Stephen Sekula

I was delighted to be able to visit the #ErnestRutherford Museum at #McGillUniversity when I was recently in #Montreal. I spotted this gem in a display case. The docent recalled the story of Harriett Brooks. It rang a bell, and when I got home I cracked open Dava Sobel’s “The Elements of Marie Curie”. Sure enough, Brooks has a whole chapter devoted to her.

The “new gas from radium” is now called “radon” and it’s critical to the research I and many others do in the search for #DarkMatter.

@ben @sean If you have a compatible EV/EVSE, Intelligent #Octopus Go is currently 8p off peak (23:30 - 05:30) / 32.87p on-peak. Our annual energy use is split 2714KWh car / 638KWh off-peak / 2715KWh on-peak, so on-peak usage is about 7.5KWh/day - a 9KWh battery will cover that so I'm assuming using any on-peak is almost never going to happen. Being able to charge a battery at 8p every night means we would average 8p/KWh for all our usage.

@openrightsgroup In my experience, this lines up with how the #ICO handles pretty much everything:
1. They are not interested unless you have already complained to the DPO;
2. If you have complained, the most they will do is write a strongly worded letter.
3. If they get no response from the DPO, they give up and refuse to take it any further.

If you're breaking #GDPR the best thing you can do is just ignore the ICO, because they will give up if they can't figure out how to communicate with you

Wow, my #AndroidTv is advertising "rental" of #ProjectHailMary for "only" £15.99... think I will wait to buy it on DVD, probably for a similar price!

@vikki Yes, #Santander didn't actually notify me that they were ending free banking, just started charging me a tenner a month a few months ago out of the blue. I asked them WTF and they basically told me tough. I don't push enough money through my freelancer account to make a tenner a month worth it though.

Oh well... #Santander started charging a monthly account fee on my "free business banking for life" bank account, so I'm switching to another bank. #Revolut looked interesting, offered £100 credit for opening a business account for them. They fell at the first hurdle - in order to open an account with them you need to install an #Android app which refuses to run on a #rooted phone. Time to find a different bank then.

Flicked through some #manifesto things... dunno which w⚓ to #vote for.

#Senedd #Election #Cymru

Currently enjoying this talk from #FediMTL: https://video.fedihost.co/videos/watch/7ce7154d-ae02-465f-86aa-55070900451f

#SocialWeb #ActivityPub #SaveSocial

Getting quite hacked off by this point, I replied to the email again. This time I got an actual human responding, who said... sorry that I had had a terrible experience in the store, and that they suggested that I should go to the store and discuss my options...

What a horrible #Customer #Hostile system. I have now had to resort to making legal threats since they are refusing to honour both their own "returns policy" and their obligations under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

3/3

#GoOutdoor's warranty appears to be worthless. Bought a #tent in the end of season sale last year - £400 discounted to £127, so quite a bargain. Came with a "returns policy" card saying that faulty items returned after 28 days will be repaired. It has developed a fault, so took it back to the store. They basically told me to feck off, they don't do repairs (they offered to knock £127 off another £400 tent), and to contact the customer services email address on my receipt.

1/

Here's a snap from the weekend at an Owyhee Canyon overlook. #Owyhee #Oregon #Photography #Overlanding

ICEBERG! DEAD AHEAD!

#GreatLakes #LakeMichigan

#Muon g-2 Experiment Pioneers Win #BreakthroughPrize in Fundamental #Physics | CERN
https://home.cern/news/press-release/cern/muon-g-2-experiment-pioneers-win-breakthrough-prize-fundamental-physics

Congratulations! This is one of the most difficult measurements that can be undertaken.

Big trip to Owyhee Canyonlands in OR coming up and I’m just tying up loose ends on the power situation with the camper & truck. #PowerWagon #OVRLNDCampers #Bluetti #BougeRV #TruckCamper #Overland

Shout out to @snolabscience.bsky.social Research Scientist Dr. Erica Caden and her recent colloquium at #QueensUniversity on future xenon-based particle detector efforts.

#xenon #warriorelement #neutrino #darkmatter

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/erica-caden_it-was-great-to-see-the-signs-of-spring-in-ugcPost-7445509514994315264-ra6C?utm_source=screenshot_social_share&utm_medium=android_app&rcm=ACoAABaPb54BxH2nmkEng3cHh7F3RVe6fooWrog&utm_campaign=copy_link

@AwetTesfaiesus die "Drillinge" (VW eUP, Skoda CitigoE iV, Seat Mii Electric) funktionieren auch ohne App-Cloud. Mehr dazu in unserem privaten blog https://i42.eu/eautodaten.
Für das Ende von 2G ist auch bereits das Ende der (optionalen) Clouddienste angekündigt.
#EAutoWfWW #EAutoDaten

#ScribesAndMakers Self-promotion Day. Shame optional.

