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Farbtoner
May 17, 2011

by Y Kant Ozma Post

Magic Hate Ball posted:

That's not to mention all the really goofy claims, like "it redirects the magnetic field away from your eyes".

In retrospect it is pretty ridiculous that we spent decades sitting in front of what was effectively a giant ray gun at work and at home.

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sleepy gary
Jan 11, 2006

Farbtoner posted:

In retrospect it is pretty ridiculous that we spent decades sitting in front of what was effectively a giant ray gun at work and at home.
why?

champagne posting
Apr 5, 2006

YOU ARE A BRAIN
IN A BUNKER

Farbtoner posted:

In retrospect it is pretty ridiculous that we spent decades sitting in front of what was effectively a giant ray gun at work and at home.
You're still doing it but producing the 'rays' in a different manner.

sleepy gary
Jan 11, 2006

Eh. No.

CRTs are particle accelerators but the energies produced are very small and while x-rays are produced as a result of the deceleration of the particles at the screen, the leaded glass is more than sufficient to absorb it.

LCDs simply modulate white light produced by a CCFL tube or LEDs. Light rays and particle beams (also called rays) are quite different.

Farbtoner
May 17, 2011

by Y Kant Ozma Post

DNova posted:

Eh. No.

CRTs are particle accelerators but the energies produced are very small and while x-rays are produced as a result of the deceleration of the particles at the screen, the leaded glass is more than sufficient to absorb it.

LCDs simply modulate white light produced by a CCFL tube or LEDs. Light rays and particle beams (also called rays) are quite different.

What he said. I know that it wasn't harmful or anything, but a cathode ray tube really is a giant gun when you think about it. A gun that shoots sweet, sweet colored light.

sleepy gary
Jan 11, 2006

CRTs will always have a place in my heart and in my massive collection of obsolete technology.

BoutrosBoutros
Dec 6, 2010

Farbtoner posted:

A gun that shoots sweet, sweet colored light.

So not really a gun at all then.

Bunni-kat
May 25, 2010

Service Desk B-b-bunny...
How can-ca-caaaaan I
help-p-p-p you?

BoutrosBoutros posted:

So not really a gun at all then.

Yeah. A LASER gun!

Killer-of-Lawyers
Apr 22, 2008

THUNDERDOME LOSER 2020
Electron gun, actually. :eng101:

Shugojin
Sep 6, 2007

THE TAIL THAT BURNS TWICE AS BRIGHT...


DNova posted:

CRTs will always have a place in my heart and in my massive collection of obsolete technology.

Years later, I still miss the boing sound degaussing my CRT monitor made.

Sagebrush
Feb 26, 2012

Farbtoner posted:

What he said. I know that it wasn't harmful or anything, but a cathode ray tube really is a giant gun when you think about it. A gun that shoots sweet, sweet colored light.

It's a gun that shoots beta particles that generate colored light when they smash into the inner surface of the screen. You're still staring directly into the barrel of an electron gun, and if the glass in front weren't leaded, you would definitely be getting irradiated. And with far more dangerous radiation than that produced by a microwave, the go-to "that's radiation!" household appliance. (Though I think wi-fi routers are starting to take over that title).

Basically, CRTs have at their core a low-powered one of these:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_particle_accelerator

Elim Garak
Aug 5, 2010

Shugojin posted:

Years later, I still miss the boing sound degaussing my CRT monitor made.

At work we didn't switch to LCD's until like last year so I got degauss satisfaction for a good five years more than most people. It was great.

Shame Boy
Mar 2, 2010

Sagebrush posted:

It's a gun that shoots beta particles that generate colored light when they smash into the inner surface of the screen. You're still staring directly into the barrel of an electron gun, and if the glass in front weren't leaded, you would definitely be getting irradiated. And with far more dangerous radiation than that produced by a microwave, the go-to "that's radiation!" household appliance. (Though I think wi-fi routers are starting to take over that title).

Hey man, it radiates stuff and therefore is radiation and radiation bad! :saddowns:

On the topic of radiation and obsolete (and hugely dangerous) things, radioactive paints!



Before we had good glow-in-the-dark stuff, you had to use Radium. Women would hand-paint the radium on, and didn't know there was any danger. As a result of their faces melting off over the course of a few years, we got new worker's protection laws.

Also, one of the best old ways to make orange ceramic glaze was with uranium compounds :eng101:

Sagebrush
Feb 26, 2012

Parallel Paraplegic posted:

Before we had good glow-in-the-dark stuff, you had to use Radium. Women would hand-paint the radium on, and didn't know there was any danger. As a result of their faces melting off over the course of a few years, we got new worker's protection laws.

