Our New National Motto Should Be "Land Of The Wussies"
American used to be pioneer country. Now, the pioneer spirit has given way to the worrywart, fraidy-cat spirit.
In Florida, a high school went into lockdown and the haz mat team was called -- after a student brought a thermometer to school, because the thermometer contained...a rare radioactive element?
No, because the thermometer contained mercury.
Shall we change our national symbol from the bald eagle to a little girl hiding under the bed?
How did these people sink to this level of stupidity and still survive day-to-day life?
Have we reached Idiocracy yet?
Jim P. at December 14, 2012 5:45 AM
Thanks - you reminded me that I need to see that.
Amy Alkon at December 14, 2012 6:02 AM
I dunno, Amy, the way things are going, you might mistake it for a documentary!
Flynne at December 14, 2012 6:04 AM
They stuck one of those up my ass once, when I was a little boy. It happened to a lot of people.
It was how they could tell if we were sick.
Crid [Cridcomment at Gmail] at December 14, 2012 6:08 AM
Geez when I was a kid my mom would put mercurochrome on my skinned knees...if that happened today, I'd probably be quarantined and my mom would be investigated for child endangerment. Although, that shit really hurt...I preferred the gentian violet!
sara at December 14, 2012 6:18 AM
Did you ever get that thing out?
More to the point, this illustrates the awesome stupidity of American society in general. They accept groping at the airport in the name of "safety", or freak out about this thermometer while this stuff (pdf of the Emerency Response Guidebook) is shipped past their own neighborhood constantly. Thousands of tons of it.
Radwaste at December 14, 2012 6:20 AM
The Channel 10 news story took exactly 111 words to tell the reader next to nothing. Does the school nurse have a thermometer? Is it the mercury kind or the alcohol kind? Do they have any of those lightbulbs in the school that contain mercury? Did anyone spend any time at all on this story, or was this just supposed to be filler?
The other stories offered on the site look like must-reads, though:
- Bikini Photos: 2012 Hooters International Swimsuit Pageant
- Gah: Nose ring found in McDonalds burrito
- 7-11 Nudie: Nude robber boosts 7-11, video
- Lil Girl Gang: Little girls busted in burglary ring
- Yowtch! Teen accidentally shoots off his penis, testicle
Journalism at its best!
Old RPM Daddy (OldRPMDaddy at GMail dot com) at December 14, 2012 6:22 AM
First you select from the lowest quartile of college students, then you train them in following rules and educational theory, then you hire a lot of administrators to tell them what to do. Add in interfering helicopter parents and threats of lawsuits. You get hysterical overreaction from the ignorant. You also scare the kids.
MarkD at December 14, 2012 6:29 AM
It's not just in America, and it's not limited to educational administrators (although they are worse than most)
There's a project in Britain to build a replica of the EDSAC, the world's first stored-program computer which was capable of actually doing useful work. The replica machine will duplicate the original as closely as possible...with one exception.
EDSAC's memory was based on mercury delay lines
http://chicagoboyz.net/archives/27933.html
...tanks of mercury during which sound pulses move.
Mercury is now viewed as too hazardous to be used in sealed tubes assembled in a controlled environment and intended for museum display.
david foster at December 14, 2012 3:37 PM
Little girls hiding under beds still have more guts than these twinkies do. I imagine them more as the low dog in the pack, scared of everything, that rolls on it's back and pees constantly.
Kat at December 14, 2012 8:55 PM
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