Fun with Black Lights....

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

on a whim, i picked up a cheap $10 battery powered flourescent black light from Spencer Gifts, primarily to test something i read on the internet somewhere (so it must be true, right? :wink: )

apparently, the security thread in US paper currency will flouresce under ultraviolet light…

it does, the $20 and $10 bill security thread glows yellow,the thread in the $5 glows blue (i don’t have a $50 or $100 available, i’ll test the ones in the cash drawer at work on Monday)

i also discovered that many credit cards also have security features that glow under black light, my Citibank MasterCard has the letters M and C show up in ghostly blue, and even cooler, my Visa debit card has a faint blue glowing Visa Dove in the body of the card…

so i walked around the house, seeing what else glows, as the flourescent light hit my old Dual USB iBook 500, the keyboard glowed a bright blue, much brighter than the surrounding plastic, it was glowing bright enough to use as a “backlit” keyboard, now all i need to do is rig up a simple ultraviolet LED lighting system for the 'Book, and it’ll be the only iBook with an illuminated keyboard…

as i approached the aquariums, i shone the light in there, and my pet common Florida Crawfish (Procambrias Alleni) glowed a faint green (and quickly hid from the UV light), i guess it kinda’ makes sense, as scorpions flouresce and they have a similar chitinous exoskeleton…

one of the unknown stem plants in my 20 Long also flouresces, a bright green, just the stem only though…

i wonder what else will glow under black light…

2

If you’re wearing dark clothes, lint will show up under a black light.

3

If you’re bored, you can draw patterns on your face with coffee. When they dry, they’re invisible under regular light but yellow under UV.

4

Anything white.
Any glow in the dark objects.
Cheap dentures to the horror of Disco Steu.
Some minerals.
Some organic compounds.
Fish aquariums have special bulbs you can buy that include light in the UV range. The fish look much better under that lighting.

5

Sebum. It fluoresces yellow/orange. Don’t ask me how I know this.

6

my checks also have a series of flourescent fibers woven into the paper, my teeth have a faint yellowish-green glow (probably from the coffee stains)

7

Ringworm glows under a blacklight.

8

Many vinyl records will turn bright colors, red, green, etc., although some do not, I
guess it depends on the polymer materials?

9

Any remains from pet accidents on the carpet will glow.

Pet shops actually sell small blacklights under the brand “Stink Finder.”

10

I need to pick up one of those. I’ve been told that my contact lenses glow green under black light, but I’ve never managed to be anywhere that has both black light and a mirror in which I can see my glowing eyes. I have startled a few people though. :smiley:

11

But how do they look under a black light?

:smiley:

Another two-syllable glandular secretion starting with the letters ‘se’ also glows under blacklight.

12

Take the black light into the laundry room :smiley:

13

But don’t ever take it to a hotel room. There are some things you just don’t need to see with your own two eyes.

14

Lots of toilets in pubs, bars and train/bus stations have installed them, supposedly to prevent junkies from locating veins and to make it harder for them to shoot up in said toilets.

Since I have seen a longtime heroin abuser locate a vein in her neck without any trouble (I couldn’t find a vein to take blood from, so she did it for me!) I am :dubious: about this concept. You don’t see veins, you feel them.

You can test this out if you want…see if you can locate any of the veins in your arm!

15

But what about smegma?

16

Maybe I was a bit hasty when I staked a girl through the heart in a nightclub and decapitated her corpse. Still, better safe than sorry!

It’s when you don’t show up in the mirror that you really have to worry…

17

These are the greatest. I went to a few in college. Loads of fun, although you do need to work up a second costume, built around white washables. (There’s something fluorescent – I believe it’s the bluing – in detergents.)

Not recommended if you have had many doggie or kitty accidents.

18

and unless you have a very strong stomach, DO NOT look at a toilet under UV illumination <shudder> must…bleach…brain!

19

Dunno if its true, but a stoner friend said he flicked tide all over his walls to get a planetarium like effect with the blacklight on.

20

I have an anniversary ring that has five identical diamonds (not big ones!!). But under a black light each one is a different color, so the are obviously not identical. They are shades of pink to purple. It’s pretty. And weird.