(no subject)

All the talk of Potassium Iodide supplies going nuts with people here overreacting, and the fact that the Iodine-131 issue isn't as big as the Caesium-137 issue, particularly from a half-life perspective, had me digging around about Caesium-137 and some interesting things that came up.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goi%C3%A2nia_accident

It's pretty! And it's blue!! And it glows!!

If it is glowing, and you didn't plug it in, shake it up, or shine a light on it first, stay away from it, m'kay?

EDIT: On a more fascinating note, because 137-Cs is not common in nature and IS a common by-product of artificial nuclear fission, including atomic bomb testing, it is possible to measure for the particular gamma rays emitted by the isotope, and in doing so, determine if a given substance sealed in a container was sealed prior-to or after atomic testing was started. This is one way to verify the authenticity of rare old wines.

And another interesting thought of Iodine-131, this is the same isotope that is used to treat Hyperthyroidism in humans and pets. This makes sense when you realize that it almost exclusively affects cells which divide often such as abnormal thyroid cells in a victim of Hyperthyroidism, or the thyroid cells of children.

His name Borat. Is vereh Nice.

Sometimes I think my head is filled only with pop culture references...

I was watching The Woodwright Shop on PBS tonight. Those of you that don't watch, it is about a guy named Roy Underhill who is a master housewright and woodworking historian, and practices woodworking with period tools and techniques and presents them on his show. Tonight, he had a guy named Chris Schwarz who is a woodworker and saw historian who teaches classes on how to saw properly including what he refers to as "classes" of saw cuts. In the process of demonstrating the cuts, he was making jokes about societal classes and of course made an "upper class" accent with regards to the Class 1 cuts. They started playing around with accents as Roy was showing off his antique saw collections and their various cultural origins, and at one point, Roy was demonstrating a saw and Chris told him, in a perfect Borat accent, that his saw "iz vereh niiice...". Pretty sure it went over Roy's head, but I had to laugh. And then I laughed at myself at the fact that I recognized it. *sigh*