[HN Gopher] Atomic "Bomb" Ring from KiX (1947)
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       Atomic "Bomb" Ring from KiX (1947)
        
       Author : gscott
       Score  : 43 points
       Date   : 2025-07-02 19:24 UTC (3 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (toytales.ca)
 (TXT) w3m dump (toytales.ca)
        
       | allenrb wrote:
       | They sure don't make 'em like they used to.
        
         | mlhpdx wrote:
         | Or, to paraphrase, people just don't die like they used to.
        
           | allenrb wrote:
           | This is no set of lawn darts!
        
       | victor22 wrote:
       | Who even knows if they actually put anything in there lol
        
       | SoftTalker wrote:
       | At first I thought this was just a toy, until I got to the
       | Polonium-210. Holy cow. Wikipedia calls it "highly radioactive"
       | and "extremely dangerous to humans" and says that "has the
       | ability to become airborne with ease." Wonder how many kids
       | managed to ingest it. This is the stuff that was used to poison
       | Alexander Litvinenko.
       | 
       | But it was just "minute traces."
        
         | madaxe_again wrote:
         | Likely zero, as it was encapsulated with resin. They would have
         | had to grind the ring to dust and then eat the whole damned
         | thing.
         | 
         | It was also commonly in record and camera cleaning brushes, as
         | it could be used to induce a static charge, which would attract
         | dust. Likewise, encapsulated, so the risk with normal use was
         | minimal, but again, if you ground the brush to dust and ate it,
         | all bets are off.
        
           | roughly wrote:
           | > Likely zero <...> They would have had to grind the ring to
           | dust and then eat the whole damned thing.
           | 
           | Never had kids, huh?
        
       | ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
       | Radium watches, on the other hand, were _quite_ dangerous.
       | 
       | As noted in another comment, I wouldn't consider Polonium to be
       | "harmless."
       | 
       | But I grew up in an environment that would cause most parents,
       | today, to defecate masonry. I grew up in Africa, and we had some
       | _really fun_ critters going through our backyard, like Black
       | Mambas, Gaboon Vipers, and even the damn bugs were nasty. Bug
       | bites could hurt for a month.
       | 
       | I somehow survived.
        
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       (page generated 2025-07-05 23:00 UTC)