Exotic ways to die.
Nov. 28th, 2006 04:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sobriquehttp://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6182804.stm
Recent case in the news. Ex-spy, gets poisoned.
With some stuff called 'polonium-210' which is a toxic radioactive isotope.
According to Wikipedia Polonium is really very rare, of the kind where in all the reactors in the world, 100grams is produced each year. That particular isotope has a 138 day half-life. It's an alpha emitter, and it glows blue.
Now is it just me who finds this an extremely strange choice of way to get someone dead? I mean, it's "highly radioactive and difficult to handle" Not to mention exceedingly rare, and ... well not exactly very subtle as a poison. I mean, blue and glowing, you _can_ hide, but ... well, what's wrong with cyanide?
Assuming it actually _was_ a poisoning attempt, it strikes me that it's almost as if someone's read too many James Bond books, and is going for a hideously complicated and difficult way of killing someone.
There's so many ways to kill someone that don't involve:
a) A nuclear research lab - this stuff isn't commonplace. There's probably only a few places in the world it could have come from.
b) something that'll make geiger counters ping.
c) doesn't glow blue
d) isn't frighteningly difficult to handle.
e) isn't phenomenally expensive, due to it's rarity.
OK, so you do only have to feed someone 0.12 micrograms to kill them, but ... well, a 9mm cerebral haemorrhage is probably a lot more effective.
Sadly Alexander Litvinenko is now dead from polonium-210 poisoning, but I can't help but wonder what the hell that was all about.
Recent case in the news. Ex-spy, gets poisoned.
With some stuff called 'polonium-210' which is a toxic radioactive isotope.
According to Wikipedia Polonium is really very rare, of the kind where in all the reactors in the world, 100grams is produced each year. That particular isotope has a 138 day half-life. It's an alpha emitter, and it glows blue.
Now is it just me who finds this an extremely strange choice of way to get someone dead? I mean, it's "highly radioactive and difficult to handle" Not to mention exceedingly rare, and ... well not exactly very subtle as a poison. I mean, blue and glowing, you _can_ hide, but ... well, what's wrong with cyanide?
Assuming it actually _was_ a poisoning attempt, it strikes me that it's almost as if someone's read too many James Bond books, and is going for a hideously complicated and difficult way of killing someone.
There's so many ways to kill someone that don't involve:
a) A nuclear research lab - this stuff isn't commonplace. There's probably only a few places in the world it could have come from.
b) something that'll make geiger counters ping.
c) doesn't glow blue
d) isn't frighteningly difficult to handle.
e) isn't phenomenally expensive, due to it's rarity.
OK, so you do only have to feed someone 0.12 micrograms to kill them, but ... well, a 9mm cerebral haemorrhage is probably a lot more effective.
Sadly Alexander Litvinenko is now dead from polonium-210 poisoning, but I can't help but wonder what the hell that was all about.
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Date: 2006-11-28 04:53 pm (UTC)The radioactive bit is fine if no-one is looking for radioactive material.