h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Ooops - forgot...

Yes! What a perfect first posting on a new LED page - any lurker/s would just *have* to check back...

Well I would have....

If I hadn't updated before your 2nd post

Phil and Sol:

About the Wonderstuff (although I thought I mentioned this at the time)-

In November they performed in Bradford and I was a backing singer in one of the support bands, Fugoo. That was before the tour. I had to leave before they went on but I heard their sound check and wasn't particularly impressed.

The next bit is not strictly relevent but just me having a moan and a .........

I didn't see any of the members of Fugoo except the other backing singer, who is a friend of mine, until after Christmas, when one of them called round to tell me I was no longer required. Anyway, my friend (who had become increasingly unhappy with the band) has just this week told them she's leaving now, so to them for not appreciating our talent!!

Here's their (rather unimpressive and slow IMHO) website:
http://www.fugoo.co.uk/

There! Bet you didn't know I could be such a bitch!!

In the story of David the schoolboy chemist, the total amount of radioactive isotopes collected (assuming it to be true which is unlikely) might be a few hundred milligrams at best. Probably less than the mass of ink used in one copy of the story.

You could come across more radioactivity on a two week stay in Cornwall.

The chances are that the lad did no harm to himself because dna is remarkably resistant to damage from ionising radiations. It's a game of russian roulette - he was lucky or he wasn't. And if he wasn't then he might have something treatable or he might not. Statements like "it might have taken five years off my life" are meaningless applied to one person. If you took 1000 idiots of this kind, their average life expectancy might be reduced by 5 years but most of the individuals in the sample would live a normal lifespan. This would be balanced out by the unlucky few who pegged it aged 22 due to testicular cancer.

Some of the science in there is well researched but some is just rubbish (the neutron gun, for example ) and some is distracting. The phosphorous story, for example, is a red herring and nothing to do with radioactivity. I had a friend who ruined a perfectly good parkay (sp?) block floor with a little phosphorus accident. The fire brigade were still damping down the odd flare up three days later.

Radioactive materials are everywhere. Many are natural. Any you can get off antiques BY DEFINITION have too long a half-life for the purpose of dirty bomb making.

If this scare results in a ban on selling old alarm clocks I won't be surprised but I will be disappointed.

{[caer csd}] Isn't Aberdeen reputed to be the most radioactive place in the World? My Dad told me this when he was on some NATO committee. Or was that a need to know only basis? Something to do with the background emissions from granite. The illumination on my alarm clock wore off years ago }

No canned food? I didn't realize it was such a backward country!

I read once a long time ago, wish I could remember where, that in the early 20th century there was a watch factory in NJ where many the women who worked developed cancers of the mouth and throat. It was their job to paint the watch hands with the "glow in the dark" paint, and they would wet their paintbrushes in their mouths, in the process ingesting some of the paint.

That was in Montclair, d'E. The property was so polluted it became an EPA Superfund site and the houses that were built on the property subsequent to demolishment of the factory also had to be removed along with the soil. The ore itself was processed in the Oranges, which also had to be cleaned up.

I found a link, it doesn't paint a flattering picture of New Jersey.

http://www.vincenter.org/96/weeden.html

There is a dump site in my town that is the #3 Superfund site in the country. In the last 10 years, developers built houses that butt up right to the site. And the residents are complaining that they have methane buildup in their basements. What did they expect?

*grumble grumble*

my views on the subject would probably have me placed under the scrutiny of the govermnent; hence, i shall remain quiet.

Yes, that's it. Thanks Witty. And there's the reference to people glowing in the dark again - I wonder if the women actually had some of the paint around their lips and on their hands, and that would indeed glow.

For a moment there, Titania, I thought your posting said: "What a bunch of carp!"

Not a bad snack...radioactive or otherwise.

Here's more about the Radium Girls
http://www.igc.org/solidarity/atc/79Baron.html

That reminds me of another misconception. Radioactive materials do not glow as a result of the radioactivity.

Here's how it goes. Some compounds glow. If you want a compound that glows, look for a compound (oxide, for example) of one of the heavier elements - like uranium or radium. The glow is the result of orbital electrons undergoing energy changes that correspond to visible light frequencies. However, radioactivity is to do with the nucleus of the atom, not the orbital electrons. It just so happens that the atoms that are likely to have suitable electron orbits to cause a glow are also those that are more likely to have unstable nuclei (and will thus be radioactive).

