Thread: New Yorkers are about to get free Wi-Fi

New Yorkers are about to get free Wi-Fi

By Nicole Gelinas
January 10, 2016 | 6:26pm

Don’t look now, but Mayor Bill de Blasio is doing something pretty cool: a major infrastructure project to improve New Yorkers’ quality of life, but paid for and run by private companies.

This one’s about improving how New Yorkers and tourists communicate — but the city could apply the same idea to how we get around.

They say you can’t get anything for free, but New York is about to get free Wi-Fi — and real free Wi-Fi.

Starting in July, the city will start replacing its payphones with 7,500 tech kiosks. Once you connect your phone to this new system the first time, your phone will connect to it automatically — meaning that if you’re walking around any crowded part of the city, from Manhattan to major streets in the outer boroughs, you’ll have a strong, fast wireless signal, and without having to watch ads first.

What does this mean? It means real competition for entrenched cellphone companies. If your carrier limits how much data you can use, connecting to free data anytime you are on the streets will help a lot.

It also helps our foreign tourists avoid expensive roaming charges — they can look at maps and do other touristy stuff for free. Plus, each kiosk will have a free tablet, helping the 25 percent of New Yorkers who still don’t have regular access to the Internet.

But the city isn’t paying the $200 million cost of this project itself. Instead, it held a competition, which companies backed by tech giants Google and Qualcomm won. It’s these private firms that will bear the cost and risk of something that is pretty low-tech: getting this thing built.

We think of Wi-Fi as invisible, but this project needs hundreds of miles of new physical cable that goes under our sidewalks and streets. What the private firms get in return: advertising revenue from the kiosks.

But they get something else that they may think is just as valuable: data analysis. The tech companies want to know how people use their phones on the street: what people are looking to do, see or buy when they’re walking around.

We need to do more of this type of thing: competitive infrastructure.

We are, a little. Last week, too, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced a new way to fix up subway stations.

From now on, contractors competing for this work will be responsible for their cost and schedule overruns — but will have more autonomy, too, to propose what they think will actually work.

But why not apply this idea to a more ambitious project? Real estate developers on the Queens and Brooklyn waterfront want to build a new streetcar line for the people fleeing crowded subways and the even-more-expensive real estate in Manhattan.

They’re telling the mayor that the streetcar would cost $1.7 billion, but would bring in more than twice that in new taxes.

If so, though, why wait for the city — which is already strained in paying for its transit projects? The developers should put together their own company to build and run the streetcar — backed only by voluntary assessments on all that waterfront property.

Just like the Wi-Fi folk, the developers would get something in return: more people who want to live and work in their buildings.

Developers could pay the people who run the streetcar a living wage — but not offer them the pensions and health benefits that saddle the rest of our transit system with costs that are so high, we can’t afford to do much else.

Even if streetcar workers unionized — a likely possibility, considering that Citi Bike workers have unionized — negotiators know that even wealthy real estate developers don’t have the deep pockets that the government has. Citi Bike workers get pay and benefits more akin to what workers elsewhere in the private sector get, not, say, nearly free health care for life.

From the city and the state, they’d only need cooperation: space on the streets to move the streetcars past traffic fast, and a deal with the MTA so that people could use their MetroCards.

People may say that’s crazy: That’s not how we do things. But how we do things is crazy: transit projects that come in years late and billions over budget.

Nicole Gelinas is a contributing editor to the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal.

http://nypost.com/2016/01/10/new-yor...et-free-wi-fi/

Before government monopolized the business transportation systems were often built by real-estate developers. The Van Sweringen brothers built light rail lines in Cleveland to bring people to their developments. Most of the transcontinental railroads were paid for by giving Federal land to the railroad. The land was worth nearly nothing until there was a railroad serving it.

Take that NYC dwellers, compliments of your cop hating, immigrant loving mayor...

