Lots of people get headaches from quitting caffeine. But I get them from starting it.
I never touched caffeine much and actually downright avoided it for a good while. Then I grabbed a soda, Barq's Root Beer. I drank a third of a 12 oz can and my head started hurting. I took ibuprofen, no help. I just wanted to lay in bed and die for eight hours.
Finally, I felt better, but couldn't figure the cause of it. Then I realized Barq's is caffeinated. Something like 30-40 mg per 12 oz, I hear. Later, I tried some other things with caffeine, but in serious moderation. Similar but more mild result.
I have concluded that I am not compatible with caffeine. I can get headaches from drinking too much decaf. tea. I don't like chocolate from the time I was young, I think this may be why. So now I avoid caffeine like a former caffeine addict might, except I'm not one.
I hate how they slip caffeine in so many medications and drinks. It's terrible for you and many don't tolerate it well at all.
Cell phones and all that kind of stuff creating harmful "waves" and similar statements, both scientific and not, are a really great way to get people going. But let's be real about this. Here are a few things to think about when you read articles like this:
-Electromagnetic waves are everywhere and always have been, the sun itself puts off all kinds of electromagnetic radiation - visible light, UV rays (known to cause cancer), infrared light, and even some interesting radio waves. All things considered, you are getting well into the 1,500 watts per square meter of energy coming at you from the sun in full sunlight.
-Microwaves have been around for years, yet nobody is worrying about them. They have the potential to put off a thousand watts of 2.4 GHz radio waves, which isn't far the from 1.9 GHz frequency many cell phones use.
-Modern cell phones fight to put off as little energy as possible - for battery life maximization and interference reduction purposes. All of them emit less than 1 watt, often in the dozens or low hundreds of milliwatts and sometimes even zero if you aren't speaking.
-Home cordless phones often emit way, way more energy than cell phones, yet nobody worries about them. I've seen 900 MHz phones do 2 watts, continuously - and this is in the same frequency range as many cell phones run. Typical people talk more on their cordless phones than their cell phones, although this is changing.
-Phones aren't the only thing that emits electromagnetic waves - CRTs emit lots of interesting types of electromagnetic radiation, radio/TV stations frequently broadcast into the hundreds of thousands of watts. And that's just a few things.
So there aren't these massive problems caused by all these forms of electromagnetic radiation. It's worth, however, considering that there are some very interesting and extremely subtle reactions between biological processes and electromagnetic energy, but nothing that's proven to be a problem - yet. I think we should be doing massive studies of electromagnetism and biological organisms (perhaps similar to the massive medical studies, and in a similar format), but, for gosh sake, STOP targeting cell phones. There are SO many other things that create SO much more radiation and are certainly much more likely to cause problems if you spend a few minutes to think about it and have a few facts in front of you.
OK, now I feel better. I've been wanting to talk about this for a while. Hope this informs a few readers of reality with all these various cell-phone-electromagnetism-kills style hype.
I've done a great deal of research on the topic of solar energy and have a pretty good understanding of physics. To the average person, this article sounds wonderful - super efficient solar panels, a total breakthrough! To me, it's pretty easy to see this article either grossly misquotes the researcher or the researcher is completely crazy.
From the article: "Ultimately, Dyson is confident her team's solar cells can reach nearly 100 percent efficiency -- compared with typical solar panels' conversion rate of less than 20 percent."
100% sounds great. Except they forgot that glass absorbs/reflects a minimum of 10% of the light, much more at non-direct angles. And that getting any semiconductor (solar panel) surface to absorb all light hasn't yet been possible - assume another 15% is lost here. And of course, to be able to actually see through the cells (they're "translucent"), we'll assume 20% light transmission. Then you need to think about things like entropy and expect a nice loss in this process, we'll be generous and figure 10% loss.
Just adding the percentages shows 55% efficiency by simple addition. And this is with everything ideal. And now consider that the _best_ solar experiments have approached, under super-controlled situations, 40% efficiency.
And top all this off with no demonstration of the product itself and no details on their technology, it's another vaporware article.
