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Comment by jimworm | Hacker News Reader

I think another parameter is the long-lasting data corruption in the network. Unclean power fades the processor channel on your hard drive.

EDIT: this is a sarcastic response to a comment that backs up an assertion with nonsense.

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unlike some of the other risks to life listed, ionizing radiation can cause genetic damage. An impact that is passed on to future generations. I propose that's a factor for the special place the nuclear industry has in so many hearts. how's that nonsense?

That is a theoretical possibility, and a highly unlikely and unobserved possibility at that. Real life mutations aren't like in children's cartoons. Most of the genetic material in a multicellular organism do not belong to germ cells, and most mutations caused by ionizing radiation either cause death of the cell or no effect at all, especially in eukaryotic chromosomes. Cancer, highly unlikely itself, is many orders of magnitude more likely than any inheritable effect.

Studies of the Chernobyl disaster have not found evidence of teratogenic effects in humans [1], and neither have studies of survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings [2].

The malevolent-sounding yet meaningless phrase "fades your genes" is nothing short of nonsense, especially in reference to inheritable teratogenic effects. The number of special places in hearts can do nothing to alter that judgement.

[1] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10440782

[2] http://www.rerf.jp/radefx/genetics_e/birthdef.html

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