Here's a really interesting long form article on Litvinenko's death and the mechanics of how poisoning via Polonium works: https://www.readmatter.com/a/bad-blood-the-life-and-death-of...

The substance has a very short half life, which suggests only people with access to a nuclear reactor could have created it.

If I'm reading correctly, the half-life is 138 days, or 4-1/2 months. If you start with 5 times the lethal dose (still a very small quantity), you've got a year to administer it.

Thanks for that link. Awesome article.

Thanks! I'm actually sort of addicted to long-form journalism. Here's a list of some of my favorites: http://esd.io/worthreading/

You might want to check out Adam Curtis, if you don't know him yet. Start with "all watched over by machines of loving grace". It's a series available for download on archive.org.

I love your list. Here are my favorite. If you like them add to your list. http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/08/28/060828fa_fact2?c... http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/10/magazine/the-professor-the...

Awesome list, thanks! There's worse things to be addicted to...

Peace negotiations? Those are a joke. A new settlement is announced and a Palistinian community in Jerusalem is scheduled for demolition. I'm unaware of such extreme provocation from the Palistinian side, but I'm sure it is there. Peace isn't wanted anywhere near enough by anything like enough people.

The IDF had him more or less confined to a small area, IIRC.

Alexander Litvinenko was no dissident, just a gun for hire.