South African diamond miner being x-rayed at the end of his shift to prevent theft, 1954

Remember kids, these are the kind of things that got Elon his money

Not things like this, this exactly. He's the trust fund baby of an apartheid era emerald mine baron.
I don't like Elon Musk, his buyout of Twitter was horibble and I don't agree with many stuff he says, that begin said
story about Musk's father once owning an emerald mine evolved into a larger rumor that had no evidence to support its central claim. Source
- According to the article, the "rumor" started in 2014 when Elon went on an interview tour and SAID that his dad had an emerald mine to multiple publications. He told an elaborate story to one about riding in his dad's plane full of emeralds and ak-47s
  The research couldn't find financial proof of any claimed debt, since Elon won't provide any. But "hand shake" deals about illegal emerald smuggling tends not to have a paper trail.
  Then, a year after this article came out, Elon tweeted "I'll give a million doge to anyone who can prove it existed" and his dad replied that it existed and that Elon had been there.
  Errol also went on an interview tour (after this article was posted) and told multiple publications that he did own a share of an emerald mining business. But Elon wasn't lying because it technically wasn't in a hole, but an outcropping!
  Since changing his mind on the subject, Elon had since only admitted that his start up was supported by selling his own PC for 2k, a 5k gift from his "bro" and 8k from some other guy. But later a SmAaLL LoAn (as they like to say) of 200k from his dad and others. But that was later, you guys.
- Indeed, not a whole emerald mine, the same source:
  We located reporting from as far back as 2009 and 2014 that said when Elon Musk ("Elon" hereafter) was a child in South Africa in the 1980s, his father ("Errol" hereafter) at some point owned "a stake in an emerald mine" near Lake Tanganyika in Zambia, not South Africa.
- Of course Elongated disputes it, he enjoys the fantasy that he's a self made man.
- I have a filter on Sync to not see Musk content, yet somehow he keeps leaking in.
  On Lemmy, it's like a party game to see where you can get Musk into a thread.

You might be thinking that getting an x-ray every day is bad for the miners, but this is a ye-olde look through machine. Yes it's bad for the miners, but the guy looking at it is putting his face and uppee body right in the beam here. And I'm guessing he does hundreds of these a day.

Then again, old timey x-ray machines were pretty soft, so (edit) AND the miner is getting big dose of alpha and beta radiation too. And at least the technician isn't breathing coal dust, so it's probably a toss up who gets cancers first.

Both people in this picture are being abused by the company. The difference is that the company also lets the white guy abuse the black guy, and for that reason, the white guy feels superior.
This is one of those things you see in fascist governments. As long as people are able to abuse someone, they'll accept a much worse station as well as a lot of abuse themselves.
Nah, the real contest is who gets the most cancer. Gotta catch 'em all!
@Taralcaran ... if the miners even lived long enough to get cancer.
Diamond miners during Apartheid were working in unsafe conditions for ridiculously low wages, often coerced into being there, and at relatively high risk of tuberculosis.
but the guy looking at it is putting his face and uppee body right in the beam here
Ah, but he's wearing gloves, so he'll be fine.
X-ray tubes, old and new, use high energy electrons that impact a metal to create the beam. Alpha and beta emission is from radioactive decay which is an entirely different phenomenon. But yes bathing your body in X-rays is bad for you
- Sorry, I had a brainfart there. You're completely right.
  The tube itself emits xrays, but soft xrays have a very high chance of being absorbed by Carbon, Nitrogen and Oxygen. And since that's mostly what makes up a human, that's kinda bad.
  Also he's digging up diamonds, which is in rocks full of radioactive materials. Diamond mine tailings are famously radioactive (and interesting) due all the thorium and radium in them.
Cancer speedrun any%

This looks like a fluoroscope, basically an X-ray that is constantly turned on. The tech is looking at a live X-ray view, not a film transparency.

The radiologic exposure for both of them is orders of magnitude higher than a normal x-ray that we think about. A normal xray exposes you for less than a second, this is bombarding him with X-rays the entire time he is standing there.

Plus he had to do this every day at the end of his shift. Between that and the rock dust exposure I'd hate to see the cancer rates for those guys
- It's bad for them, but imagine this doctor. He has to examine every one of them every day. If he didn't die of cancer he must not have lived very long.
- I don't think any of these folks were making it to retirement either way.
So you are saying he obtained multiple Superpowers from the ungodly amount of radiation?
- Sure, if you consider having a shit ton of tumors to be a superpower.

Wow this machine can also detect cancers of you use it long enough.

Tbf. back then it was not uncommon to xray ones feet in a shoe store to see if the new shoes fit.
- WHAT!
- Kreosan approves
  
  Direct image link
  Source: https://youtu.be/1gq6Mj49X_8
100% accuracy with enough attempts!

You know we still xray people at diamond mines here in South Africa. Try visiting a De Beers mine and see for yourself.

Try visiting a De Beers mine and see for yourself.
I'm depressed enough as it is thank you.
Daily x-rays.... Seems like that won't have any impact to long term survival.
What a humane way to prevent theft.
- Yeah, I was wondering whether this was worse for the miners or the examiner. I'm sure that today modern technology protects the examiner more thoroughly and that they still don't care about the miners. But I could be wrong. Maybe they don't care about the examiner either.

So they do xray everyday ? If yes , then fuck rich people to death.

This is pretty far down the list as far as reasons to not buy diamonds. They're not rare. They're not special. It's a rock with limited industrial use.
For added context, they're still cutting the hands and feet off of dependents (including children) of miners to ensure they work hard.

I do wonder whether this was actually an effective way to look for them. Even with modern high resolution x-ray imaging it may be difficult to see the contrast between soft tissues and diamonds since they're both primarily carbon

bones show up well since they're high in calcium, which has a much higher atomic number. Same with gold.

I mean if everyone tells you "we have a machine that can see through skin and can check if you have hidden diamonds" that would probably stop any attempts at theft that way. Even if it doesn't actually see them. Also, diamonds out of the mine would be uncut, and probably easier to see.
- same thing with the TSA
Wow I didn't see the ring at first and I thought it was a circle to point out things
- me too. I spent a stupid amount of time zooming in to see contrast.
You do realize the mine has lots of diamonds they could test with?
- Sure man. You go stand in the beam with a sack of diamonds up your butt and we'll watch

See this

Fuck diamonds !!

Galton introduced fingerprinting in South Africa as an experiment after Indians introduced it to him. Managing miners using fingerprints was one of those moments capitalism and colonialism converged on science and technology and shaped the global sector we now call identification.

For more, read The Biometric State by Keith Breckinridge.

If they're only checking the stomach, hiding it up your ass would work fine