Mercury Batteries and Creationism
Dale
I've just watched a report on local news about a mercury battery powered
Spider Man toy in Kellogs breakfast cereal. Egads! Who could imagine company
would slather a children's breakfast cereal with a poisonous substance like
mercury? Are kitty bonfires far behind?
The two mothers interviewed would not allow their small children to play
with the toxic toys. The report showed someone pushing a glob mercury on a
table top, and then switched to a view of a Hazmat crew in full regalia
cleaning some deadly substance off of a sidewalk.
The report did not make it clear that you'd have to go after one of these
batteries with a high-speed diamond tipped drill to get the mercury out of
it, and then it's only a tiny amount. They said that Kellogs "claimed"
something to that effect, but who's going to believe Kellogs? After all
they're trying to poison our children, the money grubbing bastards!
How does this relate to creationism? I think we all know that only about 25%
of people in the US know that evolution really happened and is happening.
But this is just a symptom of a broader ignorance, an almost complete
ignorance of anything scientific. Why do the general public in the US have
such a persistent ignorance of science? Sometimes it seems like a willful
ignorance. Or maybe it's that most people think that science is only for
scientific types. It used to be that there were some journalists who
actually knew a thing or two, but now it seems they are just as ignorant as
the general public.
Boikat
"Dale" <dmg...@nspm.airmail.net> wrote in message
news:FSkMc.5166$ce....@newssvr22.news.prodigy.com...
No less odious is the Garfield figure being given out at one of the burger
franchises where several mommies have complained that the Garfield figure
appears to be "Flipping the Bird". What mercury does to out bodies, a bird
flipping cartoon character will do to our societies moral fibre!
Boikat
--
<42><
Thore "Tocis" Schmechtig
> Why do the general public in
> the US have such a persistent ignorance of science? Sometimes it seems
> like a willful ignorance. Or maybe it's that most people think that
> science is only for scientific types.
I admit I'm very much guessing right now, but from my German point of view,
two remarkable differences regarding education are impossible not to
notice:
1. that blatant ignorance of science
2. the permission that parents homeschool their kids.
I'd like to know if there is _any_ standard that homeschooling parents have
to meet (or is there any standard AT ALL)? And is there any reliable
statistics et cetera about how many of the ignorant ones were homeschooled?
I think we all agree that if a child is homeschooled by a drooling fanatic
cretinist parent it's no surprise that this kid later knows _nothing_ at
all about what science says... so how usual is this?
--
Regards
Thore "Tocis" Schmechtig
Alexander
"Thore "Tocis" Schmechtig" <MAILTOc...@carcosa.de> wrote in message
news:2mea93F...@uni-berlin.de...
Don't know about the US but the UK homeschooling movement seems to have less
to do with religion and ideological bias than to do with ease of access to
educational materials or actual suitably funded schools. As we have a
national curriculum in essence it only matters if the children are being
educated to a level where they can pass the GCSE standards. While you might
choose a particular examining board, there is less difference between the
programmes and what they expect you to acheive. I don't really have a
problem of 'where' someone is educated, as long as there is an accepted
standard that all parties adhere to. As biology is compulsory up to a
certain level there is less of an opportunity to omit vital components of
that education and replace it with a seperate agenda.
For my money though I would still like to see funding going directly into
state education and supporting that at every level.
Klaus Hellnick
Yes, they do have to meet the same standards as public schools concerning
the material covered, and home schoolers tend to do very well in math,
English, and History. They also have to take approved tests. However, many
religiously motivated families will add disclaimers to the approved material
and combine it with religious instruction.
Klaus
Stanley Friesen
>Dale wrote:
>
>> Why do the general public in
>> the US have such a persistent ignorance of science? Sometimes it seems
>> like a willful ignorance. Or maybe it's that most people think that
>> science is only for scientific types.
>
>I admit I'm very much guessing right now, but from my German point of view,
>two remarkable differences regarding education are impossible not to
>notice:
>
>1. that blatant ignorance of science
>2. the permission that parents homeschool their kids.
>
>I'd like to know if there is _any_ standard that homeschooling parents have
>to meet (or is there any standard AT ALL)? And is there any reliable
>statistics et cetera about how many of the ignorant ones were homeschooled?
