FARK.com: (1523974) Using cell phones during a flight won't crash the plane, but it may convince astronomers they are witnessing the birth of a star

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		Using cell phones during a flight won't crash the plane, but it may convince astronomers they are witnessing the birth of a star (uk.news.yahoo.com)		90
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11804 clicks; posted to Main » on 10 Jun 2005 at 3:14 PM | Favorite | share:

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caitiff		2005-06-10 06:16:02 AM

how do you get reception off a cell tower when you're 6 miles up anyway?

Kyosuke		2005-06-10 08:43:22 AM

caitliff

Incredibly well.

It wasn't an FAA regulation that kept us from using our cel phone in the air. It was an FCC regulation.

And it still screws up the cel tower system when a phone is left on in flight.

Quick1		2005-06-10 11:26:02 AM

I've forgotten to turn off my phone a couple times during a flight, and both times I recieved a text message along the way, which means I had decent reception somewhere, probably while flying over a major city.

7Towers		2005-06-10 12:34:57 PM

I thought the reason they didn't allow it is that the phones would be constantly shifting Towers and overload the system.

dugitman		2005-06-10 12:48:37 PM

okay smart guys. Has a gas station ever asploded because of static electricity from a cell phone. This seems preposterous to me. I'm 38 and remember when i was a kid(before self-serve pumps) almost every gas station attendant had a lit cigarette hanging out of his mouth as he was pumping gas into the family car. I see these warnings at pumps now and think it must just be an urban legend. Don't get me wrong, people are rude and annoying with celphones but why not just put signs up that say "No Cellular Phones Allowed Here." Particularly apt on flights where they would be a horrible nuisance.

dugitman		2005-06-10 12:51:27 PM

Finishing soap box.

When asked about the phone-ban, employees could just say it is for consideration of other patrons and leave it at that.

Clavis		2005-06-10 03:19:52 PM

Wow, who to side with? Nerds or assholes?

bob_ross		2005-06-10 03:20:16 PM

If you could use your phone on a plane, how could they charge $10.00/min to use the TWA air phones?? Makes sense to me!!

Adman12		2005-06-10 03:20:32 PM

7Towers
I thought the reason they didn't allow it is that the phones would be constantly shifting Towers and overload the system.

That's something like the explanation I was given, too, that it would screw up the networks.

Guy Who Always Screws Up Forum Cliches		2005-06-10 03:21:51 PM

Sharp knees!

shumbert_pri		2005-06-10 03:22:38 PM

Save Radio Astronomy as we know it!

pHatidic		2005-06-10 03:23:23 PM

The miracle of life

Diogenes		2005-06-10 03:24:12 PM

Because the cell phone callers are talking to their agents??

/didn't RTFA, but I get it

syberpud		2005-06-10 03:24:30 PM

"For better or worse, there's an increasing expectation that people can use their cellphones everywhere, all the time."

Worse, trust me. We've all met folks who can't seem to operate a motor vehicle without holding a phone to one ear.

Kusoyaro		2005-06-10 03:25:19 PM

I would go insane if I had to listen to cell phone conversations while on a long flight. I hope the ban is never lifted.

kyle90		2005-06-10 03:25:39 PM

Just put the damned radio telescopes in space already...

cardina16		2005-06-10 03:26:13 PM

oh great, now i can listen to some farktard in the seat behind me drone on about his enraged hemorrhoids for an entire 8 hour flight instead of the 30 minutes i'm on the train. yeahhhh... me thinks this will incite more air rage.

DaiDreamer5		2005-06-10 03:27:19 PM

Among the nearly 8000 comments submitted to the FCC, many - including one from flight attendants - echo a sentiment by Michael Traynor of Lakewood, California. He writes: "Being in an aeroplane seat for a four to five-hour flight is arduous enough in itself without additional annoyances such as a plane full of cellphone yakkers. Keep the ban as it is!"

I agree with sentiment. It's bad enough listening to people scream into their phone on a bus, much less a plane.

Slightly off topic: Am I the only one that find text messaging during movies annoying?

schrodinger		2005-06-10 03:27:19 PM

2005-06-10 12:48:37 PM dugitman

okay smart guys. Has a gas station ever asploded because of static electricity from a cell phone. This seems preposterous to me.

Google is your friend.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/05/14/tech/main617547.shtml

CBS/AP) Flames shot up around a 21-year-old college student whose cell phone rang while he was pumping gas.

Firefighters said Matthew Erhorn, a SUNY New Paltz student, received minor burns at a Mobil station near the New York State Thurway (Interstate 87) Thursday night.

