#sandia national laboratories

[humanoidhistory]

"A B61-12 test unit slams into a target at the end of Sandia National Laboratories’ 10,000-foot rocket sled track in a complex forward ballistics test. The test, which mimicked a high-speed accident, allowed engineers to examine safety features inside the weapon."

(Sandia National Laboratories)

[bobdobalina]

Thanks to the Wikipedia article on Long-term nuclear waste warning messages, lots of people know the "THIS PLACE IS NOT A PLACE OF HONOR" quote, but it occurred to me to look up the original document that it comes from, the 1993 report "Expert judgment on markers to deter inadvertent human intrusion into the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant," by Trauth, Hora, & Guzowski of Sandia National Laboratories... and the whole thing is pretty fascinating.

Specifically, the famous quote and the pages above all come from the sub-report by "Team A," consisting of Dieter G. Ast (Cornell University), Michael Brill (Buffalo Organization for Social and Technological Innovation), Maureen F. Kaplan (Eastern Research Group), Ward H. Goodenough (University of Pennsylvania), Frederick J. Newmeyer (University of Washington), and Woodruff T. Sullivan, III (University of Washington). "Team B," I was surprised to notice, included astronomer Frank Drake (creator of the Drake Equation for estimating the changes of contacting extraterrestrial life).

The diagrams of possible construction options look a little bit like architectural plans, but also quite a bit like Dungeons & Dragons environment designs... and perhaps like the ruined architecture of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

[houseatreus]

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare the lone and level sands stretch far away.

[majorleagueupdates]

BREAKING: Major League Baseball has named Sandia National Laboratories as a 2024 league sponsor, and will be adding Menacing Earthworks to all outfields and a Landscape of Thorns to all infields in honor of the partnership.

[pearldrone]

hey guys, this is a post about side order and what we can somewhat gather about it so far. this'll be a long one, so hang tight. i've seen others vaguely talk about these ideas, so i decided to go all-out.

this image is of what i'm going to refer to as the 'landscape of thorns,' which is a 'long-term nuclear waste warning message.' these being used to sway humanity from intruding on highly dangerous sites.

as certain kinds of radiation can stay toxic for thousands of years, a warning of the dangers of this plant were needed. non-linguistic messages were attempted at first by a report from the sandia national laboratories, one of the three development and research laboratories of the department of energy's national nuclear security administration. {DOE, NNSA} the aim of this series of messages were to warn later visitors to any waste site. they recommended that messages include each of the following, gradually increasing complexity.

{much more under the cut.}

"1} Rudimentary information: "Something man-made is here"

2} Cautionary information: "Something man-made is here and it is dangerous"

3} Basic information: Tells what, why, when, where, who, and how

4} Complex information: Highly detailed written records, tables, figures, graphs, maps and diagrams"

the issue with worded messages is that they're unlikely to be comprehensible in thousands of years. considering how much the english language has changed, and will continue to evolve, would those of the future be able to understand what is being said? because of this, symbols were also considered.. but another problem arises with that. no symbol will be universally understood to mean one thing, even something such as the jolly roger. {☠️} using it to warn for risk of sickness, or general harm would serve useless as time passes. especially nowadays, while the jolly rodger still is seen as a danger symbol somewhat, is used more commonly as a cool design thing.. at least in the USA. and again, that's the problem. no symbol is universally known for one thing, no matter what.

i believe it was also a thought to not warn at all, and just leave it there.. but that questions ethics.

eventually, physical markers were explored, giving ideas such as the forbidding blocks, rubble landscape, the landscape of thorns, and a few beyond those. these ideas carry similar characteristics to each other.

from the official trailer.

in 1992-1993, a poll was issued by the zeitschrift für semiotik of tübingen germany, asking the following question:

"how would it be possible to inform our descendants for the next 10,000 years about the storage locations and dangers of radioactive waste?" and received answers such as artificial satellites, atomic priests, and 'ray cats.' i'm going to further talk about ray cats, as i think, considering the themes, it would be a good opportunity for side order to delve deeper into li'l judd, and his current whereabouts or motivations. as it's very vaguely hinted that he owns grizzco industries, and with that presumably dead fish in the trailer, it could be explored. i hope they won't make it weird though, as you know.. the whole thing with mammals has been a bit bizarre..

anyway, it was suggested that a species of cat should be bred that changes colors when exposed to radiation, so essentially a living sign of nuclear threat. as things such as nursery rhymes have been culturally significant in some way for many, many years.. in 2014, the musician 'emperor x' was commissioned by the podcast '99% invisible' to create a song about this idea for an episode about long-term nuclear waste warning messages.

whatever this fucker is. they could be completely done with grizzco, but who knows.

