Slashdot Mirror

I seem to notice that there is a lot of FUD and misinformation out there (not just from mdsolar and Beyond Nuclear) regarding nuclear power. This is helped in part because of ignorance by the general public. It's important to understand that there is a wide range of radioactive sources. Most of them are naturally occurring, or occur is such small amounts that they present no health hazard.

Radiation exposure is usually measured in Rem (or mRem). Let's take a look at some common activities and see how they compare.

One chest X ray (8 mRem)

One mammogram (70 mRem)

One X ray of the abdomen (300 mRem)

One renal nuclear medicine procedure (310 mRem)

One CT head scan (3000 mRem)

CAT scan of whole body (5000 mRem)

As you can see, there is a wide variance of radiation sources. Most people in the US receive approximately 300 mRem / year from natural background radiation sources (primarily from radon and sun exposure.) So, how much radiation exposure do you need to cause bodily damage?

There is no agreed-upon level which is considered "safe", however there is relatively clear agreement on thresholds where radiation has noticeable effects on the human body. (NOTE: These are listed in Rem, not mRem)

Changes in blood chemistry (5-10 Rem)

Nausea (50 Rem)

Fatigue (55 Rem)

Vomiting (70 Rem)

Hair loss (75 Rem)

Diarrhea (90 Rem)

Hemorrhage (100 Rem)

Possible death (400 Rem)

Death within 1-2 weeks (1000 Rem)

Damage to central nervous system (2000 Rem)

Death within days (2000 Rem)

But what about cancer? The risk for cancer can be increased by radiation exposure, which resulted in increased mutation rates of cell growth. The EPA estimates that in a group of 10,000 people 2,000 of them will die from cancer. If each person received 1 Rem (not mRem) of non-natural ionizing radiation exposure accumulated over their lifetime, 2,006 people would die from cancer.

So, now that we have an idea of just how bad different levels of radiation exposure are, what about these tritium leaks that have got certain people so upset? The highest reading that these monitoring wells have read was 2.45 microcuries / liter. This translates into roughly 425 mRem / year (assuming it was not diluted). 425 mRem is substantially higher than the current NRC limits, but still much too low to present a health hazard.

When people hear words like "nuclear reactor piping leak" they naturally assume that high-level radioactive particulates are getting out to the environment. The fact is that the incident at Vermont Yankee represents a very small health hazard to the public.

>All he'd have to do is have the requester warrant, in writing, that they are acting as an agent of the organization

?

And if an employee of New York City wanted to sell you a bridge to Kings County, would you go ahead with the deal if he "certified in writing" that he was authorized to sell it? :)

From: http://www.nyc.gov/html/dof/html/business/business_tax_nys_sales.shtml

City sales tax is imposed on the purchase of clothing and footwear costing $110 or more per item or pair as of August 1, 2009.

And not precisely what I said about vehicle purchase, but vehicle related: "On Item 10 above, the City imposes a 6 percent tax and an additional 8 percent surtax (on parking, garaging, or storing motor vehicles in Manhattan)."

I imagine you can find more on your own, using such Google terms as " Vehicle Sales Tax Rate"

According to this page, $50k is closer to a starting salary for NY & LA. (I choose them since it's their papers providing TFA.) If you've been teaching since the 80s and have a master's degree, NYC teachers head towards 6 figures pretty quick.

$80k may be more than the average for the majority of districts, but you choose the right one and not only is it totally achievable, there's a pretty good overlap with the state/local governments that tend to have budget issues.

The issue with taxing amazon is quite simple - governments have no business levying taxes outside their jurisdiction. If a citizen of say, California, directs goods to be brought into the state, state law says that individual is responsible for paying use tax, not the merchant from which they purchased said goods.

The music and video shops in your example have a presence in the local jurisdiction and benefit from its services such as roads, social programs, police/fire protection and so on. Amazon doesn't.

Trademarks are filed in Black and White. As well the Apple Logo is not always silver. There is the Rainbow, the gray, I think there was even a red one once.
I would say the Green NYC would be more of an infringement. Although apple sued them too.

Secondly apple need to be showing that it is protecting its trademark or it could loose it.

