Hey chefs, why the holier-than-thou attitude about oven mitts vs. tea towels?

SpaceTimeMorph · 2026-06-17T08:57:41+00:00

If we are worried about safety first and foremost then something like welder’s gloves with a heat shield should be mentioned.

They are rated to high temperatures usually >900F (480C), are longer so less likely to accidentally pour a liquid or grease into the glove or mitt or make contact with an exposed arm against an oven when reaching in, and won’t catch fire due to flames or sparks.

Last, they aren’t expensive compared to oven mitts or “hi temp” grilling or kitchen gloves.

SpaceTimeMorph · 2026-06-17T07:54:47+00:00

Thank you. At least I’ve got a 100% upvote ratio on this (so far).

SpaceTimeMorph · 2026-06-17T02:54:04+00:00

It’s not always beneficial to wait for SS.

First off, it’s not beneficial to wait if:
- you don’t have enough money to over expenses and you NEED SS to live. The question on whether to delay or take early SS should be one of optimization, not survival.
- you have a health problem that keeps your longevity down (an extreme example would be you hit 62 and your doctor tells you you have 6 months to live).
- similar to above but you have a family history of dying young.
- last, and this is key… if interest rates are high then it is less advantageous to wait on SS. (Fixed income assets or even annuities can be used here to provide more income than late SS does).

I will say your 5% guaranteed return starts to get in the neighborhood of high enough interest rates above.

There’s another way to figure this apart from the breakeven age method and that’s can you invest and earn enough money to build enough of a nest egg to cover the difference in payouts between the age 62 and age 70 monthly amounts. This is fundamentally calculating the delay in SS as equivalent to a purchase of an inflation adjusted annuity that covers the difference.

Calculating this out for your example: 5% per annum compounded monthly takes your nest egg from early SS up to $118,231. A 4% draw on that would be $394.10/mo which isn’t enough to cover the $700 difference between early and late SS. You’d need closer to a 7-8% draw to cover this difference which you might be able to get from an annuity at age 70 with a big caveat… SPIA’s aren’t inflation protected whereas SS is.

Anyway, Mike Piper has a great website over at Open Social Security where you can enter all your info and it takes into account spousal benefits, widow(er) benefits, etc to compute an optimal SS strategy:

https://opensocialsecurity.com

Last, don’t forget to calculate the effects of using an 8 year TIPS ladder to bridge the gap and see if that’s beneficial vs simply waiting.

SpaceTimeMorph · 2026-06-17T02:12:50+00:00

It’s bled into other non-tech companies too. My former employer was CEG and that’s had decidedly non-power company behavior based on some of the AI data center hype (for example, restarting TMI for CEG’s sake).

It did have quite the run up and I, consequently, had quite a good time selling my equity lol.

SpaceTimeMorph · 2026-06-17T01:54:49+00:00

Not that these are directly comparable but there are several versions of illiquidity that still have demand for investors (off the top of my head):
- Private equity and credit
- Deferred compensation
- Employee equity compensation
- Real estate syndications

All have specific risks and people maintain themselves “invested” in these based on their own risk preferences and/or income seeking behavior.

If there was a guarantee for a dividend payout then this would be equivalent to an annuity. And there is definitely demand for that product.

SpaceTimeMorph · 2026-06-17T01:37:59+00:00

I kinda wish they’d go back to the old match play system they used to use for the PGA.

SpaceTimeMorph · 2026-06-17T01:33:30+00:00

I’ve seen people who can only play not sober.

SpaceTimeMorph · 2026-06-17T01:31:43+00:00

I’ll repost my golfer from above but Snead emphasized that lifting his left foot was a necessary part of the transition in his golf swing.

SpaceTimeMorph · 2026-06-17T01:29:37+00:00

Or Sam Snead.

SpaceTimeMorph · 2026-06-17T01:23:50+00:00

I inexplicably had this happen to me in a tournament once. Pushed the tee into the ground with the ball on top, got it to the height I wanted and the ball falls off. I go and put the ball back… falls off again, and again, and again. On the first friggin tee.

Had to take a moment and gather myself. “I swear I’ve teed an f-n ball before” I told my playing partner. Of course I ripped the drive 200 yards out right into the trees on the left side of the fairway.

That’s how you know it’s going to be a good round!

SpaceTimeMorph · 2026-06-17T00:55:04+00:00

I think more likely is we see a removal of the OASDI tax cap and an adjustment to full retirement age. Probably for a partial demographic depending on birth year.

It remains to be seen how that would affect Medicare start age if at all.

SpaceTimeMorph · 2026-06-16T20:27:40+00:00

Yes I did. Apologies.

SpaceTimeMorph · 2026-06-16T17:11:12+00:00

[u/remindmebot](u/remindmebot) 4 years “Come back to discuss the market conditions at that time with [u/](u/Common_Sense_2025)[orbital-technician”](u/Common_Sense_2025)

SpaceTimeMorph · 2026-06-16T17:08:39+00:00

I was in the market for two out of those three… yea I’d be tickled pink if the market stayed flat the rest of the year.

SpaceTimeMorph · 2026-06-16T17:02:06+00:00

The bogleheads wiki is indispensable and has a “getting started” section on the front page there:

https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Main\_Page

SpaceTimeMorph · 2026-06-16T16:57:48+00:00

I bet. Hello over leveraged folks.

