Rumors, Conspiracies, etc.

Rumors, Conspiracies, etc.

by Carlo Longino




Another Way Your Cell Phone Will Kill You

from the professor-you-say? dept

If the radiation doesn't get you or your phone doesn't draw lightning to you and you've managed to avoid exploding wall chargers, you're still not safe: your phone may make you kill yourself. An Australian researcher says that there was an increase in the country's suicide rate following solar flares and the increase in geomagnetic storms they cause. This means, apparently, that mobile phones and other things that generate radiation could affect people's moods, and, by extension, make them suicidial. Guess we'd all better run out and get those special radiation-blocking watches to save ourselves from the radiation. That just leaves us the explosions and lightning to deal with.

14 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
 

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  1. Dec 1st, 2005 @ 9:34am

    No Subject Given

    by Anonymous Coward

    Classic problem with the experimental design

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  2. Dec 1st, 2005 @ 10:18am

    calm as hindu cows

    by Keegan Orange

    The amount a cell phone radiation can change your mood is about as much as a blue colored faceplate would be soothing to look at.

    i'd be more worried about the callers on the other end driving me suicidal.

    but still, an entertaining article

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  3. Dec 1st, 2005 @ 10:37am

    Uh?

    by Just one guy

    The original article comes from the Sydney Morning Herald: In most years there was a small but significant increase in the suicide rate among women on the day of a solar flare and up to two days later. Of course, taking two arbitrary phenomena and deducing a causal connection out of a statistical correlation is bad bad science. But besides the research being bad, really, let me understand, if you understood yourself: what have solar flares to do with cell phones, anyway? Are these guys serious?

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  4. Dec 1st, 2005 @ 10:42am

    When Will It End?

    by Mike Ivey

    Even the phasers on Star Trek weren't capable of all this. They could zap people to death, but they couldn't invoke mother nature, calling lightning from the sky, to wreck havoc upon the world.
    Now that we've correctly identified cellular phones as the leading cause of cancer, monstrous explosions, natural disasters, AND suicide, what more does it take to ban these little talk-boxes of doom?

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  5. Dec 1st, 2005 @ 10:47am

    Re: Uh?

    I guess I didn't lay my skepticism of the claims on thick enough in my post. This is definitely one for the tinfoil beanie file.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  6. Dec 1st, 2005 @ 10:54am

    Re: Uh?

    by Rikko

    Carlo, if you had been any more sarcastic my monitor would have snapped in half. :)
    Alas, sarcasm doesn't always lend itself to the printed word, I suppose.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  7. Dec 1st, 2005 @ 11:33am

    Get rich quick

    by Bigkid

    Does this mean that we could sue nokia? I mean if you can sue McDondals because you go there, buy food, supersize it, and then get fat, why can't we sue them for creating a little box that will attract lighting, blow up our houses, AND somehow drive us to wanting to kill ourselves. We are becoming sad people :(

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  8. Dec 1st, 2005 @ 11:39am

    Re: Uh?

    by Anonymous Coward

    not that i buy into it at all, but solar flares do have minimal impact on your cell phones. solar flares affect all types of signals, from radio to tv to phones. just most of the time, this impact is nothing more than causing static. i don't see how it'd cause suicidal urges though. thats just ridiculous.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  9. Dec 1st, 2005 @ 11:44am

    Phone dangers - Bah!

    by Mel

    I've had seven ... yes, seven close lightning strikes, with the closest being ten feet (above and to the right). I ain't afraid a no phone. Granted, family members "move away" during storms now.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  10. Dec 1st, 2005 @ 11:55am

    No Subject Given

    by BlackCow

    *sigh* is there even any evidence to prove this? Maby thare just happend to be a lot of depressed people during the solar flare.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  11. Dec 1st, 2005 @ 12:14pm

    Phones that kill...

    by Joe

    If the radiation from phones is killing that many people; why can't we engineer them to take care of those that call saying that they "are already at their computer"?

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  12. Dec 1st, 2005 @ 12:20pm

    Re: When Will It End?

    by Sohrab

    Even the phasers on Star Trek weren't capable of all this. They could zap people to death, but they couldn't invoke mother nature, calling lightning from the sky, to wreck havoc upon the world.
    Now that we've correctly identified cellular phones as the leading cause of cancer, monstrous explosions, natural disasters, AND suicide, what more does it take to ban these little talk-boxes of doom?

    hahahahahahahaha. awesome

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  13. Dec 1st, 2005 @ 3:51pm

    No Subject Given

    by Haggie

    I wish it would just cause suicidal ideation in people talking loudly on their cell phones on public transportation...

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  14. Dec 3rd, 2005 @ 1:31pm

    Re: No Subject Given

    by hautedawg

    and it is in Oz, have you ever been in the outback? solar flares or not, it's not an easy land to deal with and keep a happy attitude, and I'm sure the cells suck...

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

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