[rubs temples] Do I need to explain depleted uranium again? I don’t wanna explain depleted uranium again. Dammit @dankaszeta.bsky.social The primary bit is covered in the first section of this rant which Cheryl Rofer strongly encouraged me to write. Depleted Uranium, dep-U or DU in comman shorthand, is the remainder after natural uranium has been …
Category Archives: All News
Time vs. Admnisitrative Controls
This week, I had the pleasure of attending the DOE Laser Safety Officer (LSO) Workshop which is always a nice chance to meet colleagues from all over the complex and affiliated univerities. I’m sad I missed the LSO Axe Throwing Competition (PROTIP: never gamble with the guy from NIST, he will hustle you). But just …
The Delta Movie File – READY PLAYER ONE
In the long, long ago, in the beforetimes, when Delta’s GoGo In-flight Entertainment System was a thing, I watched many movies on my iPad Mini flying around this world of ours. This, of course, can get a bit boring on long flights even in first class. Delta didn’t rotate their movies often and their catalog …
A Noble Reason To Make Pants – A Tale of Italy
To end 2025 on a high note, a long promised story. Once upon a time, I went to Italy. This was a very good idea and I recommend it. I don’t necessarily recommend doing some of the things I did over the span of two weeks in Rome, Florence, and Naples but they were all …
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The Decembering 2025 – Yes, It’s That Time Again
One of the ways I mark the change of the seasons is when I get my first order designating it as a holiday gift. It’s my sign that I need to revise this post for a new year and gird my loins for the MAXIMUM PRODUCTION that’s soon to come. This year it happened on …
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My Most Evil Coins
I have often described myself as a human giftschrank. That I keep ahold of the poisonous knowledge that others need to forget to have a happy life, but that it is important to keep around for when we need it. When someone needs to “rediscover” some horrible event to bring cautionary tales back to everyone …
In Memoriam: Jen Miller & Extra Life Overtime
For those those that were paying attention on social media or watched the Extra Life 2024 streams, you may be aware that my good friend Jen Miller, AKA Test Subject IT To Porn (though she was much more than that), died rather suddenly in October 2024. If you have purchased any BBotE off the store …
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Radiation Roadtrip 2024
Sometimes there are treasures that are worth driving 2000 miles for. I had to write this post first to help explain why it was worth making this trip. In the autumn of 2022, I lamented the destruction of a precious object. As a health physicist, I am also a member of the the local chapter …
Antique Rot
Man, I could have sworn I wrote down a description of Antique Rot before. When a undiversified town loses it’s economic base, it also loses it’s youth to new opportunities elsewhere. The town and it’s population are now aging and dying. One of the ways to hang on for a little bit longer, maybe squeeze …
The Decembering 2024, Once More With Feeling
One of the ways I mark the change of the seasons is when I get my first order designating it as a holiday gift. It’s my sign that I need to revise this post for a new year and gird my loins for the MAXIMUM PRODUCTION that’s soon to come. This year it happened on …
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My se7en Book Report
Because Peter Clines is a wonderful person and sent me the Penguin Readers edition of the movie adaptation of se7en, I feel obligated to complete the activates section at the back. We still owe Peter a visit to a town called SHAME in our next Extra Life play. CHAPTER 1 1a) Vanity 1b) Sloth 1c) …
How I Got My Laser Eye Injury
It has been brought to my attention that I have never actually written this story down before, merely told it in person to many students for valuable lessons and also for laughs over cocktails. It is a litany of bad ideas from several people that all came together at once to reach out and zap …
Evolution Of Safety Equipment – The Berkeley Box
For folks that haven’t been lucky enough to experience the “Phil Points At Things That Aren’t There Anymore” Manhattan Project Tour of Berkeley, there is a secondary bit of education that comes courtesy of having 160 years worth of chemistry buildings still standing to point at. I similarly do this for students when getting them …
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Camino Primitivo After Action Report, Part 2
With Spring all sprungen and allergies going off, I am having a weird sensation of being unstuck in time. It is hard to believe almost a year as passed since we walked the Camino Primitivo, seems like it was just the other week, with a side order of anxiety that I am not training to …
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CHOOSE YOUR OWN RADIATION ADVENTURE – Kneejerk Spent Fuel Solutions
People who believe they have True Ultimate Power want nice, simple, sound bite executable solutions that obliterate nuance and complications with BOLD & DECISIVE ACTION. Were those actions good and appropriate? Ehhhhhh. [The twenty-third in an ongoing series of my compiled explainers for my CHOOSE YOUR OWN RADIATION ADVENTURE quizzes. There’s never really a right …
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