Building a cell phone tower on the site of a public school sounds like a good idea to me.   The cell phone company gets to increase their infrastructure, the local users of their service get better reception and best of all, the lease money goes to the school.   The money a phone company pays a property owner for the rights to operate a full sized transmission tower can be as high as thirty thousand dollars or more a year, for some sites.   That’s enough to hire an additional teacher, buy a fifty mid-range computers, refurbish a few class rooms or update the school library.

However, if the school is in Florida, then there’s a group of assclowns who won’t let science stand in the way of their battle to expel cell towers from school grounds. This site come to me from a reader by the name of Greg.   Greg happens to be an x-ray and MRI technician, so he obviously knows quite a bit about things like dialectric heating, ionizing and non-ionizing radiation, the inverse square law and the other aspects of this issue.

The group “Expel Cell Towers” is working hard to scare parents and has forced a school board meeting on the subject - you know, because the school board has nothing better to do.

They have also managed to get media coverage in Tampa Bay Online, Tampabay.com and The Saint Petersbergs Times.   Of course, portraying this as a battle for the health of children.

They offer the following “Quick Facts”

There is no long term data to prove that cell tower emissions are not harmful – especially to children.
EVERY school in Hillsborough County is eligible to get a tower without notification to the community.
Many people will avoid buying a house near a school with a cell tower because they fear the unknown with regards to electrical lines and cell phone towers.
Cell Towers contribute 0.008% to the annual school budget. This is 80 cents/student per year.

Ah yes, a few common claims that are made include the whole argument that the tower emissions must be harmful because we don’t know that they’re not.   This is, of course, not true at all.   There have been many studies on the issue and, despite what people may like to tell you, living with RF radiation is nothing new.    Then there’s the “no notification to the community” thing.   I might point out that the schools also don’t have to notify the community when they get a new refrigerator for the cafeteria or any other piece of equipment that has no direct baring on them.

As far as people not wanting to buy houses near cell sites, there are two things that come to mind.   First, this is nothing but a pat on the back to all the scaremongers.  Aren’t you proud of yourself?  You went and made everyone panic.   Secondly, if this is actually true, then I definitely need to move to one of these sites.   If it means I won’t have idiots for neighbors, then I’ll more than tolerate the site of the tower.

As for the claims of the school budget, they don’t offer much in the way of citations, there’s no way of confirming how valid that is, but given the information source for their other claims, I’ll just say that I’m skeptical about the accuracy.

One of the big claims they have made is that the emissions are too high to be safe.  They complain that even though the emissions are orders of magnitude bellow the FCC’s safety limits they’re still dangerous, because the FCC hasn’t updated those limits since 1996. And ya know… stuff gets more dangerous over time, right?

But this is my FAVORITE of all their FAQ’s:
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Things are really going a bit too far.   Sure, it’s one town over, but as far as I’m concerned, the bad science fanatics are treading on the wrong turf.   This shall not stand…

Madison knew of uranium in water for 2 years
Radioactive: Your kids
Uranium not just in Madison schools
Conn. Health Dir. Knew about High Uranium Levels
High uranium detected in water at two CT schools
How much is too much uranium?

I’m going to have to be writing to a lot of local media outlets and if there happen to be any more meetings on the topic, I’ll be sure to be there.

I happen to live about two miles from Madison CT.

From the New Haven Register:

Uranium found in Madison water

MADISON — District officials will disable all water fountains at two schools and supply bottled water for drinking and cooking purposes after the schools’ water tested positive for elevated uranium levels.

Superintendent of Schools David Klein advised parents Friday that uranium, a mildly radioactive substance that can cause kidney disease, was found Thursday in water at both Kathleen H. Ryerson Elementary School and Dr. Robert H. Brown Middle School.

The uranium level was found to be 110 parts per billion, more than three times the standard accepted by the federal Environmental Protection Agency for public water systems that supply homes, Klein said.

There is no standard for schools, and no testing is required for schools, said Brian Toal, an epidemiologist at the state Department of Public Health.

The tests were done after an anonymous source told school officials Oct. 28 that elevated uranium levels were found in the groundwater at a nearby property.

The Department of Public Health does not expect people who consumed the water to suffer any adverse health effects, Toal said Friday.

As a precaution, town employees will disconnect all water fountains this weekend and begin using water coolers in the halls and kitchens beginning Monday and until further notice, Klein said.

“I think the school district is responding very thoughtfully. We’ve responded expeditiously, and I think we’ve put together a plan, starting Monday, that is all about the safety of the occupants of the schools,” he said.

For the first week, the coolers will cost the school district about $555, Director of Facilities Bill McMinn said. He said he will determine future orders based on consumption.

