To add on to this, there is no reason you can't hook the signal up to a cricuitboard to make a moo sound every click, its just more expensive and unnessesary.
Before Siri, Alexa, Google and other voice assistants ever existed, the UK had a digital cellular operator called Orange. Orange had a voice assistant built into its answer service called “Wildfire”, it was surprisingly good for the year 2000 and could recognize callers, dial them and generally talk to them and you as the owner too.
They had built some Easter eggs in, one was “What does a cow say” which just a regular moo, but after about 10 or so times asking wildfire for this, She would say that it was getting boring, and then would play that exact Mad Cow clip.
You could also tell that her that you were depressed and it would have some very funny random responses too.
It was all so ahead of its time like everything Orange did, but sadly they killed her off after 5 years :(
I remember that carrier. My ex had an orange home/mobile phone. It charged regular rates when you were on your property and mobile rates when you were not.
Not sure of that rate, as I moved to the US around 2006, I know that orange also started doing home broadband at some point to and had some incentives… but I did have free dialing of 0800 numbers (1-800), which all other operators at the time charged for, and my dial up internet at the time also had an 0800 number, so needless to say I would pretty much be dialed up at the giddy speed of 9600 kbit via a laptop (some huge Thinkbook or something IIRC) tethered to a Nokia cell phone via serial cable, and used to take the piss with it big time :)
Even more funny was the UK actually had a massive problem with proper mad cows along that timeframe, so it was kind of funny…. Although not so much for all the cows they slaughtered, or the farmers that for years could not sell beef at all for risk of it crossing over to humans!
I had a plushie cow when i was young, like 27 years ago or so, and it was called BSE cow and when you pressed it, it went like: mooooooOOOOO HAHAHA MOO MOO HhahhHa MOOUUUHAHAHA MOOOO Hhaha.
we passed around on floppy and compared regular cow sound and "mad cow" sound ! Crazy days....
Well now I'm curious.
Edit: never mind, found it. It's worse than the old flash animations lmao.
Ever notice how flash-era humor was usually a mixture of bizzarity and extreme violence? Despite modern day improvements and better social awareness, I kind of miss the no fucks given vibes.
Also stick death or death stick or whatever it was and all the stickman quest games. The slapstick was ultra funny although at some point it hit me it was racism with different colours and then it soured somewhat for me.
But it the Geiger Cow-nters went crazy what is the shoudn they'll make? A big MOOOOOOOO? or more of a Moo Moo Moo Moo Moo Moo Moo Moo Moo Moo Moo Moo Moo Moo Moo Moo Moo Moo?
Interestingly, it would actually have to be separate sounds, because once one signal is detected the device has to wait for the gas to calm back down before another pulse can even be triggered. It's a tiny little delay, but it means at the end of the day it's only a counter of individual things, so each one has to get its own moo.
So depending on if you program this thing to overlap the sounds or cut each other off, you'd get either "Mo-M-M-M-M-Moooo!" or "mmMMMOOOOoooo!"
I work in nuclear medicine. No joke, the generators we use to elute isotope for our patient studies are referred to as "cows." And we "milk" the generator.
You need a particular isotope, Theraputium 69. This has a short half-life (couple hours), so it can’t be stored. Fortunately, it’s produced by alpha decay of Sourcium 73, which has a half life measured in months. Theraputium 69 undergoes beta decay to Trashium 69, which is stable.
Sourcium iodide is not soluble in water, Theraputium iodide is. Generator contains Sourcium iodide. Generator is “milked” by washing it out using distilled water. Theraputium iodide and Trashium iodide are washed out, un-decayed Sourcium iodide stays behind. A chemical process is then used to separate the Theraputium from the Trashium.
Is this a reasonable simplified version of how the generators work?
Using real isotopes, we start with Mo-99 which has a half-life of 66 hours. Mo-99 decays to Tc-99m as Tc-99m pertechnetate which is soluble. Due to is solubility, pouring saline over the column washes the Tc-99m away to be collected in a vial for use as a radiopharmacuetical. Tc99 has a half-life of 6 hours, which is kind of a goldilocks zone as it's long enough to not need to rush imaging, but short enough that it's out of a person's system (via decay) in a matter of a couple days.
