, on top of the inconvenience it will cause.

      Of course expecting these people to understand that "One of these things is just like the other" is expecting quite a lot, I know...

    13. Re:Not thoroughly researched? That's precious. by mirix · · Score: 1

      Ignoring all the problems with it being catholic - it's bad even on an efficiency scale, ignoring religion.
      Damn near everywhere in my city, instead of building one large public school, they build two small schools, one of each. Then there are two publically funded boards, all with redundant structures, from grounds maintenance, to book/curiculum planners/editors, etc. Stupid as hell.

      Some other weird things... When I was a kid, only catholic schools had french, so if you wanted your kids to learn french, the logic must follow you want them to be catholic.
      Only kids in french immersion got taxpayer funded bus service. Students in english classes (at the catholic or at a public school) had to walk. I never figured that one out. O_o

      --
      Sent from my PDP-11
    14. Re:Not thoroughly researched? That's precious. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      Where's the hypocrisy? I missed that part. The Catholic Church, specifically Catholics, started many of the hospitals we have today. The Mayo Clinic started as St. Mary's and was financed by a nun collecting money. The Church started the university system. The "Big Bang" was first describe by a Catholic monk. Genetics was first explored by a Catholic priest. There are many more examples where the Church not only allowed scientific exploration, but encouraged it.

      I guess I just don't see the hypocrisy except from people like you who don't know history. Yes, Catholic believe sex is for procreation (how that affects this argument, I don't know) and, yes, Catholics respect life. I guess it's just easier to live with your 16th Century view of what Catholicism it than read what is actually true.

    15. Re:Not thoroughly researched? That's precious. by Gramie2 · · Score: 1

      It's also worth noting that the Catholic school system in Ontario represent almost 1/3 of all the students. Students in other separate schools are much, much smaller numbers. Why do we get Christmas as a holiday instead of Naw-Ruz (Zoroastrianism)? Sometimes a large minority is treated differently from a small one.

    16. Re:Not thoroughly researched? That's precious. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So while, yes, the Church did lock him up and heliocentrism was at the center of it, it was more about Galileo being stupid in how he wrote his book & the hurt feelings of a powerful man (the Pope). Frankly, no one looked good in that mess.

      Galileo looked good in it. Hurting a man's feelings is nothing compared to that overreaction.

    17. Re:Not thoroughly researched? That's precious. by PJ6 · · Score: 1

      My kingdom, for a mod point.

    18. Re:Not thoroughly researched? That's precious. by Hatta · · Score: 2

      Sounds like it's time to amend the Canadian Constitution.

      --
      Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
    19. Re:Not thoroughly researched? That's precious. by swalve · · Score: 1

      Can't speak for Ontario, or really any other school, but I went to a Catholic high school in the US, and was taught basically none of that. Never heard any of that in church, either. Modern Catholics are more about encouraging the positive than preaching about the negative.

    20. Re:Not thoroughly researched? That's precious. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So Galileo was funded to do some research and come up with a certain result, but came up with a different result instead, and so he was punished? Parallels with modern environmental research, perhaps...

    21. Re:Not thoroughly researched? That's precious. by ravenshrike · · Score: 1

      Gally boy only got in trouble because he was an asshole, NOT because of his science. I'll note he had his head stuck firmly up his ass when it came to comets and his treatment of Grassi was a big part of the reason none of the other astronomers of the day backed him against the papal inquisition.

    22. Re:Not thoroughly researched? That's precious. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Would this be the same church that protects priests who 'like' Children?

    23. Re:Not thoroughly researched? That's precious. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Catholic schools (unlike any other religious school) have a constitutional right to taxpayer funding in Canada.

      Not quite. For historical reasons and because education is an exclusively provincial jurisdiction, this varies by province/territory. It is true in Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Northwest Territories, Yukon, and Nunavut.

      Manitoba got rid of its Catholic school system in the 1890’s. British Columbia never had a separate Catholic school system. I don’t think that New Brunswick or Nova Scotia ever did either (but I could be wrong about those). Once upon a time, Newfoundland had three separate school systems based on religion – I don’t know how long ago they merged them. And Québec de-secularized and merged its Catholic and Protestant school systems round about the time they were bringing in their language laws sometime in the 1970’s.

    24. Re:Not thoroughly researched? That's precious. by Tim+C · · Score: 2

      The hypocrisy, of course, is that we're meant to accept their God on faith (i.e. without evidence), while they demand evidence of the safety wifi.

    25. Re:Not thoroughly researched? That's precious. by paxcoder · · Score: 1

      Funny you should say that, because as far as I understood the story, it was Gallileo who was sloppy in his research, and precisely because of that was he unable to convince the court. If so, this post is, along with its upvoters, an epic fail.

    26. Re:Not thoroughly researched? That's precious. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Perhaps because just by being Catholic, they adhere to something that is not only potentially dangerous, but has been dangerous, is not sufficiently studied, and cannot ever be actually studied. So.. to call out Wifi for being not sufficiently studied, when their entire view on life is based on something not sufficiently studied is perhaps just a tiny goddamn bit hypocritical. Actually.. they can call it out, I suppose, without actually being hypocritical. But to call for its removal is definitely into the realm of hypocrisy. Not that they, or most people really, will care.

    27. Re:Not thoroughly researched? That's precious. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      it relates back to when the british and french were settling their disputes, because of the abundance of english speakers in ontario anglican schools were predominant and the french were worried that catholic schools would be left to the way side, similarily, quebec had a predominantly catholic school system and the english were worried that anglican schools would be neglected in quebec, so then they made an agreement that ontario was to fund catholic schools and quebec anglican ones, much has changed, but that catholic school board in Ontario still remains one of the best school boards anywhere

    28. Re:Not thoroughly researched? That's precious. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Stop exaggerating the truth.

      YOUR tax dollars don't go to the Catholic School Board.
      On your tax form you have to specify that you are catholic and want the school funding portion of your taxes to go to the Catholic board, not the public board.
      If it's not specified it goes to the public schools.
      You know - the public schools that allow Muslims to bring in an Imam (or whatever) and turn the cafeteria into a mosque on Fridays and make all the muslim girls sit behind the muslim boys. Unless they are on their period in which case they aren't allowed in at all.
      Your tax dollars DO fund that.

    29. Re:Not thoroughly researched? That's precious. by Godai · · Score: 1

      True, but despite what the Wikipedia says about 'most historians', I've read several accounts that he was actually kind of an asshole (I think, for example, he refused to acknowledge some of Kepler's stuff? Something like that, whoever it was, it was mostly out of jealousy) and the Simplicio thing was on purpose. If so, while he didn't deserve the result (it was overkill), he certainly provoked the response. If it was an innocent mistake, sure, but there's some dispute about whether an 'innocent mistake' is in keeping with his character.

      At any rate, the upshot is that the whole "Galileo is a great example of the church & science being on opposite sides" is a misleading interpretation of the events.

      --
      Wood Shavings!
      - Godai
    30. Re:Not thoroughly researched? That's precious. by Godai · · Score: 1

      You're missing the point. The 'religious lunatics' part is irrelevant. Powerful person's hurt feelings is the relevant part. If he'd been imprisoned by the King of France for the same thing, no one would be saying the French are against science today.

      --
      Wood Shavings!
      - Godai
    31. Re:Not thoroughly researched? That's precious. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sounds like it's time to amend the Canadian Constitution.

      Which is what it would take to get rid of catholic schools in Ontario as they are guaranteed for that province in that document.

    32. Re:Not thoroughly researched? That's precious. by Lev13than · · Score: 1

      The box you check determines what trustee you vote for, not where your tax dollars go. School funding is based purely on enrollment, and Catholics get the same $/student as public. Back under the bridge for you

      --
      When you have nothing left to burn you must set yourself on fire
    33. Re:Not thoroughly researched? That's precious. by alexo · · Score: 1

      It's also worth noting that the Catholic school system in Ontario represent almost 1/3 of all the students. Students in other separate schools are much, much smaller numbers.

      I think you are confusing cause and effect. Maybe the enrolment in other separate schools is so much lower because they receive no government funding and have to charge charge mucho dinero.

