Which is it, Mike?

@QasimRashid Some call it MAGA's Audacity to Believe.

@cn Now that i have the meter I need to decide. And sort out my solar exports.

The smart meter is in. Data flows. My life is changed. A new me emerges from the chrysalis. Utopia beckons… #energy #octopus

@randahl So many balls. So little time.

@ChrisMayLA6 Tactical voting.

@Birk_lab Spilling perchloric acid is bad news. Why don't they handle it in glass? For one thing you soak perchlorate into the benchtop which stores up problems for later (there are tales of old wooden benches detonating) but also you mop the spill and wash it "away" down the sink. It's a persistent environmental issue that should not be ignored.

@Birk_lab Oh God. Perchloric acid. I could tell you some stories. One needs to be very careful with perchlorates. I'm not talking about the oxidizing/explosive potential. It turns out that the (ClO4)- is exactly the same size as iodide. What this means is that it's a systemic environmental poison that can cause thyroid disruption and more. Getting rid of perchlorates is incredibly hard because they are so chemically/kinetically resistant to attack.

@Birk_lab
"When I were a lad" doing A-levels, we pipetted our aliquots for titrations by mouth. That's what got me interested in the tastes fo the acids in the lab - nitric hydrochloric sulfuric and phosphoric are quite distinct. I also learned that 0.1 M HCl was by no means "dilute", at least not in the mouth…

And your mention of Eppendorf reminds me that the inventor of the mechanical pipette, Heinrich Schnitger invented it for a reason: https://www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/schnitgers-pipette/7789.article #ClassicKit

@Birk_lab Not to be picky (you know what's coming… ) but you can't exceed 38% HCl in water, I think. But secondly, as Paracelsus would have said, the risk is in the dose. 1 ml of conc HCl requires care but it's not a biggie.

And it all depends on your you pipette! It's time for the Four Yorkshiremen …  1/2

Yesterday I put the finishing touches on the latest instalment of #ClassicKit that will be out on November 1st.
It was a bit of a fluke. I stumbled across the marvel shown in the picture while learning about extinct distillation glassware. And then to my disbelief I learned that its inventor was responsible for one of the greatest advancements in French public health. But I bet you've not hear of him. #dephlegmator

@Birk_lab Only if you don't inhale or get it on your skin… 😉 We're doing it in a research lab, using Schlenk techniques. In many ways, it's lovely stuff - you can literally watch it disappear from one place and condense elsewhere in your system, absolutely snow white. You can melt it and freeze it. And on weeks like this one, pottering about showing students stuff in the lab and telling them stories about how things are or can be done is a great form of stress relief.

Showing student how to sublime white phosphorus today. Initial sublimation step has gone nicely - now we need to get the stuff into another flask.

Now to deal with the left-overs. It burns with a warm and sinister yellow flame… #P4 #chemistry

Helped (with @helenczerski ) to introduce three students to the systems that generate hot water and handled in our buildings, as a prelude to another #UCLChemLivingLab data-crunching exercise to see how we can drive down energy demand. Great questions and eyes widening progressively as we went from a hand-drawn sketch to actually looking at the kit involved.
It will lead to changes in operations to save energy, emissions and money!

Real headline or The Onion: "AWS crash causes $2,000 Smart Beds to overheat and get stuck upright"

Pro-tip: It's never the Onion.

@Nicovel0 It's a bit of a giveaway, isn't it?

@manoflard Annoyingly the bank I was trying to use tonight tells me that it's either SMS or Whatsapp. There is no alternative. And, yes, I use Proton. But no dice with these guys.

Why is it that the British government government says that what happens to Prince Andrew is a matter for a Royal Family. Can someone explain it isn't a matter for the Crown Prosecution Service?

@Natasha_Jay Slam dunk. thank you for giving me a bitter laugh.

Louvre Thieves Given Immunity After Confirming Jewels Stolen For Purpose Of Training AI Software 🇬🇧

"When we realised these jewels were only stolen to inflate the share price of a company whose entire value relies on the wholesale theft of other people’s art, we had no choice but grant these scamps immunity,” confirmed French prosecutor Alain Barbier."

https://waterfordwhispersnews.com/2025/10/20/louvre-thieves-given-immunity-after-confirming-jewels-stolen-for-purpose-of-training-ai-software/

Pour les non anglophones 🇫🇷:

Les voleurs du Louvre bénéficient de l'immunité après avoir confirmé que les bijoux avaient été volés dans le but d'entraîner un logiciel d'intelligence artificielle

"Lorsque nous avons réalisé que ces bijoux n'avaient été volés que pour gonfler le cours de l'action d'une société dont toute la valeur repose sur le vol en gros des œuvres d'art d'autrui, nous n'avons eu d'autre choix que d'accorder l'immunité à ces escrocs", a confirmé le procureur français Alain Barbier.

#Francais #France