The Church of Scientology has been touting a story about a bill, put before Congress a few decades ago, for relocating mental patients from the Lower 48 to Alaska.
The more Alaskans I get to know, the more I think they might actually be telling the truth.
One thing that should be remembered about the current regulations for mercury are very strict in contrast to the levels associated with deterministic effects. This is perfectly natural since the natural occurrence of mercury is in such low concentrations. In fact almost all practical problems with mercury and how to deal with it are somehow linked to the inability to accurately measure it at the concentrations it begins to harm organisms.
Second, the speciation (division between different compounds) of mercury makes a huge difference in how the body absorbs it. The elemental form, found in old thermometers, switches and these CFL's, is practically biologically unavailable when liquid. There was a man in Taiwan who drank, IIRC, around a kilo without permanent effects. Oxidized mercury (HgCl2, Hg(NO3)2, and a few others) are also generally quite unavailable--several were used as syphilis medicine for quite some time--but led to a number of occupational hazards and poisonings. Mercury sulphide, on the other hand, is so unavailable that it's considered a "retirement path" in the mercury cycle. Among the variety of questionable Chinese medicine are "herbal balls," which have been found to contain up to 1.2 g (over a hundred CFL bulbs worth of mercury) of HgS. Finally, there are organic mercury compounds which are extremely toxic, but these are irrelevant except when they are produced by man in large quantities (though not necessarily on purpose) or when large amounts of inorganic mercury are available to anaerobic bacteria.
Almost all large-scale mercury poisoning has been due to the organic form entering the food supply.
However, though elemental, the form found in CFL's would most likely be vaporized if it got loose in your home. Vaporized elemental mercury is readily absorbed into the lungs, and can cross the blood-brain barrier, leading to temporary neurological effects in the few well-studied cases of household aspiration of the elemental form. Irritability and hyperactivity are typical symptoms.
Five milligrams is a good round number for the Hg content of a single CFL bulb. What is that for a person? 0.1 ppm? Well, the onset of symptoms in the victims of the Minamata disease (organic mercury poisoning) was a hair concentration of around 50 - 125 ppm (as mentioned, the margin of error on everything related to mercury is HUGE). Ca 100 ppm blood concentrations were found in the mothers of newborns in Iraq after an incident there with fungicide-laced grain in the 1970's. Again, uncertainty is the rule, and due to widely-varying affinities for heavy metals between different organs, there's very little one can predict in a given incident.
On a side note, while doing my thesis on a power plant mercury control system, I found my first grey hairs.
No, we never managed to prove it. I guess my point was that a suspicious man found with two young boys was allowed to "escape" and drive right into Canada, because the border agent was off at her firewater break, or something.
Well, anecdotes don't count for much, but this is exactly 100% of my experience with your former employer:
On a vacation to Sault Ste. Marie when I was 11, my family, a family friend, and I went over the border in two cars. The first, my father, his fiancé, and my sister. The second, the family friend, my brother, and me. The first car goes through, no trouble. Our car pulls up to the booth, they check our ID and ask how we were related.
When they didn't like the answer, they told us to pull over into a nearby lot. An officer, a sour lady not more than 4'6", came over to us and took us inside her station. She made it clear that she suspected we were abducted children, and started yelling at the friend, and us, to come clean. Not once did she interrogate us separately. After about 5-10 min of this, she leaves us alone in the room (!) and goes to the adjoining building. Another 10 min go by, and we're bored, our friend's pissed, and his keys are on her desk (!). So, he takes his keys, takes us, and leisurely walks back to his car.
We then drive into Canadian Sault Ste. Marie for our 30 min Canadian vacation.
The Norwegian government is so fucking loaded with petromoney that their national anthem should have been changed to the theme from the "Beverly Hillbillies" in the Eighties. How rich is Norway? Well, if any of you have been to Sweden, you'll know that it's one of the most expensive countries in the world. Well, Swedish kids go to Norway to work in their 7-11's, because the pay is so much higher.
The State actually does a considerable amount of head-scratching about what to do with the money. Things like cultural subsidies and energy research are pretty common destinations for it nowadays.
I've heard a bit about these NASA and pacemaker RTG's which use plutonium-238. On the other hand, the much more widely-produced Soviet power RTG's (like the Beta-M) use strontium-90.
Any reason why we don't just use strontium--everybody makes that stuff. On the same note, why didn't the USSR use Pu-238?
Now, the only things left opposing my dream of having unlimited, no-holds-barred gay sex are: herpes, genital warts, and my large collection of dragon shirts.
Slashdot Mirror
The Church of Scientology has been touting a story about a bill, put before Congress a few decades ago, for relocating mental patients from the Lower 48 to Alaska.
The more Alaskans I get to know, the more I think they might actually be telling the truth.
One thing that should be remembered about the current regulations for mercury are very strict in contrast to the levels associated with deterministic effects. This is perfectly natural since the natural occurrence of mercury is in such low concentrations. In fact almost all practical problems with mercury and how to deal with it are somehow linked to the inability to accurately measure it at the concentrations it begins to harm organisms.
