Garlic Farmer Wards Off High-Speed Internet 475
DocVM writes "A Nova Scotia farmer is opposing the construction of a microwave tower for fear it will eventually mutate his organic garlic crop.
Lenny Levine, who has been planting and harvesting garlic by hand on his Annapolis Valley land since the 1970s, is afraid his organic crop could be irradiated if EastLink builds a microwave tower for wireless high-speed internet access a few hundred meters from his farm."
Idiots (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Idiots (Score:5, Insightful)
Indeed!
On top of it, the radiation is 60,000 times less than the the allowed limit for organic farms. (Wasn't even aware there was such a thing.)
Until the farmer loses, that town is stuck on dial-up. Now, that's a travesty.
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I was going to say someone in town should solve the problem by fertilizing his crops with radiation, and then going in with a geiger counter to show that his garlic is already too radioactive to be "organic" so the tower wouldn't be so bad.
Then I realized 1: that would probably be somewhat irresponsible and illegal and more importantly 2: Anyone sufficiently motivated would face ordering the radioactive stuff... ON DIALUP.
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I was going to say someone in town should solve the problem by fertilizing his crops with radiation, and then going in with a geiger counter to show that his garlic is already too radioactive to be "organic" so the tower wouldn't be so bad.
Then I realized 1: that would probably be somewhat irresponsible and illegal and more importantly 2: Anyone sufficiently motivated would face ordering the radioactive stuff... ON DIALUP.
That's way too much effort. Ordering online via dialup?! ;P
Plus doing the irradiation of his field is a lot of work too
Just go simple. Burn the field down!
Then there will be nothing left for him to claim will be harmed by the tower >:D
Bonus points if you go back to the scene a week later and salt the earth.
On a serious note, I think this guy should be required to willingly give up all of his radio and TV receivers and any radio transmitters he might have.
You shouldn't get to ban everyone else from usin
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Re:Idiots (Score:5, Insightful)
The technology has also been proven dangerous, why do you think microwave ovens have switches built in to turn the oven off when the door is opened? Would you step in a human scaled one and let someone turn it on?
Two words: power density.
An average consumer microwave oven has at least 600W of microwave power confined inside a tiny box. If you open the door, you are likely standing in front of it which would give you a fair amount of microwave exposure.
The microwave transmitter referred to in the TFA is likely to only transmit at up to a few watts using a directional antenna in the open air, and you are not likely to ever be standing right in front of it.
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But everything is lethal in the right dosis, so that's an absurd statement.
Drinking water is generally considered safe, despite the fact that a few gallons drunk quickly may very well kill you (and people do die from drinking too much water on occasion)
Re:Idiots (Score:5, Funny)
His crop is already being irradiated...BY THE SUN. Idiots. Sheesh.
Yeah, and that radiation makes his crops grow to many times their original size! Exactly as 60s sci-fi predicts! So now who's the idiot, huh?
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Yeah, and that radiation makes his crops grow to many times their original size! Exactly as 60s sci-fi predicts! So now who's the idiot, huh?
The farmer featured in this article is, for saying he doesn't want the sun or any lights near his crops.
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His crop is already being irradiated...BY THE SUN. Idiots. Sheesh.
Yeah, and that radiation makes his crops grow to many times their original size! Exactly as 60s sci-fi predicts! So now who's the idiot, huh?
Attack of the well-grown tomatoes?
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Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Idiots (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Idiots (Score:5, Informative)
...reduce their vitamin content [google.com], add toxic radiolytic products like 2-ACBs [sciencedirect.com], and attempt to compensate for unsafe food handling practice that shouldn't have been allowed in the first place? Not to mention increasing the availability of radioisotopes that are perfect for a "dirty bomb" [fas.org]?
Yes, there are ignorant folks out there who think that irradiation makes food radioactive, which is plainly wrong. That does not mean that irradiation does not have deleterious effects.
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Re:Idiots (Score:4, Informative)
Lactose is only undigestible if you lack the protein to do so. Most people of Indo-European descent have this gene, which comes from a mutation that occurred something like 10-15k years ago.