Wi-Fi Health Dangers & Radiation Health Effects


Wireless Internet routers or Wi-Fi modems use dangerous electromagnetic radiation to send their signals to your computer through walls. If you have a wireless Internet router set up in your home or office (or WiMax, Blue Tooth, Air-Port Extreme, Air-Port Express, Netgear, D-Link, Belkin, Linksys and other wireless network devices) you are receiving massive EMF exposure, and living or working in a dangerous soup of radiation.
These antenna radiation patterns have been shown to lead to numerous health problems. We’ll discuss the technologies and the wifi health risks below, and the SafeSpace solutions that can help prevent them.
Intensity of EMF Exposure

Those DSL routers and cable modems that make it so convenient to get online emit electromagnetic radiation in the low gigahertz frequency level—this level of radiation is considered by scientists and health experts as potentially dangerous. In fact, the typical home or office wireless networks transmit radio signals in the same general frequency range as the frequency that microwave ovens use to cook food.
Duration is a Factor in Wi-Fi Health Dangers

Most wi fi heath damage comes from cable modems and DSL routers don’t get turned off at night: they stay on. connecting your machines to the internet whether you’re surfing or not…and flooding your space with EMFs 24/7.
Layering Increases the Wi-Fi Health Affects

Think about when happens when you check for a network signal. Do you see the Wi-Fi signals of your neighbors? Harmful artificial EMFs are compounding all around you.
Radiation Health Effects

You may have read about a recent case that made the news: A physician noted members of her family experiencing sleep disturbances, heart palpitations, migraines, and general poor health, all starting in the same week.
These electromagnetic radiation based ill health effects continued on and on. After eliminating every other possible cause, she turned off the router and they felt better. Luckily, they were not in an area swamped with EMFs from wireless technologies from nearby homes. Needless to say, the family uses a hard-wired Internet connection and the health problems haven’t come back.
Recent EMF Studies

More scientific EMF studies suggest prolonged exposure to wireless DSL or cable devices cause tumors, as well as memory loss and other forms of brain damage.
In general, high artificial EMFs like these have been shown to disturb the human body’s natural energetic field, leading to stress and fatigue as well as DNA changes and degenerative diseases like cancer. (See EMF health effects.)
What to do about Wi-Fi Health Dangers

Because these EMFs are designed to flood entire homes and buildings, moving away from them is not an option. While they can be turned off when not in use, or replaced with hardwired connections, there are the neighboring signals to contend with.


http://www.safespaceprotection.com/e...s-routers.aspx

Is Wifi Bad For You?

By erika | 10/22/10 12:29pm
medicinereport.com



Short answer: no.

Long answer: it's just another fear of the unknown, so, no.

Unfortunately, a lot of people continue to suffer from a peculiar form of mass hysteria which has them convinced that invisible wireless internet signals can induce rashes, vomiting, headaches, nausea, and all the rest. One of the biggest cases of this involved a collection of health complaints against a wireless internet tower in Ireland.

Residents of the town of Craigavon claimed all of the usual symptoms. Furthermore, they claimed that these symptoms improved when they left the area. Residents staged protests against the iBurst tower, saying that it "subjects a residential community filled with children to uninvited microwaves from their tower."

The carrier eventually caved to public pressure, and agreed to shut the tower down for a week to see if the residents' symptoms improved. Ready for the punchline? When the workers went to shut the tower down, they found that it had actually been out of commission for the past six weeks.

Wireless internet signals are just part of what some people call an "electric smog" which permeates our existence. Radio, television, cell phones, wifi, all the usual communications protocols. We bathe in them daily, but it still adds up to less than the normal background radiation which bombards our planet from outer space. Which is to say, "barely any."

Many of these claims that wifi is bad for you are being spread and perpetuated by companies who have a financial interest in the fear. Ben Goldacre, that champion of reason, has exposed several of these charlatans for the snake oil salesmen that they are.

Most of this wifi scare was spurred by a BBC documentary in which a man tests a school with wifi and finds it bathed in "harmful radiation." What they don't tell you is that this man is in the business of selling wifi radiation detectors.