  12. What by p0p0 · · Score: 2

    What the fuck is happening to my country? This is the kind of fear mongering and ignorance I'd expect from the American deep south but not in my own backyard.

    Am I going completely mad?

    1. Re:What by 19thNervousBreakdown · · Score: 3, Insightful

      If you thought fear-mongering and ignorance were exclusive to the American deep south and are now on the verge of changing your mind, then no, you're not going mad, you're going sane.

      I doubt it'll be any more pleasant than the alternative though.

      --
      <xml><I><am><so><damn>Web 2.0</damn></so></am></I></xml>
    2. Re:What by ThePeices · · Score: 1

      Am I going completely mad?

      Unfortunately, you are not going mad.

    3. Re:What by wrook · · Score: 1

      I'm a Canadian who has lived in the American deep south (and a number of other places to boot). What you are missing is that the people of the American deep south, as people, are virtually indistinguishable from the people of Canada. Indeed, people all over are pretty much the same. You are allowing geographical distance, minor differences in culture and stereotyped misinformation to fuel your own ignorance. In fact, if it weren't assumed that you were a WASP and the people you are talking about were WASPs, someone would have undoubtedly called your statement bigoted long before now.

      I don't point this out to try to shame you. I hope that it will make you think about how easy it is for humans to be ignorant. We tend to gloss over details, especially when "everyone" is saying the same thing. It's easy to jump to the wrong conclusion, and even strenuously hold beliefs that are completely (and obviously, from someone else's perspective) wrong. That's being human. I think that you will find that even the deepest thinker makes this mistake from time to time. Even more frustrating is that we often don't realize it is a mistake, even when it is pointed out to us.

      The only productive thing I know to do in this case is to patiently try to explain the situation while realizing that you will only be successful occasionally.

  13. Precautionary principle? Really? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    the safety of this technology has not thoroughly been researched and therefore the precautionary principle and prudent avoidance of exposure should be practiced

    Last I heard, it had been. Maybe they do not feel the testing has been sufficient, in which case, do they provide clear criteria for what they consider sufficient testing of Wi-Fi, and why they feel it is currently insufficient? Otherwise, their position cannot be falsified. Teachers who would cite the nonsense that is the 'precautionary principle,' which completely disregards the importance of falsifiability, should not be teachers. And I wonder how many of them have cell phones.

  14. Two stories by vlm · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There's two stories here.

    The 1st one is the exoteric "I'm scared of technology" FUD that frankly works pretty well.

    The 2nd one is the esoteric and totally unpopular "I'm sick of kids playing angry birds in class" and "I'm sick of my boss (principal) and/or family and friends IMing me stupid distracting stuff while I'm trying to teach a class" and "I'm sick of the boss using this to track my every digital action and create utterly meaningless dilbertian machine generated metrics to evaluate me on instead of doing real human observation evals" and "I'm sick of square peg / round hole the silver bullet to all educational problems is just add more internet"

    I send my kids to a recently wifi'd school and also have some teacher relatives and option 2 is the reason why they use option 1 as a weapon against wifi.

    See, option 1 works and thats all they care about in a "ends justify the means" scenario. If blaming witchcraft or the spread of communism on wifi worked better, they'd be trying that angle instead.

    --
    "Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
    1. Re:Two stories by MozeeToby · · Score: 1

      If a teacher can't identify and punish people using their devices in class something is seriously wrong. Either they're lazy, or their class sizes are much to large, or there is a problem with the administrative and parenting levels not backing them up. Like most things, it's a learning experience, kids should learn not to pull out their smartphone when they should be paying attention, and if that means having said phone confiscated for the day/week/month (1st, 2nd, and 3rd strike respectively) they'll learn pretty dang fast. Of course, that would require parents to back up said teachers instead of driving the wambulance to the principle's office because the mean teacher yelled at 'little' (16 year old) Jimmy in front of his friends.

    2. Re:Two stories by Anne_Nonymous · · Score: 1

      3rd story is "The administration is being a PITA, so I'm going to retaliate."

    3. Re:Two stories by vlm · · Score: 1

      If a teacher can't identify and punish people using their devices in class something is seriously wrong ... their class sizes are much to large

      Hmm whats the cheapest way to solve this problem. Hire double the number of teachers which at current admin:teacher ratios means hiring double the number of admin personnel in addition, or ... unplug the wifi that serves little educational purpose anyway...

      --
      "Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
    4. Re:Two stories by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Angry Birds doesn't require WiFi... but I guess that stems from the 1st point, they don't understand the tech.

    5. Re:Two stories by medv4380 · · Score: 1

      Hard to tell if you're right. Option 1 keeps coming up and they always sound crazy. The only story about this that I believe might possibly be true is a community of people that moved out to the middle of no where to get away from wi-fi. I only might believe them because that's the only thing that would work if they were "allergic" to wi-fi.

    6. Re:Two stories by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Then they can come right out and say that they wish to ban wifi because it has no use in the class or can be used to play around.

    7. Re:Two stories by MozeeToby · · Score: 2, Insightful

      What you've basically just said is that a teachers have too many kids in their class rooms to make eye contact with each one of them every 2-3 minutes, which is all it takes to tell if a student isn't paying attention and once you know that it's pretty easy to figure out why. If that's the case, doubling the number of teachers isn't just going to solve the 'wifi problem', it's going to improve education as well.

      My point is, WiFi isn't the problem. The problem is kids not knowing how to behave respectfully and parents and teachers not knowing how to make kids behave respectfully. The solution to that problem isn't to get rid of WiFi so that a certain small percentage of students will have to find a different way to not pay attention. The solution is to teach the damn kids to listen to the teacher. That takes, first and foremost, constructive parental involvement; but since that doesn't seem to be an option these days giving the teachers the tools they need to run finishing school as well as a high school, including smaller class sizes, seams like a viable alternative.

    8. Re:Two stories by vlm · · Score: 3, Informative

      3rd story is "The administration is being a PITA, so I'm going to retaliate."

      I have relatives in the system, so I don't know if I'm skirting either a legal or cultural privacy violation, but I know of at least one situation where the union is fighting management with all they got up to and including RF exposure FUD because management and/or IT busted a teacher for unplugging an access point because kids were screwing around online instead of paying attention to her, and that results in trouble tickets and eventually trumped up accusations of "hacking IT hardware" or "intentional vandalism of school property" or however its exactly phrased. And accusations that she should have been "working harder" to police the kids, and countered with she should be able to control her classroom environment just as she's "permitted" by mgmt to control the room lights (oh how nice of them). Then add in the usual corruption, where a young hot single opposite sex of the principal teacher was not busted for doing the exact same thing, whereas the victim is, as you'd expect, the exact opposite demographic and was busted. And the race card has been released, also. Which is probably too much detail, perhaps pinpointing the exact legal case I'm talking about. So we'll stop there.

      My electrical engineering response was that teacher was an idiot for playing with the connectors and cables, should have just wrapped the antenna in tinfoil or bought a wifi jammer off deal extreme or ebay.

      Wifi is something that can be controlled... can be controlled in many ways, by many different people. Therefore a workplace with terminally poisonous control issues, is going to fight viciously over it as if its the most important thing to ever exist. Its like a hyper violent military battle over some ugly little plot of grassland... no one cares about the plot of land as merely a plot of land, its just an excuse for both sides to draw as much blood as possible.

      --
      "Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
    9. Re:Two stories by halivar · · Score: 1

      I'm not embarrassed to say that I only knew what "exoteric" meant because it was Dictionary.com's word-of-the-day.

    10. Re:Two stories by vlm · · Score: 1

      Then they can come right out and say that they wish to ban wifi because it has no use in the class or can be used to play around.

      That's politically incorrect if someone important came out in public support in the recent past. This cannot be shut off without important heads rolling or at least being embarrassed. Therefore it cannot be shut off as long as the important heads remain in power. You have to wait for them to move up or out, then the new guy can come in, say "WTF is this idiocy" and shut it off. This behavior pattern is hardly limited to wifi deployments at schools...

      --
      "Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
    11. Re:Two stories by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wifi != cellular. And Angry Birds works fine without either.

