[extropy-chat] Dramatic goof

[Stephen J. Van Sickle]

It is rare for me to send a letter to the editor, but I couldn't resist
this time:

In the story on:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/27/politics/27nukes.html?pagewanted=print&position=

The quote could not possibly have been "5 or 10 million millirem" of
radiation being insignificant.  That is not insignificant; it is
massively lethal.  I suspect the person in question said "5 or 10
millirem" which is insignificant and much more in line with what a
"dirty bomb" would do.  Even a conventional jacketed "dirty" hydrogen
bomb would only give a does as high as 5 or 10 million millirem in areas
that had already been obliterated by blast.

I must say that I am very disappointed in the scientific literacy of
Times reporters assigned to scientific stories.  Even the slightest
understanding of how radiation is measured would have prevented this.
Did Walter Sullivan live in vain? 

S.J. Van Sickle