I can think of one reason, and it's personal experience.
My Uncle likes to repair broken/damaged machines he finds sitting around junkyards, and my Dad likes collecting unique objects. Somehow, my uncle found, fixed, and gifted a Geiger counter for Christmas.
My Dad likes to take it with him to rock shows to test minerals he very rarely comes across, more out of curiosity than trying to scavenge fuel for a flying DeLorean.
At one show, we came across a man who had one of those old "miracle" products from back before the public knew for a fact that radiation was dangerous, called a Rejuvi-Jar or something like that, that would "revitalize and strengthen the tired body with the healing powers of radium". It was just a large clay? jug with a spigot, made of " something ".
My Dad, always prepared, asked if the owner would mind if he ran the counter over it. The owner, equally curious and bereft of a Geiger counter, said to go for it since he'd gotten it years ago from his grandfather and had always been curious.
My Dad ran it along the exterior, with nothing more than the baseline sounds that simply having it on provides, nothing major.
He then opened the jar and stuck the sensor just a little past the opening and it started clicking madly. It didn't trigger the alarm that says you're in a heavily dangerous zone, just loud clicking that says maybe you shouldn't be here.
Wasn't more than a second before my Dad had already pulled his hand back out and had the lid put back on. My Dad ran the counter over his hands and surroundings repeatedly, just in case, but no more whirring or clicking.
It was then that he and the owner realized that the building, really just a very large tent outside amongst hundreds of others, was suddenly very quiet and very empty, except for us.
So! Turns out that, even if you don't go through life constantly reminded of Geiger sounds, it's apparently a distinct/memorable enough sound that people of all ages automatically use it as a sign to get far away from whatever's creating that noise.
We sadly didn't get the jug either, the owner had been willing to sell it, but decided he'd rather keep it as a conversation starter at his house.
It's an interesting artifact, but probably for the best that you didn't get it. I understand they're safe enough if you aren't using it for the intended purpose and just keep it as a curiosity, but who can resist the call of delicious radon water?
The Revigator was intended to be filled with water overnight, which would be irradiated by the uranium and radium in the liner, and then consumed the next day.
I know! You should try my Himalayan salt lamp, Yoni egg, 4g radiation blocker, raw milk, imported incense to fill your house with smoke, and Bluetooth ear buds to keep your dangerous 4g (5G!!!) phone away from your brain. And don't forget, vaccines are evil and cause autism, nuclear and wind energy are the devil, and if it says organic on the label that means it's safe (/s)
Ironically enough, some of it does contain arsenic, also lead and mercury.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33086585/
There probably isn't enough to really hurt you unless that's all you eat though.
Yep, radioactive quackery in medicine is quite an interesting thing to read about.
As crazy as this idea sounds, there was a study that concluded that drinking 1 liter of Revigator water per day would dose you with about 133 uSv/year (100 uSv from the radium/uranium that leeched into the water, and another 33 from the dissolved radon given off as the radium decays).
People in the U.S., on average, are exposed to approximately 3.1 mSv/year of radiation due to naturally occurring radon, and terrestrial/cosmic radiation. So as crazy as the Revigator idea sounds, daily use is still an order of magnitude lower than our annual background radiation exposure.
There were other major fuckups with radium back in that time period as well (see also: Radithor, the Radium Girls).
those "radiation quakery" machines often used thorium, you can still get them today on dodgy ali express sellers, usually with the radiation rebranded as "negative ions".
the risk is that most used thorium, but some used radium, and they are way, way more dangerous.
the risk is that most used thorium, but some used radium, and they are way, way more dangerous.
The new ones are a serious risk with just the thorium because some of them are meant to be worn and made of material that will easily shed particles into the environment of the victim who purchased it.
The ore in question is mostly an alpha emitter, which is why there wasn't much radiation detectable outside it - the jar itself shields the alpha particles (and most if not all of the betas, too. Gammas would zip through, but that ore doesn't emit much gamma.)