Re:Idiots (Score:4, Insightful)
Two things: the irradiation you are talking about is done after harvest, right? (Not that this farmer isn't being silly, the amount of radiation will be mostly harmless, and since the main reproductive and sustenance parts of garlic are under ground, his crop will have some shielding).
You can't irradiate something with a microwave tower. This guy's a nutter.
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Speaking of idiots... (Score:5, Insightful)
You know, I wish people using that argument (or variants thereof) actually knew what they're talking about. No offense.
The Earth's atmosphere and ionosphere are only really transparent to a very narrow band of frequencies. As you go up in the UV range or lower into IR, actually less and less of it gets to ground level.
And let's put it this way: If enough microwave radiation from the Sun got to the Earth to be comparable to a cell phone tower, you couldn't actually use a cell phone. Because the white noise from the sun would not only give the tower a crap signal-to-noise ratio, but would be hundreds of decibels stronger than the milliwatts emitted by the phone itself or received by it in some places.
So no, it's not. Not in the same frequencies and/or not as much.
Yes, the "OMG, the crops will mutate" scare is incredibly stupid anyway. But countering it with the equally bogus "OMG, the sun already does the same", doesn't really debunk it.
Re:Speaking of idiots... (Score:5, Informative)
Well, actually, the microwave internet system is a Line-of-sight point to point beam, so the amount getting to his crops in the ground is actually a number approaching zero. The microwave in his KITCHEN probaly puts more energy into his field than that tower would, not to mention the dozens of sattelites beaming down microwave radiation as well.
Also, if the atmosphere was THAT good at shielding that radiation, then why would Microwave solar orbital power even be a consideration? If the atmosphere only blocks 30% of visible light, but far more microwave was blocked, then how would that system be a net gain?
Of course, Microwave radiation is not ionizing radiation anyway, so the argument is completely moot... Mutation from microwave exposure would require rediculous doses of concentrated radiation, far, far more than it would take to cook the garlic outright.
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I wish people who counter that arguemnt would loom up the definition iof iraidiated.
1.
a. To expose to radiation.
b. To treat with radiation: irradiate farm produce so as to destroy bacteria.
2. To shed light on; illuminate.
3. To manifest in a manner suggesting the emission of light; radiate: irradiate goodness.
v.intr. Archaic
1. To send forth rays; radiate.
2. To become radiant.
And becasue you probably don't know what radiation means:
1. The act or process of radiating: the radiation of heat and light from a fi
The sun is stronger than human microwaves (Score:2)
Satellite microwave communications is subject to sun interference. Communications through a satellite are impossible when the sun, satellite, and earth
Re:Speaking of idiots... (Score:4, Interesting)
From the article: "...is afraid his organic crop could be irradiated..." That's not the same as "is afraid microwave radiation will be increased above acceptable levels". The statement suggests that he is worried about radiation in general (not this specific kind of radiation).
The statement you quoted was made by the writer of the article, not by the farmer. The only direct quotes from him are: "I think over a period of time it will change the DNA of the garlic because it shakes up the molecules" and "I view it with dread, fear and panic. I don't want to grow food under those conditions", neither of which indicate he's afraid of radiation in general.
No, it doesn't (Score:2)
Actually, no, it doesn't. If you RTFA, the "is afraid his organic crop could be irradiated" is really a piece of text by the journalist, not an actual quote from the guy. The relevant quote from him is in quotation marks: ""I think over a period of time it will change the DNA of the garlic because it shakes up the molecules," It's pretty clearly about micro-wave radiation, not, say, about ionizing radiation.
And a quick googling for differently reported versions of the same story, shows that at least some me
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haha, the actually quote makes him look even stupider.
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No, no, no, you're doing it wrong. "His crops are being irradiated by an unshielded fusion reactor! And he's putting dihydrogen monoxide on his crops!"
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His crop is already being irradiated...BY THE SUN. Idiots. Sheesh.
