Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With
Speaker 1: tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Bye there, everybody,
Speaker 1: and welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Poulette
Speaker 1: and I'm an editor at how stuff works dot com.
Speaker 1: Sitting next to me, as usual, is Jonathan Strickland, one
Speaker 1: of our senior writers. Hey there, Crispy. All right, then
Speaker 1: I wasn't expecting that. I know, That's why I threw
Speaker 1: the one out there. All right, So today we're going
Speaker 1: to talk about a subject that UM is. I don't
Speaker 1: know if I'd go so far as to say controversial,
Speaker 1: but I'll definitely go so far as to say there's
Speaker 1: conflicting information about it. We're gonna be talking about cell
Speaker 1: phones and environments in which you aren't supposed to use them.
Speaker 1: Oh that's a not like that. No, No, let's not
Speaker 1: go there, none of the cutting out stuff. Okay, So ready,
Speaker 1: I was like, oh now I've been derailed. People send
Speaker 1: your email directly to UM. So we're gonna talk about
Speaker 1: specifically two different environments in which you are at least
Speaker 1: sometimes told you are not supposed to use your cell phone.
Speaker 1: That would be hospitals and airplanes, but not not an
Speaker 1: airplane in a hospital or vice versa. You're not I'm
Speaker 1: not supposed to use it twice as much there? Uh anyway, alright,
Speaker 1: So why would anyone tell you that you should not
Speaker 1: use a cell phone in one of these environments? Do
Speaker 1: you want to take a stab at it? Chris? Yes?
Speaker 1: All right. You know what, we actually have a question
Speaker 1: of the Day on the site dedicated to this very
Speaker 1: topic or these very topics, and uh, in short, it's
Speaker 1: radio interference. Yes, there are a lot of communications that
Speaker 1: are going on any any given time in these environments
Speaker 1: and they are concerned that cell phone reception and could
Speaker 1: interfere with those communications. Right, So when you think about
Speaker 1: cell phones, they are radio frequency generators and receivers. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's that's how they that's how you communicate over a
Speaker 1: cell phone is through radio frequencies. So this really fits
Speaker 1: into a larger umbrella of electro magnetic interference, which encompasses
Speaker 1: everything from radio waves to just about everything else you
Speaker 1: can imagine that involves electrons. So anything like an integrated
Speaker 1: circuit can create electromagnetic interference. Um and depending upon how
Speaker 1: close you are to UH to sensitive equipment, how well
Speaker 1: that equipment is shielded, the uh, the kind of antenna
Speaker 1: that equipment has, how powerful your cell phone is. You
Speaker 1: may or may not actually affect anything UM to a
Speaker 1: degree that is actually noticeable, but the possibility is enough
Speaker 1: to make people scared. Sorry, no, go ahead. Yeah. By shielding, UM,
Speaker 1: what we mean here is a lot of electronics, actually
Speaker 1: virtually everything UM has some kind of shielding in it.
Speaker 1: If you've ever taken apart um an electronic device and
Speaker 1: seeing that thin metal uh section in there, and you've gone,
Speaker 1: what is this for? Doesn't it's flimsy, it doesn't have
Speaker 1: anything to do with anything. Well, it's it's shielding, And
Speaker 1: it's basically the kind of thing that should be in
Speaker 1: your speakers when you set next your cell phone next
Speaker 1: to it and make sure your speakers do that little
Speaker 1: clipping noise that Yeah, yeah, that's that's because your your
Speaker 1: speakers are have faulty shielding or lousy shielding, cheap cheap shielding, shielding.
Speaker 1: There's lots of different adjectives we can throw in there,
Speaker 1: but yeah, it means that the it's whenever your cell
Speaker 1: phone is connecting with a cell phone tower, UM, then
Speaker 1: the that signal is is actually getting picked up by
Speaker 1: the speaker. Uh. This can happen because of multiple reasons.
Speaker 1: There's the possibility that your phone is operating on a
Speaker 1: frequency that is very close to or identical to the
Speaker 1: frequency that the that the other devices using. Sometimes it
Speaker 1: doesn't even need to work work on a on a frequency,
Speaker 1: it's just the fact that the radio frequencies themselves are interfering.