Relatively few, since home schooling was quote rare until the last
couple of decades. That means that very few adults here were actually
home schooled.
--
The peace of God be with you.
Stanley Friesen
R. Baldwin
news:2mea93F...@uni-berlin.de...
The percentage of home-schooled students is pretty small in the U.S.
Standards vary from state to state. The Federal Government has a weak role
in education here.
John Thomas Grisham
It's an oversimplification to suppose that opposition to public
education is based on the evolution/creation issue. The wealthy feel
it's a waste of their tax money, because they send their children to
private schools or have them tutored at home. They don't feel an
obligation to the children of the nation's middle class or poor,
because they've gone global. To them, the deprived in the U.S. are
just ungrateful. The world's children by comparison are far worse off
and America's poor should be content with whatever "trickles down" to
them. As they succeed to tear apart public education, parents turn to
homeschooling and religions meet the demand for more private schools.
The motivation is to kill public education, supposely lessening the
tax burden (but our government never really lessens the tax burden).
JTG 7/24/04
J Yossarian
Based on this report:
http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2001/HomeSchool/
it doesn't look to me like homeschooling can be to blame for
science-illiteracy in the USA. 1.7% of the student population was
being homeschooled when the study was conducted (5 years ago).
Cheers,
J
John McKendry
Educational requirements are set by the individual states. Some states
have strict requirements, like you have to file lesson plans and get
approvals and covered specific subjects, and some don't. Some states
provide official loopholes for people who homeschool out of
religious conviction. Some states want you to be affiliated with
an accredited supervisory "umbrella" program. Many states require
standardized testing.
Here in Massachusetts, supervision of homeschoolers is the responsibility
of the local school committee, which is an elected body, not necessarily
composed of professional educators (I'm not saying that's a bad
thing). So the actual rules vary from town to town. My son was
homeschooled starting with what would have been 8th grade (13 years old),
and all we ever had to do was write a letter each year to the school
committee with a broad overall description of what we planned to
cover in the next year. In other towns it might have been different.
There is one funny state regulation: homeschoolers are not permitted
to take the MCAS (Mass. Comprehensive Assessment System) exams, which
are required as a condition of graduation for public schoolers. I don't
know why that is.
From my experience I'd have to say that a majority of homeschoolers
do it because they don't want their children exposed to evolution, sex
education, and programs that encourage tolerance, celebrate diversity,
and teach critical thinking. These people generally try to recreate
the public-school experience at home, with class schedules, textbooks
and workbooks, standardized tests, and so forth. They buy textbooks
with titles like "Mathematics for Christian Schools" (don't ask me
what's the difference between Christian math and the ordinary kind),
and their kids are the ones who win spelling bees and geography bees.
Their educational philosophy is that there is One Right Answer to
every question, and their job as parents is to teach their kids
all the Right Answers.
State regulators generally look favorably on this kind of
homeschooling, because its structures and goals are identical
to the structures and goals of most public school systems. Rules
and regulations are meat and drink to this class of homeschoolers.
On the other hand, there's a large number of people who homeschool
because they feel their public schools don't provide *enough*
evolution, sex education, tolerance, diversity, and critical
thinking. Or, frequently, enough math, chemistry, physics, geology,
literature, French, German, Latin, Greek, Japanese, Russian, American
history, world history, economics, political science, philosophy,
computer science, engineering, bicycle maintenance, kitchen science,
or wood and metal shop. These folks generally don't think of
education as "I'll grade your math exercises now, and it's time
for you to do vocabulary". Their "lesson plans" tend to be rather
more open-ended, and they use their kids' own curiosity as the
day's curriculum planner.
State regulators are less comfortable with this kind of homeschooler.
It's a tough problem, is all I can say. I think it's a shame that
people can be so desperate to pass their ignorance on to their
children, but I guess I'd rather have them homeschooling than
selecting textbooks for the public schools.
John
Tristan Miller
In article <FSkMc.5166$ce....@newssvr22.news.prodigy.com>, Dale wrote:
> I've just watched a report on local news about a mercury battery powered
> Spider Man toy in Kellogs breakfast cereal. Egads! Who could imagine
> company would slather a children's breakfast cereal with a poisonous
> substance like mercury? Are kitty bonfires far behind?
