Human WiFi sniffer is every geek's dream woman
By Darren Murph 
posted November 27th 2006 6:22PM
posted November 27th 2006 6:22PM
Alright Europe, things were dubious enough when you erased children's rights to wireless access after believing that the radiation a good chunk of internet users have been subjecting themselves to for years is suddenly cause for concern, but this is a bit much. Undoubtedly crossing the line between caution and hypochondria, a British author now claims that "electromagnetic waves" emitted by the WiFi setup in her crib "left her feeling exhausted, nauseous and sleepless." Moreover, she even states that she is so sensitive to 802.11 radiation that "she can instantly tell whether it is installed in a particular room." Aside from the above symptoms, Kate Figes (pictured) described a feeling of being "prodded by 1,000 fingers" when entering a room laced in WiFi, which presumably garnered all sorts of (understandable) skepticism. Sure, we could understand the backlash associated with cellphone signals causing all sorts of turmoil in your noggin, but if WiFi is the true brain cell killer, we're all pretty much on death row.[Via TechDirt]
So the sun is running on DC? Interesting...
*jnasato said: Likewise, if the wireless networks are poking me everywhere I go, that would be a serious psychological health concern.*
She'll have to prove that a statistically significant number of people are affected before there's even a *glimmer* of hope of getting rid of, or changing, wi-fi.
Otherwise, I'm sad that, if those terrible signals are driving you mad, you'll have to make your meds, my friend. Oh well. :p
She's a geek's dream because she'll replace the WiFi sniffer application on your laptop in hotels and airports. I once wondered if radiation from my desktop was making me sick and dizzy, but I realized that I needed stronger glasses. Madly opening and scrolling pages when I finally paid for cable DSL, driven by the speed of it, also helped drive the aforementioned weak eyes into a Web-glutting tizzy. Maybe she needs the dial-up connection that the Slowskies (turtle family) preferred on the Comcast commercials, and not just to avoid wireless acupuncture. After all, the Slowskies maintained that high speed wasn't for everyone.
Why don't you guys look on PubMed before making claims about things of which you have no knowledge? RF energy certainly does effect the brain, and there are numerous studies over decades proving this, here is one:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?itool=abstractplus&db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=abstractplus&list_uids=16882618
and another http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?itool=abstractplus&db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=abstractplus&list_uids=14995060
Now, that's not saying they cause *negative* effects or brain damage per se. Appearently epileptic individuals are more sensitive in some cases to RF energy, depending on the specific location of the epilepsy. Finally, it should be noted the temporal lobes in the brain are especially susceptible to EM fields, with some fields producing hallucinations and religious experiences in some individuals. In the literature, a child having temporal lobe seizures from the EM field by an alarm clock near the bed was noted! It varies per individual though, and it's interesting to note self-described "atheists" failed to have a normal response to transcranial magnetic stimulation of the temporal lobe.
It has been hypothesized low-frequency radio waves detected by the temporal lobe are the mechanism underlying earthquake detection by animals. If so, it's not surprising huamns don't detect them, since technology-generated radio noise would drown anything that low level out.
Does it cause cancer? No. Is it detectable, objectively? Yes. Are some individuals (ie those with epilepsy) more sensitive? Yes. Can this woman detect them? I don't know. But it's possible.
Wireless Internet Check
Bluetooth Headset Check
Two mobile phones Check
Wireless Keyboard and Mouse Check
Sitting next to 68cm Tv and IR remote Check
Sitting next to Xbox and Wireless Controlers Check
Wireless landline Telephone Check
Sitting to a sh*t load of power cables to run said appliances Check.
In all honesty if she is feeling a little sick from one of these then surely I should be dead.
"prodded by 1,000 fingers"
doesn't she mean 802.11 fingers?
For everyone who think they can "sense" TVs, it's because TVs emit a really high pitched whine that's very hard to notice, since humans can't detect frequencies above 20kHz very well. However, if one is familiar enough with the sound they could subconsciously detect it. So it's detection by air waves, not radiation.
The TV high pitched whine is definitely something you can hear, its just the TV's components that make a high pitched noise for the scan rate of the TV. Thats audible noise, but hearing or feeling 2.4 ghz is suspect, not to mention she would've had this problems years ago when people started having 2.4ghz phones, and all the other little things that use that frequency. Its possible, but in all likelihood its totally in her head.
