Yes I admit it. It's me. I am guilty of indoctrinating my students when I tell them "Read the syllabus" "Come to class" and "Turn in your work on time." Truly socialist stuff forcibly injected into their arms each week. You should see me talking about the final paper.

Philip Gourevitch@pgourevitch.bsky.social · 4w ago

EDJ edit page continues its reality-defying streak decade after decade:

Gas Station Price Sign Using Scientific Notation

The irony is that many revenue-generating master's programs will not be able to survive without international students, meaning that they also won't be available for domestic students. This will hit STEM fields the hardest - the programs will just be too costly to maintain.

Michael Clemens@mclem.org · 2mo ago

The US President's new proposal to tax international students has been approved by the White House for release this week. It's an unprecedented $100,000 tax on int'l grads who stay to work after graduation on Optional Practical Training (most grads do), a crucial bridge to remaining by any channel.

I see a lot of commenters in forums and blogs on A.I. stuff that chime in to say "A.I. has completely rewritten the entire discipline of chemistry" and then I file that person away as someone who is just talking out of their ass

A graduate student at Hokkaido University has died after severe exposure to hydrofluoric acid (HF) during an experiment in a science faculty building, the university announced Aug. 27. #chemsky 🧪

Hokkaido University student dies following hydrofluoric acid exposure

Officials say an investigation into the cause of the fatal incident is ongoing

cen.acs.org

In our study of textbooks in Czechia, Norway, and Turkey, we find that recommendations backed up by 25 years of research have not had much impact on how chemical bonding is presented in textbooks in our three countries. ⚛️ 🧪🍎#chemsky : www.mdpi.com/3964310

Best use of Strava? Mollie the hamster runs almost 10 km every night.

A Physicist Rigged His Pet Hamster’s Wheel to Upload to Strava. It Runs Surprisingly Far Every Night

Meet Mollie, the 10-month-old hamster who’s been logging serious mileage.

runnersworld.com

Any one want to guess for when the AI models start doing light treason?

We shall get this back. www.change.org/SaveACSLogo

Sign the Petition

Restore the historic American Chemical Society logo

change.org

Early in my career I was called on to figure out what the hell was wrong with a FORTRAN program which had worked just fine for years, but when a contractor updated some formulas, it stopped working.

SMD@anothersmd.bsky.social · last yr.

what are some absurd work situations you can share? once i got called into a meeting i had nothing to do with because the consultant brought an engineer and no one in the room could understand him, so they asked me to translate. he was scouse. i translated from english to english.

So this happened today. A theory paper I am reviewing for a top tier journal, citing a paper written by me, that doesn’t exist - this just seems lazy - I have actually written A TONNE of papers that make the point. Why rely on gen AI?

I am once again begging Hollywood to stop using the Greek alphabet for an Ancient World movie, if they can't afford to even throw a couple of quid at anyone with an inkling of the language. Unless they really think audiences are dying to see THS THDPSSSSPS

Nothing like an explosive diarrhea-causing parasite to remind us of the importance of a functional public health apparatus--and of course, the value of a robust surveillance network for pathogens. My latest for @opinion.bloomberg.com (🎁):

Why Do We Need Explosive Diarrhea to Remind Us Public Health Matters?

This week, public health detectives in Michigan got their first big lead in the cyclosporiasis outbreak that has sickened thousands of people in the state amid a broader national surge. Initial eviden...

bloomberg.com

Is Trump trying to lose the technology race with China? www.washingtonpost.com/education/20...

MIT president blames federal policy shifts for big drop in research on campus

Federal funding cuts have curtailed research at elite universities such as MIT, dulling America’s competitive edge globally.

washingtonpost.com

Gas Station Price Sign Using Scientific Notation

Gas Station Price Sign Using Scientific Notation

theonion.com

Are there other kinds?

Mozilla has a new CEO and he just announced that Firefox will evolve into a modern AI browser. This is a good example of how management doesn’t understand its own user base and why they go out of their way to install Firefox on Windows, Android, iOS and other devices blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/l...

The death of browsing is part of the reason art is the way it is now. Our opinions are largely fed to us by algorithms. Spending a spare 15 minutes wandering around a bookstore or comic shop or video rental place was how you found stuff you wouldn't ordinarily pick up and thereby expanded your taste

violet allen@blipstress.bsky.social · 12mo ago

Bookselling is like the most "people go to the store and buy what looks cool to them without a particular agenda" type business left, and your purchases have a huge influence on what is ordered, what is displayed, and what is recommended.

whenever a youtuber *chooses to put into the video* that they asked chatGPT something, i close the video lol. as if i'm interested in hearing about the journey you took talking to a fucking chatbot about a problem you were trying to solve 🥴

Katie Mack@astrokatie.com · 12mo ago

I don’t know if anyone else notices or cares, but when I see a presentation in which the speaker uses obviously generated-AI images to illustrate their slides, it makes me immediately less confident in whatever other content they’re presenting.

What was supposed to be AltText October took until today but I’m done! Alt text for 60 figures complete!!

CAMPUS VISIT WITH THE VAMPIRE TEACHING DEMO WITH THE VAMPIRE SIT-DOWN WITH THE DEAN WITH THE VAMPIRE APOLOGETIC EMAIL THAT THE SEARCH WAS CANCELED WITH THE VAMPIRE

Happy Halloween

One thing I like about AI is how I’ll search for “ESPN” and then the browser will be like “AI Powered Search found you the website for ESPN” and I can marvel at the wonders of Tomorrowland

I feel like the engagement on this website has really fallen off.

a coyote holding a sign that says " that 's all folks "

ALT: a coyote holding a sign that says " that 's all folks "

media.tenor.com

I own a house I rent to a guy. It’s an historic home with a big yard. Today I found out he tore down half the house. He says he’s going to rebuild it with someone else’s money. For some reason he didn’t ask my permission. Is anything I can do about it?

I'm catching strays this morning.

Book writing update: I'm part way through review and I think the figures are more-or-less set, so now I'm writing alt text for each of 60 or so figs. I'm calling it "Alt Text October". I'm trying to do 5 every day, which means I'm actually doing 2-3 every third day, but I'm making progress.

Spotted at the airport

If you've ever wondered about #POGIL, I'm helping facilitate a Mini-POGIL Experience next Wednesday, October 15. Come check it out! events.pogil.org/event-6350752