There was a television crew in the lab yesterday. It annoying. Research laboratories are filled with equipment, toxic chemicals and sleep-deprived students. The last thing we need is a coiffed blonde news lady and a bunch of guys lugging camera equipment.
The cameras are set up in the lab for an interview. (I find this very ironic since the principle investigating PhDs work in offices down the hall and rarely enter the lab.)
“You can’t set up your equipment there.” I told a member of the camera crew.
“Dr. K said we could.”
“I don’t care what Dr. K said. This is a restricted area. You need to find another place.”
The newswoman shows up and puts her two cents in. “This is the area we want to use. It looks like a laboratory.”
“This ‘look’ is from radiation equipment.” I turn on a nearby Geiger counter. Usually, it gives off a steady blip…blip…blip from background radiation. Nothing dangerous, but the sound usually alerts people to the potential danger around them. Instead, the counter went nuts. BLEEEEEP BLEEEEP
Oh shit.
The new crew freak out. They move out of the area. Dr. K shows up and wants to know what’s going on.
A little radiation contamination can really fuck up your day. It took a while to convince the crew that they were ok and it was safe to touch their equipment and move it somewhere else.
Now I need to find the moron who forgot to clean up after using the hot zone. . .
I think you should buy that moron a drink, since by forgetting to clean up the area, they made certain that the newscrew wouldn’t be hanging around where you didn’t want them.
Just an FYI - the old Civil Defense geiger counters have a calibration source on the side… For under a hundred bucks plus a speaker, you can do this very thing! Don’t fall for the CDV-715, you want the CDV-700 (cite). It doesn’t go “BLEEEP” rather it’s the old fashioned “clickclickclickkkkkkkkkkksksksksksksksksks”
Or so I’ve heard…
Reporters seem to sometimes think that the aura of “The Media” will provide some magical protection.
Hubby used to work in a super maximum-security prison. (The kind in which inmates are under constant lockdown and only come out of their cells in cuffs and legchains.) A reporter came in to interview a very dangerous inmate. Now, when I say “very dangerous”, I mean this guy had been known to attack and seriously maim people with no warning. He was just the kind of dude that if a chance to hurt someone presented itself, he would take it in a heartbeat. (And if I described the crime which got him put in SuperMax in the first place, it would curl your hair.)
The reporter was led to the visiting room. As soon as the inmate was led in, the reporter protested: he wanted the inmate uncuffed.
Hubby, as head of security, tried to explain that it wasn’t possible. Not only was it a violation of policy, the guy was dangerous.
“Oh no, he wouldn’t hurt* me,*” the reporter scoffed, who had never even met the guy.
“Try telling that to his lawyer,” Hubby replied. “He’s still undergoing physical therapy.”
I bet I’m not the only one who immediately pictured Geraldo Rivera. And then imagined him successfully smarming the guard into uncuffing the prisoner. And then being mercilessly savaged until near death.
I believe there was a Fark tag, when two Fox reporters were taken in Gaza, along the lines of “Two Fox reporters kidnapped in Gaza. Geraldo unfortunately not one of them.”
