OSHA: definitely bent in the straight places

The Something Awful Forums > Main > General Bullshit > OSHA: definitely bent in the straight places

REMEMBER SPONGE MONKEYS: Oct 3, 2003; What do you think it means, bitch?

Not the type of source I was looking for but: http://m.yourhoustonnews.com/sugar_...d.html?mode=jqm
I visited the place frequently to get gauges refurbed, etc.

The article (and relevant report to the NRC) seem to downplay the severity pretty seriously. The dose rates I think are accurate but the extent of the contamination was obviously underestimated. And the company had no real contingency plans if radioactive material got outside the area (which it obviously did if it made it to people's houses). They basically locked down the entire site for months after and last I heard had to buy the building (they were leasing) because they couldn't ever be sure they got it all cleaned up.

There were a ton of headaches beside this for everyone else but that was more operational.

# ¿ Aug 12, 2016 03:34

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# ¿ May 22, 2024 19:20

REMEMBER SPONGE MONKEYS: Oct 3, 2003; What do you think it means, bitch?

DOOP posted:

Its an OSHA violation to bring in a couple chickens and kill them and cook them at work, right?

For the chickens, maybe.

# ¿ Aug 19, 2016 01:14

REMEMBER SPONGE MONKEYS: Oct 3, 2003; What do you think it means, bitch?

The Lone Badger posted:

Lethal for a human is about two grams.

But severely diluted and they're not drinking copious amounts...seems like it'd be difficult to get that much? The copper sulfate makes sense for turning Lochte's hair blue (instead of green that pool water normally can).

Chemistry isn't an exact science, guys.

# ¿ Aug 19, 2016 02:53

REMEMBER SPONGE MONKEYS: Oct 3, 2003; What do you think it means, bitch?

DiHK posted:

Don't be silly, these people have a long tradition of hygenic attention to feet.

Honestly, from what I've seen, they will actually wash face/neck, hands, and feet with any sort of regularity. Also :barf:

# ¿ Aug 19, 2016 21:36

REMEMBER SPONGE MONKEYS: Oct 3, 2003; What do you think it means, bitch?

Howard Beale posted:

sometimes people's feet smell bad like onions so idk maybe they were out of red onion and improvised

A hint of onion with the satisfying crunch of toenail.

# ¿ Aug 20, 2016 03:56

REMEMBER SPONGE MONKEYS: Oct 3, 2003; What do you think it means, bitch?

FuturePastNow posted:

Here's a video that isn't fake, from mother Russia:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJ-fBgzwikA

I'm not even sure what set it all off. Just a severe bump in the road? I went back to watch but it doesn't seem like he crashed into anyone. Wonder how far away they found bottles (not that they probably bothered to look).

SynthOrange posted:

http://i.imgur.com/3deWeKR.mp4

Wisconsin.gif?

# ¿ Aug 26, 2016 15:35

REMEMBER SPONGE MONKEYS: Oct 3, 2003; What do you think it means, bitch?

There's also this guy: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_financial_buildings_plot

I thought I recalled hearing about a group that actually got a warehouse of old smoke detectors together, but maybe that was more speculation. Definitely not enough to harm anyone, but if they used all the sources and spread them at a few airports and the like, would've created some serious chaos with contamination.

Contamination is drat expensive to deal with (see my earlier post and all the others along the way in this thread).

# ¿ Sep 2, 2016 16:11

REMEMBER SPONGE MONKEYS: Oct 3, 2003; What do you think it means, bitch?

Had an RSO instructor once proudly tell the story of a day (maybe working for the NRC, I forget) and someone managed to swallow some tritium (tritiated water?) while on a government job so they had to buy beer on the super strict government dime to do a body flush. He was a wild one. Gotta love that OSHA beer.

# ¿ Sep 3, 2016 04:59

REMEMBER SPONGE MONKEYS: Oct 3, 2003; What do you think it means, bitch?

Robot Lincoln posted:

Must be an instinct ingrained in film school. I wonder how many photographers' last words have been "This is gonna be a great shot!"?

Here is the oldest one I've ever come across, from WWI:
http://imgur.com/yHNGdlE

the fellow in the middle there is the photographer whose lens we're looking through, and the photo was snapped at the instant an artillery shell hit beside him and killed him. I assume he was holding the clicker for the shutter while setting up his picture.

# ¿ Sep 13, 2016 15:35

REMEMBER SPONGE MONKEYS: Oct 3, 2003; What do you think it means, bitch?

