Gilded

"Gilded in Helsinki carries on drinking unaware." Ahh, Helsinki is a place full of idiots. And that's one thing that makes me think why I don't live there. "it always hits America in the films anyway, so we should be nice and safe here in the UK :)" You got that right. Hopefully Bruce Willis is still alive when the asteroid gets near, so that he can go and blow it up with some nukes.

"come on dude... look in your own thread!" The things mentioned there are currently rather inaccessable to me. Btw: http://www.kellycodetectors.com/minelab/GP3000.htm Yum yum, gold detection to the max. )

OK, got my counter today. It measures single pulses and equivalence dose (from 0.05uSv to quite lethal levels). However, my dad didn't like the idea of me breaking our smoke detector, so now I just have to find something cool to monitor.

Heh, I could use a detector like that. Now I however got the radiation monitor, so there should be something to do for a while... just can't find anything fun to measure.

I recall a lake in Finland being a meteor crater too... just can't remember which, after all we got MANY lakes.

"You've got my attention Gilded. But it does show how these things work. Without the Sumatra quake nobody, including yourself, would have remembered it. We remember the hits." You couldn't be more right. I'd prefer choosing winning scratch tickets for a change more than guessing earthquake days correctly, though.

"Or take it to the supermarket" It sure would be interesting to see what the salespersons said if the counter measured like 4uSv near the fruit boxes. :> Wearing a lead suit and shouting "WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!" should spice things up a bit.

"This potential threat is not a meteorite. A meteorite reaches the surface of the Earth." Ahh, I thought about editing my post and thought to myself "Ophiolite is going to tell me about this". Then I thought "nah...". Either way, if it weighs 75 000 000 tons, you could call it Jimmy and I still wouldn't want it to hit me (especially on my damn birthday, as I already mentioned).

Now that I recall a certain mumbo-jumbo earthquake thread... http://www.scienceforums.net/forums/showpost.php?p=113987 If the place was correct, and the time was about 4 hours later or so, I'd be a *little* scared by now.

Every living creature that contains potassium, contains potassium-40. But we're talking very minimal levels here, of course bananas have lots of potassium thereby resulting into having quite a bit of K-40 too. But 3.00 pCi/g... That's not even a single disintegration / second. ) I trust you mean 3.00 pCi/g of K-40 disintegrations, but that doesn't add too much to the overall amount. Perhaps if you took your counter in a cargo box full of bananas...

"i was taught recorder but that was like 5 years ago!!!" At school? We had to go through that too.

I've thought about practicing piano playing, but then again I'm probably too lazy for that. :I Element collecting, chemistry related stuff, annihilating evil furniture and playing FPS- or RP-games way too many hours a day is enough for me.

Don't know about calcium, but barium or strontium nitrate would probably work, but I don't think they are worth it as they're quite expensive.

Which method you're going to use for the chlorine generation?

This all feels quite distant to me, as Finland never has tsunamis, major earthquakes (I think the record is 3.2 Richter) or volcanic activity, hurricanes or tornadoes (except for the little ones that can barely turn over a couple of trees). Floods, low temperatures and minor storms is quite right all we have to go through. Still, I of course wish people could protect themselves better against natural disasters. :<

Well, keeping your electronics working is surely a good way to motivate yourself to exercise.

"I use it myself on my greenhouse and have hit 52c!" Whaoh, I need some of this plastic too. Also, a very light-absorbing black paint would be a nice choice for heating in regions like Finland and why not Antarctica.

Yeah, similar to those, but it only showed white dots that were stars and how they appear when they're behind (not directly of course) the black hole.

I'd be destroying my physical health and public property if a certain pyrotechnic chemical provider would deliver between 13th-31st. Now though, I'm going to do the exactly same thing, but in a less dangerous way. ) "what may i ask is the "tankki" ?" They are cardboard tanks that move forward on the ground with a thrust charge, simultaneously shooting crackling ammo from the cannon. That package has 4 of them in it. Also, I saw a kinds of mega tanks for sale from one provider - they first move and shoot upwards, then their little little cardboard radar turns, then it shoots forwards with crackling ammo and then releases small firecracker mines from the back. ) Didn't buy them though, bloody expensive buggers (€3.5 a piece). Innovative firework making though, one might say. )

"lest i expose myself to highly toxic gases AGAIN" Yeah, by the time you turn 18 you're all swollen by H2S, Br2, Cl2 and such. ) "ammonium nitrate actually is quite poor for production of nitric acid from what i've heard anyway." You got that right. It's easier to use nitric acid to make ammonium nitrate than to use ammonium nitrate to make nitric acid.

Alrighty then! 27th, the first day in Finland when you can buy fireworks (legally, that is). 6:00 PM on the 31st of December to 6:00 AM on the 1st of January is the period it's legal to get rid of them here. What sort of activities are you planning for New Year's Eve? Nothing? Fireworks? Some refreshing ethyl alcohol mixtures? Quality time with drunken relatives telling you how to live your life? At least I know what I'm doing: Apocalypse: Now - Finland Edition http://www.freewebs.com/gildedchem/apocalypsenow.jpg (a bit over 300kb, but high resolution, copy the address to your address bar since the direct link won't probably work) And that's not all, going to buy a quite large assortment package later on the week. ) And my friend's going to buy a similar amount.

It's a common (also illegal) way to see how much of the unburned fuel comes out of the exhaust pipe by lighting the exhaust gas. If it's a minimal amount, no flames appear but when you get 5 meter flames from the pipe you know you got something wrong with your intake. ) Of course, as 5614 said, gaseous fuel is almost always better than liquid. But hey, a tripropellant of liquid fluorine, liquid lithium and liquid hydrogen will get you far. (The best rocket propellant ever tested if judging by specific impulse - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_fuel)

Btw, have you seen the (Flash-made?) animations of blackholes observed from different angles? They're quite awesome, especially the orbiting and approaching animations. Of course, they are just assuming, but still quite cool. Just blackness, with light bent around it. Now then, if only I could find one somewhere... Bah.

I don't think ammonium nitrate works too well in a BP mix as it isn't so sensitive. It's better for other applications.

"I just thought of another thing you try testing, how about your Thyroid Gland? :)" I'd have to get a pretty serious amount of iodine's unstable isotopes in there for it to measure above background. Edit: It seems I'm getting to borrow the counter starting from tomorrow (don't know for how long though). Then we'll see about your magical radiating roof. )