@jon Aha, that was the possibility i thought might be doable. Well I hope your dad makes it OK despite all the excess water and that your partner can argue the movers into submission

@jon Random nerdy question - do you have to go into Paris and out again to get to Ravières or is there an alternative? The SNCF being a very different beast, I'm always surprised if I DON'T have to go via the capital.

@jon Least the weather is OK for you in this neck of the woods

@sellathechemist Oh man that looks good

Just when I thought the story couldn't get any better.

Crystal has offered to put Nicky Doll in touch with their lawyer, who shafted Fox last time.

@Methylzero Sorry, was using A level (an exam qualification) to describe the sort of things you'd learn at the 16-18 age.

Crosspost to Chemistry mastodon (cc@chemistry@a.gup.pe): I used to be more tapped into the UK chemed than I am these days, so when a friend (40s) asked about sites to brush up on their A-level chem, I realised some of my ideas were a bit out of date. Can you help? Thanks in advance

Form to become german:
How will your professional existence be secured in the long term?

Mates, I work in science journalism. I DON'T KNOW

Silke Schröder, Vorständin beim Verein Deutsche Sprache, fordert die "Remigration" von Journalist:innen. Dieser rechtsextreme Kampfbegriff bedeutet nichts anderes als Deportation. Schröder war auch bei einem konspirativen Treffen, das @correctiv_org aufgedeckt hat.

DJV-PM: https://www.djv.de/startseite/profil/der-djv/pressebereich-download/pressemitteilungen/detail/news-klare-kante-notwendig-1

Dad's on a Flixbus from Munich to Innsbruck today due to the train strikes in Germany. I'm fascinated to think of my dad on a Flixbus TBH, can't really picture it

@irishinneburg @riffreporter @SusanneWedlich Oooh, sieht großartig aus! Danke

The great thing about Mastodon is that when I get unfollowed or no engagement, I can't blame an algorithm: my toots are just *that bad*.

"Maths is the lifeblood of scientific and technological progress. Maths has quietly shaped our economy and society. Even the way we view political questions or, in some circles, imagine life to be some sort of optimisation problem—these are ways of thinking inflected and infected by mathematics. Yet maths remains possibly the only subject where one can leave school and have absolutely no idea what an academic or professional specialising in the subject actually does!"
More:
https://ananyo.substack.com/p/why-do-people-hate-maths

@ottocrat Glorious coast up there

Train math: OEBB just refunded me the (almost ?) whole ticket price for our delayed sleeper to Budapest a couple of weeks ago. So that's half our train back to the UK for Christmas paid for.

@statto Same man, same

@MCDuncanLab thx!

@ChemicalEyeGuy Thanks, although today and tomorrow are full work days for me here in Germany. But with all the US off, including the C&EN staff, I'm trying to use the time well

@DrFerrous added to the pile, thanks!

I'm using these quiet days in the office to catch up on reading and thinking time. The first paper I've gone through is this on the changing landscape for med chemists in industry (HT Keith Hornberger) https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jmedchem.3c02035# What other papers/editorials/articles would the #chemistry crew here recommend?@chemistry