greg1917

I dont doubt a good organic chemsit would be able to name some reagents and synthesis steps from the detoxification steps and the strucure of the molecule, but the only way to obtain a full recipe would be investigation and an attempt to actually produce the agent. many of the reagents are themselves controlled and their sale monitored. just because the iraqis can develop it doesnt mean its easy... I thought the public detoxification steps consisted of things like NaOH and strong bleaches, which doesnt allude to much information on anything in particular.

The British government developed VX gas in 1952 and traded it for thermonuclear information with the US. Apart from inveting the most toxic substance known to man, we also first used automated weapons on civilians (maxim guns in rhodesia on tribesmen), were the first to use concentration camps (the boer war), apparently were the first to use chemical agents in warfare (although i cant remember where i read this and i think its historically debated anyway). An empire built on profits from the slave trade (as well as cups of tea), an empire sustained on the subjugation of its colonial popualtion and an empire which crumbled when colonies were no longer economically successful. We truly are 'Great' Britain.

I know, i meant 1kg/dm^3. the calculation is still correct, i just wrote the wrong thing while thinking the correct one.

was just reading over this thread and i thought i should point something out. someone asked what britain is getting from this. well, britian is getting one of its radar facilities upgraded and vastly improved all at the expense of the US taxpayer! how could we refuse. you pay for our defence, we sit back and become a target for US nuclear attacks. some good some bad. this facility will automatically report to the US nuclear comman infrastructure if it detects an incoming ICBM but will act as a day to day radar station for the UK the rest of the time.

going back to the original subject of this thread, u named VX gas via its proper name. no one will be able to able to name the reagents. no one will know the synthesis componenents of this compound. so dont bother trying to find out. If anyone does name either of these you are breaking the official secrets act and are also doing so on a public internet forum, meaing the MI5 assassination man will be calling shortly... a brief history of VX gas: invented in 1952 in Porton Down, UK, this is the only nerve gas invented since WW2 (that has been told to the public...) and is, as u say, the deadliest stuff known to man. of particular importance is its surprising adhesive ability which means it sticks ( ) around for ages and kills anyone whos tried to remove it. usually in the liquid phase in spite of its name, it takes an hour or two b4 u notice the effects. in the gas phase, its horrible and is more potent, requiring an immediate into-heart injection (a la The Rock with Nick Cage). more deadly than sarin, this stuff does exactly what it says on the tin. when i say tin, i mean missile which mixes reagents mid flight as the end product is so dealy the missile launch crew dont fire it with the end product already loaded.

Clarity helpful would be, possibly that repeat if could you. No seriously, could you be a bit more specific? It sounds intersting.

You should really be more careful, putting the words 'scientist' 'spin' and 'zarkov' in the same sentence will lead to the pseudoscience sandpit of filth and pestilence.

its so hard to determine dolphins are self aware its subjective and can be argued either way. one study i saw that interested me was where marine biologists placed a large mirror in a tank. most animals ignore or avoid the mirror as they think its another animal, but when the biologists painted a dot on the dolphin it went to the mirror and looked in it to examine the new pattern, turning this way and that to look at it. being aware of the reflection is a sign of intelligence in itself, but the dolphins then adopted a slightly different social pattern where those with dots seemed a little more confident in terms of every day interaction with their keepers. Knowing little about dolphin's social patterns to begin with i wasnt sure what to make of this in the first place.

I can understand what he means about theft. If you take war as conflicts throughout history, many had a religous aspect but theft was a major issue. in the midde ages conquest was the driving factor - in medieval france the ruling culture was almost entirely based on violence, so when few people were left to fight crusades started. the temptation to conquer new lands for people to tax, pillage monasteries and castles, expand ure empire drives people to fight. the nazi empire in 1942 stretched from the atlantic ocean to the volga, quite an expansion on the germany the league of nations created in 1919. have a look at some medieval history textbooks cos if ure looking at the basis for war itself, it helps not to get too bogged down in late 20th century wars which have very specific political machinations. In saying that u can still say the same base desire for conquest for war is there tho, such as argentina invading the falkland islands...

Seeing as my ineptitude meant the above picture didnt load heres the link i got it from nicotine website im off to smoke said chemical

Final destination was an attrocious awful film that Im genuinely angry I paid money to see. Dont base anything scientific on the film - its mediocre excuse for a plot revolved around someone having predictably dramatic visions of future events. Evidence of 6th senses and connected psychic abilities are not conclusive but certainly make interesting reading. I saw a program on Discovery that showed a woman in the USSR in the 1950's who appeared to be able to move small objects on a desk with no apparent contact. The claim was the soviets found a tiny amount of people with telekinetic abilities and wanted to hone their skills for assassinations. personally i have doubts over anything the Soviet Union said in public especially in the 1950's but it was an interesting documentary. the footage was grainy and the sound was very poor but it was compelling viewing none the less.

here it is, little blighter. 3-(1-Methyl-2-pyrrolidinyl)pyridine

One could take the view that both are paths to the same end; to acquire knowledge you could as you say drum it into your head with no real understanding of its significance or purpose, whether as a reward based system or otherwise. On the other hand you could be presented with data and evidence that allowed you to conclude the same facts but in this case with an underlying knowledge of the principles behind them. I wouldnt say we are undergoing conditioning in the sense you describe. Certainly in modern education it seems like conditioning because syllabi are standardised and often the simplest way to pass an exam is to memorise a set of learning outcomes. but the option to investigate these should be open to you - real learning is to arrive at the correct conclusion via investigation and reasoning. I could sit down with a dictionary and increase my vocabulary the hard way, or learn latin and understand more of the principles of language thus widening my knowledge. id say thats real learning.

with so many chemical factors i think the odds would be extremely long, where did 1/10,000 come from? that seems small in the grand scheme of things.

