Organic cotton tinfoil hats - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: 5U4GB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 23, 2025, 11:06:14 am
content: There's a whole store full of this stuff, but theRadia Smart Ultimate Certified 100% Organic Cotton Premium EMF Protection Beanie, RF, 5G Blocking, Silver linedstands out as essentially a tinfoil hat, or at least aluminium foil hat which I assume is what the "silver" is.If it is silver I hope they at least dip it in liquid nitrogen to improve the audio quality.

author: Haenk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 23, 2025, 02:25:40 pm
content: They state "contain approx 10% Pure SILVER" in the shielding fabric (whatever little silver content that means). So unless they want to mess with trade authorities, they better have real silver in thereI wonder if that is *before* or *after* putting on that tinfoil hat

author: paul cotter
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: June 24, 2025, 04:46:28 pm
content: Would one of those protect me from adopting conspiracy theories?

author: Haenk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 28, 2025, 06:33:16 am
content: Quote from: paul cotter on June 24, 2025, 04:46:28 pmNow THAT is a tricky question.If the conspiracy waves already reached your brain and you put on the tinfoil *afterwards* - that would be bad, as those theory waves could not escape your head/brain any longer. This might protect others, but the prolonged exposure will turn you into a complete conspiracy nutter. (Proof: See picture above). And all the other people will make fun of you.If you put on the hood *before* you are hit by conspiracy brain waves, you are perfectly safe & fine. With the exception of all the other people making fun of you. Can't have everything.So the logical solution is to nut buy this crap

author: 5U4GB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 28, 2025, 08:49:45 am
content: Quote from: Haenk on June 28, 2025, 06:33:16 amNot necessarily. There could be a conspiracy to sell these hoods to you claiming they stop conspiracy brain waves when they don't.

author: langwadt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 28, 2025, 11:45:33 am
content: Quote from: paul cotter on June 24, 2025, 04:46:28 pmonce they get in they will bounce around turning the brain into mush

author: paul cotter
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: June 28, 2025, 11:51:48 am
content: That's right, the brain turns to mush and oozes out of the ear canals.

author: Circlotron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 28, 2025, 01:09:50 pm
content: Quote from: paul cotter on June 24, 2025, 04:46:28 pmThat's comparable to a falling cat with buttered toast attached to it's back.

author: paul cotter
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: June 28, 2025, 01:32:20 pm
content: Okay, the perceived wisdom is that one of those hats would not benefit me, I guess I will just have to rely on critical thinking and rationality- bummer!

author: Haenk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 28, 2025, 02:35:43 pm
content: Quote from: paul cotter on June 28, 2025, 01:32:20 pmCome on. It's not that hard to diy a proper tinfoil hat:(Please note the non-standard construction, to lead stupidity brainwaves towards sky. This has to be calculated and designed and executed correctly, as it could work in reverse direction, if not done properly...)

