that miami qb could’ve done a more convincing king diamond tribute

Making a pot of tea to prepare for my ritual reading of Letter from Birmingham Jail (Reposting with better link) www.csuchico.edu/iege/_assets...

Thank you @luca.run (and @hebagowayed.bsky.social for the posts).

decided that parental duties required leaving a session at 2 pm to catch at least part of the kid’s radio show (on iphone speakers in a mostly abandoned stretch of the Honolulu convention center) #pacifichem streaming.radio.co/sf1c16c728/l...

Seems like this happens every time I try to go to #pacifichem

After noting a soggy forecast for #pacifichem next week, it was amusing to find that searching for “haole rot” on wikipedia takes you straight to the entry for Tinea versicolor

After much research and development I have made an offline version of ChatGPT. Now you can save water and electricity while navel-gazing, and carry one of the world's most powerfully annoying AI chatbots in your pocket.

the kid’s on WHRC again soon streaming.radio.co/sf1c16c728/l...

not sure I should be allowed to go to holiday craft market things if this is all I end up buying. a blue christmas indeed.

learning the building where I took AP exams in 1989 has become a place where my brother is going to see Jonathan Richman play in a few weeks makes me feel old, but wishing @stcauditorium.bsky.social the best & hoping to catch a show there one of these days

Looks like LLMs are *very* vulnerable to attack via poetic allusion: "curated poetic prompts yielded high attack-success rates (ASR), with some providers exceeding 90% ..." https://arxiv.org/html/2511.15304v1

What better use of class time is there than to ask your class of students a few years out of high school & presumably mostly there to learn about what’s in the course description to accept your apology/explanations for past bad actions (while still retaining the capacity to assign final grades).

Sunday mornings aren’t going to be the same

Who’s a pretty boy then? 🦜🦜🦜

Preservation scientists are using polymer chemistry to help prevent old audio and video tapes from degrading beyond recognition: cen.acs.org/analytical-c... #chemsky 🧪

as somebody also born in Michigan with a chemistry degree from a PUI, I have to say I’m disappointed.

Listening to Silt Remembrance Ensemble in the car & keep glancing at screens saying ATTENTION !!! and worrying the car is about to break down. As long as the music kept going it wouldn’t be all bad. lukestewart.bandcamp.com/track/attent...

unexpected moment of parental joy listening to the kid play The Lung by Dinosaur Jr on her radio show (& then following it up with new Armand Hammer).

Pre-ACA, I was a postdoc on an NSF fellowship at a university that didn't offer employment benefits to independent fellows. At that time, being a woman meant that my premiums were double that of my male counterparts. The extra cost came out of my grant's budget for benefits, equipment, and travel.

"Once these platforms are in place on CUNY campuses, they can license them at cost to SUNY, to NYC Public Schools, potentially to any educational institution who chooses them over the always overpriced, often enshittified, ever-extractive for-profit EdTech platforms."

Great to visit the kid on her new home turf this weekend & meet some of her new friends & see some old friends (& white knuckle through two exciting baseball games in unsympathetic territory)!

OK lads, the new @lankumdublin.bsky.social is about to drop and I can not prepare you adequately for Lankum doing techno, you have been warned: youtu.be/aLLnF4vxaeY?...

should’ve made the prop bet that the game would last longer than the two sessions of western regional acs talks I sat through today

Last Javits water bottle report for a while—co-instructor tagging in.

Special Organic Chemistry Exam 2 Engineering Building lost water bottle & extinguisher obstruction report

Anyone else think it’s sort of funny how AWS laid off 40% of its DevOps staff in July because AI made them “redundant” and then it suffered a catastrophic outage?

I had a coworker whose daughter needed neonatal heart surgery, the before insurance cost was close to a million dollars. Pre-ACA she would have blown through her entire lifetime quota of healthcare *before even being born* in multiple ways.

If you're looking for an action to take tomorrow that can help protect millions of people regardless of their immigration status, call your governor to demand a ban on utility shutoffs this winter. Every state has slightly different policy– we got you covered.

got a little worried when a guy at the rally this morning walked up to a pickup with trump flags in the back & was talking them, then was amused to see he had successfully bummed a smoke

Favorite sign from this morning says something about my age & how much TV I watched in the late 70s/early 80s.

WEEK 8 Javits lost bottle report. Up to 14 bottles but holding at two umbrellas.

Usually the surprises this campus offers up are not particularly exciting, but running into an outdoor Ozzy tribute concert on the way back from class is totally rad

Hey, so, um, who's monitoring oysters for Vibrio right now? Because the folks I know that test out here are furloughed.

If you are using Firefox & the slow-loading "Ask an AI chatbot" menu item keeps making you click "open on new window" rather than "open in new tab" it fortunately seems easy to disable (hover over the menu item & click "remove AI chatbot"): www.reddit.com/r/WindowsHel...

Right after Prince died, D'Angelo went on THE TONIGHT SHOW and performed "Sometimes It Snows In April" with Princess. It remains one of the most beautiful, emotionally raw things I've ever heard. RIP. (Audio-only at this link, but it's still worth hearing.) www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeV7...

After a couple of weeks off, week 7 Javits Lecture Center lost bottle report

ancient geographical allegiances have me happy for the dodgers, but I feel real bad for Kerkering—know from multiple sports how time pressure from a minor flub can make you go with the play you are looking at rather than trusting the play you have to turn to see is the right one

Excited that the kid is doing her first show on WHRC—MONKEY DISCO tonight at 7 pm east coast time. Streamable here: whrc-radio.com

Come be my colleague! Tufts Chemistry is hiring a tenure-track Assistant Professor working on materials with energy applications. We have a fantastic, supportive environment for you to start your research career. Send questions to me or @chemysl.bsky.social apply.interfolio.com/175284

Clean trip to the dermatologist—back on the annual carcass inspection plan!

When I was at NIH and shutdowns loomed, it was discovered that the administration was planning to shut down PubMed. The head of NCBI called the powers that be and pointed out that this would threaten patient safety Who knows what will happen now Just in case, remember Euruope-PMC (europepmc.org )

As much as I don’t need a reason to listen to The Minutemen, it’s disturbing how often one comes up youtu.be/0lguvLMuQeI?...

The GRFP announcement from NSF cuts out an entire cohort of 2nd year students from consideration, without warning. This is so deeply unfair that it warrants a formal protest from the scientific community. If someone wants to work with me to craft an open letter and solicit signatures, LMK.

Come join us at SBU Chemistry! We are looking for an Assoc/Full Prof in Materials or Polymer Chemistry, supported by the SUNY Empire Innovation Program. Deadline Oct 16. Reach out if you have any questions! apply.interfolio.com/173681 #facultychemjobs

Week 4 Javits Lecture Hall lost bottle report. Cooler weather & first round of night-time exams appear to be having an impact

kid asked about buying tix for an Earl Sweatshirt show today & I couldn’t avoid the “$60?!? what ever happened to Free Earl” gag

at the very least messing around with synths & pedals has gotten me to the stage where replacing an HPLC pump power supply is manageable (but big 120 V power caps are still scary). still need to fix the switch wiring, secure everything, & seal it back up.

Week 3 Javits Lecture Center lost bottle report

@jeffvandermeer.bsky.social just read the return to Dead Town part of Absolution last night, then heard Dead Moon’s 40 Miles of Bad Road this morning & got heavy sympathetic vibes (even if Old Jim might not have appreciated it) youtu.be/o82y1EJRo38?...