Speaker 1: Or it can do this thing called intermodulation. Now, that's
Speaker 1: when you have one piece of equipment that relies upon
Speaker 1: radio frequencies to transmit data or receive data, and another
Speaker 1: gadget in this general vicinity that also uses radio frequencies,
Speaker 1: and they're using two different frequencies. So generally you would
Speaker 1: say that these wouldn't overlap, you know, if you have
Speaker 1: a lot of different gadgets, but they're all operating on
Speaker 1: different frequencies. Theoretically, they're not going to really interfere with
Speaker 1: each other. They're not they're not communicating on the same string,
Speaker 1: if you want to think of it that way. But
Speaker 1: sometimes frequencies can sort of intermingle a little bit. This intermodulation,
Speaker 1: you'll you'll get little spikes in the the transmission which
Speaker 1: if you're using something that's really sensitive, um, a very
Speaker 1: sensitive piece of equipment, that could translate into a faulty
Speaker 1: reading or a malfunction. Which that's where you start thinking,
Speaker 1: all right, now, this is a serious problem and basically
Speaker 1: just bleeds over into those harmonic side bands. Yes, exactly,
Speaker 1: you know it just it's it's sort of it's not
Speaker 1: nice and neat. It doesn't stay in its own lane.
Speaker 1: It's to swerve out into the other part of traffic. Yeah,
Speaker 1: anything that's harmonic, we're talking about a frequency that's sort
Speaker 1: of a multiplier of the main frequency you're talking about.
Speaker 1: So anything that's related to it on a on a
Speaker 1: different factor than then you're gonna have some issues with
Speaker 1: some harmonic interference. So what does this mean with the hospitals, Well,
Speaker 1: it means that if you were to have a cell
Speaker 1: phone and you were near a sensitive piece of equipment
Speaker 1: and your cell phone then tries to contact the cell tower,
Speaker 1: that interference could cause that equipment to give out, like
Speaker 1: I said, of faulty reading or even fail. And of
Speaker 1: course in the hospitals, there are a lot of pieces
Speaker 1: of equipment that are uh pretty pivotal to people's survival.
Speaker 1: So in general, a lot of hospitals will ban cell
Speaker 1: phones out right now. I should also add that cell
Speaker 1: phones have advanced quite a bit since they first hit
Speaker 1: the scene, and now they're so well tuned that usually
Speaker 1: the frequencies don't interfere as often. And also a lot
Speaker 1: of equipment has much better error correction uh software and
Speaker 1: and hardware, so they don't necessarily pick up rogue frequencies
Speaker 1: the way they used to, so they're not as big
Speaker 1: a threat as they used to be. Yeah, there's this
Speaker 1: myth about a four year old girl actually went out
Speaker 1: in a chain email a while back. Um, and I
Speaker 1: saw this on Snopes when I was doing research for
Speaker 1: this podcast. And apparently the myth goes that this sway
Speaker 1: old girl broke her leg and required surgery and everything
Speaker 1: was going fine until suddenly she flatlined and died. And
Speaker 1: when the doctor walked out, he found a woman in
Speaker 1: the hallway using her cell phone and he smashed it,
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, there was a brew ha ha
Speaker 1: between the pain, the doctor, and the person out in
Speaker 1: the hallway because the doctor had to tell the parents
Speaker 1: that his that their daughter had died because someone was
Speaker 1: using a cell phone in a hospital. Um. No, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was about to say, I'm assuming there's no actual
Speaker 1: support or evidence of that being true. No. No, As
Speaker 1: a matter of fact, a snows found that there was nothing.
Speaker 1: Uh you know, there were no reports of anybody dying
Speaker 1: as the result of cell phone interference with medical equipment, although, um,
Speaker 1: there is there is some interference that can result from
Speaker 1: cell phones on different frequencies. Um. The Mayo Clinic did
Speaker 1: a study in in two thousand seven in which they said, basically,
Speaker 1: you don't need to worry about it, um, but there
Speaker 1: are there are some things that they did find, like um,
Speaker 1: anti theft technology. You know that you see the big
Speaker 1: pillars that you see next to the doors your local
Speaker 1: shopping mall that always stopped me from stealing you know,
Speaker 1: handfuls of CDs. Those exactly hate those those in the
Speaker 1: security cameras. Yeah, anyway, that that hand the technology has
Speaker 1: been known to interfere with people's pacemakers and defibrillators. Right.