author: Nominal Animal
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 28, 2025, 03:22:45 pm
content: Metal foil garments should not be degraded this way. They are essential wear in the arctic and antarctic, allowing one to survive in -45°C, if one is properly attired in the Finnish layered fashion; breathing in so cold, and not freezing your face and eyes, is the difficult part. I personally wear such overalls (sledding/snowmobiling overalls) every winter. The good ones don't even get wet if one has to lie in snow for a while for some reason. There are also sleeping bags with similar construction that allow safe sleeping at -30°C or so without dying. In order to be comfortable, the metal foil is microperforated, often coated with some flexible plastic on at least one side, and sandwiched within soft cotton or similar fabric, so that small amounts of moisture do pass through the membrane barrier. With other more normal insulating materials further inside, of course.Of course all the EM radiation stuff is pure bullshit. Even the Frey effect –– microwave auditory effect –– is understood to be a thermoelastic effect, i.e. related to localized heating from the absorption of the EM energy, and not direct interaction between the human brain and electromagnetic radiation. A "hat" made of conductive material doesn't do much anyway, you'd need a frigging foilmotorcycle helmetcovering everything from the neck up.It angers me how excellent thermal wear has been co-opted by these nutjobs. Because of them, even knowledgeable members here laugh at garments with metal foil inside, even though that is perfectly reasonable for extreme/arctic/antartic outdoor wear. It's only the "EM shielding" nutjobbery part that is laughable.An organic cotton or wool knit cap with foil insulation might be nice for e.g. downhill skiing, since a knit cap or balaclava lets fast winds through, a hood tends to "catch air" and slow one down, and akarvalakkiis too old-fashioned. (In a karvalakki, the fur lining helps steer wind away from the face as if keeping a layer of slow-moving air close to the face, and the leather doesn't pass wind through like a knit cap would; and most Finnish ones have fold-down ear muffs, so it kinda is near-optimal headwear...) Again, nothing to do with EM-nutjobbery, and everything to do with high mountains or arctic or antartic environments. Shielding ones head from wind and cold is important, and these nutjobs are ruining the reputation for the best garments for this!

author: TimFox
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 28, 2025, 04:09:04 pm
content: I believe that silver thread in fabrics is also useful for anti-microbial purposes.

author: Nominal Animal
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 28, 2025, 08:20:15 pm
content: Quote from: TimFox on June 28, 2025, 04:09:04 pmYes, and it is better than copper or aluminium, used for a roughly similar purpose, as the outer membranes of bacteria, viruses, and microbes are directly damaged in contact with certain metals. In public spaces, touch surfaces are often brass or other copper alloys, because it kills bacteria like e. coli that are otherwise easily transmitted via touch.This, too, is a topic made to look ridiculous by the idiot smurfs who think they'll live forever if they drink colloidal silver every day.Hansaplast SilverShield wasexcellentfor papercuts and similar in my fingers, but is no longer available (outside India). I'm not sure if it had very thin threads or just tiny particles embedded in the pad, but it definitely worked. The aluminium alternatives are far inferior. My immune system is so aggressive that even small cuts in my fingers usually get inflamed and sore; the Hansaplast SilverShield ones are the only band-aids that completely eliminated that for the two or three days I need a band-aid when cutting myself on some stamped metal edge or similar. I only use the band-aids to keep the cut clean, reducing particles and bacteria and microbes getting into the wound, and the lack of inflammation also seems to speed up the healing. But human skin is colonized by useful bacteria (our first line of defense!), and they will inevitably get into the wound, unless you smother it in some disinfectant gel and don't touch anything until the cut is closed. Or, the band-aid pad has silver sulfadiazine or small particles of silver on its surface, killing those errant bacteria.My local pharmacy (and all other pharmacies in all western countries) do sell wound dressing with silver fiber or particles infused into the dressing pad, still, but these are horribly expensive, something like 6€ apiece for a hand-sized dressing pad. These are meant to be used to protect surgical wounds and similar from infections from normal skin bacteria and such during the healing process. It's a bit different than spending the 0.05€ on a band-aid.

author: TimFox
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 28, 2025, 08:41:04 pm
content: Besides medical dressings, I have also seen silver thread used in underwear that must be worn for longer than usual time periods.

