Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with danger

So really, how dangerous are ultrasounds?

lgyre — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 20:16:32 -0800

So really, how dangerous are ultrasounds? I'm 17 weeks pregnant, have had one visual ultrasound and one brief use of doppler at an exam, and was planning another ultrasound around 18-20 weeks. Recently, though, I read some studies about the dangers of ultrasounds, particularly when there's no unusual medical need. Critics of the practice cite these studies, while those on the other side of the debate seem to say that there are no studies. I'm not a scientist. Has anyone reviewed or rebutted these studies for a general audience?

Help me avoid the Darwin Awards shortlist

Beardman — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 09:36:58 -0800

How can one safely convince a teeming mass of bees to vacate a crack in the exterior wall of a brick building, so that the crack can be filled in? We finally figured out why there are so many bees on our deck lately. It seems that a colony has very recently taken up residence in a couple of cracks/holes in the brick wall near our deck. Obviously the crack needs to be filled in after the bees are flushed out, but that's as blithe as saying that the road needs to be paved after all the landmines have been disarmed. How DO I flush out the bees without getting stung a million times? (I'm not allergic, but still.)

Bonus problem: the cracks are easily accessible without a ladder, but only from a landing on the edge of a second-story drop. So a hit n' run maneuver wouldn't be smart, as the running part could easily turn into a plummeting part.

To Swim or Not To Swim

LittlePumpkin — Sat, 30 May 2009 15:16:26 -0800

i like to swim, but friends have been lecturing me about the dangers of chlorine -- that it's been linked to cancer, that it's god-awful for your health and well-being, even if not cancerous. does anyone have an informed opinion on this issue?

Can unplugged irons cause fires?

tomargue — Sat, 16 May 2009 20:35:13 -0800

Can unplugged irons cause fires? One of my housemates (Housemate A) observed that my other housemate (Housemate B) put the clothes iron back into the cupboard without letting it cool down. How dangerous is this? The iron rests upright on a wooden shelf, in a confined space. Lets say that immediately after ironing his clothes, Housemate B puts the iron on the shelf, and unknowingly knocks the iron over while closing the cupboard door. If the iron falls face down on to the wooden shelf, how much of a fire risk is this? Assume, for arguments sake, that it's a standard iron that was used on the highest setting (but is unplugged when put in the cupboard).

Will this TV kill me redux

yarrow — Sat, 02 May 2009 11:06:33 -0800

How dangerous is it to take apart an old TV if it has been unplugged for many months? I have an old TV - 19" Samsung from the early 80s - that I would like to disassemble in order to use the shell for an art-type project. I've seen this question and warnings elsewhere on the internet that digging around inside a CRT TV can be pretty dangerous. This TV has been unplugged since last October, so for about 7 months. Is that long enough to obviate the worry about voltage issues in the CRT?

What's the name of the helicopter blade sunlight stobing thing?

debord — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 17:16:45 -0800

What's the name of the bizarre effect that caused a few helicopter crashes where the light of the sun is strobed by the blades causing the pilot to have some kind of seizure? I've been Googling like mad and I can't find anything, but I'm sure it has a name!

Methanol will make you blind. The antidote is ethanol. Drink hard liquor if you can't get to a hospital.

you're a kitty! — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 14:08:49 -0800

Good resources for rules-of-thumb for laboratory dangers and chemical safety? I'm looking for an answer to this question posed in the comments section of a blog, which didn't really receive a satisfactory answer (the link to the NIOSH pocket guide was along the right lines, but not exactly easy to read). I'll just copy it down here:

Does anyone know of a resource (perhaps online) for practical warnings wrt the usage of chemicals? I've always been frustrated with the uselessness of MSDS (which makes sodium chloride sound like a hazardous substance) and the warning labels on the bottles aren't much more helpful. I wish there were some compendium of practical knowledge about how to deal with particular chemicals. For example, a colleague recently informed me that osmium tetraoxide is really bad for your eyes. I'd never have known that if he hadn't told me. Derek's TMS-diazomethane story is another example of useful knowledge that you wouldn't necessarily get from reading the label on the bottle.

