MB Toronto
Morning Brew: Wi-Fi may be harming school children, Clubland diluted, diesel fuel spill in Don River, taxi fleet not so green, man struck by lightning, can MMA surpass hockey's popularity?, Kaberle remains a Leaf
Are Wi-Fi networks in schools harming our children? Parents in Barrie are leading the call for change to wired connections, because they are convinced that wireless Internet setups at their kids' schools are causing them to become ill -- from headaches to nausea to rashes to memory loss to hyperactivity. These symptoms apparently aren't present on weekends, when the kids aren't at school.
Toronto's "Clubland" is in a major state of flux. Just five years ago, there were about 90 clubs operating in the club district. But after many failed as businesses, coupled with concerted, ongoing residential development in the area, that number has dropped to just 30. City councillor Adam Vaughan is quite content about all of this, but one of his opponents for re-election in Ward 20, Mike Yen, wants Clubland back and is putting the issue on his campaign platform. Also, see this article we published last week.
A construction crew accidentally pierced an 10,000-L underground diesel fuel tank yesterday, spilling an unknown quantity of diesel into the Don River via a sewer. The spill has been contained and authorities are investigating the incident, trying to understand first why the tank was there. No major damage is expected.
Toronto has a whopping 5700 taxis in operation, giving us one of the highest taxi-to-resident ratios in Canada. But among this massive fleet, just 40 are hybrids -- making our taxis among the least green in the world. The problem is creating the incentive for operators to make the switch to hybrid technology, which can save them on operating costs, but also has its costs and limitations.
Yesterday's severe thunderstorms resulted in one man clinging to his life after he was struck by lightning while playing football in an east end schoolyard. He remains in critical condition.
Now that the provincial government has reversed its take on mixed martial arts (or MMA aka Ultimate Fighting) and will allow it to be a sanctioned sport in Ontario, is hockey in danger of becoming less popular? Quebec-born fighter George St. Pierre seems to think so.
And Tomas Kaberle is here to stay for now. The Leafs entertained a number of potential deals in advance of his no-trade clause kicking back in, but none were attractive enough to trade him away. Kaberle is the second-highest scoring defenseman in Maple Leaf history.
Photo: "Rain Walkers" by James Gonneau, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.
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No. Electromagnetic hypersensitivity is a fad illness that should be lumped in with homeopathy in terms of craziness. But even if we pretend it exists, then the human body is subjected to so many different sources of radio waves (man-made and natural) that the addition of wi-fi signals is completely insignificant. It would be like drowning in a pool of water then blaming it on the one drop of rain that happened to fall on you at the time.
Re: Lightning. The man was struck after plenty of warning. I feel for the man and his family, but when the sky goes black and rumbles with thunder, then perhaps you need to get your ass off the baseball field with lots of metal structures instead of waiting for 45 minutes.
If the news reports were accurate and he was struck at 5pm, then it should be noted (by someone who lives just down the street) that the thunder and black skies rolled in at around 4pm, the rain started at around 4:30 and the downpour at quarter to five.
Think maybe these concerned Barrie citizens should investigate a proper science class for their kids, so at least they know the difference between ionizing and non-ionizing radiation, unlike their parents.
Also - will they turn off the WiFi at home? How about the cordless phone? Wireless garage door opener? No using a Bluetooth headset in the car, either!
New school uniform addendum - tinfoil hats.
What exactly are the "limitations" of hybrid cabs for taxis? None that I see other than a business case that is skewed by there being too many cabs on the street (we have the same ration of cabs to passengers as Manhattan), an ownership structure that separates the drivers from the license holders and old, shitty used vehicles that are used across the City.
As for reduced emissions and increased resiliency to rising fuel costs, hybrids provide a great solution for these guys as they clock anywhere from 250-400km per day.
Or, more likely is the possibility that a few kids didn't want to go to school for various reasons (bullying, struggling with classes, etc), said they didn't feel well, had headaches, etc and the parents jumped to conclusions after the homeopath/naturopath they were seeing expressed concerns over radio waves . -Clearly- their child hadn't been faking it so there must be something physically wrong with the school.
http://www.theness.com/neurologicablog/?p=2215
Which is why, after a night out on the weekend, you have to wait half an hour or more for a jam-packed bus while a seemingly infinite number of taxis drive by.
As to hybrids for our cab fleet - they are designed for certain usage patterns. The amount of time spent parked waiting for fares could easily overwhelm any efficiency improvements in stop and go traffic. this is similar to the problems that our hybrid buses had - the routes didn't have the right mix of stop and go vs continuous speed to charge effectively and had cold weather problems.
The murder of clubland is sad - despotic politician destroys a critical element of the city out of personal animus. Hilarious that he sees Ossington as a good thing when the local councillor there is trying to murder that scene as well. We need to remove the power of councillors to interfere with economic and development activity in their wards, which only rewards ignorant NIMBYs at the expense of the health of the city and the region.
In Sweden they actually recognize electromagnetic hypersensitivity as a real disease! Guess which country has the highest number of loafers claiming disability for this?
