Ian Vander Meulen

Data I've worked with don't show discernible impacts in water, but analytical biases in my methods *have consistently ignored volatile fractions*, but that was usually justified by previous toxicity identification evaluations. Are volatile acids still (relatively) benign airborne? I'm not sure 🤷‍♂️

I haven't finished chewing on it yet, but I find Figure 4(a) particularly fascinating. The authors find elevated C7H6O2 (a benzoic acid analogue) downwind of Suncor pond 2/3, but not downwind of Syncrude Mildred Lake operations. What is the atmospheric half-life of NAs? Are they depositing?

Oil Sands Facilities Are an Emission Source of Naphthenic Acid Fractional Compounds to the Atmosphere The oil sands (OS) region in Canada hosts one of the world’s largest unconventional crude oil deposits in the form of bitumen, which, when extracted, generates substantial tailings/wastewater that are...

This paper is *fascinating* to me. At my PhD defense 2 months ago, someone asked me if naphthenic acids are volatile, and I answered "probably not" for a bunch of reasons. I guess I need to eat my hat.

dx.doi.org/10.1021/acse...

Look around, the case for more, not less, liberal arts education remains stronger than ever.

The episodic character of cable broadcast also forced succinct step-wise concrete character developments to fit in those 20 min slots, while still leaving lots of room to "show, not tell." The live-action ATLA definitely falls towards "tell, not show." Exposition heavy.

A map of Canada with shaded regions showing plant hardiness zones. Fully accessible map available at https://planthardiness.gc.ca/?m=1

Any gardeners in my feed? Or climate and/or environmental data enthusiasts like me? I have some exciting news (ok, exciting for me): Canada’s Plant Hardiness Zone Map just got a major update. Whether you manage a yard, garden, field, or forest, this is big... 🧵

Thanks to Doug Muench, Christine Martineau, Jason Ahad, @dwmcmartin.bsky.social, and John Headley, as well as our industry partner.

Longer story, atreatment wetland can (i) drop concentrations, (ii) make the mixture more polar, and (iii) drop average molecular weights of mixture classes. These are all consistent with decreasing toxicity in treated tailings. Other folks have related exciting tox data, but that's their story.

My last dissertation chapter is now out open-access.

An oil sands operator gave us access to a pilot-scale treatment wetland on their mine site, and we monitored naphthenic acid fraction compounds (NAFCs). Long-story short, the treatment strategy works pretty well.

dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.je...

Canada Is Top Preferred Oil Supplier for G7 Nations Ipsos poll reveals Canada's strong position among G7 allies, Middle East gains ground in G20 countries as U.S. drops across regions

www.ipsos.com/en-ca/canada...

It's wonderful that Canada holds a privileged position among our allies. There are good reasons for this. We only supply "ethical oil" as long as we commit to continuous improvement and learning for effective reclamation. Stewardship isn't free.

Thank you to @dwmcmartin.bsky.social & John Headley for your steadfast support throughout. I couldn't have asked for better supervision.

Proud to say I successfully defended my PhD thesis today.

A mixed-breed puppy at 6 months of age.

A mixed-breed puppy at 4 months of age

A mixed-breed puppy at 2 months of age

Update - he's gotten big. Probably 40 lbs by 6 months. But Pippin's a (mostly) good boy.

When did www.howcanishareit.com get nuked? It hasn't been usable for me for ~6 months at least, and it was a great resource.

"Wolf of Theseus" was genuinely amusing

Scientific Research Makes Life Better Even If You Don’t Understand It Basic science research can seem complex, frivolous, and meaningless, but it makes our daily lives better even we don't understand it all.

www.forbes.com/sites/marsha...

Absolutely chilling.

Canadians don’t take kindly to repeatedly being told our country shouldn’t exist.

All of us have many American friends and colleagues, many have relatives.

We are looking to you to stand up as Americans and be as incensed as we are about this affront to Canadian sovereignty.

America: whatever you might think my level of enthusiasm for Canada being absorbed by America is, it's less than that.

A screenshot of a post from the account @longwall26 on Twitter. It is quote posting another tweet from YouGov that reads: One in eight men (12%) say they could win a point in a game of tennis against 23 time grand slam winner Serena Williams. The quote above it reads: Confident in my ability to properly tennis, I take the court. I smile at my opponent. Serena does not return the gesture. She'd be prettier if she did, I think. She serves. The ball passes cleanly through my skull, killing me instantly.

Happy International Women's Day to this classic banger

Total demand only dropped ~200 MW for a doubling in price. We've got a ways to go on the price/demand elasticity curve.

Tbf, this take isn't even half-baked. Polisci isn't my wheelhouse, but I'm eager to hear from those that wear that hat.

Is this all a climate issue?

Not everyone can articulate that *something* is wrong, and that scarcity is coming. It almost makes sense that a percentage of pop then wants to smash and grab. The present context almost reads like pre/post-disaster looting on a global scale.

This is a great story, and a great example of why it's important to support research generally, even where the outputs aren't immediately obvious.

Mass firings across National Weather Service, NOAA ignite fury among scientists worldwide Scientists worry there will be immediate harm from the Trump administration's latest federal workforce cuts, which hit NOAA and the National Weather Service.

Collective ignorance is not an accidental or contingent outcome of autocracy, it is essential to it. www.latimes.com/california/s...

Just in case my American followers are in any doubt:

No f*cking way.

Don’t flatter yourselves. We don’t want what you have to offer.

Happy to be your neighbour. We’re pretty good neighbours; don’t make many demands, or cause much trouble. Happy to help out when needed.

Not conjoining out lots

I wish that had weight and teeth, but it's not clear it does right now

This is going to be specialized, but whatever - Google is getting me nowhere.

It seems that the mass spec I care for is suddenly having space charging in its ESI source. Anyone have tips about minimizing this? It's killing my method sensitivity

Submitted my dissertation for evaluation by my committee over the weekend. Wish me luck through the last stretch.

Here's to the Globe, the Canadian paper most likely to throw its panties onstage at a Trump rally.