Crossposed at Politicook.net

This is a request for the wisdom of this community to serve as a guide for me.  There is a ninth grade physical science text in my mind.

My question is simply this:  should I invest my energy to do so?1

Crossposted at Politicook.net

The second installation did not go over very well, and I accept the blame for it.  It was without structure, and this one will have a bit.

This time there is a topic:  petroleum.  This is not to say that other questions are not welcome, but the focus of this post is questions regarding that substance.

Crossposted at Politicook.net

Last time was fun for me, and I hope the readers as well.  We will try another episode, to see if this is viable.

Please consider this as an open thread for any and all questions related to science and technology.  If I do not know an answer, I will say so and ask others in the community with expertise to reply.

As usual, I am dancing naked, and will not look up anything on Wikipedia or in reference books except for the times when some numbers are required, such as the heat of formation of items.  Unfortunately, I can not keep all of those figures in my head.

Crossposted at Politicook.net

I often write diaries having to do with science and technology, as those who read mine know.  Tonight, I would like to try something a little different.

This post may be considered as an open thread for questions about science and technology, and I will take on all questions.  I may not have answers for all, or even some, of them.  If I do not know I will say so.  I will not feed anyone a line of bull.

There exists the possibility that my take on any particular subject may be in error, and I ask the community to correct me if I am wrong.  I have been wrong before, and appreciate the opportunity to expand my database of correct knowledge.

Crossposted at Politicook.net

On 08 August 2008 Eldest Son received his B.S. Degree in natural sciences from the University of Central Arkansas.  I made the trip from Kentucky to Arkansas for it, and I am glad that I did.  Mrs. Translator and I drove from White Hall to Conway, about an hour trip, with Middle Son.  I sat in the back of a Mustang for the trip, not uncomfortable for an hour.

We met at Eldest Son's place, all five of us plus Future Mrs. Eldest Son.  He had to go to get in line, then we followed.  It was nice this evening, rare low humidity and not severe temperature.  But this is not the point.

Crossposted at Politicook.net

Wow, lots has been said about Obama's technically correct response to a question, to paraphrase, asked, "What can we ordinary people do?".  The McCain campaign has been brutal, and ignorantly so.

Nothing is more important, other than the drive train, in making any land vehicle "go" than the instruments that actually touch the road.  Those instruments are tires, or as the Brits say, tyres.

Tires are the agent that converts the energy produces by the engine (for fuel powered vehicles) or the motor (for others) from the source of the motive power to the ground, in most cases a lane, street, road, highway, or Interstate highway.

Crossposted at Politicook.net

This diary was inspired by NNadir's diary earlier today on Dailykos.com and some of the comments associated with it.  Whilst fusion promises a tremendous of essentially nonpolluting energy on the face of it, the technical, practical, and logistical problems associated with it are insurmountable with current technology.  Here is primer on how fusion works and the associated problems.

Most of us know that sun applies fusion to make helium out of hydrogen.  However, the mechanism for that is very complex and requires a couple of steps that require more energy than they release, net energy sinks, that make that approach unfeasible in terrestrial applications.

Crossposted at Politicook.net

It has been a while since I added to this series.  For this discussion, only the "classic" phases of matter (solid, liquid, and gas) will be covered.  That gives, for binary systems, the following possibilities:

Solid in solid suspensions
Solid in liquid suspensions
Solid in gas suspensions

Liquid in solid suspensions
Liquid in liquid suspensions
Liquid in gas suspensions

Gas in solid suspensions
Gas in liquid suspensions
Gas in gas suspensions

Crossposted at Politicook.net

For those of ye who do not know me well, gardening is sort of a release and a creative direction for me.  For those of ye that do, the same.  I am inspired by the by the bounty that my garden is now providing, and some of that bounty consists of fresh, ripe tomatoes, in all sizes.  That, like everything does, got me thinking.

Store tomatoes look pretty, but are of little flavor and practically no "nose".  Farmer's Market ones are much better, but often blemished.  I will trade blemishes for taste and nose any day.  Part of this has to do with commercial varieties versus small patch varieties.  Commercial ones are hard, and mechanically picked underripe so they can stand transportation.  Small patch ones are softer and often are left to ripen on the vine.

But the best are the ones that you pick yourself, daily, at the peak of ripeness, from either a garden (I am lucky to have enough space for one), or from a patio planter.  Anyone that has full sun for at least half the day can grow them.

