Mercur-ious

Ever thought that the news is just the breeding ground for bad ideas? The other day I was thinking this, and then this morning I became even more convinced. It just seems like if people do horrendous things and then make the news, the horrendous idea has gotten out to the masses, in turn leading to more people committing the same horrendous acts. In trying to rationalize with myself I thought that maybe people don't commit the same crimes they hear on the news simply because more people, such as law enforcement, will be more aware and therefore more inclined to suspect criminal behavior because of the news. However, I don't think this theory reigns true either. In fact, I think that if people paid attention to the news they could get ideas for some pretty extreme acts. Not that this is a good thing. For example, at a school in Washington, DC, some kids spilled mercury by breaking thermometers. As a result, school has been closed for over a week. Mercury is bad news, everyone knows. When it spills onto the floor, it breaks up into miniscule beads that can't be seen at all and then breaks into even smaller airborne particles. This is dangerous, right? This school in DC had to bring in special vacuums and whatnot to deal with the problem. They quoted some kids on the story as saying they thought it was funny, which doesn't surprise me in the slightest, but does confirm some other thoughts about my career choice and how I could rapidly change my plan and go flip burgers or drive a truck. This also made me think of the time that we got out of high school because of rain. Someone said the rain could become ice, so we all went home. It just rained. You remember this people! See, that was funny. Mercury divided into a million beads that are everywhere in the cracks and crevices of old tiled floors isn't. Back to the thing about the news--I heard this report on NPR. I don't necessarily know any kids who listen to NPR, and even know a few adults who think NPR stands for No Penguin Reproducing allowed or something, when it in fact stands for National Public Radio. So probably kids aren't going to hear the story, but, hypothetically speaking, I can see a few of my own students hearing about this incident in DC and then running all over, raiding everyone's house, neighbors, grandma's, and the like, then coming into school with a bookbag full of thermometers and just dropping them one by one until they all break. That's a bleak image I guess, and not all kids would do that, but there are definitely some who would think it was just a brilliant plan. Mercury is amazingly harmful in scope. Apparently the amount in one thermometer can contaminate a 20-acre lake. While I was sitting at the 30-minute 4 way stop near school listening to this mercury story and feeling doomed by the amount of stuff in the cracks of my classroom floor, I looked up to see that there was a car in front of me, a Mercury Topaz. That did make me laugh; it truly is everywhere.