Life among the Microfiche
I work at a library, and at the library I spend a good deal of my work time reviewing the titles of U.S Government books and reports. Now and then the titles will be so funky I am curious enough to imagine more in them. I love it when this happens.
For example: "Measurement of the deposition rates of radon daughters on indoor surfaces" (from the Department of Energy [itself a curious name -- like Ministry of Magic], 1984). Who are the Radon daughters? How many of them are there? What crimes did they witness, and just what got smeared on those indoor surfaces, to merit all those depositions?
Well, "radon daughters" (or "radon progeny" as they are called in these more politically-correct times) are actually the elements radon decays into as it goes through its half-life. There's a cool chart here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radon
So they're no one we know.
Cool name for a band, though -- with Madonna and Cindy Lauper and Patti Smith.
Author Ian Smith thought it was a cool name too. I'll have to check out his book "Radon Daughters: a voyage, between art and terror, from the Mound of Whitechapel to the limestone pavements of the Burren" (published by Jonathan Cape, 1994). Here's the blurb:
"In this tale of a city and a society shredded by random violence and uncontrollable compulsions, Todd Sileen, a rage-driven cripple, ekes out a living in a spectacularly wasted East London borough."
Hmm. Downer.
And now another name: "Corrosion and hydriding performance evaluation of three zircaloy-2 clad fuel assemblies after continuous exposure in [...]" That's all it said on the microfiche! I am left wondering at the evil fate that befell those poor fuel assemblies, clad only in the flimsiest of Zircaloy shreds, after who-knows-how-much time exposed to who-knows-what...
Zombies, I'll bet. Zircaloy-2 clad zombies.
For example: "Measurement of the deposition rates of radon daughters on indoor surfaces" (from the Department of Energy [itself a curious name -- like Ministry of Magic], 1984). Who are the Radon daughters? How many of them are there? What crimes did they witness, and just what got smeared on those indoor surfaces, to merit all those depositions?
Well, "radon daughters" (or "radon progeny" as they are called in these more politically-correct times) are actually the elements radon decays into as it goes through its half-life. There's a cool chart here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radon
So they're no one we know.
Cool name for a band, though -- with Madonna and Cindy Lauper and Patti Smith.
Author Ian Smith thought it was a cool name too. I'll have to check out his book "Radon Daughters: a voyage, between art and terror, from the Mound of Whitechapel to the limestone pavements of the Burren" (published by Jonathan Cape, 1994). Here's the blurb:
"In this tale of a city and a society shredded by random violence and uncontrollable compulsions, Todd Sileen, a rage-driven cripple, ekes out a living in a spectacularly wasted East London borough."
Hmm. Downer.
And now another name: "Corrosion and hydriding performance evaluation of three zircaloy-2 clad fuel assemblies after continuous exposure in [...]" That's all it said on the microfiche! I am left wondering at the evil fate that befell those poor fuel assemblies, clad only in the flimsiest of Zircaloy shreds, after who-knows-how-much time exposed to who-knows-what...
Zombies, I'll bet. Zircaloy-2 clad zombies.