#radithor

Useless Facts, Badly Drawn #369: William J. A. Bailey.
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#radithor #quackmedicine #pseudoscience #radiation #williamjabailey #quacks #frauds #radioactivequakery #idiots #bruh #wtf #strangebuttrue #webcomic #comics #uselessfacts #uselessfactsbadlydrawn

Radioactive Water Was Once a (Horrifying) Health Fad - Take a little time to watch the history of Radithor, a presentation by [Adam Blume... - https://hackaday.com/2023/11/10/radioactive-water-was-once-a-horrifying-health-fad/ #chemistryhacks #radioactivity #radiumwater #radiation #medicine #quackery #radithor #snakeoil #science #radium #1920s #1930s #curie

#ChatGPT is the #Radithor of today. Like #radium, LLMs are very useful for some specific purposes. But new powerful things tend to be put to use where they shouldn't be. Soon after the discovery of radium by Maria Skłodowska-Curie in 1898 the wonderful substance started being used in many applications. Self-luminous watches with glowing dials were very useful, but the workers who painted the dials became seriously ill after years of work. They became known as the Radium Girls (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radium_Girls). The new substance was also used without any thought in cosmetics and food. A German toothpaste, Doramad Radioactive, was supposed to give teeth wonderful, radioactive brilliance. Radithor (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radithor) was sold as the panaceum for all health problems until, after years of use, the jaw of the millionaire socialite Eben Byers rotted in 1932. The abuse of LLMs is similarly jaw-dropping and will also lead to many deaths.