Speaker 1: And here's here's just a tip just in case you
Speaker 1: are ever in the incredibly unlikely situation that someone collapses
Speaker 1: in between these pillars, The first thing you should do,
Speaker 1: assuming this person hasn't suffered some sort of back injury
Speaker 1: is move them out of the way, because prolonged exposure
Speaker 1: is really what's gonna cause irreparable damage. If you can
Speaker 1: get them away from the signal, sometimes they can actually recover.
Speaker 1: There's no actual permanent damage to the pacemaker or other equipment,
Speaker 1: and the person will be all right within a few minutes.
Speaker 1: So yeah, that's one of those few times where if
Speaker 1: someone does fall down it might be important to move them. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it's uh, it doesn't um, well, I don't know,
Speaker 1: but it is the same kind of thing that you
Speaker 1: see when you see, uh at your convenience store, the
Speaker 1: sign in the microwave that say that says if you
Speaker 1: have a pacemaker, you know, microwave is also a radio frequency, right,
Speaker 1: electromagnetic frequency right. Right. So so this study that you
Speaker 1: were talking about, the Mayo Clinic study back in two
Speaker 1: thousand seven, they used two different kinds of cellular phones
Speaker 1: on on different carriers and they tested out with a
Speaker 1: hundred and ninety two different medical devices and found no
Speaker 1: significant interference whatsoever, and that everything seems to be fine. However,
Speaker 1: that very same year, two thousand seven, over at the
Speaker 1: University of Amsterdam, there was a study which came to
Speaker 1: very different conclusions. And in their tests, they tested cell
Speaker 1: phones near sixty one medical devices, uh that were not
Speaker 1: hooked up to patients. They thought that might be a
Speaker 1: bit unethical to test it on actual people. Perhaps perhaps,
Speaker 1: And out of the sixty one medical devices, they recorded
Speaker 1: forty eight incidents in twenty six devices. Uh, and they
Speaker 1: said a third of those incidents were hazardous. So it
Speaker 1: caused the machine to fail in such a way that
Speaker 1: it would have been harmful to the patient had that
Speaker 1: been hooked up to someone. So we have here two
Speaker 1: very different studies. Now they're different explanations for what could
Speaker 1: have gone on to get such different results from different studies. Uh.
Speaker 1: The first one I can think of is different equipment. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's no real I don't have the details on what
Speaker 1: the equipment was that the Mayo Clinic was testing with
Speaker 1: or that the University events are Dam was testing with.
Speaker 1: Also the cell phones, as you were pointing out earlier,
Speaker 1: and I totally escaped my my attention. Cell phones in
Speaker 1: Europe operate on different frequencies and cell phones in the
Speaker 1: United States. Yeah, I mean this could be attributable to
Speaker 1: you know, the equipment and the medical equipment and cell
Speaker 1: phones in the United States versus medical equipment and cell
Speaker 1: phone overseas. So I mean it, it may just happen
Speaker 1: to uh be a convergence of technologies. So, as I
Speaker 1: was pointing out to Chris, the moral of the story is,
Speaker 1: if you have to go to the hospital, go to
Speaker 1: the United States. Don't get sick in Europe. I'm sure
Speaker 1: that's convenient for everyone. I hope so well, what with
Speaker 1: our wonderful healthcare industry here. So it seems like it's
Speaker 1: not it's not likely that it's going to cause a
Speaker 1: serious problem, but it's one of those situations where I
Speaker 1: think a lot of people would say better safe than sorry. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And there are no laws. The FCC doesn't have any
Speaker 1: laws pertaining to using cell phones inside hospitals. They leave
Speaker 1: that up to the individual hospital to decide. So some
Speaker 1: hospitals may have a ban on cell phone use, but
Speaker 1: that's just the policy of that particular hospital. Others may
Speaker 1: not have any policy at all. And you can walk
Speaker 1: up and down the halls talking on your cell phone
Speaker 1: as much as you like until you annoy someone enough
Speaker 1: for them to kick you out. But there's no there's
Speaker 1: no legal reason why you can't use a cell phone
Speaker 1: in a hospital, although you know, if you're talking to
Speaker 1: your doctor about what's wrong with you and you're on
Speaker 1: the phone at the same time, that could be Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's often, like I find that doctor's offices and being
Speaker 1: in line for fast food are two places you don't
Speaker 1: want to be on a cell phone because people just
Speaker 1: think it's so snooty. So well, that's hospitals. Did you
Speaker 1: have anything else add on that before we move on airplanes? Okay,
Speaker 1: so airplanes. Now, if you've ever been on an airplane
Speaker 1: in the United States, at least you have heard the
Speaker 1: spiel that includes all cell phones have to be turned
Speaker 1: off as soon as the the the door is closed. Um. Really,
Speaker 1: they definitely have to be turned off when you are
Speaker 1: taking off. That's that's the policy across every major airline
Speaker 1: in the United States. All right, then, well, how come
Speaker 1: Well it's for a very similar reason. We're talking about
Speaker 1: phones potentially interfering with very sensitive flight uh devices, so
Speaker 1: everything from navigation equipment to anything that involves operating the plane.
