Happy New Year!

Thanks for sticking with the blog for another year.

Happily, I managed to write a few more posts this year than last year. If you have any desires for my writing in 2016, please do make suggestions in this post.

Also, a few links to tide you over for the weekend:

• Shane talks about the music of the macromolecules.
• A post by Boaz Vilozny about storytelling in scientific communication.
• The 5 Compounds of Christmas.
• AHHHHHHHHH!!!!
• Gotta agree with Beryl Lieff Benderly: the postdocs of Future of Research are pretty great.
• NMR of egg nog.
• The latest from All Things Metathesis.
• Michelle Francl on the origins of the term "scientist."
• Did you know Prof. Francl was on "On The Media"?!?!?!
• Peter Kenny teaches me a new word: "soucouyant"
• A 2015 roundup from Stellen fuer Chemiker  
• Chad Jones has a new podcast: Chemical Dependence. 
• A retraction in Organic Letters makes Retraction Watch.
• Dave Collum's Year in Review. 
• Quintus awards a "Paper of the Year."

Have a great weekend! See you on Monday, in the new year. 

Busy today, but...

I think I'm gonna do a old-fashioned links post before the day ends (I hope), but I did want to point out this funny little bit from ACS Denver. A speaker talking about CO₂ extraction of THC [1] in the session on chemical health and safety in the cannabis industry had this little exchange with the audience (registration required, rush transcript by CJ, it starts at 13:20 (thanks, Mitch!)): 

Speaker: Um, so, I believe in no chemicals. CO₂ allows us to avoid chemicals.  

Audience, almost as one: CO₂ is a chemical.  

Speaker: I would say "no harmful chemicals" 

[Audience murmuring, like a hive of angry bees] 

Audience member: This is the American Chemical Society.  

Speaker: OK, everything is a chemical - you got me good there. 

Got a suggestion of an article that you enjoyed recently? Put it in the comments! Want me to cover a topic? Got a complaint? Today's a good day for that.

[1] Cahoj, A. "Safety and health standard of cannabis extractions with an emphasis on C02 (CHAS5)" Lecture ID: 2131522

Happy New Year!

Best wishes for a good 2015 for all.

2014 was a year for somewhat less posting for the blog (and less regular and timely posting, too.) I would obviously like to change that, so I am working on disciplining myself to make that happen. I have some larger projects, but I don't wish to jinx myself.

If you have thoughts on what you'd like to see from this blog in 2015, feel free to comment here.

Again, best wishes to you, your family and to us all in 2015. 

Open thread?

This is just to say...

I have had an
incredibly
busy morning

and you were
probably
expecting 
Process Wednesday
and a funny post
or an angry post

Forgive me
Excuses are stinky
Just like the walk-in hood I helped clean up. 

(Seriously, I'm like 4 posts behind. Back ASAP, possibly tomorrow, definitely tomorrow morning.) 

If you have any suggestions for posts that I should do (or things that I have been doing poorly recently), please put them in the comments. 

Assignment desk: 8 things that need to get done

8 things that need to happen in the chemblogosphere:

• A NMR spectroscopist blog. 
• A rogue Sigma-Aldrich Twitter account. 
• There really needs to be an analytical chemist blogger, specifically HPLC. 
• A quantum/theoretical chemistry blog -- they would have to be awesome writers, but it'd be worth it!
• Why hasn't there been a lab reality show already? 
• It would be awesome if a big name in synthetic chemistry started to blog anonymously, dogging lame methodology papers and bogus total syntheses. C'mon, it's not like it doesn't happen on e-mail all the time. 
• QC chemistry would lend itself to a terribly sarcastic blog, I'd think. 
• Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter would have nothing on R.B. Woodward: Zombie Slayer.

Speaking of which, folks, what is there that you would like me to do? All suggestions welcome. 

Wanted: typos spotted

For the commenter that spots the most typos in each one-week period and either comments or e-mails (chemjobber -at- gmaildotcom), that commenter will be granted a post written by me on any desired topic. 

Wanted: a good idea for a bounty

As you may have noticed, I don't do enough editing of my posts. Typos, etc. sneak in from time to time and I seem to have major geographical errors on a regular basis. (e.g. calling Birmingham the Rocket City, etc., confusing Butte and Bozeman, Montana.)

Readers, do you have a worthwhile bounty system to suggest? One that would be particularly painful would be having to say one nice thing about the Los Angeles Lakers or USC Trojans football each time I had a typo. Monetary disincentives (e.g. having to donate a penny per typo to some liked/disliked group) might be worthwhile, too.

Readers, what say you? 

Please, who are you and what do you want?

I've been meaning to do this for a while, so now's as good as a time as any. 

Readers, if you are willing, feel free to tell us in the comments about yourself. I'd like age range, education level, academia/industry, experience level and employment status would all be helpful. 

(Readers who do not usually comment, now is your time to make yourself known. I know you're out there, and it's such an honor to have you.) 

Also, is there anything you'd like to see covered more on the blog? Right now, my foci are The Layoff Project, job blogging, economy blogging and some chemical safety coverage. 

What do you think I am missing? What should I be covering? Thanks, and have a great weekend. 

Cheers, Chemjobber

Request thread

Sorry for the posting schedule being a little weird here, but it's a little tough to find that quiet morning hour to post these days.

A question: what would you like to see me cover? What would you like to see me cover less?

I'll surprise no one and say that I have a general posting schedule during the week: I try to comment on anything #chemjobs-related in the latest C&EN on Monday, I talk about grad school / learning issues on Tuesday and management/boss/business issues on Thursday. Wednesday and Friday are humor/whatever days and Tuesday/Thursday is committed to the Daily Pump Trap.

Also, what long-term projects would you like me to work on for the 2011-2012 season?