#44807
10/15/2001 9:14 PM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
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#44808
10/15/2001 11:42 PM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
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#44809
10/16/2001 12:18 AM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Though my last bacteriology class was almost sixty years ago, I still remember some of the fundamentals.
A microwave is not a good place to sterilize much of anything. The only places that get hot are those with fluid enough to absorb enough of the radiant energy.Even with an autoclave, it takes roughly half an hour to disinfect things. What's worse is that the microwave would be very liable to create dangerous aerosols of infectious agents. Only the very heat resistant spores of infectious agents would be used by a terrorist.
Not until there is an official warning would I worry about mass mailings to individuals. I'll bet that the few mailings so far have been made by good old USA kooks.
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#44810
10/16/2001 4:47 PM
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467 |
Dub Dub (if I may address you informally):
If all else fails, use chlorine bleach! I don't know if it kills viruses, but exposure to chlorine should kill every bacterium, germ, fungus and spore it comes in contact with. It's pretty nasty stuff! I would think that putting your mail into a plastic container and pouring bleach over it would be most effective in killing the germs; unfortunately, it would probably bleach out a lot of the colors so your mail might end up looking like this.
But it might be possible to just expose the mail to the fumes of the bleach to have the germ-killilng effect without ruining the mail itself.
Call your local public health department office and ask them. They'll know or be able to find out. If it does work, buy stock in bleach-producing companies!
TdE
TEd
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#44811
10/16/2001 9:12 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 771
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 771 |
Huh. That's interesting. The first thing that crossed my mind was "I'd feel it first for staples or paperclips"...
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#44812
10/16/2001 10:02 PM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146 |
Personally, I would just remember the motto imprinted in friendly pink letters on the front cover of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and take the advice. I really would. 
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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#44813
10/17/2001 7:04 PM
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467 |
Some expert testified before Congress today that you can iron your mail. And here I thought mail WAS iron. anyway, he said that dry heat kills germs that moist heat does not.
This reminds me of an old story, possibly by Zane Grey, about a woman (madam perhaps?) on the west coast who would offer to give miners returning to the east a check in exchange for their gold so they could carry just a piece of paper rather than all that heavy gold. But what she didn't tell them was she heated the check in an oven so it became very brittle, almost never surviving a trip back east. Interesting form of theft!
And here everyone thought when I said this reminds me that there would be a pun involved!
Nay. I am forsaking pundom, just as Oscar Wilde is rumored to have forsaken one of his personal habits that eventually landed him in jail. He told all of his friends that he was going straight. Some weeks later a friend came to visit him in his hotel, where he found Oscar chasing a bellhop around the room. "Oscar," the fellow remonstrated, "I thought you were going to turn over a new leaf." "I am," panted Wilde, "just as soon as I get to the bottom of the page."
Gosh, that resolution didn't last a whole paragraph, did it?
One last thing, if you decide to put your mail in the oven, don't set it over 450 Fahrenheit.
TEd
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#44814
10/17/2001 8:05 PM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146 |
"I thought you were going to turn over a new leaf." "I am," panted Wilde, "just as soon as I get to the bottom of the page."And when he ended up in prison, they would have just about shaved his head bald. Hence the origin of the page-boy haircut, no doubt... 
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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#44815
10/17/2001 11:58 PM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
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#44816
10/18/2001 1:45 AM
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189 |
I'm still trying to understand how crickets can make all that noise with their legs.Because they're horny!
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#44817
10/18/2001 2:07 AM
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605 |
I'm still trying to understand how crickets can make all that noise with their legs.Because they're horny! Let's ask archie! BTW, don't I recall a thread about mav's legs? Let's ask mav, too!
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