More bad news about tinfoil hats

dr. what · Post by **dr. what** » 2006-05-31 10:06am

Conspiracy theorists, beware: That aluminum foil beanie—headwear believed, since at least the 1950s, to stop brain-control rays—may make it easier for The Man to read your mind, according to Massachusetts Institute of Technology grad students. Inspired by fringe beliefs that invasive radio signals can probe citizens’ thoughts and that wearing foil on your head may fend them off, an experiment by four Ph.D. candidates found that certain key frequencies—owned by the Feds, naturally—are actually enhanced by such “protection.”

The students first recorded a baseline transmission from a radio-frequency spectrum analyzer, a device that emits radio waves of various frequencies, to its receiver antenna, located on four test subjects’ bare noggins. Then they performed the same measurements— sweeping from 10 kilohertz to 3 gigahertz—while the subjects wore one of three double-layered foil helmets: the “classical” (foil hood wrapped close to the head), the “fez” (cylindrical, flat-topped hat) and the “centurion” (conical shape with a peak). The antenna, a stumpy plastic-coated stub, was fitted between the helmet and the subject’s cranium to determine how much of a signal was absorbed or deflected before reaching the brain.

What started strictly as “a desire to play with some expensive equipment” ended with surprising results, says lead study author Ali Rahimi, a recent graduate of MIT’s doctoral program in electrical engineering and computer science. Overall, the foil effectively weakened radio waves by up to 10 decibels over most of the frequency spectrum (there were no significant differences among helmet shapes). But at 1.2 and 2.6 GHz—which fall within the band reserved for government satellites, GPS systems and mobile phone corporations—passage through the foil amplified these waves by 20 to 30 decibels. Although Rahimi doesn’t know why the foil increases only those frequencies—antenna design is a “black art,” he says—the implications of the research were clear. “It requires no stretch of the imagination to conclude that the current helmet craze is likely to have been propagated by the Government, possibly with the involvement of the FCC,” the students sagely declared. “If there are radio waves involved in reading minds, aluminum hats aren’t an effective way to counteract them."

Master of Cards · Post by **Master of Cards** » 2006-05-31 10:19am

3 -4 years ago

Vehrec · Post by **Vehrec** » 2006-05-31 12:23pm

Didn't the Mythbusters prove this? If Adam and Jamie can get these results, I believe them. And I discovered that while it makes you vulnerable to mind control, tinfoil hats do have the effect of making video games easier.
>.> <.<
I'M SERIOUS!

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2006-05-31 01:09pm

No way! This is just a gubmint conspiracy to get us to remove our last line of defense against the Aurora CIA ultra-low-frequency surveillance satellite spyplanes!

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2006-05-31 02:29pm

I ain't letting HAARP read my mind. Next thing you know, they'll deny the Philadelphia Experiments... again. They deny it, so it must have some basis in truth!

Vendetta · Post by **Vendetta** » 2006-05-31 02:31pm

What? Sticking a fucking big aerial on your head catches more radiowaves?

It's a conspiracy!

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2006-05-31 04:21pm

Yes, brother! Fight Da Man!

Pezzoni · Post by **Pezzoni** » 2006-05-31 05:33pm

I've often wondered if people actually wear tinfoil hats seriously... I mean, the idea must have origionated from somwhere?

Oni Koneko Damien · Post by **Oni Koneko Damien** » 2006-06-01 03:59am

Pezzoni wrote:I've often wondered if people actually wear tinfoil hats seriously... I mean, the idea must have origionated from somwhere?

The closest I have to verification...

A woman I work with used to work up in Green Bay. There, she worked at a factory that accepted temp labour from an institution that was trying to re-acclimate people with mental problems into the jobforce. She tells me that among her co-workers, there was a girl who believed she had an eye in her chest, a guy who always wore a cardboard necklace for religious reasons, and a guy with a tin-foil hat.

So, if third-degree hearsay is to be believed, then yeah, people do actually wear tin-foil.

theski · Post by **theski** » 2006-06-01 09:01am

Pezzoni wrote:I've often wondered if people actually wear tinfoil hats seriously... I mean, the idea must have origionated from somwhere?

Yep.. spend some time walking the streets of any busy city..

Post by **Surlethe** » 2006-06-01 12:51pm

Pezzoni wrote:I've often wondered if people actually wear tinfoil hats seriously... I mean, the idea must have origionated from somwhere?

I did. When I was five.

Or maybe that was running around waving tinfoil swords? I forget -- the government must have sucked out my memories!