[WEB4LIB] Re: More on Wireless Librarian

[David Merchant]

>There's a difference between deciding something is safe after tests have
>been done and assuming it is safe.

Some good points but one part should be rewritten:

>The fact that wireless LANS have
>some similarity to cell phones is not at all comforting, even if I were
>to believe that the radiation from cell phones was devoid of risk.
>Similarity is not a guarantee of safety (hey, carbon and oxygen aren't
>dangerous  - I guess that means carbon monoxide must be safe!)

Since carbon is not normally in gaseous atmospheric form, and since you are 
inferring that the similarity of breathability between two gasses doesn't 
guarantee safety, and thus proving that similarity is not a guarantee of 
safety, it might be better to compare atmospheric Oxygen (O2) to Carbon 
Dioxide (CO2), since both contain O2, a similarity, and C02 is also not 
safe to breathe alone while O2 is.

OK, so it's late and I should be in bed!

>stories, but ignores the fact that the whole system is becoming more and
>more tightly controlled by people who are looking not for knowledge but
>for salable products.

To be fair, he may not have meant to ignore, none of us are perfect 
skeptics and can have our subconscious enculturations, indoctrinations, 
etc, undermine us / blind us.  Which is why discourse is such a good 
thing!  Skeptics need skeptics as well!

> > Try reading some of the studies on this cell-phone stuff. The cancer
> > rates are in the noise, swamped by real effects like cigarette
> > smoking.

It is very difficult to untangle all the parameters. The biggest mistake we 
usually make is trying to make a complicated issue simple, that rarely works.

> > I'm a bit biased, but Robert Park has a very nice book called "Voodoo
> > Science" http://my.linkbaton.com/isbn/0195135156 in which he talks
> > about the lousy science done addressing supposed cancers caused by
> > power lines.

Few of us can claim perfection, and so even with some flaws, I still agree 
with Eric that Park's book is very nice and worth reading and can add to an 
informed investigation into the question at hand.

> > >("Do you need to talk to the librarian?  She's the one over there
> > >wearing the tinfoil hat...")

:-D!

TTFN,
David
Systems Librarian, Louisiana Tech University
merchant at latech.edu or webmaster at mountaindragon.com
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