Clearly, you've never heard of "food deserts." In the US, there are large areas of cities, predominately in the poor parts of town, where there are literally no grocery stores. If you don't have a car, and the bus system either doesn't go, or makes it very arduous to get to a grocery store in richer part of town, you simply don't go. Instead you head down to Mickey D's or the 7-Eleven and buy something to eat. No one believes that it's healthy, but you do what you've got to do. The NYT and the NYC Dept of City Planning reported on this phenomenon, complete with maps overlaying income, food availability, and obesity and diabetes rates.

It is true that some cyclists are reckless and self-centered, but this problem is greatly exaggerated. "American cyclists, for the most part, ride like complete assholes." This is more a matter of perception than reality.

The purpose of road regulations is generally safety, so it is natural to look at who's hurting whom and who's causing the accidents. It would be helpful to consider some actual "data," which contains things known as "facts," rather than mere anecdotal evidence, so let's look at 1996-2005 statistics for New York City, which has a disproportionate share of aggressive cyclists because of bike courier services and, some might argue, by virtue of it being NYC.

In accidents where a bicyclist was seriously injured by a vehicle, of the cases where the cause of the accident was documented, the driver was solely at fault in 64% of accidents, while the cyclist was solely at fault in 24%. The city averaged one pedestrian killed by a cyclist each year, but over 190 killed by a vehicle each year. Of course, zero drivers were killed by cyclists, but many drivers were killed by other drivers.

Also, who must suffer the consequences? You had your mirror clipped. Did you have to replace it? Were you hurt? When there is a serious accident between a car and a bike, most of the time (as above) it is the driver's fault, and the cyclist suffers the consequences; sometimes it is the cyclist's fault, and the cyclist suffers the consequences; sometimes both are at fault, and it is the cyclist who suffers the consequences. When bikers are irresponsible, they are generally only putting themselves at risk; when drivers are irresponsible, they put other people at risk. Drunk drivers kill 13,000 people annually in the US. How many people are killed by drunk cyclists? And even when one is driving safely and following all the regulations, one is still harming others by emitting CO2 (see guilt trip below).

You mentioned a half mile line of cars stopped at a light and complained about the cyclist who passes them. Do you realize that that cyclist is one less car in that line in front of you? If all those drivers were on bikes, would there be a half mile line of cars? And is it so bad to have a bike pass a stopped car, considering that cars pass bikes all the time?

When "Americans generally hold cyclists in low regard," it has more to do with fighting back against the idea that they should drive less, than it has to do with the cyclists themselves. When you ask Americans to change their way of life, they go on the attack, and cyclists are a reminder of the carbon guilt trip that's being laid on them.

I think the rebuttal is to ask you how many cows live in NYC ?
 
  Apparently there are a lot

No change for NYC (At lease where you'd want to live...)

You're still stuck with Time Warner for cable.

http://www.nyc.gov/html/doitt/images/charts/franchise_territories.jpg

A gangster who fled to the Philippines wants to check if he made the NYPD's Most Wanted List: http://a056-crimestoppers.nyc.gov/crimestoppers/public/publicMWGallery.cfm

There is no reason that a NYPD network should even open a socket for a connection originating in Asia.

A Japanese traveler about to visit New York on business decides to check the crime stats at http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/html/crime_prevention/crime_statistics.shtml to get a perspective on what to watch out for with respect to crime in New York.

A US soldier stationed in Korea is about to end his tour of duty and wants to check out the job openings at http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/html/careers/careers.shtml

There is no reason that a NYPD network should even open a socket for a connection originating in Asia.

A Japanese traveler about to visit New York on business decides to check the crime stats at http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/html/crime_prevention/crime_statistics.shtml to get a perspective on what to watch out for with respect to crime in New York.

A US soldier stationed in Korea is about to end his tour of duty and wants to check out the job openings at http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/html/careers/careers.shtml

Post a web link to http://www.nyc.gov/ and hope that 0.0000526% of your citizens click on it.

The time that power goes out most frequently where I live (New York City, Hudson Valley, Syracuse all year round) is during the summer on the hottest days. What is straining the electrical grid so much? Air conditioners. On the hottest days of the summer you will always experience brownouts, and sometimes, the days get to hot that a large section of our part of the country loses power.