But the hoaxes keep coming. You can buy a transparent shield for your computer monitor. A mere $99.95 for a shield large enough to protect you from a 17" monitor! Or a "radiation attenuating pad" for your laptop. Only $74.95 to protect your lap from radiation!

Too expensive? For $31.95 you can buy a sheet of foil, which you can wrap around your laptop's keyboard to protect you from its emissions. (Note: requires use of a wireless keyboard. [So what's the point?])

Not to mention the plastic face shield, the apron, the "sheer cloth" you can drape over a keyboard. Seriously, this stuff is endless.

Wireless internet isn't harmful. Scientific American has a great article debunking cell phone radiation, and wireless internet radiation is just the same only weaker.

As with cell phones, wifi has two things going against it, if you are an unscientific crazy person:

1. It's high tech. Unscientific crazy people are often afraid of things that are high tech. They mistrust technology, preferring things from the natural world. Like rabies, or nettles. Unscientific crazy people do not understand technology. And I'm afraid it's simply human nature to fear the unknown.

2. It's invisible. How much easier it is to fear the unseen!

Unscientific crazy people of the world, I can only encourage you to release your unfounded fears. For everyone's sake.

- See more at: http://medicinereport.com/article/wi....Wi8iZGN3.dpuf

http://medicinereport.com/article/wifi-bad-you

The REAL tin foil hat: $12 hipster headwear claim to be able to protect people from 'electromagnetic smog'

• Shield Hardware is running a Kickstarter campaign with a goal of $19,628

• Each hat is designed with a special signal proof fabric that blocks signals

• Fabric is antimicrobial, washable and was first made for military purposes

By STACY LIBERATORE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 12:54 EST, 29 December 2015 | UPDATED: 13:04 EST, 29 December 2015

Tin foil hats are usually worn by conspiracy theorists who strongly believe the government is reading their minds.

But a new startup has designed a hipper version that claims to be able to protect millennials from unhealthy electromagnetic fields such as Wi-Fi and cell phone signals.

Shield Headwear is launching a trendy line of beanies and snapbacks to defend our brains from harmful radiation.



+5
Tin foil hats are usually only worn by conspiracy theorists who strongly believe the government is reading their minds. But a new startup has designed a hipper version that aims to protect millennials from unhealthy electromagnetic fields such as Wi-Fi and cell phone signals

'The alarming statistics surround cell phone emissions have prompted Shield Headwear founders to investigate methods of protecting society from these inevitable dangers,' according to the firm.

'Studies show that cellular radiation and Wi-Fi emissions are responsible for cell mutations and growth leading to terribly medically complications.'

Shield Headwear is running a Kickstarter campaign with a goal of $19,628.

As of right now, it has attracted 235 backers who have pledged a total of $17,218.

Each hat is design with a special signal proof fabric, which is the key to keeping those harmful waves a bay.

WHAT IS ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION?

Electromagnetic (EM) radiation is a type of energy that comes from many different things such as radio waves, microwaves, X-rays and gamma rays.

Sunlight is also a form of EM energy, but visible light is only a small portion of the spectrum.

EM radiation is created when an atomic particle, such as an electron, is accelerated by an electric field, causing it to move.

The movement produces oscillating electric and magnetic fields, which travel at right angles to each other in a bundle of light energy called a photon.

Photons travel in harmonic waves at the fastest speed possible in the universe: 186,282 miles per second (299,792,458 meters per second) in a vacuum, also known as the speed of light.

The waves have certain characteristics, given as frequency, wavelength or energy.

The company claims the hats reflect signals from cell phones, Wi-Fi routers, microwaves and blocks a majority of waves transmitted from electric devices.

But as it reads on the Kickstarter campaign, 'It's not blocking for 100%, but better than nothing'.

Sticking with the tin foil hat theme, hats are available in light gray, dark gray white and black and they come in all sizes from newborn to adult.



+5
Tin foil hats are usually worn by conspiracy theorists who strongly believe the government is reading their minds.

