Monday, August 6, 2007

381 - Totally Rads

1. Radioactive Boyscout, indeed.
David Hahn is no longer an Eagle Scout but that hasn't affected his tenacious grip on his scouting glory days. When I first heard of him, I assumed he was a genius. Now, he just seems pathologically focused. Now, maybe he can sew a "Rap Sheet" badge right next to the "Nuclear Energy" one he earned as a kid.

2. Don't play with it...
This story is sad, but you have to wonder about people who would handle a luminescent powder. (Also, history.com's "this day in history" thing is pretty cool.

3. Tingling wrist?
This is not altogether unknown, but it's an interesting tidbit that many people are ignorant of.

4. Tingling Spidey radiation sense?
Now here's a watch that most people don't know about. It could save your life. For real! Think about it.

5. Idiot poisoning.
Here's a 'Darwin Awards' type story. Depending on your sense of humor, it's sad and interesting or funny and interesting. (I didn't link to the original source article because I think 'geeks with guns' is a funny site name.)

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2 comments:

Unknown said...

Some smoke detectors contain Americium, which does indeed produce gamma rays. However the amount within an ordinary smoke detector is about 0.2 microgram. It only begins to become really dangerous in gram amounts. I'm no mathematician. How much Americium is in 16 smoke detectors?

JD said...

50,000 smoke detectors will yield 1 gram of americium. but i saw other stories about the boyscout that said smoke detectors were only one source of radioactive materials for him (the weakest, i think.)