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BBC Kicked out of School Over Wi-Fi Scaremongering
Posted by
Zonk
on Sat May 26, 2007 03:38 PM
from the i-thought-the-beeb-was-one-of-the-good-guys dept.
from the i-thought-the-beeb-was-one-of-the-good-guys dept.
h2g2bob writes "Ben Goldacre reports that the BBC Panorama team, while scaremongering over the dangers of Wi-fi, were told to leave the school because even the kids could see it was dumb: 'When the children saw Alasdair's Powerwatch website, and the excellent picture of the insulating mesh beekeeper hat that he sells (£27) to protect your head from excess microwave exposure, they were astonished and outraged. Panorama were calmly expelled from the school.' Should we be pleased that the kids can out-think TV producers?"
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Hardware: BBC Rules That Wi-Fi Radiation Findings Were Wrong 210 comments
Stony Stevenson writes "A Panorama programme claiming that Wi-Fi creates three times as much radiation as mobile phone masts was 'misleading', an official BBC complaints ruling has found. The team involved in the research came under fire from the school where the 'investigations' were held for scaremongering, but now the BBC has come out with an official ruling. 'The programme included only one contributor (Professor Repacholi) who disagreed with Sir William, compared with three scientists and a number of other speakers (one of whom was introduced as a former cancer specialist) who seconded his concerns.'"
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That was the *WRONG* question (Score:5, Funny)
Even better, they made a show about it. (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Which is an awful shame, because many television companies are producing quality entertainment worldwide, but I'm not allowed to view it because the BBC need the UK population to fund them directly through taxation.
*sigh* BBC, you command no respect from me. I like your news site, but as a British citizen, I don't appreci
Re:That was the *WRONG* question (Score:5, Insightful)
The people enforcing the TV licenses in the UK have nothing to do with the BBC and you are right, they do behave obnoxiously tending to scare people into paying but it is a tax that only applies to those with the means to receive TV programs. However they do enforce the collection of a fee that the BBC mostly benefits from.
I guess you haven't travelled much. Modern programming costs money, lots of it. In Germany you pay for a TV license, actually more than the UK and they still carry advertisements. As for the US, it the ads are intrusive. For most satellite TV you pay for a subscription AND you get the ads. There is a wonderful story about a Top Gear program that was particularly acerbic towards a car where the manufacturer's CEO threatened to pull the advertisements, he was somewhat confused when informed, they carried no advertising. For the Murdoch empire, they tread carefully to avoid offendinfg advertisers. The BBC doesn't have to do this.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
The first I heard of this this Panorama episode was when my yoga instructor started quoti
Re:That was the *WRONG* question (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
The right question is: "Should we be surprised that the kids have been lulled into a sense of unquestioning trust of our corporate overlords and technology?"
Lead additives to paint and blinds turned out to be totally safe (not). And the blue ditto machines were too (methanol exposure). Mercury fillings (banned in Europe at least). All those banned pestici
Prove it? (Score:5, Insightful)
As for me, I can't detect wifi, but I can hear very high frequencies, and you might be surprised by some of the annoying electronic gear that gives them off. Now *that* can sure cause a headache, but it's just sound, not radio.
Also, does she get like this around microwaves, too? There are more things to detect than radio, y'know, and if she was really sensitive to radio waves, I'd expect her to have gone batty long ago given all the broadcasts. So I'm not the least bit convinced that you've isolated the actual problem, sorry.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I hear cathode ray tube TVs every time they're turned on and am continually amazed when other people don't. It's not just from seeing the TV. If a fairly big CRT is on in the next room, I can hear it pretty easily if the room is only somewhat quiet. It's a light, but high pitched, co
Re:Prove it? (Score:5, Informative)
So as a teeneger / mid-20s, at some point you'll find yourself in the company of other people of the same age where some of you can hear the (annoying) noise, and some can't.
I think a lot of switched mode power supplies also tend to operate in the same frequency at their standard load (their frequency can change depending on how much current is drawn) leading to a similar effect with all sorts of electronics : including perhaps the circuitry for the 30KV(ish) high voltage part of the CRT (which LCDs don't require)
From your description of the noise as a "whine", it seems more likely to be one of these two effects rather than the 50Hz or 60Hz vertical scan frequency (which most people would describe as a low "buzzing" sound rather than a "whining sound")
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
So, no, it's not silly at all to suggest it, sir.
Studies show that's not EM (Score:5, Interesting)
Until then, I'm going to have to go with all the published studies showing that, whatever might cause people to feel "EM sensitive", it's not actually EM that's causing it.
Parent
Re:That was the *WRONG* question (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
*GASP* (Score:5, Insightful)
*Sigh*
I've seen similar situations -- namely when some high school students saw Bowling for Columbine. Teacher couldn't believe they might actually be able to see flaws in the reasoning...
Re:*GASP* (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Not to worry, they're only 5th graders. By the time they "graduate" from high school, most of them will have whatever spark of intellect and curiosity beat out of them. They won't complain, just consume.
**Sigh**
[insert comments on home schooling, or at the very least, teaching your kids how to think and how to remain sentient beings here.]