Millions of New Yorkers depend on electricity in their daily lives. Prolonged power outages are not only a nuisance -- they are also potentially life-threatening and can cause major economic losses.

Power outages occur most often during the summer months, when residents run air conditioners and power usage is at its peak.

http://www.nyc.gov/html/oem/html/hazards/utilities_power.shtml
- - -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_Blackout_of_2003#Causes
The 2003 Northeast blackout was caused by urban sprawl interacting with silvan areas. On hot days, wires can cause fires, especially when tree branches are resting on the electrical wires because we decided running power lines through wooded areas was good decision.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_york_blackout#Cause
Lightning can also cause fires, especially on hot days, resulting in damage so great that major areas like NYC lose power for an entire day. For this blackout there were three lightning strikes that took out power lines causing major damage to NYC's power supply.
- - - - -
The Wall Street Journal should be ashamed for printing such ridiculous and manipulating propaganda. Major power outages happen entirely because of over consumption of electricity during the hottest days of the years. There is no global anti-American electrical conspiracy that is possibly going to be more damaging than mother nature (lightning, fire) and human nature (needing to be cool on hot days aka mass air conditioner use).

Last year, a senior Central Intelligence Agency official, Tom Donohue, told a meeting of utility company representatives in New Orleans that a cyberattack had taken out power equipment in multiple regions outside the U.S. The outage was followed with extortion demands, he said.

In a chilling scenario reminiscent of James Bond and other action spy movies, the CIA has confirmed that Internet attackers have succeeded in compromising power grids outside the US in order to hold entire populations to ransom while make extortion demands. The utilities infrastructure security meeting was organized by information security training, certification and research group the SANS Institute and was held in New Orleans last week.

US Central Intelligence Agency senior analyst Tom Donohue told a gathering of 300 US, UK, Swedish, and Dutch government officials and engineers and security managers from electric, water, oil & gas and other critical industry asset owners from all across North America, that "We have information, from multiple regions outside the United States, of cyber intrusions into utilities, followed by extortion demands." Mr Donohoe was not explicit as to whether the extortionist cyber attackers, which had brought down the power of entire cities, were terrorists with political motives or were criminals attempting to extort financial ransom. He also did not name the regions that had suffered attacks other than to say they were outside the US. "We suspect, but cannot confirm, that some of these attackers had the benefit of inside knowledge," said Mr Donohue. "We have information that cyber attacks have been used to disrupt power equipment in several regions outside the United States.

In at least one case, the disruption caused a power outage affecting multiple cities. We do not know who executed these attacks or why, but all i

Also, I have to disagree that blocking an intersection carries a 'large fine'. Although for the life of me I can't figure out how much it is...I can find the fines for speed, but nothing else.

In NYC, apparently up to $500 + 2 points on your license. I imagine it may not be as steep in the middle of nowhere.

-Em

Of course, I guess NYC will have to change their own web pages - an example

http://schools.nyc.gov/SchoolPortals/26/Q203/default.htm

The persecution/martyr complex of America's rural poor would be funny if it didn't have such negative real world outgrowths. The poor suffering NY upstate rural voters, so ignored by the NYS government that doesn't have an electoral college or a geography based Senate, such that they're forced to accept $11 billion from the city of New York each year that they don't give back in benefits.

Don't give back in benefits eh? How much do you suppose that watershed is worth? And who said anything about money? I was thinking more along the lines of the city forcing upstate to adopt it's policies (random example: the statewide smoking ban wasn't particularly popular around here) or sending us your convicts.

there doesn't appear to me to be much more of a rational basis for apportioning votes based on geography

So let's get rid of the Senate then. That's the logical conclusion of your argument.

The first high school class is graduating this year. Their high school graduation rate has gone from less than 10% under the old school to 96% in the new school, with all graduates going to college.

There are a lot of factors here of course. But that's what I'm saying. It's far, far too premature (and simplistic, and utterly reductionist) to say "well, small schools work" and "small schools don't work." Some small schools work well. Some don't. Some are more or less educationally sustainable than others.

But some Gates foundation schools have had dramatic success, and we should keep that in mind before we universally condemn that mode of education. Tagging OP as misleading here.

