National Solar Observatory, USPS office in Sunspot, NM evacuated for 'safety reasons'

originally posted by: caterpillage
a reply to: TruthJava

Dude. Seriously don't bring Trump into this thread.
This is a safe place away from that crap.

True.

It was just a random thought, and seemed humourous at the time.

originally posted by: caterpillage
a reply to: BigDave-AR

The mercury is a 100 foot in the air as well, it would have a lot of levels to leak down through to reach the sump pump

Indeed I hadn’t looked at the plan thoroughly, thanks for posting that I really doubt this is a mercury related issue. Couldn’t speculate on what it is but to me the mercury isn’t the problem.

Yo

originally posted by: GBP/JPY
Yo

Fascinating contribution.....

a reply to: TruthJava

Lol ok, I'll admit it was funny, but what do you think of the situation here??

a reply to: BigDave-AR

Me either on that. And I like the post you made on pure mercury being not a huge threat over all.

And this place is remote. Seriously remote, mercury at any state wouldn't affect anything for a long time if released.

If it was blown up with explosives at the top of the tower, it could possibly create a hazard if it became atomized, but with west to east winds, there isn't anything to the east of there terrorist hit worthy.

Over all, I think this is not about the mercury.

originally posted by: caterpillage
a reply to: BigDave-AR

Me either on that. And I like the post you made on pure mercury being not a huge threat over all.

And this place is remote. Seriously remote, mercury at any state wouldn't affect anything for a long time if released.

If it was blown up with explosives at the top of the tower, it could possibly create a hazard if it became atomized, but with west to east winds, there isn't anything to the east of there terrorist hit worthy.

Over all, I think this is not about the mercury.

Yeah it gets blown WAY out proportion every time I hear about a school getting evacuated and Hazmat teams come in in moon suits to clean up a tiny mercury spill from a thermometer or the likes, it’s absurd!!! People are scared of their own shadows these days, common sense precautions and mercury is not dangerous at all and pretty easy to contain, now I’m in no way an expert on neurotoxicity and I’m not suggesting everyone treat mercury as completely safe but it’s not nearly as bad as the rap it’s given. That would have to be a huge explosion to cause a significant amount to become vapor-borne and I’m guessing they already have an air-scrubber system to control the PPM of mercury vapors in the building. Always glad to share some knowledge!

a reply to: BigDave-AR

Well...... I'll admit, as a young buck I broke apart a thermometer or two and played with the mercury.
It's really fun stuff! (I didn't eat it though I swear!)

49. And still kicking.

originally posted by: caterpillage
a reply to: BigDave-AR

Well...... I'll admit, as a young buck I broke apart a thermometer or two and played with the mercury.
It's really fun stuff! (I didn't eat it though I swear!)

49. And still kicking.

Some might say that me playing with mercury explains a lot but alas I don’t think I can take the easy route and blame it on the mercury.

I just want to see a RESOLVE at this point. What happened to warrant such a response and shut down. My gut is going with the logical... there is a reason. But the tactical and non explanation thus far is weird. Let's see this through everybody.

Hazmat.... no explanation yet.
Secret aircraft out of Holloman.. no answer to that.
Terrorist... Fox News would be salivating over that.
Local Sheriff's office is left out in the cold....

Piqued of a billion interest this thread is.👍

Will Mrbuddy member contact a main stream media outlet..😁

I'm full of flu i think.. so running a fever with cough, would love to know what's going on here in Sunspot.👍👍

Edit: I'm full of FLU... it came from the airport. 😝 but still checking in on this thread.

originally posted by: Bigburgh
I just want to see a RESOLVE at this point. What happened to warrant such a response and shut down. My gut is going with the logical... there is a reason. But the tactical and non explanation thus far is weird. Let's see this through everybody.

Hazmat.... no explanation yet.
Secret aircraft out of Holloman.. no answer to that.
Terrorist... Fox News would be salivating over that.
Local Sheriff's office is left out in the cold....

Piqued of a billion interest this thread is.👍

Will Mrbuddy member contact a main stream media outlet..😁

I'm full of flu i think.. so running a fever with cough, would love to know what's going on here in Sunspot.👍👍

I’m still sticking behind this being non hazmat related, or at least not mercury as said hazardous material and I’ve transported bulk mercury trucking in the past so i know a bit about the response to a mercury spill (not that I ever had that happen just had a fair amount of training on its safe handeling. I’d like to think it’s a toy out of Hollomon but I I’m not so sure about it either.


Definently would be nice to know what the whole mess is over.

ETA- I couldn’t remember the name but the really dangerous mercury compound is methylmercury that stuff is not to be played with! Extremely toxic and easily passes the blood-brain barrier.
en.m.wikipedia.org...

a reply to: BigDave-AR

And that! Is a reasonable response to my question.
I said since page 5 this is not hazmat.( just the firefighter in me looking at the material data sheet truckers keep on hand ). But things get swept under rugs...