Speaker 1: The fear is that a cell phone could somehow affect
Speaker 1: these electronics in such a way as to give false
Speaker 1: readings or to cause something to malfunction. And therefore put
Speaker 1: everyone in jeopardy. And it seems not the game show
Speaker 1: just jumping ahead of you there, but everyone in danger.
Speaker 1: How about that? Uh, just so that you can chat
Speaker 1: with your buddy about the game last night. They think
Speaker 1: that's probably a little irresponsible. Yeah, if it interferes with
Speaker 1: landing gear, that would be like a wheel of misfortune.
Speaker 1: So nice, So we don't want to go down this path.
Speaker 1: Trust me. What we'll be doing game show references for
Speaker 1: the rest of the day. And I can. I am
Speaker 1: fully capable of doing that. People are more capable than I.
Speaker 1: So I have a question for sure, go ahead. So
Speaker 1: why don't they put really fancy shielding on airplanes? Well,
Speaker 1: surely somebody is is bound to forget that they have
Speaker 1: their phone turned on. There's a couple of things. First
Speaker 1: of all, the in general the airplanes do have very
Speaker 1: good shielding, not necessarily the equipment from each other, but
Speaker 1: the the cockpit from the passenger section is pretty well shielded.
Speaker 1: And uh, and there have been several tests. Again I've
Speaker 1: seen conflicting reports. Some tests say that really there's virtually
Speaker 1: no way a cell phone would affect um the the
Speaker 1: electronics of an airplane to any measurable degree. Others say, no,
Speaker 1: that's totally wrong. This person turned on his cell phone
Speaker 1: and it caused the compass to fail. Well that's a
Speaker 1: pretty big deal, right, Like, come on, you can look
Speaker 1: out the window. Um, so, well, the sun's over there,
Speaker 1: so we must be going south. Um No, but that
Speaker 1: so they are actually pretty well shielded. And when you
Speaker 1: think about it, they have to be. It's not just
Speaker 1: the fact that your your cell phone could potentially cause
Speaker 1: this plane to malfunction. I mean, if that were as
Speaker 1: sensitive as planes were, we would never get anyone off
Speaker 1: the ground because planes are constantly flying around being bombarded
Speaker 1: by different waves. I mean, radio frequencies are everywhere. You know,
Speaker 1: it's not just on the Uh. You don't turn your
Speaker 1: phone and then magically radio frequency suddenly appear. I mean
Speaker 1: some are being admitted by your phone, but there are
Speaker 1: others that are already in the environment. What's the same
Speaker 1: thing with um turning off your CD player's iPods. Those
Speaker 1: things are emitting interference and that's why they ask you
Speaker 1: to turn those things off until you're in the air
Speaker 1: at a certain altitude and they ask you to turn
Speaker 1: them off again. Another another reason for that, but beyond
Speaker 1: just the interference is simply practical in the sense that
Speaker 1: you don't want a lot of loose things in the
Speaker 1: in the cabin when you're taking off in landing, because
Speaker 1: that's that tends to be the roughest part of any
Speaker 1: flight unless you hit some really serious turbulence, and that
Speaker 1: means you just have loose projectiles bouncing around the cabin
Speaker 1: which could potentially bang into someone's head. And then you've
Speaker 1: got a lawsuit on your hands. And uh so that's
Speaker 1: another reason, you know, I mean, it's it's completely separate
Speaker 1: from the interference angle, although we also still do have
Speaker 1: this interference issue. Uh. But you have to ask yourself
Speaker 1: other questions, like, well, if cell phones are so deadly,
Speaker 1: why are there satellite phones on planes? I mean, you
Speaker 1: can use a satellite phone. Well, it's different radio frequency.
