The Maturing of Radiation Understanding

While I am much more interesting in other things, reading about Fukushima and comparing that event to others has made me more that a little curious about radiation. Our understanding of the impacts of radiation is still maturing. So it is understandable that there is so much confusion in the public, the press and even among the experts.

Ann Coulter, makes a living pissing democrats off. She is very good at it by the way. She commented on the Bill O'Reilly Show that radiation has health benefits. Being an effective Democrat pisser offer, there is enough truth in her statement to ensure her job security. Higher background radiation is not consistently indicative of higher cancer rates and some studies indeed indicate that certain levels of radiation promote DNA repair mechanisms in the human body. There are plenty of odd things in medicine that seem to go against common reasoning. Chiropractic medicine has plenty of "real" medical antagonists, but does have varying degrees of effectiveness. Many will accept Chiropractic, Holistic, and herbal medicine, but doubt radiation therapy. The human mind is truly amazing.

The Ann Coulter's, Rush Limbaugh's, and Bill O'Reilly's of the world will continue making good livings tweaking the sensibilities of the Left until the Left realizes how easily they are manipulated. It is not just the Left, the Right is also quite gullible. Each just has different buttons that can be pushed. Humorists will win the day ultimately. A great deal of the more accurate reporting of the condition of the world comes from comics. Perhaps I should help create a new political party, The Comicunist Party (CP).

The CP is much better equipped to deal with the irrational fear and policies of the less humorous powers at be. I have understood that for a long time and would have voted for Pat Paulson had I not been so agnostic at the time. I did vote for H. Ross Perot. Unfortunately, I later found out he was serious.

The real tragedy in Japan makes it difficult to find any humor. Real and irrational fears are fanned by the all too ignorant main stream media. There are still many in Japan and around the world finding ironic and real humor. That is one of the nice things about human nature. Crisis brings out the best of us, provided we are actually dealing with the crisis. Being removed from the crisis tends to bring out the idiotic nature of humanity. Green Peace, in search of what they are sure will be examples of governmental conspiracy, is helping the Japanese survey radiation. The Church of Scientology sees the need to convert the heathen Japanese to the light of the Lord following what surely must have divine intervention. Various humanitarian groups are offering to adopt the thousands of newly orphaned Japanese children, that do not exist.

In the midst of all of this, humanity is being forced to learn more about one of their irrational fears, radiation. The intense surveys in Japan will produce more understanding, just like Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. Before TMI, radon is homes was never considered. Test after TMI showed higher than expect levels of Radon. In 1980, Radon was the crisis De Jour. The thousands of home Radon surveys proved one thing, that radiation in our lives exists, like it or not.

Since then places like Guaraprira, Brazil background radiation level 175,000 microsieverts per year, Ramsar, Iran, 260,000 microsieverts per year, and other places with very high background radiation levels have been discovered. Now you can expect more background radiation maps to appear on the internet to provide a better perspective.

Our understanding of radiation is maturing. Hopefully, our understanding of ourselves will as well. If not, we will always be able to fall back on the Comicunist Party.