>
> The two mothers interviewed would not allow their small children to play
> with the toxic toys. [...]
>
> But this is just a symptom of a broader ignorance, an almost
> complete ignorance of anything scientific. Why do the general public in
> the US have such a persistent ignorance of science?
I'm sure most of us could point to numerous examples of corporate
negligence when it comes to product safety, resulting in the poisoning,
injury, or death of countless individuals or even entire communities.
It's come to be expected, and rightly so, that occasionally companies will
neglect proper safety testing in their rush to turn a profit. The two
mothers therefore had every right to be overly cautious about letting
their children play with a toy that contained a known toxin. You may be
aware that it takes a high-speed diamond-tipped drill to open one of these
batteries, but I think it's unreasonable to expect everyone -- or even
professional scientists -- to know this. Heck, I'm an educated,
professional scientist, and I don't know the first thing about mercury
batteries. Perhaps I missed that lecture back in my high school physics
or chemistry class.
> The report showed someone pushing a glob mercury on
> a table top, and then switched to a view of a Hazmat crew in full regalia
> cleaning some deadly substance off of a sidewalk.
>
> The report did not make it clear that you'd have to go after one of these
> batteries with a high-speed diamond tipped drill to get the mercury out
> of it, and then it's only a tiny amount. They said that Kellogs "claimed"
> something to that effect, but who's going to believe Kellogs? After all
> they're trying to poison our children, the money grubbing bastards!
It seems that the real culprit here is not the general public, but the news
reporters in question, who failed to properly do their job as
investigative journalists. Rather than examine the complaint and seek an
expert opinion on the matter, they chose to go for the ignorant
scare-mongering approach, which admittedly probably got them higher
ratings (and therefore better potential for lucrative advertising sales in
the future) than a balanced, thoughtful report would have.
Regards,
Tristan
--
_
_V.-o Tristan Miller [en,(fr,de,ia)] >< Space is limited
/ |`-' -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= <> In a haiku, so it's hard
(7_\\ http://www.nothingisreal.com/ >< To finish what you
Frank J
I'm in the US. Here's what I observe with the caveat that it comes
from a vocal minority of homeschooling advocates, which may not
necessarily represent the consensus opinion:
Homeschooling resources on the web mostly seem to be a "front" for
peddling anti-evolution pseudoscience.
Politicians who advocate homeschooling are mostly the same ones who
are bleeding hearts for "teaching the controversy" in public school,
often under the pretense of raising "standards." Many of them even
oppose public education in principle, which makes me very suspicious
of their interest in "fixing" it.
My own opinion is that public education, private education and even
homeschooling all have promise, if done right. Which means keeping
political agendas out of education everywhere. And for all of those
who think that "evolution-only" education is a liberal agenda, a
prominent conservative sets the record straight:
http://www.edexcellence.net/foundation/publication/publication.cfm?id=43#671
Bob Pease
"Tristan Miller" <psych...@nothingisreal.com> wrote in message
news:1114344.F...@ID-187157.News.Individual.NET...
Add to this the fact that Liquid mercury AIN'T TOXIC unless carefully
administered in such a way to cause it to form compounds which are.
If you rub liquid Mercury on your skin you might get some absorbed to form
mercury salts.
If enough liquid mercury is around, there are circumstances where enough
exposure to it can cause breathiing of the Vapor, which is somewhat toxic.
Evacuating a shcool because a kid broke a thermometer is expensive, stupid,
and wasteful of pubic health resources.
We used to use Barometers with an open well of around 100 ml of liquid
Merxuri, and it dint have no epphecq on I.!!! ( Hee HO )
RJ Pease
---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.661 / Virus Database: 424 - Release Date: 4/19/04
Johnny Bravo
<res0...@nozirevBACKWARDS.net> wrote:
>The percentage of home-schooled students is pretty small in the U.S.
>Standards vary from state to state. The Federal Government has a weak role
>in education here.
Unfortunately the converse is not true, the National Education
Association is the largest union in the United States, 2.7 million
members.
--
"We will always remember. We will always be proud.
We will always be prepared, so we may always be free."
Abner Mintz
> They buy textbooks
> with titles like "Mathematics for Christian Schools" (don't ask me
> what's the difference between Christian math and the ordinary kind),
In Christian math, 3=1? :)
Dale
news:1114344.F...@ID-187157.News.Individual.NET...
