On one hand you can assassinate your political dissidents with microscopic amounts of polonium 210, and on the other hand you have this: http://www.jpands.org/vol9no1/chen.pdf
Apparently (and this is deduced from the hard body count) if you live for 20 odd years in a dwelling where the rebar had been contaminated with Cobalt 60, you end up with a cancer rate less that 4% of everybody else. And fewer babies get born with congenital defects. Now this was a gamma radiating event instead of dispersed inhaled alpha emitters, but it would still do us some good to start paying attention directly to what Mother Nature is telling us instead of blindly believeing everything we hear in college.
Technically, exposure to any sort of ionising radiation at all increases your risk of developing a fatal cancer. For example, every banana you eat (which contains naturally-occuring potassium-50) slightly increases your risk.
Actually, it's potassium-40 -- but I suspect you just typoed that one. However, there are cases where the cancer risk drops way down when you are exposed to a certain "alarming" elevated level of radiation. Check out http://www.aapsonline.org/jpands/vol9no1/chen.pdf/ or, better yet, just google for the phrase "Is Chronic Radiation an Effective Prophylaxis Against Cancer?"
It tells the story of that Taiwanese apartment complex that was built with the Cobalt 60 contaminated rebar. 10,000 folks live there for 20 years and ended up with cancer rates about 4% of what was expected for that population. Sooner or later, we're going to start paying attention to what the universe is trying to tell us.
As one of the droids that installs the servers (OS/2, yay!) and teller tower workstations (XP, locked down within an inch of its life) just let me opine that the primary advantage of the new WaMu Occasio branch design is that the money is just about nowhere to be found. You hand over your cash to the teller and it disappears into a slot just like a Reno blackjack dealer. You won't be changing your mind after that. To get your withdrawl money after your transaction with the teller, you amble over to a large vault on the floor, swipe your card, enter your pin and then the cash spits out into your hands. The tellers never have any money!
We had some clown try to stick up one of the branches here in Seattle and after he finally figured out that there just wasn't any money around to take, all he ever got was some heavy attention from the local constabulary who nabbed him down the road after he tried to hit up some other bank.
I'm guessing that the "unrobbability" is the pantentable part of all this, but I could be wrong. What do I know -- I don't explain'em, I just install'em. And from a geeks point of view, they are clean designs. And having a safe place to stash the rugrat for ten minutes ain't bad either, lemme tellya!
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Actually, the universe works weirder than that.
On one hand you can assassinate your political dissidents with microscopic amounts of polonium 210, and on the other hand you have this: http://www.jpands.org/vol9no1/chen.pdf
Then we can call you Ray.
(extra credit for you whippersnappers who can i.d. the reference)
But it is a myth that you require a certain amount of radiation for it to be dangerous. ANY amount is dangerous.
.
I've mentioned this URL before, and I'll do it again. Check out http://www.aapsonline.org/jpands/vol9no1/chen.pdf
Apparently (and this is deduced from the hard body count) if you live for 20 odd years in a dwelling where the rebar had been contaminated with Cobalt 60, you end up with a cancer rate less that 4% of everybody else. And fewer babies get born with congenital defects. Now this was a gamma radiating event instead of dispersed inhaled alpha emitters, but it would still do us some good to start paying attention directly to what Mother Nature is telling us instead of blindly believeing everything we hear in college.
Hormesis good! Linear No Threshold bad!
Technically, exposure to any sort of ionising radiation at all increases your risk of developing a fatal cancer. For example, every banana you eat (which contains naturally-occuring potassium-50) slightly increases your risk.
/ or, better yet, just google for the phrase "Is Chronic Radiation an Effective Prophylaxis Against Cancer?"
Actually, it's potassium-40 -- but I suspect you just typoed that one. However, there are cases where the cancer risk drops way down when you are exposed to a certain "alarming" elevated level of radiation. Check out http://www.aapsonline.org/jpands/vol9no1/chen.pdf
It tells the story of that Taiwanese apartment complex that was built with the Cobalt 60 contaminated rebar. 10,000 folks live there for 20 years and ended up with cancer rates about 4% of what was expected for that population. Sooner or later, we're going to start paying attention to what the universe is trying to tell us.
My money is on later.
As one of the droids that installs the servers (OS/2, yay!) and teller tower workstations (XP, locked down within an inch of its life) just let me opine that the primary advantage of the new WaMu Occasio branch design is that the money is just about nowhere to be found. You hand over your cash to the teller and it disappears into a slot just like a Reno blackjack dealer. You won't be changing your mind after that. To get your withdrawl money after your transaction with the teller, you amble over to a large vault on the floor, swipe your card, enter your pin and then the cash spits out into your hands. The tellers never have any money!
We had some clown try to stick up one of the branches here in Seattle and after he finally figured out that there just wasn't any money around to take, all he ever got was some heavy attention from the local constabulary who nabbed him down the road after he tried to hit up some other bank.
I'm guessing that the "unrobbability" is the pantentable part of all this, but I could be wrong. What do I know -- I don't explain'em, I just install'em. And from a geeks point of view, they are clean designs. And having a safe place to stash the rugrat for ten minutes ain't bad either, lemme tellya!