this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2025
252 points (99.6% liked)

xkcd

12657 readers
324 users here now

A community for a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

xkcd #3131: Cesium

Title text:

Someday I hope to find a way to mess up a recipe so badly that it draws the attention of the International Air Transport Association, the International Mathematical Olympiad, or the NSA.

Transcript:

Transcript will show once it’s been added to explainxkcd.com

Source: https://xkcd.com/3131/

explainxkcd for #3131

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] fahfahfahfah@lemmy.billiam.net 37 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (1 children)

Apparently the shipping containers themselves were contaminated. The shrimp itself wasn’t detected to be radioactive but they’re recalling it anyways out of caution.

[–] peoplebeproblems@midwest.social 16 points 8 hours ago (3 children)

That makes sense, but it's weird that the shipping containers were contaminated unless they were shipping nuclear waste or unsafe radiological sources...

[–] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 1 points 32 minutes ago

Smuggling and clandestine military operations with zero regard for public safety are more common than you’d think, because when things go wrong nobody gets punished.

[–] _stranger_@lemmy.world 2 points 3 hours ago

I'm sure they hosed it out before piping in the shrimp.

[–] Bubs@lemmy.zip 17 points 7 hours ago

Best guess I heard was broken medical equipment leaked cesium