Spiteski posted:

But knowing how often those strap joins where it's melted together just comes apart I would be steering loving clear of that load until it gets some steel strapping

The ones I've seen are joined by a pressed clamp laid over both ends of the band. Much better than some securing methods but I wouldn't trust it there. The metal bands can twist/tear and then it's all (literally) downhill from there.

Efb

# ¿ Oct 3, 2016 23:29

REMEMBER SPONGE MONKEYS: Oct 3, 2003; What do you think it means, bitch?

neonbregna posted:

Kind of explains Colorado Springs though

Col. D Schiess is on the case!

# ¿ Oct 19, 2016 04:32

REMEMBER SPONGE MONKEYS: Oct 3, 2003; What do you think it means, bitch?

Tank lid? Satellite dish? Oh fu-

# ¿ Oct 21, 2016 02:17

REMEMBER SPONGE MONKEYS: Oct 3, 2003; What do you think it means, bitch?

ChrisHansen posted:

Someone pls se b d osga to mywork b4 I die

Have you lost fingat? Type absolutely or negative.

# ¿ Oct 24, 2016 04:11

REMEMBER SPONGE MONKEYS: Oct 3, 2003; What do you think it means, bitch?

Jonny 290 posted:

This looks great, but I seriously question if any electronic recording device would stay running there.

Summoning Thor like that can't be kind to electronics.

# ¿ Oct 26, 2016 00:02

REMEMBER SPONGE MONKEYS: Oct 3, 2003; What do you think it means, bitch?

Prav posted:

crabs are a lot softer than steel

Well if they'd just put up signs, he might have put on his steel pants.

spog posted:

HR needs to reduce headcount for budgetary reasons.
HR is responsible for safety procedures.

You may be onto something here

I have frequently seen downsizing referred to as "attrition" lately in corporate settings, perhaps this is what they really mean :tinfoil:

# ¿ Oct 30, 2016 14:30

REMEMBER SPONGE MONKEYS: Oct 3, 2003; What do you think it means, bitch?

blarzgh posted:

Unrelated: Weather.com, strangely enough, has the highest quality click-bait on the internet.

I've always found it to be craptastic to the point of blocking out the actual weather info.

# ¿ Nov 1, 2016 16:41

REMEMBER SPONGE MONKEYS: Oct 3, 2003; What do you think it means, bitch?

PittTheElder posted:

Good lord. Stories about lathes and drills make me so happy to be an office drone. I'll take the long term unhealthiness any day.

This is basically OSHA's goal: keep you from violent death so you can slowly kill yourself with ranch dressing.

# ¿ Nov 2, 2016 23:06

REMEMBER SPONGE MONKEYS: Oct 3, 2003; What do you think it means, bitch?

DiHK posted:

Is ranch dressing dense enough to provide buoyancy for a human body?

Only one way to find out...

Just don't tell the OSHA-man. Slow and painful deaths only. :ssh:

# ¿ Nov 2, 2016 23:43

REMEMBER SPONGE MONKEYS: Oct 3, 2003; What do you think it means, bitch?

Mierenneuker posted:

I actually watched a documentary on crash test dummies* last night and it is weeks of preparation for a 15 second crash which they analyze for weeks afterwards. I'm not sure if it's a great spectator event. You probably end up standing quite a distance away from the crash as a safety measure since you've got debris flying everywhere.

_{*not the ones that mmmm mmmm mmmm mmmm}

I think this is the case for most experiment-based fields (and a lot of the sciences). The field work/actual experiment is pretty great/interesting but the setup and subsequent extreme analysis can be mind-numbingly boring.

# ¿ Nov 3, 2016 18:29

REMEMBER SPONGE MONKEYS: Oct 3, 2003; What do you think it means, bitch?

moonsour posted:

It was 30 tons. And until the previous year she had never driven any vehicle because she grew up Amish!

Just outlaw the Amish, problem solved.

# ¿ Nov 8, 2016 18:34

REMEMBER SPONGE MONKEYS: Oct 3, 2003; What do you think it means, bitch?

I wonder if I'll ever get to work with radioisotopes again. Staying at home isn't as interesting so far.

# ¿ Nov 25, 2016 21:17

REMEMBER SPONGE MONKEYS: Oct 3, 2003; What do you think it means, bitch?

Olothreutes posted:

It's one thing to have a source out in the open, it's another entirely to have it in a concrete vault behind a 10,000 pound door while you use manipulators to work with it.

