Santa Fe WiFi foe strikes again: sues neighbor for using wireless devices, lives in a car
By Richard Lai 
posted January 12th 2010 6:12AM
posted January 12th 2010 6:12AM
No, this isn't him, because the real Arthur Firstenberg (with or without a cat) would probably need more than an aluminum helmet to cure his "electromagnetic sensitivity," symptoms of which allegedly include stomach pains and memory loss. In fact, this man -- an active member of the anti-wireless group in Sante Fe -- has taken one step further by suing his bewildered neighbor 25 feet away for refusing to switch off her wireless devices, which he claims has forced him to stay at friends' or live in a car. We'd say just chill out, find some place in the middle of an African desert, and then fly out. Oh, wait.[Photo courtesy of Wally Glenn]
Attention seeker.
@mark29
He's just ignorant. (Among other things). If he was really suffering from the condition he says he is, all he would need to do have a doctor get him to a Faraday cage. It's easy enough to do a blind test on him, or anyone else who 'thinks' they have this condition..
I say give it to the Mythbusters, but my guess would be the results would be... BUSTED.
Then again, he could always just line his house with tinfoil.
@Blackstar Yeah- I wonder why, for instance no one in Ukraine complains about this
@Blackstar They totally need to bust this
@Blackstar
thanks. the best thing to come of this moron is that i learned a bit about what a faraday cage is. and that's why i read the comments on engadget
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraday_cage
@Blackstar
It was already done in a lab (not by Mythbusters, though, sadly :().
Basically, it was completely psychosomatic. The subjects complained whenever the LED on the empty box in front of them turned on, but not when the massive and powerful transmitter 2 feet above the head switched on and off.
@yuriythebest
Ha! My name's Yury too! And I'm from Ukraine originally as well XD
@Blackstar He would also not want to be inside a car, modern or otherwise. Unless he has a diesel he is doomed. Ignition = EM
@Blackstar lol. BTW mythbustes started filming the new season two days back. it should air march/april
@yuriythebest
no one Ukraine complains about EM signals, because all mad people are busy running for president.
If you knew about the healthcare in the ukraine you'd get why you would not hear about complaints, but you also don't hear them about them glowing in the dark because the chenobyl reactor busted up in the ukraine, but it damn well did.
@mark29
"Attention seeker."
Yea, but the cat is straight up gangsta!
Really, he could buy some of that expensive EM-blocking paint or even the wallpaper.
@lifenexus Awesome news, can't wait!
Is kari coming back?
@mark29 great photo at least
this guy needs an old-fashioned ass kicking. his neighbor shouldn't have to put up with his lunatic shit. as for staying with friends...as if.
@EI8HT
I agree 100%. He needs punched in the face and get curve stomped.
@Cg006
the word you're looking for is "curb" - and that's going totally overboard in this case...
@Cg006 - I'm with Phen. "curb stomping" is kind of an outrageously violent and ridiculous thing to say. sheesh.
Sheesh, take it easy on the poor fella, guys, he clearly has problems!
But... the question is... what are his problems, exactly? (Cue ominously mysterious music.)
@Gad Get
His father failed to administer sufficient fatal beatings.
@fatbencher
Your Rowan Atkinson quote has warmed my heart and made my morning!
I hate people like this!!!!
It is sooooo annoying, studies where done to see if Electromagnetic sensitivity was real and the studies yielded nothing!! i think it was something like 15 supposed sufferers and they ran all sorts of tests and found absolutely no physical evidence that they where being affected!!
@theevil
A similar story...
Hey, I'm a flight instructor teaching at a flight school that's a couple of miles outside a small city that's fast growing... And guess where its growing towards? The airport, of course!
And people complain of loud noisy airplanes! As if they did not know we existed for the last 35+ years and its them that's encroaching up to us...
To the city folk and to this "neighbour that lives in a car", Buzz off!
Anyone know if it's actually physically impossible for a human to detect a wireless signal? Obviously we can detect *some* EM radiation.
Indeed. It's commonly known as "light", or "visible light".
