comment: >
  
  But in this case the needle was giving off detectable levels of radiation which helped significantly.
context: The Australian Defence Force has been asked to verify the recovered capsule by checking its serial number.
  
  You want to read it? The number is small and I've forgotten my glasses. >
  
  I did wonder if they just stopped the search after finding the first radioactive object of the right size. >
  
  They would have been able to identify the specific nuclide (Cesium-137) with the right equipment, and knowing the dimensions and radioactivity would either be confident it's the same one or there's pattern of identical capsules being lost on the same stretch of road. >
  
  Given the length of road in question I wouldn't rule it out until I saw the serial number. >
  
  Not radioactive, but I read about an incident where someone didn’t set the latches on a rocket pod properly, and between the pad and the target range (training exercise for helicopter gunship crews) 3 rockets went AWOL. Army did a “hands across America” sweep looking for them. Of the 3 rockets lost, >!6 were found. From serial numbers, it was determined that all 3 of the rockets lost on that mission were recovered. Probably didn’t go very well for the other people (traceable to mission by the serial numbers) who lost rockets but didn’t report them.!< >
  
  The same thing happened after Shuttle Columbia disintegrated. NASA asked people who found debris to send it in, no questions asked. They ended up getting back doubles of stuff of which the shuttle only had one. Turns out people were using the amnesty to return pieces of Challenger and clear their conciouses. >
  
  How the hell was there that much debris from Challenger ending up in private hands? It fell into the ocean >
  
  It happened in Florida. There’s lots of boats here. Shit, lbs of drugs wash up on shore here a few times a year. Pirates life for me! >
  
  
  Pirates life for me!
  
  Yep there's the Gasparilla Pirate Festival in Tampa, Florida >
  
  Gasparilla Pirate Festival 
  
  The Gasparilla Pirate Festival (often simply referred to as "Gasparilla") is a large parade and a host of related community events held in Tampa, Florida almost every year since 1904. The centerpiece of the festivities is the Parade of Pirates (often referred to as the Gasparilla Parade), which is a friendly invasion by the mythical pirate José Gaspar (also known as Gasparilla), who is a popular figure in Florida folklore despite the fact that he did not exist. The parade is organized by Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla (YMKG), a local organization modeled after the "krewes" of Mardi Gras in New Orleans who play the parts of Gaspar and his crew.
  
  ^([ )^(F.A.Q)^( | )^(Opt Out)^( | )^(Opt Out Of Subreddit)^( | )^(GitHub)^( ] Downvote to remove | v1.5) >
  
  Please put it in a box next time. A yellow one with glow-in-the-dark strips. And maybe put the box in a bigger one that can be strapped down? >
  
  And put that box in a bigger box, and mail it to yourselves! >
  
  And then SMASH IT WITH A HAMMER! 
  ^^^^^^^^^then ^^^^^^^^^die ^^^^^^^^^of ^^^^^^^^^radiation ^^^^^^^^^poisoning >
  
  Why do we even have that hammer? >
  
  SILENCE! SOMEBODY BRING THE HAMMER! >
  
  
  The Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, this morning joined those disappointed to learn the maximum penalty for mishandling radioactive material in such a manner was $1,000.
  
  lol. Oh you lost some highly dangerous radioactive material? Here, company that makes 7.3 million dollars an hour, have a $1000 fine. >
  
  I feel like this may be one of those situations where the fine is purposely low to encourage companies to not try and cover up their fuckups. >
  
  That is true. Never thought of it that way before. >
  
  Yeah, in capitalist countries where private citizens run huge portions of the economy for their own interests the people are basically held hostage by the previously mentioned powerful private citizens. >
  
  Regulatory Capture is a threat to modernist economic theories, the solution is a strong democracy and independent media that can respond to power corruption with the removal of mandates.
  When democracy is weak, wealth or strength make right, and the capture remains unchallenged. >
  
  "Regulatory capture" is a fancy way of nudging away the inherent undemocratic outcome of capitalism. 
  And if the media is for profit it can never be independent, sadly. And even under capitalism state media obeys national interests, which are in the hands of private individuals. 
  And funded orgs like NGOs rarely have independent interests as they obey whoever does the funding and unless it's the people it's some rich guy getting a tax break or a think tank or partisan state funding, and even bipartisan funding is subject to the national interests of capitalists. >
  
  Independent media does exist, it’s just niche to the point of irrelevancy as the media that serves capitalism has the resources to drown it out.
  Charities and NGOs wouldn’t need to exist in socialism as they are external agents with the aim to pay the social and environmental cost failed to be met by agents within the system, because the regulations set are inadequate. I am all for regulation to the point of unprofitablility because if it’s that socially or environmentally destructive compared to the value of the outcome, humanity shouldn’t be doing it. >
  
