DD'S TERRORIST SCIENCE INCOMPETENCE STUDY: Prefer smoke detectors to gammators (A continuing series)
Although crazy al Qaeda terror man, Dhiren Borat, was dreaming schemes of dirty bombs made from thousands of smoke detectors, real experts removed three devices known as gammators, containing about 200 Curies of radioactive cesium from high schools in Texas in 2005.
"The barrel-shaped devices at the three high schools each [weighed] about 1,850 pounds," informed a Los Alamos news release.
"Surrounding each radioactive source, which rests on a small turntable, is a welded steel shell filled with lead shielding. Each one-inch diameter rod originally contained about 400 Curies of highly radioactive cesium-137, which has decayed to about half that level over time.
"About 150 of the Gammators were supplied to schools across the United States and to other countries in the 1960s and 1970s through the 'Atoms For Peace' program. Hospitals used similar devices to irradiate blood."
In Texas, they were used in high school science projects, namely the irradiation of plants and seeds. Associated Press returned to the story yesterday in a piece entitled "High Schools Trying to Get Rid of Radioactive Materials." (Kudos to Defensetech, where DD spied the link.)
Listen up, dumbshit al Qaeda men hoping to glean information from the net on potential resources!
The gammators are now probably all locked up! And even if they weren't, al Qaeda men wouldn't know where they were in dusty high school backrooms because that's not the kind of thing you can punch into the alleged all-knowing Oracle and get back a convenient list on which to base travel plans. Plus, you'd essentially fry yourself pretty good, kid, trying to get 200 Curies of cesium out of a steel and lead case that weighs almost a ton.
"Crews had to use brute force to wrestle one of the devices down two flights of stairs to reach the truck during the operation . . . " informed Los Alamos boffins.
The recent AP story on removal of radiosources in public high schools, outside of the older information on gammators, dealt with low level sources which wouldn't be of any use in terror applications. More precisely, they're useful as whoopie cushions in stories which increase the fear in science-phobic parents, students, teachers and school superintendents.
And that's something we always need.
"A physics teacher was taking inventory of chemicals in a storage room at Tri-City High School when she noticed a container that looked a little strange," informed AP.
"She peered closer and worried that it was radioactive. It turns out, it was."
Oh no! But does AP or the sources for the story actually say what the source was? Of course not! If it was a low level source, that would just spoil some of the tenor of the piece. And don't ask any questions why the alleged physics teacher didn't know what it was.
To put things in perspective, the wood shop instructor became the high school chemistry teacher at DD's old high school in Pine Grove, Pennsylvania. That was one example of the state of science education, a condition that has come to guarantee students will be incurious, science-phobic and mind-roastingly uninformed by the time they get to college.
Which might be a good thing if you're on the hard right side of national security affairs. You see, you wouldn't want anyone in the civilian population to know anything about science because they'd only add to the population of potential domestic terrorist homebrew WMDers.
In reality, the existence of a few gammators in public school science labs is an indication that, at one time decades ago, Americans did take the education seriously. They were willing to furnish access to the kinds of equipment, chemicals and elements which went a long way to spark curiosity and enthusiasm for science in children.
As when DD learned all about Willie Pete, or white phosphorus, in seventh grade -- first hand! While I didn't injure myself or any classmate, now WP in the chemistry lab would be something to spur lawsuits, prison time and the summoning of Homeland Security.
"In what one state official called a 'classic example,' a Colorado high school kept a chunk of ore from a field trip in a display case for years," the AP reporter continued.
"The rock turned out to be radioactive, said Ken Niswonger, chief chemist at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, which has collected materials from schools since 1999. 'The ore was quite hot,' Niswonger said. 'Everyone who walked by got quite a high dose (of radiation) over 20 or 30 years.'"
What was the nature of the dose? Folk tale or true? No one says for the story.
Imagine, having a chunk of ore from a mine! Get it away! Danger! What about the miners? Did they wear lead suits while carrying it? Or how 'bout the people who lived and live near it? Guess not.