You should add that this isn't just from working with the radium in the first place, but because they would "tip" the brushes (draw them into a fine point to paint accurately) with their mouths, ingesting a relatively enormous amount of radium paint over the years.

quote:

Another prominent example of this condition was the death of Eben Byers, an American industrialist, after taking large doses of a patent medicine containing radium over several years. His illness garnered much publicity, with The Wall Street Journal running a story titled "The Radium Water Worked Fine until His Jaw Came Off", and brought the problem of radioactive quack medicines into the public eye.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radium_jaw

KozmoNaut
Apr 23, 2008

Happiness is a warm
Turbo Plasma Rifle


Parallel Paraplegic posted:

Also, one of the best old ways to make orange ceramic glaze was with uranium compounds :eng101:


One of the best ways to make vivid red ceramic glaze these days is to still use a heavy metal, only cadmium is used instead.



I have a number of red Le Creuset pieces and they look really good. They also come with a little warning to only cook food on the inside, on the off chance that small amounts of cadmium leach out into acidic foods.

I've seen a couple of old pieces of cookware glazed with uranium yellow. The color is amazing.

Another area is paint, where cadmium is used to make vivid reds and yellows that are hard to get by other means. They specifically warn you against licking your brushes or using them in an airbrush.

sleepy gary
Jan 11, 2006

One lick of a small radium paint soaked brush tip is, imo, an enormous amount of radium to ingest. Gram for gram it is one million times more radioactive than natural uranium.

Radium dial watches generally don't glow anymore, but that's not because they are no longer radioactive. Rather, the phosphorescent pigments of the day were kind of lovely and wore out relatively quickly. The radium is still going absolutely bonkers.

Shame Boy
Mar 2, 2010

Sagebrush posted:

You should add that this isn't just from working with the radium in the first place, but because they would "tip" the brushes (draw them into a fine point to paint accurately) with their mouths, ingesting a relatively enormous amount of radium paint over the years.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radium_jaw

I honestly thought I included that for some reason but I guess I missed it. Thanks! :shobon:

KozmoNaut posted:

I have a number of red Le Creuset pieces and they look really good. They also come with a little warning to only cook food on the inside, on the off chance that small amounts of cadmium leach out into acidic foods.

Wait how can you even cook food not on the inside :psyduck:

Farecoal
Oct 15, 2011

There he go

Parallel Paraplegic posted:

Hey man, it radiates stuff and therefore is radiation and radiation bad! :saddowns:

Visible light is a form of radiation. Take that, people who play outside! :smug:

KozmoNaut
Apr 23, 2008

Happiness is a warm
Turbo Plasma Rifle


Parallel Paraplegic posted:

I honestly thought I included that for some reason but I guess I missed it. Thanks! :shobon:


Wait how can you even cook food not on the inside :psyduck:

I've cooked pizza on an upside-down enameled cast iron pan before I got a proper pizza stone. That's not really acidic though, so I guess it's not the best example.

Ron Burgundy
Dec 24, 2005
This burrito is delicious, but it is filling.
A lot of depression glassware is tinted green with uranium. It glows spectacularly under a black light.

Kirk Vikernes
Apr 26, 2004

Count Goatnackh

You Are A Elf posted:





Man, that's swanky.

The first TV I remember at home was a Heath Kit. It was a console TV that was sold as a "kit" and my parents had put it together in '74 or '75 just before I was born. It had a nice wooden cabinet and was still going when they gave it away in the early 90s.

BogDew
Jun 14, 2006

E:\FILES>quickfli clown.fli
You can't mention radium without mentioning this.

Yes. It's chocolate.
The notion at the was that because radium produced energy, consuming it would therefore vitalise you which is why you found it inside water coolers.

probably drunk
Dec 25, 2009

by Lowtax

Tumble posted:

I broke an Athlon core by putting a heatsink on it a little too rough - I read up on how fragile they were and installed it with half the pressure I normally use putting on heatsinks, but it still busted the core.

It was heartbreaking, I couldn't play Morrowind for another three weeks!

I worked at a computer shop when I was a teen and this guy who was an idiot came in with an Athlon XP 2800+ that had a nasty hairline crack across about 20% of its surface at one corner. I was completely convinced it was gone and he said it still worked but just "seemed slow" and asked if I wanted it. I knew it could really only either work or be dead so I gladly took it off his hands, especially as those were new at the time, bought an Abit motherboard, overclocked it and never looked back.




