weekend reading

Hello Humans,
nice to have you back here! As always, relax, get into the right mood and enjoy this free weekend reading on a cozy sunday morning during your first cup of coffee, while you’re on the way to a nice exhibition or on the wiggling way home early in the morning from an afterparty.

On last weeks reading I left you a bit alone with the comment that Steward Brand is now an advocat on nuclear energy – “huiuiui, a good hippie that likes bad nuclear power?” you might have thought. Also on the big strike for climate in Berlin on September 20th I saw someone with a sign endorsing nuclear power. Thinking of the catastrophic impact nuclear fission can have on our ecosystem I wonder how environmentalists can support this technology. Coincidentally I also saw this post on subreddit theydidthemath:

The question there was if the information given with this lollipop is true, and yes, it seems to be. One tiny uranium lollilop per Human Life is the way this “ad” is trying to sell it and it’s really crazy to imaging: If me as a newborn was given this energy source, I would still cook and work with this energy and would also do for the rest of my life. A personal life-lasting energy source that size to carry around just like you do with your smartphone sounds really convincing, indeed.

Sweet, and I start to sweat: Worldwide, 59 329 031 died in 2018, which would be the amount of uranium-lollilol-waste we would have after one year assuming every human has a loppilop her/his entire lifespan. Quickly do the math: one of those pollilop’s weight is, according to the reddit mathmagician, 56.22g. 56.22g times 59.329.031 deaths equals *mental arithmetic* roughly 3.335 tons ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Some numbers to compare it to: All over the world 12.000 tons nuclear waste are produced each year and 300.000 tons are already produced ^[source]. So the pollipop-solution would produce even less waste? Or do all these numbers forget the energy we need for our whole infrastructure? If you just compare these numbers, nuclear energy seems quite good.

One thing are the numbers and before going down in a mathematical-equation-suicide I quickly switch to stories. Radioactivity was such an unbelievable great thing some decades ago, you could buy radioactive drinking water, toothpaste with radium, get radium injections and this future was so bright and shining! One a-hunderd-years-old story is the one about the radium girls:

And did you ever get information where uranium does actually come from? Today Canada is one of the biggest producers but the standards of the mining industries are quite different among the world:

“Bergarbeiter*innen in Niger und Namibia dürfen offiziell einer Strahlenbelastung von 20 Millisievert im Jahr ausgesetzt werden. Das ist so viel, als würde ihre Lunge zweitausendmal geröntgt.” – Uran Atlas p. 11

If you are interested in this topic I highly recommend this Uran Atlas which you can download for free (or get a printed version).

One powerful last video that still jars me:

Ok, enough of that now. It’s weekend and weekend means happy feelings! Are you a gamer? I am *just a bit* and when I bought a PlayStation some years ago I realized how hard it is to play a AAA game like The Last Of Us. YouTuber Razbuten did a nice experiment with his wife who played for the first time which is hilarious to watch! It’s interesting to realize how gamers make games for gamers.

And #mauerfall30! Today, 30 years ago, the Berlin Wall fall after 28 years and lots of things are happening this weekend. I wish all these projection mappings, events and parties would be seen by the people in power around the world and show them how a revolution can be peaceful and bring humans together. I have to think of the people that are currently fighting for a better life, hold on for a minute and start into the weekend. See you and always remember that dreams can become reality!

“Wir woll’n doch einfach nur zusammen sein”

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