A lot of people who make the world worse who don’t deserve to die of radiation sickness.
We don’t know anything about the hijackers other than that they committed this crime. How old are they? Are they parents? Were they involved willingly? Were their guns loaded? Why did they need the money? I’m not saying they’re good people. I’m saying we don’t know what kind of people they are. And if people who steal trucks at gunpoint deserve to die, then there’s no point in the concept of parole.
Last time folks tried to come up with an international symbol for that, it resulted in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Yuk
Re cruel and unusual: Granted. But it’s also self-inflicted, which largely negates considering it “punishment”.
Let’s take a moment to work out the numbers.
3000 Curies · 3.6×1010 Decays/second/Curie · 2.5MeV/Decay · 1.6×10-19 Joules/eV = 43 Joules / second = 43 Watts of gamma radiation (!) It really would be ‘hot’.
so let’s divide that by 24 = 16 … still 2.6 Watts of Gamma radiation.
To reach 400 Joules dose, he’d need to hold a 20-year old source for ~25 minutes to be sure of a lethal exposure (but only 90 seconds if the source was fresh)
It may be a scare tactic, but depending on what the thieves did with it, and how old/new the source was, it seems plausible they could be dead men walking.
OMG - I remember getting a sheet of those stickers from school and putting them on all the windex etc.
Think it through, and in context.
Yikes, and thanks for the breakdown!
Yeesh. Note to self, develop a creeping fear of radiation.
Too much “They got what they deserved” in here. They deserved a trial, and the chance to find a better path in life.
Thought it through, and in context. They didn’t “deserve” it. But they did ask for it, at gunpoint. It isn’t my preferred outcome, but I’m afraid I don’t have much sympathy.
(If I was dealing with them directly, I’d probably have a bit more sympathy – for their suffering, not for their death. But since I’m not, and since there isn’t much that can be done about it, I have the luxury of not having to care.)
I can’t lie to you about your chances, but… you have my sympathies.
I’m certainly not saying that they deserved a painful death by radiation poisoning. But regardless of the circumstances they were flirting with death and putting themselves in harms way when they pulled a gun on the driver. Threatening to kill somebody is NOT a nonviolent crime, despite the fact that they did not, in the end carry out their threat. Would they have killed the driver if he attempted to defend himself? We don’t know. What the driver didn’t know was whether they’d let him live if he got out and gave them the keys. I don’t know what drove them to become violent criminals, but don’t kid yourself, they were violent criminals. Pulling a gun at somebody and threatening to kill them is NOT the same thing as, say hotwiring the truck and stealing it.
In 1991 The New Yorker published a 2-part bio of an artist named James Acord, who worked on just such a project. The problem of creating imagery that could communicate extreme danger across culture and time was one of his obsessions. In catching up with him on the Internet, I was saddened to learn that he committed suicide in 2011.
This one could just as easily mean “Contains electric fans, pirates and ‘Portal.’”
For now.
True. A gun in the face is fucking horrible.
All that’s missing is Impact font.
Update - six people admitted to hospital in Mexico following radiation exposure - two showing severe symptoms.
Plus people are super lazy!
Strangest NRC license belonged to James Acord, who made his artwork using radioactive materials. He was so proud of being the first living individual to receive an NRC license (as opposed to a corporation) that he had the number tattooed on the back of his neck…
When I was young and stupid, I once opened a mysterious bucket. Guess what? It was full of rotten fish guts and I almost barfed. That was the last time I ever opened the mysterious bucket.
if it was on a boat, probably chum, for use in trolling. Though, if it was in iceland, you might have ruined someone’s dinner… Shame on You!
