# 24: Season 4: Episode 12 (6:00pm - 7:00pm) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 7, 2005, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-season-4-episode-12-6-00pm-7-00pm/293444 "2005-03-07T22:40:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Monstre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@Monstre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monstre)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2005, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-season-4-episode-12-6-00pm-7-00pm/293444/81 "2005-03-09T03:52:28Z")
MUST… RESIST… URGE… TO… CLICK… **Rikwriter** ’s… SPOILER BOX… \*fighting it… \* Gaaaaaaauuughh!!! _grabs rolled up newspaper_ Bad **Rikwriter**! _whap_ Bad **Rikwriter**! * * * Haven’t clicked it yet. We’ll see how I hold out. ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2005, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-season-4-episode-12-6-00pm-7-00pm/293444/82 "2005-03-09T05:10:10Z")
You know I was thinking I was reading spoilers for “Deadwood” and I was wondering who that spoiler referred to. This makes a lot more sense. ---
**Author:** ![quixotic78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/3ab097/32.png) [@quixotic78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quixotic78)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2005, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-season-4-episode-12-6-00pm-7-00pm/293444/83 "2005-03-09T14:57:43Z")
Yes! I resisted the urge to click on **RikWriter** ’s spoiler box! I can be taught 😃 Most baffling moment of this week’s episode: Why print out encrypted text? Why not email it to self, or upload it to some website. Hell, even say, “omg tony i have tuns 411 4 u pls dont phreek kthx!!!1111oneoneexclamationpoint” and then copy and paste the encrypted junk into an IM back to CTU? BTW, did anyone happen to see the screen names of Tony and Jack from their IMing? I don’t think they showed a complete screen shot, but if they did, I’d be curious as to what those names are. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2005, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-season-4-episode-12-6-00pm-7-00pm/293444/84 "2005-03-09T15:16:41Z")
I refuse to believe Paul isn’t eeevil. He’s obviously eeeevil. He’s got an accent! ---
**Author:** ![Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2005, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-season-4-episode-12-6-00pm-7-00pm/293444/85 "2005-03-09T15:24:55Z")
> [@quixotic78](#): > > BTW, did anyone happen to see the screen names of Tony and Jack from their IMing? I don’t think they showed a complete screen shot, but if they did, I’d be curious as to what those names are. I think one of them was “SxyGothGrrl81,” which means either Tony or Jack have a lot of ‘splainin’ to do. ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2005, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-season-4-episode-12-6-00pm-7-00pm/293444/86 "2005-03-09T15:32:43Z")
Another suspension of belief… Jack signed on to his IM client when he sat down at the MF computers, looking for evil terrorist stuff? Riiiiiiight. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2005, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-season-4-episode-12-6-00pm-7-00pm/293444/87 "2005-03-09T16:03:22Z")
How much computer stuff do they do right, aside from the IP address in hex? ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2005, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-season-4-episode-12-6-00pm-7-00pm/293444/88 "2005-03-09T16:20:06Z")
Seemed to me more like a horribly unpatched version of windows that still allows spam masquerading as network messages. We just didn’t see all the ones they deleted: “Get your degree online” “Tired of seeing messages like this. Use our software” “Bigger penis and lower mortgage: One stop shopping” Just what I would expect from a top defense contractor. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2005, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-season-4-episode-12-6-00pm-7-00pm/293444/89 "2005-03-09T16:39:09Z")
> [@D\_Odds](#): > > “Bigger penis and lower mortgage: One stop shopping” Paul: “Hey, wait a minute…” ---
**Author:** ![Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2005, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-season-4-episode-12-6-00pm-7-00pm/293444/90 "2005-03-09T18:32:49Z")
> [@Monstre](#): > > Actually, it was: 6EFF3239 > > Which is the right length for an IP address – it’s quite common to express 4 bytes as 8 hex digits. MAC addresses are longer. The above hex translates to the IP address: 110.255.50.57 > > That plant already melted down – it was the first one. The ones they stopped from meltdown were the remaining 5 under control of the Universal Nuke Remote. There was a scene in an earlier episode where they were on a video call with the reactor workers – their skin was already bubbling, and they said, “We’re already infected”. The radiation was already spreading towards Edgar’s mom. It was distinctly said during this episode that the San Gabriel meltdown was now under control, presumably because the employees, who are always the first ones to get exposed to lethal amounts of radiation, stopped the meltdown. It’s not like you die instantly when you get a lethal dose, you just have an incredibly painful few days left to live. So it is very possible that Edgar’s mother will be exposed to a less-than-lethal amount of radiation. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2005, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-season-4-episode-12-6-00pm-7-00pm/293444/91 "2005-03-09T19:26:19Z")