The fabric is antimicrobial, antiodor, washable and was originally produced for military purposes.

The headwear is also radar and infra-red invisible, as it's designed with an electric field shielding, radio frequency shielding and microwave shielding.

Shield Headwear is seeking funds to move into production, improve existing technology and design new apparel.







The company claims the hats reflect signals from cell phones, Wi-Fi routers, microwaves and blocks a majority of waves transmitted from electric devices. But as it reads on the Kickstarter campaign, 'It's not blocking for 100%, but better than nothing'

There is a lot of skepticism surrounding the notion that mobile phones are causing damage to our health.
But in August, a study claimed those mini computers are a 'very real risk to human health'.

Radiation from wireless devices such as phones and tablets could be linked to a number of health risks, from cancer to diseases of the brain such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, the researchers state.



+5
Shield Hardware is running a Kickstarter campaign with a goal of $19,628. As of right now, it has attracted 235 backers who have pledged a totally of $17,218. Each hat is design with a special signal proof fabric, which is the key to keeping those harmful waves a bay

They claim this is because the radiation causes an 'imbalance' - or oxidative stress - in the body.

Oxidative stress is a damaging process thought to be closely linked to degenerative diseases.

The study is a review of experimental data on the effects of radiofrequency radiation in living cells - basically how mobiles phones may damage a person's DNA.

Dr Igor Yakymenko, from the The National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, claims the oxidative stress due to radiofrequency exposure could explain the link between wireless devices and cancer.



+5
The headwear is also radar and infra-red invisible, as it's designed with an electric field shielding, radiofrequency shielding and microwave shielding. Shield Headwear is seeking funds to move into production, improve existing technology and design new apparel

WHAT IS OXIDATIVE STRESS?

One way that our cells can become damaged is when they encounter oxidative stress.

And preventing or repairing cell damage from oxidative stress is helpful against ageing.

This stress happens when there is higher-than-normal production of free radicals, unstable molecules that carry a loosely bound extra electron.

When the free radical encounters another molecule, this extra electron is passed along in a rapid chain reaction from molecule to molecule.

When it reaches the end of the chain, it can break apart connections between atoms within important components of the cell, like the cellular membrane, essential proteins or even DNA.

After long-term exposure, it is also linked to other minor disorders such as headache, fatigue, and skin irritation, he says.

His argument is based around reactive oxygen species - chemically reactive molecules containing oxygen.

They play an important role in cell signalling and the control of internal conditions such as temperature.

When reactive oxygen species levels increase dramatically, this can cause significant damage to cell structures - this is known as oxidative stress.

The article argues that while reactive oxygen species are often produced in cells due to aggressive environments, they can also be provoked by 'ordinary wireless radiation'.
'These data are a clear sign of the real risks this kind of radiation poses for human health,' Dr Yakymenko said.

He told the New York Daily News that using your phone for just 20 minutes a day for five years increased the risk of one type of brain tumor threefold, and using the phone an hour a day for four years upped the risk of some tumors three to five times.



+5
Warning: Radiation from wireless devices such as phones and tablets could be linked to a number of health risks, from cancer to diseases of the brain such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, a new study claims (file pic)

He told the paper: '(Our) data were obtained on adults who used cell phones mostly up to 10 years as adults.

'The situation can dramatically differ for children who use cells phone in childhood, when their biology much more sensitive to hazardous factors, and will use it over the life.'

And despite the risk of cancers of the brain being low, he insists care is still needed because some health implications only appear decades later.

As a result, Yakymenko and his colleagues call for a precautionary approach - such as using phones less and going hands-free to keep the frequency away from the head area.

Read more:

• www.nydailynews....
• Shield: Signal Proof Headwear by Shield Apparel — Kickstarter
• Shield - Signal Proof Apparel

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...#ixzz3wzBnyPue

They said tobacco was safe too. It is an intrusion to have those waves everywhere, another assault upon your brain.

I guess someone w/o their own phone will not be able to make a call as pay phones are eliminated - most people do but still.