The cult leader is dead! Long live the cult leader!

[Agent Lemon]

I guess you could say it's common sense that cell phones, by their nature, increase the risk of cancer at least somewhat,  but the size of the risk is unclear(to me, at least). I would wager that driving your car for an hour everyday would be a lot riskier than having your phone in your pocket. My point is that there is risk involved in everything we do, but we still do these things because they increase our productivity/convenience/enjoyment/whatever. If you don't think the risk is worth it, fine, you can act accordingly. If you think other people are underestimating the risk then you can work to make them more aware of these matters(which you seem to be doing). But I'm not sure what the implication is of what you are saying. Do you want to ban cell phones or restrict their use? If so, then I cannot agree. The only acceptable solution to me is to allow individuals make their own choices, while continually raising awareness about any potential issues.

Also what about the invention of, say, the car? Would you have oppose that because only rich people could afford it in the beginning, and this would be "class warfare"?

P.S. I thought of this thread today and decided to turn my phone off in class instead of burritos it on silent in my pocket. You may just have saved my life

P.S.S. When I was 12 I was one of the only kids in my class who didn't have a cell phone, and this was several years before the iphone came out, so I'm not sure you can really attribute cell phone usage by kids to Steve Jobs.

[Brian]

It seems to me you are actualy more angry about the whole i-lifestyle then anything else...

[Buck Turgidson]

Agent Lemon, you present an argument I can sink my teeth into, and will be harder to beat because it is a sound counter.

The car analogy sucks because minimum age requirements are set by law - you know, because it is a danger.  Same for tobacco.  Same for guns, explosives, fireworks - basically anything that's fun. 

With regards to class warfare, the car did cause a lot of class division - the answer was mass transit, a perennially money losing enterprise that had to be put in place to placate the masses, and allow them options outside of factory-neighbourhood ghettos - mass transit is subsidised by the state everywhere.  In a world where you cannot move you are at a huge disadvantage - and in an age like ours, not having the means to communicate & access the internet wherever you are is a worse one.  Increasing productivity is a worthwhile pursuit, and if the risk to health is reasonable, then leave it to the consumer.  But cell phones certainly represent a serious risk to kids whose cell division it at its height (look at the project in Japan to send seniors into the Fukushima zone for cleanup duty - they withstand radiation much better because their cell division process has slowed to a crawl).

I am not advocating giving up cell phones - they are an integral part of life.  Incidentally if EM fields were a concern, then we would have to give up electricity (can you imagine if it turned out that electricity was responsible for cancer - how would we react?).  We are already bombarded by radio waves from wi-fi, cell phones, TV, Radio...etc.

What I am saying is that Steve Jobs was an ass, and the world is better without him.  Brian got me right - I am upset about i-life...etc.  It meant the popularisation of useless shit, getting into bed with record companies, creating a cliquish social strata based around a hardware/software ecosystem, and propelling a dogma where you are either with Apple or against them - and it cannot be reasoned with.  They call their salespeople 'Apple Geniuses' and have all of their followers thinking they are 'creative' when they are just mindless cattle consuming whatever they are fed. 

Since I have already eaten crow for comparing Jobs to Hitler, I will continue down that path - like the Nazis, Apple:

- created new economic principles (ref Goebbels unpegging the Mark from the gold standard, apps as the primary revenue driver)
- invented new titles for their people
- held themselves and their followers to be superior to the general public (Master race/i-life)
- spent a huge amount on marketing (the Nazis actually created a Ministry of Propaganda)
- fuelled a dogma that could not be reasoned with
- created a fanatical following
- invaded privacy
- tried to take over the world
- made their followers suffer whether they understood it or not

In the end analysis, funny enough, the Nazis did win the war though.  All western currencies are now unpegged from the gold standard and base the value on GDP, all have ministry of information / CNN / BBC..etc, jet and swept wing technology came from them, the US would never have made it to the moon on Goddart's research alone, and medical science took a leap forward based on their horrible research.  In fact they even managed to get their conquerors to fight for them against the Bolshevik...great propaganda & spin.

Ok I am starting to realize that I am a little insane, but I don't see anyone else out on this limb, and it's the only place I can get good reception.

[Brian]

you know, plenty of other horrible fads are created making people think they are better then everyone simply because they 'belong' to a group. Most of them are created by our own social "peers" aka, people who are cooler then us.

hipsters is the newest one.

I'm an emo kid, non-conforming as can be
You'd be non-conforming too if
You looked just like me

also, seriously, could we please stop comparing apple to Hitler? you do realize that Hitler killed 11million Jews just because they were Jews. Sure, Steve jobs might have inadvertently given people cancer, And yeah, he was an ass. But cancer in no way shape or form is even close to sending people to poison showers after working them literally to death digging their own mass grave. so, yeah. give Hitler the respect he deserves, jobs isn't even in his ballpark...

protip=this is why people think your crazy btw, the nazi=apple deal

[Buck Turgidson]

To be fair I did say they were different in many respects - genocide was the 500lb gorilla that did not need mention (BTW it was 6 million Jews, the rest were Poles, Gypsies, and Homosexuals).

If you think the comparison is unfair, where do you draw the line?  How do you feel about tobacco executives?  Do you think that is a fair comparison?  Since you are so fond of quoting stats, I stoop herewith:

http://www.inforesearchlab.com/smokingdeaths.chtml

What about handgun manufacturers?  Or alcohol?

Steve Jobs died of cancer, and forgive the pun, but it may have been of his own device.