Alex Speed
@awhspeed.bsky.social
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.
In the days before I had a smartphone, I printed out Google maps when I went to Dresden and Vienna, and got lost both times, as I had not printed a wide enough area. Didn't get a New York Times story though!
The New York Times@nytimes.com · 4d agoThree teenage boys printed directions for a hike on a trail in British Columbia, Canada that Google Maps estimated to be over five hours. In reality, their hike weeks ago lasted at least 12 hours and required the intervention of rescue crews, according to the Lions Bay Search and Rescue team.
I'm glad I remembered it is Natal Day weekend, because otherwise I would have been afraid something was exploding!
Anyone in Halifax picking up a geosmin smell in the water? Their site only appears current up to July 17th!
Some are much faster, but I have never solved a NYT Monday crossword in under 6 minutes before!
I realized I have a lot of expired stuff in my camping gear, so I was restocking on emergency water purification tablets (I use a UV sterilizer normally when camping), and this was listed as something people "also buy". I have many questions.
Amnio is a word, but amnion is not. And of course my perennial irritation, that amination (my subject expertise) is not a word.
One of the privileges of my job is evaluating various grants, to help decide what might be meritorious to give government-based funding to. One of the most irritating parts of my job is navigating the government website to do that task. They constantly make changes to the portal that (1/2)
Latest lunar mission? No, it's just me playing around with the time-lapse mode on my phone camera. This is 30x speed.
The perfect angle to watch the moon inch across the sky without even leaving my couch. If you're wondering about "Otto", he is a very ineffective pigeon deterrent, though if I pick him up and wave him at the pigeons, they will fly away for 5 minutes.
A very rare achievement for me. I can usually get to "Genius" unaided, but I almost always need the "Hints", and usually Steve G. to get me to Queen Bee. Today I did it all on my own, with the only hints I took being there were 24 words, and it was bingo (ie all letters start at least one word).
The American Chestnut tree in full flower, with 1000s of busy bees:
LOL, my first grant in 2017 was for $33k a year. It took considerable more than 4 pages to apply for. This is from "The Puzzle People" by Thomas Starzl, a book I must re-read soon. If you don't know who Thomas Starzl was, he's a fascinating character.
While it's not representative of my time in the USA as a whole, I'll never forget asking a border guard about what to do with my physical J1 document in my passport when I made my last entry under that status, and getting a very sarcastic sounding "buh-bye" as my answer.
I was very sad to hear today about Dr. Nouman Ali's death this weekend. Those of us who were on the 7:30 a.m. Queen Street picket last summer enjoyed getting to know him in his capacity as picket captain, and he created a good atmosphere at a tough time.
I'm better at this game than the locating museum artifacts on a map/ timeline one. www.maptap.gg July 19 100🎯 100🎯 97🔥 99🎯 98🔥 Final score: 985
🎯MapTap Daily Geography Game
Play MapTap - the daily geography game! Find 5 world locations on a 3D globe with historical stories. Free browser-based daily game for geography lovers.
maptap.gg
For some reason, my computer after its last reboot, has started trying to make calendar bookings under my Boston College account, a place I have not worked at for over 11 years, and have not had an e-mail address at for the same length of time. Make it make sense! My computer is also 4 years old.
Sad to hear of Prof. Marcus' passing. One of my first undergrad advisor Prof. James Pincock's claims to fame was the observation of an unexpected experimental manifestation of Marcus Theory in a photochemical reaction. So 20 years ago when I had the opportunity to meet Prof. Marcus at a Lindau (1/2)
I'm not very gifted at crosswords, but I've made it a tradition to always do at least the easiest Monday NYT crossword. Well, being discombobulated from my camping trip, I sat bolt upright at 1:10 am on a Tuesday, realizing I had not done it.... glad the site was forgiving and keeps my streak alive.
Can't help but think of Event Horizon today. A uniquely terrifying movie, and a testament to good acting. PS, if you have not seen it, don't watch it without some idea of what you're getting into. It's not a feel-good "space flick".
Tackling my dislike of driving one trip at a time, I have another camping trip in the books. This one hammered home that I need to get in better shape. Kejimkujik stopped providing wood in the backcountry, and carrying wood in for 10 km almost knackered me! (1/3)
LOL, if you're reading this at 3:30 am, and somewhere dark, the aurora is popping out!
Yikes, maybe I shouldn't have had my heat-pump and dehumidifier on at the same time.
