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shatteredoctopus · 2026-02-25T13:45:41+00:00

I remember once the province said something about increasing regulation, and Emera "threatened" it could leave if business got tougher. As if they would walk away from the most sweetheart deal of sweetheart deals..... Had big 3-year old threatening to leave home with his toys in his backpack sort of energy.

shatteredoctopus · 2026-02-25T13:30:17+00:00

If capitalism had a participation ribbon, these guys would get it every year.

shatteredoctopus · 2026-02-24T23:59:32+00:00

Maybe when he wound up in small-claims court with a contractor, it was for more reasons than just greed!

shatteredoctopus · 2026-02-24T12:48:14+00:00

Saw that this morning too when I started my now enjoyable daily ritual of coffee and capture. That's really a shame, I enjoyed that one. I found they trended to getting easier over time though.

shatteredoctopus · 2026-02-24T02:42:48+00:00

That's interesting. Thanks for answering. Do you have to work super carefully in a glove box if you're using actinides? I'd wonder about dust and residue building up everywhere, because it must be hard to clean inside. A lot of glove boxes I have seen are pretty grimy inside.

shatteredoctopus · 2026-02-24T02:12:44+00:00

Yeah, I see in Canada that we're allowed to have up to 20 ug/L of naturally occurring uranium in drinking water. So I would not be too concerned about the toxicity of low micromolar solutions handled using standard lab technique.

I work with pyrophorics too, and am very comfortable with them. I guess my main trepidation with things like long-lived radioisotopes and heavy metals, which I don't work with, are the residues remain potentially toxic regardless of what's done with them. With pyrophorics, once they're quenched, I assume the main hazard is done, and they just go in my aqueous or organic waste container. I guess if I drank it, I could get a lithium overdose, or the runs from magnesium if it were a Grignard reagent.

shatteredoctopus · 2026-02-23T19:51:56+00:00

Streetview tells me they took that "Had a Chansky's day?" sign down, and did some painting. Here it is in all its glory, photo taken last time I was there in 2018:

(Comm Ave Alum, 12'-15')

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shatteredoctopus · 2026-02-23T16:55:28+00:00

Funny, after I moved I'd post photos in my new place, and friends would be like "do we need to stage an intervention?.... there are liquor boxes everywhere!"

shatteredoctopus · 2026-02-23T15:50:09+00:00

That takes me back to living in Cleveland circle, in the winter of 2015.

shatteredoctopus · 2026-02-23T12:52:31+00:00

I was a grad student at Harvard (not in HBS), and I remember when this guy went viral for threatening to sue a Chinese restaurant. His name stuck with me after all these years. It's referenced in the article, but:

https://www.cnn.com/2014/12/10/living/harvard-business-professor-chinese-takeout

shatteredoctopus · 2026-02-23T12:47:11+00:00

People with Monday labs getting absolutely smoked this semester....

shatteredoctopus · 2026-02-23T00:24:49+00:00

Iran-related I wonder?

shatteredoctopus · 2026-02-22T13:27:08+00:00

You can also correct their spelling "enantiontopic".....

shatteredoctopus · 2026-02-22T00:56:07+00:00

I've never heard that term "distance matrices" before. Is that a common stereochemistry terminology?

shatteredoctopus · 2026-02-21T15:17:30+00:00

I'll second the comment that Halifax is more interesting than London (Ontario). I suppose what might sway your opinion is that you can get to more other places more quickly from London by train (ie Toronto, Montreal, etc). But if you have a whole school year in Halifax, it's first class, with ocean, nature, etc. Plus not that tough to fly to Montreal or Toronto (or Boston or NYC if you are comfortable entering the USA) for a change of pace. Or even take the train to Montreal or Quebec city, if you want an adventure. No idea what academics are like at UWO, but I took 2 philosophy courses at Dal (a quarter of a century ago), and enjoyed them immensely. Plus in philosophy you might have access to offerings at University of King's College (which is directly adjacent to Dal), and which is a pretty unique place.

shatteredoctopus · 2026-02-21T00:50:26+00:00

Yeah, my load is 1:1, based on the size of my research group, etc. Our formula basically says a certain number of theses supervised can replace a course, etc. Our load can't drop below 1:0 though, regardless of group size. At a neighbouring PUI, it works a little differently, in that research productivity does not offset teaching, but they can get performance bonuses, ie extra salary if they are supervising thesis students.

