# Tell us an interesting random fact you stumbled across (Part 1) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 13, 2020, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674 "2020-04-13T03:19:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 419
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2023, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8371 "2023-12-15T04:20:16Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > This one took my breath away when I read it a few days ago: > > 21% of adults in the USA are illiterate. > 54% of adults in the USA have a literacy below 6th grade level. > Of those with low or no literacy, only 34% were born outside the US. > > More than one in five can’t read. More than 1 in 2 read below sixth grade level. So many things make more sense once you know that. And yet our politicians are attacking education budgets. Holy Og on high. A new one today: Among people in prison in the USA, 75% are illiterate. I was researching a claim (debunked) that civil planners use third grade literacy rates to estimate the number of prison beds they will need in ten years’ time. [From here:](https://readingpartners.org/blog/do-prisons-use-third-grade-reading-scores-to-predict-the-number-of-prison-beds-theyll-need/) > ". . . there is an undeniable connection between literacy skills and incarceration rates. > > You see, a student not reading at his or her grade level by the end of the third grade is [four times less likely to graduate](https://www.aecf.org/~/media/Pubs/Topics/Education/Other/DoubleJeopardyHowThirdGradeReadingSkillsandPovery/DoubleJeopardyReport040511FINAL.pdf) high school on time–six times less likely for students from low-income families. Take that and add to it a [2009 study](https://www.prisonpolicy.org/scans/The_Consequences_of_Dropping_Out_of_High_School.pdf) by researchers at Northeastern University that found that **high school dropouts were 63 times (!) more likely to be incarcerated than college grads**. . ." So, while there is no evidence that third grade reading scores are used to predict prison populations, one can see how they might be. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2023, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8372 "2023-12-15T05:07:56Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Right, alpha particles will be stopped very quickly by almost anything. You just want to make sure that that almost anything isn’t living parts of you. Gamma rays, by contrast, will go through almost anything, so it’s really tough to shield against them, but they’ll probably just go right through you, too, without interacting, and so they’re much less likely to do harm. And this is why the isotope Plutonium-238 (not the bomb stuff which is -239) is so useful as a power source for space probes. In addition to having a fairly short half-life of 87 years (so it emits a lot of energy per gram while still lasting long enough for decades-long missions to the outer planets), it gives off almost all of its energy in the form of alpha particles, which are easily blocked and converted into heat. Ingots of Pu-238 stay red-hot from their own radioactivity: [![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/71/Plutonium_pellet.jpg/330px-Plutonium_pellet.jpg) ](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/71/Plutonium_pellet.jpg/330px-Plutonium_pellet.jpg) > [@RealityChuck](#): > > The issue with radium is this: Radium decays into alpha particles. It also is chemically similar to calcium (same column on the periodic table), so the body treats it like calcium and uses it to build bones. Strontium-90 and Cesium-137, radioactive fission fragments resulting from nuclear explosions or reactor leaks, also tend to be taken up into the body and stored, which makes their radioactivity much more dangerous then as an ambient radiation source. The Chernobyl area [mostly!](https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/unprotected-russian-soldiers-disturbed-radioactive-dust-chernobyls-red-forest-2022-03-28/) isn’t acutely dangerous anymore but nothing that grows or lives there is safe to eat because of its radioisotope content. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2023, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8373 "2023-12-15T05:29:37Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > Husbands and wives are traditionally considered to be joined as one. So there is no differentiation. > [@needscoffee](#): > > Technically, a brother- or sister-in-law is separated by one degree of marriage. People colloquially use the term more broadly, though. See [brother-in-law - Wiktionary, the free dictionary](https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/brother-in-law) > > > [@](#): > > > > 1. A male relative of one’s generation, separated by one degree of marriage: > > The brother of one’s spouse. > > The husband of one’s sibling. > > 2. (uncommon) Co-brother-in-law: A male relative of one’s generation, separated by two degrees of marriage: > > The husband of the sibling of one’s spouse. quotations ▼ > > The brother of the spouse of one’s sibling. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2023, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8374 "2023-12-15T13:11:53Z")
The “Radium Girls” case is disturbing on many levels. In the first place, it wasn’t just women “pointing” the brushes by using their lips (they didn’t really suck on them) – there was no extreme care takedn with the radium paint, so it’s likely the entire building was contaminated with radium, not just where they painted the dials. The US Radium company plants are still contaminated Superfund sites > **[A Reader Discovers a City's Radioactive Secret](https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/03/radium-superfund-legacy/622528/)** > > Decades after the factory that poisoned the “Radium Girls” in the 1920s shut down, Ottawa, Illinois, is still home to a Superfund site. > **[nrsr\_19\_Mar\_Radium\_girls.pdf](https://www.nj.gov/dep/hpo/1identify/nrsr_19_Mar_Radium_girls.pdf)** > > 1901.04 KB Okay, so once they knew radium paint was so dangerous, and there were the court cases, they stopped using it, right? Wrong. Radium paint continued to be used in airplane cockpit dials and the like into the 1970s. [https://www.nrc.gov/materials/types/radium.html](https://www.nrc.gov/materials/types/radium.html) You’d like to think that they at least took extrsa precaustions, but I suspect that, aside from stopping “lip pointing”, they didn’t do much. I don’t have a date for this, but this is nonetheless scary: > [@](#): > > Luminous Processes employees interviewed by a journalist in 1978 stated they had been left ignorant of radium’s dangers. They were told that eliminating lip-pointing had ended earlier problems. They worked in unvented rooms, they wore smocks that they laundered at home. [Geiger counters](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geiger_counter) could pick up readings from pants returned from a dry cleaner and from clothes stored away in a cedar chest."