The GIF is for things like testing how well military equipment will survive nuclear... events. You can actually drive a full size tank into the chamber.

What sort of results do they get? I'm not sure what they'd be looking for/testing specifically.

# ¿ Nov 25, 2016 22:41

REMEMBER SPONGE MONKEYS: Oct 3, 2003; What do you think it means, bitch?

Volcott posted:

I wonder if there are any instances of someone committing suicide by radiation?

Not suicide per se, but one of my instructors who's been in radiation safety, etc since maybe the 70s told us about a research student/scientist who, while working on a project using lethal doses on animals and recording the results, decided he had to know what it felt like. He bypassed all of the interlocks and other safety devices one night after everyone was gone and sat there with a recorder as he gave himself a lethal dose. Can't find a proper link or anything from my phone.

# ¿ Nov 25, 2016 23:22

REMEMBER SPONGE MONKEYS: Oct 3, 2003; What do you think it means, bitch?

Olothreutes posted:

How long can something operate in those conditions? We know the meat inside it won't last, but afterwards can you go recover that stuff and have it be driveable? They also test circuitry that will be spending a lot of time in places where there is a lot of radiation and we need to be sure that the circuitry will still work.

My ignorance, then. Only ever looked from the human safety side and industrial uses with small sources - don't know microchips, etc. well enough, it seems.

# ¿ Nov 26, 2016 02:31

REMEMBER SPONGE MONKEYS: Oct 3, 2003; What do you think it means, bitch?

Olothreutes posted:

It's a facility at a national laboratory. Even if I know some of the stuff they do out there from the various seminars and presentations they give, most of their work is probably weapons related and therefore they don't talk about it. Circuits for nuclear weapons have to live in close proximity to nuclear material, and we drat well want to make sure they work. Beyond that, I'm not 100% sure of anything.

Fun story about the GIF, though, involving a government auditor. At some point an auditor came out to take a look and various parts of the laboratory and try to track down missing things here and there. Cobalt 60 has a half life of 5.28 years. So when you have 20,000 kCi worth of inventory to start with, after 4 years or so you're down to probably around 12,000 kCi. So this auditor comes out and is trying to track down things that have gone missing over the years. He looks at the starting inventory, 20,000 kCi, and sees that the current inventory is now only 12,000 kCi. He's a money guy, not a nuclear guy, so he comes to the facility manager and very seriously asks him where the hell the other 8,000 kCi have gone. "How can you lose 8,000 of these things in just 4 years?"

They had to sit down with him and explain how radioactive decay works, and where all that stuff went.

Especially if he knew how dangerous those 8000 things could be. Luckily it's a fairly easy concept to explain, although I've never heard of a financial auditor getting into that sort of thing. Guess they could've tried to liken it to depreciation?

My quick wiki crash course was helpful: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation_hardening

REMEMBER SPONGE MONKEYS fucked around with this message at 03:15 on Nov 26, 2016

# ¿ Nov 26, 2016 03:11

REMEMBER SPONGE MONKEYS: Oct 3, 2003; What do you think it means, bitch?

Basically there are so many mitigating factors in daily life (not to mention biology) that it's nigh on impossible to definitively prove causation between chronic, low level exposure and any deleterious health effects (especially cancer) in court.

Cancer 20 years after working around sources that bump you above background? Good luck proving that was the cause (especially if dosimetry was used properly).

For the average person it's hardly something to fret over much. You are basically receiving small amounts of radiation at all times regardless.

# ¿ Nov 27, 2016 22:43

REMEMBER SPONGE MONKEYS: Oct 3, 2003; What do you think it means, bitch?

I wonder if airlines, etc. might be reluctant to issue dosimeters even on a volunteer basis lest they feel open to litigation or hazard pay or some such for the pilots and crew. No doubt those folks are aware they're getting additional exposure, but codify it and make it official (with a badge!) and suddenly folks get worried.

# ¿ Nov 28, 2016 04:56

REMEMBER SPONGE MONKEYS: Oct 3, 2003; What do you think it means, bitch?

You can find a fair amount of slag in Pennsylvania around the old stone iron furnaces that are scattered across the state and mostly forgotten for 100-150+ years. Mostly green, glassy with bubbles in it. Good for...doorstops? Cooler to find the furnaces no one's found for a long time.

