We all love our cell phones, they give us the ability to talk instantly, watch media, browse the web, and more. The cell phone companies need to give you reliable service for your calls and data stream. They can only do this with antennas strategically placed in areas where they believe would best suit the customers coverage area. But, what happens when they place antennas in your neighborhood? And what if, you didn’t even know about it. Sounds good so far to me, except when I came across this article reading the Pasadena Weekly. They investigate a rising problem with residents in the Glendale area concerned with the effects these hidden antennas have.

The article above describes John McMahon fight with T-Mobile and their persistence to put up a tower on his block disguised as a palm tree. In short, John rallies Glendale residents in a fight dubbed “Get The Cell Out Of Here” which also has its own website here. He picks up a camcorder and goes around town testing T-Mobile’s claim that they need more cell phone coverage within the residential neighborhood. He discovers that not only is the coverage fine but that most of the people he talks to are AT&T customers. Check the video out on YouTube here.

Its admirable that locals are concerned about their health this much and take notice when things change that might effect the neighborhood. According to the WHO (World Health Organization) the jury is still out for conclusive evidence on just how bad EMF and radiation from cellphones effects humans, but it would be wise to be aware of these things at the very least. Why am I concerned about this? Should I even be concerned?

This is coming from someone who has an iPhone attached to the hip all day, and is constantly using it for any/all purposes. So what is a tech gadget geek to do? I love wireless technology, I enjoy all the benefits that come with it. Even if I toss my cell phone away there is still plenty of electrical fields I will run into during my day. Things such as my wireless router, electrical towers, computers at work, even from certain tube TVs. I plan to get a EMF detector and take it around during my day to see just where I get exposed the most. It would interesting to see what its from and how I can cut down my EMF exposure. I’ll post another blog with my findings at a later date.

On a final note, I will admit that its ironic that I need yet another gadget to carry around to see if my other gadgets give me too much radiation. By no means am I paranoid but I do believe that this issue isnt as highly discussed as it should be. If you know more information about EMF, cell phone towers, or electrical fields in general by all means post a comment or send me a tweet, I’ll get notified on my iPho…… …doh.

On my way out of the house last night I happened to look up at the sky. Expecting to see a clear night sky, I saw something I’ve never witnessed. A weird “moon halo”. I was mystified by it and couldnt turn away, it was so cool and eerie. I qiuckly took my iPhone out to take a snapshot but, alas no luck since it was almost pitch black and the only light source was the moon. A small bright dot in the middle of the picture was all I saw. I tweeted about it & ran back in the house to grab my DSLR camera.

Back outside and holding the camera as still as I could I took some shots of the moon and its halo. At first I couldnt get the right exposure but after importing it into Photoshop I was able to adjust the levels a bit to get the halo more apparent.

I added some more images to my Flickr page if your interested.

Acoording to Wikipedia the scientific explaination is as follows:
Moon halos are mostly caused by ice crystals in cold cirrus clouds located high (5–10 km, or 3–6 miles) in the upper troposphere. Sometimes in very cold weather optical halos are formed by crystals close to ground level, called diamond dust. The crystals behave like jewels, refracting and reflecting sunlight between their faces, sending shafts of light in particular directions.

In another more indepth Wikipedia article explaining 22 degree halos it states:
22° halos form when the sky contains millions of poorly oriented ice crystals. Some of these happen to be aligned perpendicular to the sun light as viewed by one observer which produces the illuminated 22° circle, while other crystals produces the same phenomenon for other observers. An Alexander’s band can be seen inside the halo.

It was quite a remarkable sight and the image is still seered into my brain. I can’t wait to see my next one, and I hope you get to see one too!

PS: See Guso, you didnt really think I wouldn’t take pictures of something so cool did you? ^.~