      Plus, they were actually asking for the schools to all be hardwired, not "de-networked". That really wouldn't solve any of those problems you bring up. This case is in fact mostly reason #1...

    12. Re:Two stories by vlm · · Score: 1

      What you've basically just said is that a teachers have too many kids in their class rooms to make eye contact with each one of them every 2-3 minutes, which is all it takes to tell if a student isn't paying attention and once you know that it's pretty easy to figure out why.

      There are also other issues. A central teaching of schools is authoritarianism. The same thinking pattern you propose WRT to distraction potential of hotties in short skirts simply gets short skirts banned in school. Distracting (cool) tee shirts, simply gets those shirts banned in school. Ditto the pants hanging down to the knees, etc.

      The whole point of that part of schooling is to indoctrinate a worldview where if its not compulsory its forbidden and if its not forbidden its compulsory. Wifi must either be used in class or must be banned in class. If it can't be used for whatever reason then it must be utterly banished. This "case by case judgment" stuff smacks of independent thought and must not be implemented.

      A half way solution is to hire more teachers to crack down on misuse of wifi. The full solution, which is considerably cheaper, and better fits educational philosophy, is to unplug the wifi. I was suggesting hiring more teachers as a joke, because its not as good of a solution and is impossibly expensive anyway.

      --
      "Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
    13. Re:Two stories by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The problem is that these "rational" negotiation tactics are creating irrational fear and panic about radio waves. And fear, like wifi, can be controlled... can be controlled in many ways, by many different people...

    14. Re:Two stories by wrook · · Score: 1

      If I teacher can't identify a student using their cellphone (or whatever), then that student is obviously not causing a problem in the class. You can't force students to pay attention. There were some crazy ideas back in the 70s to paper over all the windows so that students wouldn't get distracted by things outside the class. We now know that is complete nonsense.

      I'm a teacher. If I notice a student using a cellphone, I ask them to put it away. Sometimes the student says, "I'm just looking up a word in my dictionary". Well, school policy says they aren't allowed to use a cellphone for that. That's bollocks. Go ahead and look up the word (ha ha! One day I'll get in trouble for that!) If the student is texting or playing a game and refuses to put it away, I'll talk to them after. Usually I ask them what I can do to improve the class so that they feel like paying atention. I explain that I spend an inordinate amount of time trying to make class interesting for them and that it's disrespectful simply to ignore it. They don't have to like it, but if they don't, they are expected to improve it. I've never had a student fail to understand this.

      School isn't jail. We don't have to treat students like criminals.

    15. Re:Two stories by TheRealGrogan · · Score: 1

      You sure sound like you are a good teacher. The kind of teacher I liked when I was a lad in school.

      More like this guy, please. Our children need to be allowed to grow and be resourceful, not be taught to be obedient little tools with bland, dictated text book knowledge. Having WiFi (with some discipline) can improve their education.

  15. I'm Surprised by JBMcB · · Score: 4, Funny

    They didn't also require AC receptacle plug covers installed so electricity doesn't leak out of the wall sockets and give everyone cancer.

    --
    My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
    1. Re:I'm Surprised by uvajed_ekil · · Score: 1

      They didn't also require AC receptacle plug covers installed so electricity doesn't leak out of the wall sockets and give everyone cancer.

      On behalf of Ontario Catholic teachers, thank's for the heads-up, eh. That will make the list, right after the ban on rooves over all schools, as they have been known to collapse without warning and kill children.

      --
      This is a hacked account, for which the owner can not be held responsible.
  16. Excellent!!! by bazmail · · Score: 1

    Greate excuse for some defensible religion hate..... Almost therapeutic.

  17. What's next? by acidradio · · Score: 1

    Next they will be against forms of birth control. Oh, wait...

  18. Re:Precautionary principle? Really? by stevew · · Score: 0

    No - of course they don't define what is "adequate" research, likely anything that agrees with their own narrative. The facts are that the research IS ambiguous. There are likely just as many studies that say it is bad as there are saying it's benign.

    --
    Have you compiled your kernel today??
  19. The "Precautionary Principle" by JSBiff · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Honestly, I think it's time to re-evaluate the usefullness and legitimacy of the "Precautionary Principle". Over and over it's being invoke to deprive people of a known, verifiable *benefit*, in the name of unknown, unverified "dangers" - essentially "We know WiFi/whatever provides a benefit; but *someone* has made the unfounded, not supported by the evidence claim that there might be some risk of health problems, so let's deny people the known benefits in order to avoid unknown risks.

    As far as WiFi - it's not like it's brand new and untested. It's been around for over 10 years now. Wouldn't we have seen (or be starting to see) any problems by now?

    1. Re:The "Precautionary Principle" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      What's the benefit of WiFi in school?

    2. Re:The "Precautionary Principle" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      One, there doesn't appear to be much benefit in setting up schools with wi-fi.
      Two, it can take a long time for health problems to show up. Cancer from smoking, for example, can take decades. Ten years is a drop in the bucket. If there are health side-effects from wi-fi (and I'm not saying there will be) it could take a generation for them to manifest.

    3. Re:The "Precautionary Principle" by couchslug · · Score: 4, Funny

      "Honestly, I think it's time to re-evaluate the usefullness and legitimacy of the "Precautionary Principle"."

      Let's play safe and keep it instead. Think of the children.

      --
      "This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
    4. Re:The "Precautionary Principle" by PapayaSF · · Score: 2

      Come to think of it, have we fully examined whether the benefits of teachers' unions outweigh the costs? Based on the Precautionary Principle, perhaps we should ban them until more research is done.

      --
      Q: What does the "B." in Benoit B. Mandelbrot stand for? A: Benoit B. Mandelbrot
    5. Re:The "Precautionary Principle" by seifried · · Score: 1

      Cheaper than running physical cable to each machine. One AP can service multiple systems easily.

  20. Unknown dangers of cords by Nidi62 · · Score: 2

    This union should be ashamed of themselves. Don't they realize the threat of all these cords that they are proposing? People could trip over them, or get wrapped up and asphyxiated with them. Won't they think of the children? All it takes is one little accident, and a little kid won't be going home to their parents. Maybe it's just safer not to have any computers in the classroom at all.

    --
    The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
  21. Ontario? by Fujisawa+Sensei · · Score: 2, Funny

    I would expect this from Alberta, but Ontario?

    --
    If someone is passing you on the right, you are an asshole for driving in the wrong lane.
    1. Re:Ontario? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I was born and raised in Alberta and now live in Ontario, and I kind of resent these kind of stereotypes.

      Ontario is by and large, far my conservative (small c) than Alberta. They're also vastly more nanny-state-ish and bureaucratic than Alberta. I also strongly believe that the school system, both grade school and post-secondary, is much stronger in Alberta. I've been to the U of Alberta and multiple Ontario Universities, and coming to Ontario felt like enrolling in clown college.

      Albertans are overwhelmingly a down-to-earth, tough, hard-ball people. Ontarians are a socialist, whiny, entitlement-minded and dull bunch by comparison. Albertans take charge of their own destinies, and Ontarians whine to their governments to magically solve problems for them.

      I do think this story is more suited to Ontario culture. Truly.

    2. Re:Ontario? by compro01 · · Score: 1

      Did you miss the last election's results? Ontario is only a couple shades lighter blue than Alberta. And the provincial liberals only formed the government by a pretty fine margin.

      --
      upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
    3. Re:Ontario? by benzaholic · · Score: 2

      "I was born and raised in Alberta and now live in Ontario, and I kind of resent these kind of stereotypes." Wow. It's a good thing you didn't invoke stereotypes, too.

    4. Re:Ontario? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Except the people I know in Alberta seem to consider the vast majority of people there nothing but rednecks and shit-kickers.

      So Alberta is earning its reputation.

    5. Re:Ontario? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hooray for more redneck assholes moving to Ontario.

  22. Re:Remove all 2.45 GHz emitting devices by trolman · · Score: 1

    Take the microwaves out of the teacher's lounges.

    This would also eliminate a potential source of interference. Less things for IT to go chasing around.