Although crazy al Qaeda terror man, Dhiren Borat, was dreaming schemes of dirty bombs made from thousands of smoke detectors, real experts removed three devices known as gammators, containing about 200 Curies of radioactive cesium from high schools in Texas in 2005.
"The barrel-shaped devices at the three high schools each [weighed] about 1,850 pounds," informed a Los Alamos news release.
"Surrounding each radioactive source, which rests on a small turntable, is a welded steel shell filled with lead shielding. Each one-inch diameter rod originally contained about 400 Curies of highly radioactive cesium-137, which has decayed to about half that level over time.
"About 150 of the Gammators were supplied to schools across the United States and to other countries in the 1960s and 1970s through the 'Atoms For Peace' program. Hospitals used similar devices to irradiate blood."
In Texas, they were used in high school science projects, namely the irradiation of plants and seeds. Associated Press returned to the story yesterday in a piece entitled "High Schools Trying to Get Rid of Radioactive Materials." (Kudos to Defensetech, where DD spied the link.)
Listen up, dumbshit al Qaeda men hoping to glean information from the net on potential resources!
The gammators are now probably all locked up! And even if they weren't, al Qaeda men wouldn't know where they were in dusty high school backrooms because that's not the kind of thing you can punch into the alleged all-knowing Oracle and get back a convenient list on which to base travel plans. Plus, you'd essentially fry yourself pretty good, kid, trying to get 200 Curies of cesium out of a steel and lead case that weighs almost a ton.
"Crews had to use brute force to wrestle one of the devices down two flights of stairs to reach the truck during the operation . . . " informed Los Alamos boffins.
The recent AP story on removal of radiosources in public high schools, outside of the older information on gammators, dealt with low level sources which wouldn't be of any use in terror applications. More precisely, they're useful as whoopie cushions in stories which increase the fear in science-phobic parents, students, teachers and school superintendents.
And that's something we always need.
"A physics teacher was taking inventory of chemicals in a storage room at Tri-City High School when she noticed a container that looked a little strange," informed AP.
"She peered closer and worried that it was radioactive. It turns out, it was."
Oh no! But does AP or the sources for the story actually say what the source was? Of course not! If it was a low level source, that would just spoil some of the tenor of the piece. And don't ask any questions why the alleged physics teacher didn't know what it was.
To put things in perspective, the wood shop instructor became the high school chemistry teacher at DD's old high school in Pine Grove, Pennsylvania. That was one example of the state of science education, a condition that has come to guarantee students will be incurious, science-phobic and mind-roastingly uninformed by the time they get to college.
Which might be a good thing if you're on the hard right side of national security affairs. You see, you wouldn't want anyone in the civilian population to know anything about science because they'd only add to the population of potential domestic terrorist homebrew WMDers.
In reality, the existence of a few gammators in public school science labs is an indication that, at one time decades ago, Americans did take the education seriously. They were willing to furnish access to the kinds of equipment, chemicals and elements which went a long way to spark curiosity and enthusiasm for science in children.
As when DD learned all about Willie Pete, or white phosphorus, in seventh grade -- first hand! While I didn't injure myself or any classmate, now WP in the chemistry lab would be something to spur lawsuits, prison time and the summoning of Homeland Security.
"In what one state official called a 'classic example,' a Colorado high school kept a chunk of ore from a field trip in a display case for years," the AP reporter continued.
"The rock turned out to be radioactive, said Ken Niswonger, chief chemist at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, which has collected materials from schools since 1999. 'The ore was quite hot,' Niswonger said. 'Everyone who walked by got quite a high dose (of radiation) over 20 or 30 years.'"
What was the nature of the dose? Folk tale or true? No one says for the story.
Imagine, having a chunk of ore from a mine! Get it away! Danger! What about the miners? Did they wear lead suits while carrying it? Or how 'bout the people who lived and live near it? Guess not.
posted by George Smith at 3:52 PM
1 Comments:
I hope he got a complete formal education.This can be done through science for kids specially meant for kids.
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