Here's a brief description of the primary types of radiation and their relative harmfulness.
1) Alpha radiation. Alpha particles are helium nuclei, big and slow; they can be stopped by a sheet of paper, but if you inhale alpha emitters, they can tear up your lung cells. So don't do that.
2) Beta radiation. Beta particles are energetic electrons, and can penetrate a bit better than alpha particles, but you should be okay if you're in the next room.
3) Gamma radiation. Gamma rays are *very* energetic photons; these are the ones that'll get ya. You need a good amount of dense shielding to absorb these.
4) Neutrons. Energetic neutrons from radioactive decay both perpetuate the chain reaction, and cause direct damage like beta particles, only worse because they're heavier.
The people close to this one will probably have gotten a good zap of gamma radiation, and will be in a world of hurt. But unless radioactive *material* (such as the uranium itself) escapes into the surrounding air, nearby civilians should be okay unless there is inadequate shielding against gamma rays.
In a nutshell, this is Really Bad, especially for the people closest, but the Earth is not about to collapse into a molten ball...
Whether Sun is making good business sense, or whether they're going to get everybody hooked and yank the rug out from under their feet, ought to be irrelevant. And it's the Open Source community's job to keep it that way.
It's dangerous to depend on the goodwill of *any* for-profit corporation, since ultimately they will make the decisions that keep their bottom line where they want it. For now, it's profitable for Sun to promote Linux as a weapon against the Borg, and we can ride that wave, but we have to remember that waves go down as well as up.
How about fixing whatever aspect of shared memory it is that makes my loadavg skyrocket when Netscape or StarOffice slurps up the last of my swap space? It's the only way I've been able to bring linux to its knees lately...
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Here's a brief description of the primary types of radiation and their relative harmfulness.
1) Alpha radiation. Alpha particles are helium nuclei, big and slow; they can be stopped by a sheet of paper, but if you inhale alpha emitters, they can tear up your lung cells. So don't do that.
2) Beta radiation. Beta particles are energetic electrons, and can penetrate a bit better than alpha particles, but you should be okay if you're in the next room.
3) Gamma radiation. Gamma rays are *very* energetic photons; these are the ones that'll get ya. You need a good amount of dense shielding to absorb these.
4) Neutrons. Energetic neutrons from radioactive decay both perpetuate the chain reaction, and cause direct damage like beta particles, only worse because they're heavier.
The people close to this one will probably have gotten a good zap of gamma radiation, and will be in a world of hurt. But unless radioactive *material* (such as the uranium itself) escapes into the surrounding air, nearby civilians should be okay unless there is inadequate shielding against gamma rays.
In a nutshell, this is Really Bad, especially for the people closest, but the Earth is not about to collapse into a molten ball...
Whether Sun is making good business sense, or whether they're going to get everybody hooked and yank the rug out from under their feet, ought to be irrelevant. And it's the Open Source community's job to keep it that way.
It's dangerous to depend on the goodwill of *any* for-profit corporation, since ultimately they will make the decisions that keep their bottom line where they want it. For now, it's profitable for Sun to promote Linux as a weapon against the Borg, and we can ride that wave, but we have to remember that waves go down as well as up.
How about fixing whatever aspect of shared memory it is that makes my loadavg skyrocket when Netscape or StarOffice slurps up the last of my swap space? It's the only way I've been able to bring linux to its knees lately...