Oxford physicist: Raise radiation limits by 100,000 percent — “Radiation safety at the expense of mental health and community wellbeing is unjustifiable” –

Published: October 5th, 2011 at 11:11 am ET
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SOURCE: British physicist Wade Allison calls for radical increase in radiation exposure limits, The Australian by Rick Wallace, October 06, 2011

JAPAN’s evacuation criterion in the Fukushima nuclear disaster, which led to the relocation of more than 80,000 people, was unjustifiably strict and tore communities apart on the basis of false radiation fears.

That’s the view of Oxford University physicist Wade Allison, who wants limits on radiation exposure to be increased by as much as a thousandfold. [...]

“Radiation safety at the expense of mental health and community wellbeing is unjustifiable. It’s the wrong plan..

“By far the biggest health problems at Chernobyl were the effects on mental health and social structure of residents in the area. [...]

Published: October 5th, 2011 at 11:11 am ET
By
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78 comments

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78 comments to Oxford physicist: Raise radiation limits by 100,000 percent — “Radiation safety at the expense of mental health and community wellbeing is unjustifiable” –

  • arclight arclight

    ARRRGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! NUMPTY!!! (classy version)


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  • arclight arclight

    Wednesday 2 November 2011 | 4:15pm

    Professor Wade Allison
    Department of Physics, University of Oxford

    “Life and Nuclear Radiation”

    Ever since the Cold War with its threat of nuclear holocaust, radiation has been held in awe. But very few people die in nuclear accidents, in spite of the popular fear that they might. The scientific basis for current nuclear radiation safety is ripe for fundamental re-examination, not because of an impending expansion of nuclear power, but because it asks the wrong questions.

    Wade Allison is Professor Emeritus at Oxford University. He is a nuclear and medical physicist with no connection to the nuclear industry. He is the author of “Radiation and Reason: the impact of science on a culture of fear”.

    http://74.6.238.254/search/srpcache?ei=UTF-8&p=Wade+Allison+psychology+nuclear&fr=ie8&u=http://cc.bingj.com/cache.aspx?q=Wade+Allison+psychology+nuclear&d=4923458753594529&mkt=en-US&setlang=en-US&w=f58c4cd1,4cb990f3&icp=1&.intl=us&sig=fXtiqJLNw7lYoI_VZjrV.A–

    should be interesting…..eh???
    :)


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    • arclight arclight

      notice they pulled it off their site at bath university….good thinking mr and mrs university types….ooops forgot about google cache….luv the goooglies meee!! whhooooppie!!!


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      • arclight arclight

        busby ….how about a fair and balanced debate (somehow ) at bath university…bet they would love that….youve got nearly four weeks to do something….this guy is a menace with his spoutings…hes an easy target because of his outrageous views!! they are mind bogglinly crazed ideas from a stick in the mud proffessor out to make a retirement nest egg!! i doubt he believes this stuff himself as hes obviously been astute (at one time) but hes no psychologist….what is his source materials for this fear theory?? what is the evidence that chemical and genetic damage hasnt accoured instead of temprary stress based??
        this link seems appropriate here!

        http://enenews.com/nrc-chairman-true-everything-gundersen-absolutely-performed-quite-service-video/comment-page-1#comment-138267

        thanks jebus saved us a bit of work this afternoon!! scroll down the thread to find all you ever didnt want to know about the WADEMAN!!
        LIKE SOME CLEVER LAWYER (not you admin :) ) WATCH HIM SQUIRM HIS WAY AROUND REALITY! SEE HIM PLUNGE HIMSELF INTO THE HEADY WORLD OF PSYCHOLOGY! SEE HIM TAKE OUT THOSE DAM COMMIES WITH HIS FATHERS GIEGER COUNTER….AND NO THOSE DAM GREEKS CANT HAVE THE ELGIN MARBLES BACK!! SO WHAT IF THOSE KIDS ATE THE STRAWBERRIES WITH PEOPLE LIKE THE WADEMAN SPOUTING THAT HIGHER RADIATION LEVELS ARE OK…..changed his tune there a bit ???? hmmm
        thank you once again jebus :) its been most enjoyable in a warped sort of way!!


