[VitaminE]

I'm gonna go find a couple dozen five-page news stories to cut and paste here.

[asshat]

Low radiation levels pose cancer risk
Scientists say no threshold below which exposure is harmless

Kevin Rivoli / AP file
Kodak research associate Phillip Bunch looks over a new X-ray film which cuts a patient's radiation exposure by about 50 percent, while in an office in Rochester, N.Y. A typical single chest X-ray accounts for 0.1 millisievert, average background radiation.

Low Fat Diet May Reduce Risk of Breast Cancer Recurrence
By the simple expedient of substituting low-fat foods for high fat foods, some postmenopausal women may reduce their risk of recurrence of early breast cancer.

The Associated Press
Updated: 4:42 p.m. ET June 29, 2005
WASHINGTON - The preponderance of scientific evidence shows that even very low doses of radiation pose a risk of cancer or other health problems and there is no threshold below which exposure can be viewed as harmless, a panel of prominent scientists concluded Wednesday.

The finding by the National Academy of Sciences panel is viewed as critical because it addresses radiation amounts commonly used in medical treatment and is likely also to influence radiation levels the government will allow at abandoned nuclear sites.

The nuclear industry, as well as some independent scientists, have argued that there is a threshold of very low level radiation where exposure is not harmful, or possibly even beneficial. They said current risk modeling may exaggerate the health impact.

The panel, after five years of study, rejected that claim.

“The scientific research base shows that there is no threshold of exposure below which low levels of ionized radiation can be demonstrated to be harmless or beneficial,” said Richard R. Monson, the panel chairman and a professor of epidemiology at Harvard’s School of Public Health.

Many years to develop
The committee gave support to the so-called “linear, no threshold” model that is currently the generally acceptable approach to radiation risk assessment. This approach assumes that the health risks from radiation exposure declines as the dose levels decline, but that each unit of radiation — no matter how small — still is assumed to cause cancer.

“It is unlikely that there is a threshold below which cancer are not induced,” said the report, although it added that at low doses “the number of radiation-induced cancers will be small.” And it said cancers from such low dose exposures may take many years to develop.

The panel, formally known as the Committee on Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation, or BEIR, generally supported previous cancer risk estimates — the last one by an earlier BEIR group in 1990.

Contrary to assertions that risks from exposure from low-level radiation may have been overstated, the panel said “the availability of new and more extensive data have strengthened confidence in these (earlier) estimates.”

The committee examined doses of radiation of up to 100 millisievert, a measurement of radiation energy deposited in a living tissue. A single chest X-ray accounts for 0.1 millisievert, average background radiation, 3 millisievert a year and a whole body CT scan delivers 10 millisievert.

The committee estimated that 1 out of 100 people would likely develop solid cancer or leukemia from an exposure of 100 millisievert of radiation over a lifetime with half of those cases being fatal.

The report noted that exposure from a whole body CT scan is much higher than a normal X-ray, and it raised concerns about the frequency in which such medical diagnostics should be used.

While medical radiation is often done for good reasons, said Monson, “exposure to unnecessary radiation should be avoided.”

[SanDog]

I am pretty fucked if this is indeed true. My career exposure is well above those levels. Fucking radcon techs, letting me extend my limits so I could finish the job. What a bunch of fucks. Can I sue the Navy if I get sick later from this?

[asshat]

Mystery solved: Super Bowl ring was gift
Patriots owner says he gave diamond-encrusted bauble to Putin

Updated: 5:19 p.m. ET June 29, 2005
BOSTON - Russian President Vladimir Putin walked off with New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft’s diamond-encrusted 2005 Super Bowl ring, but it turns out that it was a generous gift, not a very expensive international misunderstanding.

Following a meeting of American business executives and Putin at Konstantinovsky Palace near St. Petersburg on Saturday, Kraft showed the ring to Putin — who tried it on, put it in his pocket and left, Russian news reports said.

But Kraft later said in a statement that the ring was indeed a gift.

"At the end of a very productive three-hour business meeting with President Putin, organized by my good friend Sandy Weill, I showed the president my most recent Super Bowl ring," Kraft said in the statement. "Upon seeing the ring, President Putin, a great and knowledgable sports fan, was clearly taken with its uniqueness. At that point, I decided to give him the ring as a symbol of the respect and admiration that I have for the Russian people and the leadership of President Putin.

Kraft's business interests also include paper and packaging companies and venture capital investments.

Originally it was unclear if Kraft had given the ring to Putin, or if the Russian president had simply walked off with it.

However, a Kremlin official who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of compromising his position said the ring was a present. “Such a present was made,” the official said.

He said Putin had given the ring to the Kremlin library where other foreign gifts are kept.

Slide show: The Week in Sports Pictures

• June 21 - 27
Tumbling Texans, scaling sailors, beaten boxers and more.

James said the ring’s worth was “substantially more” than $15,000, as the value had been reported. He refused to be specific, but noted that the ring has 124 diamonds.

Kraft handed out Super Bowl rings to players and coaches at his home two weeks ago.

The Patriots have won three of the last four Super Bowls.

[asshat]

PortaPorn Inc.

Hardcore smut is going mobile. What it means for the adult entertainment industry, for Sony’s PSP—and for you.

Amy Sussman / AP
Porn star Jenna Jameson may be appearing on a PSP near you


WEB EXCLUSIVE
By Andrew Romano
Newsweek
Updated: 3:24 p.m. ET June 29, 2005
June 29 - If you’re looking to spice up your morning commute, how about a little hardcore? Imagine: one mocha chai latte, one copy of the Times—and, provided you own a portable media player, one X-rated rendezvous with Jenna Jameson as “The Masseuse."

Not your bag? Well, like it or not, pornographic films are about to elbow their way out of the boudoir and onto the bus. In the next few weeks, Japanese adult-DVD makers H.M.P. and GLAY'z will release eight of their top-selling hardcore titles on Sony’s Universal Media Discs—the 2¼-inch, plastic-encased “DVDs” designed for exclusive use with their hot new PlayStation Portable device. Teen boys of the world, rejoice: blue movies are going mobile.

Sure, it’s long been easy to steam up a small screen with skin flicks—the latest DVD viewers are low-priced and only marginally larger than DVDs themselves. And others have already put porn on the PSP. In April, the Playboy Web site posted pics and video tailored to the device, and tech-savvy pornophiles have relied on other sites or programs like iPSP to transfer video clips from PCs to PSP-ready memory sticks ever since the player first hit U.S. stores in March. But this is a whole new ballgame: with next week’s Japanese launch, “portaporn” steps out of the on-deck circle and into the batter’s box. Sony is betting big bucks that the PSP will do for on-the-go movies what the iPod did for MP3s—and that consumers will choose to make their Universal Media Discs, well, universal. If tech history is any guide, porn could seal the deal. New formats almost always rely on adult entertainment to propel sales. Companies selling smut were the first to strike gold on the Web. CD-ROMs and satellite TV both received early boosts from erotic content, and, thanks to their scene-skipping abilities, DVDs got hot in sex shops before making the leap to Wal-Mart. "Portable porn is the Next Big Thing in adult entertainment," says Regina Lynn, Wired.com's "Sex Drive" columnist and author of "The Sexual Revolution 2.0," out in August. "I’m convinced that this will succeed."


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Lynn may be right. Bringing porn to the PSP may offend some sensibilities, but it makes good business sense. After two months on North American shelves, the PSP had sold 1.3 million units, and Sony had shipped 2.97 million more worldwide; Apple’s iPod, by comparison, shipped only 125,000 units in its initial 60 days. Two UMD titles—“House of Flying Daggers” and “Resident Evil 2,” both released April 19—have each topped 100,000 copies, a mark it took the first DVD “Air Force One” nine months to hit. According to estimates by Adams Media Research of Carmel, Calif., the PSP could move 6 million units in its opening year and eventually reach 25 to 30 million households. “Content publishers are taking notice,” says Patrick Seybold, a rep in Sony’s PlayStation division. “They’re seeing huge potential for the PSP as a multimedia device.” For moviemakers—blue or otherwise—it’s all about the green.

As for Sony—who, according to spokesman Daisuke Nakata, “never asked adult content providers to provide us with their contents in order to promote sales of the PSP"—the porn invasion might be more welcome than they’re prepared to say. Earlier this month, a rep for Sony Japan called the forthcoming releases “utterly undesirable” and insisted his employer “cannot stop software makers from selling such videos.” All true, perhaps, but he’s only spilling half the beans. It was Sony who shared UMD specifications with GLAY’z and is providing the actual disks. PlayStation’s Seybold could not elaborate on the details of Sony’s arrangements with companies who release films on UMD, but he does acknowledge that Sony controls “the production of all UMDs.”

GLAY’z and H.M.P. have encoded the first batch of UMDs for exclusive use on Asian PSP players, so major-league portaporn is a Japan-only proposition for now. “But since our announcement,” says Kawada, “we’ve received lots of inquiries from overseas. In the future, we may consider releasing our pieces region-free.” They’ve already translated some of the titles into English—sort of. On offer: “High Grede Class First Soap Lady" and "The Nurse of a Big Breast.”