Complex Numbers

Shhhhhhh

First, an Exclaimer! ▼

EXCLAIMER
(explanation/disclaimer)

The theme for this round of Journalistic Intentions is "Banned Instagram hashtags! All of these will get posts shadow banned on Instagram." So there are a few things my readers should know:

#1- I do not have, have never had, will never have, an Instagram account.

#2- Consequently, I have no idea what a shadow ban is or what it entails, only that it has something to do with suppression of posts with the indicated tag.

#3- I do not acknowledge the pronunciation of the octothorpe (#) as "hashtag." That symbol is either "number" or "pound," and that's more than enough definitions for one character. Anytime I see the # with letters following, I pronounce it pound, which made #MeToo way more hilarious than it should have been.

However, I hold the belief that I can write about absolutely anything, regardless of prior knowledge. This contest round tests that conceit. All entries, including this one, were selected at random from the list of 16 prompts provided.

Journalistic Intentions  (18+) This is for the journal keeping types that come to PLAY! New round starts February 20! #2213121 by Elisa, Stik of Clubs

#stop5g

There is a town in West Virginia, not too far from where I live across the state line, called Green Bank. Green Bank was apparently named after the green bank of a nearby river; as with many such names, I think you'd be unsuccessful in finding any such greenery. Kind of like how a subdivision is defined as a place where they cut down all the trees and name the streets after them.

The reason Green Bank is known outside of an obscure county in an economically depressed area is because of the Green Bank Telescope, a large radio telescope used for astronomical observations and probably sneaky spy stuff too.

Thing is, radio astronomy is notoriously subject to interference from Earthbound electromagnetic radiation. I say "electromagnetic radiation," because that's what it technically is, but it unfortunately contains the word "radiation," which is ooga-booga scary. The light that we see is technically radiation, and it's mostly harmless—we don't put on sunscreen to shield ourselves from visible light, but from invisible ultraviolet. So, yes, some portions of the EM spectrum are harmful. Some are not. Has to do with wavelength and energy.

So Green Bank, WV is part of the National Radio Quiet Zone,   a fairly large area with restrictions on what EM devices are allowed to operate. The NRQZ is fairly large; its edge is, in fact, within easy walking distance of my house in Charlottesville. The closer one gets to Green Bank, the more restrictions; in the town itself, you're not allowed to use microwave ovens, Wi-Fi, or cell phones.

For some people, I know, that sounds like Paradise Itself. Reportedly, some people have moved to the town solely because of their delusional belief that they're allergic to EM waves.

For me, that would be the Third Circle of Hell. Yes, only the third; I can think of worse places to live than West Virginia. I know I shouldn't say that as a lifelong Virginian, but yes, objectively, there are worse places. Cleveland, e.g.

But, despite the relatively minuscule number of crazies flocking to GB to escape the evil waves, there are a whole lot more people who bought into the lie that 5g cellular networks are dangerous. And those people are everywhere. If you don't have good mobile service in your area of the US, and it's not part of the NRQZ, you can blame them. And you can also blame the people who want good cell coverage, but refuse to allow towers in line of sight because they're "ugly."

Sometimes, the NIMBYs get compromised with cell phone towers that are camouflaged to look like very tall trees. You see them sometimes from interstates: rising mightily over the surrounding forest, a few desultory green branches stuck into the tower's structure. They don't fool anyone. They're like incompetent snipers in ghillie suits.   Every time I see one, whether I'm driving alone or with someone else, I go "Duuuuhhhhh... I'm a TREE."

I'll just end with this: it was at Green Bank that Frank Drake came up with his famous equation-that's-not-an-equation for estimating the probability of tech-capable extraterrestrial life. I've talked about it quite a lot in here; just do a search on the blog for "Drake Equation." This is really irrelevant to anything, but then, so is opposition to 5g.