  Seriously? That's damn amazing!! >
  
  All of this reminded me of the poor soviet bastards that found a RTG (Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator) which they subsequently used to stay warm by handling it and lying next to it while they slept. 
  Wiki for the Lia Radiological Accident >
  
  The idea that the plutonium is having an appreciable impact on ice melting seems pretty suspect. The 4 pounds of plutonium that were lost only produced around 900W of thermal energy which seems pretty small compared to the amount of sunlight hitting the mountain (~1000 W/sq m) or the effects of global warming (higher altitudes experience greater rates of warming).
  I think the much bigger concern is contamination of the Ganges river, which is fed by runoff from the mountain and provides water to over 400 million people.
  edit: corrected solar energy amount >
  
  Folks get some bizarre ideas about these things. Sure, if the plutonium caught on fire it could melt some ice, but that stuff just isn't that hot. I wouldn't even be worried about it poisoning the water. >
  
  People tend to talk out of their ass, have poor comprehension of large numbers, and not have very good knowledge or understanding of basic thermodynamics. Just putting it into watts for the sake of easy comparison, as /u/NotSuitableForWoona did, is huge ask from the general public. >
  
  Yeah.  People see something has an increase and assume it's a significant increase.  Which isn't always the case. >
  
  i use the same source almost daily in my line of work. Ceasium-137 is gamma ray source we use for density determination in the formation in oil and gas wells.
  The source capsule is small, but during transportation it is screwed in a ~30x30x30 cm lead container (this things weighs 80kgs), with a lock on it, and then that lead container is also placed in a bigger ~100x100x100 cm transportation box which has 2 locks on it. 
  So the question is, how the hell did it fall off the truck transporting it? >
  
  It was left inside the piece of equipment that uses it said piece of equipment gel over and broke open after three bolts sheeted off apparently. >
  
  
  sheeted
  
  Sheared + yeeted? >
  
  Rio Tinto is 'happy' to pay for the cost of the search if asked to.  $1000 maximum fine.  The government better ask them to pay for costs. >
  
  Yeah, he posted it on reddit yesterday... duh! >
  
  Like 4 times 😒 >
  
  Some guy on r/Pics. It was a joke, of course, but hilarious. I'll see if I can find the post again.
  Edit:  There. >
  
  When I saw this post I legitimately thought it was OP of that post creating a fake news article as part of his shitposting. Kind of disappointed it isn't. >
  
  I was hoping for a multi day tie-in to make my morning >
  
  Now, the question is will anybody be punished for this absolute cockup? >
  
  $1000 max fine >
  
  That'll put a dent in Rio's finances for sure. >
  
  It was a contractor to Rio, so not even their fine to pay. >
  
  Rio seems to be handling this PR disaster nicely, they seem to have taken ownership of the problem including reimbursement of costs.
  
  "But certainly, I do want to state Rio Tinto have been exceptional in terms of how they have reached out to us and offered all levels of support, so I'm very grateful for that offer from Simon Trott." (Dawson)
  "I would be happy to reimburse the cost of the search, of course that ultimately is a matter for the state government," he (Trott) said.
  "There will be a full investigation, we'll fully cooperate with the investigation, if as part of that there's a request from government, we would be happy to reimburse the cost of the search." >
  
  If only there was a bird-named company that sells ruggedized, sealed plastic containers in which a capsule inside a sealed lead pig could be placed. I think Pelican Case would be a great idea for a business! >
  
  Is it Twitter? >
  
  Pelican cases >
  
  No, they’re thinking of Albatross Tubs. >
  
  Penguin Pods, I'm sure of it. >
  
  Local Australian company, Cassowary Capsules. >
  
  ELI5, how is this radioactive capsule used for mining? >
  
  I don't know about this specific tool. But there's a tool called Nuclear Densometer that uses radiation to measure the density of materials. 
  Usual material test include taking a sample of this material to test in a lab but sometimes you can't do any damage to this material so a nuclear Densometer does the same test in-situ with no damage. 
  Funny thing those Nuclear Densometers are stolen like 3 times a year where I live but they always appear after a week sold somewhere. >
  
  
  it apparently fell off a truck
  
  Um ok, you’ll have to expand on that a little. >
  
  Well it was in a box on the truck, but the box broke. >
  
  but did the front fall off? >
  
  Totally rad! >
  
  Geiger counter crackles >
  
  Australia is radiating calm, now :-) >
  
  I knew that one guy on here was lying! >
  
  Here I was, hoping that we would see a new breed of mutant Emus in a few years time. Emu War II would have been awesome. >
  
  r/emuwarflashbacks >
  
  America has cocaine bear.
  Australia was about to have ATOMIC KANGAROO! >
  
  Fun fact, the stolen taxidermied "Pablo Escobear" was ultimately found in the private collection of Waylan Jennings. >
  
  Max penalty for mishandling radiation sources is $1000.
  ... Yeah you're definitely gonna wanna update that because it's gonna be a company receiving this fine and that is nothing to them.
  In the US they would be able to go after them under the Department of Transportation alone which has penalties that can easily edge into the $100k to millions, and also employees responsible can personally go to prison. >
  
  If I was a billion dollar company, I'd rather be  under investigation in the USA than the same in Australia. How many Americans went to prison after the 2008 banking crisis? >
  
  
  If I was a billion dollar company, I'd rather be  under investigation in the USA than the same in Australia. How many Americans went to prison after the 2008 banking crisis?
  
