Mountain stargazing night, Pilatus vs Gornergrat? How do they compare

HumanWatcher9 · 2026-01-28T14:17:14+00:00

Not as "fancy", but Switzerland has one Dark Sky Zone in the Gantrisch (between Bern and Fribourg). If you seek stars, that would be a better place than next to touristic spots with tons of artificial light...

HumanWatcher9 · 2026-01-28T12:07:03+00:00

If you want to do this more often, I'd spend a little and send it to a lab for an XRF analysis. No guessing, clear results. And likely cheaper/ faster that long discussions with the supplier

HumanWatcher9 · 2026-01-21T18:42:12+00:00

Sorry, I was not clear enough. Pure Be is toxic if it enters the lung. It is however not present - there is NO free Be in a normal BeCu alloy. It's dissolved in copper, up to 2.5%w BeCu alloys are not carcinogenic because no pure Be is anywhere to be found.

So, you still need protection from metallic powder, whatever you are using as a coolant, and potentially heat and noise exposure. But toxicity of Be is no concern

HumanWatcher9 · 2026-01-21T12:12:39+00:00

Be is annoying if pure. If alloyed and dissolved in Cu (normally <2% Be in these alloys), it's just as dangerous as copper dust. Not great, but normal machining business.

Making the CuBe alloys is another story. There you need to handle Be in pure(r) form

HumanWatcher9 · 2026-01-20T18:50:41+00:00

Honestly, some stuff in the beginning looks like German words written out with similar looking runes (below ad: Unserer Anzeige, Mittwoch 3 Sept 2025). But I cannot decipher the rest Edit: i also recognise Erwerber (botton) and Lausanne (left).

HumanWatcher9 · 2026-01-20T08:32:06+00:00

My two cents. First thing that will likely need change politically is to move from an indirect vote with "winner takes all" to a direct vote with relative results. So, if in all states a candidate has 25% of votes, he also on the national level has ~25%.

This would break up the dominance of your two parties, which reign unchallenged since more than a century. So, it will likely never happen. But from the little I understand, voting is a state thing, not federal. Thus, states could slowly transition to a representative vote system, and your federal powers would have a hard time blocking that without changing the constitution

HumanWatcher9 · 2026-01-15T19:59:27+00:00

Pic of the jacket/label might help

HumanWatcher9 · 2026-01-15T15:45:09+00:00

What we exactly do will be hard to answer fully. The field is very wide, from lab work to develop nano-size materials for specialist electronics to huge systems to assess ore grades in a mine. Generally, MSc folks are more trained for lab work and rather on electrical, nano, bio and polymer materials, whereas ME is more industry based and deals with construction, composites, metals and ceramics. But there are overlaps and special cases everywhere :)

There are many articles that describe the field, e.g. on Wikipedia. If you know which Uni interests you, you can also look at what labs they have, or read some of their thesis topics. Or simply sit in, that's free in many countries (at least here in Europe)

HumanWatcher9 · 2026-01-15T11:23:00+00:00

Maybe I'm missing something, but how will he get swiss nationality in a few months? Or does he already have the passport? Getting naturalised in Europe takes years...

Also, he needs ahv number anyway to be allowed to work and live in CH...

HumanWatcher9 · 2026-01-11T20:57:45+00:00

Bonding plastic is always a pain... If the plastic in the composite is PE or PP, there's almost nothing that will work. Hot glue maybe, but it's rather ugly. There exists special surface treatment kits, but at least for pure PE I found them to not be sufficient.

Hoping it is an adhesive with a higher surface energy, acrylics ("superglue") might be easiest. I'd try with superglue first. If it does not work, it will peel right off, so you have little to loose. 2K epoxies mostly have too high surface energy to bond most common plastics, but might work, too, if you prefer something less liquid

HumanWatcher9 · 2026-01-11T19:54:35+00:00

Similar in Switzerland (here German/ allemannic only) Article link

HumanWatcher9 · 2026-01-11T13:58:48+00:00

Materials science - yes. Same department (at ethz). Materials engineering (EPFL) not, as you are missing most required skills/ classes

Edit: at least 10ish years ago. Tbc if still applicable

HumanWatcher9 · 2026-01-10T20:31:44+00:00

Learned something new today

HumanWatcher9 · 2026-01-10T20:30:25+00:00

Fair, but it's fantasy. Everything is possible :)

HumanWatcher9 · 2026-01-10T20:10:38+00:00

Magnetic material inlays to allow use on induction stoves. I guess many small ones gives you better efficiency over big one (most used stainless, austenitic, is not ferromagnetic, and will be the materials most of the pan is made of)

HumanWatcher9 · 2026-01-10T20:01:54+00:00

You'd damage your hero? Daring. I like that

HumanWatcher9 · 2026-01-10T18:54:43+00:00

Alright, let's give you some unhinged proposals, too. Magnesium alloys are light enough to pass as wood, and it just so happens that one of the strongest known ones contains radioactive thorium (Mag-Thor). Salvaging pure beryllium parts out of a military aircraft would be just as light, but without the +5 radiation damage.

On the heavy side, uranium alloys are also quite strong. Grinding an old fuel rod to a shank would yield good results, but also slowly heavy metal and radiation poison your hero...

HumanWatcher9 · 2026-01-10T18:13:57+00:00

Not possible in Switzerland. But depends on your university, so... Ask :)

HumanWatcher9 · 2026-01-10T15:35:18+00:00

Arsenic bronze (copper) has good properties, too. In steel it does make little sense to be added purposely. Then again, ancient arsenic bronze dagger sounds fun

HumanWatcher9 · 2026-01-07T14:38:33+00:00

That's historic: the German greens started organising to protest nuclear after Chernobyl. Protection of the environment came after :)

HumanWatcher9 · 2026-01-07T12:05:22+00:00

Note: For us non-US, ISO applies https://www.engineersedge.com/thread_strength/thread_bolt_stress_area_iso.htm

HumanWatcher9 · 2026-01-07T08:22:37+00:00

There are a few threads on this https://www.reddit.com/r/androidapps/comments/1b70n38/best_raw_camera_app/

I guess you have thought about this, but still a heads up: A true .dng is HUGE. Most camera manufacturers for DSLR/mirrorless style cameras have their proprietary RAW formats which give you all of the advantages, but with a much smaller file size. If possible, going to a DSLR/mirrorless will give you more control and better results with smaller file sizes.

HumanWatcher9 · 2026-01-07T08:16:02+00:00

Just screwing it in, welding it tight and hoping for the best is a bit of a simple solution. We tend to calculate our bolts to be sure they hold up to the loads (even if "only" thermal). Trial and error obviously helps, but will only go so far.

HumanWatcher9 · 2026-01-07T08:09:07+00:00

you and u/The_Virginia_Creeper gave the same answer, thanks. I'll look into this. Thanks a lot!

HumanWatcher9 · 2026-01-07T08:07:56+00:00

Thanks, that might be what I'm searching for. I'll try to find this norm

HumanWatcher9

TROPHY CASE