  23. Full retard by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's sad to see so many grown adults gone full retard with no ability to think out things logically at all.

  24. This Could Become A Teaching Moment... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Lesson One - How To Create A Tinfoil Hat!

  25. Going Crazy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's hard to put my finger on where to draw the line between using radio waves without exhaustive testing versus using chemicals like BPA without exhaustive testing.

    I could say that there's no scientific basis for harm to come from electromagnetic waves of the strength used, while BPA had been known to be an estrogen for about a decade before we put it in baby bottles and started wondering where all the manly men went, why we invented the word "moob", and why everyone wants gay marriage.

  26. Worry about real health risks by Dr.+Hellno · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Maybe I'm being paranoid, but personally I'm much more concerned about the ubiquity of old lead pipes in the school buildings around here. Lead leaching into the water supply is a huge risk, especially for children, in whom it can cause learning disabilities. That's right, drinking the water in these schools is, statistically, causing learning disabilities in at least some of the students. But that would cost a whole lot to fix, and so instead we hear unsubstantiated hocus-pocus about wi-fi signals.

    1. Re:Worry about real health risks by Anomalyst · · Score: 1

      Sounds like it has caused learning disabilities in the educators as well.

      --
      There is no right to feel safe thru security vaudeville at the expense of everyone's freedom, privacy and tax money.
  27. Re:Let's be fair by drodal · · Score: 2

    It's kind of like saying "I have a rock in my pocket, that prevents lions from eating us."

    Now we all know the rock isn't preventing the lions, there are none in canada, so they CAN'T eat us. Let it go.. But letting something like that just "go"
    gives plausibility to the whole "lions not eating people because of the rock stuff".

    So It is bad, and it makes them look like idiots.

  28. Re:Stupid Americans by __aaeihw9960 · · Score: 1

    Why does it have to be this article that makes you think that all educators are stupid? This is what I do not understand about people.

    If an engineer makes a bad bridge, it collapses and people die, do we look at EVERY other engineer and say, "YOU DID THIS, IDIOTS!!!"

    So, why then, do we judge all educators on the merit (or lack-thereof) of a few?

  29. Re:Has the safety of wired networks been researche by Githaron · · Score: 1

    Including the kids.

  30. Re:Stupid Americans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    Two points

    1) It was a joke.
    2) It was not a single educator.

    But thanks for playing.

  31. Another technology whose safety is unresearched: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Teachers.

    I say we get them out of classrooms. I mean, they could be causing cancer in our children. I know this might seem like crazy talk, but I know three kids who developed cancer after going to school, and I don't know of any who developed cancer without attending school. And cancer rates have been on the increase ever since mandatory public education was introduced to society. No scientific study has proved that there is no link between teachers and cancer, despite the best efforts of the pharmaceutical-educational complex that runs the New World Order these days.

    Wake up, sheeple!

  32. I DON'T KNOW by Fri13 · · Score: 0

    I can understand wireless networking in centuries old buildings where there are no service tunnels for cables or any other 'hard to reach' locations. But otherwise I suggest to go for cable if just possible. It is more secure, faster and gives much less problems than wireless networking gives.

    Yes, wireless can give nice comfort when sitting middle of room or just need to pull some data. But when you have 40+ students in one room and same AP is used by 120+ students easily, network really starts crawling and fast dropping clients off at worse case (network setup).

    Is WiFi a health concern? I would say yes. But would I ban it from schools? I don't know.
    All what I can say is I would concern childrends and teens to spend 6+ hours a day few meters off from the AP (usually placed middle of the room on roof or other higher place on room) and when having few AP close each other, they really can start cooking those 'male balls' in next few decades... Who knows how bad thing they make in next 30-40 years....
    But is it scary enough to ban that technology? No... but to limit? Yes.

  33. They're scared of kids with cameras by Animats · · Score: 1

    This is a Catholic school system in Ontario. Maybe they're terrified some pedophile priest will be recorded on video and streamed to the Internet. Ontario Catholic schools are home to the "largest case of non-residential school sex abuse by a Roman Catholic priest in North America".

  34. Alarmists by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We have this type of alarmist stuff in BC too. Im thinking that the BS level has reached critical mass and is self sustaining now. Somehow the people have taken a study that claimed there "could be" "some risk" with regards to cell phones and made the jump that all wireless = kills your children. The articles these nuts make reference too have not passed or ever made it to peer review.

  35. Much cheaper solution... by sirwired · · Score: 1

    Everybody knows that running Cat5 is expensive and difficult in aging school buildings! Instead, have every student (and teacher) craft their very own Tinfoil Hat as an art project!

    It'll "protect" them from all these horrible microwatts of non-ionizing radiation and provide a life-enriching art project at the same time!

    Problem solved.

    The union should feel free to contact me so I can tell them where to send the check for my consulting fee.

  36. Tinfoil hats for all students! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Or does that also stop the brainwashing waves eminating from the .......

  37. Those who can't (think), teach! by billcopc · · Score: 1, Insightful

    This article embodies the general tone in schools and universities over here. Profs aren't allowed to think too hard, or else they will ruin the illusion of conformity the WASPs so desperately crave.

    Looking back at my education, I can think of maybe... 5 profs that actually knew their stuff. Okay, 5 and a half, because I forcefully enlightened one of them. The other hundred-ish ? Mindless imbeciles, going through the motions, reading from cue cards, collecting their extortionate paycheques. Like any organisation, the larger it grows, the lower the common denominator. Of course, the cue card readers hated the real profs like a redneck hates an educated black man. "How dare they rock the boat ?"

    If they want to ban Wi-Fi in the classrooms, they can knock themselves out. It will only make it ever so slightly more obvious that our educators are a cabal of imbecilic swine.

    --
    -Billco, Fnarg.com
    1. Re:Those who can't (think), teach! by Dog-Cow · · Score: 2

      I think it's hilarious that you refer to WASPs in an article about the Catholic school system. Talk about not thinking too hard!

    2. Re:Those who can't (think), teach! by Pikoro · · Score: 1

      What does an '80s rock band have to do with anything? Mod parent off topic! :)

      --
      "Freedom in the USA is not the ability to do what you want. It is the ability to stop others from doing what THEY want"
    3. Re:Those who can't (think), teach! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're either a moron, or your experience was very different than mine.

      I had many profs who were rock-solid in their arena. I had profs who rocked the boat. And I consider myself enough of a redneck to resent that remark, by the way. The ones who hate educated blacks most are the uneducated blacks. To the uneducated blacks, being uneducated is part of black culture; getting an education is "selling out to the white man".

      I'm leaning toward "you're a moron", b.t.w.

  38. Hard Wired IS the way to go! by havoc · · Score: 1

    I have to say that I see no reason to use wireless networks when a much faster and more reliable hard wired network is an option. I'm not saying they should not have wireless available, just that classroom computers (any non mobile device really) should be hard wired.

  39. Go ontario teachers! by jugs · · Score: 0

    About time, now lets get the existing wifi out of the schools as well.

  40. tablets - less than 5 years for policy life by RichMan · · Score: 2

    With the down pricing of tablets and the move to open text books. Class rooms will have cheap tablet based text books in less than 5 years. One tablet will cost less than 3 text books. The choice will be easy. Tablets will be wifi connected, not wired.

    This means any such wired policy and expense will have less than a 5 year life time. Lots of expense for little long term benefit. I doubt they can see the future.