Second, the speciation (division between different compounds) of mercury makes a huge difference in how the body absorbs it. The elemental form, found in old thermometers, switches and these CFL's, is practically biologically unavailable when liquid. There was a man in Taiwan who drank, IIRC, around a kilo without permanent effects. Oxidized mercury (HgCl2, Hg(NO3)2, and a few others) are also generally quite unavailable--several were used as syphilis medicine for quite some time--but led to a number of occupational hazards and poisonings. Mercury sulphide, on the other hand, is so unavailable that it's considered a "retirement path" in the mercury cycle. Among the variety of questionable Chinese medicine are "herbal balls," which have been found to contain up to 1.2 g (over a hundred CFL bulbs worth of mercury) of HgS. Finally, there are organic mercury compounds which are extremely toxic, but these are irrelevant except when they are produced by man in large quantities (though not necessarily on purpose) or when large amounts of inorganic mercury are available to anaerobic bacteria.
Almost all large-scale mercury poisoning has been due to the organic form entering the food supply.
However, though elemental, the form found in CFL's would most likely be vaporized if it got loose in your home. Vaporized elemental mercury is readily absorbed into the lungs, and can cross the blood-brain barrier, leading to temporary neurological effects in the few well-studied cases of household aspiration of the elemental form. Irritability and hyperactivity are typical symptoms.
Five milligrams is a good round number for the Hg content of a single CFL bulb. What is that for a person? 0.1 ppm? Well, the onset of symptoms in the victims of the Minamata disease (organic mercury poisoning) was a hair concentration of around 50 - 125 ppm (as mentioned, the margin of error on everything related to mercury is HUGE). Ca 100 ppm blood concentrations were found in the mothers of newborns in Iraq after an incident there with fungicide-laced grain in the 1970's. Again, uncertainty is the rule, and due to widely-varying affinities for heavy metals between different organs, there's very little one can predict in a given incident.
On a side note, while doing my thesis on a power plant mercury control system, I found my first grey hairs.
That's pretty bad.
mmmmmm, tenderloins...
Well, that's not so strange as you'd think...
Screw titles:
Dick Armey
...that he cited a paper of his from nine years in the future?
"Pilates"?
Same thing happened to the Power Mac G4...
Whoever this guy is, he's ending up in an Apple commercial one of these days.
I can guarantee you that by the end of the day, he will know exactly what /i>/ is.
No, we never managed to prove it. I guess my point was that a suspicious man found with two young boys was allowed to "escape" and drive right into Canada, because the border agent was off at her firewater break, or something.
Mid-Nineties, so it took place in the pre-Megan's Law, pre-9/11 world.
Well, anecdotes don't count for much, but this is exactly 100% of my experience with your former employer:
On a vacation to Sault Ste. Marie when I was 11, my family, a family friend, and I went over the border in two cars. The first, my father, his fiancé, and my sister. The second, the family friend, my brother, and me. The first car goes through, no trouble. Our car pulls up to the booth, they check our ID and ask how we were related.
When they didn't like the answer, they told us to pull over into a nearby lot. An officer, a sour lady not more than 4'6", came over to us and took us inside her station. She made it clear that she suspected we were abducted children, and started yelling at the friend, and us, to come clean. Not once did she interrogate us separately. After about 5-10 min of this, she leaves us alone in the room (!) and goes to the adjoining building. Another 10 min go by, and we're bored, our friend's pissed, and his keys are on her desk (!). So, he takes his keys, takes us, and leisurely walks back to his car.
We then drive into Canadian Sault Ste. Marie for our 30 min Canadian vacation.
Your border service is very non-Draconian.
The Norwegian government is so fucking loaded with petromoney that their national anthem should have been changed to the theme from the "Beverly Hillbillies" in the Eighties. How rich is Norway? Well, if any of you have been to Sweden, you'll know that it's one of the most expensive countries in the world. Well, Swedish kids go to Norway to work in their 7-11's, because the pay is so much higher.
The State actually does a considerable amount of head-scratching about what to do with the money. Things like cultural subsidies and energy research are pretty common destinations for it nowadays.
No, this is Richard M. Daley. He prefers "Big Nephew."
I wish I could download guns. :(
Because that's the wrong isotope.
I've heard a bit about these NASA and pacemaker RTG's which use plutonium-238. On the other hand, the much more widely-produced Soviet power RTG's (like the Beta-M) use strontium-90.
Any reason why we don't just use strontium--everybody makes that stuff. On the same note, why didn't the USSR use Pu-238?
Oh yeah, extra meal service, too.
Most importantly, the back seats afford a 25 row crumple zone.
Have I got a deal for you...
Now, the only things left opposing my dream of having unlimited, no-holds-barred gay sex are: herpes, genital warts, and my large collection of dragon shirts.
Well, he's certainly not buying his next trailer from you!