@Gad Get
Our Nervous systems react fairly significantly to mobile phone radio waves but not so much that it makes us go live in cars and at imaginary friends houses.
Same principle here different wavelength.
@triptych It's possible; network preferences.
Sorry back to the topic: I'd say it's impossible (for WiFi RF); based on extensive research by sitting about 30cm away from a wireless router when I'm on my desktop.
As for the neighbour, I would have hidden the SSID a long time ago, that would have stopped the complaints.
@triptych If you output a wifi signal with enough wattage it will cook you. Though most of us call these things microwave ovens.
@Gad Get I know. That's why I said "obviously".
@barry99705
I find it hilarious that you have your profile picture as the kismac guy.
@nikg
and ys indeed microwave ovens also operate at 2.4GHz jsut like your cordless home phone, but their signael strength is well meant to cook food(well excite the water molecules but you get the idea).
One would think detecting a wifi signal would be a plus! Now if only you could detect the WEP key as well...
@FallenArms3 WEP key? Man, I hope you're not still using that old fashioned encryption! You could already be hacked...
WEP?
Shouldn't be too hard.
@FallenArms3 Pretty sure you can crack a wep key on a TI-83 calculator.
@FallenArms3 Eh, I was speaking colloquially. These days I refer to pretty much any wifi access code as a WEP. Sorry if I can't keep up with the geekisms.
That picture is hilarious; the cat has the type of expression that says "he's going to get it for making me wear this".
@kingdomskingdom That's the "I'm going to shit in your shoes" look.
Hasn't this guy heard of a Faraday Shield? I mean, really? If you have a "sensitivity" to that sort of thing you should learn to overcome the issues, not force the world to change to accomodate to your silly whims. Wait, Electromagnetic Sensitivity? That's not even anywhere near wireless devices. Is he sensitive to gaussian anomalies or just electronic interference?
The way to test it would be to put him in a Faraday box and see if he feels better. No? Move to test two. Yes? Stay in the box. Next test, wrap 100' of copper wire around his head and plug it into 110v power and see if the gaussian fields affect him. Have his back to the plug and don't tell him when it is on. If he feels pain when the field is on... sorry bud, you're going to need to leave earth... this place runs on magnetic fields.
@Legoboy
jsut drive him around some high voltage power lines and see if the 100000+ volts makes his brain go ow
This is the most ridiculous thing I have heard in a while. Why should his neighbors be inconvenienced for this guys minor headaches or whatever he is claiming? He should be the one who has to either choose to live with it or move somewhere else. I hope this is exactly what a judge tells him or I will loose all hope in our country.
I'd buy the biggest WiFi amp I could buy and then direct the energy right
at his house. You thought it hurt before? Just wait...
I think the neighbour should take a leaf out of these peoples books:
http://www.passiveaggressivenotes.com/2009/12/30/wifi-for-passive-aggressives/
Read this over at gizmodo yesterday. Every device gives off em, and they are a natural occurence on earth. He better avoid powerlines, fm radio in his car, banks, courthouses have wifi for people waiting, basically anything outside of a wooden shack in the middle of a desert.
@Anticrawl Yea, this is the same freak that tried to sue the city for having wifi in the library and other public places.
This guy must freak out during an eclipse :P
Two word: aluminium siding
I'll believe him if he can hear mobile phone calls being made
Why ban Wifi only? Why not go the whole mile and ban cell phones?
@(Unverified), ban the electricity! Power cables also create a EM field around them...
@(Unverified)
Why not really go the whole mile and ban poor little Arthur Firstenberg?
Seems simpler to me.
Not only would I leave my wifi on, I'd create a sub Network for friends, leaving it wide open to the public(more traffic more love) ooo and to top it off maybe get one of them high powered antennas and try to share the love with all of the neighborhood.
I'm sorry if this effects the guy,but don't tell me what todo in my own home. I hope he enjoys the cave he will have to move into this fucking planet is covered in wireless waves.
SideNote: you know how the little LED key thing/ or old school nokia antennas light up when your cellphone is on, can you imagine what it would do to this guys head, if i was his friend id call someone and toss him the phone to see his head explode !