The article is full of the sort of howlers I'd come to expect from the locals while living in the backwaters of Nova Scotia. Where do we start? "Shakes up the molecules" - clearly the phrasing of a person well versed in the concept of ionizing radiation! I'll use wi-fi all day and you can sit next to some cobalt 58 and we'll see what person's molecules get "shaken up" more.
"Moved to the country to get away from the pollution" - while it could be a valid statement, I more often hear it from either "chemica
Re:Idiots (Score:5, Insightful)
The article is full of the sort of howlers [...]. Where do we start? "Shakes up the molecules" - clearly the phrasing of a person well versed in the concept of ionizing radiation! I'll use wi-fi all day and you can sit next to some cobalt 58 and we'll see what person's molecules get "shaken up" more.
We are talking about microwave radiation. Microwave radiation cooks food by "shaking" the molecules (of water). Of course that isn't going to cause genetic mutation. Yes the guy is an idiot, but if you're going to get into name calling, try to get your own facts right.
Re:Idiots (Score:5, Insightful)
He didn't say he didn't want any radiation of any kind - he just didn't want any MORE radiation that the tower would surely bring. I don't think that is idiotic.
Where I question his judgment is looking at the amount of radiation that the tower would introduce - the article says 60,000 x lower than the legal limit for organic food. Seems he is a bit more careful that I am. But I'm not sure that makes him an idiot.
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Sine it can in know way change his crop, then yes he is being an idiot.
In fact, organic gardening is idiotic and dangerous to begin with. So he is all around an idiot.
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Quite frankly, if I was his neighbor, I'd sue the moron.
For what?
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For the expense of an alternative form of high speed, based upon the fact that his objections are pure bullshit.
Re:Idiots (Score:5, Insightful)
For the expense of an alternative form of high speed, based upon the fact that his objections are pure bullshit.
You'd file a civil suit over this? I don't see how you would win. Maybe the Canadian legal system is different (which is where he lives), but I'm pretty sure it would go nowhere.
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The tower is going on the neighbor's property, and it's the neighbor who'll be receiving the rent payments.
He should be so lucky (Score:4, Interesting)
Scientists and corporations around the world would buy his crop at many times market value, in order to both prove and disprove that the mutations were a result of the tower. What a disappointment it will be for him when the tower is built and his crop turns out just fine.
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except for people like thi, it won't be ok. He will perceive it's a problem and any normal crop behavior that is negative in nature will get blamed on the towers waves.
Re:He should be so lucky (Score:5, Interesting)
Reminds me of http://german-bash.org/101161 [german-bash.org].
Short and translated version: the Telekom had built a cell phone mast in a village, and a lot of villagers started to complain about sleep problems and whatnot because of it. The comment of the Telekom was, "how bad must it get, when we actually turn it on" :p
Mutating Radiation (Score:2)
Wrong kind of radiation (Score:5, Informative)
He should stick to farming and leave the radio vs radiation science up to the smart people.
Someone go point him to the definitions of "Microwave Radiation" and "Ionizing Radiation"
radio IS radiation...electromagnetic. (Score:2)
He should stick to farming and leave the radio vs radiation science up to the smart people.
Which you're not one of, given that "radio" is electromagnetic radiation.
No rationality required? (Score:5, Funny)
"I think over a period of time it will change the DNA of the garlic because it shakes up the molecules."
I wonder why he's concerned about the garlic DNA, but not his own? In other news, I objected to a wind farm cos I was worried about the flying saucers crashing into it...
Re:No rationality required? (Score:5, Funny)
In other news, I objected to a wind farm cos I was worried about the flying saucers crashing into it...
Oh geeze, not this FUD again... Look, yes, flying saucer crashes were a problem with some older, ill-conceived wind farms. But with a little planning, and modern designs, this is essentially a non-issue for the wind farms of today. The most important thing is not to put cattle, sheep, or drunken hillbillies underneath the windfarms so the aliens aren't attracted to them. Next is the design itself. The old scaffolding ones didn't look like anything important to the aliens. The new single-pole ones were designed to look like an alien arm raised up. And a raised arm with all three digits spinning in a circle is a very rude gesture and it's traditional to ignore the offender. So the problem solves itself.