{edit 8/23/23 i've been told it resembles the bake-kujira. the ghost whale which is accompanied by "weird birds or fish."}

giving us the song '10,000-Year Earworm to Discourage Settlement Near Nuclear Waste Repositories {Don't Change Color, Kitty.}' the gist of this track being "if the cat turns bright colors, run!" and was designed to be "so catchy and annoying that it might be handed down from generation to generation over a span of 10,000 years."

so, themes of radiation are very likely to be present. this brings us to our next section, the coral bleaching.

as you may know, healthy coral has beautifully bright colors. this is due to microscopic algae known as zooxanthellae, which lives inside of the algae's polyps. it is also a major source of food, and nutrients. coral bleaching occurs when coral reefs are under stressful conditions, a huge one being climate change, which i will get deeper into that specifically. if the waters it lives in heat up too much, the coral will begin to expel this zooxanthellae.. leaving it completely white, and exposing its bone-like structure.

healthy vs partially bleached coral.

while bleached coral isn't quite dead, the aftermath of said bleaching makes it much more susceptible to disease and malnourishment due to lack of nutrition. if the waters stay too warm for too long, or if the bleaching is too extreme, the coral will die.

images from the official side order trailer, showing us bleached and possibly dead coral.

coral bleaching is an ongoing issue, and efforts have been made to conserve and regrow the coral reefs.. this brings us to a shorter section, but one worthy of a mention.

coral cloning. coral cloning is a phenomenon where a small bit of a healthy coral is cut, and grows into a full piece. it helps when this, sometimes miniscule, piece is placed next to another. this speeds up growth almost rapidly. however, it is not too easy to grow, and this method isn't totally fool-proof. coral requires very certain conditions to flourish, such as not being placed on an open ocean floor, but instead in an already established habitat. also things like water temperature, pH levels, pollution, all can stunt growth. this is a very vast oversimplified explanation, but i believe you get the picture. have you wondered why i am bringing this up? here is why..

am i saying this directly implies cloning? not exactly. it's an interesting thing to note, though, as you might know how octarians {NOT OCTOLINGS!} are born.. via severed tentacle. coral can sometimes be born via severed piece. i'm not going to go into this much more, as it's kind of an out-there comparison. do with that what you will.

continuing on with the radiation and infectious theme, i feel i should mention ultraviolet radiation. the sun produces these UV rays, of course, and they can be good in moderation. if it's too much? it can be absolutely killer. you guessed it, ultraviolet radiation does play a part in warmer waters, which aids in bleaching coral. however, that's not all.. the state of inkopolis square we see in the side order trailer could very well also be due to residue of nuclear radiation from the human society's many wars. before humanity's fall, natural disasters were more prevalent than ever, and we still don't really know what exactly happened besides the massive flood. the sea levels rising was the reason the great turf war, the deadliest war to strike inkadia, even happened. things like oil spills could possibly be going on too, as in some photos, you can see this black liquid.

i'm going to state the obvious and add on that oil spills are incredibly dangerous to marine life, and that includes coral reefs.

remnants of human life have not disappeared from inkadia, or anywhere in this world dominated by marine life. it's not far-fetched to say they could still be affected by anything else left behind, climate wise.

the landscape of thorns has not been built, to my knowledge, but maybe it was here. this could be a rediscovered nuclear plant, who knows. especially as certain kinds of radiation, again, can stay hazardous for upwards of ten-thousand years, and possibly longer. you may have caught that ten-thousand is an important number for multiple reasons, especially with the possibility that this octoling is eight. the human race has been extinct for longer than ten-thousand years by this point, but it's something to remember. but there's still questions.. where do pearl and marina fall now? what is their role? is this an infection only targeting octolings, and other octarians? what's going on with marina? only time will tell, yeah?

there you have it, if you read this far.. definitely tell me what you think. i've still not covered everything in the trailer, so any add-ons would be cool if you have any. this took a while to research and write, so thanks for reading.

sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coral_bleaching

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/scientists-are-taking-extreme-steps-to-help-corals-survive/

https://www.worldwildlife.org/pages/everything-you-need-to-know-about-coral-bleaching-and-how-we-can-stop-it

https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/about/media/how-do-oil-spills-affect-coral-reefs.html

https://youtu.be/JENUAv0w8Q4

https://youtu.be/ZiULxLLP32s

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-term_nuclear_waste_warning_messages

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200731-how-to-build-a-nuclear-warning-for-10000-years-time

https://youtu.be/dDIMYAYSGCo

[accreature]

two things I have learned about the eye I am going to get tattooed

THE EYE IS TRANSGENDER

I am seen, viewed, fixed in the gaze of cis-genders

"I can tell whenever someone is trans also you'll be ugly if you transition" -- my mom

The airport dick scanner machine

Rando on the street catcalling me - does he know? If he doesn't, what would he think if he did?