I'm part of GEO (@geosocialcoop) which stands for Grassroots Economic Organizing. We're a bunch of organizers and writers focused on promoting #workercoops specifically, and the #solidarityeconomy generally.

Find us at http://geo.coop

I've only gotten around to contributing one article so far, but there are lots from @GuerillaOntologist and @Matt_Noyes, among many others.

From the #GlobeAndMail :

Canadian computer scientist Gilles Brassard wins Turing Award: Charles Bennett and Gilles Brassard are best known for laying the foundations of quantum information science.

Gift link:

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/3c21efbc9cacbbba32550fe0f9b78d3274a69347c3b3e4bab06105b7494d9890/ZO2YCIEPABAPJI3SLQ2R4IYBOI/

@avatter ja, wie das Raumschiff mit den Marketingleuten und ... ( #thhgttg )

Next week’s trip.

#AnzaBorrego #OffRoad #Overland

http://youtube.com/post/Ugkx790c6RDkK7TlyLIcaYZ63OFwZoO1UsLE

Leute, es ist ja schön, dass Ihr Sport treibt, aber bitte haltet Euch im Straßenverkehr an die Regeln und achtet auf gute Sicht und verkehrstüchtige Räder.

Das flach gebückte Radfahry mit Sonnenbrille, das in der 30er Zone unbedingt das (laut Radar) 32 fahrende Auto überholen muss, um dabei das im Schatten entgegen kommende schwarze Auto zu übersehen und dann auch noch dem zur Warnung kurz hupenden und bremsenden Autofahry eine beleidigende Geste zu zeigen, hat drei Leuten unnötig den Tag verdorben.

#Rad #Sport #Straßenverkehr #Umsicht #Fahrrad

I was thrilled to be working in the 2km-deep underground laboratory yesterday. This is the flagship laboratory location for #SNOLAB

I focused on working with teams on the #cryogenic distillation column (“#Xenon Still”) and the #PICO #darkmatter detectors. There were a number of small tasks to complete, but all were key to operations.

I also took photos of the original “blue doors” that used to be the main entrance to the SNO experiment. These are now INSIDE the expanded clean lab.

Amazing day at Joaquin Ridge in Clear Creek today! Some snapshots. Full video captured in 360 from Coalinga Road to the terminus of Joaquin Ridge Road, 25 miles of dirt each way, 50 miles total. I need to get editing some video!

Oh there was a little snow up there.

#ClearCreek #JoaquinRidge #OffRoad #OffTheBeatenTrack #PowerWagon

#Solicitors' fees... We received and accepted a conveyancing quote 11 months ago. Other party's solicitor has been crap, so we are only just about to complete. Our solicitor has increased our costs by an inflationary amount and added some fees that weren't in the original quote. (Note, although the quote says "quotation", the T&Cs say "you have received an estimate", which doesn't seem right?)

Anyway, is this reasonable behaviour from our solicitor?

I’ve been experimenting with 360 camera mounts for the truck lately. The Insta360 X4 has been the primary camera on the YouTube channel for a while and I’ve recently been trying the mag mount on the hood of the truck. That works well, but it uses a telescopic selfie stick, and the camera on the end of that thin metal tube does a great impression of a pendulum. With some RAM Mount parts I’ve cobbled together a 2ft and 3ft alternative. These are made with PVC pipe, in the case of the 2ft version using the RAM Mount pipe. It is slightly larger than 3/4” schedule 40 pipe size and has internal cross bracing. The 3ft version uses 3/4”schedule 40 PVC conduit and some adapters RAM Mounts sell. I’ll paint it if it works. :)

I don’t yet have any footage to show from these but will post some as and when I have it.

