Ellie Trashcakes posted:

gross

Sagebrush posted:

I don't know what it means to be a "proponent of suicide" but I don't like it.

I think it would be merciful to allow a victim of horrible radiation poisoning to receive euthanasia, though. That could take the form of a giant opioid overdose, or nitrogen asphyxiation, or something else that is quick and painless. It doesn't have to be a choice between gradually liquefying in your hospital bed or shooting yourself in the head.

meme thread bummer!

Zetsubou-san posted:

Ellie Trashcakes posted:

gross

A Terrible Person posted:

People suffer. Sometimes they get fed up enough to do something about it. Respect their choice after the fact if you couldn't/wouldn't do anything before that point.

Sagebrush posted:

a selfish act that ruins the lives of many more than just the person who offs themselves.

A GLISTENING HODOR posted:

In conclusion: suicide for some, miniature American flags for others

A Terrible Person posted:

People suffer. Sometimes they get fed up enough to do something about it. Respect their choice after the fact if you couldn't/wouldn't do anything before that point.

Sagebrush posted:

I would definitely not say that neutron radiation is the least scary of the various types.

The main properties that affect how dangerous a given form of radiation is, beyond just how much of it there is, are its penetrating ability and its ionizing potential (ability to cause cellular damage). A secondary factor is where you are exposed; some parts of your body are much more sensitive to radiation than others. You can survive a lot more radiation to your foot than to your brain or abdomen.

Alpha particles are big heavy helium nuclei that cause tons of molecular damage to whatever they hit. However, they are so weakly penetrating that they can be blocked with a piece of paper or basically any other kind of barrier. Your outer layer of skin, which is immune to DNA damage because it's dead, protects you from external alpha radiation. The only way it will hurt you is if an emitter gets inside your body somehow, from where it can radiate the low-penetrating alpha particles directly into living cells.

Beta particles are electrons, much lighter than alphas -- about 1/10000 the mass. They penetrate dead skin and paper, but can be blocked by a thin sheet of aluminum, a few inches of wood, etc. If a beta emitter is up against your skin it will radiate through your body to some depth, but the particles are less ionizing and cause less damage than alphas would.

Gamma radiation is photons, which have no mass. It is highly penetrating and can pass completely through your body like there's nothing there. However, partly because the photons have no mass and partly because a lot of the particles just pass through you without interacting, it causes the least damage per-particle of the three types. (It is still very bad to be exposed to, of course). You can only block gamma radiation with heavy shielding like thick concrete or lead.

Neutrons are heavy, a quarter the mass of an alpha particle, but also highly penetrating because they are neutrally charged. This is a really bad combination. They blast through your body like cannonballs, knocking atoms around and wreaking all sorts of havoc. They can also cause other atoms in your body to transmute into radioactive elements, which will then decay and emit other sorts of radiation in situ. The only way to shield against neutron radiation is with a thick barrier of light elements that will scatter the neutrons and slow them down. Water turns out to be really good for this, which is why spent nuclear fuel rods are stored in swimming pools. Thick layers of certain plastics work well for neutron shielding too.


Okay, so the test is:

You have four cookies.
One emits alpha particles, one emits beta, the third gamma, and the fourth neutrons.
You have to eat one, put one in your pocket, hold one in your hand, and throw the fourth away.

Which is which?


You throw away the neutron cookie, because you don't want anything to do with it.
You put the alpha cookie in your pocket, because the cloth of your pants blocks all the radiation. Eating it would be an extremely bad idea, because then the emitter is inside you.
You hold the beta cookie in your hand, because while it wouldn't be as bad as alpha you still don't want to eat it, and if it were in your pocket it would be too close to your vital organs. Keeping it at arm's length is safer.
You eat the gamma cookie, because it's the one that will do the least damage inside your body, and in your hand or pocket the radiation would be passing right through you anyway so it doesn't make much of a difference.

That might be a better question for the physics megathread, but I assume it would continue emitting pulses of radiation at some interval, or perhaps it would just do so continuously, until the beryllium hemispheres melted and the assembly self-disassembled. Once the hemisphere geometry was affected enough the reaction would stop. It wouldn't explode like an atomic bomb; that requires much quicker assembly of a larger mass.

Ellie Trashcakes posted:

I said "gross," not "tell me a bunch of poo poo I already know"

And don't go twisting my tits because of the phrasing you chose sounded a little off to at least two people, you loving turnip

Pissed Ape Sexist posted:

Someone should euthanize your keyboard, jesus christ

Collapsing Farts posted:

There should be like an app service for assisted suicides. Like ordering an Uber, except it’s a guy coming over to kill you

Pissed Ape Sexist posted:

Someone should euthanize your keyboard, jesus christ

Collapsing Farts posted:

There should be like an app service for assisted suicides. Like ordering an Uber, except it’s a guy coming over to kill you

VROOM VROOM posted:

First thing my eye landed on was TransactionManagerRequest, which tracks

Collapsing Farts posted:

There should be like an app service for assisted suicides. Like ordering an Uber, except it’s a guy coming over to kill you

CainFortea posted:

Not with that cup and saucer grip they're not.

Guillermus posted:

Thanks for all the orb pondering memes, I love them.

Data Graham posted:

Wir lernen durch!

A Terrible Person posted:

Sorry, I just expect to be on defense on this topic because it's unconventional. Your comment didn't help. Sagebrush, however, eloquently painted the perfect tapestry of poo poo people who make survivors of practitioners of suicide look like garbage in just a few sentences. People either not caring enough beforehand to help, or understanding so little about their so-called friends that they don't understand what happened. They squeal afterwards "what about meeeeeeee!?" rather than accepting that maybe things in their friend or family member's life really were that bad and they just didn't care or notice; that whatever was happening wasn't inconsequential, even after the fact. I would have added "or have the capability to help or provide resources," but the squealers rarely care enough to get that far.

Their friend/family/lover died, and they want others to know how bad that person was and how terrible and selfish they acted and how it hurt them. Without ever once acknowledging why they might have gone through with it, or how long they had to carry whatever burden they were carrying.

I've seen it countless times, literally every time suicide is mentioned with acceptance. Those people are garbage and don't deserve to have the names of the people they survived in their mouth.

And none of this belongs in this thread. I got invested in a stupid topic that I am passionate about and I will gladly take a probe for it.

[WE LIVE IN A SOCIETY]

or whatever. Bottom text.

flavor.flv posted: