i thought you guys were cool... or uncool, i forget which
It's pretty disappointing to see BoingBoing post about "electrosensitivity", an imagined allergy to electrical noise. People have been looking for a connection between electromagnetic fields and cancer for ages without much luck. Now I guess the kooks are retreating to claims that these mysterious (and therefore evil) rays are causing vague and difficult-to-quantify declines in quality of life and, I don't know, aura color, maybe?
All of that would be fine if it didn't seem so likely to be embraced, extended, and eventually put on the cover of Time with a big headline ending in a question mark. We've already got every nerd with a Perl book and a twin bed going around explaining to the world how he has Asperger's. I really, really don't need hypochondriacs seated next to me on airplanes to start asking me to shut off my laptop for the flight's duration.
None of this is to deny that some people might get headaches from the omnipresent 60 Hz hum that surrounds North American electricity users. But that's something different entirely from the high-tech animism that motivates this disease-of-the-week nonsense. Bah! Remember, BoingBoing: electricity good, patent regime bad...
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I've long been able to hear that a (CRT) television is on from almost anywhere in the house, even if it has no signal going to it and is sitting blankly. It's not a bother really, but I've often wondered why.
I suspect it's because my neglectful mother used the television in lieu of actual child-rearing techniques, giving its warm buzzing sound a sort of motherly "coo" in my head. (Sorry, Mom.)
you've got good ears, then. I can hear that buzz too (for now, anyway). it's produced by the flyback transformer, I believe, switching itself on and off for the electron beam's sweep across the screen. Wikipedia says it runs around 15 kHz (most folks put the upper limit of human hearing at around 20 kHz).
Prepare yourself for controversy...
You can hear a TV hum even when it's off but still plugged in. These sounds are attributed to the transformers and capacitors of the set as Tom mentioned. Any device that has oscillation in it has the capacity to produce sound. It is possible to have enough power in the harmonics for the oscillation to be audible to the human ear. Resonance is the most common reason for the perception of sound in electric devices. Ever turn on your toaster and notice a humming sound? Same concept in power lines.
Tom, I wouldn't dismiss electromagnetic sensitivity outright. If you look at an electromagnetic spectrum chart, a lot of things on the chart can kill us. X-rays, UV, IR, and microwave radiaton are all lethal (and sometimes beneficial) to humans in certain doses. Although 60 Hz and cellphone frequencies may seem benign, there hasn't been enough study of the subject. The Chinese believe electricity can be used to heal so why not believe it can be used to harm (electrocutions aside, we're talking about radiation not conductance). Granted, those little magnet bracelets they sell on TV are a load of crap. But we can't rule out the possibility that the cell phone in your pants pockets is melting your gonads, or computer screens are giving you head cancer (Willem Dafoe in Speed 2), or the little night light next to your bed is slowly killing you in your sleep.
We just don't know! ;)
I took this "perceived" allergy to be an unprovable, and that's why it's annoying. That and the people that "have" the allergy, because they're always talking about it.
I wonder if that's why Lewis the cat has gone batty.
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