I can't believe no one has mentioned this yet. 8 minutes of anti skip protection, awesome blue display, rugged controls and good battery life. I used mine religiously, loaded with pirated punk albums until I dropped it a few dozen too many times on the way to school.

Lonely Virgil
Oct 9, 2012

WebDog posted:

You can't mention radium without mentioning this.

Yes. It's chocolate.
The notion at the was that because radium produced energy, consuming it would therefore vitalise you which is why you found it inside water coolers.

Mmmm, cancer flavored. :yum:

They put uranium in so many things at the turn of the century. I believe that there was a jock strap leaned with uranium that was supposed to help with erectile dysfunction.

Coffee And Pie
Nov 4, 2010

"Blah-sum"?
More like "Blawesome"

Lonely Virgil posted:

Mmmm, cancer flavored. :yum:

They put uranium in so many things at the turn of the century. I believe that there was a jock strap leaned with uranium that was supposed to help with erectile dysfunction.

Well it's not really a problem if it falls off, I guess.

Code Jockey
Jan 24, 2006

69420 basic bytes free

Coffee And Pie posted:

Well it's not really a problem if it falls off, I guess.

Either that or it becomes The Hulk, in dong form.

Worth the gamble, if you ask me.

I Appreciate You
Feb 15, 2012
The health issue with uranium cookware, or uranium anything really, isn't so much that uranium is radioactive, but rather that uranium is poisonous like lead is.

If you decided to just start eating uranium you'd die from uranium poisoning well before you'd get any meaningful dose of radiation.

Jedit
Dec 10, 2011

Proudly supporting vanilla legends 1994-2014

Code Jockey posted:

Either that or it becomes The Hulk, in dong form.

Worth the gamble, if you ask me.

Not really. There's no point having a big dick if women don't like it when it's angry.

madlilnerd
Jan 4, 2009

a bush with baggage

I Appreciate You posted:

The health issue with uranium cookware, or uranium anything really, isn't so much that uranium is radioactive, but rather that uranium is poisonous like lead is.

And most of those glazes were lead based anyway. Tableware glazes are made up of heavy metals (e.g titanium to get white), and frit (melty bit) and flux (helps stuff melt). Lead has been used as a flux in glazes for centuries. Some oxides added for colour, such as copper oxide for green or black, cause the lead to leach out more than usual, especially when in contact with an acidic liquid like wine or vinegar.

Uranium oxide make such a pretty yellow though!

UnfortunateSexFart
May 18, 2008

𒃻 𒌓𒁉𒋫 𒆷𒁀𒅅𒆷
𒆠𒂖 𒌉 𒌫 𒁮𒈠𒈾𒅗 𒂉 𒉡𒌒𒂉𒊑


My dad is so paranoid about glow in the dark stuff that he'd throw away anything I got that glowed. Is it no longer harmful?

Ironically he still got cancer on his nose thanks to the good ol' sun.

Shugojin
Sep 6, 2007

THE TAIL THAT BURNS TWICE AS BRIGHT...


leidend posted:

My dad is so paranoid about glow in the dark stuff that he'd throw away anything I got that glowed. Is it no longer harmful?

Ironically he still got cancer on his nose thanks to the good ol' sun.

People have found plenty of compounds involving stable isotopes so yeah. None of it's gonna irradiate you.

But holy poo poo radium chocolate.

Shame Boy
Mar 2, 2010

leidend posted:

My dad is so paranoid about glow in the dark stuff that he'd throw away anything I got that glowed. Is it no longer harmful?

Ironically he still got cancer on his nose thanks to the good ol' sun.

Generally if you have to charge it by holding it up to light first, it's not generating its own energy (just absorbing energy and re-emitting it, basically) and therefore isn't also generating any harmful radiation.

If it glows on its own without being charged or using a power source though, then I'd be a little suspicious. For instance, these awesome-looking keychains glow for up to 10 years in total darkness:



They're filled with radioactive tritium gas (the isotope of hydrogen that put the 'hydrogen' in 'hydrogen bomb') and are used as markers so you can find things in the dark, as well as for those little glowing dots on gun sights, and they make a bitchin' rave accessory.

Of course, barely any radiation is emitted from them at all, definitely not dangerous levels unless you sleep with it under your pillow every night for 12 years and it leaks, but you can still use them to freak out your dad.

