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Stewart Farber, MS Public Health
Public Health
Sciences
172 Old Orchard Way
Warren, VT 05674
Dear Mr. Farber,
You say, "There is little hope of a
reasonable exchange of views or facts between a scientist and a person who
has an essentially "faith based" fervor that a single photon or electron
from a beta decay is going to cause an implicitly unacceptable case of
cancer."
This remark is really ill-chosen and
gratuitously insulting. Since I have never discussed the quantitative aspects
of the biological effects of ionizing radiation, YOU HAVE NO IDEA what I
think about that particular subject or why.
You say, "At some point [and no animus toward Ray
Shadis who (M) I don't know] (YOU'VE GOT THAT RIGHT) one has to recognize the
truth in the old saying: "If you try to teach a pig to sing, you're only wasting
your time and upset the pig"
What's wrong with you, Mr. Farber? Please hone your
people skills and get back to me.
Thank You,
Raymond
Shadis
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, July 12, 2001 11:29
PM
Subject: Re: So, is reprocessing
thread...."Angels dancing on head of pin?"
Radsafe:
This
back and forth exchange between the "World According to Ray"
Weltanschaung
[ask Franz S. for a translation] and many members of
Radsafe about: "The question" [ ....of] "whether or not
radoiactive [sic]
materials are unique among toxins." hearkens back
to the Medieval clerical
debate about how many angels can dance on the
head of a pin.
There is little hope of a reasonable exchange of
views or facts between a
scientist and a person who has an essentially
"faith based" fervor that a
single photon or electron from a beta
decay is going to cause an implicitly
unacceptable case of cancer.
There is no reasoning with a person holding
such a polarized value system,
that hundreds of thousands of photons strike
each person each minute
from cosmic and terrestrial background radiation, or
decay internally each
minute from natural radionuclides, etc., etc.. These
facts regarding
radiation exposure mean nothing and the risks of a single
photon striking
a person is accordingly judged unacceptable. Forget trying to
make an
arguments about alternate energy risks [coal or gas or windmills or
conservation, etc.] vs. nuclear fuel cycle risks.
At some
point [and no animus toward Ray Shadis who I don't know] one has to
recognize the truth in the old saying: "If you try to teach a pig to sing,
you're only wasting your time and upset the pig"
Stewart Farber,
MS Public Health
Public Health Sciences
172 Old Orchard Way
Warren, VT 05674
[802] 496-3356
email: SAFarberMSPH@cs.com
==================
In a message dated 7/12/01 1:38:56 PM
Eastern Daylight Time,
chris.davey@cancerboard.ab.ca writes:
Raymond Shadis wrote:
> This is hopeless. The
question was whether or not radoiactive materials
are
> unique
among toxins. Yes, they are. That's it. Please, no more banalities
>
from the "Friendly Atom." comic series. Thanks. Ray
>
Just
like a motivational speaker said (looking deeply into the eyes of each
of
his enraptured audience in turn):
"You are unique, just
like everybody else!"
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