    1. Re:tablets - less than 5 years for policy life by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There's a lot more than dollar value in a replacement that big. I'm not a highschool administrator, but here's what I'd be asking if someone proposed that to me:

      - Do the textbooks need to be replaced?
      - How would this affect our special-needs students (eg visual impaired, motor-impaired esp hands)?
      - If we still need limited # of textbooks (for above or otherwise), how would reduced volume affect our current publisher agreements?
      - These devices will be in the hands of young, inexperienced individuals (read: idiots). There will be damage. Do we force parents to front a deposit?
          - Do they purchase them outright?
          - If a family can't pay, are we lining ourselves up for an anti-discriminatory / no-child-left-behind infraction of some sort?
          - If no cost to parents, are we insured for them?
      - There will be theft. If we install tracking software, will a concerned parent sue us for invasion of privacy?
          - If we don't install it, will a concerned parent sue us for not doing our due diligence to secure the tablets?
      - Some kid is gonna try to watch porn on it. If we don't lock it down, will we get sued?
          - If we lock it down, some kid is gonna try to jailbreak it. If we bought an off-the-shelf brand, they'll probably succeed. Should we pay extra for non-standard and/or non-flashable tablets?
          - If we don't lock these tablets down, or there is heavy jailbreaking, they will be unusable for exam purposes. How will this affect open-book exams?
      - Wifi might be everywhere in 5y, but wireless power won't be. Are we on the hook for installing power outlets for every desk? Or are the cheap, public-school-grade tablets we're buying going to last through a whole school day?
          - If we provide outlets, and the school suffers a blackout, do we have a backup plan (ie generators, print material, extended lunch hour)?
      - Are the IT admins in our district all well-versed in tablets & wifi, or is there a requirement for retraining?
          - Can we even shoehorn a responsibility like that onto a (probably) unionized position, or do we need to hire new staff?
          - Never mind IT, do all of our tenured teaching staff understand enough about tablets that they can assist a student that's having trouble in the middle of class?
      - Do the municipalities in our district have any special fees for the recycling/disposal of electronic waste? How much is that going to add to our TCO?

      And so on and so forth.

  41. Re:Let's be fair by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's kind of like saying "I have a rock in my pocket, that prevents lions from eating us."

    I want to purchase your rock.

  42. Re:Let's be fair by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    drodal, I would like to purchase your rock.

  43. Re:Stupid Americans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They're not stupid. Imagine the number of Union members employeed by forced wired as opposed to wireless.

  44. Re:Precautionary principle? Really? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    1) no, there are not just as many studies saying it's bad. That fact is very easy to prove.

    2) any ambiguity is really ironic anyway, as the considerable research into their Christian God has very unambiguously found no proof whatsoever of the slightest truth to it...

  45. Europe too by s1d3track3D · · Score: 1

    There is/was a movement in Europe for this as well.

    FTFA:It recommends revising current threshold values of absorption, while encouraging all member states of the European Union (EU) to “take all reasonable measures to reduce exposure to electromagnetic fields.” And by reasonable, the proposal is advocating a ban on Wi-Fi and cell usage in schools

    http://preview.tinyurl.com/3ezzmm5
    http://preview.tinyurl.com/3wgd2mu

    1. Re:Europe too by onkelonkel · · Score: 1

      If you take Wifi out of schools, or more likely don't install it in the first place not much will happen. If you try to ban cell phones in schools, half the kids will go catatonic on the spot and the rest will burn the place down.

      --
      None of them can see the clouds; The polished wings don't care.
    2. Re:Europe too by SockPuppetOfTheWeek · · Score: 1

      If you try to ban cell phones in schools, 99.9% of the kids will go catatonic on the spot and the other 0.1% will burn the place down.

      FTFY.

  46. Re:Stupid Americans by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

    Can you believe that this American educators are this stupid? Only in the USA!

    . (oh wait)

    You sound distressed. Being distressed can have serious long-term health consequences. Therefore, to improve public health, these educators should be removed from this world, or at least stamped with Surgeon General's warning: "Taking This Individual Seriously May be Hazardous to Your Health".

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  47. Maybe they should stop sleeping with the partners by dbateman · · Score: 1

    as well as they the human body radiates about 100Watts or 500 times more power than the maximum allowed power from a WiFi access point. Going out it sun is definitely out as at 1kW per square meter of 5000 times strong than WiFi that definitely going to be fatal...

    What a load of Bollocks!

    D.

  48. Respect by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And teachers wonder why they don't get the respect they feel they deserve - go figure.

  49. Re:Remove all 2.45 GHz emitting devices by dnahelicase · · Score: 1

    Why stop at 2.45GHz? My monitor seems to put out some good interference, as well as the power cables that are run right next to the antenna wire in my car. I say we they get rid of all EM radiation.

  50. I would like to buy your rock by gubers33 · · Score: 3, Funny

    My offer is $100, but if your rock fails me, you must use some of that $100 to buy a wireless router to kill the Lion that ate me.

    --
    Just because you are wrong and I called you out on it doesn't mean I am a Troll.
    1. Re:I would like to buy your rock by VortexCortex · · Score: 2

      You should instead loan me $50 to research "sling" technology -- Except, only give me $25 now...
      This way, I'll owe you $25, and you'll owe me $25, then we'll call it even.

  51. Which just goes to show... by RyoShin · · Score: 1

    ...that just because you are a teacher doesn't mean you are intelligent. This is something I figured out fairly early on in high school, but believe kids should be told it up front so they don't treat everything the teacher says as absolute fact. Not that they should disregard everything a teacher says, but teachers are people and people can (and, in my opinion, usually are) stupid. So they can certainly be wrong, not that many teachers will own up that fact (the good ones will.)

  52. It has been researched actually by Karmashock · · Score: 5, Informative

    We've researched it with short wave radio, FM, AM, CB, and even cell phones. We've even researched the health effects of 2.4 and 5.4ghz signals. Wifi falls within this research since it's using the same spectrum and is if anything lower power.

    So... not only is the complaint stupid.... it's also wrong.

    Are they actually upset about this for the stated reason or are they claiming a health reason to justify opposing it for some reason?

    I've dealt with too many of these political issues to take it at face value. There is often something else going on.

    --
    I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
    1. Re:It has been researched actually by uvajed_ekil · · Score: 1

      Are they actually upset about this for the stated reason or are they claiming a health reason to justify opposing it for some reason?

      They are sincere and really think they are doing the right thing, despite the fact that they are terribly misinformed and are making no sense. Lots of people read chain letters, conspiracies, and general bullshit on the internet and believe the outrageous claims that have no scientific backing whatsoever. Urban legends have gone online, and bad science and pseudoscience are more convincing than ever to the gullible.

      --
      This is a hacked account, for which the owner can not be held responsible.
    2. Re:It has been researched actually by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      they're idiots then... if the cell phones, radios, microwaves, etc aren't cooking their brains then wifi isn't going to do anything.

      If they're seriously this ignorant then it questions whether they're competent to teach. One could argue that they're teaching reading and mathematics mostly but that sort of mentality is itself regressive since we live in a post industrial economy and it's not acceptable to ignorant of common technological concepts.

      I'm flexible as to how this is fixed but some education needs to happen here... unless they're playing games and are pretending to be stupid to get something. Again, I have seen that many times. I've seen people look me right in the eye, swear they're on the level, and then I find out weeks or months later that it was all an act. So call me cynical but I've been conned too many times by people with honest faces and apparent good will to not be suspicious.

      --
      I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
  53. Re:Remove all 2.45 GHz emitting devices by trolman · · Score: 1

    Seems like the local IT would rise up in opposition. I would not expect the school IT to take much of a political stand for fear of job security. But just on the technical merits alone I could make a case that everything with a moving electron is a potential source of harm to humans.

  54. Re:Let's be fair by ThePeices · · Score: 2

    Sigh...potential long term effects are known. There are not any.

    Their belief is irrational. It goes against the majority of evidence concerning low power radio waves effects on human tissue.

    Weve had radio for what, over a hundred years now? Weve had 2GHz+ radio for how many decades?

    Is that not long term enough?

  55. The solution is simple... by Billlagr · · Score: 1

    Tinfoil hats for all! Not only will it prevent problems from wifi, it will also stop the gubbment mind control devices

    1. Re:The solution is simple... by Billlagr · · Score: 1

      Dammit..missed the earlier tinfoil hat references. My bad.

  56. Re:Precautionary principle? Really? by ThePeices · · Score: 2

    Actually, not all studies are created equal, but what we *do* know is that there are more *quality* studies showing that it is harmless at the power levels in use today, than there are *quality* studies showing harmful effects.

  57. Fundies. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Dont seem to be able to understand or grasp even simple concepts of every day life.
    How can the know anything at all about the unknowable gods. They just make it all up thats how.

