Alex Ames
@alexmames.bsky.social
compressible turbulent mixing 4 lyfe
postdoc, skier, climber, biker in Los Alamos, NM
postdoc, skier, climber, biker in Los Alamos, NM
Because its top speed is 2 mph, while a skateboard’s is 15+. This is functionally equivalent to a powered wheelchair, which is banned nowhere. These things were all over campus during my grad school years - they’re harmless. You’d see queues lined up to carry food to dorms during snowstorms.
November 29, 2025 at 7:44 AM
Because its top speed is 2 mph, while a skateboard’s is 15+. This is functionally equivalent to a powered wheelchair, which is banned nowhere. These things were all over campus during my grad school years - they’re harmless. You’d see queues lined up to carry food to dorms during snowstorms.
Costs as much as all my other subscriptions combined, but the reporting is so consistently solid that I don’t even feel bad about the price
November 25, 2025 at 8:19 PM
Costs as much as all my other subscriptions combined, but the reporting is so consistently solid that I don’t even feel bad about the price
I’m an upper-decile-income climate-conscious liberal, and I’ll be installing heat pumps in the next year or so. I’m also not blind to the fact that most people aren’t climate-conscious & well-off, and that will make heating electrification difficult in the Midwest.
November 22, 2025 at 9:59 PM
I’m an upper-decile-income climate-conscious liberal, and I’ll be installing heat pumps in the next year or so. I’m also not blind to the fact that most people aren’t climate-conscious & well-off, and that will make heating electrification difficult in the Midwest.
That’s not a global story, sure, but those are tens of millions of people who hear a promise from green media which is directly contradicted by HVAC quotes and power bills. That lack of nuance breeds mistrust.
November 22, 2025 at 9:38 PM
That’s not a global story, sure, but those are tens of millions of people who hear a promise from green media which is directly contradicted by HVAC quotes and power bills. That lack of nuance breeds mistrust.
When someone presents heating electrification as a solved problem, it tells me that they’ve never actually done the numbers for central air gas furnace -> heat pump switch in the upper Midwest.
November 22, 2025 at 9:36 PM
When someone presents heating electrification as a solved problem, it tells me that they’ve never actually done the numbers for central air gas furnace -> heat pump switch in the upper Midwest.
There are large parts of the U.S. with cheap natural gas and winters that are cold and cloudy. The national greentech media is overwhelmingly based in regions where that’s not the case. Cheap winter electrification in the middle of the U.S. will be a huge problem for decades yet.
November 22, 2025 at 9:31 PM
There are large parts of the U.S. with cheap natural gas and winters that are cold and cloudy. The national greentech media is overwhelmingly based in regions where that’s not the case. Cheap winter electrification in the middle of the U.S. will be a huge problem for decades yet.
Find me an industrial user who only wants to run the plant three hours a day and we’re cooking!
November 15, 2025 at 6:55 AM
Find me an industrial user who only wants to run the plant three hours a day and we’re cooking!
Batteries and solar make a lot of sense! But you don’t want to have to curtail output for all of January because it’s persistently overcast
November 15, 2025 at 1:55 AM
Batteries and solar make a lot of sense! But you don’t want to have to curtail output for all of January because it’s persistently overcast
Why would a cost-sensitive, downtime-sensitive industrial user build a janky spendy microgrid when they can just hook up to a regional grid with 3 hrs downtime per year?
If you want that H2 to be made using electrolysis instead of extracted from CH4, you better make sure electricity is damn cheap!
If you want that H2 to be made using electrolysis instead of extracted from CH4, you better make sure electricity is damn cheap!
November 15, 2025 at 1:54 AM
Why would a cost-sensitive, downtime-sensitive industrial user build a janky spendy microgrid when they can just hook up to a regional grid with 3 hrs downtime per year?
If you want that H2 to be made using electrolysis instead of extracted from CH4, you better make sure electricity is damn cheap!
If you want that H2 to be made using electrolysis instead of extracted from CH4, you better make sure electricity is damn cheap!
We need a relentless focus on *reducing* electric rates if we want to drive broad decarbonization. The task becomes so much harder if natural gas remains cheaper than electricity for heating (residential & industrial). Reduce electricity prices and gravity will take you most of the rest of the way
November 15, 2025 at 1:17 AM
We need a relentless focus on *reducing* electric rates if we want to drive broad decarbonization. The task becomes so much harder if natural gas remains cheaper than electricity for heating (residential & industrial). Reduce electricity prices and gravity will take you most of the rest of the way
If residential distribution infra needs to be subsidized, do it transparently out of the broadly-levied tax base instead of Rube Goldberg redistribution from electrified industry. Do we really want to double the cost of green steel production?
November 15, 2025 at 1:08 AM
If residential distribution infra needs to be subsidized, do it transparently out of the broadly-levied tax base instead of Rube Goldberg redistribution from electrified industry. Do we really want to double the cost of green steel production?
Over the past six months, I have seen way, way, way more news articles with "NNSA" in the headline than I feel remotely comfortable with. I woke up in March to a NYT article headline plastered across a picture of the building my experiment sits in. Fun!