>
> In article <FSkMc.5166$ce....@newssvr22.news.prodigy.com>, Dale wrote:
> > I've just watched a report on local news about a mercury battery powered
> > Spider Man toy in Kellogs breakfast cereal. Egads! Who could imagine
> > company would slather a children's breakfast cereal with a poisonous
> > substance like mercury? Are kitty bonfires far behind?
> >
> > The two mothers interviewed would not allow their small children to play
> > with the toxic toys. [...]
> >
> > But this is just a symptom of a broader ignorance, an almost
> > complete ignorance of anything scientific. Why do the general public in
> > the US have such a persistent ignorance of science?
>
> I'm sure most of us could point to numerous examples of corporate
> negligence when it comes to product safety, resulting in the poisoning,
> injury, or death of countless individuals or even entire communities.
> It's come to be expected, and rightly so, that occasionally companies will
> neglect proper safety testing in their rush to turn a profit. The two
> mothers therefore had every right to be overly cautious about letting
> their children play with a toy that contained a known toxin. You may be
> aware that it takes a high-speed diamond-tipped drill to open one of these
> batteries, but I think it's unreasonable to expect everyone -- or even
> professional scientists -- to know this. Heck, I'm an educated,
> professional scientist, and I don't know the first thing about mercury
> batteries. Perhaps I missed that lecture back in my high school physics
> or chemistry class.
Yikes! Haven't you ever seen a watch battery, or a hearing aid battery at
the grocery store? You know, those tiny little things with their hard metal
cases. I suppose you wouldn't necessarily have to have a diamond tipped
drill, maybe a few really hard whacks with a hammer would open one up. But
really, a regular alkaline A-cell probably has more toxicity than a mercury
battery, and you don't see people panicking about that.
Thore "Tocis" Schmechtig
> It's a tough problem, is all I can say. I think it's a shame that
> people can be so desperate to pass their ignorance on to their
> children, but I guess I'd rather have them homeschooling than
> selecting textbooks for the public schools.
Thanks for the info. :)
(As for christian maths, one axiom would probably be "1+1+1= BIG 1",
no? :) )
Thore "Tocis" Schmechtig
> However, many
> religiously motivated families will add disclaimers to the approved
> material and combine it with religious instruction.
That's about what I feared. Thanx, and actually thanx to everyone who
replied (I wrote my first reply without noticing how many more were
following :) )
Tristan Miller
In article <mjIMc.20297$Oz7....@newssvr23.news.prodigy.com>, Dale wrote:
>> Heck, I'm an educated,
>> professional scientist, and I don't know the first thing about mercury
>> batteries. Perhaps I missed that lecture back in my high school physics
>> or chemistry class.
>
> Yikes! Haven't you ever seen a watch battery, or a hearing aid battery at
> the grocery store? You know, those tiny little things with their hard
> metal cases. I suppose you wouldn't necessarily have to have a diamond
> tipped drill, maybe a few really hard whacks with a hammer would open one
> up. But really, a regular alkaline A-cell probably has more toxicity than
> a mercury battery, and you don't see people panicking about that.
Yeah, I've seen watch batteries, but I had no idea they contained mercury.
If that's the kind of battery we're talking about, then yeah, I agree
they're probably pretty safe. But see, I didn't know this until you
brought it up. If I were simply told that a cereal manufacturer was
bundling children's toys containing mercury in some form, then I would
agree that parental concern over safety is warranted. Once it's
established that the mercury in question does not pose a threat -- say, by
consulting an independent source or two, such as an encyclopedia, a
consumer reports magazine, or one's friendly neighbourhood chemist -- then
the concern has been dealt with, the kids can be given back their toys,
and everyone is happy. It's the journalists in this case who were
responsible for the spread of panic by not performing the most elementary
of investigations.
Maxie
>> with titles like "Mathematics for Christian Schools" (don't ask me
>> what's the difference between Christian math and the ordinary kind),
>
>In Christian math, 3=1? :
No, in Christian math, pi = 3.
Maxie Maxwell
"Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey ...
The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an
imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to
kill the dragon."
G. K. Chesterton
Frank Reichenbacher
> Greetings.