"I'm very surprised," Erhorn said.

He shouldn't have been. There's a sign at the pumps at the New Paltz gas station warning that cell phones should be turned off for safety while pumping gas.

Firefighters believe the cell phone ignited vapors coming from the car's fuel tank as it was being filled.

It doesn't take much of a charge to ignite gasoline vapors, New Paltz fire chief Patrick Koch told WCBS-AM's Peter Haskell. "Anything, really. Women's nylon stockings when they get out of a vehicle, that can cause a spark, too."

That's why motorists are told "don't use their cell phones when they're pumping gas. Really, it's deadly," Koch said.

The fire was immediately put out by the service station's fire suppression system, using an oxygen-killing powder. That covered other cars in the gas station parking lot as well as nearby trees.

The station will remain closed until the system can be recharged.

New Paltz is about 75 miles north of New York City.

bigjoel		2005-06-10 03:27:22 PM

Pleasuring myself while reading this article proved to be difficult.

mark12A		2005-06-10 03:27:35 PM

Whut Kusoyaro said.

Diogenes		2005-06-10 03:27:37 PM

"Can you hear me now?"

spleef420		2005-06-10 03:27:57 PM

dugitman

meh, it's just that the fear tactics being used are being believed. I see those signs "no cellphones" at gas pums everywhere...AFAIK not one gas station has blown up or even caught fire as a result of a cell phone. Mythbusters also shot this down a few months ago.

Adman12		2005-06-10 03:28:42 PM

syberpud
"For better or worse, there's an increasing expectation that people can use their cellphones everywhere, all the time."
Worse, trust me. We've all met folks who can't seem to operate a motor vehicle without holding a phone to one ear.

It's funny how, over the last 15 years, some people have become so critically important that they can never be out of touch with "their people." Makes you wonder how anyone ever coped before...

busy chillin'		2005-06-10 03:29:21 PM

dugitman
....almost every gas station attendant had a lit cigarette hanging out of his mouth as he was pumping gas into the family car. I see these warnings at pumps now and think it must just be an urban legend....

I was getting gas in high school and the guy pumping gas was smoking, so my buddies and I were like, " You're gonna blow the place up." He pulled out the handle, poured some gas on the ground and dropped the lit cigarette into the pooled gasoline, the gasoline put the cig out. No explosions. No fire. Something about flashpoints.

astrnomr		2005-06-10 03:30:14 PM

dugitman - They tried that on an episode of "Myth Busters", but couldn't get the cell phone to trigger any reaction with a can of gasoline. Their conclusion was that you'd need some sort of spark (like a static electricity discharge) to ignite the gasoline vapors. This typically happens when somebody goes back into the car, their body brushes against the seat, and then they go back to check on the pump.

The cell phone theory has been disproven, but gas stations aren't taking down any of the warning signs.

Denise R Sharpe		2005-06-10 03:30:52 PM

"It was not the cellphones that caused those planes to crash," says Paul Feldman, a telecommunications lawyer...

I hate to sound like a prude, but that's a rather offensive way of using the 9/11 tragedy to further one's own purposes. (I could say: "Sound like anybody we know?" But I don't want to make this a political flamewar.)

So_it_goes		2005-06-10 03:31:02 PM

Using cellphones on a plane= the next american idol is born?

/don't see the connection
//paula abdul agrees

The Drunken Chud		2005-06-10 03:31:51 PM

couldn't rtfa, after uses of the word aeroplane in one article. pissed me off. someone hold me.

/wants an aerocar.
//or an aerocopter

catfish696		2005-06-10 03:32:17 PM

dugitman

Mythbusters did the exploding gas tank from a cell phone. was funny watching grown men rub ladied undies to create a static charge, lol

Adman12		2005-06-10 03:32:47 PM

schrodinger: I though Mythbusters killed that theory by showing how the most likely cause of such fires was the spark from a static charge built up when you slid out of the car. (While every attempt to ignite with a cellphone had failed.)

T-Bone42		2005-06-10 03:33:37 PM

Okay, to sum up:

Who cares why the ban is in place. I don't care if the FCC and the scientists are blatantly lying.

Just keep the ban in place! I don't want to hear everyone's vapid conversations while I'm trapped in a flying cigar for many hours! Can we have this one sanctuary? Flying is bad enough!

Does anyone remember a time, oh, let's say mid-90s or earlier, when everyone didn't have a cell phone and everyone still was able to survive without giving a play-by-play of "what they are doing right now" to a presumed friend miles away? It was nice.

