5 ms·

If I were working in a lab I’d think it was hilarious to write “smallpox” on random bottles. Probably good that I work in software and not biology.

by wincy 5y ago

jacquesm 5y ago
That's a plot device in 'no time to die'.
mindcrime 5y ago
You could always put a vial labeled "smallpox" in the break-room fridge. But I have a feeling you will end up jobless, if not incarcerated, as a result. YMMV.
- lostlogin 5y ago
  Outside of a lab, I seriously doubt anyone would get more than a laugh. Maybe my workplaces aren’t serious enough.
  - mindcrime 5y ago
    I want to believe that you are correct. But it seems like everybody is so damned hyper-sensitive and over reactive to everything these days... sigh
starwind 5y ago
My first thought was that someone young labeled it as a joke years ago and forgot about it
- throwaway0a5e 5y ago
  Hopefully they're smart enough not to brag about it now that the feds are involved.
  - trhway 5y ago
    Handwriting or printer yellow dots can still lead to them. Sign of times though - calling law enforcement when you find old pathogen and its vaccine in a freezer in a vaccine development lab. MBA types. In order to mentally train myself for an MBA career i need to start calling law enforcement anytime i find a bug in the 20+ years old code.
    - throwaway0a5e 5y ago
      >calling law enforcement when you find old work in the lab. MBA types. It's not just MBA types. Needlessly escalating up the chain as a means to shirk responsibility is a broader societal trend. Post "what do I do" about anything anywhere short of a prepper forum and people will tell you to call some external authority, the police, your landlord, a credentialed professional, etc, etc, and wash your hands of the situation. Worse still, they will deride others for taking the responsibility of doing things themselves. Odds are there's nothing of note in those vials. It's either a joke or the lab was previously doing something that's Nth order smallpox related so someone wrote smallpox on the vials because what's in them bears some logical relationship to something about smallpox, not because it's literally smallpox. And even if there is smallpox in there this is a facility that already works with similarly nasty things so they should already know how to deal with it. Had the person cleaning the fridge brought this to their supervisor and they decided to dispose of it however the CDC will (there's published best practices for this stuff) people would be screeching about "why didn't you call the .gov to save you" as if the .gov would do anything other than follow the same best practices for disposal with the added extra step of collecting evidence to leave the door open to prosecuting people should they feel the can do so and stressing the crap out of everybody in the process. Edit: Why don't any of the people that have decided my comment is wrongthink do me the courtesy of explaining why I'm so wrong?
      - krotton 5y ago
        Well, you're dangerously wrong in simply assuming it's not smallpox, having zero evidence for your thesis.
      - 5y ago
_jal 5y ago
I thought that too. But then I use vintage lab glassware labeled Hydrochloric Acid and Potassium Hydroxide for oil & vinegar containers.
- jacquesm 5y ago
  Let's hope nobody has a similar sense of humor and replaces the contents with that which it says on the label.
  - capableweb 5y ago
    Luckily you rarely pour oil or vinegar directly into your mouth. Usually you pour it onto something else, and you'd discover that it contains the wrong liquid.
  - blindmute 5y ago
    Yeah that would be unfortunate if someone ordered dangerous chemicals, snuck them into your kitchen, and furtively replaced the contents of bottles in your pantry with those chemicals. If only you didn't use those joke labels. What are you even saying?
    - jacquesm 5y ago
      I'm probably saying that you don't have a sense of humor.
- labster 5y ago
  I assume the oil is in the HCl because KOH would break… eh, never mind.
worik 5y ago
I am glad you do not work with me.
dekhn 5y ago
Even correctly labelled bottles can be dangerous. THere was an explosion in my lab when somebody touched a bottle of ether. Please don't make it any harder...
- Gibbon1 5y ago
  At my high school they found a 40 year old bottle of picric acid. Came with the original lab stock in 1960
  - duskwuff 5y ago
    I've often wondered why so many basic chemistry labs kept picric acid in stock. I really have to wonder if it was some sort of very slow practical joke against hazmat disposal teams.
    - selimthegrim 5y ago
      Is that the one where the urban legend has it soaking into the lab table over the years and then some poor unsuspecting soul bangs the lab table and...
    - philipkglass 5y ago
      Picric acid's reputation for sensitivity to detonation has somehow greatly inflated in recent decades. It was safely fired out of artillery pieces millions of times during World War I. It was known to chemists for decades before it was considered/known as an explosive: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picric_acid#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picric_acid#History It has friction and impact sensitivity comparable to TNT (see tables 13.4.6.5.1 and 13.5.1.5) according to the UN's "Classification Procedures, Test Methods and Criteria Relating to Explosives of Class 1": https://unece.org/DAM/trans/danger/publi/manual/Rev5/English/01en_part1.pdf https://unece.org/DAM/trans/danger/publi/manual/Rev5/English...
- throwaway0a5e 5y ago
  You have to do a little more than touch ether to set it off.
natch 5y ago
Like the fighter jet pilot who reported all those UFOs … he literally called himself the class clown type in an interview, yet still people believe his story.
- influx 5y ago
  I'm confused what you're referring to, since they released videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rO_M0hLlJ-Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rO_M0hLlJ-Q. Are you claiming the pilot faked the video?
  - natch 5y ago
    I've seen the videos. You sound like them "releasing videos" closes the case for you (otherwise why would you say you are confused about what I am referring to). I would say, not so fast. The video you linked shows a display, not a direct camera view. The display is for a system (FLIR, I think it is, iirc) the development and programming of which his good buddy, best man at his wedding, was involved with in an ongoing manner at the time. I don't have all the answers, but it's quite possible that these two were having a little fun.