>
> In article <mjIMc.20297$Oz7....@newssvr23.news.prodigy.com>, Dale wrote:
> >> Heck, I'm an educated,
> >> professional scientist, and I don't know the first thing about mercury
> >> batteries. Perhaps I missed that lecture back in my high school
physics
> >> or chemistry class.
> >
> > Yikes! Haven't you ever seen a watch battery, or a hearing aid battery
at
> > the grocery store? You know, those tiny little things with their hard
> > metal cases. I suppose you wouldn't necessarily have to have a diamond
> > tipped drill, maybe a few really hard whacks with a hammer would open
one
> > up. But really, a regular alkaline A-cell probably has more toxicity
than
> > a mercury battery, and you don't see people panicking about that.
>
> Yeah, I've seen watch batteries, but I had no idea they contained mercury.
> If that's the kind of battery we're talking about, then yeah, I agree
> they're probably pretty safe. But see, I didn't know this until you
> brought it up.
Tristan, dude, you just provided a splendid proof of his point. You didn't
know - hence, ignorance, not corporate money-grubbers, are responsible for
public panics over essentailly harmless products.
If I were simply told that a cereal manufacturer was
> bundling children's toys containing mercury in some form,
Perhaps you have a responsibility to educate yourself instead of sitting
around waiting to be told what is and isn't good for you?
Frank
Frank J
>
> I've just watched a report on local news about a mercury battery powered
> Spider Man toy in Kellogs breakfast cereal. Egads! Who could imagine company
> would slather a children's breakfast cereal with a poisonous substance like
> mercury? Are kitty bonfires far behind?
>
> The two mothers interviewed would not allow their small children to play
> with the toxic toys. The report showed someone pushing a glob mercury on a
> table top, and then switched to a view of a Hazmat crew in full regalia
> cleaning some deadly substance off of a sidewalk.
>
> The report did not make it clear that you'd have to go after one of these
> batteries with a high-speed diamond tipped drill to get the mercury out of
> it, and then it's only a tiny amount. They said that Kellogs "claimed"
> something to that effect, but who's going to believe Kellogs? After all
> they're trying to poison our children, the money grubbing bastards!
>
> How does this relate to creationism? I think we all know that only about 25%
> of people in the US know that evolution really happened and is happening.
I have read that it's more like 45% (+45% YECs and 10% OECs and
misc.). But alas most have only a caricature of evolution in mind, so
I'd bet that at most 5% accepts it and defines it as science does.
> But this is just a symptom of a broader ignorance, an almost complete
> ignorance of anything scientific.
And as you note, exploitation of that ignorance by all sorts or
groups, including anti-evolutionists.
> Why do the general public in the US have
> such a persistent ignorance of science? Sometimes it seems like a willful
> ignorance. Or maybe it's that most people think that science is only for
> scientific types. It used to be that there were some journalists who
> actually knew a thing or two, but now it seems they are just as ignorant as
> the general public.
Speaking of Hg, my dentist (now deceased) used to give me capsules of
it to play with in the early 60s. While I certainly would not
recommend that in light of later findings, IMO science has caved into
public misconceptions (like "zero risk") and too often errs the other
way, in which the "cure is worse than the disease". Nevertheless, more
than ever, the public sees scientists, no matter how ESH
(environmental, safety and health) conscious (or over-conscious),
always as the bad guys.
And speaking of journalists, I find that even most of the
pro-evolution ones are doing as much of a disservice as professional
anti-evolutionists, by writing misleading articles with
"sensationalist" headlines like "Humans, Neanderthals Not Related."
Such articles only reinforce the caricature of evolution that
anti-evolutionists attack in the absence of a theory of their own.
Tristan Miller
In article <4padnf_An_S...@speakeasy.net>, Frank Reichenbacher
wrote:
>> they're probably pretty safe. But see, I didn't know this until you
>> brought it up.
>
> Tristan, dude, you just provided a splendid proof of his point. You
> didn't know - hence, ignorance, not corporate money-grubbers, are
> responsible for public panics over essentailly harmless products.
Two panicked mothers does not a "public panic" make. The "public" part
takes effect when the mass media gets involved.
