John Cuthber

"Why does he freak over azides so bad?! Because every dead home experimenter makes it easier for the government to make it even more difficult to get hold of chemicals to play with. I also freak out badly over people who can't tell an adjective from an adverb or when to use apostrophes. I wonder is it's one of those transatlantic things, but I don't think of " At 5–10 MPa (50–100 atm) and 250 °C, it can catalyze the production of methanol " as doing it easily in the context of "a practical apparatus for home production. " .

Yep, that's the sort of numerical prediction we like. 15N is a perfectly easy force to measure and, as Imatfaal has the bicycle, we can do the experiment. However, for my benefit (I'm a chemist not a physicist) can you draw me a quick sketch of the object, the bike wheel and the expected direction of the force just to make it clear? Thanks

Learn to spot italicisation.

I was just pointing out that this " he concludes that there is no possible way the inner chambers made out of solid granite could've been constructed using contemporary tools, at the time they supposedly only had bronze hammers and copper chisels. We look at the MOHs scale of hardness and both are around 3-4 whilst granite sits at 7-8" is utter trash. Moh's scale has nothing to do with it. But, since you drew my attention back to it I will point out that the next line is meaningless too. This " he actually measured the surface of a wall and it had a discrepancy of around 1/500th of a millimetre, " doesn't make sense because there's no datum. Discrepancy of 2 microns from what? And that's before I point out that temperature gradients and thermal expansion mean that if that accuracy (from any give point) was produced, it wouldn't last. Finally, It's not terribly difficult to polish something to a better finish than that. A soft cloth and powdered clay or rouge will get to a "mirror finish" that is smooth to better than half a micron (or 1/2000 mm if you prefer that unit). There are, of course, plenty of other errors in what you have posted.

Hang on! Where did this come from? "So the right to die with dignity would be a veiled way to promote euthanasia." Oh, I see, Afungusamongus made it up. its the same with "Then murder would only be bad if you get caught and have some consequence to your murder? Sounds morally excellent to me." It's a claim with no actaul basis in what was said. "Philosophical understanding can also contribute to the betterment of human life. Almost every field can do this. Hard to hear for those who have science as their only saviour but it remains true." Note to Afungusamongus Science is a philosophical understanding. There's a side order of: if I have an acute infection I would rather get antibiotics than a "philosophical understanding". "Why would you think religious people do not do the same?" because I don't see how this " We want to nourish reason and compassion. " tallies with, for example, the teachings of the bible which is both irrational (and therefore an attack on reason) and deeply xenophobic (thus an attack on compassion). Seriously, had you thought this lot through before you posted it?

Six pages in and I'm still not sure Who are the "us" in the question? What do we need to be saved from ? (and, perhaps most importantly, who will then save us from Romney and Ryan?)

The only practical way to get decent purity aluminium is to get scrap electrical cable from a junk yard. You also need to consider that the powdered Bi that you get will tend to oxidise rather rapidly when you melt it. You could dissolve the Bi scrap in dilute acid then electrolyse it to reclaim the metal.

It isn't "vindictive" to throw yesterday's pizza box in the trash. People do it because the box isn't really any use. Same with this thread.

I'm not interested in consultancy work ( though it's flattering to be asked). However I would look at using formalin as a reducing agent. Things like this http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=aUW98Hhv9GoC&pg=PA233&lpg=PA233&dq=romijn's+method+formaldehyde&source=bl&ots=0jYx6QZ1R6&sig=QbU8FBU560wZvlbFDDkrU8PaDjM&sa=X&ei=_tYzUKLpOauZ0QW5t4HQBw&sqi=2&ved=0CBcQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=romijn's%20method%20formaldehyde&f=false suggest the reaction is reasonably fast and goes to completion. I don't know how the economics of it work.

That method for bismuth sub salicylate would work with the oxides but the initial dissolving would be rather slow. Also there would be significant impurities introduced from the foil. It isn't pure aluminium.

I'm perfectly certain you can't "easily convert it to methanol", but I'd love to be shown to be wrong.

In classical physics, you never (quite) reach the terminal velocity. Imatfall's maths shows over what distance you would reach that speed in a vacuum, but terminal velocity is only defined if there is an atmosphere.