  How many people went to jail or faced fines for that internationally? >
  
  Well considering it was almost entirely a US-caused issue (sub-prime mortgages, that is), would you expect other countries to be prosecuting people? The "worldwide" financial crisis was almost entirely caused by US banking collapses, which had a predictable ripple effect through the world, although obviously many banks from around the world were dipping their greedy fingers into the US sub-prime derivative markets.
  But to answer your question, 47 bankers worldwide were jailed as a result of the crisis. Half of those were from a single European country, Iceland. In the US, the source of the crisis, a grand total of one banker, born in Egypt and working for a Swiss bank, was jailed. The rest were from various European countries, primarily Spain and Ireland. >
  
  a minor nitpick: sub-prime mortgages didn't cause the crisis. There is nothing inherently wrong with a shit asset you know is shit if it's priced right (ie cents on the nominal dollar).
  The fundamental problem is that the risk was mispriced, punching above its weight (in big part thanks to the rating agencies mandated by the govt) and it was used as collateral to back more shit than it could handle. Once the chain unwind started to happen it was over. >
  
  Breaking news, Australia finds needle in haystack >
  
  Cesium formate fluids are rented to oil and gas clients, and after completion of the well, the used cesium
  formate fluids are returned and reprocessed for subsequent drilling operations. Approximately 15% of the cesium
  formate may be lost in the well. There are no data available on the amounts used or recovered. >
  
  Phew.....I can breath easier now regarding my fear of kangaroo kaiju in 2023. Now if I can get them to stop translating the book of the dead >
  
  "The search crews have quite literally found the needle in the haystack."
  Crazy that they found it in a haystack /s >
  
  Of course I'm thinking that they didn't find it at all, and just said they did with a spare to get the heat off of them. >
  
  Glad they found it! Though as an American I read the title and thought it was found in a Subaru Outback in Washington state and thought, “Of course, where else would they find such a thing in Washington?” >
  
  So this is a capsule that needs a 20m safe zone around it that was apparently just tossed the the back of a truck? It seems like there were some safely issues here no? >
  
  But wait it gets worse. The idea is that the device and the inserts are supposed to be stored separately. Instead it was left in, put in a crate, shaken loose on the dirt road, worked it's way out a hole in the side of said crate and subsequently fell off the back of a truck.
  The whole thing has been a s***show from start to finish. >
  
  Holy fuck >
  
  Why did they go with a frantic search, maybe a measured and calm search would have been better for all concerned. >
  
  Yep, the search was definitely measured and calm. Not an ounce of "frantic" anywhere other than the inevitable over-excitement of the media outlets in reporting it. >
  
  Funny seeing all of the USA people freaking out because an abbreviation for a state isnt one in the USA….
  Like cmon r/news is solely for US news >
  
  
  The Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, this morning joined those disappointed to learn the maximum penalty for mishandling radioactive material in such a manner was $1,000.
  
  That is indeed a disappointingly low penalty. >
  
  I wonder if it's a case of keeping the penalty low so that incidents don't go unreported for fear of massive legal/financial blowback?
  I agree though, it seems like a pittance for the potential harm. >
  
  Keep it in a Tupperware ffs >
  
  It kinda blows my mind that the containment for this source was so incredibly sloppy. There's more redundancy and security for my daily deliveries of low-energy/low activity stuff for medical imaging than this potentially lethal and easily misplaced source. >
  
  They're really reaching for some alarming headlines, I doubt the search was overly frantic. It's the Australian outback, there aren't a whole lot of people out there who would happen upon it. >
  
  I wanna know why they put radioactive material in a capsule of that size lol >
  
  Don't lie to me.  I know the Emus were trying to build a dirty bomb.
  Never4giveTheEmus. >
  
  I wonder if it would have been possible to use drones with Geiger counters  sweeping the highway. >
  
  I've been following this story. I knew exactly where this was referring to. We don't have an Outback where I live. As somebody from the state of Washington (WA) in the United States I still did a double take at that headline. >
  
  I read the title as "capsule found in WA (state) Outback (steakhouse)" and thought it was an onion article. >
  
  For Americans WA is Western Australia not Washington >
  
  It’s 6mm x 8mm in size, they literally found a needle in a haystack.