However, ingesting uranium oxide, for example, will not make *you* glow because the glow will be inside you and will fade because these compounds need to be exposed to sunlight to lift their orbital electrons into higher energy orbits.

Stories about the early pioneers of radioactivity glowing arise from a misunderstanding. Early photographic films were sensitive to the gamma rays given off by those scientists (who had absorbed large quantities of radioactive compounds) so they had an aura on their photographs. But it wasn't an aura in the visible wavelengths. They didn't glow green.

[Apologies to those who know all this - if that is everyone, you had better tell me to shut up.]

i didn't know that, amy. and it was good to hear.

It doesn't seem to me that this is the idea terrorist weapon. While "Dirty Bomb" (bad spin) has a certain terror factor, we could call it a "Neutron Bomb" (good spin). This is the comforting weapon that led us to believe that if we had to fight the Soviets we could kill their troops without reducing all the antiquities of Europe to rubble (Cold War spin control could, in retrospect, get weird, huh?)
No, a terrorist wouldn't want a Dirty Bomb, he would want a Big Bomb. Perferating people's organs with ionizing radiation might have it's appeal, but that's nothing compared to destroying the buildings we love and crushing us under the debre.
A Dirty Bomb has more effect (as far as the terrorist's goals) when we think and talk about it, than if one is actually used.

[Hati]
(completely blogless and still under the sofa)

you know, with all this stupid propaganda floating around, i think hati has the right idea.

*joins hati under sofa*

fg and i live in montana, which has, i do believe, the largest superfund site, the longest superfund site, and the most recent superfund site (fg will correct me if i am wrong). frankly, i am more worried about what the epa is actually going to DO about any of these, rather than some guy who might be thinking about building a bomb.....
but maybe that's just me. never mind that if the mine in butte ever fills and overflows, the entire columbia river basin will be contaminated, or that the entire town of libby montana is one giant lung cancer waiting to happen. no, let's go after a guy who might have gotten ahold of something radioactive....
again, maybe that's just me....

Utah has it's share of superfund sites as well. http://www.epa.gov/region08/superfund/sites/ut/ut_sf.html One in particular, teh Murray Smelter, is going to become the siteof a hospital. A local healthcare provider is makign a large scale hospital onteh site of the smelter. The smoke stacks were destroyed a couple of years ago and most ofthe contaminated soil is said to have been disposed of. But we also have a chemical weapons disposal facility about one hour away from Salt Lake City. The Tooelle facility house incenerators that areused to destroy gas rockets and other chemical munitions. The Dugway Provign grounds (about 2 hours away from SLC) were the site of the productionof many of thesemunitions. Slag piles from Kennecott Copper mine are also a big problem, poisoning our ground water. Kennecott supplies a fair percentage ofteh worlds copper as last I read. Utah has always been the site for mmineral exploitaion. Even Moab Utah has uraniummines, that supplied the bulkof the the fissionable material used in early atomic weapons. Also much of teh fueel used inearly reacttors is from mystate. All in all it is material best left un mined in my opinion, but what hasbeen doen cannot be changed. The Yucca Valley nuclear waste disposal facility in Az (I think) has local implications as the waste will lieky have to travel through Utah, and likely Salt Lake. I am sure that many of teh proposals to stoere radioactive waste in Utah will fail, but I fer that someday one will pass but if this material is not stores somewhere, it will only cause problems in built up areas. I guess that not having any reactors in utah is a good thing, but Iwonder what the residents of Clarksville Arkansas think of the safety record of the reactor in their town. Or what teh people of Pa think about three mile island. All of the damage done to these places will take years to recover from.

In the note of terrorist activity using atomic weapons, one must on read "The Sum of All Fears" by Tom Clancy to get an idea of how an attack of that nature miht happen. I would recommend reading teh book before judging it ont he merits of teh recent film of the same title. Icannto agree that a new inteligence agency is needed, especially onet hat spys on Americn Citizen. The Shrub in the Oval Office ahve not made me at all happy with his ideal for this new office.

Sorry Folks, i am rambling. It was a longish day and i am lacking in sleep.

On a side note, I am glad to see teh discussion back and alive at teh Atelier.

Marv