From the video it seems that they were rifle rounds, not birdshot.

So I found the ignored article and I was none to surprised to find that there was some incredible extrapolation.

link: http://www.radiation.org/reading/pubs/HS42_1F.pdf

"During weeks 12 to 25, total deaths in 119 U.S. cities increased from 148,395
(2010) to 155,015 (2011), or 4.46 percent. This was nearly double the 2.34 percent
rise in total deaths (142,006 to 145,324) in 104 cities for the prior 14 weeks,
significant at p 0.000001 (Table 2). This difference between actual and expected
changes of +2.12 percentage points (+4.46% – 2.34%) translates to 3,286 “excess”
deaths (155,015 × 0.0212) nationwide. Assuming a total of 2,450,000 U.S. deaths
will occur in 2011 (47,115 per week), then 23.5 percent of deaths are reported
(155,015/14 = 11,073, or 23.5% of 47,115). Dividing 3,286 by 23.5 percent
yields a projected 13,983 excess U.S. deaths in weeks 12 to 25 of 2011."

I would expect an article to be ignored when the authors pull numbers out of their ass like this.

Whoever upvoted your post needs to be more skeptical. First of all, they just give a number without stating over what period of time. Secondly, the total deaths aren't stated so for all we know the death increase could be statistically insignificant. Third, fallout doesn't kill you like that. You don't just keel over and die; you get cancer that later kills you. Lastly, the "mostly among infants" claim shows that this is pure FUD.

Oh and correlation != causation.

I'm not surprised your 10 year old switches still work. I'm a member of a team doing network hardware upgrades for my uni and I've been pulling out plenty of gear of that age or older.

The High School that I went to had something like this. I never had to take it however because I was in the magnet program and they shoehorned the test into the first week of the intro CS course.

Poe's law may also apply here.

Well you're quite the loon.

In the case of the fax machines, they probably were used internally by their manufacturer, then their manufacturer may have subsidized them for business contacts etc.

I know for a fact that Ma Bell did a similar thing for phone service; if you worked for them you got free phone service for life. Because of this my grandparents still don't pay anything for their service.

How would these be determined? I'm a little ill-informed about how bitcoin gets converted into "real" money so it seems to me that BitInstant can fiddle with these all it wants in order to maximize its profits.

I'll pass on the self-replicating robots; we all know what happens next.

I remember 4.2; I wouldn't consider it as ready for prime time.

We all know that's nothing but an urban legend.

Wow those kinder eggs are considered illegal contraband? When I was younger my dad would bring back one for me and each of my siblings each time he traveled to europe for work.

Makes me feel proud of the US Border Patrol.