Re: The Thread Thread

Fri, 18 Nov 1994, Tim May writes:
>* A tiny thread cannot be readily detected by "airport scanners," nor
>by even longer-distance scanners, unless the gain on the detector is
>turned up so high that many other things trigger the detector.
>
>If the threads are mostly plastic, with discontiguous metallic writing
>on them, then the detection problem is even harder.

This is just a quick thought...does anyone know what kind of metallic ink
is used?  To add to the conspiracy theory, say the metallic ink is
radioactive with a higher radiation count for higher dollar amounts--would
it be implausible then to have some sort of radiation counter to gauge a
person's total 'radiation count,' and thereby approximate how much currency
they are carrying out of the country?

I wouldn't take the above seriously though....

 _/_/_/  _/_/_/   _/  _/  _/_/_/      _/      _/
_/       _/  _/   _/  _/  _/         _/_/     _/
_/_/_/   _/  _/   _/  _/  _/_/_/    _/  _/    _/
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              _/ All men recognize the right of revolution; that is, the
right to refuse allegiance to, and to resist the government, when its
tyranny or its inefficiency are great and unendurable.  From Thoreau's
"Civil Disobedience"

This thread has become intensely radioactive, so I suggest we drop it
immediately. 

Anonymous wrote:

> This is just a quick thought...does anyone know what kind of metallic ink
> is used?  To add to the conspiracy theory, say the metallic ink is
> radioactive with a higher radiation count for higher dollar amounts--would
> it be implausible then to have some sort of radiation counter to gauge a
> person's total 'radiation count,' and thereby approximate how much currency
> they are carrying out of the country?
> 
> I wouldn't take the above seriously though....

Nor would I. I worked with radioactive materials in my former life,
and know a fair amount about counting statistics.

To reliably detect a source in a short amount of time would require a
fair number of counts. Details are left to the student.

--Tim May


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