What the Hell is Radiation Measured In?

If you're anything like me, you've been reading about the incident a the Fukushima power plant, then eventually read up a little on Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. I've noticed that whenever they talk about radiation it's always measured in some other way.

From this article:

The National Institute of Radiological Sciences said that 3.9 million becquerels per square centimeter of radiation had been detected in the water that the three workers stepped in — 10,000 times the level normally seen in coolant water at the plant.

The injured workers’ dosimeters suggested exposure to 170 millisieverts of radiation.

They measure it one way in one paragraph, then in the next freaking paragraph they measure it differently!

Well, here are all the ways radiation is measured:

Curie (Ci) / Becquerels (Bq)

Curies/Becquerels are measures of actual radioactive radiation. Curies (obviously named for Marie Curie) are the conventional unit, whereas Becquerels (named for another radiation pioneer, Henri Becquerel) are the SI unit. You know, SI, like kilometers instead of miles.

They are defined as:
1 Ci = 3.7×10¹⁰ decays per second = 37 GBq

Obviously, one Becquerel is one radiatoactive decay per second. So, every time an atom emits one tiny chunk of radiation, it is 1 Bq.

Technically, the "becquerels per square centimeter" the article used isn't really a measure of radiation, but it does provide a measurable reference for radiation.

rad / Gray (Gy)
Rads/Grays are measures of absorbed ionizing radiation. Ionizing radiation is radiation that can detach electrons from atoms or molecules. One Gray (the SI unit) is defined as:

1 Gy = 1 Joule of energy absorbed / 1 kilogram of absorbing medium -- usually human tissue
1 rad = .01 Gy

It was named for Louis Gray, who was a British physicist.

Anyway, if you're exposed to some for of radiation (X-rays, for example) that can knock your electrons loose, the amount of energy you absorb is measured in Grays.

rem / Sievert (Sv)
Okay, now it gets fun. Sieverts (named for Rolf Sievert, a Swedish physicist who apparently exposed all sorts of things to radiation) are an attempt to take the absorbed dose (in Gy) and relate it to the biological effects of the radiation.

1 Sv = (1 Gy)W
1 rem = (1 rad)W

W here is a weighting factor that depends on the type of radiation and the type of tissue being measured. Gamma rays and X-rays are going to have different effects on the same tissue.

As a point of comparison that the article didn't feel the need to provide, 170 mSv (the radiation dose the workers were exposed to) is about half of one entire year's worth of natural radiation (300 mSv). One dental X-ray is up to .15 mSv. One mammogram is .7 mSv. I, for one, wouldn't volunteer for 243 simultaneous mammograms.

Ultra Bonus Extra Radiation Measurement:
Roentgen (R)
This one... hmmm... I'm not even going to try to figure this one out. Why don't you read about it for yourself?

A Letter to Clingfilm

Dear Clingfilm,

I hate you. No, I loathe you. You are a jerk. First of all, your damn serrated edge gets me every time. Why can't you be more like your cousin, the aluminum foil? He at least keeps his serrated edge tucked in until you need it. But no, you're so lazy and poorly designed I nick my thumb every time I want a trashbag.

When I do use you, it's begrudgingly. If it weren't for your friend the microwave, I would never use you.

And why do you feel the need to stick to yourself after I tear off a piece? You're not making things any easier for either of us.

If it were my way, I wouldn't even have you in the same drawer with useful things like foil and tashbags. You'd be somewhere inaccessible so that I can forget I even own you.

You sicken me. Go to hell.

Sincerely,
Timmortal

Canadian Cities & NHL Teams

Every year there's talk of relocation of struggling NHL teams. Typically the hope is that teams such as the Phoenix Coyotes, the Atlanta Thrashers, or the Florida Panthers will move to Canada to replace the teams it has lost in the last 20 years.

One argument I've heard is that the Canadaian cities just aren't big enough to have a team that would be financially successful in the today's NHL. But how big are these cities, exactly?

