the microwave, dead batteries, and my new favorite color

[redduck]

I have a Panasonic microwave oven that's about 12 years old. Works well. I usually keep my battery-operated watch on top of this microwave. In the last 6 months or so, the battery of one of my watches died. I got another battery for it and that battery died. I bought a new watch, kept that on the microwave and that battery died in about 2 months. Time to get a new microwave? Could there be a radiation leak that might have killed the batteries? Also, and I don't know if there is a connection here, but in the last 6 months my newly developed third and fourth testicles have had just a wonderful phosphorus green glow to ithem. I guess I need to stop keeping certain body parts off of the microwave as well.

 

[Sarah in SC]

Um, yeah--about that third and fourth testicle...
I'm not an authority on radiation, but I'd at least take the watch off the microwave.
And a new microwave is like $40 at Target--before other stuff starts glowing green, I'd go get one!

 

[W2R]

Um, yeah--about that third and fourth testicle...
I'm not an authority on radiation, but I'd at least take the watch off the microwave.
And a new microwave is like $40 at Target--before other stuff starts glowing green, I'd go get one!

Until Katrina I had an ancient, HUGE microwave that was one of the first available. It wouldn't break. My new microwave cost about that much, and WOW - - it is so much better!! Lots of great features, and the cooking time is so much faster. I'm with Sarah - - you need a new microwave!

 

[ls99]

Save the microwave. Save $$$, use tinfoil under watches

.

 

[Sarah in SC]

Save the microwave. Save $$$, use tinfoil under watches.

And wrap the tinfoil around his ... or just rent himself out as a nightlight?

 

[ls99]

 

[CuppaJoe]

.... Time to get a new microwave?....

No no, that isn't the issue; the microwave is right and enjoy the glow. Don't know your entire story but this looks like time for an intervention. Are you telling us you haven't joined those of us who stopped wearing watches? The microwave is a sign from God! Re-evaluate.

 

[MikeD]

The microwave is probably not leaking atomic radiation or microwaves. It's probably a magnetic field (you know, the kind that turned Black Sabbath's Ironman into steel) from the oven that's killing yer watch batts. Don't leave any floppies up there. And don't micowave your CDROMs to kill yeast, either.

Mike D.

 

[Sarah in SC]

Your CDRoms have yeast? Aaaack!
That is way worse than CFB's cds that the cats peed on! Yuck!

 

[MikeD]

I was referring to some people's penchant for microwaving their undies to kill yeast in a sly, yet cute, way.

Mike D.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Ewww! The cats peed on my cd's? I hope its not the good 6.25% ones!

I'm surprised Nords hasnt jumped in here yet. He claims the older microwaves are actually better 'shielded' than the newer ones so moving to a newer one for vague safety purposes may be counterproductive.

Some years ago I was interested in an absolutely beautiful property...4000-something square feet, dual master suites with their own separate sweeping staircases plus four other bedrooms, acre of land, view of the lake, very low traffic area. I could have owned it for about $365k. Only glitch was that there were high tension power lines 2 lots over, maybe 350 feet away.

I had the electric company guy come out and look it over. He had some kind of a meter that measured electric fields. He showed me that under the wires the readings were like 100 and by the time we got halfway to the house they'd dropped to zero. Then he took me in the house and showed me the meter in front of the running microwave, the clock radio in the bedroom and the heater in the owners water bed. The readings were like 500-2000...the clock radio was the worst.

After some research I couldnt find any correlation between these electric fields and health matters. There was some correlation with the guys who work on the big high voltage boxes and lung cancer, but later I found out there was a high correlation between the guys who work on the big high voltage boxes and smoking.

Maybe theres enough of a field to discharge a battery or pseudo-activate the light in it or some other thing. Not going to comment on the additional pair of fuzzy dice...

 

[travelover]

I was referring to some people's penchant for microwaving their undies to kill yeast in a sly, yet cute, way.

Mike D.

My hat started to mildew in Costa Rica last year, so I popped it in to the microwave. First minute was great, then the smoke started.

 

[Nords]

I'm surprised Nords hasnt jumped in here yet. He claims the older microwaves are actually better 'shielded' than the newer ones so moving to a newer one for vague safety purposes may be counterproductive.

Hey, this morning's surfing was awesome and I just woke up from my nap.

I have a hard time believing that modern microwave shielding is better than the 1980s just because it's one-tenth the size & weight of its ancestors. But if anyone knows of an objective study then I'm willing to abide by its findings. From a safe distance.

What we really should be concerned about are the standards, not the compliance. Back in 1982, when the Navy's radiological controls manual was only 2" thick, we young nukes learned the "quality factors" for the damage caused by alpha, beta, gamma, and neutron impacts on humans. Each quality factor was a multiplier reflecting the energy & damage potential of each type of radiation. (I believe the QFs were derived from research conducted on survivors of Hiroshima & Nagasaki.) Then, being nukes, we carried out exhaustive calculations regarding what type of shielding you needed, how close you could get, and how long you could stay. Exciting times.

In 1993 some world health authority convened a gathering of experts who evaluated the last few decades' progress in quality-factors research plus new data from nuclear plants & hospital equipment. When the convention was over, they raised each quality factor by a multiple of at least three. The associated "standards" were suddenly at least three times more stringent. Our radcon manual also promptly tripled in [-]shielding[/-] thickness.

While we nukes were wandering around submarine engine rooms with dosimeters and radiacs (and occasionally the rest of the boat, not to worry), the corpsman used to wave his RF meter over the ship's microwave oven every month. He always blessed it as complying with the federal standards. However whenever we were on station we secured that microwave oven because the ship's "electronics support measures" antennae, 20 feet away and outside the ship's steel pressure hull, could pick up its 2.4 GHz signal quite easily. Not to worry.