The sad thing is, there already is a website devoted the sewer rat control efforts in New York City, complete with an interactive map showing general rodent population trends: NYC Rat Information Portal

Must be all those pollutants in the river.

I realize your probably just trolling but you do know that NYC doesn't get it's water from the Hudson right? They get it from Upstate. It's one of the things I love to remind them about when they start bitching about how much money the city pays out in State taxes. "You can have your money back when you can secure your own water supply and stop sending us your felons"

About the only thing going for it is it ISN'T New Jersey.

Well, there is that ;)

New York City pays $11 billion more in State taxes than it gets back in funding despite being the economic engine of the State.

New York City pays $11 billion more in State taxes than it gets back in funding despite being the economic engine of the State.

Thats what we NY'ers are. Newegg is now back on the top of my to purchase list.

Just make sure to pay your use tax you cock smoking tea bagger.

Yep, and I've seen programs touting that that area of NY is way overdue for a hurricane to hit there. You think it was bad when NOLA flooded...it will be bad there, they have the same nightmare scenario as we do down here.

Some links here and here from NYC and this one that details in 1893 where a whole island off the cost disappeared....

I do have to guess....that emergency response will be a bit better for NY than it was here...just my guess.

Ah, not necessarly - for instance, in NYC, you have the NYC Health and Hospitals Corp - which is fully owned by the city, even if it's a Corp

http://www.nyc.gov/html/hhc/html/home/home.shtml

There are something like 20 hospitals/treatment centers in "the system"

Now take the fresh water outflow of the Columbia river - the river separating Washington from Oregon. You've got 27 gallons of fresh water per person per day.

I don't know about Texans, but people in NYC use an average of 133 gallons per day (2006 numbers).

Well, as far as "true positives" go, I wonder if that's after the fact rigging the results.

However, in thinking about their hit rate ( in other words, the "positives", false or not ) with this method, this is what I'm thinking:

If there's 80 "hits" out of 100,000 that's a .0008% hit rate. Not saying those 80 are all terrorists/drug dealers/whatever, but that 80 people have to be investigated.

Now, applied to the population of NYC[1] of 8,250,567, that's roughly 6,600 people who need to be investigated. Possibly doable, but that's a lot of resources to devote.

Applying that same hit rate to, say, the traffic of LaGuardia airport[2] of 25.3 million people you've got 20240 people who have to be investigated and there's a time constraint ( unless you're ok with holding them while you investigate, possibly/likely preventing them from making their flight ).

Even presuming their numbers are correct and their demos aren't rigged, that's a lot of manhours / resources to devote to background checks.

[1] http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/census/popcur.shtml
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaGuardia_Airport

I am happy to answer questions Slashdotters may have about the new Tech Enhancement systems. Calling it "GPS" really gives the impression it is something that it is not.

The Taxi and Limousine Commission has been collecting this data for decades, but in paper form. By law, every NYC taxi driver must keep a record of all fares during their shift, including pick up point, drop off point, the amount of the fare, and the time of the fare. The new systems automate this process and put the data into a usable format (versus illegible handwriting). Credit card data that is sent to the TLC is limited to "passenger paid via credit card" or "passenger paid via cash" and the amount of the fare, including the tip amount (our data shows that the average tip given by someone paying by credit card is 21% versus about 12% for the cash tips.)

Furthermore, no data at all is collected when the taxi meter is in the "off duty" position. So, if someone owns their own cab and is using it for private use (to take their family to the beach, for example), no data at all is collected unless the meter is engaged.

Electronic Trip Sheet data is also a 'snapshot' of the pickup point and dropoff point, not a continuous recording of the position of the vehicle. We can't tell if they are speeding, for example. We also can't tell if they took the shortest vs. the most efficient route, only how long the trip was and how many miles it was.

It also does NOT provide directions to the passenger or driver (this was not included because feedback from drivers was that they did not want anything that would encourage 'backseat driving' from passengers), but it does display a realtime map of the vehicle's position when the meter is on.

Drivers do not pay for these systems. The owner of the medallion (who may or may not be the driver or owner of the car) is responsible for all installation costs. The TLC sets the maximum lease fees that owners may charge drivers. The lease fees are currently frozen and were not adjusted to help owners recoup installation costs. To the contrary, drivers were given several fare increases recently to improve their incomes.