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I wouldn't go assuming they're all men...
Lots of people get headaches from quitting caffeine. But I get them from starting it.
I never touched caffeine much and actually downright avoided it for a good while. Then I grabbed a soda, Barq's Root Beer. I drank a third of a 12 oz can and my head started hurting. I took ibuprofen, no help. I just wanted to lay in bed and die for eight hours.
Finally, I felt better, but couldn't figure the cause of it. Then I realized Barq's is caffeinated. Something like 30-40 mg per 12 oz, I hear. Later, I tried some other things with caffeine, but in serious moderation. Similar but more mild result.
I have concluded that I am not compatible with caffeine. I can get headaches from drinking too much decaf. tea. I don't like chocolate from the time I was young, I think this may be why. So now I avoid caffeine like a former caffeine addict might, except I'm not one.
I hate how they slip caffeine in so many medications and drinks. It's terrible for you and many don't tolerate it well at all.
Cell phones and all that kind of stuff creating harmful "waves" and similar statements, both scientific and not, are a really great way to get people going. But let's be real about this. Here are a few things to think about when you read articles like this:
-Electromagnetic waves are everywhere and always have been, the sun itself puts off all kinds of electromagnetic radiation - visible light, UV rays (known to cause cancer), infrared light, and even some interesting radio waves. All things considered, you are getting well into the 1,500 watts per square meter of energy coming at you from the sun in full sunlight.
-Microwaves have been around for years, yet nobody is worrying about them. They have the potential to put off a thousand watts of 2.4 GHz radio waves, which isn't far the from 1.9 GHz frequency many cell phones use.
-Modern cell phones fight to put off as little energy as possible - for battery life maximization and interference reduction purposes. All of them emit less than 1 watt, often in the dozens or low hundreds of milliwatts and sometimes even zero if you aren't speaking.
-Home cordless phones often emit way, way more energy than cell phones, yet nobody worries about them. I've seen 900 MHz phones do 2 watts, continuously - and this is in the same frequency range as many cell phones run. Typical people talk more on their cordless phones than their cell phones, although this is changing.
-Phones aren't the only thing that emits electromagnetic waves - CRTs emit lots of interesting types of electromagnetic radiation, radio/TV stations frequently broadcast into the hundreds of thousands of watts. And that's just a few things.
So there aren't these massive problems caused by all these forms of electromagnetic radiation. It's worth, however, considering that there are some very interesting and extremely subtle reactions between biological processes and electromagnetic energy, but nothing that's proven to be a problem - yet. I think we should be doing massive studies of electromagnetism and biological organisms (perhaps similar to the massive medical studies, and in a similar format), but, for gosh sake, STOP targeting cell phones. There are SO many other things that create SO much more radiation and are certainly much more likely to cause problems if you spend a few minutes to think about it and have a few facts in front of you.
OK, now I feel better. I've been wanting to talk about this for a while. Hope this informs a few readers of reality with all these various cell-phone-electromagnetism-kills style hype.
I've done a great deal of research on the topic of solar energy and have a pretty good understanding of physics. To the average person, this article sounds wonderful - super efficient solar panels, a total breakthrough! To me, it's pretty easy to see this article either grossly misquotes the researcher or the researcher is completely crazy.
From the article: "Ultimately, Dyson is confident her team's solar cells can reach nearly 100 percent efficiency -- compared with typical solar panels' conversion rate of less than 20 percent."
100% sounds great. Except they forgot that glass absorbs/reflects a minimum of 10% of the light, much more at non-direct angles. And that getting any semiconductor (solar panel) surface to absorb all light hasn't yet been possible - assume another 15% is lost here. And of course, to be able to actually see through the cells (they're "translucent"), we'll assume 20% light transmission. Then you need to think about things like entropy and expect a nice loss in this process, we'll be generous and figure 10% loss.
Just adding the percentages shows 55% efficiency by simple addition. And this is with everything ideal. And now consider that the _best_ solar experiments have approached, under super-controlled situations, 40% efficiency.
And top all this off with no demonstration of the product itself and no details on their technology, it's another vaporware article.