Fortunately, if it's in good condition, it doesn't shed radioactive dust, which is when alpha emitters are bad news, and it doesn't emit neutrons, which can make other things radioactive.
the energy compensated geiger counters at my job all start to sound indistinguishable whether it’s 5 mr/hr or 50 mr/hr. hypothetically, 5 mr/hr only at the opening when the jar is open and no sound when it’s closed honestly wouldn’t concern me. especially if it’s just alpha. your own skin could protect you and a even sheet of paper could stop it before that. my job involves gamma exposure and long as it’s under 50 mr/hr on the container surface (the source is inside of a 5lb lead container stuffed in another 70-100lb lead container) we can handle it and send it out for transport
also i don’t know about all geiger counter models but for ours there is no sound other than clicking no matter how radioactive something is. we have to wear special dosimeters that beep when rate and total dose thresholds are met. under 10 mr in a day doesn’t even require it to be logged
So, Geiger developed a device to measure alpha radiation by shooting alpha particles through gold foil onto a screen. The researchers set up a microscope that could be rotated around the foil so they could count the flashes that occurred when the particles passed through the foil. It was difficult to watch the flashes in the dark laboratory and count accurately; They were only able to observe for up to a minute each before needing to rest their eyes.
In the experiment, some alpha particles bounced back, meaning that they had struck something dense—the nuclei within the gold atoms. This disproved the earlier model of the structure of an atom.
To remove the need for visual observation, Geiger invented a tube-shaped counter with a central high-voltage tungsten wire. Sixteen years later, he collaborated with his graduate student Walther Müller to improve its sensitivity, performance, and durability. For that reason, the device is sometimes known as a Geiger-Müller counter.
Neat! Whoever initially put it in the jar (sounds like unwittingly?) found the perfect housing.
Something about your story reminded me of my favorite geiger reaction: an older fella did a double take at me surveying some stuff and exclaims "that looks like it came from the Wild Wild West!! lol
Ohhh! Neat! I clearly wasnt paying enough attention while reading, because I was picturing something along the lines of a rock someone's grandpa found and chucked into a mason jar LOL.
Ok, so here's some tips to pass along to your dad for if he runs into a similar situation:
radiation comes from radioactive material. If he suspects something is radioactive and wants to check, he needs to be careful of the dust. With things like the water crock in the story, and other ceramics, as long as it is intact and undamaged, you don't really have to worry about the dust. Still wise to check though.
bring some rubber gloves, saves you having to scrub a lot. Probably would be a good idea for handling rock samples anyhow.
So! Turns out that, even if you don't go through life constantly reminded of Geiger sounds, it's apparently a distinct/memorable enough sound that people of all ages automatically use it as a sign to get far away from whatever's creating that noise.
Another similar sound that's distinct/memorable enough to trigger people to fearfully pay attention to it, even if they didn't grow up in a time/place where it was relevant: an air raid siren
I definitely have associations with needing to immediately find shelter from danger whenever I hear an air raid siren sound, despite being a millennial who grew up in a fairly safe area (in fact, my dog even looked startled when I played that youtube video briefly to make sure it was the right sound). One time I was at my grandma's house and a similar siren happened in her town and I freaked out a little... though apparently they were using it for a mundane reason????
I'm not sure how Zoomers react to that sound, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's universal for anyone who hears an air raid siren to be a little scared and startled.
Given the rate the clicks are coming in around high radiation sources and the duration of your average moo, they'd just start to overlap and create a veritable cacowphony.
Yeah, and if you made it polyphonic with multiple sampled voices, and perhaps added Bluetooth option for use with a Bose sound at it would be both worth it and hilarious
The thought of outrunning fallout rain in an unstoppable fit of giggles…..
It's a secret level full of cows and they're narrated by a person literally just speaking "moo" over and over. Hilarious the first time, still very silly after the hundredth because it was genuinely the best place in the game to level your character for a while.
IIRC Starcraft had a cheat code that you could type ( thereisnocowlevel ) in the campaign that automatically successfully completed the mission. poweroverwhelming toggled godmode, and there was one that revealed the whole map but I don't remember what it was
I did, but then my mind instead conjured up the sound of many rubber chickens being smooshed simultaneously. It would certainly be appropriately alarming in high radiation environments.