> [@Barbarian](#): > > It was distinctly said during this episode that the San Gabriel meltdown was now under control, presumably because the employees, who are always the first ones to get exposed to lethal amounts of radiation, stopped the meltdown. > > It’s not like you die instantly when you get a lethal dose, you just have an incredibly painful few days left to live. So it is very possible that Edgar’s mother will be exposed to a less-than-lethal amount of radiation. I took that statement to mean that they stopped it from melting down further. I.e., it didn’t turn into a Chernobyl incident, more like a Three Mile Island. ---
**Author:** ![kidchameleon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kidchameleon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidchameleon)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2005, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-season-4-episode-12-6-00pm-7-00pm/293444/92 "2005-03-09T22:07:18Z")
> [@Barbarian](#): > > It’s not like you die instantly when you get a lethal dose, you just have an incredibly painful few days left to live. So it is very possible that Edgar’s mother will be exposed to a less-than-lethal amount of radiation. That all just depends on how much you get… ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2005, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-season-4-episode-12-6-00pm-7-00pm/293444/93 "2005-03-09T23:31:56Z")
Edgar’s mom was on an oxygen tank, so she’s not well to begin with. Probably something like emphysema or lung cancer. I doubt a nice dose of Roentgens is going to help her. ---
**Author:** ![kidchameleon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kidchameleon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidchameleon)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2005, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-season-4-episode-12-6-00pm-7-00pm/293444/94 "2005-03-09T23:52:10Z")
> [@BobT](#): > > Edgar’s mom was on an oxygen tank, so she’s not well to begin with. Probably something like emphysema or lung cancer. I doubt a nice dose of Roentgens is going to help her. Unless it kills off the cancer. 😉 Or she get’s superpowers! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-season-4-episode-12-6-00pm-7-00pm/293444/95 "2005-03-10T00:02:44Z")
I thought she was going to kill herself. ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-season-4-episode-12-6-00pm-7-00pm/293444/96 "2005-03-10T00:28:20Z")
I think it was more a case of “Well, I’ve had a good run, no point in trying to go all out to avoid a radioactive cloud.” ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-season-4-episode-12-6-00pm-7-00pm/293444/97 "2005-03-10T01:18:21Z")
> [@BobT](#): > > I think it was more a case of “Well, I’ve had a good run, no point in trying to go all out to avoid a radioactive cloud.” No, she said something about killing herself, I am fairly certain. ---
**Author:** ![Monstre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@Monstre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monstre)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-season-4-episode-12-6-00pm-7-00pm/293444/98 "2005-03-10T01:44:06Z")
> [@bouv](#): > > I took that statement to mean that they stopped it from melting down further. I.e., it didn’t turn into a Chernobyl incident, more like a Three Mile Island. Me, too – as well as having the evacuation moving along and controlling the damage. I’m pretty sure that when Edgar called mom, the initial radiation was going to get there in something like an hour or less – that was a couple of hours ago. And **c-plant** and **Rikwriter** are correct – Mom said she was going to take her own life, rather than wait for the radiation to do it slowly. She wanted to go on her own terms. Also more than an hour ago. So chances are she’s already offed herself. > [@quixotic78](#): > > Most baffling moment of this week’s episode: Why print out encrypted text? Good point, and that brings up another one or two. An encrypted file is not likely to print out as all ascii text characters. One byte has 256 possibilities, and the ascii character set only uses 7 bits (0 through 127). An encrypted file will surely include bytes throughout the entire range of possibilities, and over half of those when printed as “text” will likely not show up as regular text characters. Basically, the source file AND the encrypted file would certainly be binary files – not ascii text files. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-season-4-episode-12-6-00pm-7-00pm/293444/99 "2005-03-10T03:05:15Z")
> [@bouv](#): > > I took that statement to mean that they stopped it from melting down further. I.e., it didn’t turn into a Chernobyl incident, more like a Three Mile Island. Chernobyl did not have a containment vessel, and US reactors do. According to this site the exposure was between 1.4 thousandths of a Rem and 100 Rems. The worst possibilty, that grass contaminated by radioiodines and eaten by dairy cattle would get into babies milk and absorbed into bones as calcium, was prevented. Of course, the reactor was trashed as well as the future of nuclear power in the United States. ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-season-4-episode-12-6-00pm-7-00pm/293444/100 "2005-03-10T03:29:13Z")
Since Edgar’s mom was hooked up to an oxygen tank, one could assume that she could just unhook herself from it and she would pass away more quickly. I doubt she had a gun around. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-season-4-episode-12-6-00pm-7-00pm/293444.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-season-4-episode-12-6-00pm-7-00pm/293444.md?page=6)