And yes that’s Junipero Serra peak gratuitously in the background. :)

#Insta360X4 #RamMounts #TruckLife #CameraRig #ActionCam

Wenn eine "AI"-LLM Dein OpenSource Projekt mit unnötigem Code beschäftigt und Dich massiv beleidigt und angreift wenn Du diesen Code nicht annimmst:
https://theshamblog.com/an-ai-agent-published-a-hit-piece-on-me/

Willkommen im 21 Jahrhundert

#AI #LLM #SE #StatistischeErzeugung #OpenSource #KI #mobbing #bullying #harrasment #cyberbully #cyberbullying

Wer darüber nachdenkt, sich ein günstiges #EAuto anzuschaffen, sollte sich in den nächsten Wochen mal (-31.3.) den Citroën ë-C3 ansehen. Den gibt's für manche Fabrikneu ab 7990 Euro, was eine Ersparnis von 12.000 Euro bedeuten würde, vorausgesetzt es kommt der maximalen Förderbetrag infrage (Listenpreis: 19.990 Euro).
ADAC Test des ë-C3: https://www.adac.de/rund-ums-fahrzeug/autokatalog/marken-modelle/citroen/citroen-e-c3/

(Für mehr praktikabel ist es wohl eher ab Listenpreis 23300=11300€.)

(Rabatt Übersicht: https://www.adac.de/news/e-auto-foerderung-rabatte-beim-haendler/#guenstig-citro%C3%ABn-%C3%AB-c3-ab-7990-euro )

#EKleinwagen #Elektrokleinwagen #Elektroauto #Elektromobilität

Several years ago, I was invited by a colleague of mine to join in an effort to teach a brief summer course entitled “The Secret City”. The few-day course, taught at a satellite university campus in New Mexico, explored the story of the Manhattan Project and its aftermath. It was a chance to engage a generalist audience of devoted participants in some nuclear and particle physics, a tour of Los […]

Bisher habe ich von #Mogelverpackungen immer nur gehört, aber das ist schon arg wenig.
Gibt's da mittlerweile keine gesetzliche Regelung?

@Bundesverband

#Mogelpackung #vegan #bio #reingelegt #FreierMarkt #Regulierung

Students at #SNOLAB are starting to engage in our common orientation for research experiences. One particle that comes up really early is the #muon. Students often don't learn about subatomic particle properties other than #electrons, #protons, and #neutrons until late in university. I made this video explicitly to help early-career students get familiar with the muon and see how it was the first direct test of the #relativity of time:

https://media.cooleysekula.net/w/fcZ9GLoMy4V3NdGSv2iW8h

#physics

It was great to welcome to SNOLAB a new winter class of #students and share with them pieces of the #SNOLAB science portfolio. I loved the questions afterward about #neutrino mass measurement!

#science #darkmatter #biology #medicine #undergroundlab

[16] #Elektrokleinwagen im #Winter

Wer im Winter mit dem #EKleinwagen #CitigoE (#eUp #Mii_electric) #sparen will, muss sich im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes warm anziehen (und das Auto eigentlich auch😉).
So bald für den #Akku keine angenehmen Temperaturen mehr vorhanden sind aber für die Personen im Auto geschaffen werden sollen, bedeutet dies zusätzlichen #Stromverlust.

Im #Schwarzwald(!) ohne Garage führte dies bei uns bereits zu reinen Steh-Verlusten von ~1%/Tag bzw. ~2kWh/Woche (bei Nachts bis zu -17°C). Da beim #Elektroauto zusätzlich die (im Sommer ungewollte) Abwärme aus Verbrennung fehlt, benötigt die Innenraumwärme einige kWh...

So praktisch es also z.B. sein mag,das Auto vorzuwärmen und sich das Scheibenkratzen zu "sparen", so sehr reduziert sich allerdings die Rentabilität gegenüber dem vergleichbaren #Verbrenner. Besonders in der zusätzlichen Kombination mit reinen Akkuverlusten allein durch die tiefen Umgebungstemperaturen.

Bei einer damit einhergehenden Verbrauchssteigerung auf ~16kWh/100km wären unsere Stromkosten für das #EAuto nur dann noch billiger als beim #Benzin C1, wenn der kWh-Preis unter ~45c liegt, bzw. (bei unseren 49c hier) der Liter E10 mehr als 1,80€ kosten würde. Leider kostete der hier beim letzten Blick auf die Anzeige aber nur 1,58€...

Die Preise für das öffentliche Laden in unserer Gegend sind eindeutig zu hoch und für Benzin ebenso eindeutig zu billig. Die Politik sollte da endlich umsteuern und für günstigeren Öko- #Ladestrom und eine angemessen Besteuerung von C-Treibstoffen sorgen. #dieselprivileg

Wie immer habe ich unseren (privaten, werbefreien) Blog https://i42.eu/eauto entsprechend ergänzt...

https://e-ars.de/EAuto-Wahrheit-f-Wechsel-Willige/2025/08/der-schwierige-vergleich-mit-einem-einfachen-benzin-kleinwagen

16/x ...

