Hippies revolt over wireless network voodoo (actual headline)

[semillama]

"HIPPIES LIVING in the tiny town of Glastonbury claim that a new wi-fi network is responsible for a spate of health problems.

Glastonbury, which used to be a mecca for Christian pilgrims looking for King Arthur, has now been largely taken over by New Age hippies who think that it is a place of great healing energies.

That was, until the town set up a £34,000 project wi-fi network on an experimental basis. Apparently wi-fi jiggers about with your chakras and breaks ley lines, which makes you sick."

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/171/1050171/hippies-revolt-over-wireless-network-voodoo

[TZ]

1. Here's the sentence that sums this article up....

"So basically the town is full of fake science and psychosomatic illness which probably would not be there if no one knew the wi-fi was there."

[conscious evolution]

2. I liked the welfare queen comparison

'Almost all the complaints are from the New Age movement who spend most of their time finding reasons to be sick so that they can draw disability benefit and experiment with new cures for themselves.'

The author is probably right,too.As a hippy myself,I can well attest to the fact that hippy culture has its fair share of bums and ne'er-do-wells along for a free ride.
We refer to such people as road dogs or,my personal favorite, drainbows.

[TZ]

3. Oh I have no doubt the writer is a RW jerk.....

The use of "hippies" is a clue there. But he is dead on when he talks about wi-fi "sensitivity" being pseudoscientific and alot of it being psychosomatic.

[conscious evolution]

4. Probably a mix of both

Psychosomatic and good old fashioned welfare fraud.

I do wonder about the long term effects,though.There has been a large increase in the amount of radio energy out there and,while I'm pretty sure its not dangerous in the short term,As far as I'm concerned the jury is still out on the long term effects.

[Random_Australian]

5. .....No, not really. Unless there is something I'm missing, the only ways in which you can possibly

excite a transition are:
1) Sufficiently high energy per photon. This comes directly from the wavelength of free light, and is so different from the wavelength of radio waves that it's stupidly implausible.

2) Multiple photon transitions. This is how you can excite a transition without the required wavelength. In lasers, you can do two-photon transitions and get double the energy. In high-powered lasers, you can even get three! Whee!

That said, microwaves have higher energy than those, and they are still about ten million times too weak.

3) Finally, you can forget anything about photons or transmitted light - just set up giant voltages.

That actually happens and is fairly well known. This is why you are unlikely to find the gargantuan transformers anywhere near domestic areas. Big old pylons and whatnot.


None of those present a feasible way to damage humans. Well, except the high voltage power lines thing. But those are well known and well avoided.

All in all, it seems unfeasible for radio waves to damage humans long-term.