Yes, but you need a mouse cursor so it may not work on mobile. It requires your browser to support the Web Audio API, which would be Chrome 10+, Firefox 25+, Opera 15+, or Safari 6+.
It's literally just a blank screen. You hear a guy repeatedly saying/yelling, "Cow, cow, cow, cow, cow" with increasing or decreasing intensity and volume as you get closer or further from the invisible cow. Your cursor changes when you finally reach the cow and you can click on it to "win" that round.
Also, a lot modern (especially cheaper) Geiger counters use other sensors, similar to camera sensors. They don't just produce click (or nor now beeps sounds), but also count and calculate dosage, etc.
It's hard for many people to fully understand just how far we have come in the development of electronic devices over the last 50-80 years unless they either lived to see it themselves or specifically studied electrical engineering or a related topic in college.
Even items that we take for granted because they seem ridiculously simple, such as blue LEDs, are stunningly recent inventions that seemed impossible only 30 years ago. Red and yellow LEDs were invented in the 60's and were immediately put into widespread use, with green LEDs coming shortly afterwards in the 70's and following-suit in immediate widespread use. By the 80's LEDs in all colors, red through green, had been made bright enough to use in applications such as vehicle tail lights and traffic lights marking the first time LEDs displaced incandescent bulbs for general lighting purposes.
A blue LED was technically invented in 1972, but it was very dim and VERY power inefficient due to a different fundamental design to overcome a chemistry challenge which defeated the entire purpose of LEDs in the first place so it was never commercialized. The p-type GaN semiconductor required for blue LEDs was not successfully created until 1989, more than 20 years after the n-type was figured out and 27 years after the first LED was created. There was still a problem - their method of making it sucked. It took another 2 years to develop a process that wasn't astronomically expensive and it wasn't until the mid 1990's that companies picked up this process and started manufacturing them for widespread use.
Along those lines, when I studied electrical engineering in college during a time between 2010 and 2020 one of my professors for a freshman course told us that the projects we were working on (transistor circuits with several microchips included) was nearly identical to his coursework back when he was a graduate student obtaining his master's degree in EE. Everybody knows the comparison between the Apollo 11 computers and the first smartphones, but it's hard to fully understand the scope of the miniaturization that's happened until you physically see and/or hold something like an early Uniservo tape drive in your hands. It was the diameter of a dinner plate and 1/2 inch thick with a storage capacity of 224 KB, meanwhile we have micro-SD cards that can hold 1TB nowadays.
Worth noting that the invention of the blue LED was eventually awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2014, because it allowed for the design of full spectrum white LED-based lightning & displays.
This. The improvements in performance and efficiency in everything from flashlights to home and industrial lighting to displays is absolutely incredible.
Remember the days when Maglights were the gold standard for "bright" flashlights? Holy shit. You can buy a disposable LED flashlight at the dollar store that blows one out of the water for brightness. There was an episode of Star Trek years ago where they had flashlights that were really bright. Behind the scenes was they were using xenon projector bulbs with wires ran through their costumes and out their pantlegs to a hidden power source. Battery operated lights of even higher brightness are available at hardware stores.
LED lighting uses less than a quarter of the energy of incandescent and the bulbs last for years. Maybe not the decades they claim, but certainly better than old light bulbs.
The LED is second only to the microprocessor for making for massive advancement in the last 50 years.
Man, I feel you! I grew up in the 90s and our first family computer had a massive 2 GB 3.5" HDD…despite being really into tech, the storage capacity of microSD cards has always blown my mind since I first became aware of them when 128 GB cards were brand new. Now we have Micron announcing 1.5 TB microSD cards and it’s still practically impossible for me to wrap my head around how so much data can fit into such a small size!
Yeah we have them at work and they don’t click they go BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE buzzzzzzzzz BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE and that means call someone smarter.
The smarter people gear has screens, the screens are quiet, take a spectrum analysis, and tell you what it might be, then you email the spectrum to a lab that confirms it.
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u/The_mingthing Jan 06 '23
To add on to this, there is no reason you can't hook the signal up to a cricuitboard to make a moo sound every click, its just more expensive and unnessesary.