[at-l] Re: Snow Cream

[jbullar1 at twcny.rr.com (Jim Bullard)]

At 05:35 PM 12/6/2004 -0500, Steve Adams wrote:
>Jim,
>
>Reference your post, dated 12-6-04, advising "The teacher brought a Geiger 
>counter to school one day and checked the snow in the yard.  The needle 
>moved and it clicked quite a bit."
>
>Did the teacher ever check the yard, without the snow?
>
>Steve

No. It was in response to news stories about radioactive snow. I don't 
recall it ever happening other than that one time.

I was only 10-11 at the time and I didn't really get the full meaning of it 
nor do I know how high she set the sensitivity. I know from later 
experience that you can get a reading off background radiation if you set 
the instrument to measure low enough levels.

At that time radiation wasn't considered particularly dangerous. I recall 
going into shoe stores and sticking my feet into a "fluoroscope" machine to 
check the fit and our doctor had a fluoroscope machine in his office. My 
older brother had pneumonia and I recall watching the Dr. study my 
brother's lungs while he was exposed to continuous radiation for at least 
2-3 minutes. They'd never do that today. Yes, my brother is still alive and 
kicking, though he did nearly kill himself with 40 years of smoking 
unfiltered cigarettes.