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Funranium Labs
Personal blog · funraniumlabs.comscience
Funranium Labs is a personal blog at funraniumlabs.com about science. Since 2012, 35 different Hacker News readers have linked it 54 times, most often “Laser Products I Hate”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-28, and you can follow it by feed.
An exploration of ultracoffee, radiation safety, and more often than not a beer or two.
Most-linked posts?
- Laser Products I Hate5 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2017-08-24
- The Fringes of Regulation (2018)4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2021-05-24
- How I got my laser eye injury3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2024-08-01
- Alcoholism in Antarctica3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2013-06-27
- The Black Blood of the Earth3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2012-07-19
- /2024/04/choose-your-own-radiation-adventure-kneejerk-spent-fuel-solutions/2 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2024-05-26
- The Black Blood of the Earth2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-07-13
- So, You Want to Test a Nuclear Weapon?2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2017-03-21
- An April Fools Cautionary Tale (2015)2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2018-09-18
- /2023/11/ultraviolet-rant/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-11-07
What Hacker News says?
It reads like most Funranium Labs posts. Here are some other good ones: https://www.funraniumlabs.com/2015/04/an-april-fools-caution... https://www.funraniumlabs.com/2018/09/the-fringes-of-regulat...
Comment linking /2018/09/the-fringes-of-regulation/
on “How I got my laser eye injury”Submitted How I got my laser eye injury as a story · 792 points
HN discussionFunranium has a post about that, too: https://www.funraniumlabs.com/2023/11/ultraviolet-rant/
Comment linking /2023/11/ultraviolet-rant/
on “How I got my laser eye injury”Submitted Alcoholism in Antarctica as a story · 180 points
HN discussionAlmost a different Funranium post: https://www.funraniumlabs.com/2022/12/choose-your-own-radiat...
Comment linking /2022/12/choose-your-own-radiation-adventure-anti-drone-radiation/
on “How I got my laser eye injury”Submitted Laser Products I Hate as a story · 81 points
HN discussionregarding LLM giving wrong advice on chemicals, that reminds me of that article https://www.funraniumlabs.com/2024/04/phil-vs-llms/ , where the author asked (referencing the East Palestine train derailment) > I fed “how to respond to a vinyl chloride fire” into ChatGPT and it told responders to use a water fog on the water reactive chemical. This would have changed a train derailment/hazmat spill/fire emergency into…
Comment linking /2024/04/phil-vs-llms/
on “Uncensor any LLM with abliteration”Submitted A Different Take on Fukushima as a story · 23 points
HN discussionOne that I'm aware of - Black Blood of the Earth - https://www.funraniumlabs.com/the-black-blood-of-the-earth/ > Fast forward 14 years. An acquaintance working and living in Japan went on holiday and discovered a bar with this exceptionally beautiful rig for the preparation of Viennese Triple Cold Extraction Coffee. Upon sampling this, he felt that, and I quote, “I could see colors that weren’t in the visible spectr…
Comment linking /the-black-blood-of-the-earth/
on “Cold brew coffee in 3 minutes using acoustic cavitation”Submitted So, You Want to Test a Nuclear Weapon? as a story · 8 points
HN discussionStart by spending a winter in Antarctica. There's always demand for semi-skilled and quasi-skilled labour there. Plumbers, carpenters, construction workers, lab techs. You'll even get paid for it, and are almost certainly not going to die. Read some blogs about life in a frozen hell before you go - you may very quickly realize whether or not this kind of thing is for you. Most people find that it's not. [1] > Antarc…
Comment linking /2013/06/alcoholism-in-antarctica/
on “Making Human Settlement of Space a Reality”Submitted Colonies, Coinage, and Gold as a story · 3 points
HN discussionA related example from last year, near Page Mill Road: https://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/2018/03/01/stanford-sues... And an entertaining rant by a UC Berkeley Health Physicist, on D&D (Decontamination & Demolition): http://www.funraniumlabs.com/2019/05/a-stream-of-consciousne...
