reviews of new TV show "Jericho" / what guys think about when it's 1150°F / 621°C outside [heavily redacted]

A Web Community comments vigorously about the new CBS network prime-time TV show "Jericho."

If you saw it, you probably didn't notice a single thing which has generated this spontaneous outpouring of critical comment.

Also lots of Useful Practical Tips in case The World Ends.

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On TV tonight was a show called Jericho. It is about the aftermath of a nuclear exchange, WW3 type scenario.

One of the characters was caught out in the fallout, so a medtech advised him to drink " a couple of teaspoons of iodine". Folks- don't drink iodine....period.

The US Gov't recommends flooding the thyroid with iodine to preclude the absorbance of radioactive iodine in fallout using the following method: stick your pointy finger into iodine only up to the first joint. This method automatically adjusts dose per body size/weight.

The amount of iodine actually needed is miniscule. Drinking iodine is a bad idea.

PS another bad idea practiced on the same show was a block party in the streets the day after the mushroom cloud appeared.

PPS, another gross technical error was the part where they removed the flight recorded from a downed airliner, and played the 1/4" acetate tape on a home reel-to-reel machine. Data recorders actually use steel wire as the recording medium, naturally, to keep it from melting in a crash. Duhh.

Where have all the technical advisors gone? We won't even comment on their use of a CDV-715 type "Geiger Counter".........

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Now you see why some of us don't watch the idiot box. You want
to pull an Elvis, pull out the .45, and BLAST the screen...yeah!!!
Either that, or roll all over the floor, laughing your guts to
pain. I'd rather play with my RAD toys.
Phil

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Dead on ...

Jim R

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Hi Theo,
I'm sorry but I have to correct you on the CVR (cockpit voice
recorder) issue. The vast majority of CVR's in current service use
1/4" tape with four tracks. Wire CVR's are rare, but some flight
data recorders (FDR) used wire, others scratched marks on thin metal
foil. The most common CVR is the Fairchild (now L-3) A-100. More
modern units are digital and use solid state memory for storage.

My most hated TV/movie error is tyre squeal from a car on a dirt
road!

R***** G****.

--- In IonizingRadiationFans@yahoogroups.com, "Theoelectronics" wrote:

} On TV tonight was a show called Jericho. It is about the aftermath
of a nuclear exchange, WW3 type scenario.

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{ Where have all the technical advisors gone? We won't even comment on their use of a CDV-715 type "Geiger Counter"......... }

My opinion of the whole idiot tech advisor thing is that "they" don't want the public to know how these things truly work except for forensics tv shows and military movies. My other opinion is that the producers are a bunch of tight asses who would rather guess at how something works (and have PR respond to the few people who complain about the mistakes) than to pay real advisors and have to go to the expense of obtaining the correct equipment/materials/sound effects. I think that would call it their "technical license". All it is though is an insult to those of us intelligent to know how "it" is supposed to work.

S**** J****

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Jim R wrote:

Basically, they assume we're all stupid - except the writers of "House."

JRW

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Don't be sorry or hesitate to correct me R***** ( or anyone) we are all here to learn, and THANKS.

My "Science in the Movies" book must need updating!

Theo

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Now you've hit a nerve and my perversion. At least once upon a time perversion. Way back in my Police Department roots, some 40 years ago now, we had a dump next to the shooting range. I enjoyed shooting old TV sets more than punching holes in paper! There was even and abandoned car there we practiced on....

At that time, the rangemaster at the Police Academy picked up brass from qualifying sessions and reloaded it. Sold them to me for $1.25 a box - ready to shoot-once-fired.
Over the years I gathered about 10,000 rounds that way, for eventual re-reloading by myself. Still have a few around, but no longer even own a .38 Now prefer the Walther PPK 380.

Ahh the god 'ol days.....

Theo

D** ****
*/* 22

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{My most hated TV/movie error is tyre squeal from a car on a dirt road!}

It isn't that hard to get tires to squeal out here in AZ in the dirt. But
our dirt is like concrete with a real thin layer of flour on top. Digging a
hole out here to plant flowers or whatever involves a pickax and the hose.

S**** J****

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Food for thought --- on Jericho they were using a 715 as a "geiger counter"- well, there's two side to that coin....

For one thing we all know the limitations of the 715, it's not a gieger counter it's a field survry meter.. but do you know the limitations of the 700?

In the case AFTER a nuclear attack, the 700 is going to have limited use - for several reasons. For one, the are a number of nucleotides produced in a blast that the 700 WILL NOT react to. Secondly, beyond it's upper limits, the unti will "lock up" and either peg at the upper end of the meter or show no activity at all - the only "key" to knowing it's happened is that instead of clicks, the earphone will produce a "rushing" sound - the GM tube runs off into its dead zone and won't reset.

FEMA's documentation warns of the use of the 700 for anything other than a training unit and advises the judicious use of the 700 and the 715 in conjunction with each other.

It's a fact that after a nuclear attack, the residuals are going to be MORE than 50 mr/H - it'll in in the R/H range and only an ion chamber unit will be useful.

So, in one way they were correct - in the other, they hadn't a clue as to how the unit should actually be used and the sound it makes, which is nothing.