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In other news, I objected to a wind farm cos I was worried about the flying saucers crashing into it...
Oh geeze, not this FUD again... Look, yes, flying saucer crashes were a problem with some older, ill-conceived wind farms. But with a little planning, and modern designs, this is essentially a non-issue for the wind farms of today. The most important thing is not to put cattle, sheep, or drunken hillbillies underneath the windfarms so the aliens aren't attracted to them. Next is the design itself. The old scaffolding ones didn't look like anything important to the aliens. The new single-pole ones were designed to look like an alien arm raised up. And a raised arm with all three digits spinning in a circle is a very rude gesture and it's traditional to ignore the offender. So the problem solves itself.
Yeah - but none of these new modern designs have undergone peer reviewed studies of their effect on Don Quixote copycats. Until that happens, I don't think that anyone can be reasonably assured of their safety.
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That's hilarious. Unless he's operating his farm at absolute zero, the molecules are shaking like mad all the time already.
Scientific ignorance (Score:5, Insightful)
Scientific ignorance from the organic produce industry? Really? That's just so shocking.
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Personally I prefer the inorganic produce - you know, the stuff that's that's made from rocks and minerals.
Crunchy and filling, but a bit hard on the teeth.
Re:Scientific ignorance (Score:4, Interesting)
You've hit on one of my pet peeves man. Hell, DIAMONDS are oraganic, and so is pencil lead. They way these people use the term incorrectly drives me nuts.
Seriously.
I have a steering wheel attached to my belt now because of it.
Re:Scientific ignorance (Score:5, Funny)
A conversation I had at an organic food shop:
Me: Do you have any pure mint extract?
Employee: Yeah man, we've got some right over here.
Me: This is the cosmetics aisle. It says "Not for human consumption." right on the bottle.
Employee: Oh. But its organic man, its okay.
Me: So are rhubarb leaves.
Employee: Oh. Man. I dunno man.
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You've hit on one of my pet peeves man. Hell, DIAMONDS are oraganic, and so is pencil lead. They way these people use the term incorrectly drives me nuts.
Strictly speaking, there are very significant variations of what "organic" means [dict.org], even among various scientific contexts. For example, "organic" generally means something significantly different in the context of biology than in the context of chemistry.
So, while on one hand I agree that it feel as if the "organic" food label misleadingly seems to imply that other food is somehow "inorganic", on the other hand I realize that from the USDA's perspective, "organic" certification reflects the adherence to a fa [usda.gov]
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Can't words have multiple definitions?
Lets see, we have the chemical definition of "organic," on which a diamond is, of course, not organic (because it has to have C and H). We have the usage of "arising organically" which is supposed to mean something like "coming together in a way that resembles natural processes". And then we have what is apparently your favored definition, something like "arising on earth without human intervention" (or something, I'm not totally sure what). And then we have the food-in
Re:Scientific ignorance (Score:5, Funny)
You've hit on one of my pet peeves man. Hell, DIAMONDS are oraganic, and so is pencil lead. They way these people use the term incorrectly drives me nuts.
Seriously.
I have a steering wheel attached to my belt now because of it.
Right on! And the people who use "pencil lead" instead of "graphite." I mean, lead was never used in pencils. It's just that those idiots who discovered graphite thought it really was lead. The audacity...
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By definition 3b, DDT, PCBs and hundreds of other toxic chemicals are organic.
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It's true. The "organic" thing is DEFINITELY a fad, it's hyped, and there are plenty of frauds and misinformed people.
The same goes for drugs though. Just because it can be a fad and it's hyped and there are stupid people saying stupid things about it doesn't mean the entire idea is stupid.
There have been plenty of conclusive studies about pesticides and the like, as well. And organic food definitely does taste different... way different. Even organic milk tastes different from "normal" milk. And, as f
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And you've scientifically proven that this is due to organic farming as opposed to, say, the freshness of the fruits in question?