  58. Re:Stupid Americans by noh8rz2 · · Score: 0

    RTfs. Ontario is in Canada, man. Maybe it is u who needs education?

  59. Surprise by operagost · · Score: 1

    Here I thought this was going to be about the safety of the data, i.e. security of wireless encryption (or utter lack thereof). I guess I gave this teacher's union too much credit.

    --

    Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
  60. As a teacher myself, I find this comment to be... by Kemanorel · · Score: 2

    Very true.

    Many to most teachers are very stuck in their ways and do not like trying new things or admitting that they do not know something. My personal turn on the phrase is, "One of the hardest things to do is to teach a teacher." I could go into many reasons for this, but suffice it to say, you are not far from the mark at all. Are all teachers this way? No, of course not. It's not even always a young vs. old divide. I do, however, find that some, if not all, of the "best" teachers are those that are willing to admit they are wrong, learn from their mistakes, and admit that there will always be more that they do not know.

    --
    Mess not in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup.
  61. Untested tech by Squiddie · · Score: 1

    Yeah, radios are so experimental.

  62. Re:Stupid Americans by sconeu · · Score: 2

    I think you fell into the sar-chasm.

    --
    General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
  63. more union cable pullers by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    to do the cable work over just running a cable for the AP.

    1. Re:more union cable pullers by skids · · Score: 5, Informative

      While their reasons are crazy, running wired networks is the better thing to do. Keeps the spectrum clean for devices that actually need to be wireless. A classroom full of WiFi easily saturates to the point where performance degrades, especially when you have a bunch of students all loading material on cue from the teacher. While it's technologically possible to do it right with 5GHz if you control the client hardware selection, that is not what people who try to cut corners using wireless are doing; they chintz on APs as well.

      I've seen a lot of colleges abandon their wire plant in favor of wireless in the dorms and even in the classrooms. Eventually they will end up putting it all back in as PoE is starting to prolifierate, and may make it into laptops as their power envelopes converge with what PoE can offer. At that point, in addition to all the building-integration devices and IP phones, they'll have demand again for wired connections from the end user. Unfortunately by that time, they'll have spent orders of magnitudes more money than a wired plant costs these days into remodeling, during which time they will have unwittingly allowed contractors to cut wires and leave them stranded in the wallboard with no record of where they are situated.

      Wired networks these days are actually pretty cheap. Once you discount the top switches which you need anyway for APs and building integration, access switches can be had for short change.

    2. Re:more union cable pullers by CastrTroy · · Score: 1

      Very much agree. There's no reason for a wireless network in a building like a school. I've even considered running wires through my house. Wireless N is even terribly slow if you're more than 30 feet from the access point. Wireless is fine for homes and coffee shops, but put 30 computers in a room and it quickly becomes useless.

      --

      Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
    3. Re:more union cable pullers by jsepeta · · Score: 1

      a better reason to use wires is because it's faster and more secure. which is the argument they should use instead of phony-baloney unproven fears. But they're Catholic schools, so they're used to believing in the unknown and unbelievable. idiots.

      --
      Remember kids, if you're not paying for the service, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT THAT IS BEING SOLD.
    4. Re:more union cable pullers by Palmateer · · Score: 1

      Well I can't speak for the Catholic board, but my kids are in the York Region Public board (Nothern next-door neighbours to these folks), and our school is introducing iPads into the classrooms. AFAIK there is no (at least not without jailbreaking) wired network solution for these devices. This seems like a very good reason.

  64. Re:Stupid Americans by noh8rz2 · · Score: 1

    Where is a sar-chasm? That makes no sense.

  65. How do we push back? by Russ1642 · · Score: 1

    I live in Alberta and we're having the same problem with this kind of derp in regards to WiFi and power lines. Is there a Canadian movement I can join against this nonsense? The only people that seem to be somewhat organized are the tinfoil hatters.

  66. Get rid of teachers or get rid of WiFi? by kirkb · · Score: 1

    Fire 90% of the teachers, replace 'em with computers that serve multimedia instruction, online tests, etc.

    Khan Academy FTW!

    --
    Slashdot: come for the pedantry, stay for the condescension.
    1. Re:Get rid of teachers or get rid of WiFi? by RichMan · · Score: 1

      actually it should be upside down class rooms. Watch the Kahn Academy at home, or video of other really really good teacher to get the lessons.
      Then come to class and do "homework" problem solving with a lot more one on one time.

    2. Re:Get rid of teachers or get rid of WiFi? by jones_supa · · Score: 1

      Interesting idea!

  67. Re:Maybe they should stop sleeping with the partne by GonzoPhysicist · · Score: 1

    but...but...the frequencies!

    --
    horror vacui
  68. Re:As a teacher myself, I find this comment to be. by Anomalyst · · Score: 1

    I work with a helpdesk that supports several school districts. While we occasionally encounter some of the very best teachers who are striving to leverage their IT assets as tools to enhance the teaching environment by asking about advanced topics or tools, most of the time its stuff that a simple web search or pressing the F1 key would provide the answer.

    --
    There is no right to feel safe thru security vaudeville at the expense of everyone's freedom, privacy and tax money.
  69. Re:As a teacher myself, I find this comment to be. by amRadioHed · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I do, however, find that some, if not all, of the "best" teachers are those that are willing to admit they are wrong, learn from their mistakes, and admit that there will always be more that they do not know.

    That's got nothing to do with teachers though. That is a trait that is probably shared by most of the best in any field.

    --
    We hope your rules and wisdom choke you / Now we are one in everlasting peace
  70. no danger in non-ionizing radiation by NikeHerc · · Score: 1
    Robert L. Park, PhD. was for many years the head of the American Physical Society. Park made an interesting claim in one of his weekly emails in 2011:

    "It was Einstein who pointed out in 1905 that microwave radiation is not ionizing, for which he was awarded the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics. I pointed this out 10 years ago in an editorial I wrote at the request of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, "Cellular Telephones and Cancer: How Should Science Respond?""

    You can read Park's editorial at http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org/content/93/3/166.full.

    --
    Circle the wagons and fire inward. Entropy increases without bounds.
  71. You are clueless about ethernet signals vs. wifi. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ethernet transmissions in a cable are a completely different signal than wifi. Do you really think you could just hook an antenna up to your ethernet cable and connect via your laptop's wifi transceiver?

  72. Different EM bands are not directly comparable by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    as far as effects on human beings so your comparison is a non sequitur. Why does the spell check here not like "sequitur?"

  73. WiFi? Forget it. Neutrinos are the problem by TropicalCoder · · Score: 1

    Do you realize the flux of neutrinos we endure day in, day out? Thousands of these little suckers go whizzing right through our bodies every single day. Some, apparently, at superluminal velocities. If one of those hits you, look out - you'll feel the sting even before it happens! And if one if these should strike the nucleus of one of the atoms of which your body is composed, unlike WiFi radiation, it is ionizing. I demand that our school be shielded to prevent these neutrinos from entering our classrooms. Think of the children!

  74. Lemmie get this strait... by rizole · · Score: 2

    ...Catholics are advocating pulling out?

  75. Let there be light by livinginthefutr · · Score: 1

    So in addition to ignoring research, common sense, science, and the list of potentially more harmful (but more mundane) technologies, their going after a technology application that could be used to protect their kids of dangers online, improve access to research and educational tools, and help them to be a citizen of the 21st century. All while ignoring the ancient ballasts in the overhead lighting of EVERY SCHOOL IN CANADA? Updating the lights, and putting shielded wiring would do more to 'protect' kids than removing low power transmitters. It does fit with most Canadian policy approaches to technology.

  76. the grid by jago25_98 · · Score: 1

    Question, slashdotter.

    At the risk of going slightly offtopic...

    Have you ever been somewhere with no electricity? Do you know what that feels like?

    I've only experienced this a few times in my life. I have to say that when combined with no phone signal i felt a sense of peace i've never felt before. I now want to experience the same thing but in more squalid conditions to see if it's a coinsideance of nature you often get in such electrically quiet situations.

    I've also spent time in tower blocks away from city noise and there's still a sense of buzzing. But the air isn't as clean... am i imagining these things.

    Might wifi be similar to the grid in effects?