> If I were simply told that a cereal manufacturer was
>> bundling children's toys containing mercury in some form,
>
> Perhaps you have a responsibility to educate yourself instead of sitting
> around waiting to be told what is and isn't good for you?
Did you even read my post? This was my argument precisely. The mothers
and journalists in question were, in their understandable ignorance, right
to be concerned, but should have educated themselves about the safety of
the batteries before panicking.
Earle Jones
fn...@comcast.net (Frank J) wrote:
> "Dale" <dmg...@nspm.airmail.net> wrote in message
> news:<FSkMc.5166$ce....@newssvr22.news.prodigy.com>...
> > We're doomed, DOOMED I say!
> >
> > I've just watched a report on local news about a mercury battery powered
> > Spider Man toy in Kellogs breakfast cereal. Egads! Who could imagine
> > company
> > would slather a children's breakfast cereal with a poisonous substance like
> > mercury? Are kitty bonfires far behind?
> >
> > The two mothers interviewed would not allow their small children to play
> > with the toxic toys. The report showed someone pushing a glob mercury on a
> > table top, and then switched to a view of a Hazmat crew in full regalia
> > cleaning some deadly substance off of a sidewalk.
> >
> > The report did not make it clear that you'd have to go after one of these
> > batteries with a high-speed diamond tipped drill to get the mercury out of
> > it, and then it's only a tiny amount. They said that Kellogs "claimed"
> > something to that effect, but who's going to believe Kellogs? After all
> > they're trying to poison our children, the money grubbing bastards!
*
I doubt whether elemental mercury in its room-temperature liquid
form poses much of a health hazard. I remember playing with it as a
kid -- coating quarters (back when some of our coins had some silver
in them) and floating needles in a puddle of mercury.
What is deadly lethal is mercury in the vapor state. It takes very
little inhaled mercury vapor to produce very significant and very
bad effects on the body.
Certain salts of mercury are very poisonous: HgCl2 (bichloride of
mercury or mercuric chloride) is a deadly poison. HgCl
(monochloride of mercury or mercurous chloride) was a very common
medication, which I took as a child -- it was caled "Calomel".
earle
*
--
__
__/\_\
/\_\/_/
\/_/\_\ earle
\/_/ jones
Frank Reichenbacher
> Greetings.
>
> In article <4padnf_An_S...@speakeasy.net>, Frank Reichenbacher
> wrote:
> >> they're probably pretty safe. But see, I didn't know this until you
> >> brought it up.
> >
> > Tristan, dude, you just provided a splendid proof of his point. You
> > didn't know - hence, ignorance, not corporate money-grubbers, are
> > responsible for public panics over essentailly harmless products.
>
> Two panicked mothers does not a "public panic" make. The "public" part
> takes effect when the mass media gets involved.
Whatever.
>
> > If I were simply told that a cereal manufacturer was
> >> bundling children's toys containing mercury in some form,
> >
> > Perhaps you have a responsibility to educate yourself instead of sitting
> > around waiting to be told what is and isn't good for you?
>
> Did you even read my post? This was my argument precisely.
Sounded to me like your argument was: "Well how would I know the batteries
were nearly impregnable unless someone told me..." And additional whining to
that effect.
The mothers
> and journalists in question were,
> in their understandable ignorance,
This is the crux of the matter, isn't it? How 'understandable' is their
ignorance when a high school science curriculum (that actually taught
science) might have provided the moms with the background needed to not be
so fucking ignorant?
Frank
Chris Thompson
news:4pm5g0hb3pu8r0sc6...@4ax.com:
> On Sat, 24 Jul 2004 16:47:52 +0000 (UTC), "R. Baldwin"
> <res0...@nozirevBACKWARDS.net> wrote:
>
>>The percentage of home-schooled students is pretty small in the U.S.
>>Standards vary from state to state. The Federal Government has a weak
>>role in education here.
>
> Unfortunately the converse is not true, the National Education
> Association is the largest union in the United States, 2.7 million
> members.
>
Damn. Smart people demanding a say in how they're governed.
There's a problem, all right.
