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How to Properly Credit an Image in a Blog Post

It's something we hardly ever do. I usually just post a screenshot from the site I'm linking to. Other times, we upload other images, or even credit them with links. On very good days we make our own images (which is awesome). Odori doesn't use images in her posts for legal reasons, because she's Lawful Good. I've never asked anyone for permission to use an image. It's never really bothered me that we don't properly attribute images used here, because this blong is a communication tool used among friends.

HERE, THOUGH; is a flowchart showing how to properly credit images in blong posts. Just for the sake of your knowledge, awareness and enrichment. (TL;DR: Ask & get permission.) I'm not saying we should start doing this; I'm just presenting the information. BECAUSE OUR TRAFFIC IS HIGHER THAN IT'S EVER BEEN, GUYS

Analytics image via Google Analytics, who gave no express permission for the image's use in this post. Main image by me. You're welcome, universe. Link via @janetalkstech

Why the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant can cause cancer (but don't freak out), and cell phones can't

Hi, guys! Stemming from a comment years ago I thought it might be fun to revisit all this as a post!

So here's why a meltdown at a nuclear power plant can cause cancer, whereas cell phones cannot.

I'm going to use that XKCD diagram as a reference, because it's awesome.

A note about cancer: Cancer is caused by broken, mutated, out-of-control DNA in your cells. The diameter of your DNA and the size of the chemical bonds that hold it all together are about this big:

from 0.0000000001 to 0.000000000001 meters (10 e-9 to 10 e-12). This is small.


For cell phones:
Look at where the "cell phone cancer rays" are: right in between radio waves and microwaves, with these long wavelengths of about 1 meter, or near the hight of people. This, though, does not mean cell phones cause cancer in people. It just means that they have relatively low energy: long wavelengths mean low frequency (think about your normal, slow, non-tsunami ocean wave). Since the energy of a wave is proportionate to its frequency, low frequency means low energy. [note: this analogy can be problematic because ocean waves don't care about the whole quantum versus wave nature of photons, which is actually important here (see below), but anyway...]

The converse is also true: short wavelengths mean higher frequency, and higher energy. For example: lithotripsy is a way to treat kidney stones by using ultrasound, with wavelengths in the millimeter range (therefore with a relatively high frequency and high energy). Kidney stones are conveniently around millimeters in size as well. This means that slamming them with microwaves makes the stones resonate, all the sound energy is transferred into kinetic energy in the stones and they shatter. You then drink a lot of water, take a lot of vicodin, and pee out all the little bits.

It would be ridiculous, however, to think you could shatter kidney stones by going surfing. This is because the size of ocean swells are huge compared to the size of kidney stones--You'd sooner drown from paroxysms of pain as the stones pass through your urethra since you should have been in the hospital. This is similar to believing that using a cell phone can cause cancer: the wavelengths are simply too large to affect DNA and chemical bonds. Microwaves (the size of people), simply cannot cause cancer, but higher energy waves can.

For the Fukushima power plant:
Some of the fissile material leaking from the Fukushima power plant that people are freaking out about are caesium-137 and iodine-131. Both emit radiation in the gamma-ray range, which has a super short wavelength: about 0.000000000001, or 10e-12 meters.

This kind of radiation has super high energy. Gamma rays are smaller than DNA and the chemical bonds that hold them together, but it turns out that light with wavelengths less than 10e-9 meters (or UV light) have enough energy to be ionizing, and this is why they're so dangerous: ionizing energy can strip electrons off of atoms, which in turn can break the bonds holding your DNA together, which can cause mutations, and ultimately cancer. Ionizing radiation can of course break other bonds, too, which is why high doses kill cells in general, destroy tissue, cause radiation burns, internal bleeding, and make you feel dead. Similar stuff happens with UVB light when you don't wear sunscreen, if you get too many CT scans, hang around the Hulk, etc. [And an important bit here of course is high doses. That dispersing fart video really does a good job putting it in perspective]

So here's a recap! The following is true:

Cannot cause cancer: long wavelengths, non-ionizing radiation, visible light, radio waves, power lines or telephone lines, cell phones, microwave ovens, WiFi, CRT screens, rainbows, a slinky

wavelengths: greater than 10000000 meters to ~ 0.00000001 meters

Can cause cancer: short wavelengths, ionizing radiation, too many X-rays or CT scans, gamma rays, UV-B rays and sunbathing, Sinister Google Projects, the hulk, Iodine 131
wavelengths: ~ 0.000000001 to less than 0.000000000001 meters

