Pulling the Plug on Electronics (Article Review #2)

West Virginia town touts itself as haven for people seeking relief from wireless devices

Larry McShane

September 14th, 2011

http://articles.nydailynews.com/2011-09-14/news/30177766_1_wireless-technology-wood-burning-stove-kerosene-lamps

Imagine living in a secluded area where there are no cell phones, no television, no lights, no electricity all together. Green Bank, West Virginia is a small village ringing in at one hundred forty three in population and home of the he-man electronics-hating club. Residents of this village have moved here because they believe living around electronic and/or living amongst those who use electronics heavily is a hazard to their health.

Diane Schou is a self proclaimed Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity, a medical condition not recognized by the medical community. The symptoms of Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity are headache, fatigue, stress, sleep disturbance, skin symptoms like prickling, burning sensation and rashes, pain and ache in muscles and many more health problems. She lives in a small village in the Allegheny Mountains that is located in the United States Radio Quiet Zone where wireless is banned across 13,000 square miles. This area was chosen because it has a hilly topography that screens out most incoming radio signals, allowing the Green Bank telescopes to receive signals that are otherwise too low in power to be heard over the normal radio background in North America. She states that moving to this remote village from an Iowa farm "has allowed (her) to be more of a normal person". Nicholas Fox also relocated after she was convinced that her computer was giving off radiation and affecting her well-being.

Five percent of Americans believe that they are being affected with Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity. The World Health Organization has not linked the symptoms with the hazard of being exposed to electronic devices.

Relevance to Class

I believe that these people who are isolating themselves are hypochondriacs. Although they just may feel that the radiation given off electronic devices are harming tem it could very well all be in their mind. It’s a good thing to know that people, or a whole village may I say, exist in the world. Its fascinating to see that the United States actually has an area for them to dwell. Their completely cut off from the world and that’s fine by them.

Key Quote

For Diane Schou, it's almost heaven: A place where she's free from the electromagnetic fields that she believes caused a variety of physical ailments.

"It's a horrible thing to have to be a prisoner," Schou told the BBC News about her Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity (EHS).

"You become a technological leper because you can't be around people. It's not that you would be contagious to them. It's what they're carrying that is harmful to you."

Snail Connection in the Potato State (Article Review #1)

Downloads Are Slowest in Idaho, Study Finds

Katharine Q. Seelye

September 13th, 2011

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/14/us/downloads-are-slowest-in-idaho-study-finds.html?pagewanted=1&ref=us

As New Yorkers we heavily rely on our high speed Internet to work efficiently and of course when we need it, in the now. Doesn't matter what time of day it is, we expect our connection to be up and running and our web pages to load up in a blink of an eye. Well, if you’re a New Yorker visiting the potato state, then you’re out of luck because you'll be ripping your hair out waiting as the screen reads, "BUFFERING". Idaho resident Barry Ramsay, owns a small manufacturing company wedged between two mountains. He experienced a connection crash because it seems bears had rubbed up against the towers. It takes residents three times longer for a music file to download than Rhode Island residents who rank in at 3.36 seconds for a single file.

Ms. Gilliam, Idaho resident, said that “it feels like it’s moving in slow motion”; “a lot of times I'll start downloads and not complete them.” Although the slow connection bothers her, she’s more concerned about being able to receive her e-mail. Idaho also has a small population with an average of nineteen people per square mile, opposed to Rhode Island, which has more than 1,018 people per square mile. These types of numbers push providers away because they don’t want to waste product, supplies, and labor just to reach one or two households; it’s a money gamble that they’re not willing to take. Not only does these issues affect download but also it goes as far as affecting the educational needs of students. Schools were kept open late for the community to use the computer labs but ever since the budget cuts, school hours have been cut back, depriving students from reaching their full potential. Our future is in the hands of this generation, why not make it better.

Relevance to class

I believe that this article relates to class because we are learning about user experience, which pertains to the architecture of a web page that is projected on a device to the user. These users can’t view the web page if the connection is slow. This is an issue that must be corrected immediately in order for the residents of Idaho to surf the web. This limits the resources/ information exchanged from Idaho and other states.

Key Quote

In Idaho, it would take you 9.42 seconds to download a standard music file compared with 3.36 seconds in Rhode Island, the state with the fastest average speeds, at 894 kilobytes per second.

The slowest city, by the way, was also in Idaho: In Pocatello, it would take nearly 12 seconds to download that music file, according to the study by Pando Networks, a company that helps consumers accelerate downloads. In the nation's fastest city, Andover, Mass., a Boston suburb, it would take just over one second.

Such speed distinctions might seem insignificant. But with larger files, downloading delays of just a few seconds can stretch into crucial minutes or hours and over time result in losses across many aspects of life, some experts say, beyond entertainment and games, affecting fields such as public safety, education and economic growth. It is not clear how many households throughout this state still have no Internet, but nationally, the figure is 28 percent - most of them in rural areas.

"We have a guy here who was dropped into remote, isolated areas of Iraq to set up their telecommunications systems," said Christine L. Frei, director of the Clearwater Economic Development Association in Lewiston. "He told me, 'We had better communications in Iraq than you have in central Idaho.' "