<boggle>
Chris
--
"We are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and
then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so
as to show that we were right. Intellectually, it is possible to carry
on this process for an indefinite time: the only check on it is that
sooner or later a false belief bumps up against solid reality, usually
on a battlefield." --George Orwell, 1946, "Under Your Nose"
Tristan Miller
In article <10ga3oh...@corp.supernews.com>, Frank Reichenbacher wrote:
>> in their understandable ignorance,
>
> This is the crux of the matter, isn't it? How 'understandable' is their
> ignorance when a high school science curriculum (that actually taught
> science) might have provided the moms with the background needed to not
> be so fucking ignorant?
Obviously my high school education was deficient for not having devoted a
week to the study of the impregnability of various batteries. I'm glad to
hear that your time was better spent.
Steve the Sauropodman
> We're doomed, DOOMED I say!
>
> I've just watched a report on local news about a mercury battery powered
> Spider Man toy in Kellogs breakfast cereal. Egads! Who could imagine company
> would slather a children's breakfast cereal with a poisonous substance like
> mercury? Are kitty bonfires far behind?
>
> The two mothers interviewed would not allow their small children to play
> with the toxic toys. The report showed someone pushing a glob mercury on a
> table top, and then switched to a view of a Hazmat crew in full regalia
> cleaning some deadly substance off of a sidewalk.
>
> The report did not make it clear that you'd have to go after one of these
> batteries with a high-speed diamond tipped drill to get the mercury out of
> it, and then it's only a tiny amount. They said that Kellogs "claimed"
> something to that effect, but who's going to believe Kellogs? After all
> they're trying to poison our children, the money grubbing bastards!
>
> of people in the US know that evolution really happened and is happening.
> such a persistent ignorance of science? Sometimes it seems like a willful
> ignorance. Or maybe it's that most people think that science is only for
> scientific types. It used to be that there were some journalists who
> actually knew a thing or two, but now it seems they are just as ignorant as
> the general public.
WOW! After putting the sealed, battery powered Spiderman toy in the
box those crafty, profit-hungry bastards then slathered mercury all
over the cereal???
Steve the Sauropodman
You know, since some 2000 people a year are killed or injured in the
US due to falls from stairs, I think there should be a federal law
banning the construction of two-story houses.
;) hee, hee
Florian
> "Dale" <dmg...@nspm.airmail.net> wrote in message news:<FSkMc.5166$ce....@newssvr22.news.prodigy.com>...
> > We're doomed, DOOMED I say!
(snip)
>
> You know, since some 2000 people a year are killed or injured in the
> US due to falls from stairs, I think there should be a federal law
> banning the construction of two-story houses.
That seems unnecessarily broad. Just ban the construction of stairs.
--
odoratusque est Dominus odorem suavitatis
John Thompson
Dealing with liquid mercury regularly can lead to slow progressive
mercury poisoning through vapor inhalation. The Mad Hatter in Alice in
Wonderland came from the expression current at the time "mad as a
hatter", which in turn came from the fact that hatters often suffered
neurological damage ("hatter's shakes") from the mercury used in
curing felt.
John
John Wilkins
> chandl...@hotmail.com (Steve the Sauropodman) writes:
>
> > "Dale" <dmg...@nspm.airmail.net> wrote...
> > > We're doomed, DOOMED I say!
> (snip)
> >
> > You know, since some 2000 people a year are killed or injured in the
> > US due to falls from stairs, I think there should be a federal law
> > banning the construction of two-story houses.
>
> That seems unnecessarily broad. Just ban the construction of stairs.
Make elevators mandatory for any step higher than 6". I'm sure
Haliburton could manufacture them...
--
John Wilkins
john...@wilkins.id.au http://wilkins.id.au
"Men mark it when they hit, but do not mark it when they miss"
- Francis Bacon
Florian
> Florian <peta...@evilemail.com> wrote:
>
> > chandl...@hotmail.com (Steve the Sauropodman) writes:
> >
> > > "Dale" <dmg...@nspm.airmail.net> wrote...
> > > > We're doomed, DOOMED I say!
> > (snip)
> > >
> > > You know, since some 2000 people a year are killed or injured in the
> > > US due to falls from stairs, I think there should be a federal law
> > > banning the construction of two-story houses.
> >
> > That seems unnecessarily broad. Just ban the construction of stairs.
>
> Make elevators mandatory for any step higher than 6". I'm sure
> Haliburton could manufacture them...
I was thinking more along the lines of trampolines and greased poles, but
your idea has certain merit.