Alex Albaugh

No Kings includes Draft Kings

I don’t want to hear anything from an elected official unless it’s a plan to defund the DHS and impeach Noem, Bovino, etc. No texts. No emails. No talk about the economy. Step up or step off.

Not only does ICE need to be abolished, but there should be publically aired tribunals for as long as it takes to hold every last one of these thugs accountable. No one, not even the people who file paperwork or handle payroll, should be immune from prosecution.

if you are talking today about how bad maduro was and were alive, at all, during the run-up to the iraq war you are potentially the dumbest person to ever live

US law applies in Caracas but not 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue?

I've had a healthy fear of studying glass. It's kinetically trapped and hard to sample. But my intrepid colleague @glassic-cam.bsky.social convinced me to be brave and we're now simulating organic glass vapor deposition. I think it looks like snow, so enjoy this glassy holiday scene!

Honored and excited to be part of this scientific community!

Come be my colleague!

Simulating Catalytic Resonance with Molecular Dynamics

Professor Alex Albaugh @alexalbaugh.com has a new paper on Catalytic Resonance Theory that I recommend checking out
chemrxiv.org/engage/chemr...

AIChE 2025 technical session schedule for the Albaugh Lab at Wayne State.

We're sharing our latest work at AIChE 2025 and with pre-prints! Hear Ali on mechanically interlocked polymers on Mon. or read it (arxiv.org/abs/2506.13968), read our foray into catalysis (chemrxiv.org/engage/chemr...), or hear me on WSU's ML for ChE class on Tues. and molecular motors on Wed.

AIChE 2025 technical session schedule for the Albaugh Lab at Wayne State.

We're sharing our latest work at AIChE 2025 and with pre-prints! Hear Ali on mechanically interlocked polymers on Mon. or read it (arxiv.org/abs/2506.13968), read our foray into catalysis (chemrxiv.org/engage/chemr...), or hear me on WSU's ML for ChE class on Tues. and molecular motors on Wed.

we simply do not have a union anymore if the president is using troops from one state to invade others entirely on the basis of political disagreements

“Don’t give up the ship” battle flag.

Happy Battle of Lake Erie Day to those who celebrate.

Travis Kalanick, the founder of Uber who no longer works at the company, appeared on All-In to talk with hosts Jason Calacanis and Chamath Palihapitiya about the future of technology. When the topic turned to AI, Kalanick discussed how he uses xAI’s Grok, which went haywire last week, praising Adolf Hitler and advocating for a second Holocaust against Jews. “I’ll go down this thread with [Chat]GPT or Grok and I’ll start to get to the edge of what’s known in quantum physics and then I’m doing the equivalent of vibe coding, except it’s vibe physics,” Kalanick explained. “And we’re approaching what’s known. And I’m trying to poke and see if there’s breakthroughs to be had. And I’ve gotten pretty damn close to some interesting breakthroughs just doing that.”

My god these guys are such spectacular morons

gizmodo.com/billionaires...

one of the stranger phenomena in American life is that hate is supposed to flow in one direction (rural people get to hate urban people, Republicans get to hate Democrats) and if the hate goes the other way people pretend as if this is very upsetting.

Jason Stanley, philosopher and expert on fascism said “You know you're living in a fascist society when you're constantly going over in your head the reasons why YOU are safe.”

YOU WANNA SEE A DEAD BODY???

*This* is the NOW INFAMOUS "Footnote 12" that Jackson wrote.
It basically tells Neil Gorsuch: "Fuck you as a staff, label, and motherfucking crew."

For more fun car efficiency dimensional analysis, see Randall Munroe's take on mpg as an inverse area:
what-if.xkcd.com/11/

To rant, driving style makes a big difference in efficiency. I commute on a road with timed lights. Some people accelerate and speed on green only to stop at the next red. If I drive the speed limit, every light is green. Stopping and going is an energetic waste. Steady speed maximizes efficiency.

Steady state resistances (280 N, 63 lbs-f) at my average speed (30 mph) account for a bit less than half the average force exerted by the car. This makes sense as higher speeds have more air resistance, accelerating takes more force, there will be some losses, and the battery also runs the AC.

Drag force is 0.5 * (drag coefficient) * (air density) * (cross-sectional area) * (speed squared).

Rolling resistance is (coefficient of rolling resistance, about 0.01 for a car) * (mass) * (gravitational acceleration, 9.8 m/s^2).

The car has a drag coefficient of 0.3, a cross-sectional area of 2.5 m^2, and weighs 4500 lbs. With this and some reasonable estimates for the density of air and rolling friction coefficient, at a steady 30 mph air resistance is 80 N (18 lbs-f) and rolling resistance is 200 N (45 lbs-f).

The units of mi/kWh are fun because it's a distance per energy, which is inverse force. Taking the inverse of my average efficiency (3.5 mi/kWh)^-1 gives a force of 640 N or 140 lbs-force. You can interpret this as the average force that the car exerts while it drives.

How does this compare to a gas car? Assuming gasoline density of 0.7 g/cm^3 and heat of combustion of 45 MJ/kg, a Honda Civic (40 mpg) gets 1.2 mi/kWh and a Cadillac Escalade (15 mpg) gets 0.45 mi/kWh. The EV is 2-4.5x more energy efficient than an efficient car and 5.5-12x an inefficient car.

My car's stated efficiency is 2.8 mi/kWh. My average is 3.5 mi/kWh, the worst I've seen is 2.5 mi/kWh (cold, highway driving), and I can get it up to 5.5 mi/kWh (warm, city driving). So the manufacturer gives a low estimate on range and under the right conditions you can do much better.

My electric car measures efficiency in miles per kilowatt-hour, which is a gross mix of imperial and metric. But there are some interesting comparisons and dimensional analysis with that.

We are looking forward day 1 of the 55th Midwest Theoretical Chemistry Conference at #wsuchemistry with Keynote speaker Paul Zimmerman! #MWTCC55 #compchem #ChemSky

Palmyra Borough mayoral candidate Kevin Yiengst charged with DUI Palmyra Borough mayoral candidate Kevin Yiengst was charged with DUI following a Thursday night incident in Palmyra.

In news from my hometown, a GOP mayor candidate was just arrested for DUI. He crashed into a house "to avoid a cat." Told the arresting officer he was drinking vodka 20 minutes prior and mentioned several times he is "going to be the mayor." Election is Tuesday.

lebtown.com/2025/05/16/p...

Vandalism.

There is a developing aviation crisis in the United States. Newark Airport is in shambles, forcing the cancellations of hundreds of flights. Ground-traffic accidents are multiplying. A major disaster is only a matter of time.

A functioning government would take emergency action to staff our