• 1 Post
  • 69 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
cake
Cake day: July 4th, 2023

help-circle




  • They fired the cinder blocks to temperature without any metal just to test them and did go through several before they got a number that could be repeatedly heated to temp without crumbling or exploding. They used proper PPE the whole time with professional supervision. edit: also, they were using the cinderblocks as the enclosure, not to support the crucible. they used ceramic alumina rods and stands like those used in pottery kilns for the stands and supports.

    Again, you’re missing the point. The point is people get really fucking creative and don’t necessarily let the danger stop them from doing something. So I wouldn’t bet my health that OOP’s pan isn’t contaminated beyond the seasoning.


  • In my experience, people get really creative when it comes to kitchen/garage chemistry, so all I’m saying is I wouldn’t rule out anything that is physically possible.

    Especially if we’re talking about one’s personal health.

    Edit: since it’s relevant, I literally just taught a lab section that has a research project component, and one group did their project on metallurgy. They were able to use butane Bunsen burner attachments and cinder blocks to make a furnace that was able to melt iron and make some mediocre steel alloys using only stuff you can buy at Home Depot.



  • Chemistry instructor here. It depends on how hot you get the pan. For the most part, the lead is going to stay in the seasoning, like someone mentioned above. However, if it got anywhere close to the melting point of the iron, you could wind up incorporating some of the lead into the iron itself. This seems pretty unlikely, as lead melts at about 325oC and iron melts above 1,500oC, but it’s possible as natural gas and propane burners can get up to above 1,900oC


  • NielsBohron@lemmy.worldtomemes@lemmy.worldNice one
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    9
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    6 months ago

    The biggest part of the issue in state-run higher-ed is the glacial pace at which hiring happens vs. how fast the works shows up. My organization is legitimately trying to hire appropriately (I believe), but we can’t allocate resources until the students show up, and then it’s an 18 month turn around between filing a faculty hiring request and the person starting work due to the standard academic hiring cycle and state-mandated EEO requirements (and that’s assuming that admin approve the hiring request the first time you ask for it, which they do as often as they can). On the other hand, it only takes 2 weeks for people to resign and move on, so we’re losing people as fast as we can hire them. We could to try to hire faster, but it’s a tiny school with a tiny HR (so we’re capped at hiring about 4-5 faculty positions per year) and a small number of faculty (so it’s hard getting enough people to volunteer when you need to fill a hiring committee).

    Honestly, I really like the organization and think admin are making good choices, but we legally can’t turn students away, so when more people enroll, there’s more work with the same number of workers for at least a year. It’s honestly a good problem to have, and they do a decent job at compensating me for my extra work, but I’d rather have more help and less OT as soon as we can manage it.

    All that said, working in private industry or in an organization that doesn’t have as many restrictions, I would absolutely be saying “no” a lot more. As it is, when I say no, it’s my colleagues and the students that feel the repercussions, not admin, and I have a hard time being OK with that.


  • NielsBohron@lemmy.worldtomemes@lemmy.worldNice one
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    37
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    edit-2
    6 months ago

    It’s not my fault, but it is definitely my problem if I’m in a position to help people and decide not to. Make no mistake, I raise holy hell while I’m doing it, but the lack of workers doesn’t lessen the amount of work that needs to get done. Maybe it’s just naivete, but I’m idealistic enough to believe that helping students is the most important thing I can do, so I only say yes to things that are directly helping students, faculty, and staff (admin and their busy work can fuck right off with their bloated salaries and support staff)


  • NielsBohron@lemmy.worldtomemes@lemmy.worldNice one
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    48
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    6 months ago

    This is definitely a difference between people that believe the work they do is important and people just punching a clock.

    I teach at a community college (salaried) and my partner works as staff in the same school (hourly). She works her ass off, but when she gets to the end of the day, she is done and leaves work at the office, so attending meetings is no big deal to her. Meanwhile, I’ve gotten involved enough in peripheral committee work that I regularly stay up working until 1AM because there are literally not enough hours in the day to get done what needs to get done. I could try to leave work at work, but I’d be hanging students and fellow instructors out to dry, so that’s not always an option.



  • I’m sure someone will come along and point out that the 90s were no more or less peaceful than any other decade

    Not to be that guy, but there was the whole Bosnian Genocide thing from 92-95 and the Gulf War from 90-91 that really legitimized the US practice of inference in the Middle East in the eyes of many US citizens. Up until then, most Americans still saw intervention a la the Iran Contra Affair as a negative.

    Plus, the Troubles in North Ireland were still in pretty high gear until 1998, most of Africa was involved in civil wars and ethnic cleansing for a large chunk of the 90’s, and the collapse of the USSR, which was viewed as a positive in many parts of the world, did leave a power vacuum that resulted in numerous civil wars and militant separatist movements throughout eastern Europe and western Asia