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Walking Geiger Counter

 Improve security by optionally adding sensors to cellphones
  (+1, -2)
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Inspired by Temperature Phone

Let's face it -- we're all a little worried that one of these days we'll lose a couple of blocks of a major metropolitan area.

During the height of the Cold War, it was quite popular for civilians to volunteer to watch the skies

By voluntarily adding various sensor (geiger, bio, etc) to cellphones, we can dramatically increase the areas being monitored.

The sensors need not spread panic -- they can simply report to the authorities incognito

—theircompetitor, Jan 26 2004

I guess DHS is getting pretty serious about this http://public.cq.co...0-000002524221.html
[theircompetitor, Jun 12 2007]

And, someone had a unit in late 2004 http://www.newscien...rticle.ns?id=dn6766
[theircompetitor, Jun 12 2007]

Newsweek article on subject http://www.newsweek.com/id/154987
[theircompetitor, Aug 25 2008]

[link]






       I thought this would be something to do with the Chernobyl Fire Dept.
—UnaBubba, Jan 27 2004
   

       I'd buy it. I guess I sort-of did. On e-bay about a year ago I picked myself up a surplus cold war geiger counter (get the one with the wand - the others aren't sensitive enough) just to see the radioactive world around me. Turns out there's a bit of very low level radioactivity, probably from rock formations, near Sonoma, CA (I mapped out my drive to work at the time).   

       I always wanted to mount it under the hood of my car and wire it to a PDA with GPS to be constantly updating a map of radioactivity. An added benefit would be that I'd be the first to know of a nuclear detonation. "The world is ending" could be a red light next to "check engine".
—Worldgineer, Jan 27 2004
   

       I once did a little experiment, at high school. There was a stir in the local paper about radioactive material leaking into the river, that supplied our drinking water, from an abandoned mine.   

       I tested the river water against bottled water (control 1) and against fresh rainwater (control 2). The river water was the least radioactive, by about 8-10%, on each of the twelve consecutive days I ran the test.
—UnaBubba, Jan 27 2004
   

       There's a debate going on in the US about testing 100% of incoming containers for radioctivity and other agents. I'm all for it, but the money is mind boggling.
—theircompetitor, Jan 27 2004
   
      
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