

Belly Armor: tinfoil hats for the expectant mother - soyelmango
http://www.bellyarmor.com/

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twillerelator
$59 could also buy folic acid, vitamin d3 and choline capsules.

There's a simple exercise you can do in the final weeks of pregnancy to
encourage your baby to lie in the optimal position for childbirth (which is
ofc free to view, but, amazingly, isn't widely put into practice, I
understand).

[http://www.bloomingbellys.com/bb-blog/optimal-fetal-
position...](http://www.bloomingbellys.com/bb-blog/optimal-fetal-positioning/)

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KoZeN
Ridiculous.

If your cellphone is in your pocket, you're not protected from these perceived
risks, if the radiation is coming from behind you, you're not protected
either.

It's this kind of scaremongering that drives me insane. Expectant mothers are
under enough stress as it is without some pointless product telling them they
are being attacked by vicious radiation on a daily basis despite their own
admission that there is little to no evidence to prove that it is potentially
harmful.

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frgbhnmnjh
It's not just EM waves. Billions of sub-atomic neutrinos pass through your
unborn baby's body and yet no research has been done to show these are safe.

My special neutrino proof baby wear (made from only natural recycled neutron
star cores) will screen out (or about as much as this blocks 10Mhz RF) of this
potentially dangerous radiation.

As a bonus the curvature of the light around the super massive corset will
also make you look thinner!

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jswinghammer
Given that they are not specific about what materials they use I can't help
but wonder if they are just selling expensive organic cotton clothes labeled
as baby protection.

~~~
KoZeN
My thoughts exactly.

 _How do Belly Armor products work? Without getting too deep into the
details..._

Indulge me, go into the details.

~~~
yummyfajitas
I was even more amused by the nonsensical explanation they give after that
phrase. Apparently their Faraday cage blanket works "similar to how noise
canceling headphones work with sound waves or how a grounding wire neutralizes
an electric current."

So apparently their Farady cages work like two completely different physical
phenomena, neither of which is anything like a Faraday cage. I'm also amused
by the fact that if it really works like noise cancelling headphones, belly
armor actually emits radiation!

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scott_s
I have to wonder if this product is cynically designed to exploit people who
do not understand basic scientific reasoning. See:
<http://www.bellyarmor.com/radiation/health-risks/autism>

~~~
cabalamat
> _I have to wonder if this product is cynically designed to exploit people
> who do not understand basic scientific reasoning._

You have to wonder? I have no doubt at all that that's the case. This product
has SCAM written all over it.

~~~
scott_s
Yes, I have to wonder. Because it's also possible the people behind this
believe in it, and are also incapable of basic scientific reasoning.

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poutine
It often strikes me that for people that have no reasonable science education
the world must seems like an extremely random, unpredictable and mysterious
place without cause and consequence.

"My God, what must it be like in your funny little brains? It must be so...
boring." -Sherlock (BBC)

------
lkrubner
People in general seem to have a weak understanding of electromagnetism, and
they vacillate between ignoring it and fearing it. I have friends who will
turn on a radio and listen to their favorite station and they were unaware
that the radio waves going to their radio were also hitting them. When I
explained this to them, they seem surprised. I wasn't able to quite explain to
them that an AM radio wave coming from several miles away was extremely weak
and extremely unlikely to ever do them any damage.

~~~
eru
Also light is a radioactive wave. Or if they are sitting in front of a camping
fire, they enjoy the waves.

~~~
eru
Oops. Electromagnetic wave..

------
jbyers
Snarky comments were running through my mind, but I credit them for being
reasonably up front about the uncertainty of radiation risks. The first item
under under Radiation -> Health Risks starts with:

    
    
      What is the impact of everyday radiation during pregnancy?  
      Today, the evidence remains mixed.
    

Edit: After further reading I agree with the comments below. There's no real
balance here.

~~~
soyelmango
Good point. However, the balance of the text is more alarmist than rational.

I suspect that the target market is unlikely to read the text closely enough
to distinguish, for example, between correlation and causation (
<http://www.bellyarmor.com/radiation/health-risks/autism> \- note the graph
correlating cellphone subscribers and autism case).

And while I might want to credit them with presenting technical information
and research, this is more likely intended to obsfuscate and alarm with
scientific/statistical terms than to clarify...

Let's see; <http://www.bellyarmor.com/faqs>

_"How do Belly Armor products work?_

 _Without getting too deep into the details, RadiaShield® fabric shields
against everyday radiation by neutralizing incoming electromagnetic waves -
similar to how noise canceling headphones work with sound waves or how a
grounding wire neutralizes an electric current."_

No, noise cancelling is active - Belly Armor doesn't emit opposite phase
radiation to cancel the radiation. No, a grounding wire grounds an electric
current to the ground - Belly Armor isn't grounded.

However, if at some point in the future, significant correlations are proved,
I'll eat my cynicism and hat.

~~~
eru
I would only eat my hat, if they proved causation.

~~~
soyelmango
Ooof... that's what I meant!

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aphyr
The description also does an excellent job of mixing scary statements about
ionizing radiation (which you are _not_ likely to encounter) and low-frequency
RF, which is all over the place. It's like arguing that wrecking balls could
destroy your house, and it's therefore unsafe to play at lawn bowling.

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BillGoatse
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTXqHZiDcR0>

Read the comments. One born every minute, so to speak :)

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brazzy
Brilliant idea!

I can _so_ see women buying these to compensate for their inability to even
temporarily give up Cosmopolitans and Margaritas.

