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kleinbl00  ·  477 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: These moments totally happened at the GOP primary debate

I interviewed Henry Lai for an hour once. I needed information for a screenplay on how, exactly, one would communicate with the brain via non-invasive methods. He was, at the time, the guy to talk to about cell phone radiation. Might still be, I dunno; it was 20-odd years ago.

And 20-odd years ago, it was an uncontested fact that radiation had an impact on the brain. What kind of impact? Inconclusive. Dude brought up a dozen studies for me, some saying it made you stupider, some saying it made you smarter. Some saying it caused headaches, some saying it cured them. Lai's spitball take was that heating up a muscle increases blood flow, heating up the brain increases blood flow, increased blood flow is a catalyst, not a reactant.

Here's some science.

Cell phone radiation is advertised as SAR - Specific Absorption Rate. That's a "how bright is your lightbulb" measurement; the amount of light/heat that falls on your body is a function of how far away you are. In the US, a cell phone must put out no more power than 1.6W/kg - as in, holding the phone up to your head, the whole of your brain, all 1300g of it, can absorb no more than 2W.

On the other hand, your wifi router puts out about 100mW. It, of course, is subject to spherical decay and the inverse square law. Most emission is given in terms of 1w/1m and then given in dB; any given conventional loudspeaker will lose 6dB per doubling of distance. So a 120dB Marshall stack from 3 feet away? is 114dB at 6 feet, 108dB at 12 feet, etc. 3dB is a doubling of power; a 6dB loss reflects a power level 25% as strong. Of your 500W Marshall stack, 125W is there at 6 feet, 31W is there at 12 feet, 8W is there at 24 feet, etc.

I am currently six feet from a Unifi hot-spot. It's prosumer/B2B shit; it puts out 200mW. Sitting here typing I am receiving 0.05 watts off it. Should my phone ring? And I hold it up to my head? I will be receiving about 1.5W.

This is just algebra. It doesn't require much in the way of specialist knowledge; a little googling goes a long way. Now, you tell me - does RFK have a cell phone?