there was another! some kid on the Ars Technica forum liveblogged his attempt. notable highlights:

how it started

I melted a large hunk of uranium out of one side of an ore chunk and it is by far more radioactive than anything I have (gamma). I am however concerned that background radiation level in my office and bedroom (next door) have almost doubled. I will measure again tommorow and see if maybe it is something cosmic related.

…

HOLY FUCK. DO NOT IONIZE OR VAPORIZE URANIUM. IT IS A HEAVY METAL. It’s not the radiation that will kill you. It’s the fucking heavy metal toxicity. Here’s some guidelines for safe handling.

…

I am no David Hahn and am not as stupid, but I HAVE built a functioning breeder Aluminum+Lead sheild, but some radiation is escaping. I am going to beef it up. Right now my office is at 15-25 CPM on the counter (my dosimeter has not arrived yet) and my adjacent room is 6-10 CPM on the counter. This is over the course of 3 days in my configuration. From top to bottom. Am-241 at 2uCi bombarding a thin aluminum sheet (thicker than foil) moderated by a combo of water and paraffin, another aluminum plate to further slow the neutrons down and a crushed pile of U-238 ore (reduced with high strength peroxide). This is enclosed in a inch thick lead shield. Call me crazy if you must… I am currently as I type, evacuating an old gas laser tube. We’ll see what happens. I have Thorium and some U-238 coming in so I will be building a concrete containment block this weekend.

…

got that shit wrong. I am breeding plutonium 239. I got it messed up.

on purpose

So you’re breeding fuel for nuclear weapons? that’s what i thought. you’re breeding pu239, which means you’re breeding pu240, which is a poison. i have not given much thought to how to avoid this and change the reaction to breed something less poisonous, since you have no use for the 239 beyond “dude, i’m breeding weapons fuel!”

I am not breeding it for that purpose. Actually, I dont believe I have stated my purpose, so let me inform the fools here that may think I am breeding weapons useable fuel.<BR><BR>I am breeding this material for its HEAT. U-238 is way too long lived to decay in a manner in which would create any sort of viable heat source for use in a seebeck electric generator of my own design. Now take off the tinfoil and shoe covers and get a grip.

some developments

The gamma output just sharply dropped so something must have changed rapidly. I am just now researching what is going on so I am not quite sure yet what happened. I think I am going to pull the neutron moderators out.

…

not great, not terrible…

Current results for the test dosimeters. 1)Reactor dosimeter - 60 roentgen 2)Desk source - Broken 0-R 3)Personal source (which I had as I slept in the next room) is reading 22 roentgen.

You mean microroentgen… right? Or milliroentgen? Surely not full on roentgen?

Full roentgen.

I’m out of my area of expertise here, but according to Wikipedia, the average lifetime dose is 16R. Is there not some danger in exceeding that amount currently?

Yes, I saw that. Yes, I am concerned a bit. I havent put my reactor into the large concrete containment yet so I guess it is definately time to do so. I have no symptoms of radiation poisoning though…

…

Okay, lesson learned… My equipment is giving me shit readings, or was anyway. Realizing my CDV 715 was shit, I removed the dial from it and attached it to my DSRB88. I based the readout circuit I built on a similar circuit that uses the same GM tube, so I know it is fairly accurate and also uses the same guage. The background radiation level in my office with the reactor is about 30 uR/hr. So, If I had the money, I would get myself a CDV-700, but I do not so I will just have to make due with this. SO I AM NOT DYING AND NEITHER IS ANYONE ELSE.

…

A much better picture of the tube. I finally calculated the emmissions from this puppy to be 6mR/hr. I was hesitant to get my face so close to it, but for the sake of pics

the inevitable conclusion

so…the FBI just came… Yes, with the NRC and Texas health department…raided my home. They accused me of acquiring the materials to construct a dirty bomb. They refferenced the capacitor on page one that makes a quip about it looking like a pipe bomb. They also told me that arstechnica is under constant surveillance for things such as this. I mean, terrorists post thier research online all of the time.

Well, on the bright side, you now have some pretty accurate readings of the radiation.

nope, it’s the verbal analogy puzzle format used by tests like the SAT.

throuple : threesome :: couple : hook-up

cd /etc/nixos
nix flake update
sudo nixos-rebuild switch
git add -A .
git commit -m "Update"

🙆‍♀️

fun fact: GPU drivers on Windows run in userspace, because MS got fed up with all the blue screens they caused and kicked them out of the kernel. if the GPU driver crashes, the screen will go dark for a second and then flick back on. if the GPU driver can’t restart then Windows will fall back to software rendering.

and here I thought the radical left were the ones into speedrunning!

you know, I’m not sure you can have an uncountably infinite number of people. so whatever that abomination is I’ll send the trolley down its way. it’s probably an SCP.

yep. that’s why me and everyone I know is prepping to DIY. they can pry my estradiol from my cold, dead hands.

there will be no green light. one side will be legitimized as lawful agents or paramilitaries, every excess of force overlooked, and our side will be considered criminals and terrorists, even in self-defense.

if it comes to violence it will be more like the Troubles than the Civil War.

if this comes to violence, I will be slaughtered. not because I plan to fight, but because trans people have been so thoroughly villianized by the Right. I won’t hurt a soul, but I expect to be hurt.

violence would be a catastrophe.

Trump rounds trans people up into death camps

“another attempt to distract us from the Epstein files!”

we have to find ways to restore the other side’s empathy. it’s the only thing that’s worked for me.

I’m trans. I spent months talking with TERFs, long ago. it was horrible. but, I managed to make a connection with one of them. I described my experiences, my life, the feelings of dysphoria, the hurt from the hate… she listened, and came to care about me, and left their hateful cult.

I repeated this with conservatives I met. taught myself to keep my cool, to be honest, to answer mocking with sincerity. I didn’t try to be “one of the good ones,” I didn’t throw my sisters under the bus, I made it clear that most of us were like me - just wanting to live happy, fulfilling lives.

we need to make friends with enemies. even when they betray us and hurt us. it’s dangerous but I can see no better way forward.

I’m pretty sure the Epstein files are the distraction from sending the military to conquer our own cities.

aren’t we all hermaphrodites in that analogy?

I’d actually love a series of 1-hour lectures and a series of textbooks, but I’m a massive nerd.

leader/follower for things like Paxos and RAID arrays works okay.

wait, like bears, or bear bears? are bear bears like bears?

what the fuck is with Windows App? it takes gigs and it’s literally just an RDP wrapper.

Jesus would have hated movie theater concession stands.

theoretically, Muslims and Jews should be closer. both believe in one god, rather than a trinity. both reject icons. both follow the dietary laws. both Jews and Arabs descend from Abraham.

maybe the closer you are the more you have to fight about 🤷‍♀️