Chris Taylor

giving the toned paper another shot

The Vegan's Voice | Michael Corthell

My go to meal has now become corn grits cooked in vegetable broth topped with cherry tomatoes, spinach, mushrooms and hot peppers. Good stuff 👌🏼

Chris Taylor reposted

@thevegansvoice.bsky.social

Apparently, “because bacon” is supposed to end the entire ethics discussion. #animalrights

I went into Digger not knowing what to expect. And wow. Great movie

its 5 o’clock somewhere

a little adjustment

haiku

anybody else working on the openADMET 2026 CYP challenge- nil, I'm finding this tough and I've been hitting this bad boy *hard*

ngl, not nil ... :eyeroll at autocorrect:

I'm now so far into adopting a vegan diet that the grocery store (or at least 80% of it or more) feels entirely alien to me- mentally, I know/rememberthat I also used to find it totally normal to eat meat, fish and dairy without question, but now I just can't comprehend why it's so mainstream

practically everyone knows on a visceral level that animal farming is cruel, unjust, gross and immoral- yet it's just an accepted thing we do

Dr. Or M. Bialik |📚|🔬|🌊|⚒️

but after making the switch, it's not even that hard to eat delicious, healthful meals multiple times a day without resorting to eating animal products.

Chris Taylor reposted

@obialik.bsky.social

19 Sept

Do we need a planet to have life on it to be/remain habitable? The rather surprising answer is no. Yes, I'm also trying to wrap my head around this. But I think I can tag this for #SciFiScience or at least #Worldbuilding. 🧪 Link: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/PSJ/ae9d79

15 Sept

Pleasantly surprised today- included as a coauthor on a paper I wasnt expecting to be listed on, although to be fair I did spend a tremendous amount of time on that project. Looking forward to being able to share when the time is right

15 Sept

Gonna make my morning hash bowl - home fries, chorizo spiced TVP and scrambled tofu. mmm mmmm

13 Sept

Today’s automatist pastel+sharpie.

m.youtube.comChris Taylor, QCWare - Lessons from tackling the OpenADMET challenges with PromethiumYouTube video by OpenADMET

13 Sept

Leaning into the DFT Chemist of it all - my recent webinar with openADMET on leveraging quantum chemistry for ADMET prediction alongside deep learning models and classical 2D descriptors m.youtube.com/watch?si=ct5...

Playing with color today - I’m usually timid with colors because of my red green color blindness. So trying to push it and find forms and shapes and relationships without needing the backbone of the sharpie lines

Let's talk the bikers in Wenckheim... They are violent, unpredictable, and theatrical (performative violence). They terrorize the town, intimidate the officials, and silence anyone who threatens the provincial order. Beyond being a biker gang, they are effectively the town’s real leadership.

Not only do they not confront the abyss, but they are driven by a violent instinct to prevent others from confronting it. What is our human impulse that drives us to do this?

Their fear during the passing of the abyss through the town reveals the truth: they are not strong, not leaders, not capable of facing reality; but merely loud brawlers using violence to maintain the "comfort" of BAU. And then they retreat into the background when collapse arrives.

After the town’s ruin is sealed, the bikers quietly return to their homes, and hide in their rooms. Their work is done. They maintained BAU and are ready to retreat. They succeeded in silencing the voices that might have changed the town’s course, and enforcing the rituals that kept the town blind.

From the standpoint of biosphere collapse, the bikers are the enforcers of denial, the maintainers of the industrial status quo: silencing activists and intimidating scientists. They attack anyone who threatens the comfort of BAU. The cultural expression of ecological inertia.

When the procession of cars passes through the town and time stops, even the bikers feel the fear. Despite their rough'n'tough demeanour they cannot confront the abyss. Their violence is their shield.

...distracting themselves with brutality because they cannot face the void directly. They are no different from the townspeople who cling to nostalgia or religiosity. Their distraction is different in expression, but still a distraction.

She embarrasses the older generation of thinkers who gave up on activism, a Greta Thunberg if you will, who speaks plainly about danger & refuses to accept the silence of those who know better. Just as Greta enrages reactionaries, the bikers are enraged to silence her - because she threatens BAU.

Their next target is the Professor. His rants are dangerous because they contains truth, and reminds the town that collapse is coming. The bikers don't understand his insight, but they understand the threat. They enforce the town’s refusal to listen: guardians of distraction.

The officials perform authority, but the bikers enforce it. In fact, their violent actions are the guardrails for BAU.

The bikers' first target is the woman who claims to be the Professor’s heir. She is young, outspoken, and insistent. She demands recognition from a man who has withdrawn from the world. She embarrasses him and she embarrasses the town.

Back to Baron Wenckheim, because I found this book such a challenge to parse, and now focusing on Marika/Marietta's journey, after which I want to move on to the bikers.

She does not save the town. She does not fight the collapse. She simply stops participating in the system that guarantees destruction. Her transformation is not heroic (except to herself), but it is honest. She sees the world clearly and moves toward a different one.

Marika is the novel’s quiet example of how a person can leave a collapsing system without needing to redeem it. She is the figure who shows that clarity is possible, even when salvation is not.

Back to Baron Wenckheim, because I found this book such a challenge to parse, and now focusing on Marika/Marietta's journey, after which I want to move on to the bikers.

Marika chose self‑acceptance, and renounced the rituals and illusions that kept her trapped. Her fate stands apart from the others: she is not struck dead like the Baron, not raped like the townswomen, not consumed by the fire.

Marika is not swallowed by the ecological collapse that erases the animals and drains the town of life. Unlike the Baron, she is smart enough to step off the tracks. In the ecological reading, Marika is the figure of departure. She abandons the provincial fantasy, refusing the town’s illusions.

Back to Baron Wenckheim, because I found this book such a challenge to parse, and now focusing on Marika/Marietta's journey, after which I want to move on to the bikers.

She even undergoes a physical change that Iren notices immediately. She is no longer lovely in the conventional sense. She no longer lets herself be shaped by nostalgia. Her departure is not dramatic in a performative sense. Instead, it is quiet and decisive. She simply chooses a new way of being.

This is a counterpoint to the Professor, who she encounters in the city, by chance. Has she, in her own way, listened to the warning he was sounding? Indeed, she has turned herself around, and stepped out of the provincial world that destroyed the Baron and consumed the town.

Back to Baron Wenckheim, because I found this book such a challenge to parse, and now focusing on Marika/Marietta's journey, after which I want to move on to the bikers.

But then the spell breaks. The townspeople’s performative frenzy, hunger for spectacle, fixation on the Baron as a savior, and their willingness to humiliate her end up shattering her private fantasy. As a result, she sees herself clearly for the first time.

With almost ruthless clarity she sees the daze she has been living in and the cost of self‑illusion. She packs her things and leaves.

Back to Baron Wenckheim, because I found this book such a challenge to parse, and now focusing on Marika/Marietta's journey, after which I want to move on to the bikers.

Marika begins the novel firmly ensconced in her nostalgia fantasy. She is sixty‑seven, still romantic, still dreaming about men, still imagining a future shaped by longing rather than reality. Her friend Iren treats her as flighty and unrealistic.