Aluminum hat

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Hacker with aluminum hat on the 30C3

An aluminum foil hat , short tin foil hat ( English has tin foil , Stanniolhut ' ), a head covering , consisting of one or more layers of aluminum foil or similar material is prepared. The concept was first mentioned in the 1927 science fiction story The Tissue-Culture King by Julian Huxley . In it, the protagonist discovers that caps made of metal foil can be used to block the effects of telepathy . While such executions are quite worn in reality, the derogatory term Aluhutträger metaphorically and the term tin foil hat metonymically used to followers of conspiracy theories in general as paranoid to call or just very tiring people.

Use of terms

As a dirty word for conspiracy theorists

Since Huxley's book, the term has been associated with paranoia and conspiracy theories. The speech image does not have to be restricted to people. Individual arguments in a longer chain of arguments can also be described as "very aluminum hat-like".

As a self-deprecating stylistic device

The term can be applied to others or used self-deprecatingly. The Journal of the American Bar Association reports the attempt at civic rehabilitation as an attempt to get rid of the aluminum hat. Washington Post commentators also use the term self-deprecatingly to express doubts about the world. Similarly, the aluminum hat appears in the Cato Institute's writings , in which an author writes that he has hidden certain documents under his aluminum hat. The conservative journalist Jan Fleischhauer put on an aluminum hat in his satirical weekly program 9 Minuten Netto in May 2020.

As an accessory for conspiracy-theoretical demonstrations

"Querdenker-Bommel" as a distinguishing mark of participants in Corona demonstrations

Individual participants in the demonstrations on protective measures against the COVID-19 pandemic (also known as “hygiene demos”) wear aluminum hats as a reappropriation of the swear word that they see as being used by the established media. Numerous articles on the conspiracy theories surrounding COVID-19 were illustrated with photos of demonstrators with aluminum hats. The Prime Minister of Saxony Michael Kretschmer was pictured talking to a man with an aluminum hat at a demonstration in Pirna . A demonstrator in Vienna told the Standard that she wore the aluminum hat so that she could “think freely”. Some demonstrators wore aluminum foil balls, so-called “unconventional thinkers bobbles”, to express their criticism of the way the government and the mainstream media dealt with the pandemic. The activist Ken Jebsen appeared with the accessory.

As a metaphor for RFID blockers

In allusion to the connotations of conspiracy theory , but with an actual physical background, the term is occasionally used to illustrate the function of a metallic cover for RFID chips. These chips allow, for example, the contactless reading of data from smart cards and official personal documents such as passports with RFID chips. A metal cover prevents reading.

reception

  • The Linux distribution Tinfoil Hat Linux placed particular emphasis on security. A WordPress plugin was added later, which also placed particular emphasis on control and included additional data protection settings, while another WordPress plugin of the same name prevents private data from being sent.
  • An alternative app for Android cell phones is operated under the name Tinfoil for Facebook , with which the social network Facebook can be accessed. The app's screen icon shows the white silhouette of a head with an aluminum hat on it. The app had been downloaded over 500,000 times from the Google Play Store by June 2019 and is no longer being developed.
  • The American magazine for literature and politics The Atlantic temporarily presented a tinfoil hat award for the strangest e-mail.
  • In the Futurama film Leela and the Encyclopods , the protagonist Fry wears an aluminum hat so that he does not have to read the thoughts of his fellow human beings.
  • In the computer game Toy Story 3, one of the tasks is to put an aluminum hat on three people.
  • The term is used more often on the Internet: There is the blog The Tinfoil Hat , the Tinfoil Hat Sportsblog , the Tinfoil Hat Society as well as the blog Moms Tinfoil Hat , the podcast Antenne Aluhut or the cloud offer TINFOILPHONE to access Android without a Google account use.
  • The historian Charlotte Jahnz developed for ZDFinfo the format from tin foil hat , in which she turns in short videos that are posted on Facebook and Twitter to spread misinformation.
  • On the title page of the handbook on the Reich Citizenship Movement published by the Brandenburg Institute for Community Advice , a man with an aluminum hat is shown standing in front of the Reichstag building.
  • In connection with the hygiene demonstrations and the conspiracy theories advocated by some participants, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said that a face mask was more recommendable than an aluminum hat.

Negative price for a golden aluminum hat

In Berlin, an initiative of the same name (founded by Giulia Silberberger ) has been awarding the negative golden aluminum hat prize in five categories since 2015 . Awarded were u. a. Xavier Naidoo , Martin Lejeune , the Volkslehrer , the Kopp-Verlag and Compact , a campaign by vaccination opponents , the television station Astro TV as well as blogs and YouTube channels from the Reichsbürger and Flacherdler scene . The initiators chose October 30, 2015, the birthday of Axel Stoll , a German conspiracy ideologist on the right-wing esoteric scene, who died last year, as the date for the first award ceremony .