DNA, chemical bonds, and electrons: around 0.000000001 to 0.000000000001 meters

Final thoughts:
Regarding amplitude:
for electromagnetic waves the amplitude is analogous to the number of photons being emitted. The quantum energy of each photon is fixed, however, and is specific to its wavelength/frequency. The amplitude (or number of photons) therefore does not change the frequency/wavelength of the wave, so using a thousand cell phones at once still cannot cause cancer, but it will make you look dumb. ALSO, for the number of photons to really change the intensity of light they ought to be coherent for all their wavelengths to add up right and not be all noisy, therefore: LASERS! Also, this is why tidal waves would appear to have so much energy: all of the amplitude is in a single, coherent, giant tsunami-laser.

Regarding microwave ovens:
The microwaves used in microwave ovens are a lot smaller than those in cellphones: instead of a wavelength of a meter they're around a few millimeters. This gets a bit more complicated as these microwaves heat food due to the polar nature of water and not so much because of the wavelengths of microwaves interacting with things of similar size. BUT! Those little holes in the front of microwaves? Those are there because the 2.5 GHz microwaves used in the ovens have a wavelength just a little bit bigger than the holes, so they can't get through and out to boil your brain! I love that shit. 

BUT! Even without those holes, the microwaves still wouldn't cause cancer in your brain. They would just boil the water in your brain. That's all. But they don't. Because they're completely blocked. So use a microwave. It's fine.

Regarding the Fukushima scare:

Iodine masks are like holographic bracelets and prayer. Use them excessively or not at all. Iodine pills are useful if you live next to a melting nuclear reactor, they are unnecessary if you are not. Americans are still mostly jerks about things. I have yet to see a story about the Fukushima 50 which doesn't also list the A-list actors who should play them in the Hollywood movie they've already started production on.

Update! XKCD made this amazing graph of radiation exposure. Seriously puts things into perspective:

Update! XKCD likes his stuff under a Creative Commons license, so, free and legal to use for non-commercial purposes!

Radiation as poop and farts

Ken Tanaka Loves You

I searched through our history and I don't think anybody posted anything about Ken yet. If you have, I apologize in advance. I rediscovered Ken when I went searching for a vintage KHON2 end credits shaka montage in response to one of the previous comments on the KGMB theme. BTW - I couldn't find a video of the shaka montage.

The premise is that Ken was a caucasian raised by Japanese parents and is now in search of his birth parents in the US. This series has been on the net for at least 2 years now. I find the videos charming and sweet.

This is the first video where Ken explains his mission.



Here is a video of Ken in Hawaii learning pidgin.



This is Ken's 2009 YouTube award winning video about dreaming about being a robot.



Here is video of Ken's "How to speak fluent Japanese by speaking English" describing Weiner Morning.



He has a blog on blogspot and his own channel on YouTube.

I hope you enjoy them as I do. Ken Tanaka and Ai-BU9 love you.

(Yes, he's an actor - David Ury -and had been on Japanese TV as the "crazy Japanese speaking gaijin", but I still find the stuff charming. Here's a video he posted as himself with his performance reels.)

Waves of Nostalgia

Too bad they didn't have the budget for the giant robots

At the risk of sounding really old, I was trying to spot the Battle Fever team. Should also be impressive to anyone who was young enough to watch the Power Rangers.

Via io9

Thundercats Animated Reboot Trailer

Snarf is still there.

Peeing in a Room that is not a Bathroom

Really enjoying peeing into this bottle, friends. It's just some test I need to take for insurance purposes. My doctor said it was unnecessary, but graciously ordered it anyway. The test looks at my pee over 24 hours, checking for proteins and heavy metals and mutagenic compounds and nanites and stuff.

So I'm carrying this around with me and collecting a day's worth of urine. My favorite part of this is that I don't have to pee in the bathroom. I can do it in any room of the house. Which I have. It is an awesome feeling, peeing in a room that is not a bathroom. I highly recommend it, even if you don't need to do this test. Try it! Use a bottle, or a funnel and a bottle, or something. Use your imagination! (Or just go for it.) It's worth it, for the sensation of peeing in a room that is not a bathroom.

Goodnight Dune

Read it all. By Julia Yu. Hard copy edition forthcoming, pending resolution of certain probable legal issues. Love that the illustrator uses the prop and costume design from the David Lynch movie, which I think several us have agreed is one of the few movies you HAVE TO WATCH when you flip past.

Via.

i think these speak for themselves

It's the Virgin Mary in a tree!!

Hey guys.
Hawaii has divine sightings of the Virgin Mary, too.