Comment linking /2019/05/a-stream-of-consciousness-rant-on-dd-projects/
on “Silicon Valley is one of the most polluted places in the country”Submitted Choose Your Own – Radiation – Adventure as a story · 2 points
HN discussionI also found the writing style grating, but not for a lack of efficiency; it just felt kind of empty and fake-deep. (Definitely also wondered whether an LLM editor or co-author was part of the equation.) For contrast, I recently saw this blog post off an HN submission and loved it. Very un-efficient but engaging and full of character. https://www.funraniumlabs.com/2024/04/choose-your-own-radiat...
Comment linking /2024/04/choose-your-own-radiation-adventure-kneejerk-spent-fuel-solutions/
on “Compression culture is making you stupid and uninteresting”Submitted A Stream of Consciousness Rant on Decontamination and Demolition Projects as a story · 2 points
HN discussion> I guess things might be a bit tougher at the base where they house the American nukes. Regarding nuclear facilities, that reminds me of story on juridiction between an US Marshal and the security personnel of nuclear facility. http://www.funraniumlabs.com/2018/09/the-fringes-of-regulati...
Comment linking /2018/09/the-fringes-of-regulation/
on “A KGB agent shipped a Sidewinder missile by mail to Moscow (2017)”Submitted An April Fools Cautionary Tale (2015) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionI remember reading a lot about staying during the winter in Antarctica from this: http://www.funraniumlabs.com/category/antarctica/ Alcohol, lot of alcohol.
Comment linking /category/antarctica/
on “How Antarctic bases went from wooden huts to sci-fi chic”Submitted An April Fools Cautionary Tale - Do not prank emergency responders as a story · 2 points
HN discussionThe only way around this that I can think of is if you live in a state that has the wines locally, and a friend or family member wants one, you may be able to ship it to them. Personally, when it is holiday time, I have shipped wine to myself at my parent's address, so that I wouldn't have to pack it for a flight. Is it legal? My guess it is, but only because you aren't selling it to someone. I am not a lawyer, and…
Comment linking /
on “Wines Are No Longer Free to Travel Across State Lines”Submitted Laser products (Cubiio) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionRelatedly, the writer here offers a photo of some beautiful Japanese apparatus for cold brewing, a few paragraphs down. http://www.funraniumlabs.com/the-black-blood-of-the-earth/ "Fast forward 14 years. An acquaintance working and living in Japan went on holiday and discovered a bar with this exceptionally beautiful rig for the preparation of Viennese Triple Cold Extraction Coffee. Upon sampling this, he felt that,…
Comment linking /the-black-blood-of-the-earth/
on “The Japanese Iced Coffee Method (2012)”Submitted Advice to a Young Scientist/Engineer (2015) as a story · 1 points
HN discussion> and you can't exactly go out to bars on Saturday and buy women expensive drinks. Alcoholism is a problem at Antartica. http://www.funraniumlabs.com/2013/06/alcoholism-in-antarctic...
Comment linking /2013/06/alcoholism-in-antarctica
on “Running a South Pole data center”Submitted The Fringes of Regulation (2018) as a story · 1 points
HN discussion> And 100W is HUGE for a laser. And 5W is huge for a laser. (Class 3R is up to .005W and Class 3B is up to .5W.) It's kind of irrelevant, but I think it's worth pointing out that while those are legal/safety/sanity limits [0], there's a lot of companies that completely ignore them. Here's one that has quite a few 5W lasers [1], and some that are supposedly up to 50W which would be insane if true. As for 100W being h…
Comment linking /2017/08/laser-products-hate/
on “Theoretical way to levitate objects with light”Submitted Choose Your Own Radiation Adventure – Collections of the Dead as a story · 1 points
HN discussionThe laser would ricochet from disintegrating drones (think of the props) and cause collateral damage to people on the ground. Also see this (with remaining eye): https://www.funraniumlabs.com/2024/07/how-i-got-my-laser-eye...
Comment linking /2024/07/how-i-got-my-laser-eye-injury/
on “DARPA program sets distance record for power beaming”Submitted The Black Blood of the Earth as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