Several months back there was a story in the news about a woman who was living on a relatives balcony due to electrical (and other) hypersensitivity. I found it incredibly odd that the woman couldn't live inside because of electronic devices and 'smells', but was perfectly okay outside, unshielded from countless more electronic signals, natural radiation and a multitude of various smells.
And yet people tried to help her with her 'condition' instead of trying to treat her for psychiatric illness. Has psychological illness gotten such a stigma that you'd rather pretend someone has a make believe disease than help them with their real problem?
I work in a building with several microwave transmitters - for broadcast, so quite powerful - for more than a decade. This building is also very connected with RF and WiFi transmitters and there's never been a complaint about it from any of the 2000+ employees.
That said, perhaps they should start in the cafeteria or taking a look at the kids diets in general as the majority of the symptoms outlined in the article align quite well with kids on high fat/sodium diets chock full of perservatives and other nasty checmicals.
It's the same sort of "concerned parenting" that trusts their kids and their own subjective feelings more than peer-reviewed science and leads to other examples of idiocy like anti-vax movements. People love to be suspicious of science when it suits them but god forbid they ignore science when they break a bone or their car breaks down or they want to enjoy their toys such as cell phones. I wonder if any of these concerned parents are willing to consider taking away their kids' cell phones or their own.
We have access to more information than we used to but it doesn't mean we are any less ignorant, superstitious or self-deluded as a species.
Look, you can see all the idiocy has already found its way into product design.
Back in the days, a proper cell phone had a proper antenna. I recall Miami Vice's Sonny Crocket or any one of the mob bosses there on TV, elegantly pulling out on old freaking brick of a phone, ___pulling out the antenna___, put the big thumb on the button, press it like heck, shake the thing meanwhile and start yelling into the darn blower.
Tody, see, we've got folks hooked on cr**kberries and oi-fones. Them ain't got no antenna, youse jus' pit yer thumb oan the blower, and you ARE the antenna.
No see antenna - no radiation.
Now go look for the new cars. No exhaust no stinkie.
Engineers have gone too far. If people that dumb are able to use the stuff, we engineers have done too good a job, methinks.
"Wi-Fi may be harming school children" sounds similar to "popular soda brand found to be poison, find out which one at 11".
what do you expect from hicks! these are the same parents that believe eating poprocks and coke will kill you.
@dandmb50 - I'm no tech wizard, but seems clear to me, ban them until the study in completed.
What's the big deal, if there is a slight "chance" that this is affecting our children why not ban them until the study is investigated and studied? Can we take that chance? People do not make up these conditions, and something has to be done before school opens. I am sure the "wireless" community would say there is no truth to it, but don't they have an incentive to say that. Our children are our most important resource, it is our duty to protect them, now. ..
Daniel .. Toronto
http://bit.ly/bKGa13
The people calling for further studies are kind of like the 'birthers' down in the US, who continue to believe Obama is a Kenyan citizen. They keep demanding proof that he's an American citizen, despite conclusive proof being put forth time and time again. They ignore it and continue to demand he show his birth certificate.
Studies are meaningless to these people. They'll continue to believe what they want to believe until the next fad illness comes around then they'll forget about electronic hypersensitivity then start worrying about that.
@dandmb50 what level of evidence would it take you to conclude wifi deployed in a school is harmless to children?
Well, maybe. Or knowing in advance you're around WiFi, you might just have a psychological reaction. You could probably claim Randi's $1 million challenge if your ability to detect WiFi via ringing in your ears is true. It would be a simple test. Define how strong the WiFi signal has to be. Blind yourself to when the device is on or off. Have a friend randomly turn the device on and off (naturally you have to blind yourself to any auditory cues). If you can detect when the device is on or off correctly, say, 6 out of 9 times, you might have an unknown human ability and there's $1 million waiting for you.
"The point is that it's there. "
The point is the research showing no harm and a lack biologic plausibility this non ionizing radiation can do harm is there. That's the real point.
"Again, this is the problem with too much technology. It is creating issues dealing with not only behaviour, social, psychological, and time matters, but possible health and functioning as well."
Sure you could say that about anything. But we need specific claims vs hand waving. Technology doesn't get released until it is shown to be safe vis a vis known health problems. If you think some piece of technology presents a new, unknown danger, you need to marshal your evidence, notably so when it seems to conflict with our well established understanding of what energy levels are actually found in WiFi (it you put a glass of water next to your WiFi device, you would probably have to wait around until the end of the universe until that WiFi energy raised the water's temperature by a single degree).
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1275984/
"Not even the highest house in the land was immune. When President James Garfield was shot in 1881 and taken to the White House to be treated, his steady decline over the following weeks at last came to be blamed not on the assassin's bullet still lodged in his back, but to the executive mansion's obsolete plumbing system."
Students are shown in crowded locations sitting in each other's peripheral vision using computers without Cubicle Level Protection.
Discovered and solved forty years ago the cubicle was designed to deal with the vision startle reflex in crowded workstations with repeating detectable movement in peripheral vision.
It's dangerous. While these students don't have enough exposure for the mental break this phenomenon is known to cause, if one of them created the same exposure at home where they played video games they might have it.
Most that have the mental event recover quickly with no treatment once exposure is recognized and stopped. The risk for them is that someone will act out the delusions of the full mental break to harm themselves or others.