Irradiate The Mail
from the one-solution... dept
The US Post Service is getting ready to microwave all of our mail in order to kill anthrax that might be sent through the mail. Unfortunately, it's not that simple, and they're still trying to figure out the best way to be able to protect the mail without causing unnecessary delays or expenses. Anthrax is apparently difficult to kill using normal irradiation in an efficient way, but electron beams might work. Of course, this is according to a company that makes irradiation equipment based on electron beams that they're obviously trying to sell - so who knows how well it really works.
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What about the saffron bulbs that I just planted? Would they have got blasted too?
I'm fixin' to order some dwarf papaya seeds... should I even bother?
I didn't see any mention of excluding perishables from the radiation... and if there was a way to exclude a package, then why irradiate any of it?
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The Next Step
So they build a device that irradiates Anthrax and other biological weapons deployable thru the US Mail. Then what happens when someone figures out how to stick something else even deadlier in the mail that the "Mail Microwave" doesnt kill. Then the big stink will be about how we need new devices and safeguards and also why we were so crazy 5 years ago to make a "Mail Microwave" that didnt include features to irradiate feret poop, or whatever the next killer mail thing is.
Its the whole hindsight is 20x20 thing. But I think the forward lookers could use some contacts.
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