plz rain 🙏

I'm so torn on large language model AI because the science it enables - bioacoustic research in particular - is truly beautiful, wondrous stuff. On the other hand its main use is as a confident but inexpert content/info source. Like the elemental spirit of mediocrity trapped in a box that nonetheless is already costing writers their jobs.

Does anyone have access to the April 2020 issue of Nature? There's an article in there I really want to read.

#CosoScience

The MoMA released a book on biotech art and man... I need to stop slacking on my mad science.

#cats

she lurks in the shadows!

I'm on vacation with the fam and that's awesome but I really miss my cats :(

🎶 🎵 🎶 🎵 🎶 🎵 🎶 🎵

Last night I learned my cousin, who worked as a professional pastry chef for many years, leaves peanut butter in the fridge. Not gonna lie I am shook. I don't know what's real anymore.

the basement room has concrete walls and a floor that is completely covered in discarded bricks and dust. Idk if it's stone or dirt underneath but there are clearly man made walls. NGL I'm scared of it even having cleaned it out a bit. Like... it really is a spooky and unexplained room. My spouse wants to brick it all up but I think that makes it worse and even more like that Poe story. Dad thinks it was for holding coal and not skeletons so I'm telling myself that's what it was.

Update on the basement cave: My house is really really old and there's a stone wall in the back of the basement that maybe was part of the original foundation. It's got an enormous uneven hole in it like it was partially knocked down, and behind that.... spiders. Jesus Christ so so so many spiders. I felt bad for them but I vacuumed up their homes. One walked away carrying an ant like a tiny bindle :(

Through the mystery hole is exactly the type of room you'd hide skeletons in.

On a rare vacation that's actually relaxing despite the presence of family.

Life continues to be good.

I finally worked up the motivation to clean my basement. A land forgotten by time. Shunned by god and man alike. It's cramped and poorly lit and full of spiders. There's a cave. Like just the wall ends and becomes a cave.

I got to see one of the first legal grow operations in NY and hear farmers talk about the regulatory regime. It's a mess of course, super chaotic rollout.

sry I'm not on here as much lately. I'd just rather be in my garden when the weather is nice.

I've been researching methods for destroying PFAS/PFOA post-filtration. There are a few options but each has drawbacks. Supercritical water oxidation requires special equipment to maintain the temp/pressure range. Incineration requires really really high temps like ~1500°C and not a ton of facilities are able to do this. There's also a caustic chemical approach using lye and hot dmso but there's no infrastructure for this at all.

3M had to pay a 10bn fine over this but that isn't nearly enough.

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