[[4]] > **[Radium dial](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radium_dial)** > > Radium dials are watch, clock and other instrument dials painted with luminous paint containing radium-226 to produce radioluminescence. Radium dials were produced throughout most of the 20th century before being replaced by safer tritium-based luminous material in the 1970s and finally by non-toxic, non-radioactive strontium aluminate–based photoluminescent material from the middle 1990s. > Radium was discovered by Marie and Pierre Curie in 1898 and was soon combined with paint to make luminescen... [Radium](https://www.utoledo.edu/nsm/ic/elements/radium.html#:~:text=Still%2C%20radium%20paint%20was%20used,Gregory). ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2023, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8375 "2023-12-15T13:34:47Z")
David Hahn who became known as the [Radioactive Boy Scout](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hahn) had no trouble accumulating radium for his DIY breeder reactor. He started by buying old clocks and watches and scraping the paint off the dials, and eventually found a bottle of radium paint inside an old clock. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2023, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8376 "2023-12-15T13:36:19Z")
If we’re going to be getting into siblings-in-law… > **[Sibling-in-Law](https://xkcd.com/2040/)** > > FYI, it turns out "...because I haven't figured out whether he would be my brother-in-law or not" does NOT qualify as a "reason why these two should not be wed." ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2023, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8377 "2023-12-15T13:48:37Z")
The state with the highest illiteracy rate is California. My guess is that’s because the population is over 40% hispanic, and many of these are 1st gen immigrants or are on seasonal work visas. Most of the Latin American immigrants to California were essentially peasants in their countries of origin and so they remain here, working in industries which do not require interacting with an English speaking public, such as janitorial, restaurant, and agricultural businesses. The only people they speak with other than among themselves are their (bilingual) managers. A lot of these folks cannot read or write much in their own language much less English. That at least what I heard from Catholic priests there. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2023, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8378 "2023-12-15T13:57:19Z")
I ran into this at the ESPN web site. How weird is this? > LAS VEGAS – Four days after bottoming out with a 3-0 loss to the [Minnesota Vikings](https://www.espn.com/nfl/team/_/name/min/minnesota-vikings) in the lowest-scoring indoor game in NFL history, the [Las Vegas Raiders](https://www.espn.com/nfl/team/_/name/lv/las-vegas-raiders) balled out against the [Los Angeles Chargers](https://www.espn.com/nfl/team/_/name/lac/los-angeles-chargers), beating their AFC West rival [63-21](https://www.espn.com/nfl/game/_/gameId/401547593) on Thursday night while setting a franchise record for points scored in a game. > > The 63 points were the third most by a team in the Super Bowl era and the second most in NFL history by a team that was shut out in its previous game, one behind the 64 points the 1934 [Philadelphia Eagles](https://www.espn.com/nfl/team/_/name/phi/philadelphia-eagles) scored against the Cincinnati Reds. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2023, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8379 "2023-12-15T14:02:20Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > David Hahn who became known as the [Radioactive Boy Scout](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hahn) had no trouble accumulating radium for his DIY breeder reactor. He started by buying old clocks and watches and scraping the paint off the dials, and eventually found a bottle of radium paint inside an old clock. Yeah. I read the book about him and was appalled when I read about the radijum paint he found. Despite what he knew about the dangers of radioactivity, he doesn’t seem to have taken any precautions against exposure. When he died at age 39 it was chalked up to drug and alcohol use. But… > [@](#): > > Hahn refused medical evaluation for [radiation exposure](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ionizing_radiation). EPA scientists believed that Hahn’s life expectancy may have been shortened due to his exposure to radioactivity, particularly since he spent long periods in the small, enclosed shed with large amounts of radioactive material and only minimal safety precautions, but he refused their recommendation that he be examined at the [Enrico Fermi Nuclear Generating Station](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enrico_Fermi_Nuclear_Generating_Station).[[3]] Pictures of him before his death show him with ugly skin blotches that make me think of radiation effects. > **[David Hahn](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hahn)** > > David Charles Hahn (October 30, 1976 – September 27, 2016), sometimes called the "Radioactive Boy Scout" or the "Nuclear Boy Scout", was an American nuclear radiation enthusiast who built a homemade neutron source at the age of seventeen. > A scout in the Boy Scouts of America, Hahn conducted his experiments in secret in a backyard shed at his mother's house in Commerce Township, Michigan. Hahn's goal was to build and demonstrate a homemade breeder reactor. While he never managed to build a reac... ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2023, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8380 "2023-12-15T14:10:29Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Despite what he knew about the dangers of radioactivity, he doesn’t seem to have taken any precautions against exposure. When he died at age 39 it was chalked up to drug and alcohol use. But… > > Pictures of him before his death show him with ugly skin blotches that make me think of radiation effects. Clearly a mental health issue was involved. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2023, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8381 "2023-12-15T14:13:25Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Clearly a mental health issue was involved I don’t know about _that_. He was a child, and children are not known for having the best decision making skills. And once he had already been exposed, when authorities came in to clean things up and he realized how dangerous the situation he put himself in was, getting tested almost seems pointless. There’s nothing they can do for you either way; you’re almost better off not knowing. I have no idea what I would choose in that situation - it sounds terrifying, and I cannot imagine having to face it at 17. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2023, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8382 "2023-12-15T14:40:36Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > I don’t know about _that_. He was a child, and children are not known for having the best decision making skills. And once he had already been exposed, when authorities came in to clean things up and he realized how dangerous the situation he put himself in was, getting tested almost seems pointless. There’s nothing they can do for you either way; you’re almost better off not knowing. I agree for his initial experiment. He was a particularly bright and driven teenager, but the problem was that he pursued experiments with radioactive substances for the rest of his life and surely had more exposure than his initial attempts. How the events of his early life played into his later mental state is unclear. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2023, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8383 "2023-12-15T14:52:59Z")
Didn’t he go into the Navy, and studied nuclear matters further, there? I would think that when you’re working as, or even towards, a nuclear tech in the Navy, rad-exposure tests would be mandatory. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2023, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8384 "2023-12-15T15:04:31Z")
He did. But after several years in service he found himself in trouble again for stealing smoke detectors to remove the bit of Americium in them, something he did to start his adventures in radioactivity. He did not seem to follow up with recommended treatment for his mental health, and showed signs of exposure. He demonstrated a great deal of ingenuity as a teenager. Hard to measure this one, it was a very unique set of circumstances. His notoriety as a teenager may have stood in the way of him pursuing further education and a substantial career, or perhaps there underlying mental health issues all along and any course he took in life was likely to be problematic. His efforts were remarkable, slowly acquiring the parts and ingredients needed for his little reactor, using Americium from smoke detectors that he managed to collect en masse from a company that was supposed to recycle old detectors, but thousands of propane lantern mantles to extract Thorium, then collecting Radium from old clocks and watches, even convincing someone to provide him with some material needed to slow the neutrons (Barium?) in his reactor (working from memory on these details). He was sufficiently skilled at chemistry to extract and purify the materials. But perhaps he never would have found a balance of motivations in his life to be a more productive person anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2023, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8385 "2023-12-15T15:16:24Z")
Something very seasonal: Reindeer noir crime novels/plays/movies are a thing. > **[Reindeer noir, the Finnish crime sub-genre influenced by Santa’s home town](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/15/reindeer-noir-the-finnish-sub-genre-influenced-by-santas-home-town-lapland)** > > Books, films and plays set in Lapland often feature ‘dark humour’ where the landscape is a looming presence ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2023, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8386 "2023-12-15T16:56:05Z")
I recently learned of one more unpleasant way to die: > **[Bumble Bee to Pay $6 Million Over Employee Cooked in Tuna Oven](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/bumble-bee-pay-6-million-over-employee-cooked-tuna-oven-n408721)** > > Prosecutors said the settlement is the largest ever in California for workplace safety violations involving a single victim. > Jose Melena, 62, was loading a 35-foot-long oven at the company’s Santa Fe Springs plant before dawn Oct. 11, 2012, when a co-worker, who mistakenly believed Melena was in the bathroom, filled the pressure cooker with 12,000 pounds of canned tuna and it was turned on, according to a report by the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health. > > His body was found two hours later after the pressure cooker, which reached 270 degrees, was turned off and opened. ---
**Author:** ![Dogginit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dogginit/32/16920_2.png) [@Dogginit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogginit)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2023, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8387 "2023-12-15T17:54:37Z")
I _thought_ that last can tasted a little funny 🤢 ---
**Author:** ![tofor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tofor/32/13727_2.png) [@tofor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tofor)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2023, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8388 "2023-12-15T19:07:52Z")
Man, that is some serious LOTO violation there. Now, looking at the article: > In addition, Saul Florez, Bumble Bee’s former safety manager, pleaded guilty to a felony count of willfully violating lockout rules and indirectly causing Melena’s death. So…yeah. ---
**Author:** ![tofor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tofor/32/13727_2.png) [@tofor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tofor)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2023, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8389 "2023-12-15T19:08:30Z")
Note that the tuna is already in the can when it is cooked in this oven. So technically they could probably still have sold that tuna? ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2023, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8390 "2023-12-15T19:42:02Z")
They still shipped the tuna (we used the Bumblebee incident in safety training). It was my job to PPE-up and clean all the blood from the machinery after our workplace accidents, although we made durable goods not food. Workers drown in grain silos on a fairly regular basis too, and the grain is still processed into feed. Back in the 90’s during the eta of post office shootings, mail would be splattered with blood but of course they had to still deliver it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=418) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=420)