Speaker 1: So you could argue that, well, the cell phone range
Speaker 1: of frequencies maybe closer to the planes equipment. That's not
Speaker 1: really the case, by the way. Uh Another argument you
Speaker 1: might make if you are on the corporate side of things,
Speaker 1: is well, this way we can charge people to use
Speaker 1: the phone and we can monetize that um as opposed
Speaker 1: to if we let people just use their cell phones,
Speaker 1: they might be able to use it whenever there's there
Speaker 1: is one interesting thing I found on the the FCCS
Speaker 1: I specifically about this. Let's see if I can, if
Speaker 1: I can pull up the the specific wording here about
Speaker 1: about cell phones and why you shouldn't use them. Besides
Speaker 1: the fact that it affects, it could potentially affect the
Speaker 1: aircraft's UH systems. Here it goes. The primary concern is
Speaker 1: a cell phone used while airborne would have a much
Speaker 1: greater transmitting range than a land mobile unit. Their use
Speaker 1: could result in unwanted interference to transmissions at other cell
Speaker 1: UH other cell locations, since the system uses the same
Speaker 1: frequency several times within a market or given operating area.
Speaker 1: Since the cell phone is capable of operating on various
Speaker 1: cellular frequencies, unwanted interference may also affect cellular systems in
Speaker 1: adjacent markets or operating areas. So one of the reasons
Speaker 1: they don't want to use cell phones is because it
Speaker 1: can screw up the cell phone network down on the ground.
Speaker 1: You know that's that's a good because I saw some
Speaker 1: people basically saying that the reason you can't use your
Speaker 1: cell phone on a plane is just a web of
Speaker 1: conspiracy theories because the carriers don't want you messing with
Speaker 1: the communications at the tower level. The planes basically don't
Speaker 1: want to pay to have their equipment shielded more thoroughly
Speaker 1: because that would be really and I can imagine that
Speaker 1: would be really expensive. You're outfitting an entire fleet, sure, exactly. Um.
Speaker 1: And the government, which I think is really funny, Um,
Speaker 1: the government doesn't want you talking on the phone because
Speaker 1: basically they're afraid that people are gonna talk too loud
Speaker 1: and somebody else is gonna fly off the handle and
Speaker 1: try and beat their head in on a plane. Sultans,
Speaker 1: I can understand that. So that you know, the biggest
Speaker 1: argument I've seen from the average Joe or Jill, if
Speaker 1: you will, UM, seems to be, hey, no, let's leave
Speaker 1: these off, because I really don't want everybody around me
Speaker 1: on the phone. I'm on the plane. It's one of
Speaker 1: the last places that we have that nobody's talking on
Speaker 1: the phone. Yeah, and and for more evidence that the
Speaker 1: cell phone would not bring the plane down for one thing,
Speaker 1: I think it's safe to say that there's always gonna
Speaker 1: be at least one person who purposefully or not leaves
Speaker 1: his or her cell phone on during any given flight
Speaker 1: or just forget or just forgets I have. I have
Speaker 1: forgotten about my cell phone once I thought I had
Speaker 1: turned it off, and then when we landed, I was thinking,
Speaker 1: I'll turn my cell phone on and call it. Pull
Speaker 1: my cell phone out, and it's on, and I'm thinking wow. Oops.
Speaker 1: Because I'm I'm a goody two shoes. I follow the rules.
Speaker 1: I mean, even when the rules are not necessarily maybe
Speaker 1: they don't make sense, I tend to follow them anyway.
Speaker 1: I'm not one of those who questions authority and turns
Speaker 1: my cell phone on and says I'm gonna either crash
Speaker 1: or I'm gonna prove them wrong. And then that's I'd
Speaker 1: rather get to where I'm going and not get hit
Speaker 1: by fine or pepper spray. So because that could happen,
Speaker 1: it has happened. Well, not the pepper spray on a plane,
Speaker 1: but um grand uh fine. Yeah, one guy was hit
Speaker 1: with the twenty grand fine when he refused to get
Speaker 1: off the the phone in midflight. Um he said it
Speaker 1: was a life or death situation. I believe, as I
Speaker 1: recall it was his father had passed away and so
Speaker 1: he or was passing away in the process. Of dying,
Speaker 1: and he had to arrange make final arrangements with the
Speaker 1: hospital and he felt that it could not wait. So
Speaker 1: you know what had happened was he apparently had left
Speaker 1: his phone on, received a phone call, found out it
Speaker 1: was the hospital, and then called the hospital a couple
Speaker 1: more times, and despite the fact that flight attendants told
Speaker 1: him to stop calling, he continued until they essentially restrained
Speaker 1: him and slapped him with a fine. I think, yikes, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a bad day right there, my friend. But cell phones,
Speaker 1: I mean, we've got wireless on lots of flights. Now, yeah,
Speaker 1: we've got WiFi. So so again, it's clear that obviously
Speaker 1: these radio frequencies aren't bringing planes down left and right.