*Randy said: Radio waves are not something that your body can come in physical contact with so the allergic response is not an appropriate analogy.*
Not that I believe her, but what exactly do you think radio waves are? OF COURSE you can come into physical contact with them. It's the 21st century and such deep ignorance exists about something as rudimentary as this? Christ...
"every geek's dream woman"
I'm sorry, she isn't Jessica Alba.
The only thing you guys can *sense* is the high pitched whine of capacitors in electrical equipment. You are not special, you just have sensitive hearing. Even if you don't hear it conciously, you're borderline enough to know something is there. High pitched noises can create a sense of pressure on the ear drum, and that can cause headaches, and nausea.
It does not mean you are sensing radiation or radio waves though. That would be silly.
People always seem to forget high power FM transmissions, TV transmissions, people with cellphones near them, and the constant bombardment from satellite TV and communications they live with every day. None of this affects them obviously, or else they would be in a padded cell rocking back and forth by now.
I met a woman at a Mac demonstration who suffers from the same thing. She can only be around electronics for an hour at the most. I forget what the ailment is called; electro-magnetic sensitivity or something like that.
Too bad she's clinically insane...this lady is nuts...seriously we have been exposed to RF radiation since the invention of the radio...so get over it
"For all of you arguing that the woman would feel bothered by Sunlight if she was being bothered by her WiFi network-- radiation acts differently when applied differently. If you sit in the Sun's microwaves for 10 minutes, you will be fine. If you sit in your microwave oven and turn it on for 10 minutes, you will die a horrible death. The Sun's microwaves are based on pulsed direct current (DC) and microwave ovens use alternating current (AC)-- different application= different result.
And about any health concerns, psychology is a huge health concern, if there are in fact no physical health concerns. If my sunglasses pose no physical health concern but have a feather sticking out of it that constantly tickles my eyelids, that is a serious psychological health concern, if I wear those glasses all day. Likewise, if the wireless networks are poking me everywhere I go, that would be a serious psychological health concern."
A. The sun does not run on DC. It does not run on pulsed DC. It does not run on electricity at all.
B. When you're in the sun, you are in visible light, as well as infrared and uv. The sun does produce microwaves, but on earth, they make up a very small portion of the absorbed energy.
C. If you are in a microwave, you will not die because it runs on AC current. You will die because you are one foot away from a 1kw+ magnetron who's energy is concentrated in a small metal box.
D. It's not an issue of psychological vrs physical health concerns based on very low power microwave transmitters. It's an issue of whether or not they have any perceptible or appreciable effect on the body. They don't.
Actually, after installing the sveasoft firmware on my Linksys WRT54G router slapping on some 15dbi antennas and boosting the output to the max 251mw then leaving the router close to my computer I did actually get very painful headaches. I figured since the 2 gigahertz frequency is also close to the same frequency we use to nuke food in the microwave, it probably wasn't a good idea to have the wattage up so high on the output. Other than that, considering the crazy things I did in high school, I don't think I'll live past 30 anyway...so like hell if I'm going to sacrifice wifi access for my Pocket PC phone edition.
well, one good way to test this would be to do a double blind test, or even a blind test would be good enough, similar to how people say they can bend spoons with their mind, but then when they are tested nothing happens. I bet this lady is exactly the same
I wouldnt use WiFi if people paid me to.
This is nothing. I can tell what toothpaste someone uses by smelling their crap.
And yea, I had to share that with you. :)
"I think it's a bit short-sighted to assume that RF emissions don't have a physiological affect on some people, sometimes negatively. Frankly, it simply hasn't existed long enough for us to know what the true ramifications are."
Except that it's been studied to death already, and no causation has been linked. Also, radio emissions have been around since the early universe, and locally here on earth for 4.5 billion years or so in vast amounts from the great wi-fi emmitter in the sky.
I hear a slight buzzing sound when I plug in my DS lite Charger... maybe it's related...
Phew. I hear it too, I was worried it was defective.
lol cool like a geeky version of super man/woman lol
I'm a bit torn on this one. On the one hand, there is some precedent for people being able to sense active RF signals - RADAR techs in WWII could 'hear' active sets, because the microwaves actually heated their inner ear, causing vibration that they interpreted as sound. And I will vouch that one can, under some circumstances, hear CRT sets - which is probably the sound of the 30kV discharge involved in such devices, maybe only with sets that have had some air leak in(? - as far as I know, it's only ever old, old CRTs) On the other hand, if she's sensitive to 2.4GHz so much that WiFi bothers her this much, I can't imagine what a microwave or 2.4GHz phone would do - seeing how as they can completely swamp a WiFi signal