Re:*GASP* (Score:5, Insightful)
Rather, I'd suggest schools that actually encourage pupil creativity and that promote the use of their intellect. Those schools exist, though you'll hardly find any public schools that are run like that. There, your kids would probably rather be dumbed down so they don't mess up the class average.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Besides the kids of creationist parents are likely to go to christian private school which would indoctrinate them more then their parents could.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
About a couple of years ago a home schooling advocate was telling me how the public school system was specifically created to push social programs through, and indoctrinate our children. When I first
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
While I generally agree, I do strongly oppose home schooling. What your kid would miss out is the contact with other kids, not just their friends but actually finding a way to work together with people they didn't choose but that were "forced" onto them.
This is not an issue with homeschooling, as these issues still persist (or are significantly worse) in public schools. For example:
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Just because a child is home schooled does not mean they are shut-ins. There are team sports, neighbors, extended family members, and plenty of other "forced" contacts. The best public school can offer i
Re: (Score:2)
Glad to! We pulled our kids out of public school seven years ago, in part because no sort of critical thinking was being taught. Older one's in college now, younger one will be in 12th grade this fall. Best decision we ever made as parents.
While the BBC (Score:5, Insightful)
This scaremongering is one of the causes why people are more concerned over a handful of dead people in the western world per year caused by terrorism than thousands and thousands of people dead caused by traffic. I personally think this scaremongering is a misuse of free speach and the problem is, if a system or right is misused too much in it will end up dead...
Re:While the BBC (Score:5, Insightful)
No, the BBC used to be an icon of good journalism. They've gone downhill dramatically the past few years. What really saddens me, is that the same is true of "The Economist". I was a long time subscriber, but finally gave up about a year ago.
Parent
Information was yesterday, today is infotainment (Score:5, Insightful)
I can see it in our TV program. About 20 years ago, we had talk shows (no, not the Springer kind. Talk shows where experts discussed controversal topics. And with discussed I don't mean "support the official opinion and nod heads", but real discussion), we had news that deserved the name (with reporters that did dig deeper, and didn't only bring up dirt but real information), and we had entertainment above the pie-in-the-face level.
Then we got private TV and the quality of our public stations went where the viewers are: Basement level.
Parent
Columbine paradox (Score:3, Funny)
WRH! (Score:3, Insightful)
So I guess that means... (Score:4, Funny)
Good on ya (Score:4, Insightful)
Extraordinary Claims... (Score:2)
Quick!! (Score:2, Insightful)
Conspiracy gear (Score:2, Funny)
Should we be pleased (Score:3, Insightful)
Am I the only one? (Score:4, Funny)
Outraged? (Score:5, Funny)
Good Work on the Schools Part (Score:3, Insightful)
I hope all schools are instilling the same sort of thinking (looking for scientific method) in their pupils, it might result to a smarter tomorrow
"kids can think" - "science teachers can think" (Score:5, Insightful)
Uh, did anybody read the article? I don't find anything in it about the kids detecting the BS. It was the science teacher who realized that the Panorma crew was pulling a scam and threw them out. Kudos to him, but this episode doesn't tell us anything about the ability of the kids to detect nonsense.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Ironic that an extremely misleading program should be examined in an extremely misleading article (not to mention the summary being completely wrong, but we've come to expect that nowadays on Slashdot).
Re:"kids can think" - "science teachers can think" (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Emperor, new clothes, etc. (Score:2)
Are you being ironic? (Score:3, Insightful)
Doesn't work? (Score:2, Funny)
*sigh* (Score:4, Interesting)
The Beeb used to fill me with British pride (Score:4, Insightful)
Britain used to make really good documentary shows, too - Dispatches, anyone? Q.E.D.? Channel 4's Equinox, I seem to recall, could also be counted on for a refreshing brain-jiggle. You wouldn't catch 'em making anything like that anymore, of course - not when there's slaggy morons to build into role models.
And if they produce a "Deal Or No Deal"-aping enormobrowed-yahoos-receive-unearned-prizes celebration of dimwittedness, I'm fairly certain my head will explode. (Man Alive, I sound old.)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I went to public school - can you look that up for me???
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
it's a matter of the power level. the most powerful consumer wi-fi access point I've seen puts out 500 milliwatts. the local FM radio station puts out about 100,000 Megawatts. that's a scale difference of 2,000,000,000,000 to 1.
that's the difference between 1 milliliter of water and 80 Olympic swimming pools.
i find it quite plausible that a big transmission tower would pack enough energy to cause adverse effects, but
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I would assume that you actually mean 100K WATTS because at 100,000 Megawatts you should be able to pick that station up on the other side of the planet.
As for the 100K WATTS, that is reasonable, ONE of the local stations here broadcasts at approximately that and has roughly a 3 state radius ( wisconsin upper michigan and minneso
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Poser? Posing as what? Or was he simply posing a question you are offended by?
Interestingly, you are right; he should read a book or two. There have been several publications by many people performing hard science which do indeed cite EVENTS which demonstrate peculiar biological effects which suggest that there is a great deal more about the relationship between EM and human