author: coppercone2
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 28, 2025, 09:01:43 pm
content: eventually it will be useful when they get power density high enough for microwaves at low cost to make it standard issue in the militaryLike when they have a under barrel mounted heat ray instead of a grenade launcherThe technology is being rapidly developed. Of course it will be only for drones for a long time, but none the less because of drones we see a gigantic increase in interest for mega portable aimable RF jammer equipment.https://www.securityprousa.com/products/dronegun-tactical-2https://www.eod-technology.com/catalog/counter-drone/apolloshield-rf-gun/https://hinaray.com/anti-drone-guns/https://phantom-technologies.com/droneshoot800/I don't know how many more generations we need of inverters, batteries and RF power amps to get to the point when organic assets need this kind of armor...I think the first use would be of course for non lethal intervention and then there will be a 'squad weapon' that is used for suppressive fire with microwaves/thz. Nice because you don't see a muzzle blast and suddenly a machine gun nest, mortar position, sam site, is too painful to sit in. Area denial weapon.Drones are the most lethal thing on the battlefield right now. But we might be seeing a decline of this technology because at this point jammers got good enough that they are transitioning to fiber line drones, that use a optical datalink fiber for control, rather then RF (not jammable, unless they find some new funky thing, like a way to cause florescence of fiber optic dielectric to jam or fry a fiber line receiver , or perhaps it can promote RF weapons... if you can make a pulse weapon strong enough to vaporize the metalization on a fiber line and pump it (this would turn the communication wire into a laser emitter, I believe. I think it would take a HELL of a pulse though).https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiber_optic_droneI would put it on hold till the year10000 ADHowever... if you put silver in the underwear a hackathon will end up smelling better?

author: 5U4GB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 29, 2025, 05:58:47 am
content: Quote from: Nominal Animal on June 28, 2025, 03:22:45 pmDon't you just have to be Finnish to survive in -45°C? A quick guide for the rest of us:Quote

author: 5U4GB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 29, 2025, 06:29:12 am
content: Quote from: Nominal Animal on June 28, 2025, 08:20:15 pmWere, not are. Now they're mostly stainless steel because it's easier to keep clean and shiny beats functional, sigh.During the height of Covid some folks in NY crowdfunded something called the Hygiene Hand, a machined brass key-shaped object with high copper content that you use to touch or manipulate things that lots of other people have also touched, thus undoing the move to bacteria-friendly surfaces. I got a few at the time, unfortunately they're now being sold as quite pricey EDC accessories, and the market is flooded with fake Chinese gold-anodised alu items.

author: 5U4GB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 29, 2025, 06:33:15 am
content: Quote from: Nominal Animal on June 28, 2025, 08:20:15 pmA slightly peripheral question, but can you still get the proper Vicks 44 in Finland, the one with actual active ingredients that work? It seems to be a coin-toss which European country still allows it to be sold, and you really have to ask several times to get the correct one.

author: TimFox
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 29, 2025, 02:11:35 pm
content: Quote from: 5U4GB on June 29, 2025, 05:58:47 amI grew up in northern Minnesota. In winter, it was so cold that we had to put alcohol in the liquor to keep it from freezing.“It froze clear down to China,It froze to the stars above.At a thousand degrees below zero,I lost my logger love.”