#EAutoWfWW #Elektroauto #freundlichEmobilität #Verbrauch

Get your Christmas Eve started right with one of my favourite runs of my favourite physics demonstration: the bed of nails!

https://media.cooleysekula.net/w/aRPZs3f8MsbzhHYhqL2qFu

#physics #demonstration #hammer #cinderblock #bedofnails

A timely article from the #GlobeAndMail, indicating the apparent early severity this flu season (with a prominent H3N2 variant component), the importance of vaccination now (since full effectiveness takes 2 weeks) before holiday family gatherings peak, and advice about other infection prevention mechanisms (wash hands, don’t touch your face, etc.).

https://globe2go.pressreader.com/article/281608131770697

The paper from the #LUXZEPLIN collaboration on their low-mass #darkmatter search and their observation of boron-8 solar #neutrino scattering is available on the arXiv pre-print server:

https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.08065

A press release from Brown University gives more information about the experiment and what was presented today:

https://www.brown.edu/news/2025-12-08/lz-dark-matter

A paper is forthcoming.

#LUXZEPLIN #darkmatter #LZ #neutrino

Very much enjoyed today’s seminar from the #LUXZEPLIN (#LZ) collaboration. With 417 live-days of data, they have expanded their analysis window to low-mass #darkmatter candidates. No evidence of candidates in their narrow search window (3-9 GeV, or 3-9 times the proton mass) but strong observation of Boron-8 fusion reaction #neutrinos from the sun hitting their detector.

Seeing solar neutrinos mean dark matter detectors ARE capable of seeing particles with extremely weak interactions.

Dass #Sozialwohnungen in #Deutschland eigentlich nur kommerzielle #Wohnungen in befristeter Zweckbindung sind, war mir (aus Wien) lange fremd. #Sozialwohnung ist eigentlich auch nur ein Euphemismus für verzögerten staatsfinanzierten Kapitalismus.
Seit Jahrzehnten (ja ich bin so alt) rede ich mir deshalb den Mund fusselig und versuche aufzuklären, u.a. auch dass Wohnungen kein Öl sind und mehr Wohnungen damit nicht automatisch zu bezahlbarem #Wohnraum führen. Dass "Sozialwohnungen" eben oft keine solchen (auf Dauer) sind und dass Dietenbach eben nicht automatisch zu langfristig niedrigeren #Mieten führt...
Und auch wenn ein #Grüner OB Salomon städtische Wohnungen verkaufen will das trotzdem keine gute linke Idee ist... Und... Lieber etwas mehr #Wienwagen...

Aber jetzt hat #DieAnstaIt endlich eine Sendung dazu gemacht:
https://www.zdf.de/video/shows/die-anstalt-104/die-anstalt-vom-11-november-2025-100 (Kurzlink: https://i42.eu/wohnenv1 )

Danke @ZDF !

#Freiburg #WienLiebe #sozial #bezahlbar #wohnen #BezahlbarerWohnraum

[14] Ich bin immer wieder erstaunt, welche Fragen mir an den #Ladesäule gestellt werden und wie oft ich dort #Grundlagen erklären und #Ladetipps geben darf. Habe daher im EAuto-Blog (https://i42.eu/eauto) erneut die wichtigsten Begriffe und #Tipps zum #EAutoLaden erweitert.

Besonders für diejenigen die erst noch planen auf ein #EAuto umzusteigen direkt hier entlang:
https://e-ars.de/EAuto-Wahrheit-f-Wechsel-Willige/2025/05/die-wichtigsten-grundlagen-kurz-und-einfach-erklart

14/x ...

#EAutoWfWW #Elektroauto #Elektromobilität #Einstieg #Umstieg

Zum Ende des Jahres schließt das #Bürgerstüble in #StPeter 😢und hat zum Abschied nochmal eine vegane Spitzenkarte aufgelegt🤩:

https://buergerstueble.de/pdfs/standardkarte_2025-11-13.pdf

Auch auf der Tageskarte sind ein paar vegane Klassiker wie Kürbiscremesuppe,
Pilzragout
mit gebratenen Serviettenknödel,
Försterpfännchen
mit Linsenfrikadellen, Pilz-Rahmsauce und Bandnudeln oder
Gebackenes Kürbisschnitzel auf fruchtiger Curry-Apfel-Sauce mit Jasmin-Reis

Wer dort nochmal #vegan schlemmen will, sollte also die verbliebene Zeit nutzen (und reservieren nicht vergessen).