Is there someplace where people can separate out the really really bad stuff from the "fine as long as you don't eat it" stuff and provide specific tips on safe handling?

watch out for that cigarette butt!

thetenthstory — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 08:23:07 -0800

Hypothetical Filter: Would someone be able to throw a cigarette out of their window and catch my car on fire? Someone recently tossed a cigarette butt and it bounced off my windshield. I have been pondering a possible situation involving my car catching on fire while driving ever since. I have had a constant oil leak in my car caused by an engine seal. I have had a gas leak in my car to the point where there was a half gallon puddle behind my parked car with a full tank. (I soon realized that a half tank of gas didn't leak; it has since been fixed.) Still I knew there would be fumes beneith my car that could cause a fire.

Outside of the dangers of the flame starting from within the car or by another part of the car, what are other instances (such as a cigarette) that could cause my car to become engulfed in flames on the road?

Reckless Birthday Fun: The Mad Hatter

CheeseburgerBrown — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 12:10:15 -0800

Does anyone remember the mind-blowingly dangerous fly-by-night birthday event management company that brought us THE MAD HATTER parties in the mid-1980s? Males of a certain age who lived in Toronto during the eighties may remember this outfit. It worked like this: a Mad Hatter location would have a "parent-friendly" storefront in a plaza or strip-mall where the hosting family would get their credit card ka-chunged, then the kids would be led (sans parental escort) into the basement of the mall. There, "supervised" by a bored teenager, you would be invited to have food fights, whip-cream battles, and to careen around in the dark with shopping carts while assaulted by strobe lights, crashing into concrete walls covered in old mattresses. There were often strange objects on the floor, like moldy hot dogs or unidentifiable spills. If your parents were big spenders, you might even get picked up and dropped off in a ramshackle limousine with old condoms and garbage on the floor. So, I guess my question is, does anybody know WHICH lawsuit blew these guys out of the water once and for all?

Stranger Danger!

boreddusty — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 12:05:22 -0800

I'm looking for a electronic/dance song from probably the late 90s or early 00s that has the words "Stranger Danger" repeated in a male robot voice. Any ideas? From what I can recall, it was a deeper vocoded/"robot" voice that repeated the phrase two times, rhythmically, like so:

Strane - Ger
Dane - Ger

It's probably an older song, maybe late 90s/early 00s. Sorry that I can't give more information. Google turned up nothing except this, which is enjoyable but not what I'm looking for. Thanks!

A cure for malaise?

mullingitover — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 20:06:45 -0800

I'm looking for more fun than I'm entitled to. Safety, morality, and practicality are not concerns. I've back at home after taking spending my two brief weeks of vacation on Burning Man and Beijing, China. Both places offered something I realize is sorely lacking from my life: wonderful novelty combined with spontaneity and reckless disregard for safety and moderation. I'm back in LA and settling back into my now painfully boring life, and I'm realizing that a lot of my boredom is self-inflicted. I'd like to do something about that.

What can I do in that could fill me with wonder, terror, and/or giddiness? Price is not an object, but please exclude activities which are pre-packaged and homogenized. LA-centric things are very welcome, but I'm open to just about anything.

Was I in serious danger?

UnclePlayground — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 09:01:43 -0800

TorontoFilter: What can you tell me about this place/area just east of downtown Toronto? (description follows) Three tall apartment-looking buildings on the southeast corner of Gerrard St E. and River St. in Toronto, Canada. I had the unfortunate incident of visiting Toronto in 2002 and found myself in the courtyard area of these buildings late one night, alone. I ended up skittering along buildings and bushes, to not be noticed by the locals, and headed south along River Rd. to Dundas. There, I got the attention of a cab and made my way back to downtown. What's that area like and how much danger was I in? Was I an idiot for getting myself into that situation? Or was there no problem?

(maybe this link will help, but not quite sure...)
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=10&z=18&ll=43.663192,-79.358121&spn=0.002581,0.004517&t=h&om=1

Danger, Miss Robinson!

MarkLark — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 11:49:57 -0800

I need suggestions for songs that evoke a sense of 'danger' or a dangerous situation. I'm putting together a short 'montage video' of sorts for a friend who teaches a women's self-defense course. He has provided me with some video clips (mainly women being grabbed, attacked, etc - all fake of course) to put together and has asked that I overlay some music tracks that evoke a sense of danger and would help get people's adrenaline pumping. The goal is to motivate women for the self defense course they are about to take.