author: Nominal Animal
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 29, 2025, 07:16:47 pm
content: Quote from: 5U4GB on June 29, 2025, 06:33:15 amNope.Even getting proper DEET mosquito/bloodsucker repellent is difficult; most (like OFF) are diluted down to 25% or less. Up north, midges/gnats/no-see-ums (mäkärätandpolttiaiset) can form dense clouds near rivers, and they're small enough to get through normal mosquito netting (theyreallylike to crawl under your socks and stretch collars). They don't just poke you with a proboscis, mäkärät (1mm long little bloodsuckers) bite off a piece, then lap at the welling blood. Polttiaiset juststingwhen they bite, and they're even smaller ("no-see-ums"). As I no longer have any immunity against the stuff they got in their saliva, those bitesreallybother me. (After my cousins summer wedding up north where I forgot to use any repellent, I once counted 100 itchy bites all over my body as I could not sleep, then gave up and stopped counting. Thankfully, 1% hydrocortisone cream stopped the itching and I got some sleep the next day.) I cannot go e.g. fishing without 50% DEET repellent. Yes, I know it is dangerous for fishes and other bugs (if it gets into waterways or groundwater) and such, but watering it down does not make it any safer. I know of exactly one brand,hyttysässä, sold with 50% DEET here. In my own experience, picaridin-based repellents don't work that well againstmäkärätandpolttiaiset, the smallest flying bloodsuckers.Near the coasts in the south of Finland, I don't normally bother with any DEET or picaridin repellents. Ticks are a much bigger worry (due to encephalitis and borreliosis), but TBE inoculation isn't that expensive, and we might get VLA16 inoculations against borreliosis perhaps next year (it's in stage III testing).Quote from: TimFox on June 29, 2025, 02:11:35 pmFinns and alcohol is a sometimes problematic combination.When I was a kid, there was this local older man who was cutting logs to firewood with a chainsaw in the woods in -30°C weather with one of his friends. Of course, the chain blade chipped on a nail or something, and a piece of metal stuck in his eye. The two geniuses decided that melting down snow to get pure water to clean it up was too slow, since they did, after all, have 40° ABV alcohol (Koskenkorva vodka). Of course, the first good splash froze the damn eye. I don't know if he ended up losing the entire eye, or just the sight in that eye.Quote from: 5U4GB on June 29, 2025, 05:58:47 amIf you promise to not tell anyone, I'll let you in on the secret:we cheat every step of the way. From sauna to proper gear, and using every survival trick in the book.I grew up not too far from where the Finnish paratroopers have their winter survival training week. I think I was maybe 10 when my parents taught me how to survive at night if I get lost in the winter, by making akieppi(like tundra grouse, ptarmigans use), a cave in the snow, with branches to insulate my body from direct contact with the snow. We always wore the kind of winter wear I described above anyway. Around the same time, we were taught that unless one tracks ones own progress using visible markers, we'll walk in circles. That it is thepanicthat kills. That if you suddenly start to feel really warm, you're in real danger, as that is a sure sign of deadly hypothermia.When I was a kid in comprehensive school in late 1980s, the school I went to had a rule that unless the temperature outside was -22°C or colder, every student had to go outside for every 15min break between 45min lessons.You know those National Geographic documentaries about people living in Alaska? In Northern Finland, they look at the Alaskans going outside in the winter wearingjeansand astetson, fascinated as to why anyone would punish/risk themselves and their own health like that. And walk around using snowshoes!Finns ski. The ancient Finnish skis are asymmetric: you have a long sliding ski calledlyly, usually on the left, and a short pushing ski calledkalhuorsivakka. Kalhu/sivakka has a long groove in the center to make it slide much better. Lyly was usually bowed upwards, sometimes with a patch of fur in the center, so it would slide forwards but not backwards, for optimal pushing. Only one pole was used, with a wide ring or rim (sompa), so it would not go too deep into the snow. In the other hand, one could hold a bear spear or a bow. These are thousands of years old.The modern ones are even better: especially the long wide very light ones intended for use in deep snow, because you can literally go anywhere with them. It is easier way to travel than even walking. In my opinion, skiing 50km is as much work as walking 20km, or walking a few miles with snowshoes; a healthy person can do that every day just fine, if they're used to skiing. Pulling anahkiowith all your gear in it is not that much more work, it just takes a bit of skill so it won't slide on top of the backs of your skis all the time, especially when going downhill.I don't know if or how, but the traditional way of jumping into icy water (avanto) or just into snow, naked, from Sauna, might also help train ones body to deal with varying temperatures. It is certainly invigorating; I do recommend trying it if you ever get a chance.I wasn't kidding about layered clothing, either. One of those tricks isverkkopaita, a cotton mesh shirt. The mesh can be quite sparse, half an inch diameter holes. If you wear that bottommost, then cotton or wool on top of that, the mesh shirt keeps a layer of warm air around your body. It is an excellent insulator, but also lets sweat and moisture on the skin evaporate into the outer layers. Perfect for doing work outside when it is freezing cold. You don't want to wear tight layers around your body; you want air in between each layer, as that lets moisture evaporate; otherwise wet clothes would be deadly, as they conduct body heat away from the body. It is why you need to get rid of wet clothes as soon as possible, too.Add the aforementioned microperforated metal foil overalls, good mittens, and proper footwear (including loose woolly socks), and -30°C only hurts your face (and air passages a bit). I affirm this from decades of personal experience. Proper gear keeps you warm just fine, it's the air that gets quite painful to breathe at around -35°C to -40°C. There are ventilator masks that use heat exchangers and e.g. body heat to help with that, but I haven't tried any: its only a few days a year that it gets that cold even in northern Finland, and not necessarily even every year, so none in my family has had a need for one thus far.

