epicshepich

@epicshepich@programming.dev

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨what’s your best “nitric acid acts upon trousers” moment?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I’ve got two.

  A lab freezer’s seal broke in the middle of a humid Michigan summer, so everything got encased in frost. In the process of chipping away the frost, the ink on many of the labels rubbed away, so we essentially had a bunch of mystery flasks. One such flask had a septum that was stuck really tight. When I yanked it out, the recoil caused some of the mystery liquid to splash onto my mesh shoe. Within a couple minutes, my foot started stinging. We later identified the contents to be acetyl chloride, so it was probably reacting with my foot sweat to make acetic acid and hydrochloric acid. I took my shoe and sock off and rinsed my foot in the lab sink.

  ---

  I was putting sodium hydride into an empty round bottom and a good bit of it got stuck to the ground glass in the neck. Genius that I am, I turned a nitrogen line on with low flow thinking I could blow it into the flask. I didn’t realize that the nitrogen had to go somewhere and the only place it could go is back out, blowing NaH all over my face. There was very much safety-glasses-unless-there’s-an-inspection culture at my old university, but I was never more thankful that I made it a personal rule to wear splash goggles. Would not have liked for the moisture on my eyes to bubble off.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Google's Gemini will make its way into Dragon Quest X to power a "Chatty Slimey" AI companion, Square Enix has announced⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  AI-powered NPCs is like a childhood dream come true. But I agree it would be better for them to use a model running on the user’s system or at the very least host their own.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I am an American. I used to be proud of my country. Now it feels like a turd circling the drain. Is there anything going on behind the scene that America is actually doing good in?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m an American, so take what I say with a grain of salt, but I can imagine being proud of one’s country’s institutions. When a nation actually pulls off democratic republicanism, it’s something to be proud of. When a nation’s institutions protect civil rights and promote egalitarianism, it’s something to be proud of because that takes a lot to set up. Ultimately, a government is something built by a community and shaped by a culture. The people at the top would like to fool you into believing that government is a clash of wills between politicians, but they’re just the tip of the iceberg.

  Although our highest offices have been corrupt for a long time (always?), Project 2025 dismantled many of our proudest institutions.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Shoutout to yall⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  When I was a kid, I used to have a runny nose all the time. By high school, I started carrying a tissue box, trash bag, and hand sanitizer around in my backpack.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Harvard Places Math Professor Martin Nowak on Paid Administrative Leave Over Epstein Ties⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  From Wiktionary:

  knowledge: (archaic or law) Sexual intimacy or intercourse (now usually in phrase carnal knowledge). [from 15th c.]

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Website⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  During in my data science master’s program, someone unironically sent me a localhost link to a Jupyter Notebook.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Make me feel like a man⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I had no idea this existed, but I just ordered it. My wife was obsessed with Cheez-Its during her first pregnancy, so I think she’ll get a kick out of it! Thank you 🥲