Physical effect of headgear made of aluminum

Man with aluminum hat

W. Ross Adey showed at the end of the 1970s that weak amplitude-modulated electromagnetic fields can stimulate the release of calcium ions from cells of the separated forebrain of chicken embryos. The author of the little-read article concludes that there are other effects of electromagnetic fields on the brain in addition to the thermal effect. Despite some claims that exposure to electromagnetic radiation has negative health consequences, no connection between radio waves and reduced health could be verified for low field strengths .

An aluminum hat is an open Faraday cage ; it dampens alternating fields and electromagnetic waves through field shielding . The main difficulty with the use of aluminum, however, is its property of forming a 0.1 μm - 0.5 μm thick passive layer on the surface, which the material owes its corrosion resistance. This oxide layer is a hindrance for shielding applications because it is an electrical insulator.

The efficiency of an aluminum hat as an electromagnetic shield to stop radio waves is severely limited by the fact that it is not a complete cover. A medium wave radio under a metal bucket with no conductive level underneath illustrates the relative inefficiency of such an arrangement. In fact, due to the effect of a bottomless Faraday cage that partially reflects incident radiation, a radio wave incident on the underside of the hat (e.g. coming from under the wearer) would be partially focused in the wearer's brain.

While aluminum hats may have led to a greater understanding of the effect of a Faraday cage, studies into using them to reduce radio waves are pseudoscience . A study by students at MIT found that aluminum hats can both increase and decrease incident radiation, depending on the frequency. The effect was observed to be independent of the relative placement of the aluminum hat carrier and the radiation source to one another.

Israeli surgeons take advantage of the ability of aluminum foil to reflect infrared radiation . During surgical interventions on premature babies , whose body's own temperature regulation is not yet developed and who therefore need an external heat source, the temperature under the surgeon's usual cotton operating hood rises to up to 52 degrees Celsius, thanks to the attachment of an additional outer aluminum hat cover it at 37 degrees Celsius.

