Ryan Pierce 🇺🇦 🌻

In case it isn’t clear, I’ve stopped posting original content on this hellsite. I much prefer the Skies to be Blue. If we follow each other and haven’t connected over there, please DM and I’ll send you a link and some personal updates.

Excited to be part of the Chicago Materials Research Center team!

@RSudowe I’m now picturing someone pouring that on a stack of pancakes. Forbidden breakfast! 🥞☢️ I suppose that would best be served with bacon from German wild boars.

Yesterday's fun activity was to prepare a calibration standard consisting of different gamma-emitting radionuclides in maple syrup for an ongoing proficiency test. The high density of the syrup leads to self attenuation in the sample. This standard will account for that.

I checked back on the @HiRISE website today...and found out that my HiWish was granted! A crater within a crater near Noctis Labyrinthus:

@BreakingTaps And then there's the moment where your mind gets bent along with the pipe once you realize that the pipe effectively gets longer each time you put a bend in it!

Ok, so when were y'all going to tell me how satisfying pipe bending is? 🤨

Then the next big problem: What do you do when your BLÅHAJ claims your brand new computer chair? How do you argue with a such cute, soft shonk? I don’t think the warranty will help here…

Warranty by default is 3 years and you can upgrade that to 5 years by posting a pic in social media and registering that with them.

My horrible old computer chair finally died, so I went all out on a replacement. This is a #Secretlab Titan EVO 2022. It came highly recommended by several friends, and I have to say, it’s quite comfortable. The adjustable lumbar support sold me on it.

@Casillic @nuclearkatie Well, there were insinuations that Teller was a Soviet spy. He was blindly insistent on the Classical Super design that Ulam & von Neumann later showed clearly could not work, and advocated the US produce tritium instead of Pu which meant less fission weapons in the stockpile.

@nuclearkatie Teller! Just kidding...

Who was the real villain in Oppenheimer?

@CleanFutureFund Was that photo taken in Starry Tallinn, Slavutych? I remember Celsius vodka. That was how we “decontaminated” on my first Chernobyl trip.

Moving from popcorn 🍿 to something a little stronger. The only question, which one? All three are MADE IN UKRAINE 🇺🇦

@GrantWTrent I guess we got really lucky on our 2019 tour. Our docents were incredibly knowledgeable and one was an old timer who was involved first hand with the testing. He mentioned how he personally filled a bank vault that was going to get nuked with money and papers.

@GrantWTrent Icecap was really fascinating. Unfortunately, our group spent so much time there that we had to cut the Apple houses from the tour. But we did get a chance to walk around at Frenchman Flat and saw some incredible examples of blast damage.

@GrantWTrent Our guide’s camera was messed up and it lost the group Sedan crater pic…

Valves reassembled and tested at pressure. Portafilter and basket acquired. First test shots of espresso are a success!

The hot water valve doesn’t fully close. When the water boils, the pressure forces the water in the boiler out via the hot water arm. Taking apart the valve, I see it’s completely covered in scale. I can try to descale it with citric acid, or I can try to get a valve rebuild kit.

Espresso machine update: I’ve got it assembled on top of my kitchen sink to test it (in case it has leaks.) So far, with the heater disconnecting, it’s working fine. The new hose fixed the leak. The group head seems to work. But turning the heater on causes problems.

@Casillic I just love the addition of “Eschatologically”

Tom Lehrer Complete (65 Songs music book) archive.org/details/tom-le…

The way that Bud Light and Target are reacting to the far right angry at including LGBTQ+ people is EXACTLY why many of us have railed against corporate pride. If your advocacy consists merely of rainbows that disappear at the first gust of fascist wind, it amounts to net harm.