No other Madison schools were affected because their water is provided by the Connecticut Water Company, which tests for uranium and other impurities, Klein and Department of Public Health Director John Bowers said.

Toal said students and staff exposed to the uranium need not take any action.

He said he has seen levels in Connecticut of more than 1,000 parts per billion not cause adverse effects.

“We just don’t want people, parents, to be overly concerned. If their children were drinking a reasonable amount of water, … we would not expect any adverse effects and there’s no medical testing that would be recommended or even be useful,” Toal said.

Usually, in situations when there are elevated uranium levels, building owners drill a new well or install a filtration device, Toal said.

“We will be continuing to talk to the state Health Department about any further action that we can take,” Bowers said. “Treatment is going to be very difficult.”

Klein said he has not determined the probable cost of supplying water to the schools, and remedying the uranium levels, or where the money would come from in the budget.

“We just wanted to make sure we did the responsible thing and we will find the money to do the right thing,” Klein said.

Several parents Friday said that although they were somewhat concerned about the uranium levels, they were confident in the administration’s ability to handle the problem.

Maggie Mayer, a parent of students at both schools, said that while she found the news startling, she trusted that the situation would be handled and would not result in any health problems for her children.

“I think what did concern me is the possibility that they haven’t been testing the water all along,” Mayer said, adding that she wished school officials had taken action when the tip came in Oct. 28. “I understand that they probably didn’t even think that this was a concern, but that’s two more weeks of exposure that the kids didn’t need to have.”

A meeting, where residents can ask questions and discuss concerns, is scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday in the Brown Middle School auditorium.

It was mentioned on the news that the “source of the uranium has not yet been determined.”   Well, I can tell you what the source is right now:  the local geology.   Yes, that’s right.   Uranium, as far as minerals go, is just not rare at all.  It’s actually quite common to find uranium in a variety of rock and soil types.

The fact that the levels are “three times higher” than the federal standard for residential drinking water shouldn’t really be any reason for concern.   The standards are set very conservatively and considering that most kids would be limited to a few sips from a drinking fountain, the exposure is basically neglidgable.   110 ppb is a bit higher than normal but still not really high enough to really get worried about.

Another thing to consider is that many of the students from this school likely go home to drink from wells that have just as much uranium in the water, if not more.   All things considered, bringing in bottled water seems a bit silly and expensive.   However, I can’t fault the school for feeling the need to.   I’m sure that if they did not immediately shut off the “uranium” water fountains there would be plenty of parents screaming bloody murder about it.

Of course, if you go by the word of those who believe that Iraq, Afgahnistan and Bosnia are all contaminated forever and full of victums of depleted uranium, then shouldn’t all the students be dead by now?   Or at least have some kind of hideous tumor growing on their head or something?   Guess not.

There have been some comments that have shown up here that seem to indicate that the person making the comment has either not read the post they are refering to, perhaps just seeing the headline, or that they may have skimmed a few words off of it but really took iniative to actually read the content.   This can be annoying, but it’s especially annoying when someone demands answers to something that is addressed right there infront of them, practically staring them in the face.

I happened to get an email recently, which shows that someone found this site and managed to navigate to the contact page, but also seems to have read almost nothing else.

Here’s the relevant portion of it, coming from someone who said they found my site and thought I might be able to answer an important question:

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The sad thing is that a kid could learn more about economics, commerce, entrepreneurship and the realities of business from this 1956 Loony Toons short “Yankee Dood It” than they learn in the educational system.   Unfortunately, these topics are generally not taught anymore – or at least it was not on the curriculum when I was in school, which was not that long ago.   Luckily, I had some teachers who explained it anyway.

But for those who didn’t, here’s Elmer Fudd’s explanation:

Upon reaching adulthood, every generation seesms to shake their head at how kids are being raised.   I admit that I’ve been put off by what I’ve seen of modern parenting, where children rarely see their two full time working parents, never seem to play outdoors, watch television constantly, dress like prostitutes and sit like zombies in the back of minivans that are equiped with LCD screens to pacify them with Spongebob videos.

Yet, even given this, a recent news story shocked me.   This is without doubt the worst behaved kid I have ever heard of in my life, and he’s only seven years old.

From the Associated Press:

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Update: Apparently this video was not serious. It was made as a joke by someone who is not a Fundamentalist Christian or an idiot. This was only apparent by viewing the other videos by the same person. Really, it can be very hard to tell. Making a mockery of these types by taking the anti-evolution arguments to the next degree of absurdity is hard to do because often there are people who actually truly really do believe stuff this wacky and ill informed.

Maybe I’m just gullible, but this didn’t seem any worse than other videos I’ve seen. Maybe if it denied gravity or something that would be a clue. It’s just really really hard to top the real thing for ridiculousness.