Crossposted at Politicook.net

No doubt that many of you have seen the Duggar family on one of the "educational" cable channels.  The show tries to make them come off like a normal family.

The show lies.  Jim Bob Duggar is a rich Republican who has made a fortune selling real estate in northwest Arkansas, as the vultures came in to circle the Wal-Mart headquarters.  He has made a fortune off of it, and TV royalties as well.

Crossposted at Politicook.net

Dr. Who is the iconic British science fiction television series that has transcended even Star Trek for longevity.  For those of who are not hip, it is a series of stories about a Time Lord from the planet Gallefrey who has a Type 40-B TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimensions is Space), a time capsule that can travel to any time or place in the galaxy (sometimes the storyline indicates universe).  By the way, the Type 40-B has been obsolete for centuries according to the storyline, and is more of a museum piece that a proper means of transport.

The Doctor (his name has never been revealed, but his fraternity monicker of Sigma Theta was revealed in the classic series The Keys of Time) is very old, wise, and good.  Good to a fault in the storyline.

Crossposted at Politicook.net

The United States chemical weapons stockpile is distributed all around the country.  There was one outside of the Continental United States, but it is done will all operations now.  Some of the facilities are finished and closed, but most others are not.

This will be a comparatively short diary to show where the stockpile is, or was.  Some of those locations may be near you.  Effort will be made to tell what kinds of materiel are or were located there.  In no particular order they are:

Crossposted at Politicook.net

For any weapon to be effective, a means of delivery must be devised.  This is particularly important for chemical weapons, because, even with protective gear, there is extreme risk to the forces using them if off normal cases occur.

The first delivery system in World War I was to open a valve on a cylinder of chlorine (chlorine is a gas at normal pressures, but a liquid in the high pressure cylinder) and let the wind carry it towards the target.  That works OK for materials like cyanogen chloride, hydrogen cyanide, chlorine, and phosgene that are gases, but obviously will not work for solid and liquid materials.  In addition, a shift in wind direction can be a disaster.

Crossposted at http://Politicook.net

A comment the other day jogged my mind to remember my Commodore 64 computer.  How many of you used one years ago?  To jog your mind, it had 64k memory, hence the name.  No graphic interface, no mouse, just a keyboard.

I wish that I had not discarded it, along with the printer and the 1451 (as I recall) single sided floppy (5.25") disk drive.  It would have been better to keep those items in a box for posterity, but what can I say?

Crossposted at Politicook.net

I had a change of plans.  It is easy to understand that materials like chlorine or phosgene, or even mustard agents work because they chemically attack cells, either destroying proteins and lipids, of by corrupting DNA.

Nerve agents work very differently, so this aside may shed some light on how these horrible materials work.  First, some basic physiology.  There are numerous chemical messengers in the body and brain, including dopamine (why people get addicted, but that is another post), norepinephrine, GABA, serotonin, and many others.  This has to with one called acetylcholine.

Crossposted at http://Politicook.net

This will conclude the overview part of chemical weapons.  Once again, I focus only on the ones that have been developed and stockpiled by primarily the United States and the Soviet Union.

Most of the information here is about really scary agents, the nerve agents, but there was or is an inventory of other agents, and a considerable amount is in the hands of the civil authorities.

If I seen distracted, I am watching the VH1 salute to THE WHO (shouting intentional).

Crossposted at http://Politicook.net

This the first in a series exploring chemical weapons.  We will begin with a brief history and basic properties, then move to the state of chemical weapons in the world today.  Chemical weapons have been used for centuries in warfare.  One could say, at the extreme, blackpowder and other explosives are chemical weapons, but modern usage defines chemical weapons as having a physical, physiological, or combination of effects against people.

There are many classes of chemical weapons, from "tear gas" (technically called a lacrimator) up to the lethal agents, commonly the "mustards" (blistering agents, vesicants) and the "nerve" agents (nerve impulse disruptors).

Politicook.net

Crossposted at Politicook.net

Last time we slogged through Article I, Section 5, Paragraph 6.  We will continue from that point.  Many thanks to those who commented to elevate my awareness.  I also updated the previous version for technical issues.  As usual, the original text is in blockquote, my rewrite in normal text, and my logic follows in italics.

On a more personal note, I got a bit (well, a lot) cross with some readers, and I apologize.  I was out of line, and will attempt not to repeat such behavior.  In particular, I apologize to joemcginnisjr.  I was very harsh with him, for not any good reason.  Please forgive me.