Also, when you say stuff like "like they did when I was a kid!" you're just marking yourself as nostalgia-obsessed, as far as I'm concerned. Nostalgia kills rational thought.
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It's all in your head. You want organic food to taste better, so it does. See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsuT3mndOKE [youtube.com] (watch from 0:20 to 1:30 and then fast forward to 3:40).
The Dangers of Wi-Fi (Score:5, Funny)
I totally agree with the farmer! From my research, it even has dangerous effects
on humans!
Here are some of the symptoms that it causes:
1. Carpal tunnel
2. Distaste for light
3. A tendency to shout out: "First Post"
4. Loss/Gain of gold pieces
5. Disturbing images of cats
6. Lots of accidents that subsequently end up online.
7. Bad writing.
Can anyone think of other symptoms?
Re:The Dangers of Wi-Fi (Score:5, Funny)
Re:The Dangers of Wi-Fi (Score:5, Funny)
9) ???
10) Profit!!!!
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10. PROFIT!
My guess is... (Score:3, Funny)
He probably decided to farm garlic to ward off the vampires. Can't say I blame him.
Re:My guess is... (Score:5, Funny)
On behalf of myself and other Nova Scotians (Score:5, Funny)
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Please regard this man as a non-representative sample.
They can regard him as that, but it isn't true. I'm sorry, but if he were a non-representative sample, I would still be living in Nova Scotia.
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Side note (Score:2)
Re:Side note (Score:5, Informative)
Organic Food [bbc.co.uk]
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That's because "non-organic" food is *drumroll* completely organic. Oh my god. Seriously, it kills me that these assholes get away with calling their food "organic" (implying other food is not organic) and there are actually regulations on what you can call "organic" (even though it is all, in fact, organic).
I wouldn't mind if they called it pesticide free, or un-modified, or naturally grown (with a description of what exactly they mean by that), etc. But "organic"? WTF? Even the most unnatural, mutated,
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That's because "non-organic" food is *drumroll* completely organic. Oh my god. Seriously, it kills me that these assholes get away with calling their food "organic" (implying other food is not organic) and there are actually regulations on what you can call "organic" (even though it is all, in fact, organic).
Newsflash: The same word can have more than one meaning [reference.com] and it can adopt new meanings over time. The intended meaning is usually clear from the context. Meaning arises from consensus among a broad population of speakers. Complaints about how others use language almost always fail to influence behavior.
What you are really saying is: "I am smart because I know the particular definition of a word used by chemists. I am also insecure. I will berate those I perceive to be less intelligent than me and hope t
Re:Side note (Score:5, Interesting)
This isn't an American problem exclusively. Related to this is the scare about "zomg genetically modified organisms!", which is much worse in Europe.
I helped gather data for a study, incidentally, comparing GM and ordinary cotton. The GM cotton had a gene expressing the BT toxin in it, a protein that fucks up caterpillars who eat it rather royally but is harmless to pretty much everything else. The farmers were told to not do anything special with their fields, to use pesticides as normal, etc. (This meant more use of pesticide on the non-GM cotton, obviously.)
Then I wander through the fields and sample the insect population by species. The conventional cotton was something of a wasteland -- here's a lonely little spider, looking for dinner; there are a few ants; here are a shitload of aphids, which are resistant to insecticide.
The GM cotton had a whole pile of bugs, all running around happily eating each other.
GM crops can be *better* for the environment. After all, the BT gene is just a way of putting a pesticide only harmful to a narrow range of insects *into* the crop, so only pests that actually eat it will die. This is a whole lot more targeted than crop-dusting the field with something that'll kill anything that moves with more than four legs. Monsanto's abuse of the patent system is another matter altogether, of course.
it's non-ionizing radiation (Score:4, Interesting)
If you're looking for something that will mutate cells, then try the UV rays from the Sun. Perhaps he should grow mushrooms if he is so paranoid about exposing vegetables to radiation?
