Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Alex Speed @awhspeed.bsky.social · 1d

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.

Alex Speed @awhspeed.bsky.social · 2d

I use this. Noticed that yesterday as well.
firesmoke.ca/forecasts/cu...

Smoke Forecast - FireSmoke.ca

firesmoke.ca

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Alex Speed @awhspeed.bsky.social · 2d

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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Alex Speed @awhspeed.bsky.social · 2d

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

Alex Speed @awhspeed.bsky.social · 2d

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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Alex Speed @awhspeed.bsky.social · 2d

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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Alex Speed @awhspeed.bsky.social · 2d

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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Alex Speed @awhspeed.bsky.social · 2d

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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Alex Speed @awhspeed.bsky.social · 2d

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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Alex Speed @awhspeed.bsky.social · 2d

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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Alex Speed @awhspeed.bsky.social · 2d

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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Alex Speed @awhspeed.bsky.social · 2d

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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Alex Speed @awhspeed.bsky.social · 2d

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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Alex Speed @awhspeed.bsky.social · 2d

I'll just have to have a Gibson instead.

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Alex Speed @awhspeed.bsky.social · 3d

Again with this:

Autocorrect underlining "of", in broken jar of olives.

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Alex Speed @awhspeed.bsky.social · 3d

Not the most fantastic start to my morning. Little tiny shards of glass over my kitchen floor, including one in my foot, which I did not feel.

Broken jar of olives, with pieces of glass everywhere.

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Alex Speed @awhspeed.bsky.social · 3d

Autocorrect gaslighting me again.

Autocorrect underlining "their" in red, in an e-mail that says:
"interrupt their reading".

Autocorrect suggesting I replace their (which is used correctly) with they're or there, which would not be correct.

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Alex Speed @awhspeed.bsky.social · 3d

My biggest ethical struggle. Pigs are the most efficient mammal at converting anything into meat, but they are also charismatic, individuals, and adorable.

If you know me personally, you will know I have many pig decorations around my office and home.

David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 3d

Meat is a blind spot for people who care about climate. When I used to have dinner with my colleague Wally Broecker, the climate scientist who coined the term “global warming”, he would always order a steak.

The climate movement’s biggest weakness

What the climate movement is getting dead wrong.

www.vox.com

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Alex Speed @awhspeed.bsky.social · 3d

Random fun fact: 20+ years ago, I got to put on some scrubs, and see a few different surgeries. I had an interest in medicine, and some strings were pulled. I suppose in another life I could have been a doctor, but I don't have the right skills. Still, I will never forget getting to see that!

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Alex Speed @awhspeed.bsky.social · 3d

Here was me thinking that silicone cookware was the one safe polymer on heating.....

Prof Sam Illingworth @samillingworth.com · 4d

🥧 Silicone bakeware and chemical exposure

A study found that silicone baking trays release cyclic siloxanes into food and air during baking, with young children facing the highest exposure.

🔗 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

#SciComm #Toxicology 🧪

Silicone bakeware as a source of human exposure to cyclic siloxanes via inhalation and baked food consumption

Silicone-based bakeware is widely used due to its heat resistance, flexibility, and non-stick properties. However, concerns have emerged regarding the…

www.sciencedirect.com

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Alex Speed @awhspeed.bsky.social · 4d

Haha, might steal that!

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Alex Speed @awhspeed.bsky.social · 4d

Is it correct to say an imine is "enolizable" if it has alpha protons? I guess an aza-enolate is a thing, so it seems fine to me to say that.

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Alex Speed @awhspeed.bsky.social · 5d

I'm going to try and spot Tiangong at some point, but I suspect it will be more challenging!

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Alex Speed @awhspeed.bsky.social · 5d

Probably mostly in the attitude, as long as it's not super reckless. Back before websites, I think we just relied on a sign at the DNR office, or at the local paper mill. Funny, my dad was in the forestry industry, and would have enormous fires to burn yard waste.

www.google.com/maps/@44.074...

www.google.com

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Alex Speed @awhspeed.bsky.social · 5d

That's fair. Funny story, I had the fire department called on me as a teenager. They were basically "yeah, there's a time of day you can't burn, and this is it" and I was like "oh, sorry I did not know", and then the fire was put out. Granted, that was not in the middle of an extreme drought.

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