If I were working in a lab I’d think it was hilarious to write “smallpox” on random bottles. Probably good that I work in software and not biology.

by wincy 5y ago

If I were working in a lab I’d think it was hilarious to write “smallpox” on random bottles. Probably good that I work in software and not biology.

jacquesm 5y ago

That's a plot device in 'no time to die'.

mindcrime 5y ago

You could always put a vial labeled "smallpox" in the break-room fridge. But I have a feeling you will end up jobless, if not incarcerated, as a result. YMMV.

lostlogin 5y ago
Outside of a lab, I seriously doubt anyone would get more than a laugh. Maybe my workplaces aren’t serious enough.
- mindcrime 5y ago
  I want to believe that you are correct. But it seems like everybody is so damned hyper-sensitive and over reactive to everything these days... sigh

starwind 5y ago

My first thought was that someone young labeled it as a joke years ago and forgot about it

throwaway0a5e 5y ago
Hopefully they're smart enough not to brag about it now that the feds are involved.
- trhway 5y ago
  Handwriting or printer yellow dots can still lead to them. Sign of times though - calling law enforcement when you find old pathogen and its vaccine in a freezer in a vaccine development lab. MBA types. In order to mentally train myself for an MBA career i need to start calling law enforcement anytime i find a bug in the 20+ years old code.
  - throwaway0a5e 5y ago
    >calling law enforcement when you find old work in the lab. MBA types. It's not just MBA types. Needlessly escalating up the chain as a means to shirk responsibility is a broader societal trend. Post "what do I do" about anything anywhere short of a prepper forum and people will tell you to call some external authority, the police, your landlord, a credentialed professional, etc, etc, and wash your hands of the situation. Worse still, they will deride others for taking the responsibility of doing things themselves. Odds are there's nothing of note in those vials. It's either a joke or the lab was previously doing something that's Nth order smallpox related so someone wrote smallpox on the vials because what's in them bears some logical relationship to something about smallpox, not because it's literally smallpox. And even if there is smallpox in there this is a facility that already works with similarly nasty things so they should already know how to deal with it. Had the person cleaning the fridge brought this to their supervisor and they decided to dispose of it however the CDC will (there's published best practices for this stuff) people would be screeching about "why didn't you call the .gov to save you" as if the .gov would do anything other than follow the same best practices for disposal with the added extra step of collecting evidence to leave the door open to prosecuting people should they feel the can do so and stressing the crap out of everybody in the process. Edit: Why don't any of the people that have decided my comment is wrongthink do me the courtesy of explaining why I'm so wrong?
    - krotton 5y ago
      Well, you're dangerously wrong in simply assuming it's not smallpox, having zero evidence for your thesis.
    - 5y ago

_jal 5y ago

I thought that too. But then I use vintage lab glassware labeled Hydrochloric Acid and Potassium Hydroxide for oil & vinegar containers.

jacquesm 5y ago
Let's hope nobody has a similar sense of humor and replaces the contents with that which it says on the label.
- capableweb 5y ago
  Luckily you rarely pour oil or vinegar directly into your mouth. Usually you pour it onto something else, and you'd discover that it contains the wrong liquid.
- blindmute 5y ago
  Yeah that would be unfortunate if someone ordered dangerous chemicals, snuck them into your kitchen, and furtively replaced the contents of bottles in your pantry with those chemicals. If only you didn't use those joke labels. What are you even saying?
  - jacquesm 5y ago
    I'm probably saying that you don't have a sense of humor.
labster 5y ago
I assume the oil is in the HCl because KOH would break… eh, never mind.

worik 5y ago

I am glad you do not work with me.

dekhn 5y ago

Even correctly labelled bottles can be dangerous. THere was an explosion in my lab when somebody touched a bottle of ether. Please don't make it any harder...

Gibbon1 5y ago
At my high school they found a 40 year old bottle of picric acid. Came with the original lab stock in 1960
- duskwuff 5y ago
  I've often wondered why so many basic chemistry labs kept picric acid in stock. I really have to wonder if it was some sort of very slow practical joke against hazmat disposal teams.
  - selimthegrim 5y ago
    Is that the one where the urban legend has it soaking into the lab table over the years and then some poor unsuspecting soul bangs the lab table and...
  - philipkglass 5y ago
    Picric acid's reputation for sensitivity to detonation has somehow greatly inflated in recent decades. It was safely fired out of artillery pieces millions of times during World War I. It was known to chemists for decades before it was considered/known as an explosive: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picric_acid#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picric_acid#History It has friction and impact sensitivity comparable to TNT (see tables 13.4.6.5.1 and 13.5.1.5) according to the UN's "Classification Procedures, Test Methods and Criteria Relating to Explosives of Class 1": https://unece.org/DAM/trans/danger/publi/manual/Rev5/English/01en_part1.pdf https://unece.org/DAM/trans/danger/publi/manual/Rev5/English...
throwaway0a5e 5y ago
You have to do a little more than touch ether to set it off.

natch 5y ago

Like the fighter jet pilot who reported all those UFOs … he literally called himself the class clown type in an interview, yet still people believe his story.

influx 5y ago
I'm confused what you're referring to, since they released videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rO_M0hLlJ-Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rO_M0hLlJ-Q. Are you claiming the pilot faked the video?
- natch 5y ago
  I've seen the videos. You sound like them "releasing videos" closes the case for you (otherwise why would you say you are confused about what I am referring to). I would say, not so fast. The video you linked shows a display, not a direct camera view. The display is for a system (FLIR, I think it is, iirc) the development and programming of which his good buddy, best man at his wedding, was involved with in an ongoing manner at the time. I don't have all the answers, but it's quite possible that these two were having a little fun.