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        • This whole idea of radiation fears being insane and that fear is why people get sick from radiation came from the Three Mile Island cover up and public relations effort (and the legal battle to avoid compensating the injured and killed). The plant BS team actually went out to people suffering from serious illnesses and told them that they could be declared insane if they kept reporting their symptoms. Sick stuff to blame victims of radiation-induced illnesses, cancers, and other problems and threaten to defame them.


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          • radegan

            Did you watch the video of the female attorney in Japan testifying before a government committee? They laughed at her as she told them both her children and she tested positive for cesium from the milk.


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    • arclight arclight

      cache has been removed :) obviously


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  • Tanuki San

    I think what’s really harmful to the mental health of the community is constantly being lied to and never really knowing if the food is safe or what’s going on as it happens. If the TEPCO and the government hadn’t waited so long to give the public the information they had, until it was too late to act, there probably wouldn’t be so much anxiety. They’ve shown time and time again that they can’t be depended on and people have the feeling that they’re left to fend for themselves. If this scientist thinks those levels of radiation are so safe, he should spend some time there himself.


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  • zaadik

    Ahahahahahaha. Oh. No. He proposes 5000 mSv as acceptable lifetime dose.

    It IS a lifetime dose, in the sense that roughly 90% of those who get a 5 Sv total dose drop dead from radiation.


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  • Whoopie Whoopie

    posted here
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/30/japan-earthquake-2011-gov_n_989682.html
    Horrible news…just who does this guy think he is. CRIMINAL!


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  • Elenin Velikovsky Elenin Velikovsky

    Just change the standards, no problem….
    Like the folks whose house was in Canada,but in a
    border area survey and redrawing of boundaries,
    they found their
    house now on the American Side.
    “What a Relief!”, said the homeowner,
    “Now we won’t have to face any more of those
    Harsh Canadian Winters!”


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  • whoops commented on the wrong thread…

    paid promotions, gotta love em!

    my god, 8 months…

    No end in sight.

    lie after lie after lie…

    Its not steam. its fog.
    its not plutonium its pollen.

    no you cant have the data.

    Yes we did arial monitoring…
    No its private.

    Yes we did oceanic sampling.
    Yes its private too…

    We get the point.
    Its so bad, your never going to admit, how far the ball was hit out of the park…

    Too bad for average tax paying citizens, that have no bomb shelter keys…
    Reality is doomed.


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    • isnt 100,000 percent still just 100% ?

      Or did he mean 100% 1000times.

      ?

      Thats a big indication that he studied economics, before science.

      cause hes getting paid, for having that phony physics degree…


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    • Yup… they choose a ridiculously high “safe” threshold and then call any readings below that level “uncontaminated”. If they get a reading above that danger level, they just raise the level, of course. Too bad we can’t just raise the level at which our DNA is fried…


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  • livelife

    I had to re-read this as I couldn’t believe what I was reading! Who is this tool? It’s funny (not really) how these people want to dictate these absurd ideas onto others who are already dealing with conflicted emotions, looking for any little thing to hold onto to escape the horror they are facing, I mean, he is just giving people misinformation and will cause more harm than good by putting this shit out there. This idiot stick, who by the way is thousands of miles away from ground zero, needs to walk the walk and fly his ass, family in tow, right into Fukushima City and create a cozy little home right there. Sounds like someone just wants to get their name out there.


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  • They will soon being telling families their loved one did not die !


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  • Cancer rates statistically keep rising over time and all the “experts” wonder why. Here comes another “expert”. He does have connections to nuclear industry. In the 70′s he worked for one of the original labs contracted for the Manhattan Project . Just read up on him at Wikipedia.
    So reading between the lines, he must have some sort of friendly ties or sympathies to that industry.
    Most of the early pioneers in nuclear industry died of some sort of cancer or nasty disease. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_Curie#Death

    Radiation is bad for your health. Less is better then more.