    It's really inconvienient for a tech addict

  77. Re:Remove all 2.45 GHz emitting devices by MisterMidi · · Score: 1

    I agree. Let's just shield schools from the whole EM spectrum, including light. On top of the safety, think of the energy they'll save! Well, in Canada anyway...

  78. Idiots... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...come in all shapes, sizes, color, etc., etc.

    There will always be idiots.

  79. Cell Phone vs. WiFi by arthurpaliden · · Score: 0

    Cell phone radio waves are used for carrying voice. This means that they are analog in nature and are therefore sine waves. Now sine waves are by their very nature are curved. This means they are easily able to flow over and around DNA and other molecular structures such as proteins. This is not the case for digital computer WiFi EM radiation. The data computer WiFi radiation carries is digital in nature and therefore only has two values 1 and 0. This means that it is transmitted as a square wave with a flat instead of a curved leading edge. As a result it is not able to easily flow over and around a cell's DNA but rather slams into it at several hundred thousand times a second. This is like a hammer hitting a string of pearls over and over and over. Eventually the pearls and the string will break.

    1. Re:Cell Phone vs. WiFi by Ksevio · · Score: 1

      What about microwave ovens? I'd expect their signal to be more like a fire, but I'm no expert.

    2. Re:Cell Phone vs. WiFi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A square wave is simply an infinite series of sine waves of various frequencies.

    3. Re:Cell Phone vs. WiFi by Dan541 · · Score: 1

      Cell phones are digital. It doesn't matter what data they transmit the carrier wave is digital.

      But it's not like a square (sharp) wave can cut you.

      --
      An SQL query goes to a bar, walks up to a table and asks, "Mind if I join you?"
    4. Re:Cell Phone vs. WiFi by Pikoro · · Score: 1

      No, but watch out for sawthooth waveforms!

      --
      "Freedom in the USA is not the ability to do what you want. It is the ability to stop others from doing what THEY want"
  80. They turn off all the lights too, by nedlohs · · Score: 1

    right?

  81. That's What They Have to Worry About? by Greyfox · · Score: 1
    When I was 13 they closed our high school gym for a week to deal with the asbestos. I don't believe it was removed. Just... "dealt with." And no one was concerned about the big jar of mercury, the brick of lead and the sodium in the chemistry lab.

    Wifi. Pfft.

    --

    I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?

  82. Some of the kids get headaches from wifi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I live in Ontario and have seen the news coverage. There are some families that claim ever since the school installed the wifi antennas, one of their children experiences bad headaches. They say that some people are more sensitive to it than others. To test this they put one of the kids in a room and blindfolded her. They brought in a wifi router and sometimes turned it on, other times turned it off. The kid was able to tell them when it was on or off every time because it gave her a headache when on. These families are the ones pushing for the ban, not technophobes.

  83. Re:Let's be fair by swalve · · Score: 1

    That's that bullshit Fox News "controversy" thing all over again. Take something that is obvious and accepted by everyone with a brain, get some skeptic on to say "you haven't proven a negative!" and sell it as a controversy where both sides should be given quarter.

  84. Only health reasons? by Trogre · · Score: 1

    Perhaps they're trying to make a clever counter-appeal to the administration's ignorance. Hear me out:

    If some idiot tried to mandate that all classroom computers had to be wireless, a smart network admin might jot down a bunch of reasons to go wired. While there are no known health effects of wireless signals (and not likely to be at all), it wouldn't hurt his case to add these "concerns" as a bullet point to a PHB, somewhere amongst performance, reliability and security.

    --
    "Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
  85. If it's radiation... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... they're arguing about, then it's bogus. Too many other things starting with the SUN, TV, AM/FM radio, cell phones, cell data, ... If, however, it's the ability to get on-line and use a distraction (as some have argued), then the bloody kid's smart phones gotta be excluded as they don't need a data link to play games.

  86. The teachers are saying this? by Murdoch5 · · Score: 2

    I have yet to meet a teacher in elementary school who can use a computer yet alone comment on the health concern and technology behind wireless networks. I don't think the teachers union is the right group to go at this, I think maybe the IEEE might just be a little more qualified to make this call. After all I had one teacher in grade 8 who didn't know it was possible to save an image from the world wide web, I had another who thought hacking was opening up a window that had only text on it and no graphics!!!!

    I'm not joking about those 2 situations.

  87. Re:Stupid Americans by Entropius · · Score: 1

    Canada, however, is in America. :)

  88. True colors of our Enemy revealed by johnwerneken · · Score: 1

    Environmentalism and the precautionary so-called principle are both big lies, functionally equivalent to "I've got mine - F^&%% YOU!" OR "Destroy progress the modern age and liberty all in one whack". Perhaps the yuppie-techie side of the Obama coalition will begin to see the truth: these envronmental whackos are the Enemies of Humanity, at least as thoroughly as ever a Hitler, a Stalin, or a Mao was.

  89. Not about radiation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's true you don't want to put your gonads next to a high power wireless hub.

    But this is just a religious indoctrination institution putting out chaff to hide their gambit to control accessibility of non-sanctioned information: what information, from where, viewed how.

  90. Gah by lightknight · · Score: 1

    Hmm. On one hand, the radio technology used in Wifi should not be creating any health-related issues (the engineers would have let that slip by now if they thought it was an issue; as the saying goes, it's mathematically possible, but highly unlikely). On the other hand, I hate Wifi, and love wired connections (wired is always faster, guaranteed if you can get a link light, isn't shared like wireless, and less insane provided there are enough ports / the network uses switches and not hubs).

    So, the right idea with the wrong reasons. I was going to recommend going straight to fiber, but the price premium may not be worth it (I can't seem to find any commercial / business grade rack-mountable fiber gigabit switches with 48 ports -> closest was a NetGear with 12 fiber ports for ~$600) and the fiber NICs on NewEgg are carrying a hefty price premium for even stuff in the 10/100 range (the technology which is how old now?).

    Hmm, even though it's fiber, those 10/100 workstation NICs should have been dirt-cheap by now...

    --
    I am John Hurt.
  91. Damn thoes catholics by tboulay · · Score: 1

    You know catholics and they're undying insistance on mounds of evidence before they casually believe something.

  92. Re:Stupid Americans by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

    More insidious.

    Now there is only one or two computers for the class to use. Now he or she gives out 'facebook time' as a reward.

    And the cabling contract, of course. Too bad about the delays.

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  93. Re:Remove all 2.45 GHz emitting devices by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

    If they are lucky local IT is a volunteer parent who knows his/her shit.

    If they are average local IT is a maintenance guy that knows how to configure a wireless router.

    If they are unlucky the district contracted the local IT to EDS.

    Ether IT has no political leverage or it all already well expended kneading the government tit.

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  94. What dumbasses... by pilotkeller · · Score: 1

    You'll buy property under electrical fields of extreme voltage towers that can light florescent on the ground. And you allow cellphone towers to be built that operate at hundreds of times the wattage of a WiFi router... What *****ing doctors of homeopathy do you have running your **** show?

  95. Re:You are clueless about ethernet signals vs. wif by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Are you implying that 2400mhz is a frequency, while 10mhz, 100mhz, 1000mhz and 10000mhz are not frequencies?

    Of course 1000mhz will not be compatible with 2400mhz. But are you seriously suggesting one is a frequency while the other is not?

  96. Unrestricted access to all information by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Holy crap did I wake up in Nazi Germany?

  97. Re:Let's be fair by zippthorne · · Score: 1

    No Lions in Canada, you say? You sure about that?

    --
    Can you be Even More Awesome?!
  98. Re:Remove all 2.45 GHz emitting devices by DarwinSurvivor · · Score: 3, Funny

    Seems like the local IT would rise up in opposition.

    Are you kidding? All that spectrum no longer being used? We could have wireless internet at gigabit speeds on mountain tops! And thanks to the ban on EM radiation, no-one will be allowed to use the equipment needed to detect that we're doing it!

  99. Re:Stupid Americans by noh8rz2 · · Score: 1

    you're either a troll or a very stupid person!