This happens all the time (Score:2)
This kind of stuff happens all of the time. Anyone remember "Attack of the killer tomatos", "them", "Godzilla", ...
Everyone should know of this great menace before we are attacked by giant mutant killer zombie garlic. We don't want to be replaced by a more intelligent invasive species like this!
Meanwhile a farmer in Gilroy California (Score:5, Funny)
Somewhere in Gilroy a Garlic farmer is dialing Sprint to beg for a tower so he can make monster garlic.
Oh no (Score:5, Funny)
There are times when I wonder what the world might have been like if we hadn't pushed high speed microwave-based internet access in Nova Scotia. It's not like there weren't other solutions -- satellite, possibly. Cabling if they could have found someone to foot the bill. But there was a rush to make it happen, as usual with big business looking for their next tax haven. Who would have thought the entire world would pay for that bit of greed? Who would have thought we'd never dare look at the sun again.
The end can't be too far away. There aren't many of us left, down here in the caves. All the moss has been eaten. The water may last awhile longer, but without food....No one who's left the caves to search for food, no matter how desperate or self-assured, has ever come back. Perhaps our greatest fear, moreso than even starvation, is that the Garlics will be able to trace one of those people back to our hideout. We've taken precautions, of course, by choosing a tunnel system with a downdraft. At least that way, we can smell them coming.
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I, for one, welcome our new Garlic Overlords.
(sorry, obligatory slashdot meme reference)
(sorry sorry, obligatory acknowledgment of use of obligatory slashdot meme reference)
(infinite loop encountered, terminating...
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Bravo! It's not often that I see posts this clever. (!sarcasm)
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Is that monologue from Terminator?
Great joke, but it's nagging at me, I swear I know what it's from but I can't place it.
It's time (Score:2)
Effects of microwave towers... (Score:2)
Regardless of what people THINK the effect of microwave towers can or cannot have, the real need is to study such questions. Of course, we can't study every stupid thing that someone might think (such as a person I know that feels that the radiation from Toll Booth RFID tags are giving her headaches), Microwave towers 1) use a significant amount of power, and 2) potentially impact large numbers of people.
I was one of the first to laugh at a cell phone/brain cancer link. Yet a recent study demonstrates a s
"Radiation"... (Score:5, Informative)
The scientific and engineering community doesn't mean the same thing by this word that you mean -- namely, that shit that makes your ass glow green, or whatever.
I propose that people not be allowed to rant and rave about this stuff until they:
--Learn the basics of the electromagnetic spectrum and the sources and engineering uses of radiation at each point along it.
--Learn the basics of nuclear radiation, and understand its effects and where it comes from
--Leave a Geiger counter near a nuclear power station and take one on a plane across the country at 40,000 feet, and compare the counts
I teach physics labs to premeds at the university. They come in and I'm munching peanuts off of a pretty bright orange tray, and offer them some; some of them accept.
A little later I'm showing them how to use a Geiger counter, and show them radiation from a few sources we have in the room -- lookie, radioactive rocks! Lookie there, a bit of caesium! Oh, wait ... where'd these radioactive peanuts come from?
The students freaked out. (For those who don't know, the bright orange glaze on old Fiestaware was made from uranium oxide. It's safe, unless maybe you eat the plate, in which case you have a .01% risk of cancer and a 10% risk of a perforated bowel.)
Stupidity or Ignorance? How about Jackass (Score:5, Insightful)
No one is exempt from stupidity and certainly not ignorance. No man can know all things let he be a God among men.
I've met the brightest that Harvard graduated and they thought you could get the swine flu from eating pork.
I work with a Yale man that couldn't replace his air filter in his car.
I've worked with two former NASA engineers and a Ballistic Warhead designer from UDLP that couldn't install an electrical outlet in thier home.
Ignorance is relative people. How many of you know when to harvest garlic? When you put down your fertilizer? How many days do you let alfalfa dry between cutting and baling? Know how to shoe a horse? How about stitch a wound? At what rate should you run the reverse rehometer to prevent scaling on a polymer test?