October 30, 2025 at 4:54 AM
Over the past six months, I have seen way, way, way more news articles with "NNSA" in the headline than I feel remotely comfortable with. I woke up in March to a NYT article headline plastered across a picture of the building my experiment sits in. Fun!
Let’s be extra careful to avoid describing work as “super critical”
October 30, 2025 at 4:03 AM
Let’s be extra careful to avoid describing work as “super critical”
NNSA comprises 2k feds overseeing 60k contractors. Feds are mostly furloughed, contractors are doing some creative accounting to stretch carryover funds from previous years as long as possible. Things are still running (for now!)
October 30, 2025 at 3:06 AM
NNSA comprises 2k feds overseeing 60k contractors. Feds are mostly furloughed, contractors are doing some creative accounting to stretch carryover funds from previous years as long as possible. Things are still running (for now!)
I ran the numbers for my own location (which has some idiosyncratic constraints) and mortgage cost has more than doubled. Painful for my upper-quartile household, prohibitive for anyone scraping by
I'm trying to buy a house and folks, it's bad out there. The monthly price of an average-house, average-rate mortgage where I live has gone from $1500 to $3600 in the past 3.5 years.
October 28, 2025 at 5:00 AM
I ran the numbers for my own location (which has some idiosyncratic constraints) and mortgage cost has more than doubled. Painful for my upper-quartile household, prohibitive for anyone scraping by
Strong recommendation for Blockenheimer - blocking likers/followers of the Stancil reply posts gets multiple birds with one stone
Blockenheimer for Bluesky
block.alxtratrstrl.xyz
October 24, 2025 at 5:04 AM
Strong recommendation for Blockenheimer - blocking likers/followers of the Stancil reply posts gets multiple birds with one stone
Bad scientific imaging (from a science perspective) can still be hot shit from a photography perspective
October 11, 2025 at 4:32 AM
Bad scientific imaging (from a science perspective) can still be hot shit from a photography perspective
Conversely, the correct level of tax & transfer from DINKs to parents is the level that allows parents to enjoy a standard of living (vacations, house, etc.) equal to DINKs
October 8, 2025 at 4:48 PM
Conversely, the correct level of tax & transfer from DINKs to parents is the level that allows parents to enjoy a standard of living (vacations, house, etc.) equal to DINKs
We are social creatures, and we compare ourselves to those who are actually around us, not some statistical median. The reference class of the $150k -> $75k household is their friends and neighbors: are they foregoing vacations and downsizing their homes to be able to afford kids?
October 8, 2025 at 4:45 PM
We are social creatures, and we compare ourselves to those who are actually around us, not some statistical median. The reference class of the $150k -> $75k household is their friends and neighbors: are they foregoing vacations and downsizing their homes to be able to afford kids?
It’s the *opportunity cost* of kids. The more you could make in wage income, the more it costs to stay home and raise kids. This is compounded by factors like housing: DINKs need less space than families but have more money and can bid up the price of housing in high-demand areas
October 8, 2025 at 3:54 PM
It’s the *opportunity cost* of kids. The more you could make in wage income, the more it costs to stay home and raise kids. This is compounded by factors like housing: DINKs need less space than families but have more money and can bid up the price of housing in high-demand areas
It’s also one thing to be charismatic in one-on-one interactions (something most politicians are actually good at!) and another entirely to still be widely entertaining when talking to a mass audience (without being devoid of substance or alienating some constituency by misspeaking or generalizing)
October 1, 2025 at 6:16 PM
It’s also one thing to be charismatic in one-on-one interactions (something most politicians are actually good at!) and another entirely to still be widely entertaining when talking to a mass audience (without being devoid of substance or alienating some constituency by misspeaking or generalizing)
It’s also not particularly actionable advice for most candidates! Always-on charisma is rare enough, but it’s a heaven-sent gift to be able to keep the charisma flowing even when communicating about the inner workings of government.
October 1, 2025 at 6:13 PM
It’s also not particularly actionable advice for most candidates! Always-on charisma is rare enough, but it’s a heaven-sent gift to be able to keep the charisma flowing even when communicating about the inner workings of government.
I'm in the middle of a realtor-free off-market purchase and let me tell you, it is delightful to pay a lawyer $850 to do paperwork instead of 10-20x that for a realtor
September 26, 2025 at 8:03 PM
I'm in the middle of a realtor-free off-market purchase and let me tell you, it is delightful to pay a lawyer $850 to do paperwork instead of 10-20x that for a realtor
Had an incident in grad school where a check valve at the bottom of another lab’s 500 gallon water tank failed and leaked through the high bay floor into our experiment’s very expensive lasers in the basement. Had to fly a technician in from Lithuania to fix them.
We were the pit.
We were the pit.
September 24, 2025 at 7:35 PM
Had an incident in grad school where a check valve at the bottom of another lab’s 500 gallon water tank failed and leaked through the high bay floor into our experiment’s very expensive lasers in the basement. Had to fly a technician in from Lithuania to fix them.
We were the pit.
We were the pit.