so I guess the tomatillo salsa (I got gifted a bunch of tomatillos and I *hate* them 😭 ) is going to be extra-spicy.

anyway if you read this and are like, "oh I should follow her for Chemistry Opinions" please note this is an anomaly, sorry not sorry, most of my talk is about literally anything except what I have a PhD in

cut into one of the serranos I harvested, because I was like, "are these actually...hot?" and the answer is YES, VERY 😅

like yes sure the overall implications for metal sulfide mining in the oceans are important, safety does matter and there are certainly engineering protocols that will need to be thought through, but *this specific experiment* was extremely silly.

like, literally, oh my God. the fuckin'. wiki page. for iron (ii) sulfide will give you enough of a hint -- that it forms under *low-oxygen conditions*, which should maybe, idk, be a hint -- if you *massively increase the surface area* and *expose it to air*, what's gonna happen? HMM.

you cannot even make the argument of, like, "well they didn't know what was in it until they ran the analysis after the squashing", like --

it is a METAL SULFIDE

do you know what we DON'T want to do to it?

SQUASH IT TO A FINE POWDER AND EXPOSE IT TO AIR.

God, okay, I'm looking at author affiliations and they're all biopeople or -- worse -- *nanoparticle* people

so

😂

you know, sometimes I'm like, "ugh okay maybe I'm not a very good chemist", but of all the things I have ever done, "running an experiment that's gonna involve squashing something to a fine powder without checking to see if, you know, someone had ever tried this before" is not on the list of things I have done.

there is a reason we used to store all of our weird super-fine metal powders A) separate from anything flammable, and B) under Ar 😂 this is like. inorganic 101 for anyone who works with solid-state stuff or metals

"Of the commonly occurring metal sulfide
minerals, pyrrhotite is most often cited as an unstable and hazardous mineral in matrices as varied as coal, concrete, and massive sulfide, due to its propensity for rapid oxidation. This instability has been attributed to the
variable stoichiometry e.g. a high relative surface area, or surface roughness and extended fractures."

note the bit about "high relative surface area", like

if anyone had stopped at any point to go, "hmm, is this a good or safe idea? what does the lit say?" they would not have a paper because they wouldn't have squashed it to a fine powder 😂

okay I am reading the Nature paper that they cite and *crying*, oh my God 😂

and then BLAMING IT ON THE PETROLEUM that MIGHT be in it, like

NO. YOU FOOLS.

IT'S BECAUSE YOU HAD IRON(II) IN THERE AND YOU SMASHED IT TO A FINE POWDER JFC

it wants to be iron (III), you just massively increased the surface area, good *glob* 😂

...amazing, ha. https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-collected-deep-sea-rocks-they-spontaneously-caught-fire-in-the-lab

(maybe it's the inorganic chemist in me but all I can think is, "you crushed 'em to a fine fucking powder and you were astounded that they caught fire in the presence of O2? that's on *you*.")

#SilentSunday

like, okay, the lady at the garbage company who's rude as hell on the phone? stressful job (everyone hates the garbage company! they have a fucking monopoly! they're terrible and everyone knows it, but the call center people are not the ones running the local garbage service, can't be mad at THEM), I'm not gonna be mean to HER. I won't leave a bad review, I'll just try to get through this whole situation as quick as possible.

the guy at the grocery store who is a dick about my ID at self-check? okay, it's a college town, whatever. there was probably an OLCC sting a few days ago and he got shouted at by someone else, now he's anxious and doesn't wanna lose his job, again, not gonna report him or do anything (unless it happens again, which it did not).

generally this "be kind to someone who is just trying to survive" goes pretty well, but...door to door salespeople. jfc.

I try to be very kind and gracious with people who are Just Doing Their Jobs.

that really falls down in the face of door to door salespeople. 😐️

why in the world am I getting Bible verse spam texts now?

this post brought to you by: "oh I get it, you went up to Portland for the Crow Walk but you won't come see me 😞"

yup! I did in fact go do the limited-time thing that I was invited to after it was organized by other people, the end.

"why didn't you go to...?"

the answer, forever and always, is:

because I live over two hours away from Portland, so unless I *really* like you or it's something *really* cool, nah. I'm not going.

it also makes me go 🤨 and wonder if they read the Earthsea Cycle beyond A Wizard of Earthsea, but...well...

really wish that people would stop suggesting the Earthsea Cycle as a replacement for HP. every time it pops up, all I can think is, "have you *read* either of them?" because apart from a few superficial similarities, they have very little in common and are in fact written for different audiences.

I love Earthsea. It is not a replacement for HP, and suggesting that it is does Earthsea a disservice.