They say I am a predator; they say I am in the women's bathroom to look; they say that by looking at ME their children become perverted

Prescription bottles with the first name scratched out—pinned in place by systems not designed by us, not designed for us, hostile to us

NOW IT IS MY TURN TO LOOK

TO THE CIS-GENDERS: YOU ARE FOUND WANTING (apotropaic charm viz. naẓar)

TO MY FELLOW TRANNIES: YOU ARE LOVED. YOU ARE HOME. I SEE THE REAL YOU.

See a little comic about connection

Sandia National Laboratories nuclear waste warning message is meant to keep people away, but certain freaks and weirdos use the text as a signpost to other freaks

THE EYE IS SEXUAL

All eyes are sexual

Eyes come in pairs and I am now missing one -- magnetism drawn towards missing half (halves?) (I will find you)

I want to look hot!! (specifically to other trans women)

Intimacy & immediacy of being seen truly—Breaks through the layer of plexiglass between us and the world

Self-deceit stripped away through pain; clarity, clarity, clarity

Piercing, penetrating, stripping

Sometimes crying is better than coming

Eyesockets are holes too

Absolution through confession, but confession is unneeded when you can see that I already see you

By my gaze we are both healed

All eyes are religious

TGIRL WITH A LINE TO GOD; STAINED GLASS AND NEON; ERIS WITNESS ME

I am working on finding someone to do the final design/actual tattooing, hopefully in the next month. If u know Denver tattoo artists who would understand what I am trying to do please hmu.

[materialsscienceandengineering]

Imagine a vast volume of porous sandstone reservoir, once full of oil and natural gas, now full of a different, carbon-free fuel -- hydrogen. Scientists at Sandia National Laboratories are using computer simulations and laboratory experiments to see if depleted oil and natural gas reservoirs can be used for storing this carbon-free fuel. Hydrogen is an important clean fuel: It can be made by splitting water using solar or wind power, it can be used to generate electricity and power heavy industry, and it could be used to power fuel-cell-based vehicles. Additionally, hydrogen could be stored for months and used when energy needs outpace the supply delivered by renewable energy sources. "Hydrogen would be good for seasonal and long-term storage," said Sandia chemical engineer Tuan Ho, who is leading the research. "If you think of solar energy, in the summer you can produce a lot of electricity, but you don't need a lot for heating. The excess can be turned into hydrogen and stored until winter."

Read more.

[scanzen]

A B-52 Stratofortress aircraft pilot wears a nuclear flash-blindness goggle designed by Sandia National Laboratories, 1970s.

via NUKES @atomicarchive / Twitter

[merelygifted]

Mysterious, ultra low-frequency noises detected in Earth's atmosphere — and scientists can't explain them | Live Science

Solar-powered balloons launched into the Earth's stratosphere have recorded a series of mysterious rumblings, and scientists can't pinpoint their origins.

The noises, detected by specialized instruments at 70,000 feet above the Earth's surface, are known as infrasound because they are so low-pitched they are inaudible to human ears. Picked out from among a wash of hidden low-frequency sounds — including thunder, ocean waves, rocket launches, cities, wind turbines and even planes, trains and automobiles — the strange infrasounds have so far defied explanation.

"[In the stratosphere,] there are mysterious infrasound signals that occur a few times per hour on some flights, but the source of these is completely unknown," lead investigator Daniel Bowman, a senior scientist at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico, said in a statement.  ...

Someone is playing CELESTIAL BASS.

[averles-eternal]

And here we are! A brief look into the world of Averles Eternal, of course using the long term nuclear waste warning messages written and released by the Sandia National Laboratories. As nuclear apocalypse and Mutually Assured Destruction are two primary sources of inspiration for this project, I felt that making a comic in preparation would be beneficial.