Shoot from the hip... where's the incident report from the college? Their employees were involved in an incident.

Broken lot's of mercury thermometers over the years. Never had to activate MCI...

Edit:
methylmercury: "is a very poisonous form of mercury. It forms when bacteria react with mercury in water, soil, or plants. ... Poisoning from eating fish from water that is contaminated with methylmercury has also occurred."

Mmm.. I've seen this in Pyramid, Tahoe and lake Erie. Its specific and obvious. The meat bleeds of mercury.

I can't connect that to sunspot. But i can see where you're getting that.

originally posted by: Bigburgh
a reply to: BigDave-AR

And that! Is a reasonable response to my question.
I said since page 5 this is not hazmat.( just the firefighter in me looking at the material data sheet truckers keep on hand ). But things get swept under rugs...

Shoot from the hip... where's the incident report from the college? Their employees were involved in an incident.

Broken lot's of mercury thermometers over the years. Never had to activate MCI...

Yes sir I’ve had hazmat endorsements since first getting my CDL also have my TWIC card and all that fun stuff, infact im rarely pulling something that isn’t hazmat right now I’m a bulk fuel hauler.
Good point about the college I was going to ask if there any schools that had personnel working at the observatory!

Elemental mercury and mercury salts are pretty tame to transport unless you go full special and try to transport it in an aluminum vessel, that usually doesn’t turn out too great.... I’ve actually purposefully tasted known pure elemental mercury as part of a bet back in school and I have no elevated mercury levels whatsoever (got tested a few times when I was hauling the mercury (company policy never worried me). Now please don’t repeat my action anyone this was known pure elemental mercury with no funky oxides or other compounds but mercury is really misunderstood by the vast majority of the populace.

ETA- I was just adding that because I’d meant to include it in my original post about mercury toxicity but had a brain fart and couldn’t remember the compound so I’d left it out. I don’t think methylmercury has anything to do with this either I was just saying that’s the main part you have to look out for dealing with mercury compounds.

I heard it was closed for lack of funding. I have a friend up there in Timberon who's going to ask around.

a reply to: SeaWorthy

Chinese Spy,
sharing new U.S. Discoveries?

Naughty, Naughty.

Great thread! S&F

originally posted by: Cootie
I heard it was closed for lack of funding. I have a friend up there in Timberon who's going to ask around.

Why would that entail the shutting down of a post office simultaneously and bringing inthe FBI? To do what, babysit 8 tons of mercury? I highly doubt it.

a reply to: BigDave-AR

ETA- I was just adding that because I’d meant to include it in my original post about mercury toxicity but had a brain fart and couldn’t remember the compound so I’d left it out. I don’t think methylmercury has anything to do with this either I was just saying that’s the main part you have to look out for dealing with mercury compounds.

I'm expelling from everywhere.
I'm super ill and having a hard time forming A simple thought here. You are doing great.⭐⭐⭐ you've been an asset.👍👍👍

originally posted by: Cootie
I heard it was closed for lack of funding. I have a friend up there in Timberon who's going to ask around.

So the FBI is brought in to see the closing down?

originally posted by: Bigburgh
a reply to: BigDave-AR

ETA- I was just adding that because I’d meant to include it in my original post about mercury toxicity but had a brain fart and couldn’t remember the compound so I’d left it out. I don’t think methylmercury has anything to do with this either I was just saying that’s the main part you have to look out for dealing with mercury compounds.

I'm expelling from everywhere.
I'm super ill and having a hard time forming A simple thought here. You are doing great.⭐⭐⭐ you've been an asset.👍👍👍

Thanks much it’s a bit of a pet peeve of mine when people freak out of mercury so much, so many things that can kill us and mercury definently doesn’t make the danger list for me so when I can I like to share the word that mercury isn’t the devil it’s made out to be almost all of the toxicity blanket blamed on “mercury” is really methylmercury and with precautions elemental mercury is not a big deal at all, I’m also one of those people that think lead gets more of a bad rap than it should. Switching over to ROHS compliant electronics has greatly increased issues with tin pest and the likes causing more electronics to crap out early and putting even more nasty heavy metals into the environment. And don’t get me started on Freon and the ozone the auto industry trying to move to new 1234f is even more ridiculous than going from R12 to R134a and that was really all about the patent running out anyway it want really about the environment now they want to replace a perfectly fine refedgirent with one 100s of times more expensive that also happens to be HIGHLY volatile, that seems like a great idea for a highly pressurized system on a vehicle SMH....

I appreciate your kind words hope you get over the crud soon buddy! You pull the trigger on that joystick I keyed you in on yet?

A thing I haven't been able to find yet is the 8 tons of mercury thing. Where is that stated? As I have found so far, the Dunn telescope does indeed use a mercury fluid bearing comprised of mercury, but I can't see how that would take 8 tons of the stuff to accomplish.