J R

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HERE BEGINS an interesting thread. Geiger Counters and other devices to measure radioactivity are really designed only for normal natural levels of radiation, or slightly elevated levels associated with government-supervised industry and research.

There are radiation monitors for little surprises like Three Mile Island or Windscale, but they're as rare as the surprises themselves.

In other words, most radiation monitors are designed to measure a range between Darkness and a Sunny Summer Afternoon.

So which instrument would work best on a day when the temperature's 1150 degrees Fahrenheit / 621 Celsius and everyone's skin is blistering?

And who will volunteer to carry this instrument into the women's bathroom next to the Chernobyl control center, to see what the meter's registering?

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It's a shame they are passing up a good opportunity to educate the
public on such an important issue. BTW, would an ion chamber survey
meter (CDV 720 I believe?)be better since it can detect betas as
well as gammas? What would your choice of an instrument be in the
event of a nuclear attack?

- D*****

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} What would your choice of an instrument be in the
} event of a nuclear attack?

Of the CDV family, my instrument of choice would be a 700. If I could
have two instruments, I would have two 700's, so I had a backup.
Likewise for three. Oh, by the time you got to ten or so, maybe I'd
consider having a 715, never know when you might need to prop open a
door.

Once a 700 gets into saturation, I am not particularly concerned with
the exact reading. It's high enough to be a problem. I'd be more
interested in knowing what the value is down at the low end, and
using it to check for surface contamination, testing food and water,
etc.

C**** S********
B**** C** Systems

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I saw in a catalog somewhere CDV-720s for 59.99, but don't remember which one and don't know what the ebay price is. It might have been cheaperthandirt.com Yeah, it disgusts me to see how TV misinforms people so much, especially to make them think that all guns and dynamite are bad and make you a criminal.

On 10/5/06, dataoaf2 wrote:
It's a shame they are passing up a good opportunity to educate the
public on such an important issue. BTW

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N*** A****** wrote:

But what range would the fallout after the rain be? They do go a little too far in trying to make the auditor seem human, don't they?

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I have been driving Austin Healeys, Triumphs, Porsches and Jags on Arizona dirt roads for 46 years, quite a lot of it at the limit of adhesion. Never a squeal! I liked to say the the advantage to driving fast on a dirt road was that you never came into a blind, tight turn and found a layer of asphalt in the apex! Dirt on rural asphalt roads was common, as most of the tight turns were where the road intersected with a creek, normally dry, but flooded during rains, washing a layer of gravel and rocks over the road. Had about the same effect as ball bearings.
S*** is right about the soil for gardening. We call this barrier caliche, and if you have a layer of it in your backyard, you will be considering dynamite shortly!
J*** C. H*****
8*** E. **th St.
T*****, ** *****
5** ***-****
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Technically, the 720 needs a little work on the sensitivity side, but it's a good choice. I'd probably put a new 5886 in it unless you're sure it's up to snuff and run it for at least 8 hours straight every month. The 22.5 volt batttery is good for the shelf life of the battery, but the D's will last about 250 hours (2.5 times what the zinc/carbons will). My choice? I have a Victoreen 440 - that's what I'd use. (I also have a 440 RF/C that's not working yet - will be soon). Reason? Detects betas and gammas equally well - as well as xrays. I also have a 710 and two 720's - the 710's getting some mods, one of the 720's is going to get an extra amplification stage (another 5886).

But that's me.

I'd have at least a 700 and a 715 (or 717).

Jim R

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dataoaf2 wrote:

J**;

I also have a modest collection. I have a CVD700, 715, 717, and
720 (in need of repair-I need to fix the clamps on the plastic
bottom case). I also have a PRI model IIIB scintillation counter,
an early DG-2 (works well) and one of those small newfangled
Russian counters with the blinking LEDs. After getting some
valuable feedback on a post earlier this week about extending the
range of a CDV 700 I'm thinking this might be something to persue.
I don't have a way to calibrate (cheaply) my CDV 715, 717 and 720
but maybe if I check the circuitry I can match them against each
other in case I encounter significant radiation. A major advantage
to a real geiger counter as I see it is you can make relative
measurements. Taking a background count and noting if there is an
increase would at least tell you if there is a trend toward higher
radiation.

- D*****

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LATE ADDITION from BOB:
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This thread seems to be about choosing monitors suitable for post-Apocalyptic levels of ionizing radiation.

Lo-Tek rules.

When Something Happened on a morning when only one enemy bomber had been reported in the sky over Hiroshima, the Japanese government and military contacted one of the nation's leading university physicists and dispatched a light Army plane to fly him to what was left of the city.

He had suspicions (he wasn't associated with Japan's primitive infant fission weapons program), but no proof.

The view from the plane proved nothing about the nature of the destructive force involved.

When he stepped out of the plane, he took out the one instrument he'd brought with him, an electroscope/electromometer, the $5 science toy beloved of every 12-year-old boy. His may have been the more professional, pricey model -- they use gold foil -- but the $5 toy would have worked just as well.

The two metal foil strips flew apart at the maximum 180-degree angle, and "pegged" there. He knew instantly what the fundamental forces had been. The electroscope told him everything he needed to know to make his report.

Bob Merkin

Massachusetts USA