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    • arclight arclight

      that is a really important point about him having connections to the nuclear industry…in his up coming seminar at bath university it clearly states that he has no connection with the nuclear industry….good hit mark +200


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  • dka

    what data does he used to base his argumentation? Without these data, I do not beleive him. Only when I will be able to check the reliability of his data will I be in a position to decide if what he says is right or wrong. Until then, so far it has proven to be very wrong looking at the health effects of Chernobyl. And he is not in a position to decide for people affected by contamination to decide for them if they should stay or leave. They have the right to be compensated, and if they want to stay, that’s another thing, but they have to be told that can become severly imparaired from the radiation.


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  • PoorDaddy PoorDaddy

    This dude can not possibly be a physicist. He needs to hang out a shingle that says,

    “Wade Allison, Sheeple Rancher”.

    Say whatever you have to say, and do whatever you have to do. Keep the masses serene and calm at all costs!

    Would someone at Oxford please whack that asshole???


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  • Sky775

    Most civilized societies do NOT consider it acceptable to expose their population to something that causes one extra cancer per 100, which I believe is the rate at 100 mSv. I notice he has completely omitted mention of internal radiation, which is additive to the external dose, and children, who are about 10-fold more sensitive to radiation than adults.


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  • StillJill StillJill

    Yikes Anthony! Dang,…one has to be a flippin’ camel to live there! Well, how about South Africa? I’m seeing a TON of ‘travel South Africa’ commercials this week?


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  • Grampybone Grampybone

    I think this professor Wademan or whoever the fuck he is needs to drink a tall glass of STFU laced with polonium 210. Then he can tell me about how safe radiation is. Anyone remember this incident?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisoning_of_Alexander_Litvinenko

    Well it proves that radiation will kill you. Ann Coulter should suffer the same fate with Wademan as the man who dared oppose Vladimir Putin.

    Fuck the power hungry pricks who think they know radiation is safe.


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  • radegan

    “So how much radiation is dangerous, professor?”

    “Are you a man? Or some knocked-up girlie? Can’t take a little tanning?”


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  • Undertow

    Why is this physicist trying to be a sociologist?

    Either which way, he clearly doesn’t have a good grasp on both physics AND sociology.


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    • HardLeft

      Exactly, UT– I know I posted a similar comment in another, similar thread, but why would any respectable scientist feel competent to make wild, blanket statements like this in a discipline outside their own?

      But let’s assume that fear really does kill, and that irrational fear kills more, even though the author cites no evidence for this whatsoever, and healthy, adaptive fear has, obviously, saved millions of lives.

      If the limits for radiation were raised, uh… why wouldn’t that frighten people even more? Raising the limits would just tend to make people believe that their government had gone insane– as it has– and would make us MORE fearful. It’s like going around and removing signs that say “No Diving — Pool Empty!” How does that road lead anywhere but to complete and utter terror?

      Sure, let’s let the physicists start doing psychology and sociology. Great frickin’ idea.


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  • Blown Camaro

    He should truly watch some Chernobyl abomination videos before making assinine public comments like these. Maybe put him up on a rooftop and let him shovel graphite for 20 minutes or so.


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  • stock stock@hawaii.rr.com

    I posted this on March 16th, the pro nuke pukes (PNP) were already stating stupid stuff.

    http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/03/12/japan-nuclear-fallout-how-bad-could-it-get.html


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  • arclight arclight

    liked this from the link….of course the recent iaea report said they did geraldine thomas said they did, but they didnt…ho hum!! another nuclear lie!!

    Why is Japan distributing iodine tablets?

    One of the isotopes of fission products, when fuel melts, is an iodine isotope, and it goes in your body through your thyroid. So if you take iodine tablets, the non-radioactive iodine goes to your thyroid, you bulk up your thyroid with iodine and it prevents absorption of the radioactive iodine.


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  • markww markww

    Wade Allison is about as dumb as he is STUPID couldn’t find his A** With a search light and a search warrant


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  • Pallas89juno Pallas89juno

