this post was submitted on 29 Mar 2026
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Science Memes

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[–] aberrate_junior_beatnik@midwest.social 196 points 3 days ago (7 children)

Imagine using something dangerous to generate power or heat for a home. Something that if it leaks into your home could suffocate you overnight or explode, or that in normal use can give children respiratory issues or cause cancer. Thank goodness we're too smart to use something like that unlike the absolute imbeciles in this comic

[–] lengau@midwest.social 82 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Imagine if we had to move it around in such large quantities that there were thousands of kilometres of unwatched pipelines just out there, potentially leaking.

[–] anomnom@sh.itjust.works 11 points 2 days ago
[–] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 71 points 3 days ago

And imagine people fight pointless wars over resources instead of using the renewables that are available for free.

[–] NotBillMurray@lemmy.world 20 points 2 days ago (4 children)

Not only that, but mining for it produces massive quantities of dangerous runoff and radioactive waste. Good thing coal doesn't do that!

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[–] rizzothesmall@sh.itjust.works 9 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

The radiation explains why his right arm is long enough that he could scratch his shins standing up

[–] SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 2 days ago

Future rock climbing world champion

[–] kalpol@lemmy.ca 32 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] mactrl@lemmy.world 12 points 2 days ago (2 children)

tell me you dont understand how nuclear-powered energy without telling me you dont understand nuclear-powered energy

[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 17 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today 7 points 2 days ago

Beta-voltaic batteries are fairly safe, work for 50 years, no recharging.

Almos tuseless at like 0.1 milliwats.

[–] Honytawk@discuss.tchncs.de 8 points 2 days ago

It's easy: just boil some water

[–] humanspiral@lemmy.ca 6 points 2 days ago

$ 0.001

The Jetsons/strangelove era pricing for nuclear energy was based on fuel costs only, and certainly scale was needed rather than this absurd wafer system. The fuel costs were based on no one using any yet, and maybe children yearning for the cancer.

[–] Deceptichum@quokk.au 53 points 3 days ago (5 children)

“Junior please walk 30cm to the left and do this task that would have been easier for me to do than ask you to do it”

[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago

30cm can make a big difference

[–] modus@lemmy.world 44 points 3 days ago

It's just one of those things you can do yourself, but you want the kid to feel valuable too.

Besides, if you're getting radiation poisoning, you want that little shit to go down with you.

[–] 5too@lemmy.world 25 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

It's faster, cleaner, and far more efficient for me to clean my kids' dinner plates.

And if I always do it, they'll never do it on their own.

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[–] bstix@feddit.dk 33 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

I guess renewables are still cheaper.

At least personally and anecdotally, because it doesn't happen often, but it has happened more than once, that I have purchased electricity at negative prices due to overflow from renewables, which is a hell of lot cheaper than paying a tenth of a cent per kilowatt hour.

[–] mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 14 points 2 days ago (18 children)

no radioactive waste to deal with either.

and with solar, most of the hardware can be recycled now into new units; with a 20 year lifespan, that's going to pull thousands of kilowatts out of the sky, that'll do just fine.

https://www.pv-tech.org/a-billion-dollar-industry-inside-the-growing-solar-panel-recycling-sector-in-the-us/

[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 17 points 2 days ago (2 children)

My main thing with solar is I wish they'd put panels over existing parking lots or large buildings. This is a thing that is already done in some places, this is a solved engineering problem, but in my area anywhere a solar farm has sprung up it's been a field that previously either grew crops or was undeveloped woods. And I know the reason someone's going to come back with: To install solar awnings over an existing Wal Mart parking lot, you need to tear up the asphalt to install power lines, build the actual structure, permitting is probably more expensive, and you have to have some or all of the parking lot down for awhile during construction restricting the use of the store. Meanwhile, clear cut 10 acres of forest and you get lumber to sell to a paper mill.

[–] mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 10 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I disagree, only thinking we should cover EVERYTHING - any human building / structure etc should have solar all over. yeah, it's not cheap to build them, but we should stop playing fuckaround and get it done, it'll be cheaper to do it today than tomorrow.

But re: fields - they can do double duty via agrivoltaics - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agrivoltaics

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[–] AlternatePersonMan@lemmy.world 53 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Pretty sure that kid's arm would hang down to his ankle if he straightened it. Must be all those atomic wafers.

[–] zout@fedia.io 29 points 3 days ago

He's actually the bass player in a metal band.

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[–] TacoButtPlug@sh.itjust.works 28 points 3 days ago (2 children)

I feel like "Atomic Wafer" should be a band name

[–] Whats_your_reasoning@lemmy.world 13 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Or as slang for a tab of LSD

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[–] Multiplexer@discuss.tchncs.de 34 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

"Kilowat"

Might have questioned the reliability of that information source even back then already...

[–] dmention7@midwest.social 39 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Yes, the kilo-wat. For when a simple "wat" doesn't accurately capture the absurdity of the situation.

For example, asking junior to put an atomic wafer in the power box, when you are standing right fucking next to it.

[–] nocturne@slrpnk.net 51 points 3 days ago (2 children)
[–] ChicoSuave@lemmy.world 19 points 3 days ago (2 children)
[–] WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world 13 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] Slashme@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago (2 children)

That's 1024 Wats, so a kibiWat, not a kiloWat

[–] zod000@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 days ago

This is my type of pedantry!

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