Now here’s something even worse!   Plate tectonics:  An evil, satanic conspiracy of atheists to destroy the faith of people in the true word of god!

Do I even need to point out all the ridiculous flaws, untrue statements and logical fallacies in this crap?

Plate tectonics and the concept of land masses moving over long periods of time is not supported by just a few fossils and the fact that the continents fit together.   It’s based on seismic data that has shown the structure of the earth and an understanding of geophysical forces.  It’s based on everything from rock formations to isotopic signatures that are found around the world.   It’s based on precision measurements of geography, surveys, observations of natural formations, subduction zones and volcanic areas.

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I use youtube all the time for sharing videos.   No, it’s not the best video hosting site around for quality of the video or features, but it’s the most popular in general and that means good exposure.   It’s also pretty simple and works well for most people.

I’m really getting concerned though, because the site is a good example of what happens when conspiracy theorists, quacks and idiots in general are given a place to spread missinformation:  They use it.   The big problem is that they seem to use it to a larger extent than rational people.   Perhaps it’s because the rational pro-science kind generally have jobs and responsibilities to attend to, but really, given how video seems to sway people more than text (especially people who don’t like to read), it’s getting just scary.

If you want to become very scared and loose any of your remaining faith in humanity, just go to youtube and search for ‘vaccine.‘   My jaw nearly fell to the floor at how unbalanced this crap is and the fact that it’s universally high rated and gets thousands of hits.

This remarkable piece of crap, for example, has already gotten 20,000 hits and is rated at 4.5 stars.  That’s 20,000 individuals who apparently generally buy into this crap and have either not gotten the facts or choose to ignore them:


By the way.   The guy on the video, accused of shaking his baby to death, is now out of prison.  On appeal it was found that the autopsy report did not contain enough information to prove the baby was shaken to death. Although evidence does appear to indicate this, there is a case for reasonable doubt, in part because the child’s organs were harvested for donation before a pathologist could examine the body, thus destroying most of the evidence of cause of death.

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It’s no secret that many a state legislature or school board in the US (and for that matter abroad as well) has been trying to weasel a little creationism into the science curriculum of schools by calling it “intelligent design” and using the idea that it is somehow a scientifically valid alternative explanation to the origin and diversity of life on earth.    In general, these efforts fail due to the fact that anyone who knows the first thing about the scientific method can see through this crap and that courts tend to agree.

The Discovery Institute is an organization which has been amongst the most fanatical and tenacious groups in pushing for this anti-science.  Despite universally failing in their attempts to introduce ID into schools and to remove both evolution and all things related to it from education, they have not given up.

They’ve put out a book called “Explore Evolution” which they hope will be used as a text book in science classes.   On the surface it claims to offer a balanced look at evolution in both the pro and con schools of thought and show both its strengths and weaknesses.   Of couse the biggest strength of evolution is, in the words of Carl Sagan that “Evolution is not just theory.  It’s fact.  It happens”

A biologist took a very comprehensive look at the work and (surprise surprise) it’s not only missleading but chock full of bad science lies, myths and obfuscation.   Check out this excellent look at a book that highlights the agenda and dishonesty of this whole movement.

In found an interesting post over on Slashdot regarding a recent study on how ideology can affect a person’s beliefs on matters of a more factual nature. The study cites a number of different examples of the phenomena of people believing things which appear to be strongly influenced by their opinion on an ideological matter. It’s not surprising because inductive logic and selective memory can often be used to consciously or unconsciously ‘cherry pick’ data and facts to support a given view point.

The article linked also cites the difficulty of disputing myths with valid information, as this may only serve to make matters worse. This is something touched on here not too long ago.

The study cites one example as being the source of news and how that correlates to a person’s answers to issues of fact. It cites Fox News, a news source known for being of a conservative leaning as having viewers who are more likely to believe that the US has found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and that Saddam Hussein was found to be connected to Al Queda, versus other news outlets of a less conservative leaning . The implication is that those who turn to Fox News are of a more conservative and pro-war ideology. However, I’m a little skeptical here. The reasoning for this may have to do with internal cherry picking of data and ideology shaping beliefs, but it could also be because a more conservative news source is more likely to ’spin’ things in favor of a given belief.

In some cases, the truth is not always so simple. For example, the question of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Strictly speaking, weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq. Weapons of mass destruction are commonly classified as weapons that go beyond conventional means of causing damage and include weaponized nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. In the case of Iraq, the claims of WMD’s pertains to chemical weapons. And indeed, chemical weapons have been found in Iraq. Therefore, the question of WMD’s being found in the country is technically that they have been found.

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