UK Gov't Promises IDs Are Absolutely Un-Forgeable... Maybe
WiMax Tries To Reconcile Hype With Reality
Dismantling The Case For Spectrum Scarcity
WiMax Tries To Reconcile Hype With Reality

Another Way Your Cell Phone Will Kill You

Rumors, Conspiracies, etc.

from the professor-you-say? dept

Thu, Dec 1st 2005 9:21am — Carlo Longino
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.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

14 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 1 Dec 2005 @ 9:34am

    No Subject Given

    Classic problem with the experimental design

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Keegan Orange, 1 Dec 2005 @ 10:18am

    calm as hindu cows

    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

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Just one guy, 1 Dec 2005 @ 10:37am

    Uh?

    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?

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Carlo, 1 Dec 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.

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Rikko, 1 Dec 2005 @ 10:54am

        Re: Uh?

        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.

        [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 1 Dec 2005 @ 11:39am

      Re: Uh?

      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.

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Mike Ivey, 1 Dec 2005 @ 10:42am

    When Will It End?

    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?

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Sohrab, 1 Dec 2005 @ 12:20pm

      Re: When Will It End?

      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

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Bigkid, 1 Dec 2005 @ 11:33am

    Get rich quick

    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 :(

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Mel, 1 Dec 2005 @ 11:44am

    Phone dangers - Bah!

    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.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    BlackCow, 1 Dec 2005 @ 11:55am

    No Subject Given

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

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      hautedawg, 3 Dec 2005 @ 1:31pm

      Re: No Subject Given

      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...

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Joe, 1 Dec 2005 @ 12:14pm

    Phones that kill...

    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"?

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Haggie, 1 Dec 2005 @ 3:51pm

    No Subject Given

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

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]


UK Gov't Promises IDs Are Absolutely Un-Forgeable... Maybe
WiMax Tries To Reconcile Hype With Reality
Dismantling The Case For Spectrum Scarcity
WiMax Tries To Reconcile Hype With Reality
Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

Friday

19:39 Important Announcement: Techdirt Is Migrating To A New Platform (0)
More arrow

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.