There are actually FOUR different systems available to owners, each with different costs and features. Owners are free to choose any of the four and they sign contracts with the vendor of their choice. There was a lot of competition and real differences between the systems in terms of content and the types of tech available (large vs. small screens, RFID vs. swipe, etc.) The TLC did require that all systems provide a display screen for passengers, a text messaging system for drivers, accept major credit cards, and display a map.

As far as the issue of "employer" versus "employee", it's complex. Some taxi drivers own their medallion (which confers the right to pick up passengers on the street) and their vehicles. Some taxi drivers pay a daily or weekly lease fee to "rent" a medallion and a vehicle. Another group of drivers own their car but lease their medallion. Again, the owner of the medallion pays to install the system. It seems reasonable that the ultimate owner of the vehicle (in many cases this person is NOT the driver, but sometimes it is) has the right to receive data on the car's usage if they choose.

Finally, about 1,300 cabs (out of about 13,000) have these systems installed already and are operating without major problems. All NYC cabs will have them installed by early next year.

As a passenger, your privacy rights are the same as they are now if you pay by cash and the data collection for credit card usage is the same as if you used it in a store. TLC does not collect credit card numbers or any personally identifying information. As a driver, you are subject to the same data collection requirements as before, except via electronics instead of hard copy.

More information is available at http://www.nyc.gov/html/tlc/html/industry/taxicab_ serv_enh.shtml

The old NYC cab meters were also clearly visible to passengers and located in the front of the cab, of course. I don't know about Ontario, but NYC has a number of surcharges: (Night surcharge of $.50 after 8:00 PM & before 6:00 AM, peak hour Weekday Surcharge of $1.00 Monday - Friday after 4:00 PM & before 8:00 PM, tolls, etc.) You can see the full charge explanation here:

http://www.nyc.gov/html/tlc/html/passenger/taxicab _rate.shtml

It can be intimidating for people new to New York. The new cabs do a better job spelling everything out and is accessible on the touch screen in the back as well. (Though I hope they continue to itemize the readout including $$ spent because traveling 6 mph, etc.)

Like reading the article, perhaps?

"The proposed rules would require a permit for "activity involving a tripod and a crew of 5 or more people at one site for 10 minutes or more"

Your post is well written, polite, and makes a point that is often very valid. However, given that the linked article, the original source (http://www.nyc.gov/html/film/html/news/080107_pro posed_permit_rules.shtml), and even the first post (conveniently rated at +5 for high visibility) all use the word "crew", it is also factually inaccurate. To speak frankly, it reads as if your conclusion was already formed, and then facts were changed to fit it. Consider that your response to my criticism of ignorant-of-the-facts Slashdot posts takes its "actual language" from one of said posts.

Given you place importance on careful reading, I doubt you deliberately changed the facts, but instead fell prey to groupthink. Try having a sense of perspective, because careful reading of clearly biased sources has terrible, unintended side effects.

The GP probably meant Manhattan when they said NYC. If you look at the detailed report, you'll see that in Manhattan the obesity rate is 8-15%. That is well below the national average.

An interesting theory, if only it were true! As of two years ago, the city's government cited 53% of NYC residents as overweight or obese - which was just about the national average.

Raymond W. Kelly's, Police Commisioner I can't find his contact info. Let's get it out there so I and others can peaceably let him know what we think of his sick pet project. I don't want to be under surveillance 24/7 when I visit the Big Apple. This is sick. It's like having thought police.

Look I understand that this is DHS money but honestly the return on investment on this for terrorism prevention is probably close to nil, or small enough that other locations for the system should be considered. It`s basically the wealthy and generally already safe population of Manhattan getting an added security blanket while the poor (and non-white to be honest) get screwed again.