#Schwarzwald #Freiburg

Trying to buy some new fairy lights. I've seen enough #BigClive "these are referenced directly to mains voltage and will kill you" videos to know that buying mains powered things from Amazon / eBay is a terrible idea, but now that everywhere else (#B&Q, #TheRange, #Tesco, etc.) is also a "Market Place", are they any better?

Lest we forget.
#LestWeForget #RemembranceDay #RemembranceDay2025

I am excited to be in Montreal for the next several days for the “Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay in #Xenon - Next Generation Experiment Workshop” hosted by McGill University.

https://nyx.physics.mcgill.ca/event/538/

Denoted “0νββ”, this ultra-rare process would only exist if the #neutrino is its own antiparticle. This would make it unique among its sibling particles … and provide a pathway to determination of the neutrino’s mass.

@nele schau Dir mal #htmly an. Vielleicht ist das was (ich nutze es, kann aber nicht alle Deine Wünsche beurteilen, aber hab mal einen Blogbeitrag zur Umstellung von WordPress gelesen). Sieht bei uns so aus: https://e-ars.de/eauto und macht mir viel Freude. Das Theme stell ich Dir gerne zur Verfügung (inkl. einer entgenderten Sprachversion ;-)

I am very excited about my "Deeper Talk" seminar hosted by the Institute for Underground Science at #SURF. If you would be interested in learning more about the @snolabscience.bsky.social science program and the recently developed 15-year vision for the laboratory, register for the webinar!

https://events.zoom.us/ev/AvKQWes-IBsarVrPpuT5iQ9Hmy1-pCXFgdoQwRl2uKUyIy7Xyoke~AnAtTOreYJezOTlYBg1hGyvFWUqbFKd4J8NXM9U6S1G2uGEUzTNQKVgrFQ

#Physics #Biology #Chemistry #SNOLAB #UndergroundScience

@millaonline Leider ist der Datenschutz der meisten Apps eher zweifelhaft. Gerade EnBW lässt sich so zusätzlich heimlich mit persönlichen Daten bezahlen. Mehr dazu in unserem blog ( https://i42.eu/eautodaten ) besonders zu EnBW: https://e-ars.de/EAuto-Wahrheit-f-Wechsel-Willige/2025/07/datenschutz-bei-apps-fur-die-elektromobilitat#enbw-mit-tracking.post-1752391807

#EAutoDaten #EAutoWfWW

A poem for Dark Matter Day

A poem for #DarkMatterDay, inspired by both the mystery and the #MastoPrompt effort on open social federated media. Have everything/Be everything It would have everything.It would be everything.It would sing its own praises,Raise its voice to the heavens:"I am all that is. I have all that is." Dark Matter eyed the #avariceof normal matter: entranced…

https://steve.cooleysekula.net/blog/2025/10/31/a-poem-for-dark-matter-day/

Happy #DarkMatterDay! * Today we celebrate the enduring mystery of what composes 85% of the matter in the universe.

Matter is just stuff. I'm stuff. You're stuff. We're made of smaller stuff. The smallest bits of stuff are what we call "normal matter". Emits light**. Absorbs light**.

Normal stuff is only 15% of all stuff.

Dark matter is not normal. Insensitive to light. Abnormal.

BUT. IT'S. EVERYWHERE.

* Apparently it's also something called "Hal - Lo - Ween"?!

** #Neutrinos not included.

@olgkarlsruhe wenn ihr "alle" statt "jeden" benutzt, sprecht ihr auch wirklich alle (inkl. intergeschlechtlicher Personen) an.
Thema: Urteil des Verfassungsgerichts zur dritten Option und dessen sinngemäße Umsetzung in der Kommunikation.
Besonders passend am 8.11...
Tipp: https://i42.eu/entgendern

#intergeschlechtlich #entgendern #gender #Geschlechtergerechtigkeit #nichtbinär #GeschicktGendern

Investigating installing #solar #PV and #battery at our house (UK). Any recommendations for brands that can be controlled by #HomeAssistant over a local interface? I was looking at #Duracell, but it looks like probably no local interface? Having to rely on a working internet connection and the existence of someone else's cloud servers is a deal breaker.