  100. Re:Let's be fair by Falconhell · · Score: 1

    2gig radio is relatively new in terms of exposure of the general population, wi-fi has really only been common in the last 10 years, and that is by no means long enough to come to the conclusions you have come to. So no long term effects are not known. Get back to me when the first generation to recieve exposure reaches middle age then you might have a point.

  101. Re:Maybe they should stop sleeping with the partne by Macgrrl · · Score: 1
    --
    Sara
    Designer, Gamer, Macgrrl in an XP World
  102. Why does this only supposedly affect schools? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why aren't all of these kids that "get sick from wifi at school" getting sick:

    - at home (be it wifi in house, or wifi from the next door neighbors)
    - at the mall, retail stores, home depot, walmart, anywhere with wireless POS systems
    - at any restaurants, coffee shops, fast food joints
    - out on the street where there are hotspot zones
    - using their laptop/wifi enabled mobile devices anywhere else
    - damn near everywhere else in the developed world that has some form of wifi likely within 100ft at all time

  103. Re: so REAL information by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    As in most things, you actually have to read and assimilate some information. Here's a good place to start for the curious:

    http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/emf/

  104. WOW by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Such complete research, with a firm understanding of the technology, lead to such a reasonable conclusion.
    After all Catholics have a better understanding of what is good for us than other individuals.

    Should i go on to explain that the entire planet is constantly being exposed to 50Hz and 60Hz waves, and the only way to escape them is to well leave the planet. How about I explain that 2.4 GHz is a frequency that many Microwaves, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and other technology's use. And of course, he understands why Microwaves cook your food and your cellphone/router doesn't cook your head right?

  105. Why I don't believe you by dbIII · · Score: 1

    I live in Australia and for all but a tiny portion of the country the children would have to live in a deep cave wearing burqas and sunglasses to get so little light exposure that they wouldn't get enough vitamin D. You don't need to get sunburnt to get vitamin D. Also skin cancer is very common here, probably due to sunburn being seen as just part of nearly every summer weekend. I've had one cut out and my father had two cut out and at least one burnt off in the last year. Thus your suggestion seems to bothe the opposite of what I've seen published and personal observation.
    So, given that background it really looks to me as if you have just picked an example to lie about to push some sort of political agenda and it pisses me off a great deal because you apear to lying about me and the people around me. Is that the case? Do you have anything to back that statement up or is it just a throwaway lie that you expect to slip past the readers becuase you assume they know as little about the world as yourself?

    1. Re:Why I don't believe you by micheas · · Score: 1

      Go to this link and look at the Vitamin D deficiency studies in Australia. (the first one is the second search result)

      There are a lot of studies backing up what I said. It was big news that the cover up campaign was making people worse not better.

    2. Re:Why I don't believe you by dbIII · · Score: 1

      Thanks for that, and now I see that it covers a lot more than just Geelong.
      However skin cancer is still very common in the subtropics where I live due to overexposure.

    3. Re:Why I don't believe you by Drugmath · · Score: 1
      For somebody who lives in Australia, you sure are ignorant of your own situation.

      Despite living in a country with an abundance of sun, about 30 per cent of Australians are thought to be vitamin D deficient by the end of summer. The figure rises to 40 per cent by winter's end in the southern states."

      Taken from this source

    4. Re:Why I don't believe you by dbIII · · Score: 1

      We all were before this study came out THIS WEEK so take your insults elsewhere.

  106. Great, we have idiots teaching our children... by EmagGeek · · Score: 1

    Seriously... what the hell has this world come to?

  107. Common use of canadian flag icon. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This will probably get buried as i am unregistered, but why is every single news story from canada labelled with the canadian flag icon? This story has little to do with canada the country. This teachers association is not even a public education teachers association. The flag really alludes to the false conclusion that this has something to do with canadian federal government polocy, or at least public schools, yet it is neither. You would better represent the story by using a christian cross as it is a catholic school board. Perhaps an education emblem, or even a wifi related icon. Yes the story takes place in canada, but the title gives that away well enough when it mentions Ontario. To me it is akin to using the american flag for every american-based story. Not very helpful.

  108. You are a fucking idiot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "You are probably being hit with plenty of UHF/microwave radiation when you walk near a police station."

    The transmitter sites for trunked and conventional radio systems are NOT located at police stations! They're located on top of HIGH structures, like tall buildings, tall *radio* towers, hilltops, etc. How can you be so clueless?

  109. Teachers union more powerful then the Goverement by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wi-Fi has been around for how long and this is coming into light now. Teachers union more powerful then the Government

  110. Union is more powerful then the Goverement by kyoukhana · · Score: 1

    They can do anything they want the Goverement is hopeless against them

  111. Completely irrelevant by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Man has evolved to withstand a flux of neutrinos day in and day out. Man has also evolved in a background level of microwave radiation. However, that background level of radiation is on the order of a billionth as strong as what we're exposed to today. Ionizing or not, it's a new hazard that we are not accustomed to. There is plenty of evidence that it causes many different health problems and that it affects certain individuals at a much lower rate than the vast majority of people. Should we ignore the rights and needs of people in wheelchairs and those who are sensitive to relatively low levels of microwave radiation that don't seem to bother most of us? What if they are the canaries in the coal mine warning us that we'll be next after the cumulative exposure starts to affect most of us?

  112. So what's Next? Banning Sunlight? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yea. We don't know yet what long term exposure can do? Especially for people with half a brain.

  113. It's a good thing! by fuzzywig · · Score: 1

    Clearly they were thinking of the health of the poor IT techs who would otherwise have to set up wireless networks that would cope with 500 little shi^^^^ children all trying to connect to a wireless access point at the same time. Probably with several different devices each. Wires FTW!

  114. Thanks for the reply by dbIII · · Score: 1
    Thank you for your reply, and I can now see where it is coming from, but I do think you are not taking into account that that's still contraversial results drawn from a very small sample size. Geelong is also about the only place in the entire continent that gets a significant amount of cloud cover.
    Meanwhile, an article I was reading not long before your post (http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-02-14/lack-of-vitamin-d-linked-to-speech-problems/3830212) says the following:

    Associate Professor Andrew Whitehouse says pregnant women could increase their intake of vitamin D by taking supplements. He says it is important for brain development and function. "The language problems that the children were having is difficulties acquiring new words and also stringing words together to make a sentence," he said. He says pregnant women should increase their vitamin D levels by taking a supplement rather than spending more time in the sun. "It is important that the slip slop slap message is very much listened to and what we do want to explore is the idea of vitamin D supplementation during pregnancy," he said.

  115. Get rid of Catholic Schools by DarthVain · · Score: 1

    Just another good reason to get rid of all the Catholic Schools in Ontario.

  116. Re:Stupid Americans by Coren22 · · Score: 1
    --
    APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
  117. Concerned about what? by jotaeleemeese · · Score: 1

    There is absolutely not a shred of credible evidence that electromagnetic waves cause any problems.

    To top it all, when people complain they are so selective (forget about their cordless phones, whine about WiFi) as to be really amusing.

    --
    IANAL but write like a drunk one.
    1. Re:Concerned about what? by computerchimp · · Score: 1

      LOL.....it is like you are trolling.....The World Health Organization disagrees with you.

      I don't own a cordless phone because I am in the know....they are worse than Wi-Fi for sure.

  118. Well, I wouldn't. by jotaeleemeese · · Score: 1

    Calling somebody a liar is not really on.

    If one needs to correct somebody you have to learn to do it graciously and without humiliating that person if possible.

    Lets say I would explain what was good about the situation and what was wrong about it.

    --
    IANAL but write like a drunk one.
  119. What is your point exactly? by jotaeleemeese · · Score: 1

    There are plenty of Catholics that understand what is reasonable and what isn't about science.

    Many of them, very devout, use their heads and thus use contraception for example.

    At some point they clearly have decided that god is the only explanation for certain existential key questions, but that , thankfully, doesn't (shouldn't) apply to this particular topic.

    --
    IANAL but write like a drunk one.
  120. WHO has looked into this for decades. by jotaeleemeese · · Score: 1

    No evidence whatsoever about harmful effects has been found.

    --
    IANAL but write like a drunk one.