Send your opinion to The Dept of Cultural Affairs http://www.nyc.gov/html/mail/html/maildcla.html

• Proposed Rules (PDF)
• Mayor's Office of Film, Theatre & Broadcasting contact page
• New York Civil Liberties Union's page

Time Magazine just ran this interesting photo essay called "what people eat." One of the interesting things to notice is how much wasteful packaging we use compared to those who still eat mainly for nutrition. Which is not to say I'd like to live like a refugee, only that it's a shame quality food can't be packaged without all that expense and waste: "Only about 9 percent of the cost of a box of cereal is for the cereal -- the other 91 percent of the cost is for the package and advertising." Unfortunately we humans are suckers for outwards appearance.

Part of the reason folks think that expertise the is the first step to teaching is that they have been taught by experts (i.e. college professors, peers) and not necessarily by folks with degrees in education.

New York (and I'm sure other parts of the country) have programs to take experts (actually, in NYC, I think the requirement is human being with functioning respiratory system) and transform them into teachers. Some programs provide retraining funding in exchange for a period of service.

NYC has a rechargable battery law that states any retailer that sells rechargable batteries must accept them for recycling. I'd imagine cities can do the same with CFLs.

You mean enriched white bread. Wholegrain wheat bread is the stuff you should be eating.
Follow these food intake guidelines:

By Proportion:
  * 45% Fat.
  * 28% Protein.
  * 27% Carbohydrates.

By Calorie:
  * 55% Animal Products
  * 45% Plant Products.

By Weight:
  * 2/3 Plant products
  * 1/3 Animal products.

Preferred Carbohydrate Sources:
  * Foods with low glycemic load.
  * Unprocessed plant products.
  * Foods with a low glycemic index.

Non-Preferred Food Items & Ingredients:
  * High glycemic index foods.
      * Rice, primarily processed white rices.
      * Patatos.
      * Foods derived from highly processed grains.
          * If you can't see the grains don't eat it.
      * Mono/Di saccharides (Sugar, Corn syrup, ...).
  * Hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils, fats, and lipids.
      * Shortening.

"Always read food labels and choose foods without trans fats. Or - if partially hydrogenated vegetable oil or shortening is on the label - choose foods that have them near the end of the ingredient list (labels list ingredients from most to least). Starting in 2006, FDA has required that all "Nutrition Facts" labels on food list trans fat content. If partially hydrogenated oil is on the label, the food is not trans fat free." http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/pr/pr083-05.shtml

Top pay in many districts is WAY over $80K. In NYC it tops out at $93,416, with pension benefits of up to 79% of their final (average of last three years) salary (2% per year of work). Oh, they can also retire at 55! And the pension includes health coverage! Did I mention summer and holidays off? Oh wait--tenure too! On Long Island, some districts have teachers' pay that tops out at another $10,000-$20,000. Here is the pay list for all the NY districts. It's a few years old, so add about 5-10% to get current salaries. Obviously there are school districts that pay less, but they have lower costs of living.

It's not only California, almost every other state that imposes Sales tax also applies Use tax.

Sales Tax - Tax that is collected by the seller on behalf of the taxing authority(state/county/city) on the goods that are purchased within the jurisdiction of the taxing authority.

Use Tax - Tax which needs to be paid by the buyer to the taxing authority for the goods that are purchased from the seller who is based outside the jurisdiction of the taxing authority.

It is easy to enforce Sales tax because you can identify sellers within the jurisdiction based on licenses. It is difficult to enforce/audit Use Tax because it is voluntary. Most of the time the sellers are based in jurisdictions outside the taxing authority and so sellers cant be controlled by state goverment.

New York Cigarette Tax is one example of Use tax that was enforced aggresively.

Wikipedia entry for use tax

I have not read anything about this particular case, but please let me assure you that photography permits are a real thing. If you don't believe me, take a bunch of photo equipment onto a busy New York City sidewalk and start snapping away. You'll get a visit from New York's finest very quickly if you don't have a permit.

In NYC, permits are free and are generally given upon request. Depending on what you are doing, they may even dispatch police to help you close off a section of sidewalk for a while, also free. Go here for more info.

I do not know or care if Seattle has a similar system, but just so you know, photography permits are not akin to the easter bunny or the tooth fairy. They are real. In NYC, you don't need one to whip out your little disposable camera and snap off a few shots. But if you start setting up tripods and lights and stuff, you better have a photo permit, or you're getting shut down.

Only if you live in New York City.

Bloomberg for mayor?