Personally Id go with whatever victim's relatives wishes were. Having visited Auscwitz ive seen the industrialised death that epitomised the nazi party and the blind hatred with which it treated its slaves. Nazism is a cancer of humanity and the dilema of what to do with the horrifically acquired data is one nazi germanys legacies of evil. If relatives (or even survivng victims if any remain) feel that to release the data would impersonalise those who underwent painful deaths to collect it in the first place, i would have no real desire to engage in a protracted argument in what is clearly an immensely sore area of history for jews, Poles, Russians and the rest of the assortment of people butchered and massacred by the Third Reich. I think its inevitable some dark corners of society would use the release of the data as a claim that the nazi party was not the genocidal murdering war machine history has correctly labelled it as, but instead carried out vital research necessary to improve our quality of life. In short i think the most important thing here is to respect victims wishes. Is there a prevailing body who believe the data could be of use? I was aware of the temperature experiments carried out on prisoners but their must be an array of studies carried out on humans that most people are not even aware were carried out. I suppose one of the problems is assessing how useful the data actually is. If its use would lead to only minor scientific gain or slight increases in efficiency, victims would rightly feel their suffering was worth more than a meagre profit increase for companies. If on the other hand it clearly would be of great use, victims might feel their suffering was in vain if the results were not published. the difficulty is in assessing how useful the information is, not purely how wrong or right releasing it is.

theres always german humour. or more precisely the complete lack of it.

I still think Battlefield Earth was a woeful film :lame: :lame: :lame: :lame: :lame:

To me this is just one of life's mysteries. Like the sock monster that lives in the tumble drier or how John Travolta ever thought Battlefield Earth would be anything other than a flop.

1) the benzoate ion will act as a base so you need the Kb value for it. Kb = Kw / Ka = 1.59e-10 Now u can do the calculation. [OH-] = root( c Kb) = 4.89e-6 [H+] = Kw/ [OH-] = 2.046e-9 pH = -log [H+] = 8.69 2) Are you leaving out any information? Im sure you need the partial pressure of each gas to do this question, not just the total pressure. ammonium carbamate sublimes at...... something close to 60C i think. 3) [H+] = Ka ([acid]/[salt]) = 1.74e-5 x (0.25/0.4) = 4.96 4) Apologies, I forget how to do these types of questions. anyone willing ti lend a hand? 5) No simplifying assumptions? Well, the way I did it was [H+] = 10e-(pH) so [H+] = 0.0132 If [H+] = root (c ka) then we eventually get a Ka figure of 1.74e-4 Can someone else tell me if Im right? Im not too confident about the last one...

Am I the only one who smokes then? This thread is quite interesting for me, I wasnt aware of the more specific reasons mentioned here. I dont smoke that much, maybe 1 and a half packets a week at most. I dont get noticeablle cravings, if you can call them that. What i do get is the compulsion to smoke when Im drinking in a bar. Its more something to do with ure hands, somthing to hold. Id say that was the most any 'cravings' ever amount to for me, a nagging compulsion that isnt particularly strong, but that I usually dont try to resist. Other times its more a conscience decision to smoke. At football matches I get stressed, exceited etc. Smoking is a calming influence to me more for the distraction that the physical process of smoking involves - concentrating on breathing etc. Obviously the nicotine rush has an effect as well, its quite a pleasant calming feeling.

He seemed to be using The Core as some sort of creditible scientific source. Im no detective, but to me it just looks like a really bad film with a ridiculous plot line that revolves around stupid phrases like 'to the centre of the earth' and some special effects that are really just eye candy. Maybe ill be proved wrong and the American government is trying to cover up the massive planet wide extinction that will happen shortly. one can only live in hope....:bs:

Id say it was a solid notion because surely thats essentially what a black hole is , something from which photons cannot escape? im not saying thats the definition of a black hole but i was under the impression that was a fundemental part of the theory

What was the original question? What do the bubbles in boiling water consist of? I dont understand what misconception is being discussed here - if one boils water then bubbles of steam will rise from the bottom of the beaker to the top. If theres any oxygen dissolved in the water this will come up as well, plus anything else usually.

The land held by palestinians for generations, passed down from father to son, is being bulldozed to make way for new security fencing and more israeli settlements. One of the few economically successfully ventures in the entire region, orchards, are being torn down because Israel claims they are a vantage point for Palestinian snipers. This destroys the local economy - if the two sides enaged in trade with each other and made money from each other, then surely this would lead to greater integration and understanding.

there is no Palestine? Thats the attitude that causes suicide bombings right there. Security Council resolution 242 is based on the fact that acquisition of land by war is not acceptable, whether by a defending or invading force. What is also unacceptable by International law is the movement of israeli settlements into this territory in an attempt to expand and colonise. israel illegally annexed East jerusalem in 1980 and resolution 478 states that all israeli administration and law are null and void in this region. legal occupation of a conquered enemy can occur, as will probably be the case with iraq for a period of time, in Germany after WW2 etc. But these were (and in the case of iraq i hope will be) temporary pending a political solution. By continuing to expand and create new settlements on Historically Palestinian land Israel is destroying its citizens chance for peace, which after decades of war must be a memory for them.