Speaker 1: People are finding ways to monetize it, and suddenly it's
Speaker 1: okay to use it. I'm not going to get all
Speaker 1: cynical there. But and the European Union actually is UH
Speaker 1: has some flights that allow you to use cell phones.
Speaker 1: They have different arrangements depending on what plane you're on,
Speaker 1: like what airline you're on. UH. Some have very special
Speaker 1: plans that you have to opt into before you can
Speaker 1: use your cell phone on them, and if you have
Speaker 1: decided even though they're in the European Union have decided
Speaker 1: not to allow cell phones because the customers, as you
Speaker 1: were pointing out, said they don't want it. You don't
Speaker 1: want to sit next to a chatty catty Cathy all
Speaker 1: the way from Berlin to l A. Yeah, call, that
Speaker 1: would be a very long call. Um. I know some
Speaker 1: teenagers who could do it, though, So I wonder now
Speaker 1: the WiFi is allowed on flights. This is another one
Speaker 1: who's extemporaneous. I just thought of it sort of questions.
Speaker 1: I wonder if Skype would work a lot of airlines
Speaker 1: specifically block Skype. Really, yes, they specifically firewall the heck
Speaker 1: out of Skype because they don't want voice over Internet
Speaker 1: Protocol calls going out. Um. Again, part of it is money.
Speaker 1: You're looking at at a you know, if the plane
Speaker 1: has the satellite phones where they charge you to use them,
Speaker 1: you know, you slide your credit card in and suddenly
Speaker 1: you can make a phone call. Uh. It makes way
Speaker 1: more sense to force you into using that than to
Speaker 1: allow you to use some other method. And also they
Speaker 1: do want to discourage people from just you know, becoming
Speaker 1: even more compartmentalized and thinking that they are the center
Speaker 1: of the universe and chatting as loudly as they need
Speaker 1: to in order to you know. That's the other thing
Speaker 1: is that airplanes are allowed, and humans tend to increase
Speaker 1: the volumes of their voices, uh in loud environments because
Speaker 1: they figured the person on the other end can't hear
Speaker 1: them very well, right, I mean, it's just a natural thing.
Speaker 1: It gets louder you start speaking more loudly. Yeah, of course, nice.
Speaker 1: I think we probably just hit the top level on
Speaker 1: that one, so Liz will be pulling that down later. Sorry, Liz,
Speaker 1: that wasn't the hay there or anything. And uh, but yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, you you tend to do that sort of thing,
Speaker 1: and you don't necessarily need to do that. When you're
Speaker 1: on the phone. The microphone picks you up your voice
Speaker 1: pretty well, so you're shouting your head off at someone
Speaker 1: who could hear you if you just talked to a
Speaker 1: normal voice. But because the plane itself is kind of loud,
Speaker 1: you naturally get louder and louder, and then the whole
Speaker 1: environment gets louder and louder, and flighting flying just becomes
Speaker 1: even less of a pleasure. I actually used to really
Speaker 1: enjoy flying, not quite as much now, but I used
Speaker 1: to makes my arms tired. Waca, waca walka. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1: We should have accepted that challenge with stuff you should know,
Speaker 1: because at least then I feel like we were doing
Speaker 1: this for a reason. Um So, So anyway, that's all
Speaker 1: I have right now for for cell phones and hospitals
Speaker 1: and planes. Again, we're talking about a lot of conflicting information. Yeah,
Speaker 1: some people feel it it hasn't really been tested that thoroughly,
Speaker 1: but the FCC in two thousand seven basically decided to
Speaker 1: close the book on cell phones on planes for right now.
Speaker 1: So it's I don't think it's going to get turned around,
Speaker 1: at least not in the immediate future. Yeah, it's it's
Speaker 1: one of those things where I think, Um, you know,
Speaker 1: the tough thing is it's hard to test this stuff
Speaker 1: without it without testing it in a dangerous, dangerous environment.