Adman12		2005-06-10 03:34:01 PM

Glad to see I'm not the only one who watched that episode :]

murphy83		2005-06-10 03:34:28 PM

busy chillin'

I was getting gas in high school and the guy pumping gas was smoking, so my buddies and I were like, " You're gonna blow the place up." He pulled out the handle, poured some gas on the ground and dropped the lit cigarette into the pooled gasoline, the gasoline put the cig out. No explosions. No fire. Something about flashpoints.

That guy is my hero.

gin_and_tonic		2005-06-10 03:34:34 PM

i don't understand all of the biatching about cell phone use...it is no more disturbing than talking to the person next to you during the flight. if you need silence get sound dampening headphones.

astrnomr		2005-06-10 03:34:38 PM

And, here's the urban legend being shot down by Snopes.com [pops]

Banacek		2005-06-10 03:35:26 PM

Keep the cell phone ban, fine. But can you let me have my iPod during landing and take off please? It doesn't interfere with anything, and take off and landing is when i want to listen to music the most. Thank you.

chenry		2005-06-10 03:35:36 PM

who wouldn't want to talk really loudly on a cell-phone inside a tight, confined space, where lots of other people can listen to you yammer away?

SHHH Cards
Carry some in your wallet.

SaintAwesome		2005-06-10 03:35:46 PM

T-Bone42

Does anyone remember a time, oh, let's say mid-90s or earlier, when everyone didn't have a fark.com web site and everyone still was able to survive without giving a play-by-play of "what I think about this article" to a bunch of strangers miles away? It was nice.

//LOL I'm just sayin' We are all guilty.

gimpsta		2005-06-10 03:35:55 PM

That guy is my hero.

Not mine. Who payed for that gas?? jk

Snarfle		2005-06-10 03:36:35 PM

Adman12: Makes you wonder how anyone ever coped before...

I think it's obvious that those people were not as important as people nowadays.

schrodinger		2005-06-10 03:37:14 PM

2005-06-10 03:30:14 PM astrnomr

dugitman - They tried that on an episode of "Myth Busters", but couldn't get the cell phone to trigger any reaction with a can of gasoline. Their conclusion was that you'd need some sort of spark (like a static electricity discharge) to ignite the gasoline vapors. This typically happens when somebody goes back into the car, their body brushes against the seat, and then they go back to check on the pump.

Well, the other day, I walked out in the middle of the street, and tried to get murdered. As of so far, I appear to still be alive.

Therefore, murders = hoax.

Really, this kind of science reminds me of the time that those creationist guys "disproved" evolution because they tried to see if life would generate in a tube filled with ink and water, and couldn't.

In order to prove that the cell phone thing is a hoax, you need to be able to disprove the empircal examples, such as the one listed above.

robaw21		2005-06-10 03:37:36 PM

Cellphone use on planes "could be a disaster for us", says Michael Davis, director of projects at California's SETI Institute, which searches for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence

Cell phones should be banned in flight so we can look for aliens? Gives new meaning to "ET Phone Home"

Runs with Scissors		2005-06-10 03:37:58 PM

So, if I use my cellphone on a plane, it will spark and cause a gas station to explode, because a woman was wearing nylon hose.

/only reads part of each comment.

WildMonkey		2005-06-10 03:38:29 PM

Turn the freakin' phone off. You are a boring nobody, and no one will remember you after you die.

Yossarian Lives!		2005-06-10 03:38:35 PM

cardina16 ...drone on about his enraged hemorrhoids...

"Enraged Hemorrhoids" would be an AWESOME name for a band!

/Got nothin'

gremlin1		2005-06-10 03:39:38 PM

We could allow people to smoke on planes again, but only if your sitting next to the obnoxious cellphone user.

SaintAwesome		2005-06-10 03:40:23 PM

Also, I am aware that no one has to come to fark and that is different than being trapped on a plane with someone talking on a cell phone.

My point is this: We do things now because we can. We slowly become compulsive about using our toys.

Anyhooo, I was just making a joke earlier.

SwiftFox		2005-06-10 03:41:16 PM

Long past time for the far side lunar station and radiotelescope array.

iron_city_ap		2005-06-10 03:42:02 PM

If the ban does get lifted, how much $$ is it going to cost the airlines to retrofit the cell systems into the planes? Even if/when that happens, I'm willing to bet the system will be "Broken" ALOT of the time (at least on my flights). For whoever got the text message inflight, you probably got a signal just barely long enough for it to spit out the message.

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