So, even if you've already passed your genes to the next generation, next time you're making popcorn I wouldn't hang around a microwave oven watching the [-]testicles[/-] kernels pop.

And it's been a long time since I've studied my electromagnetic wave effects, but I'm sure that a watch battery's electrons get pushed around by even the best-shielded magnetrons. There's just not a federal standard for protecting watch batteries.

And, as has been previously mentioned, watches are not required ER equipment. Unless you have to wake up from a nap in time for something more important... yeah, I know, oxymoronic.

 

[Sarah in SC]

Whoa, thanks Nords for the science, I had some serious problems with those guys before you stepped in.

First off, and most importantly, who microwaves their step-ins? I gotta know!

CFB, you shared your secrets of washing cds when I inquired about the lovely white crystal litter that I wanted to try on my cats--you said yours preferred to pee in the cds (or was it albums) crate next to the litter box rather than spoil the pristine white litter, IIRC. But I think you were getting 7% on them back then.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Yeah, that was the bottom shelf of my dvd collection. They wash off nicely.

Dang, you've got a better recollection of what I've posted than I do. I'm afraid! Very afraid!!!

I feel like my anonymity is greatly threatened by such disclosures.

 

[Sarah in SC]

Nah, I just have an encyclopedic knowledge of cat pee related posts. With five of them, and the five dogs, I am considered somewhat of an expert among my associates. Little do they know, I glean much of my cat and dog related authority from this board. I remembered that just because I was disappointed to learn of the fallacy of the lightweight litter.

I promise I'm not stalking you, and I definitely don't have the energy to figure out if you are a 12 yr old girl from Missoula. Your secrets are still safe, fuzzy.

 

[redduck]

Well, I was expecting that Nords and CFB would show up, but MikeD, what a gift! So, if I understand the replies correctly, the microwave is safe And, I should keep my battery-operated watches some place other than the top of the microwave. OK, the rest of you folks made it all happen and you know who you are.

But, since this is actually kind of an creepy topic around our house, any chance that the microwave is dangerous to human-types?

Nords, do you always wake up after a nap on all 32 cylinders firing?

 

[haha]

I was referring to some people's penchant for microwaving their undies to kill yeast in a sly, yet cute, way.

Mike D.

That is so cute that I would run in the other direction.

Ha

 

[calmloki]

I was referring to some people's penchant for microwaving their undies to kill yeast in a sly, yet cute, way.

Mike D.

I can imagine that working if said unnerwear was damp, but having watched sugar ants running around in the nuker for protracted times i doubt lethal microwave effectiveness on an itty bitty dry product like yeast cells. Perhaps something to do with ants being shorter than the normal 2.5 gigahertz microwave oven wavelength? Or maybe sugar ants lack much fat or water to absorb the waves. I'm sure there are engineeers on board who can speak with authority to this.

 

[CuppaJoe]

I can imagine that working if said unnerwear was damp, but having watched sugar ants running around in the nuker for protracted times i doubt lethal microwave effectiveness on an itty bitty dry product like yeast cells. Perhaps something to do with ants being shorter than the normal 2.5 gigahertz microwave oven wavelength? Or maybe sugar ants lack much fat or water to absorb the waves. I'm sure there are engineeers on board who can speak with authority to this.[/QUOTE
-
Hope not, Ewwwww! This could be a job for the SPCA.

 

[calmloki]

I can imagine that working if said unnerwear was damp, but having watched sugar ants running around in the nuker for protracted times i doubt lethal microwave effectiveness on an itty bitty dry product like yeast cells. Perhaps something to do with ants being shorter than the normal 2.5 gigahertz microwave oven wavelength? Or maybe sugar ants lack much fat or water to absorb the waves. I'm sure there are engineeers on board who can speak with authority to this.[/QUOTE
-
Hope not, Ewwwww! This could be a job for the SPCA.

Yeah, lemme hear your PETA cries when you are nuking a donut and see the little buggers racing around and laughing at you. While eating ants is a good way to boost folic acid and B vitamin intake i'm generally agin having them for breakfast. They, however, have no compunctions about getting to my breakfast before i do. Wee sneaky devils!

 

[Sarah in SC]

Boric acid might work to eliminate the little buggers still left untouched by the microwaves! Sprinkle it in the backs of your cabinets and where the counter and backsplash meet. Works for me!
I am still not imagining any scenario where my step ins are going in the microwave.

 

[CuppaJoe]

Yeah, lemme hear your PETA cries when you are nuking a donut and see the little buggers racing around and laughing at you. While eating ants is a good way to boost folic acid and B vitamin intake i'm generally agin having them for breakfast. They, however, have no compunctions about getting to my breakfast before i do. Wee sneaky devils!

-
I've been found out again! I don't own a microwave oven but can't imagine re-heating a do-nut at all. I'm a purist, my do-nuts must be fresh from this bakery window:

 

[Sarah in SC]

just one word for you, hyphenated: Krispy Kreme.

Only the southerners will understand. Good lord, I'd run over my mother for a hot fresh Krispy Kreme doughnut!

 

[CuppaJoe]

just one word for you, hyphenated: Krispy Kreme.

Only the southerners will understand. Good lord, I'd run over my mother for a hot fresh Krispy Kreme doughnut!

-
Me, too. Is Krispy Kreme still in business? Didn't changing market conditions ruin it? That dirty expression: low carb diets, or was it Atkins?

Bring on the bacon! "At last, Gwendolyn!" I mean B A C O N!