There is a difference between stupidity and ignorance. You can mock stupidity till you are blue in the face; just make damn sure you know the difference between the two or all you will accomplish is proving how big of a jackass you are.
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The problem here being that most of those people would ask someone with more experience in the field. If I was trying to grow garlic I would probably get a book on garlic growing.
This guy just jumped the gun and went straight to "zomg radiation"
Re:Where's the proof? (Score:4, Interesting)
oh they dont need to know how and why. when my aunt was diagnosed with breast cancer she decided to look into radical natural diet and exercise changes to try and avoid chemo and a mastectomy. growth halted in the tumors for well over a year, she lost weight, felt better than ever before.
good for her. she also got rid of her microwave oven. while she wont come right out and say it to most of the family, she believe the radiation can mutate food in the microwave and cause her body harm. wow.
Re:Where's the proof? (Score:5, Insightful)
Getting rid of the microwave, while not stopping the cancerous growth, may very well have served as a placebo for helping with her overall health. Sometimes results are more important than the method, and if she thinks this is helping her, more power to her.
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Re:Where's the proof? (Score:5, Interesting)
It's not possible. Only ionizing radiation can alter DNA.
Microwaves are not ionizing radiation. Not even remotely close, they're on the complete opposite side of the visible portion of the spectrum in fact.
From visible, you go to IR and then to RF (including microwaves)
To get to the wavelengths capable of altering DNA, you need to go the other way, through violet to UV (DNA damage), X-rays (more DNA damage!) and gamma (lots of DNA damage).
There's only one way I can describe this guy - fucking ignorant dumbass. The most likely thing to do DNA damage to his crops is the very sunlight his crops depend on to grow.
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It's not possible. Only ionizing radiation can alter DNA.
That's not strictly true. If you get DNA hot enough it can denature, but the most likely effect is that it'll simply stop working. It's barely, theoretically, possible to bombard DNA with non-ionizing radiation, cool it again careful-like, and end up with a mutation. But of course that ain't gonna happen because of a nearby microwave tower. For that matter, it ain't gonna happen even if you try to do it, unless you try an awful lot and get very lucky.
If this guy thinks it's a reasonable concern, I'm surpr
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Yes, by depositing so much energy in something that it heats up enough to cause damage. This is how a microwave oven works.
You think that's bad? (Score:2)
If you think "organic garlic" sounds stupid, I humbly submit the following anecdote which actually topped it for me: so I buy a tube of calcium tablets, and on the tube it says "Made from natural minerals!" Made me wonder if anyone synthetises their calcium in a nuclear reactor or something.
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Ain't nothing healthier than all-natural.
I don't trust that organic stuff. So I make sure all the carbon in my garlic has been replaced by silicon. Makes it nice and crunchy, too.
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Two words: "Organic Fertilizer"
'nuff said.
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In other words, he's against the introduction of something he sees as a threat. 20 years from now, if it turns out that WiFi signals are detrimental to the growth of plants, will he still be freaking nuts?
The guy was a rebel years ago, and was proven right against the best the current science had to offer. Maybe he's wrong again, but how long have we been irradiating crops with sustained 2.4GHz frequency, day in and day out, year in and year out? How many rigorous studies have been done on the long-term
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I'm from just to your south (Maine).
I don't honestly see WiFi as any more of a threat than cell signal, but I also think that the more frequencies we flood, the more likely it is we're going to find some good reason to regret it in a few decades.
Which is not to say it's at all certain, or that the risks aren't worth the benefits.
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1) at a peek time so almost nothing goes through
What?! On dialup you have a single dedicated connection to your ISP. There shouldn't be any "peak" congestion unless the ISP is grossly underserved vs. the number of subscribers. That's seriously hard for me to believe, since each subscriber can only pull something like 7 kB/sec.
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Please hide under your desks. :\
Likely the desk has some measurable activity as well. And the floor under the desk.
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Clever.