Well, thanks for spotting that Rigney, but I don't think it was news to most of us that " Akin is a "for real bat shit nut case" and scary." You may remember that what we asked for (repeatedly) was evidence of any prominent Left wing nut jobs making comparably stupid assertions. Any luck finding those? I realise that Akin has "raised the bar" a bit. If it was difficult to find a matchingly barking Left winger before when all you had to do was find one who believed in dragons, it must be damned nigh impossible now. Is it just that there simply are no serious Left wing politicians who have utterly lost the plot in that way?

Well, I can look up how it starts, so perhaps that's cheating but it says "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. " That's certainly a claim. Now, can you let me know in what way this is a claim that "Physicist (sic) just recently found out is true" I just ask because, if that were remotely close to true, I'd have expected to see it all over the news rather than announced by you on a website.

So now you are relying on a bunch of criminals as evidence to bolster your point of view. OK I'll bite. I never was a big consumer of illicit drink and I suspect that most of the alcohol sold round here is taxed. However, as a scientist, I know that the harm done by alcohol is broadly proportional to the amount of it consumed. I'm sure we all know of people who have fallen foul of drinking too much- you tend to see them on street-corners or (if that's your line of work) on a mortuary slab. There's no question that alcohol has a real cost to society. Yet you question society's justification in trying to reclaim that cost? Why is that? Also, while it's by no means a perfect way to do it, raising the price of alcohol reduces consumption. In doing so it reduces the net harm done. Then there's the idea that, if people get into the habit of disobeying one law they may be less inclined to obey others. Again, that's a detriment to society. If you want to live in an anarchist state that's fine by me. Go to Somalia- it's pretty close to anarchy: I don't think you would have much problem with the tax system there. If, on the other hand, you want to have laws and you want those laws enforced then you have to accept the need for a government. That needs to get its money from somewhere. Personally I don't mind paying duty on drink- I could, after all, perfectly easily avoid it. As taxes go, it seems quite a benign one to me. Tell me, what would you prefer to see taxed instead? Incidentally, while you are pondering that, perhaps you would like to nip over to this thread http://www.scienceforums.net/topic/68375-has-the-republican-party-lost-its-collective-mind/ and answer the questions asked of you there.

No matter. Your idea is still dead. Swansont's summary of this fact is quite a nice way of putting it

At best, the reaction of iodine with formic acid is rather slow. IIRC the industrial process uses iron filings to convert iodine to ferrous iodide then the solution is treated with NaOH to ppt Fe(OH)2 and leave NaI in solution. Why are you trying to do this?

Lots of fine words from the late Mr Jefferson there. I particularly liked this one "It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world." So, if I start a business that relies on roads, educated staff, the web, intellectual property rights, the lack of general crime, and so on which are provided to me by the government then Mr Jefferson tells me that I should pay that debt back. Well, it's called tax. Stop whining about it.

Much as it might amuse me to watch the vegans collapse due to anaemia, as long as we keep drinking beer we should be OK for vitamin B12. http://www.marmite.com/love/nutrition/nutrition.html

You have forgotten to add a reducing agent.

Sounds more like this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scombroid_food_poisoning caused by iffy tuna and the other things were a coincidence. Also if your doctor said "Mysteriously your body's chemical reactions start to go backwards." then you need a better doctor. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anaphylaxis is fairly well understood.

Funny looking lactobacillus http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19425985.200-how-to-give-a-rat-a-death-wish.html

Quite a lot of elements contain small amounts of radioactive isotopes. Potassium is probably the best known example.

Learn to count water molecules first.

"John, let's just agree that you can never be too careful. You have to take some risks in life, but I agree this one is not absolutely necessary. Are you per chance one of those people who is to afraid to cross the street, because they "might" get hit by a car" Nope, I'm someone who works with explosives from time to time: but I'm still alive. I'm the sort of person who doesn't try to make something quite hazardous (like Na) by starting with something even more hazardous (like the azide). It's a bit like wanting to cross the street but choosing to be fired from a cannon, because that way you are in transit for only a short time and are less likely to be hit by a car. Good luck finding any sort of validation data for gloves + respirators for this stuff. Also, you might want to look up the rate of transdermal absorption (if you can find any data for that).