Alan B. Pearce wrote:
>>Well, when I was at secondary school I had a piece of solid mercury 
>>sitting
on the tip of my finger for a few minutes.<<

When I was in elementary school, my cousing broke a thermometer and showed 
me how to make a (Soviet) copper penny into a shiny silver dime (he rubbed 
it in mercury with his fingers).

A few years later, I witnessed a group of kids breaking fluorescent bulbs 
and rubbing pennies with the white powder. When I pointed out that mercury 
is toxic, and they really shouldn't be handling it, they gave me a lecture 
on how crazy they would have been to use mercury, and that the white powder 
wasn't mercury at all. :)

Vitaliy 

-- 
http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist