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awhspeed.bsky.social
Alex Speed
@awhspeed.bsky.social
1.5K followers 1.6K following 630 posts
Chemistry Professor at Dalhousie University. Interested in sustainable organic and main-group chemistry, and asymmetric catalysis, with phosphorus, nitrogen, and sulfur compounds. Camper, plant hoarder, and Victorian house enthusiast.
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awhspeed.bsky.social
Alex Speed @awhspeed.bsky.social · 6h
Come to think of it, this might not be the best time to ask about lanthanum prices:
Screenshot of CNN article headline "what are rare earth minerals, and why are they central to Trump's threats against China?" Also has pictures of mineral rock samples on display, with labels in Chinese writing, and illegible chemical formulae.
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awhspeed.bsky.social
Alex Speed @awhspeed.bsky.social · 6h
What is the corollary to "game recognize game"?
awhspeed.bsky.social
Alex Speed @awhspeed.bsky.social · 19h
Haha, I just made the same thought in my reply, re the border crossing. You'd cry if you saw the typical price differences between Canada and the US, for chemicals, and everything else...... Haha, in this day and age, don't even think about trying to smuggle something across the border!
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awhspeed.bsky.social
Alex Speed @awhspeed.bsky.social · 19h
Thanks.... I've found getting things like that shipped to Canada can be tough, but it's worth looking into. I ordered from Strem all the time when I was in Massachusetts, but the bar is a little tougher across the border, so I don't think to look at their catalogue as much.
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awhspeed.bsky.social
Alex Speed @awhspeed.bsky.social · 19h
If you wanted to buy lanthanum powder or lanthanum turnings, what would your preferred vendor be? Doesn't need to be super pure, don't want to pay > $1000 for 25 gram, when the salts are way less than that.
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awhspeed.bsky.social
Alex Speed @awhspeed.bsky.social · 21h
Just contributed to my FHSA a couple of days ago, so you can thank me all for today's stock market dip. I always have impeccable timing.
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awhspeed.bsky.social
Alex Speed @awhspeed.bsky.social · 1d
In having a conversation with somebody about history, it occurred to me that in the year I was born, the Russo-Japanese war was a more recent conflict than WW2 would now be for somebody born today. When I was a child, the youngest WW2 veterans were still common in the workforce.
awhspeed.bsky.social
Alex Speed @awhspeed.bsky.social · 1d
I've felt pretty terrible for the past week, including an awful sore throat, coughing, and congestion. Thanks to a student I was finally able to get my hands on a COVID test, and was very surprised to find it was not positive! Stay safe out there. I will be signing up for flu and covid shots soon!
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awhspeed.bsky.social
Alex Speed @awhspeed.bsky.social · 1d
Not sure. Hope error in my favour. I didn't actually think it was legit, but the Administrator on my grant did change (as I verified independently), and it was the person who e-mailed. However, I could not do what they were asking me to do, as the website does not allow unapproval of reports!
awhspeed.bsky.social
Alex Speed @awhspeed.bsky.social · 1d
Does anyone else look at this and see The Flying Spaghetti Monster?
Screenshot of the B2Pin2 from ambeed that has ethyls instead of methyls, plus formula, catalogue number, etc.
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awhspeed.bsky.social
Alex Speed @awhspeed.bsky.social · 1d
Didn't know there were 4-carbon sugars in RNA....
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awhspeed.bsky.social
Alex Speed @awhspeed.bsky.social · 1d
Got an "urgent" e-mail from an admin after hours, regarding the correction of some grant amounts from a past year, that involves logging onto an obscure website. Very tempted to reply "not my circus, not my monkeys"......
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awhspeed.bsky.social
Alex Speed @awhspeed.bsky.social · 4d
I'm sorry, what is up with the deluge (no pun intended) of ancient history conspiracy theory and upcoming pole-shift worrier accounts I am suddenly seeing on the other social media site. Absolute garbage.
awhspeed.bsky.social
Alex Speed @awhspeed.bsky.social · 5d
I use this. Noticed that yesterday as well.
firesmoke.ca/forecasts/cu...
Smoke Forecast - FireSmoke.ca
firesmoke.ca
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awhspeed.bsky.social
Alex Speed @awhspeed.bsky.social · 6d
I think things like photoredox chemistry, photochemistry without catalysts, carbene applications, preparative radical chemistry, etc, have been or are going to be really complicated by the max of 3 people per prize. We even saw that with cross-coupling, which sort of turned into a survivor's game.
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awhspeed.bsky.social
Alex Speed @awhspeed.bsky.social · 6d
Dunno if you learned about the significance of the stars over the altar while there, but it's a neat story:
www.ap.smu.ca/~turner/stjo...
The Stars of St. John's Church Lunenburg
www.ap.smu.ca
awhspeed.bsky.social
Alex Speed @awhspeed.bsky.social · 6d
I always thought Arduengo, Bertrand, and Breslow would be a good trio. Now Breslow is no longer with us, I dunno who I'd throw in there.... there are a lot of clever applications for carbenes, but a lot of players in application too. I think metal alkylidenes are too distinct to be in the same tent.
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awhspeed.bsky.social
Alex Speed @awhspeed.bsky.social · 6d
Note to self: next time I pull up a gladiolus corm that's growing next to nettles, wear hand protection!
The back of my had, with several raised welts from nettle stings, mainly along the knuckles.
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awhspeed.bsky.social
Alex Speed @awhspeed.bsky.social · 6d
Yup, and here I am wishing I had a 2 TB hard drive on my laptop, rather than a 1 TB hard drive......
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awhspeed.bsky.social
Alex Speed @awhspeed.bsky.social · 6d
Granted, in the 90s, the idea of general AI seemed very far off. 30 year ago me thought there would be humans on Mars in the 2020s, and if you'd asked me for my wildest dream of what a PC would have been capable of, I probably would have come up with something with less specs than a cheap smartphone
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awhspeed.bsky.social
Alex Speed @awhspeed.bsky.social · 6d
Haha, good. Because even though I don't believe in Roko's Basilisk, I'd feel bad to be the first person to introduce somebody else to it :)
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awhspeed.bsky.social
Alex Speed @awhspeed.bsky.social · 6d
and are now working less well. (Ie we are actually encountering MORE mac to PC issues with latest upgrades, multi-factor authentication is more onerous, software is less likely to sync, and social media is full of far less interesting content). I miss mIRC from 2000, and seamless software from 2010s
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awhspeed.bsky.social
Alex Speed @awhspeed.bsky.social · 6d
Instead of "Roko's basilisk", we can call it Rocky (soil) Basilisk.
Sorry, I could probably come up with something more clever if I thought longer.
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awhspeed.bsky.social
Alex Speed @awhspeed.bsky.social · 6d
For the reason that I use a lot of technical words, I don't typically use autocorrect. There are some cases where it would even change the intended meaning (like replacing alkyne with alkene). I was commenting with a student, computers hit a sweet spot some time ago, with working well (1/2)
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awhspeed.bsky.social
Alex Speed @awhspeed.bsky.social · 6d
Funny last week, in my organic chemistry class, I mentioned "Breaking Bad", and got a bunch of blank stares. 10 years ago when I started as a professor, that show was the primary vehicle by which the average person had heard of organic chemistry.
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