Scientists question the health safety risks of the new airport x-ray equipment

The new ones that see under your clothes? Some scientists are now saying that they think the equivalent amount of radiation may not be calculated correctly and they are not certain how much radiation the machine is pumping out.

I wasn't planning on using them and now I'm definitely not. I already have one mutation causing my immune disorder, I don't need to stack more on top of it.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126833083


Here's another interesting story on Googleitis, people diagnosing themselves (usually wrong) using the internet. I find it amusing, but it also strikes a deep note in me as that's how we diagnosed my condition. We went to two specialists. One said no, I had not had pneumonia, that it was all caused by asthma (103f temperature? I don't think so.) My immunologist was initially chasing an allergies line, saying that CVID in a person my age was extremely rare. Guess what? 10% of the population of CVID people are diagnosed in my age decade. Not exactly rare. If we had not pushed for an IgG test, there's no telling how much longer I'd be waiting for an accurate diagnosis and treatment.

http://science.slashdot.org/story/10/05/17/1643252/Doctors-Seeing-a-Rise-In-Google-itis?art_pos=19

Doonesbury Say What?

"It's a relatively small leak compared to the volume of water in the Gulf... Come on, this is America, there will be frivolous lawsuits."
-- BP CEO Tony Hayward

You miss the point.
Turn around.
Go back.
Try again.

I heard that there are apparently huge oil plumes coalescing underwater because of the way they're using the dispersant. In the words of Blackadder, I believe it rhymes with Clucking Bell.

Philadelphia school district web cam scandal? Parents can now look at the pix.

"Suburban Philadelphia parents and their high school-age children soon will learn the extent of a potentially criminal webcam scandal.

A federal magistrate on Friday ordered the Lower Merion School District to start sending notification letters to any student covertly spied on through their school-issued Macbook, as well as to their parents. The order covers screenshots taken by school officials, and pictures snapped of the pupils through their webcams."

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/05/webcamscandal-parents/