Beneficial Effects of Radiation

By WILLIAM TUCKER*
In the early 1980s, a Taiwan steel company accidentally mixed some highly radioactive cobalt-60 into a batch of steel rebar. The radioactive rods were then used in the construction of 1,700 apartments. As a result, people living in these buildings were subject to radiation up to 30 times the normal amount received from the natural background.
When dismayed officials discovered this enormous error 15 years later, they surveyed past and present apartment dwellers expecting to find an epidemic of cancer. Normal incidence would have predicted 160 cancers among the 10,000 residents. To their astonishment, the researchers discovered only five cases of cancer—97% lower than the anticipated amount. Birth defects were also 94% below the anticipated rate. These findings were published in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons in 2004. As one researcher phrased it, exposure to high levels of background radiation had apparently bestowed upon residents "an effective immunity from cancer."

The residents of the Taiwan apartments experienced 10 times the level of radiation as is prevalent in the evacuation zone around Fukishima. The etiology of radiation-related disease is well-known. Radiation can cause DNA damage but the body has repair mechanisms to deal with it. Last December scientists at Berkeley made microscopic videotapes of these cellular repair sites in action. "Our data show that at lower doses of ionizing radiation, DNA repair mechanisms work much better than at higher doses," wrote Mina Bissell, a world-renowned breast cancer researcher who co-authored the report. "This non-linear DNA damage response casts doubt on the general assumption that any amount of ionizing radiation is harmful and additive." Other researchers speculate that low radiation doses may immunize the body against cancer and birth defects by stimulating these repair mechanisms into greater responsiveness, just as vaccines stimulate the immune system. That would explain the low cancer rates in Taiwan.

The Wall Street Journal, March 6, 2012, link

Went to the Democratic Dallas Bar Senate Public Forum this evening. The best line was from Adelle A. who announced that 'her constituents were comfortable with keeping the retirement age 65' in response to McKenzie's question on 'saving Social Security.' Paul Sadler who wrote the education laws for Texas in the 90s from the Texas House thought direct government negotiation with pharma and price controls were the solutions to expanding Medicare costs. A bright guy, he expects to win the nomination on the Democrat side and bank on a favorable Democratic wind in November; he isn't taking any political chances it seems.

Inspired by Derek Lowe*

As I understand it, the elder Koch came up with a cracking process that yielded more gasoline out of a barrel of oil. This is an improvement in efficiency similar to what you were indicating would be an economic technical advance. As Paul Harvey used to say 'And now (in an amazing set of events) you have the rest of the story.

This 'rest of the story' might be of interest on several levels. It casts a hypothetical light on Stalin who, though he 'wanted to be a good Marxist' as he told his daughter to be, also considered the economic cost of inputs, i.e. in some sense was a capitalist. That may have been a reason for his success. Also in this discussion, as you point out, the implied assumption is 'big financial commitment' or commitment to a pyramid. What the president of the Pharma firm said was he wanted science but he wanted to change the cost of his inputs. When I went to the University of Texas tuition was essentially free. Is that the same as spending $17,000 a year on tuition?

*Lowe
The comment

I didn't suspect it, but the usual suspects appear to have usual suspects of their own. We do seem to be entering a time of tribal identifications. Like Obama and the naturally innocent of Rousseau against the evil Kochs.

Beldar has posted his endorsement of Ted Cruz for Senate. There are going to be 2 debates in March on successive Thursdays at 5:30 PM at the Belo Mansion on Ross Ave in Dallas for the candidates. I have wanted to be inside the mansion and plan to take a little vacation and go. The notice was in the Dallas Morning News.

The Century of the Icons

Obama was elected because people saw his struggle as, Keynesian and Democratic, preserving the icons of America, of GM. He himself is an icon of our goodness, our support of the Other in the black struggle. Even in California a cause wins supporting the icon of marriage. The Catholic Church is being attacked. Ad Deum qui laetificat juventutem meum, 'To God who is the joy of my youth,' an icon of our youth, shall it be taken away? No, an America which responded to the attack on the icon of New York to begin the century will struggle with Rick Santorum to preserve it.

On one visit, Kennedy was embroiled in one of the most defining moments of his presidency, the Cuban Missile Crisis. For 13 days in October 1962, the United States and the Soviets were at a nuclear standoff.
Although historians have dissected Kennedy’s actions, none was privy to what he confided to Mimi.
“I’d rather my children red than dead,” he told her.

Link

This from the story of the intern seduced by JFK. How about all of our generation that went to VN? We were terribly used. I guess you can argue the counter-factual and wonder if the counter-revolutionary Cubans had had air support at the Bay of Pigs, would they have won, would we have gone in after them. However it was pursued, if we lost in the action, would it have devolved later to a nuclear war, were Nixon president. He would more likely have bombed on discovery of the missile sites and nuclear armed missiles, unbeknownst to us, were already in Cuba, but he was good calculator of chances, a good gambler. I can remember waking up at about 2 AM the night of Kennedy's election and hearing Nixon optimistic about returns, and he did probably win except for fraud in Illinois.

Polish poet dies

Wislawa Szymborska and references in the Atlantic. The cat one and statistics are my favorite; she wrote a weekly coumn in Polish called not required reading.

Well, as you know we had terrible news tonight, Newt got bit in the behind in Florida, but the worst of it, you know that liberal lamestream media, well Newt called Mitt to congratulate him. .. Then Newt went onstage and said how he felt about it, congratulating Mitt for a hard fought primary and saying that he’d clear his throat and stay in bit longer but, as Mitt requested that he do for Mitt’s campaign, he was going to act like a grandiose loser, like the Roman Republic was going to crash and it was just him Brutus against the empire and just play to type. The media of course went along with this (wait, well that’s partly true).