    Apparently Wade Allison (BUFFOON) is that NOT rare commodity (for the nuke industry, whether or not that is his specific area, if people get my drift) of being a moron with a curriculum vitae that includes a doctorate. It’s really funny how long it took the CIA, MI5, Mosad, whomever (media manipulators for billionaires–parasitic goons all) to locate and cajole this fool–out of millions of worthwhile or apathetic other doctorate holders–into undermining his career by making such bald-faced and spurious statements actually recommending raising radiation limits. He’s as qualified a moron as that previous Japanese buffoon “academic” who said that 35mg of Plutonium, INGESTED by MOUTH!!!, will do no more harm than equivalent amount of table salt. The reality is, of course, that in the case of plutonium, it is well known that a particle breathed into and deposited on alveolar lung tissue as small as 1/3 micron across and weighing less than 1 MILLIONTH of a gram is sufficient to cause death in a month from pneumocystic fibroids (similar to thyroid teletherapy gone wrong outcomes) occluding breathing channels. If it doesn’t kill you that way and you don’t otherwise die of natural causes like getting hit by a bus crossing the street, you are guaranteed, essentially, to die of cancer by the same amount ingested. How many fuel fleas, of what weight when particalized (larger than atomized and aerosolized) do we, everywhere in the Northern Hemisphere, currently breath into our lungs? What will be the rate of increase in exposure with continuous fissioning with higher and higher rates of radioactivity emissions occurring at Fukushima Dai ichi, and occurring here only at the very least?


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  • Jebus Jebus

    Wade is a buddy of none other than Rod Adams…
    Another nuclear psycho…
    Check out this Atomic Show #043 from ’06 and the bullshit that they spew, comparing sharing aspirin, blood and other crap to radiation exposure.
    Neither one make any damn sense and I think that Wade was going senile back in ’06. They are both in bed with the nuke industry. They are both absolute nuclear shills and have no scientific credibility, although they cite many reports they do not back any thing up. Just bullshit to the nth degree.

    http://atomic.thepodcastnetwork.com/2006/12/28/the-atomic-show-043-prof-wade-allison-the-dangers-of-radiation-safety-rules/

    Wades “Official” website…

    http://www.radiationandreason.com

    Browse his site and see that his references for his book are just there to make him look official. Extropolated information twisted to his benefit.

    http://www.radiationandreason.com/index.php?contents

    Scroll down on this page and read his “Summary of Conclusions”

    This old man is insignificant in the real world.

    Listen to the podcast and get a good laugh…


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      • arclight arclight

        “Please have a listen to hear why Professor Allison, like many other people that are outside of the Radiation Protection industry (see, for example, Radiation, Science and Health) have determined that the linear, no threshold (LNT) model of radiation hazards has no basis in science and should be abandoned for more accurate models.

        The key statement made during the conversation is that radiation safety, as it is currently practiced, is more dangerous than the radiation itself.”

        lol


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  • Jebus Jebus

    Who is really paying Wade Allison (retired) to spew this garbage?

    This is where this all came from…

    Welcome to the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ)

    IS FOOD IN JAPAN REALLY SAFE?

    3 Oct 11 : Following the nuclear accident in Fukushima, there has been great concern throughout Japan on food safety. The issue of food safety is highly charged, and there are many conflicting sources of information, not all of which has been correct.

    Two independent nuclear experts, Dr. Wade Allison of Oxford University (Author of “Radiation and Reason”) and Dr. Akira Tokuhiro of the University of Idaho (Professor of Nuclear and Mechanical Engineering), addressed key questions regarding food safety, including:

    - What are the chances of the food chain being contaminated?
    - How much food is actually tested before it reaches the distribution chain?
    - How reliable are the tests and how are they conducted?
    - How much radiation (if consumed) is tolerated by the human body?
    - Why are only Iodine 131 and Cesium 134/137 cited in most testing results?
    - Does the human body recover from a radiation dose? How effectively and how quickly?
    - Are internal doses (like Iodine and Cesium) more or less harmful than external doses (like X-rays and gamma rays)?

    Mr. Noriyuki Shikata, Director of Global Communications, in the Prime Minister’s Office, commented on the presentations and joined the presenters in a Q&A session with event attendees.

    The files presented by Dr. Wade Allison of Oxford University are available at:
    http://www.radiationandreason.com/uploads/FCCJ_ALLISON_100311_FINAL.pdf

    The files presented by Dr. Akira Tokuhiro of the University of Idaho are available at:
    http://www.accj.or.jp/doclib/file_view/ACCJ111003.pdf

    Source:
    http://www.accj.or.jp/user/detailNews.php?newsid=506&file=/user/210/index/


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    • arclight arclight

      jebus….you are the man/woman…. errr i mean dog….hot dog….i will check some of this later…hardcore research….god forbid all this info getting out to the real world….;)
      peace and well done!!