[man-and-atom]

We are very pleased to have these charts back from an extended loan to Sandia National Laboratory, and even more pleased that some of them got scanned while there, and we got access to the scans. What is presented here is not the full quality we received, although that in turn is somewhat limited in quality.

There is overlap with the well-known University of New Mexico group taken from Nuclear Engineering magazine, but some here are not included in that group (notably Ågesta), and the illustrations are quite different.

[jordanianroyals]

12 September 2023: Princess Sumaya, president of the Royal Scientific Society (RSS), attended the second meeting of the Advisory Board of the Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Threats Division, meant to support national and regional needs and improve approaches to safety and security in the field of chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear materials. (x)

According to a RSS statement, delegations from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the US Department of Energy, Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in the United States also attended the meeting.

During the meeting, members of the advisory board met with officials and partners in Jordan representing various governmental, military, civil and non-profit organisations to review the activities for 2022-2023 and identify future programmes that will support Jordan’s ability to adapt and address issues related to the security of chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear materials.

The princess and Amir Mohagheghi, executive director of the Cooperative Monitoring Centre- SNL, also signed a memorandum of understanding meant to enhance RSS-SNL joint research and development, capacity building, technical assistance, research training, cultural activities and vocational development projects in areas of mutual interest, according to the Jordan News Agency, Petra.

[eyepool]

What is here was dangerous and repulsive to us. This message is a warning about danger.

The danger is in a particular location... it increases towards a center... the center of danger is here... of a particular size and shape, and below us.

The danger is still present, in your time, as it was in ours.

The danger is to the body, and it can kill.

The form of the danger is an emanation of energy.

The danger is unleashed only if you substantially disturb this place physically. This place is best shunned and left uninhabited.

—More wording from the Sandia National Laboratory report on long-term (10,000 year) nuclear waste warning signs.

The Sandia report explored designs for physical markers which conveyed the concepts of dangerous emanations, shapes that evoke bodily harm, and the concept of "shunned land" that appears destroyed or poisoned. The designs suggested included:

Landscape of Thorns: A mass of many irregularly-sized spikes protruding from the ground in all directions.

Spike Field: A series of extremely large spikes emerging from the ground at different angles.

Spikes Bursting Through Grid: A large square grid pattern across the site, through which large spikes protrude at various angles.

Menacing Earthworks: Large mounds of earth shaped like lightning bolts, emanating from the edges of a square site. The shapes would be strikingly visible from the air, or from artificial hills constructed around the site.

Black Hole: An enormous slab of basalt or black-dyed concrete, rendering the land uninhabitable and unfarmable.

Rubble Landscape: A large square-shaped pile of dynamited rock, which over time would still appear anomalous and give a sense of something having been destroyed.

Forbidding Blocks: A network of hundreds of house-sized stone blocks, dyed black and arranged in an irregular square grid, suggesting a network of "streets" which feel ominous and lead nowhere. The blocks are intended to make a large area entirely unsuitable for farming or other future use.

This intersection of public safety, deep time, science fiction and Land Art gives me chills. I don’t believe any of these have been built, but I may use them as story prompts.

“Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair…”

[importantwomensbirthdays]

Ruth David

Dr. Ruth David was born in 1953 in Arkansas City, Kansas. Dr. David's career began in 1975 at Sandia National Laboratories. From 1995 until 1998, she was Deputy Director for Science and Technology at the CIA. For 17 years, Dr. David led ANSER, a nonprofit that provides research and analytic support on national and international issues. She is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and has won several awards, including the Defense Intelligence Agency Director's Award, and the CIA Distinguished Intelligence Medal. She was also appointed to the National Science Board and National Science Foundation by President Obama.

[iphigeniacomplex]

it, stephen king | long-term nuclear waste warning messages, sandia national laboratories | the city, c.p. cavafy (trans. edmund keeley) | it, stephen king

[unwelcome-ozian]

According to Defense News, April 13-19, 1992, the US deployed an electromagnetic pulse weapon (EMP) in Desert Storm, designed to mimic the flash of electricity from a nuclear bomb. The Sandia National Laboratory had built a 23,000 square meter laboratory on the Kirkland Air Force Base in 1989 to house the Hermes II electron beam generator capable of producing 20 Trillion Watt pulses lasting 20-to-25 billionths-of-a-second. This X-ray simulator is called a “Particle Beam Fusion Accelerator”. A stream of electrons hitting a metal plate can produce a pulsed X-ray or gamma ray. Hermes II had produced electron beams since 1974. These devices were apparently tested during the Gulf War, although detailed information on them is sparse.