adequacy: fingers, lips, a tongue and three pounds of mush

I read a posting about this years back. Back when the government's "Oh my Christian God, every citizen is a terrorist!!" approach to domestic policy was still encountering a decent, respectable amount of backlash from the masses.

From everything I read, he is a real person and went on to have a career. A career and only slight regrets about the # of years he most likely subtracted from his life during youth. But yeah, sources say it was entirely radiation experiments that caused everything. (Well, that and his parents were divorced - social factors.)

I did not know there was a mugshot, though. Hmm. If he really was radioactive, couldn't they have gotten a much more surreal shot by leaving him in a darkened room with an exposed photoplate?

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This is recent news and presumably a recent mugshot, necessitating recent sources. He was caught stealing smoke detectors from his apartment complex. Since this is not in itself a super-serious crime, the media is playing up the "irradiated freak" angle. The response from the blogosphere is that it looks more like very poor hygiene and/or scratching your face off while on meth.

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Wait, so this kid is another radioactive boyscout? Seriously? Because I have a webpage from years ago "The Radioactive Boyscout" about a kid who was building a breeder reactor and everything. So is he a copycat, or is there some kind of "underground munitions production" merit badge which is routinely being sought now?

Are you sure this is not just old news being presented as recent news?

I find it hard to believe there have been two boyscouts gathering up smoke detectors and old radium paint.

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Same boyscout. New incident. Yes, I'm sure.

Old news: tries to build a breeder reactor in mom's shed; turns backyard into Superfund clean-up site.

New news: boy has grown up; steals smoke detectors, presumably for americium.

Seriously, Troma Films should do a bio-pic of this guy.

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Huh. So.. this is probably a mental case. Because he does seem compelled to try to assemble his own reactor. He has knowledge, but little to no aptitude for planning (apparently). I would think he would just try to get his mitts on some MUFF and quit going for small fish. Plus, what's with the stealing? That's a new wrinkle.

A bio would hopefully lend insight. And entertainment value!

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OK, I've been trying to figure out if "MUFF" is some acronym for yellowcake or something, or if you're suggesting that he needs to get some pussy. Google hasn't helped. Please clarify.

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That may be my part, as I may have mis-remembered the acronym entirely. But perhaps you can remember it from the montage of stock video footage from Metal Gear Solid. Remember when the director is explaining nuclear material, early on in the game? (I think the "prison break" portion.. before that guy has an induced heart-attack.)

So far as either nuclear waste or perhaps un-enriched nuclear fuel, the acronym I'm looking for (which, of course, Snake needed explained to him as well) stands for something like missing/unreported fissile fuels. Or something. Essentially missing nuclear materials which left one place, and somehow never reached their destination.

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I watched that cutscene once... Once.

It's "MUF": Material Unaccounted For.

Thx.

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First off, I'll take that bet for radiation with a base of 1USD.

My reasons mostly stem from from his face around the eyes and cheeks. They're as fleshy as they should be for his build, and this is the first thing to go from tweakers. I've never met anyone bad off enough to have gotten the sores, but I've read they are pretty late-stage addiction features.

Second off, The article said he was gathering Thorium from smoke detectors. This principally decays via alphas, which are stopped by he skin. I guess if he was careful enough to wear a breathing filter, prolonged skin exposure might cause skin sores without the more ususal liver or lung cancer.

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Woops, americium is in smoke detectors, not thorium, but that still decays via alphas, so the point stands.

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My dad had a polonium dusting brush for his photo equipment. He would warn me constantly about how dangerous it was and if I ever did touch the brush, which I oughtn't, to make sure not to inhale. I was mortally terrified of that brush.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polonium#Commercial_products_containing_polonium

This is also amusing: http://www.zeit.de/news/artikel/2006/12/05/83406.xml

Hard to believe that was nearly 2 years ago.

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Hard to believe you can't brush a fucking picture without polonium.

So I undrestand: The polonium isn't just a dust over the brush, right? Please tell me its impregnated in the plastic, or something.

"...and one could devise a method of separating the polonium from its protective casing"

Like a fork, or a can opener? What kind of "Protective casing" are we talking about?

Also, why is 500 mCi $36 in the anti static thing, and $39 million in demo equipment? If there was a feasible way to isolate it, we could make BILLIONS!!!!

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!! No. It's in a cartridge seated in the plastic handle, at the edge of the bristles. See: http://www.2spi.com/catalog/photo/statmaster.shtml When I was young I thought that that was the polonium itself, but apparently it's a matrix with embedded polonium. I think this means that to get a full-force dose like they used on Litivenko, you need to not so much "separate" the Po, but basically purify it.

Still, I'm sure that at the radioactive-anti-static-brush-of-doom factory, they start from pure-ish polonium. Quite a social markup indeed.

BTW, it's not used for dusting the photographs, but rather negatives, $several-thousand lenses, filters and shit. Stuff you don't want to scrub at for fear of scratching. This is for people with darkrooms, not for photo albums. But is it really necessary? I dunno, my dad bought a lot of dumb shit.

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I was reading this cool page http://www.theodoregray.com/periodicTable/Elements/084/index.html and they say they used to be ubiquitous for Vinyl LP records. The principle is pretty cool, and makes perfect sense to me now. I'm sure for their application, they are ideal.

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http://www.theodoregray.com/periodicTable/Elements/095/index.html#sample4

Here, this is radioactive: Stick it in your eye.

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http://www.unitednuclear.com/spinthariscope.htm

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Having something you are mortally terrified of in the house is an important part of youth. Sure, your house didn't have a basement, but at least you had the brush with death.

I think experimentation is one of the few things which render photography as a valid art form instead of merely an elitist craft. Historically, photographers have been nearly alchemists, tinkering with all manner of development and exposure techniques. And it was once common practice to use lumps of cyanide to scrub and remove stains from their fingers.

Uh... Do you know what ever became of this brush?

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Nice double-entendre.

Sodium thiosulfate (fixer) is a good way to "clean" iodine stains by reacting it down into clear iodide.

My mom sold all of the photo stuff after the divorce; I'm pretty sure the brush with death went with the bundle.

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I was suspicious because his neck seemed totally clean and he didn't have any other health problems. You address the latter, and if he had just had his shirt buttoned-up during the collection process it'd be enough to stop the alphas completely. Ehh...

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