# ¿ Dec 1, 2016 05:17

REMEMBER SPONGE MONKEYS: Oct 3, 2003; What do you think it means, bitch?

That's a feature, not a bug

# ¿ Dec 3, 2016 23:39

REMEMBER SPONGE MONKEYS: Oct 3, 2003; What do you think it means, bitch?

I think those people that deal with fire more regularly probably recognize that there's pretty much always an element of unpredictability with fire too, no matter how controlled the variables might be (thinking mostly of brush fires, but still). Just can't trust it.

Do you have any focus on brush fires and the like? It seems like it could be useful as I've seen/heard so many "controlled burns" get out of hand in a hell of a hurry, although I'm not sure if that's applicable so much on the arson side.

# ¿ Dec 5, 2016 03:42

REMEMBER SPONGE MONKEYS: Oct 3, 2003; What do you think it means, bitch?

Arsenic Lupin posted:

So starting out as a person with a lot of social anxiety -- leaving aside online communication -- I'm more likely to become an arsonist than a murderer?

e: I act out my rage with strong letters to the New York Times. So far it's having no effect, but hey, give it another thousand years.

Make them more incendiary

# ¿ Dec 5, 2016 14:28

REMEMBER SPONGE MONKEYS: Oct 3, 2003; What do you think it means, bitch?

blugu64 posted:

Don't joke about this! They almost shut San Antonio down a few years ago because it started dusting 20 miles north of the city.

To be fair, the last time it did ice over significantly, there wasn't a ditch or guard rail or barrier that was safe in SA. It was a very bad idea to go out. Those "bridge may ice" signs finally had their day.

# ¿ Dec 8, 2016 06:44

REMEMBER SPONGE MONKEYS: Oct 3, 2003; What do you think it means, bitch?

tactlessbastard posted:

But then the doofuses diving too fast for conditions will run over the flagman.

Suck my dodge you flagman

# ¿ Dec 16, 2016 15:20

REMEMBER SPONGE MONKEYS: Oct 3, 2003; What do you think it means, bitch?

Pick posted:

but feeling terror and suffering panic attacks is normal for grad students

Bit of terror and panic, bit of killing you slowly, it's a funny mix.

# ¿ Dec 19, 2016 02:48

REMEMBER SPONGE MONKEYS: Oct 3, 2003; What do you think it means, bitch?

# ¿ Dec 20, 2016 05:35

REMEMBER SPONGE MONKEYS: Oct 3, 2003; What do you think it means, bitch?

Chlamyllionaire posted:

He's lucky but not Irish lucky

Moon Irish lucky?

# ¿ Dec 23, 2016 04:54

REMEMBER SPONGE MONKEYS: Oct 3, 2003; What do you think it means, bitch?

Three-Phase posted:

Amount of pornography?

This is their new secret weapon for disabling enemy networks. Surface near major cities and replenish their porn supply with massive downloads that cripple their interwebs.

# ¿ Jan 3, 2017 06:55

REMEMBER SPONGE MONKEYS: Oct 3, 2003; What do you think it means, bitch?

Well at least they can just unload, dig the grave, and scoop him right up and dump/pour him right on in.

# ¿ Jan 4, 2017 01:58

REMEMBER SPONGE MONKEYS: Oct 3, 2003; What do you think it means, bitch?

Here's some more bridge/truck fun: http://www.ksat.com/traffic/eb-i-10-lower-level-closed-following-18-wheeler-accident

Apparently the solution is huge signs that just happen to function as barriers. How do these trucks not have a lockout for the piston if the truck is in drive?

Pick your nose and wipe it on the dash and whoops!

# ¿ Jan 5, 2017 05:13

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# ¿ May 22, 2024 19:20

REMEMBER SPONGE MONKEYS: Oct 3, 2003; What do you think it means, bitch?

Phanatic posted:

You need to be pulling forward as you raise the bed to dump a load. Watch asphalt trucks pouring asphalt into a paver.

Yeah I'd forgotten about that bit, but a speed limiter or a separate gear? If you're going over 5 mph and trying to put the bed up to dump, it fails to respond and also you're fired. Asphalt trucks here use hot mix and belly dump trailers, so they actually run over the load pulling away before the paving machine gets there.

I chuckled at the "this is my only accident in 5 years!" from the driver. The sign saved the bridge though, so I think we have our solution to the underpass quandary.

# ¿ Jan 5, 2017 19:25

The Something Awful Forums > Main > General Bullshit > OSHA: definitely bent in the straight places

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