Shame Boy has a new favorite as of 15:27 on Oct 28, 2012

Iacen
Mar 19, 2009

Si vis pacem, para bellum



That had some badass radium based stuff back then. I'd imagine that the German toothpaste Doramad really did make your teeth shiny (in the dark).

b0nes
Sep 11, 2001
Don't forget about radium suppositories.

Benly
Aug 2, 2011

20% of the time, it works every time.
Radium talk always reminds me of The Patchwork Girl Of Oz.

The Patchwork Girl Of Oz posted:

Here was nothing grimy or faded, indeed. On the contrary, the room was of dazzling brilliance and beauty, for it was lined throughout with an exquisite metal that resembled translucent frosted silver. The surface of this metal was highly ornamented in raised designs representing men, animals, flowers and trees, and from the metal itself was radiated the soft light which flooded the room. All the furniture was made of the same glorious metal, and Scraps asked what it was.

"That's radium," answered the Chief. "We Horners spend all our time digging radium from the mines under this mountain, and we use it to decorate our homes and make them pretty and cosy. It is a medicine, too, and no one can ever be sick who lives near radium."

RC and Moon Pie
May 5, 2011

Radium Springs was a very popular place to swim for years and one of Albany, Ga.'s ritzier sections, back when Albany had ritzy sections.

Swimming is not allowed now, but it's because the water is too dirty. Guess the radium content is too minute to do anything.

And then, these:

Sagebrush
Feb 26, 2012

RC and Moon Pie posted:

And then, these:


Of course, like every other high-tech buzzword, the name eventually got applied to things arbitrarily just to get people to buy it. Compare to words like "quantum" or "high-definition" today. I don't know if those condoms actually did contain radium dust, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was just a name.

e: theodore gray suggests that at least Nutex brand "radium condoms" had no radioactive material in them. Don't know about the specific one you posted though.

madlilnerd posted:

And most of those glazes were lead based anyway. Tableware glazes are made up of heavy metals (e.g titanium to get white)

Titanium isn't classified as a heavy metal, it's entirely non-toxic (though it does burn spectacularly as a powder) and the specific compound you're thinking of, titanium dioxide, is so harmless that it is regularly put in food and candy as a whitener. :ssh:

Parallel Paraplegic posted:

They're filled with radioactive tritium gas (the isotope of hydrogen that put the 'hydrogen' in 'hydrogen bomb')

I'd much rather be spending time around tritium than radium, though. Tritium is only a beta emitter, so the radiation can't penetrate more than a millimeter or so of skin, making it relatively harmless outside your body. (This is why those glass vials are safe -- the glass blocks all the radiation produced.) And even inside your body, tritium has a short biological half-life. If you inhale it as a gas, you'll breathe it out in a few seconds or minutes. If you ingest tritium in the form of tritiated water, you'll pee it all out in less than a week. Whereas if you inhale a tiny particle of radium and get it stuck in your lung tissue...it's there to stay, emitting high-energy gamma rays directly into your lungs and internal organs for the rest of your life.

Sagebrush has a new favorite as of 20:19 on Oct 28, 2012

redmercer
Sep 15, 2011

by Fistgrrl

RC and Moon Pie posted:

Radium Springs was a very popular place to swim for years and one of Albany, Ga.'s ritzier sections, back when Albany had ritzy sections.

Swimming is not allowed now, but it's because the water is too dirty. Guess the radium content is too minute to do anything.

And then, these:


Man, I bet things were really terrible until they figured out how to make a condom without any seams.

Babunar
Sep 15, 2009

Ron Burgundy posted:

This is the Dolby CP55 Cinema Sound Processor. This was the most cutting edge piece of equipment your theater could have in 1985 for turning little squiggles on film into surround sound. It has Dolby A type noise reduction. SR had yet to be invented.


I used to work in a school that shared its auditorium with a non-profit community cinema. They had one of these in the projection room that I had to use when teachers wanted sound with their presentations, and I never would have guessed that it was from 1985.

Just before I left, they had a (secondhand, I believe) digital projector installed. It was a beast, and had what was essentially a computer connected up to it. The chief projectionist walked me through the process of showing films on that thing (he loved projection and would talk to anyone within earshot about it until they made excuses and got away), and as you (or someone else) said, the films were delivered on encrypted hard-drives which were loaded into the computer and then unlocked remotely a few minutes before show time. A lot quicker than splicing film together, but nowhere near as tactile.

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Shame Boy
Mar 2, 2010

redmercer posted:

Man, I bet things were really terrible until they figured out how to make a condom without any seams.

I just like that they used to be called "Male Pouches," and I think I'll be calling them that from now on :allears:

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