Web links

Commons : aluminum hats  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Julian Huxley: The Tissue-Culture King. 1927: "Well, we had discovered that metal was relatively impervious to the telepathic effect, and had prepared for ourselves a sort of tin pulpit, behind which we could stand while conducting experiments. This, combined with caps of metal foil, enormously reduced the effects on ourselves. "
  2. ↑ Elizabeth Connor: An introduction to reference services in academic libraries. Routledge, 2006, ISBN 0-7890-2958-8 , pp. 178-179.
  3. ↑ Pensioner is yelled down by aluminum hat at Corona demo - his answer is right. Retrieved May 21, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Tomasz Kurianowicz: To save the honor of the aluminum hat. In: Zeit Online . June 11, 2017, accessed June 16, 2020 .
  5. ^ Brian S. McWilliams: Spam kings: the real story behind the high-rolling hucksters pushing porn, pills and @ * #?% Enlargements. O'Reilly Media Inc., 2005, ISBN 0-596-00732-9 .
  6. ↑ Eli Neiburger: Gamers - in the library ?! ALA Editions, 2007, ISBN 0-8389-0944-2 , p. 17.
  7. ↑ Jon Petitt: Hey Crazy - Get a New Hat. In: Bostonist. November 15, 2005, archived from the original on December 6, 2010 ; accessed on May 16, 2020 (English).
  8. ↑ Matthew Moyer: Luckman, Michael C. Alien Rock: The Rock 'N' Roll / Extraterrestrial Connection. In: Library Journal. June 15, 2005, archived from the original on January 28, 2013 ; accessed on May 16, 2020 (English, book review).
  9. ↑ Joel McNamara: ASUS Eee PC for Dummies For Dummies, 2008, ISBN 0-470-41154-6 , p. 6
  10. ↑ Terry Carter: Real Trouble. In: ABA Journal. September 1, 2008, accessed May 16, 2020 .
  11. ↑ Peter Carlson: Paranoid? Do not worry; It's All Under Control. In: The Washington Post . February 19, 2008, accessed May 16, 2020 .
  12. ^ Gene Healey: Government Secrets Can Be Pretty Killer. In: The Washington Examiner . October 12, 2010, accessed on May 16, 2020 (English, reproduced on the website of the Cato Institute ).
  13. ↑ Butcher - 9 minutes net. In: Hello TV. Retrieved on May 23, 2020 (German).
  14. ↑ Helene Bubrowski, Constantin van Lijnden , Timo Steppat, Markus Wehner: Who controls the Corona protests? - Image 1 of 6 . In: FAZ.NET . ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed May 23, 2020]).
  15. ↑ Christian Stöcker, DER SPIEGEL: Corona conspiracy theories: Detlef, Ken and Attila know more details - Column - DER SPIEGEL - Science. Retrieved May 23, 2020 .
  16. ↑ Researchers on dealing with "hygiene demos" - do not ignore, do not overestimate. Retrieved on May 23, 2020 (German).
  17. ↑ Corona conspiracy theories - a German phenomenon. Retrieved May 23, 2020 .
  18. ^ Demonstration in Pirna against confrontation in the Corona crisis - Kretschmer with face mask. Retrieved June 8, 2020 .
  19. ↑ With an aluminum hat against Corona and the government - derStandard.de. Retrieved May 25, 2020 (Austrian German).
  20. ↑ What they have in common is distrust of the state. Retrieved May 23, 2020 .
  21. ↑ Protest with esotericists, anti-vaccination opponents, right-wingers: What the Corona “lateral thinkers” believe in. May 11, 2020, accessed on May 23, 2020 (German).
  22. ^ Witness - Castorf's APO. Retrieved May 24, 2020 .
  23. ↑ Konrad Litschko: New Party of Corona Skeptics: On the Trail of the Great Conspiracy . In: The daily newspaper: taz . May 5, 2020, ISSN  0931-9085 ( taz.de [accessed on May 23, 2020]).
  24. ↑ Erik Peter: Heads of the Corona relativizers: Alu with civil rights facade . In: The daily newspaper: taz . May 7, 2020, ISSN  0931-9085 ( taz.de [accessed on May 23, 2020]).
  25. ^ Frank Thornton et al.: RFID security. Syngress, 2006, ISBN 1-59749-047-4 , p. 95.
    The New World: Going Off the Grid. (pdf; 1.8 MB) In: Wired . July 2007, p. 159 , archived from the original on March 24, 2012 ; accessed on May 16, 2020 (English).
  26. ↑ James Middleton: Linux for the paranoid. v3, February 20, 2002
  27. ↑ Tinfoil Hat. Wordpress.org
  28. ↑ Il Filosofo: Filosofo's Tinfoil-Hat Plugin.
  29. ↑ https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.danvelazco.fbwrapper&hl=de
  30. ↑ Megan McCardle The Tinfoil Hat Brigade. The Atlantic, August 20, 2008
  31. ^ Futurama Review Explains the Origin of Fry's Tinfoil Hat. oi9, December 6, 2008
  32. ↑ Jason Kline: Toy Story 3 Video Game Guide / Walkthrough. In: IGN.com , June 25, 2010.
  33. ^ The Tin Foi Hat Blog
  34. ^ Tinfoil Hat Sports Blog
  35. ^ The Tinfoil Hat Society
  36. ↑ About , Moms has tinfoil
  37. ↑ Antenna aluminum hat. Retrieved April 8, 2019 .
  38. ↑ Tinfoilphone ( Memento of 28 March 2014 Internet Archive )
  39. ↑ Laila Oudray: Facts for the Bubble. taz.de, May 13, 2017
  40. ↑ Dirk Wilking (Ed.): "Reich Citizens". A manual. Demos - Brandenburg Institute for Community Advice, Potsdam 2015.
  41. ↑ Steinmeier on Corona measures "Mouthguards are more recommendable than aluminum hats" tagesschau.de, May 14, 2020
  42. ↑ The golden aluminum hat 2017 - winners and award ceremony. In: The golden aluminum hat. October 12, 2017, accessed July 20, 2019 .
  43. ↑ Video: The golden aluminum hat 2015 - The event. In: dergoldenealuhut.de. November 1, 2015, archived from the original on March 26, 2016 ; accessed on May 16, 2020 . The golden aluminum hat 2016 - winner and award ceremony. In: dergoldenealuhut.de. October 10, 2016, archived from the original on June 30, 2017 ; accessed on July 21, 2017 . Viola Ulrich: Goldener Aluhut 2016: The five wildest conspiracy theories of the year. In: Welt.de . November 1, 2016, accessed July 21, 2017 .
  44. ↑ Christoph Seidler: Prize for Gaga Research: Who is the dumbest in the whole country? In: Spiegel Online . October 31, 2015, accessed May 16, 2020 .
  45. ^ WR Adey: Neurophysiologic effects of Radiofrequency and Microwave Radiation, Bulletin of New York Academy of Medicine, vol. 55, no.11 . December 1979, p. 1079-1093 .
  46. ^ Geoffrey Lean: Electronic smog - Environment , News.independent.co.uk. May 7, 2006. Retrieved December 11, 2010. 
  47. ^ Safety and Health Topics: Radiofrequency and Microwave Radiation - Health Effects . Osha.gov. Retrieved December 11, 2010.
  48. ↑ Hans A. Wolfsperger: Electromagnetic shielding. Theory and practical examples (=  VDI book ). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg 2008, ISBN 978-3-540-76913-2 , pp. 233 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  49. ↑ Ethan Siegel: Weekend Diversion: Do Tinfoil Hats Work? ( Memento from January 1, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Science Blog, April 2009
  50. ^ Ali Rahimi, Ben Recht, Jason Taylor, Noah Vawter: On the Effectiveness of Aluminum Foil Helmets . Ali Rahimi. February 17, 2005. Archived from the original on September 30, 2010. Retrieved on December 11, 2010.
  51. ^ Bar-Maor JA, Shitzer A: Protection of the pediatric surgeon from heat stress caused by the overhead radiant heater during surgery . In: J. Pediatr. Surg. . 23, No. 9, September 1988, pp. 846-7. PMID 3183899 . "Figure 1: The surgeon, under an overhead radiant heater, with a straw hat wrapped in aluminum foil."