All my kids are now older than Kevin McCallister was in Home Alone. I believe that legally means we can leave them at home when we travel.

One thing that tells me I don't use my phone like other people do is I have never had even a hint of the need to search the tabs in my mobile browser.

Do we have a bunch of other tools that will give you the correct answer more-or-less all the time? Yes! But mine *sounds* fancier than "use Wikipedia and a calculator."

How many contact hours you get in GenChem? We have 2.5 of lecture and this semester we finally created 1 hour recitations run by TAs. 3 hour labs. And here I am wondering if the reason other places seem to be able to cover more: 1) Lab is complementary rather than repetitive 2) More contact hours

Use the force. Duh

I view the story of the discovery of the structure of DNA as a weird one to celebrate. It was an inevitable event as science progressed. The notable thing I take from the story is that, instead of working together, many parties kept knowledge hidden and (some say) actively sabotaged each other.

Ladies and gentlemen, may I present... Bluesky

Went to Costco this morning and when we came back our kids had put up and decorated the Christmas tree all on their own. I'm not mad.

vibes

A change for me that predates chatgpt is doing more mental math. For years I've been pausing before I reach for a calculator and pushing myself to do the work in my own brain. Not all math all the time, just more than I used to.

It's said that "Scientists are unique in that they are always ready to change their beliefs when presented with facts" but then some scientists (biologists) still say "Breaking bonds releases energy."

lol

evergreen

Hey #ChemSky -- what is your department doing about the increasing costs associated with ChemDraw? Anything? Are there better alternatives at scale?

They're the things that you see when you wake up and scream. The cold things that follow you down the boreen. They live in the small ring of trees on the hill up at the top of the field. They play on the wind. They sing on the rain. They dance on your eyes. They dance in your brain.

There's an old SNL skit with (I think) Robert Downey Jr. and (maybe) Paul Simon where they are young Simon and Garfunkel and they get bassoons instead of guitars and it always pops into my head but I can't find it anywhere. I remember it being funny in an absurd way

Perry the post-its!!!

(pulled over by cop) Cop: Sir, do you know why I pulled you over? *I nod down to my lap where a Subway BMT sandwich sits* Cop (visibility shaken): I...I don't want any trouble

Colleague, stopping by my office to chat: "It's so nice that you have a big bowl of Halloween candy in here for your students." Me: "Yes.... For my students."

There's a (small) chance of snow next week in Washington, DC and surrounding areas.

You can tell phrenologists are all lazy by the shape of their skulls

"Let us not forget, that the great seal of the United States says 'E pluribus unum'. That means 'From many, one'. Every life matters. No matter where you came from, no matter how you got here, no matter how you identify, you have the right to live a life that is free." - the sandwich-throwing guy

I am clearly having trouble adjusting to the time change.

I will create my own Peace Prize with Blackjack and Robohookers! Forget about the Epstein Files! i mean, what was I talking about?

One thing about being left handed is that if you hurt your dominant arm from overuse or something, you get to spend a couple of days like "Am I having a heart attack?? Oh wait no, I remember what I did (but boy do I hope it's not a terribly coincidental heart attack)"

This is just a poor career choice. Dude coulda had ten times that if he had gone into football

[looks hopefully at my contract to see what I, a non-tenure track teaching professor, will receive as an exit package when I am forced out for not being any good at my job]

a foreign actor? probably one of the Skarsgårds if I had to guess

If Subway doesn't create a new Mustard and Onion Hero sandwich what is even the point?

As I have long said, China is nanoseconds behind America in giving it's chemistry teaching faculty a Nintendo Switch 2. It's vital that America wins by racing ahead and buying me a Nintendo Switch 2.

welcome to Yamaha. do you want a piano or a motorcycle?

Me [checking into the Hotel California]: anything I should know about this place? Clerk: well, for starters, it's pretty fucked up,

On #chemsky, this is what we refer to as "Schrödinger's sandwich"

THERE WERE TWO SANDWICHES!?!?!

Me, eating pretzel sticks at my desk when a student walks by and looks in my office:

Outlook (@microsoft.com) just autocorrected the name of one of my students to "Dumb". Every time I type the student's name it autocorrects to "Dumb". Maybe Outlook could use the name field of the recipient to help its autocorrect not change people's names to incorrect names or offensive words.

I got an email! It's from a student at my school (though not a student of mine). This does not go into the "things that bring me joy" thread, although I do find it amusing.

A thread of things (small or large) that happen to me as a professor that bring me joy. Hopefully this ends up being a long thread. [1/?]

whatever you think of Spanberger, the fact that her opponent ran a campaign based almost entirely on transphobia and is on track to eat shit in the biggest blowout the state has seen since 2009 is unambiguously a huge win

Earle-Sears ran what felt like 12 billion ads about how much she hated trans kids and I didn’t hear a single pundit say she should stick to real issues that affect real people.

Met a new faculty colleague who casually dropped "I'm in my twenties" into conversation. I did not need that violence today.

The scrimmage at my kid's soccer practice is currently all tied up at 6-6. I'm afraid if either team scores all hell is going to break loose.

Anyone have a link to the Harvard report on grading mentioned in this article?

"Minor update". 4.5 gigs is a "minor update"?

One of the main architects of our present descent, and just because he didn’t like where things headed doesn’t mean the he ever took responsibility, much less faced justice for his crimes.

28g (1oz) uranium contains ~20,000,000,000 kcal, making it an incredibly cost effective source of calories

Huh.