Posts by Bart Janssen
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Ok so this is probably a better thread for this link
http://www.the-scientist.com/images/yr1997/mar/opin_970303.htmlIt's a really good discussion of low dose radiation hazards. For entirely understandable reasons everyone is nervous about radiation hazards but the problem is we really don't know what the effects are from low dose radiation exposure. We know about high dose and most of the safety standards are calculated from those. But the biology of how organisms respond to low dose radiation isn't easy to study experimentally. Nor is it straightforward, life on earth has evolved to deal with low dose radiation and it seems that different animals respond differently. Until we start to get data from lifelong experiments (eg health studies of people working in the radiation industries and pilots and flight attendants etc) then we won't really understand how humans respond.
Obviously avoiding unnecessary exposure is good but stressing over low dose exposure probably isn't warranted.
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Sorry if this is the wrong thread but this is a really good piece about low dose radiation hazards. It's not something you want to do casually but there really is very little knowledge about what happens when people are exposed to low doses and no certainty that the effects from high dose actually translate down to low dose.
Have a read http://www.the-scientist.com/images/yr1997/mar/opin_970303.html
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Hard News: The Wall and the Paper, in reply to Geoff Lealand,
being an editor of a newspaper means having responsibility for all that goes in it.
He looked like most of the senior administrators I've come across - all too happy to take the title and pay package but completely unwilling to either do the actual job properly or take the responsibility that goes along with the title.
"Being on holiday" is not an excuse unless he suspends his pay when he's on holiday - even then it's not an excuse if you have a spine.
I don't really mind senior management getting paid well to take responsibility but that means they F'ing well have to take it when shit hits the fan. That includes being the person who gets fired sometimes.
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Hard News: The Wall and the Paper, in reply to Russell Brown,
I want a T-shirt that says "PC-wet".
I liked this
Mr Brown calls Mr Laws' comments "extremely unpleasant".
Were those really the first words that came to mind?
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Speaker: Why the disaster in Japan made…, in reply to Islander,
the Juice
Oh and snap. Love my Juice only problem is the pretty purple anodising has mostly worn off :(
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Speaker: Why the disaster in Japan made…, in reply to Islander,
The corkscrew
If it doesn't have a corkscrew it doesn't get a look in
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Is there any evidence that a jury is more "just" than a judge. I guess I'm not convinced enough that juries are "better", to be concerned that there will be less option for a jury.
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Just want to compliment TV3 and Campbell for actually interviewing real scientists about the Ken Ring bollocks. Coherent interviews and coherent editing all made for a good story.
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Hard News: What Now?, in reply to Hilary Stace,
Hilary that's awful. And I understand your need to find a reason for your own tragedy. But there is no possible way Chernobyl could have had anything to do with your child's cancer.
You can distrust nuclear energy for many reasons, my personal one is the damage the uranium mines do. And as has pointed out when you run power plants as businesses then you have to trust accountants - yeesh.
Every way we generate energy has risk and costs, the only way to know which risk to take is to actually take the time to really assess the risks and benefits. Nuclear power is not the worst by any stretch even counting the mines.
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Hard News: What Now?, in reply to Matthew Poole,
In practice, we haven’t got a snowball’s chance in hell of predicting and controlling all the possible ways that Mother Nature can fuck with our best-laid plans.
No we haven't. But at some point you have to decide you are going to live your life. You can't be safe anywhere, living is all about balancing risk. being aware of real risks and understanding when a risk is great to change your behaviour is not trivial nor obvious. And people are notoriously bad at estimating risk.
Nuclear power is scary because of the kind of risk it creates but it's safer than coal power, especially if you count the number of people dying in coal mines in China.
And just for the record I don't think we should use nuclear power in NZ because I think we have plenty of water and wind to use to make energy, so much that we really shouldn't generate usable energy any other way.