Barium me not…
Posted by Kirk M on 07 Oct 2008 | Tagged as: Life as a veteran
I’m off today (I’m off every day for that matter) to the local VA for a barium breakfast. I remember this now. I’ve done this three times before many years ago. The first two rounds it was chocolate flavored and that made it palatable if not exactly nutritious but the third time it was tooty-fruity (gack!). And while the chocolate flavored experience was at least tolerable, the tooty-fruity experience had much to be said for it.
Of course, all those years ago there wasn’t anything like Google or even the WWW to keep us happily informed on all things in fact, Sergey and Larry were only around 12 years old at the time so I swallowed away in happy ignorance. But now we not only have the WWW but Google and Wikipedia as well and it’s instant access to anything you’d possibly be better off not knowing.
Apparently Barium, a heavy element (now isn’t that just lovely), in it’s various forms is apparently used in more than a few ways than just a piss poor excuse for a medical milk shake (non-dairy type, 1 ea.). Here’s a few of them:
- Barium compounds, and especially barite (BaSO4), are extremely important to the petroleum industry. Barite is used in drilling mud, a weighting agent in drilling new oil wells.
- Barium carbonate is a useful rat poison and can also be used in making bricks.
- An alloy with nickel is used in spark plug wire.
- Barium oxide is used in a coating for the electrodes of fluorescent lamps, which facilitates the release of electrons.
- Barium nitrate and chlorate give green colors in fireworks.
- Barium peroxide can be used as a catalyst to start an aluminothermic reaction when welding rail tracks together. It can also be used in green tracer ammunition.
Aack! That’s enough! I was better off with the radioactive egg salad sandwich.
Drilling for oil, making bricks, welding, tracer ammo and rat poison?? If I didn’t need surgery before now it certainly sounds like I’m going to need it before the morning’s out. Perhaps all this wonderful instant access to anything you might want to know isn’t such a great thing after all (rat poison?!?).
Sometimes it just pays to remain ignorant. I’ll see ya’ when I get back…maybe.
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2 Comments »
on 07 Oct 2008 at 9:34 am 1.K8 said …
Best of luck! What does that stuff taste like?
I remember putting Laughingboy through that whole ordeal, watching the goings on of his innards amazed the pants off me, but it stayed with me since. I can’t help but picture that screen when I’m eating something myself, sometimes ignorance is bliss.
on 09 Oct 2008 at 9:10 pm 2.Kirk M said …
Hi K8,
Ignorance is indeed bliss and I’ve always been very happy. However, I suggest you try to change your way of thinking when you’re eating.
As far as how that poor excuse of a medical milk shake tasted…is bad a flavor?