Let's skip the 5 largest cities in Canada (Toronto, Montréal, Clagary, Ottawa, and Edmonton) because they already have teams, as well as the 6th largest city, Mississauga, because it's smashed up next to Toronto.

The 7th largest city in Canada is Winnipeg, with a population* of 633,451. Winnipeg used to be home of the Jets, who became the Phoenix Coyotes in 1996.

The 8th largest city in Canada is Vancouver, and it is the home of the Canucks, so we shall skip it.

The 9th largest city in Canada is Hamilton, population 504,559. There have been annual efforts by Canadian billionaire Jim Balsillie to move teams here and it's easy to see why. There are 4 other NHL teams withing driving distance from Hamilton. There is no way a team here wouldn't be successful. Too bad the NHL owners all hate Balsillie.

And finally the 10th largest city, and last one with any hope of getting an NHL team, is Québec City, with a population of 491,142.

Winnipeg, Hamilton, and Québec City all have populations larger than a lot of US cities, such as Miami, FL (433,136**); Raleigh, NC (405,612); St. Louis, MO (356,587); Tampa, FL (343,890); Anaheim, CA (337,896); Pittsburgh, PA (311,647); and Buffalo, NY (270,240), all cities with NHL teams. In fact, Winnipeg has more people in it than Denver, Nashville, DC, and Atlanta (and almost as many people as there are in Baltimore).

So, if all other things were equal, then why the hell aren't these teams moving to Canada? Because all other things aren't equal, sadly. For starters, the populations don't include metropolitan areas. Furthermore, Canadians are generally poorer than Americans. Then there are TV contracts, travel costs, etc, etc, etc. But damnit, let's get some teams moved back up to Canada.

*Canadian populations as of 2006

**US populations as of 2009

English Dropped All The Cool Letters

After the English language stopped using runes for letters, they switched to the Roman alphabet. However, there was no J, K, Q, V, or Z. But, the Old English alphabet had some pretty awesome letters in it, which we dropped, sadly.

æ
This letter sounds like a mix between a and e. Who knew? You can still find it kicking around from time to time in English, but Danish, Icelandic, and Norwegian still use it constantly.

ð
This letter, eth, sounds like the th in "them". It still exists in Icelandic and Faroese.

ᵹ
Insular G was basically a second g, borrowed from Ireland. It still can be found in traditional Gaelic.

ſ
Long s was basically a second s for if there was an s at the beginning or middle of a word. Its cousin, the German letter ß, is all the rage.

þ
Thorn (it even has a great name) is like the th in thick.

ƿ
Wynn was basically a holdover from the rune days. It lost out to W, since they eventually had the same sound.

Stupid Article About IKEA

I was reading this article about IKEA. Aside from the obviousness that, yes, they're trying to keep you in the store longer to buy more things, what really annoyed me about this article was this picture and the accompanying caption:

A-mazing: A route a customer took through a store. Professor Alan Penn said they are designed to stop customers leaving

Clearly this isn't a route a customer took through a store. It's the route FIVE customers took through a store. Furthermore, who's to say they didn't enjoy walking though the store? There's some neat stuff in there. Something drew these customers to the store in the first place. They weren't forced into a maze and told "now get to the exit!" That map, I'm sure, would look quite different.

And the whole premise of the article is wrong. IKEA doesn't stop customers from leaving, they just get the customers to walk by as much merchandise as possible. Grocery stores do it too. Department stores, as well. Why do you think the escalator is always in the worst place possible? Hell, all retail stores do it.

Multiple Truck Accidents in Mt. Airy

On Sunday, I-70 was closed in both directions because a propane truck overturned.

Tuesday morning, I-70 was closed again in both directions because another truck, this one carrying embalming fluid, overturned.

Both of these happened within just a couple miles of eachother!

Is Mount Airy angry or are truckers just particularly dangerous these days?