Post by Amaris on Jan 9, 2009 2:37:38 GMT
From The New Humanist
Thursday, 8 January 2009
Glastonbury Loses The Plot
No, nothing to do with Eavis booking Jay-Z last year. This one's about the actual town of Glastonbury, where some residents have been hysterically spouting pseudoscience in response to the council kindly providing the town centre with free Wi-Fi internet. They're blaming the wireless for a variety of medical problems - headaches, dizziness, rashes and even pneumonia - and, as the Telegraph reports,
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/3966373/Alternative-health-capital-turns-its-negative-energy-on-pioneering-wi-fi-system.html
have left the science bit to some true professionals:
"Some healers even hold that electro-magnetic fields (EMFs) generated by the wi-fi system are responsible for upsetting positive energy fields of the body, which are known as chakras, and positive energy fields of the earth, which are known as ley lines.
"There are now calls for the project, the first of its kind in Britain, to be "unplugged" and for wi-fi masts in the centre of the Somerset market town to be removed just seven months into its experimental run.
"Meanwhile soothsayers, astrologers and other opponents of the wi-fi system have resorted to an alternative technology - known as "orgone" - to combat the alleged negative effects of the high-tech system."
Of course, no actual scientific evidence has ever shown that Wi-Fi signals affect health. Apparently some Glastonbury residents are claiming the signals have lowered the levels of the hormone melatonin in their bodies - something biologist PZ Myers quickly debunks on Pharyngula:
scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/01/the_woo_is_strong_in_glastonbu.php
"This is nonsense: melatonin really doesn't do everything, the pineal [gland that produces it] is not going to be particularly responsive to random radio frequencies, and these kooks don't even have a way to assess melatonin levels."
Sadly, it seems real science is unlikely to dissuade those trying to have Glastonbury's free network removed, as highlighted by the absurd activities of one opponent:
"Matt Todd has started building small generators which he believes can neutralise the allegedly-harmful radiation using the principles of orgone science. The pyramid-like machines use quartz crystals, selenite (a clear form of the mineral gypsum), semi-precious lapis lazuli stones, gold leaf and copper coil to absorb and recycle the supposedly-negative energy.
'I have given a number of generators to shops in the High Street and hidden others in bushes in the immediate vicinity of the antennae. That way you can bring back the balance,' said Mr Todd.
Orgone science was developed by the Austro-Hungarian psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich, who claimed all living matter contains a biological energy. Mr Todd added: 'The science hasn't really got into the mainstream because the Government won't make decisions which will affect big business, even if it concerns everyone's health'."
"The science hasn't really got into the mainstream". You really couldn't make it up (although he actually has). It would all be hilarious if there weren't so many people out there thinking like this. As PZ rightly points out on his blog, the journalists have clearly gone after the more leftfield residents of Glastonbury, but you really do have to despair when New Age pseudoscience and paranoia leads to a sizable movement that could have free wireless internet (which most people would love) removed from a town. As you'll see if you read the Telegraph article, even local Conservative MP David Heathcoat Amory is backing the protesters.
Where's Carl Sagan when we need him?
Posted by Paul Sims at Thursday, January 08, 2009
I was reading about this the other day and looked up EMF and this link to the World Health Organisation was very informative, lots of reading but interesting
www.who.int/peh-emf/about/WhatisEMF/en/index.html
Thursday, 8 January 2009
Glastonbury Loses The Plot
No, nothing to do with Eavis booking Jay-Z last year. This one's about the actual town of Glastonbury, where some residents have been hysterically spouting pseudoscience in response to the council kindly providing the town centre with free Wi-Fi internet. They're blaming the wireless for a variety of medical problems - headaches, dizziness, rashes and even pneumonia - and, as the Telegraph reports,
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/3966373/Alternative-health-capital-turns-its-negative-energy-on-pioneering-wi-fi-system.html
have left the science bit to some true professionals:
"Some healers even hold that electro-magnetic fields (EMFs) generated by the wi-fi system are responsible for upsetting positive energy fields of the body, which are known as chakras, and positive energy fields of the earth, which are known as ley lines.
"There are now calls for the project, the first of its kind in Britain, to be "unplugged" and for wi-fi masts in the centre of the Somerset market town to be removed just seven months into its experimental run.
"Meanwhile soothsayers, astrologers and other opponents of the wi-fi system have resorted to an alternative technology - known as "orgone" - to combat the alleged negative effects of the high-tech system."
Of course, no actual scientific evidence has ever shown that Wi-Fi signals affect health. Apparently some Glastonbury residents are claiming the signals have lowered the levels of the hormone melatonin in their bodies - something biologist PZ Myers quickly debunks on Pharyngula:
scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/01/the_woo_is_strong_in_glastonbu.php
"This is nonsense: melatonin really doesn't do everything, the pineal [gland that produces it] is not going to be particularly responsive to random radio frequencies, and these kooks don't even have a way to assess melatonin levels."
Sadly, it seems real science is unlikely to dissuade those trying to have Glastonbury's free network removed, as highlighted by the absurd activities of one opponent:
"Matt Todd has started building small generators which he believes can neutralise the allegedly-harmful radiation using the principles of orgone science. The pyramid-like machines use quartz crystals, selenite (a clear form of the mineral gypsum), semi-precious lapis lazuli stones, gold leaf and copper coil to absorb and recycle the supposedly-negative energy.
'I have given a number of generators to shops in the High Street and hidden others in bushes in the immediate vicinity of the antennae. That way you can bring back the balance,' said Mr Todd.
Orgone science was developed by the Austro-Hungarian psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich, who claimed all living matter contains a biological energy. Mr Todd added: 'The science hasn't really got into the mainstream because the Government won't make decisions which will affect big business, even if it concerns everyone's health'."
"The science hasn't really got into the mainstream". You really couldn't make it up (although he actually has). It would all be hilarious if there weren't so many people out there thinking like this. As PZ rightly points out on his blog, the journalists have clearly gone after the more leftfield residents of Glastonbury, but you really do have to despair when New Age pseudoscience and paranoia leads to a sizable movement that could have free wireless internet (which most people would love) removed from a town. As you'll see if you read the Telegraph article, even local Conservative MP David Heathcoat Amory is backing the protesters.
Where's Carl Sagan when we need him?
Posted by Paul Sims at Thursday, January 08, 2009
I was reading about this the other day and looked up EMF and this link to the World Health Organisation was very informative, lots of reading but interesting
www.who.int/peh-emf/about/WhatisEMF/en/index.html
