Wednesday, December 29, 2004

Mobile phones 'alter human DNA'





"They found that, after being exposed to electromagnetic fields, the cells showed a significant increase in DNA damage which could not always be repaired by the cell."

Good. Maybe cellphone addicts will keel over from insidious mutations. I'm utterly exasperated with the cellphone thing; I blame their popularity, in part, for my ailing social life. For example, the other night I was doing laundry and a girl I'd never talked to was there, talking on a cellphone while tossing bales of wet clothing into the steel maw of a commercial Maytag. I've found that cellphones make people genuinely unapproachable. Same with iPods. And Segways -- what, you're too lofty to share the pavement with the rest of us?

The irony is that I'm healthily technophiliac. But my requirement is that new technologies fulfill some useful role, and the gadgets that people are so enamored of are generally just costly toys. (Have you been to The Sharper Image lately?)

Don't misunderstand. I like Segways; I think they have the potential to redefine our relationship with our increasingly congested cities. But that doesn't mean taking walks is an obsolete concept. And what's with this sudden pressing need to have DVD players installed in cars? Do I really need to point out the danger here?

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