Become a fan of Slashdot on Facebook

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×

Comment Re:Perhaps. (Score 3, Informative) 446

That was Bruce Schneier on Security:

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2010/11/tsa_backscatter.html

There's talk about the health risks of the machines, but I can't believe you won't get more radiation on the flight. Here's some data:

A typical dental X-ray exposes the patient to about 2 millirems of radiation. According to one widely cited estimate, exposing each of 10,000 people to one rem (that is, 1,000 millirems) of radiation will likely lead to 8 excess cancer deaths. Using our assumption of linearity, that means that exposure to the 2 millirems of a typical dental X-ray would lead an individual to have an increased risk of dying from cancer of 16 hundred-thousandths of one percent. Given that very small risk, it is easy to see why most rational people would choose to undergo dental X-rays every few years to protect their teeth.

More importantly for our purposes, assuming that the radiation in a backscatter X-ray is about a hundredth the dose of a dental X-ray, we find that a backscatter X-ray increases the odds of dying from cancer by about 16 ten millionths of one percent. That suggests that for every billion passengers screened with backscatter radiation, about 16 will die from cancer as a result.

Given that there will be 600 million airplane passengers per year, that makes the machines deadlier than the terrorists.

(bold added for emphasis by russ1337)

Comment Re:F*(K the panic do something awesome (Score 1) 208

You are correct that the electorate is insane. As a result, we get the government that the media and the people with money shove down our throats.

With the media being controlled by the people with money, and with close ties to the government, we can reduce that to "we get the government the people with money want us to get".

I recall some news during the last presidential election which was looking at each hopefuls election funds - and basically divided the funds total by ~$35 to estimate the number of votes that person would get. The more you spend, the more votes you get.

Comment Re:Really? People are surprised? (Score 1) 402

The law here is very murky, and "aiding in submitting documents" probably isn't a crime. If there was a clear crime comitted here, we'd have heard specifically what it is by now.

They're looking... and it reminds me of this:

If one would give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest man, I would find something in them to have him hanged. - Cardinal Richelieu*.

They'll find something.

* (source disputed)

Comment Re:wonder if the others are watching? (Score 1) 181

Thanks. I wasn't sure how that worked, (and was silently hoping i wasn't going to get flamed for not having RTFA or something...)

so cheers!

The lets hope the court in DC does take the cue. I'd like to see the business model change rather than massive lawsuits against P2P.

I acknowledge the business model is changing with the likes of Netflix online, Hulu etc, and i'd like to see progress in that direction - internationally. (many of those services are not available outside the USA).

Comment Re:Donutleaks strikes again! (Score 2) 185

There was an entire documentary about this. I'm at work, so I'm not going to go googling for it, but I believe it was called "If Drugs Were Legal", or something to that effect. It talks about pharmaceutical companies making designer drugs that cause specific effects and side effects, allowing the user to tailor their experience to exactly what they want.

Personally, I'm not so sure I'd be willing to take a recreational drug created by a pharmaceutical company, but the market would undoubtedly be massive.

The entire movie appears to be on google video, but not working.

there is a good debate here - around the movie: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9145573810535960472#docid=-3840911425491936015

Comment Re:I generate my power with solar (Score 1) 507

How would one even know how much power they use in a year?

I'm guessing somewhere on the power bill each month it tells you your monthly amount, but honestly, does anyone look at that, and keep a running total to see how much they use in a year?

For that matter, does anyone actually LOOK at the bill for anything other than the amount to send in? I have levelized billing and just pay basically the same amount each month, so I don't ever really look at usage. I mean, it is like gasoline, I need it...I just pay for what it costs without hardly looking at it...necessities of life and all.

yes, I do.

If I use more than 500kWh per month I go looking for the leech.

Slashdot Top Deals

HELP!!!! I'm being held prisoner in /usr/games/lib!

Working...