Speaker 1: And so people are saying, well, is it really worth
Speaker 1: testing this much or could we just go without for
Speaker 1: the duration of a flight or a visit at a hospital. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, is your life so really important that you
Speaker 1: are willing to put it at risk and the lives
Speaker 1: of everyone else around you just so that you can
Speaker 1: collect and make a you know, complete a call, and
Speaker 1: most people would say no. I mean, I'm not one
Speaker 1: of them, because obviously my life is important enough for that.
Speaker 1: But most people would be reasonable and say no, al right,
Speaker 1: well that's all I had for that. Yeah, I don't
Speaker 1: have anything else either. Well then that means that we
Speaker 1: are to my favorite segment, a listener mail. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I thought you'd appreciate that. This listener mail comes from Kathleen.
Speaker 1: Kathleen says, hey, guys, I have two requests, but it
Speaker 1: would be awesome if you guys did either one of them.
Speaker 1: I would love to hear a Google Wave podcast at
Speaker 1: some point, either based on the one point five hour
Speaker 1: long developers demo or later in the year after it
Speaker 1: comes out. Ironically, I found out about Google Wave through
Speaker 1: Marshall Brain's blog, not the Tech Stuff blog, which I
Speaker 1: thought kind of weird. I have since blogged about Google
Speaker 1: Wave just so you know, Kathleen, so you coul should
Speaker 1: go back and check it out. I also think it
Speaker 1: would be cool to compare the new search engines what
Speaker 1: do you even call them? If not search engines that
Speaker 1: are coming out, specifically Wolf from Alpha and Bying, but
Speaker 1: it's not Google with the Google Search Engine or maybe
Speaker 1: even have individual podcasts on each. Now, of course, we
Speaker 1: talked about Wolf from Alpha. We'll probably talk about Bang
Speaker 1: and Google at some point, and I've blogged about this
Speaker 1: as well, so I'm covering all the bass is on
Speaker 1: this one. But here's the reason why I read Kathleen's email. Finally,
Speaker 1: here's my Shakespearean sonnet. Since you guys already got two
Speaker 1: spince arians that I wrote in lieu of studying for
Speaker 1: my English final, I think since she wrote it instead
Speaker 1: of studying, we owe it to her to read this.
Speaker 1: This is to text stuff and all that you do.
Speaker 1: Your fans love you dearly. Also, please note a sonnet
Speaker 1: is harder than a haiku against stuff. You should know
Speaker 1: you get my vote. Why learn how Thanksgiving works when
Speaker 1: instead you could learn of seventy inch TVs even listen
Speaker 1: about the world Wide Web. Tech Stuff is indeed the
Speaker 1: podcast for me for churning out eight delightful podcasts. My
Speaker 1: thanks and applause goes to how stuff works, which entertain
Speaker 1: whenever one broadcasts. Each is amusing and has its own quirks.
Speaker 1: I hope John and Chris still live. If it's true
Speaker 1: that Josh and Chuck really sit next to you, Yeah,
Speaker 1: they were you do. Actually, Chuck technically sits on the
Speaker 1: other side of the cubicle wall. Yes, but I can
Speaker 1: see his feet when I, you know, got my pencil
Speaker 1: look under the cubicle wall, all right. Sometimes you see
Speaker 1: his face, which is really unsettling. Yes, I don't know
Speaker 1: why he does that. I think it has to do
Speaker 1: with the red beeping thing that has attached to the
Speaker 1: underside of my desk. I don't know what that's for. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So anyway, guys, if you want to learn more about
Speaker 1: cell phones, airplanes, and hotels, hotels, hospitals, I don't know
Speaker 1: where the hotels came from. I'm just thinking. I'm just
Speaker 1: thinking about vacations. I'd rather think about hotels and hospitals, cellphones,
Speaker 1: airplanes in hospitals. We do have the question of the
Speaker 1: day on how stuff Works dot com. You can always
Speaker 1: write us our email addresses tech stuff at how stuff
Speaker 1: works dot com and we will talk to you again
Speaker 1: really soon for more on this and thousands of other topics.
Speaker 1: Does it how stuff works dot com and be sure
Speaker 1: to check out the new tech stuff blog now on
Speaker 1: the House stuff Works homepage, brought to you by the
Speaker 1: Reinvented two thousand, twelve Camry it's ready. Are you