The only thing we came up with is "Highway to the Danger Zone". I could use that but for me it evokes images of Tom Cruise. I think there may be something better out there, I'm just coming up with blanks. Have any suggestions?

The song doesn't necessarily have to mention danger or have danger in the title. It just needs to evoke a sense of 'danger'. Ie, someone being grabbed and thrown into the back of a car or being grabbed in a dark alley, etc.

Thanks in advance -

Flip Flip Flip Damn I wanted to see that!

jeribus — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 19:53:52 -0800

Broken TVfilter? We have a Phillips TV which keeps turning itself off. A vicegrip and more are inside. It powers up fine. And if I clamp a pliers to the remote so that it keeps flipping channels it's fine. As soon as I let it stop on a channel, it turns off.

While my attenion span is short. And my wife insists I am a terrible channel flipper. This is not a solution I can cope well with.

Any simple things I could try to fix it? I am not adverse to donning the rubber gloves and rubber shoes and having her dial 9-1- and waiting for a shocking noise if it's an easy repair.

Safe/dangerous African countries?

stammer — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 08:38:51 -0800

What are the safest African countries for a white, English-speaking visitor? What are the most dangerous? Why?

Does any culture have a word for that "what if I suddenly..." feeling?

paul_smatatoes — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 11:16:00 -0800

Name That Thing! You know that feeling you get sometimes when you wonder what would happen if you did something outrageous- punched a cop, stepped off a building, peed on the dinner table? No? Well, I'm sure I'm not the only one, because both Daniel Clowes (in Eightball) and P.G. Wodehouse (in Carry On, Jeeves) mention it. The problem is, what do you call it? Does any culture have a word for this? I certainly can't think of an (American) English word or phrase shorter than "You know that feeling when...", etc.

Safe walking in SF at midnight?

cccorlew — Sat, 10 Jun 2006 21:09:54 -0800

Is it safe to walk from Great American Music Hall (SF) to BART after a show? Yep. I'm from the burbs. Sorry. I usually drive, but I going to give public transit a shot. But SF does have its.. special... issues. Can my wife and I walk that far at midnaight and be safe, or is a cab a better idea?

overcoming a fetish?

brandz — Mon, 29 May 2006 09:49:13 -0800

FetishFilter: can a person overcome a dangerous or detrimental sexual fetish? or any fetish for that matter?

Cellphone Radiation Paranoia

clango — Fri, 12 May 2006 10:04:16 -0800

I like to carry my cellphone in a cargo pants pocket, on the outside of my body away from vital organs. I believe this is good for my health because the odds of microwaving my kidneys and intestines and all that other good stuff are reduced. Am I being crazy?

Could I Get Sued for Talking?

fenriq — Fri, 10 Feb 2006 08:05:11 -0800

So I've just walked away from a job I'd held for four years where they cheated me out of my earned commissions and now I'm left wondering what sort of danger I would be exposing myself to if I blogged the company and the people involved? I.e. naming names. There is a very real chance that my blogging their really poor behaviour would, in fact, come back to bite them on the backside as I was the public face of the company.

The short version is that I put on an event for the company, I pretty much did everything for the event after our marketing manager quit several months ago. The event was a major success and will generate a seven figure revenue boost for the company.

And then my ex-boss decided to not pay me my commissions that I earned by selling sponsorships that amount to a half a percent of that million.

And I am, understandably, pretty pissed off about it. After four years of loyal service (I was the longest employee there by three years.

My question is what kind of trouble could I get in for blogging the real name of the company and the real name of my boss as I would very much like to make the story known but I would not like to get sued.

Any danger sitting close to a large printer?

Servo5678 — Wed, 09 Mar 2005 08:50:06 -0800

My office just bought a HP Designjet 815mfp large format scanner/printer. The only space we have for it is in my co-worker's office area and now he's sitting about 5 feet away from the device. Is there any health danger from sitting so close to this device? We used to have a similar-size large printer in the same space and he's sat by it for seven years. Now with this larger unit he's concerned that sitting so close to it will cause cancer or other health problems. The product manuals didn't offer any health warnings.

How can I tell if my neighbor is stealing phone service from me?

pieoverdone — Wed, 16 Feb 2005 13:37:51 -0800

Short version: How can I tell if my neighbor is stealing phone service from me?

Short version of a much, much longer story inside: