External exposure to radioactivity can be bad, but it's far worse to have ingested a radioactive isotope, since the energy from its decay is pretty much guaranteed to damage a cell. Unfortunately, our own bodies work against us when it comes to specific isotopes, since they are either identical or closely related to the elements our bodies rely on to perform basic functions.

One example is potassium, which our body uses to maintain salt balances in cells and transmit electrical signals. In general, your body tries to hang on to all the potassium it gets, but the same mechanisms that hold onto potassium also work to keep cesium in the body, and a radioactive form of cesium has been released at Fukushima.

Know your nukes: understanding radiation risks in Japan

But cesium-137 and radioactive iodine - the two main radioactive substances being spewed by the leaking Japanese nuclear plants - are not naturally-occurring substances, and can become powerful internal emitters which can cause tremendous damage to the health of people who are unfortunate enough to breathe in even a particle of the substances, or ingest them in food or water.

Misstated risks from Fukushima fallout?

Low levels of radioactive iodine linked to the nuclear disaster in Japan were detected in a sample of rainwater in Massachusetts, state health officials announced yesterday.

State steps up monitoring after radioactivity found in rainwater - The Boston Globe

Joe Nocera’s last column in today’s NYT (he moves to the OpEd pages) tells a simply ghastly tale of misplaced governmental priorities: In Prison for Taking a Liar Loan.

It tells the horror show story of how the IRS came across one of the 15 million liar loans written during the credit bubble.

An excerpt simply will not do it any justice — go read it in its entirety.

Basically, they decided this dude was living beyond his means, so they investigated him. He is now in jail. Key points:

NYT says evidence against him is very thin.
NYT suggests that both the guy who sold the loan and the corp he worked for knew about these fraudulent loans and encouraged them.
The guy who sold him the loan went to prison for selling other fraudulent loans and got less time than he did.
He had to pay restitution - to the corporation that sold him the liar loan.
None of the corporate management has been prosecuted even though they have admitted that they knew some of these loans were cooked.

Its not clear why this guy became a priority for prosecutors. It may be the case that the small fish are slower and easier to catch.

Prosecute Guppies; Let the Sharks Roam Free | The Big Picture

Nathaniel Borenstein (the creator of MIME) sent the email below to the Interesting People list last week. I've been meaning to post a link to it, because I have found that it mirrors what I've been thinking about the Fukushima crisis. As the crisis continues to unfold I continue to come back to this email.

I like nuclear power. It think its a sustainable approach to energy production that does not require foreign dependence.

On the other hand, it does produce some nasty waste and has some significant health hazards associated with it. Disposal of nuclear waste is not a solved problem in the United States. Furthermore, other forms of energy production and other industrial processes also have risks, but I don't think any such process approaches the potential of a nuclear plant to contaminate a wide area in the event of a worst case scenario.

So nuclear energy is not a no-brainer. A lot of thought has to be put into doing it safely. People have gotten it wrong in the past and there are problems that remain unsolved. The wrong answers can have significant consequences. As an engineer, I know people sometimes get the wrong answers and that things sometimes fail. The whole purpose of a regulatory regime and public pressure is to make sure that people are dotting i's and crossing t's.

I am tired of pundits telling us that everything is A-OK with Fukushima and by the way, if you are concerned about the situation you are an idiot who obviously doesn't know anything about science.

The situation at Fukushima is not under control. Unexpected bad news is announced by the power company and the Japanese government every day. There is radiation all over Japan. Its in the food and its in the water. No, there isn't a lot of it, but there is enough that it can pose a risk to people's health - that is a problem. It is not yet clear that the situation will not get worse. It is possible that it will get worse. Containment breaches and more signification radiation releases remain a risk.

It is also not clear that the designers of the plant considered the scenario that occurred here. Given the level of respect that I personally have for Japan's technical and political sophistication I am surprised by that lack of clarity. If they didn't consider what to me seems like a rather obvious possibility given the region's geological history it is not clear that the designers of other plants around the world have also considered the real worst case scenarios their plants may face, even if they say that they have.

So there is a problem here. It is a real problem, and there is real cause for reasonable people to be alarmed. I really hope nothing catastrophic happens and we can all relax and go forward and build new nuclear plants with even safer processes, but "Its all good dude" is not a reasonable position to take at this time. Until the situation is, in fact, under control, and has been completely studied, it is not rea... [ Read More (0.2k in body) ]

New Yorker magazine cover, March 28, 2011 by Christoph Niemann.

Dark Spring

A company that seeks to monopolize such basic ideas -- behind which there really isn't any serious technology -- apparently loves patents. Even trivial patents.

This is genuinely offensive. It should not be necessary to establish prior art for something so obvious as dressing up one's corporate logo for the holidays.

The USPTO has jumped the shark.

Buzzblog: U.S. Patent Office finds Google Doodle dandy

New home sales fell 16.9% in February, to the lowest level since the government began keeping records in 1963, as the reeling housing market failed to generate any momentum.

Sales fell to an annual rate of 250,000 from the revised 301,000 in January, according to the Census Bureau's monthly report released Wednesday. The rate was down a whopping 28% from the 347,000 of February 2010.

New home sales break record low set last August. - Mar. 23, 2011

The Luminant Point Arrays show tube televisions in the moment they are swithed off. The television picture breaks down and creates a structure of light.

These pictures are very cool, but...

The pictures refuse external reference and broach the issue of the difference between abstraction and concretion in photography.

...thats taking things a bit far I think.

LEUCHTPUNKTORDNUNGEN : :STEPHAN TILLMANS PHOTOGRAPHIE

She has assumed iconic status as a lone mediagenic figure in the officialdom who reliably speaks out for the average person, a Joan of Arc for the little guy. And she drives the right crazy because she is rock solid competent and plays their game better than they do. She sticks to simple, compelling soundbites and images without the benefit of Roger Ailes and Madison Avenue packaging, and she speaks to an even broader constituency, Americans done wrong by the banks, than they target. No wonder they want to burn her at the stake.

Watch the crooks that run our government go after one of the only honest people involved.

The Elizabeth Warren Rorschach Test « naked capitalism