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    • midwestern midwestern

      this is pure undistilled nuke industry pr. A tightly woven web of hideous complicity of which many of that community of academics at least silently take part…the whole radioactive lot of them need to test their assertions on the battleground of fukushima to experience firsthand the truth of their lies. How they must have all laughed when they first twisted these absurd arguments together to defend their well-paying crimes.


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    • Misitu

      I like this gem,
      “In Japan seaweed is in the diet and many children received iodine tablets. Both protect against child thyroid cancer.”

      um, what else is in the seaweed?

      Apart from that, reading through the pdf of the talk, I see statements which seem to have value but mixed in with those I see statements which have less value than the thin air out of which they may well have been plucked in passing.

      Thanks for the pointer.


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      • Misitu

        “Everywhere, we should learn to use nuclear radiation for the benefit of society with the same care and respect that we already do when it is used
        for our personal health.”

        Another gem. I would bounce this back with the query as to how much care and respect has been allocated to the maintenance of nuclear engineering facilities over the years, and likewise how much paid to the slightly difficult issue of nuclear waste disposal.


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  • Arizonan Arizonan

    Stop TEPCO! Occupy Tokyo! https://www.facebook.com/OccupyTokyo?ref=ts

    occupytogether.org


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  • americancommntr

    Why doesn’t this highly educated radiation fearless person just get his ass up and move as close as Tepco/gangster/Japanese government will let him, and live there, if its no big deal?

    They’d probably let him put a tent up just outside the pellet blast radius.

    Wouldn’t want him to drop dead the first day sleeping next to a pellet.


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  • pure water

    Dear friends,
    Many of you have said it: decent scientists have always tested on themselves what they consider beneficial, curing or harmless!
    The supreme power for a scientist should be Truth, as for an artist – Beauty. It appears that for many of them, for the majority of scientists some other arguments appear more important. Their aim is to search the facts and state them, not to linger in false psycho-sociological estimations, they do not really understand.


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  • arclight arclight

    i so hope busby gets a chance to slap this up!!
    GO BUSBY!!!


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  • Raising the limits doesn’t change the reality.

    Raising the limits doesn’t change everyone’s understanding that what they are being exposed to is FAR above what is normal and natural.

    You don’t have to be a scientist to understand it is harmful. THAT understanding of the truth is what is causing anxiety because the truth is horrible.

    No matter what the limit is set at, no matter what the government says is safe, people will judge for themselves based on logic and their own higher ideals such as protecting their children and the conclusion is closer to the truth than ANY limits will ever be.

    Anyone who proposes people should accept and live in nuclear contamination should be viewed the same as those fringe religious nuts who believe in drinking snake venom.

    Anyone who proposes such high limits should be asked to go and live in a contaminated area with their families for a year.


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  • pure water

    “Anyone who proposes such high limits should be asked to go and live in a contaminated area with their families for a year.”
    I like this! Though, children do not deserve this, even if they have a monster for a parent…The problem is always with double measures.


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  • Misitu

    I do have a problem with people who trade their reputation for two pieces of fool’s gold.

    I also have a problem with a society that does not rigorously sanction such people. A society that promotes falsehood is not sustainable.

    Maybe fuxu is the litmus test for our “modern” “global” “society”. And we passed the test – in the sense of the above.


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    • arclight arclight

      occcupy bath! november 2nd!! :)


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    • arclight arclight

      occcupy bath university ! november 2nd!! :)


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      • arclight arclight

        92 percent of people from bristol and bath will never work for goldman sachs directly :) go get wade aliinson guys and gals…tell him what you think of his theory and about his hopes for the children of fukushima!!
        remember this was the 50 year old man that let children in greece eat strawberries he knew were contaminated during the chernobyl situation!!!

        i bet he doesnt want the elgin marbles returned either…sounds like a really cold old dude!!


