I’ve blogged before about my suspicions that the ban on electronic devices on airplanes is the product of a regulator with an overactive imagination, which is an opinion that upsets a lot of blog readers, so let’s take it another direction.
Everyone knows you shouldn’t use cell phones in hospitals for fear of disrupting life-save hospital equipment. Right?
According to the Survival of the Sickest blog, looks like that fear was imaginary as well, as demonstrated by a new Mayo Clinic study. By the way, if you like the Freakonomics blog, you might like the Survival of the Sickest blog also. It is by the author of a recent book Survival of the Sickest, which brings an evolutionary perspective to medicine, trying to make sense of how diseases manage to survive even when they hurt the people who carry them. The questions include “Can a person rust to death?” and “Why do we need to pee when we are cold?”
I don’t always believe evolutionary explanations since there are so many “degrees of freedom” available to help explain what we see evolutionarily (e.g. the peacock’s tail is so big because it helps the peacock reproduce; the manx cat’s tail is so small because it helps the manx reproduce, etc.). One thing is for sure, though: the issues discussed in this book are fascinating.
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Now can we cross off that no cell phone while pumping gas rule?
I have not heard of one documented case where a cell phone has actually caused a problem (http://www.snopes.com/autos/hazards/gasvapor.asp)
It appears that the real threat is from fuzzy sweaters (http://www.i-am-bored.com/bored_link.cfm?link_id=19779), but hating cell phones is so much more in vogue than wool.
Now can we cross off that no cell phone while pumping gas rule?
I have not heard of one documented case where a cell phone has actually caused a problem (http://www.snopes.com/autos/hazards/gasvapor.asp)
It appears that the real threat is from fuzzy sweaters (http://www.i-am-bored.com/bored_link.cfm?link_id=19779), but hating cell phones is so much more in vogue than wool.
Mythbusters did an episode about cell phones on airplanes. If I recall correctly, the reason pilots don’t want them is not because they will bring down an airplane (that would be silly), but that it’s possible they could interfere with equipment. More of a nuisance than a hazard I guess.
Mythbusters did an episode about cell phones on airplanes. If I recall correctly, the reason pilots don’t want them is not because they will bring down an airplane (that would be silly), but that it’s possible they could interfere with equipment. More of a nuisance than a hazard I guess.
Who cares about the validity of cell phones interfering with an airplanes communications systems…who wants to sit next to someone for a cross country flight while they are talking on their cell phone? I don’t. If there is no technical reason, let’s at least keep the ban in place for our own sanity.
Who cares about the validity of cell phones interfering with an airplanes communications systems…who wants to sit next to someone for a cross country flight while they are talking on their cell phone? I don’t. If there is no technical reason, let’s at least keep the ban in place for our own sanity.
mgroves, the truth is that studies done by the NTSB and the FAA has found that at least one person leaves their phone on accidentally (or not) on the average flight. So, that nuisance already exists. Likewise, more and more notebook computer users have WiFi on all the time, so they are also getting lots of signals around 2.4GHz, although most notebooks shut off the radio when you close the lid (takeoff and landing).
The cell phone companies do not like cell phones on planes because base stations would get flooded in areas that cannot handle the load (and the hand-off is a problem given the speed and angle).
mgroves, the truth is that studies done by the NTSB and the FAA has found that at least one person leaves their phone on accidentally (or not) on the average flight. So, that nuisance already exists. Likewise, more and more notebook computer users have WiFi on all the time, so they are also getting lots of signals around 2.4GHz, although most notebooks shut off the radio when you close the lid (takeoff and landing).
The cell phone companies do not like cell phones on planes because base stations would get flooded in areas that cannot handle the load (and the hand-off is a problem given the speed and angle).