There are currently 74 wildfires burning in the western United States, many of them are approaching heavily populated cities such as Seattle, Portland, Sacramento, and Los Angeles. The La Tuna fire is now officially the brush fire in LA history. Air quality warnings are being issued across the entirety of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. I’m in Portland, about 40 miles out from the nearest wildfire, and it’s raining ash and difficult to breathe due to the haze.
If you live anywhere near these fires, you’ve probably heard this by now, but please be safe. Stay indoors if at all possible and keep windows closed. Keep pets indoors as well. Hopefully some of our trademark Portland rain will come soon to help minimize the damage.
These swimming pools with black tiles are my aesthetic.
Make the black tiles out of that black material that absorbs all light and swim over the void.
Fun fact about Vantablack- Because it absorbs all light, it heats up very fast. If exposed to direct sunlight, it takes in all the UV and heat and contains them, and can reach heats well over 212°F, the boiling point of water. So if you did coat the pool in that material, the water would boil as soon as the sun touched it, killing everyone swimming in it.
But that’s not all. The flash boiling of an entire pool of chlorinated water would release the chlorine as gas, which would kill everyone within a 200ft radius of the pool. And it doesn’t end there.
The release of chlorine gas combined with the heat of the black tiles would be more than sufficient to fuse the boiled hydrogen ions with the chlorine, creating an explosive reaction with the nitrogen in the air. So shortly after everyone in the pool boils and everyone around the pool dies of chlorine gas poisoning, the region would explode with the force of a small atomic bomb (8kt for a pool like those pictured above), leveling about 50 city blocks.
You’d think that would be bad enough, but get this-
Such chemical explosions expel gamma rays. Gamma rays ionize hematite, which is the mineral from which the black material mentioned is made. This creates Scopohyoscpnol, a compound known as “The Zombie Drug” because it essentially erases the brain and induces cannibalistic tendencies in its victim. It can be transmitted through saliva, infecting all who are bitten within hours.
So basically, if you did have Vantablack tiles in your pool, you would boil your friends, poison your neighbors, nuke your city, and condemn the globe to a zombie plague. But to be fair, it would look pretty cool.
Give me a few minutes to watch for last minute bids to show up on the Trevor site, and then I’ll reveal the totals!!
You guys are unbelievable!!!
I’ll start from the bottom:
Assassins AU amassed a small $22 dollars, which was initially surprising but made more sense when you consider that anything with bullets flying around these two is bound to be controversial. That will be lowest on my priority list going forward.
Ahead of assassins AU was the Christmas AU, which garnered $25, also understandable because it’s April lol
We start getting into the big bucks now. The canon Fix-it had strong support for most of the auction, but it topped out at $320, which is impressive but not enough. It will still get written though! No worries to those of you who know how much potential the show had and threw away in S3.
Now, for the final two. It was a battle between politics au and masquerade au, the two fics that actually have already been posted so far. Masquerade AU was slow to start but eventually took a thin lead over politics with about an hour to go.
Politics surged back though, and with some impressive donations, Politics was in the lead with $989 with one minute left! Masquerade AU was too far behind, at $831
And then a last minute bid of $158 dollars came in…for masquerade AU.
Masquerade AU and Politics AU tied, thanks to an anonymous last second donation.
Which means I’ll be updating both at the same time!
Like I’ve been saying, all of these fics will be posted eventually, so no worries if yours didn’t accrue the most. The best part about this was that you all amassed a huge $2,345 for The Trevor Project!!
$2,345!!
This fandom is amazing and I’m so happy to be a part of it.
This is the first time I’ve ever seen something like this – such a wonderful idea, all for a great cause – and an amazing number.
Well done, @centuriesofexistence – I hope this is a trend that other creators follow.
The Doctor Is Out 