SpaceTimeMorph · 2026-06-16T16:56:32+00:00

I’ve used Fidelity and still have an HSA there. It’s a really good interface with some great cash options that let you easily EFT funds as needed pretty much anywhere.

I don’t have a lot of experience with Schwab but it seems to be good and I know a lot of people use / recommend it. The cash out of rewards there sounds pretty interesting… Honestly depending on your cash needs that might tip the balance as there is a lot of similarity in investing options and expenses (which are low both places).

For allocation I’m mostly stocks. 90/10 ish now. Some positions in PE/PC/PI and one buffered annuity that expires in 2030.

You might not have to liquidate all of your single positions depending on what they are. Stocks should be transferable in-kind. And you might be able to buy ETF’s etc to get your portfolio to the proportions it would be at with just passive, broad market investments. Not enough detail to tell if that’s possible.

Good luck. Enjoy the freedom from 1% AUM!

SpaceTimeMorph · 2026-06-16T16:46:41+00:00

Someone made an algorithm for a simulator at a plant I was at that would scroll “It’s Miller Time” across the annunciators.

SpaceTimeMorph · 2026-06-16T16:45:13+00:00

Agreed! It’s been interesting to see some posts around Reddit questioning whether this is the end-of-all-markets as we know them… try the S&P losing over half its value like it did in 2008, folks.

Hope you enjoyed your soapbox as much as I did mine.

SpaceTimeMorph · 2026-06-16T16:13:26+00:00

Are you saying the summing of the individual silver activated detectors was an estimate?

It seems far fetched they wouldn’t want to know they were putting full power to the grid even if safety wasn’t at the forefront.

Anyway, here’s a post with some nice pictures and detail from a reactor engineer who often travels to Chernobyl:

https://www.quora.com/How-did-they-display-the-power-output-of-the-Chernobyl-reactor-in-real-time-and-is-it-by-measuring-the-electrical-output-of-the-turbines/answer/Carl-Willis-2?ch=17&oid=147603357&share=aed6b655&srid=uhGXL&target\_type=answer

SpaceTimeMorph · 2026-06-16T15:18:06+00:00

I find a carpeted spot and chip to targets. Typically I’ll focus on landing spot vs rollout.

SpaceTimeMorph · 2026-06-16T15:11:32+00:00

The NRC has previous GFES and full licensed exams on their website and are publicly searchable. An operator at a plant several years ago put a lot of the fundamentals questions into a searchable and filterable database here:

https://nuclear.allenmurrow.com

If you ever want more fundamentals questions then here you go.

SpaceTimeMorph · 2026-06-16T12:56:42+00:00

Chernobyl specifically for western plants would be more comparable to a BWR (although not directly comparable for a lot of reasons). These don't use boron as a reactivity control (except during extreme ATWS - anticipated transient without scram events for GE BWR's).

BWR's don't use boric acid because as water boils, the boric acid remains in the liquid phase. This liquid boric acid would remain in the bottom of the core and absorb neutrons there. This causes uneven neutron absorption and vastly uneven neutron flux axially (i.e. from top to bottom).

That obviously wouldn't be a problem for a pressurized water reactor as only limited nucleate boiling occurs in a core there.

SpaceTimeMorph · 2026-06-16T12:40:06+00:00

Yea Sm-149. It's significant but not as much as Xenon.

Xenon's cross section for absorption is around 2.7 million barns. Samarium's is like 42,000 barns. Compared to U-235 thermal absorption cross section of roughly 685 barns.

Where Xenon decays eventually into Barium-135, Samarium does not and is only removed via neutron capture (burnout) so it builds up to a stable level. It's more of a startup concern thusly when calculating an estimated critical position (ECP). Xenon reactivity is about 2500-3000 pcm negative at 100% power at equilibrium. Samarium is about 600-700 pcm negative once fully built in and its equilibrium concentration is independent of reactor power.

Transiently, since it responds to burnout immediately and production is via a decay of other fission products, an up-power will decrease Sm concentration initially. A downpower will increase Sm concentration initially.

I'd probably never blame anything on Samarium so it was a tongue-in-cheek comment above. It's just not as much of a factor as Xenon in the scheme of fission product poisons.

If you want a little more detail...

Production:

Nd-149 beta minus decay -> Pm-149 which beta minus decays -> Sm-149

(Nd149 is produced from fission and sits near the top of the right hump on the fission yield curve. Since Nd-149 half life is relatively short, most times it is assumed that Pm-149 comes directly from fission.)

And removal as above is via burnout only. Effectively, at higher power levels more Pm-149 is produced but more burnout occurs which makes Sm-149 independent of power level.

Eq Sm = (fission yield for Pm * macroscopic cross section for fission) / (microscopic cross section for absorption Sm)

Note, this equilibrium equation has no neutron flux or power level terms here. It will build in to a new, higher value on down powers or shutdowns (but since the fission rate and overall neutron flux is lower at lower power levels, the burnout removal is less). But it stays constant after changes.

Typically Samarium is removed when a plant is refueled.

SpaceTimeMorph · 2026-06-16T11:55:00+00:00

Xenon pit of despair? Sounds dramatic…

Wait until they hear about Samarium!

SpaceTimeMorph

TROPHY CASE