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Ignarance and paranoia 'alive and well' in the US (and elsewhere)!

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Ash Small

Wed Jan 12 2011, 02:45AM

Registered Member #3414 Joined: Sun Nov 14 2010, 05:05PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4245

Grenadier wrote ...

.Copypasta from a comment regarding fusors on hackaday:

this thing might be legit but it is extremely unsafe. there is an article about a young boy-genius in michigan that did something similar to this in his mothers tool shed, he wound up exposing some 4000 people to high levels of radiationâ€¦ It takes something like 4â€³ of lead or 4â€² of concrete to stop the particles emitted by the fusion processâ€¦ while i may only have basic knowledge of chemistry and physics I believe it is safe to say that unless you want federal agents beating down your door, it is probably wise not to attempt this particular projectâ€¦ Leave this one to professionals.

Ignorance is causing the gob'ment to make laws banning our hobbies, which in turn makes people more ignorant (and there's not much left to lose).

.

This is a reference to 'The Nuclear Boy Scout' who was building a fission reactor (fast breeder, if I remember correctly) in his mother's shed. This has nothing to do with fusors or fusion. The whole point of fusion is that there is no lasting radioactive waste.

He had collected so much radioactive material that the whole area had to be sealed (buried).

Adam Munich

Wed Jan 12 2011, 02:48AM

Registered Member #2893 Joined: Tue Jun 01 2010, 09:25PM
Location: Cali-forn. i. a.
Posts: 2242

I know that, and it's the main reason I posted that comment. The American mentality is ZOMG radiation! Mr policeman please stop this man he's gonna kill us all!!

GluD

Wed Jan 12 2011, 02:53AM

Registered Member #1221 Joined: Wed Jan 09 2008, 06:17PM
Location: Odense, Denmark
Posts: 196

Grenadier, thats exactly the sort of thing I was on about.
Untill people grow a frontal lobe and finds motivation to use it, the amateur scientists are doomed. In fact I'll take the chance and go as far as to say that the human race is doomed without its amateur scientists, who would become "real" scientists when the present ones die, if they could not be allowed to see the fun parts of physics and chemistry and were only allowed to do "synthetsis" and simulations on a computer.

Did you guys hear about the Austrailian hexachlorobenzene, simply just HCB in the media?
It was suposed to be transported with a ship from Austrailia to Denmark to be destroyed here, but because there was huge opposistion from the public against this ship with such a "dangerous" load, the policitian responisbel had to cancel it in an attampt to save her career. The media was claiming things like 1gram of it could destroy all life in 1000 square kilometers of ocean or something like that. This magazine for engineers did some math on it and figure it would only destroy that much if it was distributed perfectly over the entire area.. how the hell is that suposed to happen (its not water solubel and its density is higher than that of water). But of course that was not shown in television or news papers.My point being that the general public and the media can be very powerfull and dangerous at times. More so than a goverment in my opinion.

The American mentality is ZOMG radiation! Mr policeman please stop this man he's gonna kill us all!!

To my knowledge that is not only an american mentality, my parents are pretty much the same and they are danish. Also I think it was in december last year, there was alot of trouble in south germany / northen france because of some train transporting nuclear waste. Riots and stuff like that. So I think it is a fault in every non-geek person. They simply just panic when they heard the word "nuclear". It is what a I called a " sympthon of the mental health of the public".

Ash Small

Wed Jan 12 2011, 02:53AM

Registered Member #3414 Joined: Sun Nov 14 2010, 05:05PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4245

I was just clarifying the point, Grenadier, for the benefit of anyone who wasn't aware of the facts here.

dmg

Wed Jan 12 2011, 06:10AM

Registered Member #2628 Joined: Fri Jan 15 2010, 12:23AM
Location:
Posts: 627

Sad part is, this is very unlikly to change any time soon.

I heard this story before about banning certain activities and items against "terrorism" and for "public safety and interest", and as said, people will indeed support this if you could shove shit down thier throat and make them think its candy.

That is convince them that said item, or activity very dangerous and deadly and will be disruptive to thier lifestyle (regardless of actual fact).

Frankly, If I were a terrorist, I would sit back and smile, knowning I already achived my goal to start the destruction of a society, this paranoia is very unlikly to dissapear any time soon, and I bet will only get worse without some drastic action (which I dont see happening any time soon).

OT: I still havn't quite figured out how Im typing this without passing out from lack of sleep.. off to bed I go..

testtest

Wed Jan 12 2011, 06:11AM

Registered Member #3271 Joined: Mon Oct 04 2010, 02:29AM
Location: Canada
Posts: 159

From Proud Mary :"where the amateur scientist is regarded as a crank, a fringe figure, slightly ludicrous". In particular now where the scientific method has been replaced by magic in most our high schools catering to the lowest common denominator. How long before you can get a degree in voodoo.

Ash Small

Wed Jan 12 2011, 09:33PM

Registered Member #3414 Joined: Sun Nov 14 2010, 05:05PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4245

GBD wrote ...
.Frankly, If I were a terrorist, I would sit back and smile, knowning I already achived my goal to start the destruction of a society, this paranoia is very unlikly to dissapear any time soon, and I bet will only get worse without some drastic action (which I dont see happening any time soon).

.

That's exactly what they're trying to achieve, inciting fear and paranoia. That's what terrorism is all about.

I think there are differences between the UK and US though. We had to live with IRA bombing campaigns for decades and didn't really react to it, more a case of 'ignore it and it will go away'. Even the day after the London bombings people were back at the tube stations and bus stops complaining that the buses and trains were late.

My opinion is that the politicians (particularly in the US) are using it as an excuse to take our rights away, and are doing more harm by re-enforcing the fear and paranoia than the terrorists themselves.

The more our freedoms are reduced, the more our so called 'free countries' become like those muslim countries that the terrorists originate from.

Conundrum

Thu Jan 13 2011, 12:15AM

Registered Member #96 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:37PM
Location: CI, Earth
Posts: 4062

Good point Ash.

I would like to point out that there is no law which specifically prohibits people from doing scientific research in their own time, on their own premises.

What would go a long way towards ensuring the survival of our hobby is if an organisation like RSGB (or its US equivalent) included chemistry as part of their organisation's list of covered subjects.
Maybe even include it on the amateur radio examination, such that you can get a piece of paper stating basic competence to a level which is recognised by the authorities.
Including :- safe handling of chemicals, H&S regulations, laser safety and other relevant issues.

-A
#include "$0.02.h"

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