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  • VicFromOregon VicFromOregon

    I just had to check into Mr. Wade Allison’s creds on wiki and I ain’t impressed. He’s a physics prof, and not even a nuclear physics one! He is making preposterous claims and suggestions based on nothing that I can find in his background experience. But, perhaps worse, is the journalist who even thought Mr. Allison should be asked ANY question relating to nuclear radiation and bio-cellular uptake. The journalist could have asked a math professor or a history teacher the same question and received just as unenlightened and uninformed a reply.

    If any student at Oxford happens to be thinking about Kevin’s suggestion, do it! Occupy Oxford, not just out of solidarity for victims of nuclear disasters, but outrage that their school is being shilled by a rather non-stellar and unremarkable physics professor, who lacking any real world experience, is trying to trade off the Oxford name.


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    • Kevin Kevin

      Occupy Wall Street has made it clear where the focus is and its on the crooks who dwell there.

      I have stated elsewhere that those interested in activism related to the Fukushima disaster should consider working it into the agenda now being established by this recent action.

      If this Oxfordian’ drivel is not enough to prompt the oxford occupation consider that 40 -50 % of Goldnman Sachs employees are derived Oxfordians.

      See here http://www.wikijob.co.uk/wiki/goldman-sachs-interview-questions

      Goldman Sachs Interview Questions
      [Edit]
      Use the WikiJob forums to ask specific questions about interviews at Goldman Sachs and other investment banks.
      Generally speaking, Goldman Sachs is made up of 40-50% Oxbridge/IC/LSE students, with the remainder coming from the Russell Group of universities. All university degree subjects are acceptable for Goldman Sachs’ graduate schemes, although technical degrees are preferable for technical roles at the bank. Places are limited and the number of applications for both internships and graduate jobs is very high, so your application must be as competitive as possible if you want to be successful.


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  • arclight arclight

    repost edited

    Extra info on bath university and the wade symposium

    just thought I would vent on bath, oxford and Cambridge universities here….wonder where the funding comes from?? Hmhm?

    “Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering bath university
    We are heavily involved in EPSRC’s Supergen programme, dealing with issues of:
    Sustainable power generation and supply
    Future Network Technologies: Ensuring the continuance a reliable supply of power to the UK
    Energy Storage: Developing new materials to advance rechargeable lithium ion battery and supercapacitor technologies”

    Sounds quite new age antinuke huh?

    http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/newsevents/cons/Pages/nuclear.aspx

    28 September 2011

    “The Department of Computer Science has secured a £350,000 EPSRC grant to continue work in the field of computer algebra.”

    Well who be this kind money giving entity??

    http://www.bath.ac.uk/news/2011/09/28/davenport-connectedness/

    EPSRC and STFC have prepared an action plan in response to the Review of Nuclear Physics and Nuclear Engineering, based on the panel’s recommendations and input from the nuclear physics and nuclear engineering communities.

    http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/newsevents/cons/Pages/nuclear.aspx

    and lastly this from Cambridge university…fair and balanced!!!

    Facing up to Fukushima
    1 June 2011

    “Nuclear engineering has come a long way since the construction of the Fukushima plant. Modern reactor design has focused on the threat from ‘external hazards’ during the last 20 years:

    Earthquake, terrorism, plane crash, flooding, and so on. Safety systems, such as the pump and generators that went down at Fukushima, are now built to the same robust standards as the reactors, preventing the potential for a ‘common cause’ cascade of failure.

    When the Fukushima plant was built forty years ago, core damage frequency was predicted as once in every 1,000 reactor years. Following the meltdown at Three Mile Island in the US in 1979, reactors were modified to reduce the likelihood of core damage to at least one in 10,000 years.

    According to Roulstone, the trend has continued to increase dramatically: “Plants from the 80’s and 90’s such as Sizewell in the UK have an expected core damage of once every 100,000 years, and the new generation of nuclear plants are being built to once every 1 million years, as good as we can do.” In fact, Japan itself is home to the first (3rd generation) advanced reactors, which have been operating since 1996.”

    And most definitely this

    “You don’t live without risk; the question is what you do about it in these situations. You either give up or you tackle things and make progress.”

    Thinking the peter principle here…

    http://www.eng.cam.ac.uk/news/stories/2011/Fukushima/


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