Scope Creep, 2024-05-09.

Hoo boy! Let's do some scope creep why don't we?

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JOBS.

Wait, actually let's do some jobs first!

• Integral Neurotechnologies is hiring mechanical engineers at all seniority levels in South San Francisco; I hear they're also looking for EEs as well 😮
• Arup is hiring a transport project engineer for airports in Dublin, Ireland.
• Rivian is hiring a continuous improvement partner in Normal, Illinois.

SCOPE CREEP.

• It appears that a large geomagnetic storm will occur over the northern hemisphere tonight, causing aurora borealis as far south as Alabama. NOAA's (experimental) aurora forecast page is solid red for basically everywhere north of Minneapolis; if I was anywhere up there, I'd open up their 30-minute aurora forecast page tonight and just leave it open until bedtime.
• In addition to spending lots of time looking up etymologies, I've been watching PBS's Otherwords with my kids. These linguistics videos, which are typically a little under ten minutes long, do a pretty excellent job at balancing technical detail with accessibility and humor. I'd recommend starting with this one on whether "R" is a vowel, which covers not only the phonology but also the socio-cultural implications of variations in English "R" usage.
• There will be more sriracha shortages. Huy Fong, the most prominent manufacturer of sriracha, got into a dispute with Underwood Ranches, their primary jalapeño grower, back in 2017. Jalapeños stopped flowing from Underwood to Huy Fong; lawsuits were filed; Underwood won. The shelves of my local grocery stores became progressively more colorful as Huy Fong's struggled to rebuild their supply chain and Tabasco, Weak Knees, Lee Kum Kee and others pounced; I have dabbled with each, but old habits die hard 😬
• A good explainer on why goats have rectangular pupils (extremely wide field of view + a ton of binocular vision); an academic paper on why cuttlefish have W-shaped pupils (better balance in vertically uneven light fields).
  
  Related: Snell's Window "is a phenomenon by which an underwater viewer sees everything above the surface through a cone of light of width of about 96 degrees."
• Petrichor is the smell that accompanies rainfall, especially after a dry period. Its name combines two Greek parts: petr-, for "stone" or "rock," and ichor, for "ethereal fluid that serves for blood in the veins of the gods." Petrichor is composed partly of geosmin, a compound that also gives beets their earthy taste, and also of ozone, which is created when lightning strikes.