author: paul cotter
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: June 29, 2025, 08:34:58 pm
content: Truly fascinating, thank you.

author: Analog Kid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 29, 2025, 08:49:05 pm
content: Quote from: TimFox on June 29, 2025, 02:11:35 pmYeah, I know that guy: I remember well the song from my childhood (The Frozen Logger) sung by the Weavers.His method of shaving:"He never shaved his whiskers from off of his horny hide,He'd just drive them in with a hammer and bite them off inside."How you can tell him:"Nobody but a logger stirs his coffee with his thumb."

author: 5U4GB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 30, 2025, 01:57:48 am
content: Quote from: Nominal Animal on June 29, 2025, 07:16:47 pmJust checked what the local "tropical strength" (snort) stuff is, 115g/L DEET and MGK 264 as a synergist. No idea what strength that adds up to, but then I've also never tested it against the industrial-strength horse-stingers some places seem to have

author: paul cotter
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: June 30, 2025, 06:35:53 am
content: Approx 11.5 w/w.

author: 5U4GB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 01, 2025, 07:28:09 am
content: That's the DEET but the synergist enhances its effectiveness, thus the uncertainty over an exact value.

author: paul cotter
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 01, 2025, 10:57:00 am
content: I am somewhat puzzled now. I was not familiar with MGK 264 and I looked it up: it is a synergist for pesticides, particularly pyrethroids with no mention of repellant properties. On it's own it is not toxic to insects. DEET is a repellant, not an insecticide at all and I cannot see what this MGK 264 might do, mixed with DEET. Unless I am missing something which is quite possible.

author: 5U4GB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 01, 2025, 11:48:21 am
content: I only saw it on the label and a quick Google hasn't turned up much about its use with DEET apart from toxicology studies showing it's OK and MSDSes for various products that use it. Like dipping silver audio cables in liquid nitrogen, it seems to be one of these things that everyone knows is a Good Thing but no-one can quite explain why.

author: MrMobodies
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 01, 2025, 05:06:45 pm
content: How would they know if it's "organic" or not.

author: Nominal Animal
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 01, 2025, 05:24:02 pm
content: Quote from: MrMobodies on July 01, 2025, 05:06:45 pmIt is one of those "certified-by-somebody" things. I'm not exactly sure who regulates such certifications in New Zealand, though.The funny thing is that typical cotton cultivation uses massive amounts of pesticides.In Egypt in the nineties, when some farmers switched to integrated crop management, they were able to reduce pesticide use by 90% and increase crops by 30%.So, even if you don't go all-out "organic", scientific production methods seriously reduce the pesticide use and increase crop yields too.Of course, that requires farmers capable and knowledgeable andinterestedenough. If you're barely above the poverty level, that stuff is not high on your priorities list. In Egypt, theSEKEMorganization was crucial in this.Still, only a few percent of all cotton production is non-pesticide non-GMO, i.e. "organic". So, it is very likely there are vendors that sell fake-certified "organic" cotton, for example by mixing actually organically produced cotton with ordinary cotton to make a passable paper trail for anyone doing a cursory investigation. This kind of commerce is how some people get filthy rich.

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 04, 2025, 06:26:40 am
content: I wonder if this would work for people who think the Earth is flat?

author: paul cotter
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 04, 2025, 01:42:51 pm
content: "Think the earth is flat?" Surely everyone knows the earth is quite flat?