An exploration of ultracoffee, radiation safety, and more often than not a beer or two.
The other half of last week’s fun was responding to a request from UC and Berkeley Police Departments to assist them with some training for their bomb squad unit. While they’re quite familiar with what to do with explosives, they wanted to get some practice in with radioactive sources just to work on potential “dirty …
Continue reading “Playing Cops & Robots and Touching Faults, Part 2”
Tickets are officially purchased for upcoming the May and June parts of the 2011 Scientific Drinking Tour plus a new addition in September! This is your opportunity to get direct hand off of either Steins of Science or BBotE while we’re on the road. They more detailed itinerary looks like this: May 12th-17th: Fairbanks, AK We …
There’s nothing quite like the end of the month, which is always paperwork crunch time, for new and interesting opportunities to crop up. Despite knowing the certain long hours they will demand in make up time, you just can’t…say…no. Two of those happened this week, I got to enter into UC Berkeley’s Lawson Adit (definition: …
Continue reading “Playing Cops & Robots and Touching Faults, Pt. 1”
“We really shook the pillars of heaven, didn’t we, Wang?” -Big Jack Burton, Big Trouble in Little China (1986) Some interesting bits that have come my way asking very basic questions about why I do things the way I do. I often find questioning the basic assumptions and things so common that they’re invisible reveals …
Are you desirous of BBotE but would like more than mere coffee for you money? I have an opportunity for you. Because I love the PDXYar kids so, I have put a case of BBotE at their disposal to give out as rewards. So, if you decide to back them at the $150 level, you …
Very soon Scientific Drinking Tour 2011 will be taking yours truly and his Lovely Assistant to around this fair nation of ours do places north of the Mason-Dixon line that we have never been. Yes, we freely admit that our mutual failure to go to the Smithsonian is simply unacceptable and we aim to remedy …
So, I think I’ve taken the hint that you guys like the silicone sheathed dewars for your steins based upon my inability to maintain any stock of them. The reason I bring this up is because I normally quote a three week production window on the steins from the time of order until it ships. …
As an increasingly infamous denizen of the Internet, I am forced to reckon with the potent evolving AIs that want to give me formidable never-ending erections for the Russian girls that want to talk just to me. Our robot overlords only want what’s best for Herr Direktor Funranium, obviously. Charles Stross had a very good discussion about …
Right out the gate, I must highly recommend the work of Mr. Nicholas Johnson writer of Big Dead Place and curator of the website of the same name. I started giggling at his tales while I was still in Antarctica and it now helps me maintain a connection to a continent I never expect to …
Continue reading “Corporate Culture vs. The Frozen Frontier”
Wednesday evening I had the pleasure of picking up Test Subjects Brian Clevinger, Scott Wegener, and Scott Wegener’s Beard from San Francisco International Airport. Both of them had just completed an arduous journey through several of this nation’s finest and most delayed airports. My Lovely Assistant and I felt it appropriate to greet them on …
Continue reading “Attacking Befuddled Travelers With Kindness & Stein Tragedy”
I have an email folder devoted to messages of “Yeah, you weren’t kidding about the 100ml/day thing” but I could start a second one, nearly as large, regarding “Why is it so expensive to ship BBotE to Canada? WE’RE RIGHT ACROSS THE BORDER!!!” There’s normally a bit more swearing in the email than that. The …
Continue reading “Buffalo, Hear The Plight of Your Canadian Neighbors”
Denizens of Clark County, I am headed your way again at stupid o’clock in the morning. If there are things you’d like me to be bringing your way and thus deftly evade shipping fees, lemme know. There’s only so much room in my luggage and first come, first served. Before you ask, Kona, Sumatra, and …
In addition to being South Pole Station’s bartender, my actual job (the reason I was sent to the bottom of the Earth) was as the science/cryogenics technician. It was my job to take care of all the liquid helium and liquid nitrogen and make sure all the cryogenic equipment on the telescopes stayed in good …
So, Kickstarter has brought many wonderful things my way, but some are near and dear to my heart. No, I am not here to request money for a project of my own; you already do that with your consumption BBotE & Steins of Science which only encourages me to go screw around with lab apparatus …
Continue reading “Shameless Whorebaggery On Behalf Of Others”
When someone wants to justify to themselves (or, more likely, their significant other) why they should be allowed to spend money on BBotE or a Stein of Science, I get a give-me-a-reason email. In my quest for “More Awesome” I accidentally tripped into “Good For My Health”. Allow me to explain: The Steins of Science …