Yes, it was assholish, but at the same time it was necessary. She claimed all sorts of weird issues that were very convenient and got her out of having to deal with things and part of it was just simple hypochondria, which is sad because she is an RN. After that, we were all just, “okay, whatever.”
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Electromagnetic radiation can harm you, hat’s why you should wear sun cream.
Beyond that though, unless you’re working in an industrial/scientific/military type setting you’re unlikely to come into contact with EM waves that can affect you.
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I saw this a few years ago and I’ve never wanted so badly to try something that would likely kill me.
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Anything that delivers energy to the tissues has a potential to injure. Mechanisms vary.
An ordinary microwave oven has quite some injury potential. Nothing to worry about if you are using it properly and the interlocks are working, nothing lethal even otherwise, but cases of microwave-oven injuries are known.
It wouldn’t. Notice the metal suit, a wearable Faraday cage. Even without it you are likely to live, though with somewhat unpleasant surface burns where the discharge will meet your skin. (When playing with smaller Tesla coils, it is suggested to hold something metallic to draw the arcs instead of using bare fingers.)
Edit: Also notice the electroluminescent wires that decorate the suit, and the battery and stepup converter box on the belt. The converter is likely a bog-standard inverter. I wonder if/how they did some extra EMI/high-voltage hardening on the electronics so it would survive an occasional direct hit with the spark. Given the wide gap in frequencies between the Tesla coil and the inverter, a simple LC filter with some transils and a shielded box may do the job neatly.
It takes at least 10 milliamps through the heart, and at least 10-50 joules of absorbed energy, to be lethal. In addition, high frequencies the Tesla coils operate with are subject to skin effect, so the current path is confined to your surface. When playing with Tesla coils, you get worse risk from the primary stage where the voltages are smaller, the currents higher, the sparks way less impressive or even hidden altogether in solid-state switches, and the combination of available voltage, current, frequency, and energy is reaching into the danger zone. At least with the bigger coils; a tabletop one built with a car ignition coil and powered from 12…24 volts will at most give you an easy-to-remember zap, don’t ask how I know.
Todo: make a small SSTC.
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Well, yeah, I know about the Faraday cage suit but I’ve already got electrical issues with my heart. No pacemaker yet, but I think it’d be tempting fate a little too much to play with giant electrical devices.
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With the Faraday cage, the worst risk is that you get too startled and your heart gives up.
That is a cause of death with quite some electrical mishaps; you’d survive the electricity itself but the startle response does you in. (And then there are the even more indirect cases when what kills you is e.g. a fall, after the nonlethal but unexpected shock knocks you off a ladder.)
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Or they could be suffering from real problems, but misidentified the cause, in which case the proper solution is not to ignore their problems but to find solutions and work with them to actually identify the cause.
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Yes. No “you don’t have problems” - but instead “your problems aren’t related to the transmitters, let’s look further”.
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I just looked up Signs on IMDb to be sure that was the movie I thought it was. Ugh. That piece of rampant idiocy actually won awards.
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Their explanation about what causes their distress is unscientific, and I tend not to believe it. At the same time, I have empathy for people when they are in distress. Folks who consider themselves electrosensitive do seem to be experiencing something bad, and it would be great if they could feel better.
It feels very disrespectful to tell someone their problem is psychosomatic, and I wouldn’t tell that to a stranger, but the mind is powerful and the universe is weird. If my sister told me she was electrosensitive, we’d have a really frank chat about it, because we have the kind of relationship where we can call bullshit as needed. I would expect the same of her.
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My guess is that sort of background noise is relatively constant and is easy to subtract/ignore.
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Good to know. Systematic reactions are, at one end of the spectrum, extremely dangerous, at the other, extremely annoying.
If there was justice in this world, the miscreants would first have the pleasure of meeting Superman immediately followed by the displeasure of him kicking them squarely in the groin.
Sort of. Parents who did not understand allergies or what could be an allergen. Fortunately, the one thing that is actually life-threatening did not become life-threatening until after I was on my own.
Proper testing. That is what happens when allergies are suspected. That is what should happen when EMF is suspected.
Gather evidence. Even a personal diary can lead to an important scientific discovery.
Which leads me full circle to this…
That still strikes me as dubious. I cannot recall a single investigating scientist in any well done study using the word “fake” to describe a stimuli. I suspect the Wikipedia author had an ax to grind. Looks like one of the study authors may also have some interest in axes.
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Too much. While there is not enough evidence to prove the ailment exists there is also not enough evidence to prove what you claim.
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Of course the vested interests in the Vacuum Tube Lobby weigh in with their industry-approved “facts” early on. You’ll probably be defending vaccines or women in the workplace, next!
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He’s a Humilitarian, and protected by Freedom of Religion. What’s your excuse?
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Well I was thinking of coming back and telling you that the TC wouldn’t kill you. They always pose in a faraday cage or wear a chainmail suit for dramatic effect. The frequency range, several hundred KHz, is too high to shake up your nervous system, and it doesn’t move elecrolytes around (like DC) and cause heart attacks and such. And the skin effect, blah, blah, blah. The only thing that might hurt, is that the plasma in the spark is hot.
But then Shaddack jumped in with the way-too-complicated explanation. So, yeah, the TC probably won’t kill you, at least until you grab a charged capacitor while building one.
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Some swirly lines drawn on a piece of paper.
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I haven’t been able to identify all my allergens. I have suspicions about xanthan gun or wood pulp, among others. I have had severe asthma attacks without any of my known alargens, and severe hives after taking benedryl, so I have raised the issue with doctors and have not been able to get a referal for a comprehensive allergy test.
My guess would be that that sort of background noise is relatively constant and is harder and harder to subtract/ignore and eventually and eventually becomes extremely painful even if it is only barely audible. But, you know, not everyone’s perceptions work the same way.
I for one plan to profit from the “EMF-sensitive”.
Click here to purchase my special “EMF Blocking Paint!”, it’s only $1000 a can, and if you coat your entire home in it maybe you will feel better or something.
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