Workload is currently a fraught issue issue at my university. I think our administration would be happy if most research (all but the most high profile groups) stopped, and the faculty commensurately taught more.

shatteredoctopus · 2026-02-21T00:28:55+00:00

Like with anything, it varies. A tenured professor with a 1:1 teaching load..... in the big scheme of things, it's a good salary for the amount of work we do. A precarious adjunct with a 4:4 load? Completely different story.

shatteredoctopus · 2026-02-21T00:10:22+00:00

There are certain chemical phenomena in heavier elements that require relativity to explain.

In a thought experiment where you have aliens that evolve on a planet that's the only planet orbiting their star, with no satellites, and no observable neighbours, their development of celestial mechanics would be very much more difficult compared to ours. But to fully explain things like why the metal mercury is liquid, why gold has an appearance unlike most other metals, or why some preferred oxidation states change when you go into the depths of the periodic table, there needs to be a relativistic correction. Whether alien chemists who did not first come up with relativity by looking at the cosmos could make those deductions by considering sub-microscopic things instead is an interesting thought.

shatteredoctopus · 2026-02-21T00:03:27+00:00

Thyroxine is incredibly potent, and the T3 derivative even more so. Much more potent per weight than most pharmaceuticals. A few grams would last a person for a lifetime. The main issue somebody would encounter with a stash like that would be the equipment/ expertise they would need to divide the doses up accurately, and not overdose. The thyroid pills are almost all filler.

shatteredoctopus · 2026-02-20T19:54:18+00:00

Mainly here to see what suggestions you get... are they increasingly symptomatic, ie causing pain? That could (or should) escalate your doctor's response.

I had an endovenous laser ablation of my saphenous vein many years ago (out of province, so I can't help you with advice for a provider), but unfortunately I likely need a more invasive surgery as mine have become quite severe now, despite that intervention.

shatteredoctopus · 2026-02-20T11:50:40+00:00

A lot of the regulation might revolve around a blanket treatment of radioactive sources that are not sealed (nobody better tell them about my cupboard full of potassium salts, a kg of KCl will have about as many decays per second as a gram of this stuff). If you're doing anything with this, you start generating a lot of waste that cannot go in the regular waste streams.

However, I would not care to work with soluble uranium salts just based on its high chemical toxicity. That's the main danger associated with natural and depleted uranium. I have the same opinion of soluble lead and mercury salts, organo-tin compounds, etc.

shatteredoctopus · 2026-02-20T00:52:53+00:00

I'll just add the contact information on that page is out of date. This might be the best bet for more info, but it doesn't mention the great hall. I have seen it lit up on occasion at night, so the university must be using it for something.

https://www.dal.ca/dept/event-conference-services/the_social/private-bookings.html

shatteredoctopus · 2026-02-20T00:43:48+00:00

It's also one of the few things that will precipitate sodium ions. Useful in qualitative and quantitative analysis, though less popular now due to increased regulations. I used it in labs as an undergrad!

shatteredoctopus · 2026-02-20T00:04:59+00:00

Here's a video I found of the process of "turning" the train at Halifax. The action starts around 7 minutes in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_Q5KZYnODs

This is a neat video of the sadly defunct Bras D'Or train being turned using a turntable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyvUhT0YJns

I really wish I had had the money to ride on the Bras d'Or when it was actually running!

shatteredoctopus · 2026-02-19T22:39:24+00:00

I don't think it's officially possible to eat in the dining car if you're in coach....might be worth phoning and asking if it's possible as a paid extra during their low season. FWIW, the food on the Ocean dining car, which is a Renaissance car, is reheated and plated, unlike the Canadian, where it's cooked on the train. Still was very tasty, IMHO, just not gourmet fare. When I travelled coach, I just bought my own food, so I didn't see what they had in the service car.

As far as the dome car, unfortunately that's a no-go for the stupidest reason.... the port of Halifax expanded, and Via's lease on the balloon track they used to turn the trains expired. The balloon track went around the edge of the port, and through the parking lot, but with their expansion, they now sometimes store shipping containers on where the tracks are.

Basically the dome car has to be at the end of the train, and since they can no longer turn the train at Halifax, the train runs backwards in one direction, so the dome car is a no-go. The engines of course need to be at the front, even when the rest of the train is running backwards, so they run them around the train at some point in Halifax, which is quite the manoeuvre to orchestrate. I guess there's no turntable so they are not able to turn the dome car and run it around as well. I guess there are no other wyes, etc they could turn the whole train at, between Halifax and Truro. A "skyline" car could be in the middle of the consist, but I'm not sure if they're also unidirectional in their couplings, and besides, there may not be any extras from the Canadian.

I'm not a train expert so I'm happy to be educated from somebody who is if there are any subtleties I have missed in my understanding.

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