Garage chemistry used to be a rite of passage for geeky kids

[Warren B. MusselmanModerator]

My plan is to be out there Friday night, Saturday, Saturday night and at least until 11 or 12 on Sunday.

Warren

[denverdoc]

Its a shame Denver/metro has no place like the Bay Area’s Exploratorium–it was great to see kids of all ages so absorbed by the 100’s of hands-on exhibits–my schedule only allowed 3 hours there, but could easily have spent 12… Great stuff, a must do in the SF area.
John S

PS: Haven’t seen Body Works yet at the denver museum but hear thats well worth the trip!

[Chris LaPanse]

Yeah – I spent over 8 hours at the exploratorium and could have spent a week. I wish denver had something comparable. Oh – and for anyone who hasn’t seen it, Body Worlds at the denver museum is DEFINITELY something to see. Great exhibit.

[Bruce R. Schaefer]

Speaking of moronic, I just re-read my knee-jerk reaction to that article. Geez Louise… You know, all this is Don Herbert’s fault, for opening up the eyes and minds of children in the 50’s and early 60’s with his Mr. Wizard show, in black and white. He came back in the 80’s, so my older daughter (’bout the time she built her purple Big Bertha) and I could watch when she got home from school. Good memories there. And, yes, freedom of speech is alive and well; it’s just that there is also an implied responsibility in what you say. There are good sources for honest and cool chemistry on the Internet, but there are also some who issue “handbooks” with information that is incomplete and just plain dangerous because the information is wrong. Okay, the subject is the degrading of chemistry sets through the years. This isn’t because of terrorism; this is something that’s evolved steadily over the years. Even my first chemistry set, a Porter Chemcraft, didn’t have any potassium nitrate in it. However, their earlier ones did. And at the time, my friend had a Gilbert set that had some. Beside the point. I’m sure the CPSC thinks they’re doing the right thing. They mean well. Most of the fun chemicals that have been removed have been removed due to cancer-causing properties and heavy metals, etc. I’m just glad that I was able to show my two daughters the fun of chemistry when we lived in California. I could buy chemicals from a merchant who sold to schools, universities, and Mr. Wizard himself! They were friends. That was so cool. The guy’s name was Ira Katz, a pretty well-known chemist in the area; he created a lot of the spectacular pyrotechnics in movies. He passed away last year. He and I used to get into it when he wouldn’t sell me certain chemicals. He’d say, “You get a license, and I’ll sell it to ya.” I worked near his store, and this guy knew so much. I learned a lot from him. Great way to spend a lunch hour. As far as United Nuclear, they sell in small quantities. No one is going to do any damage to anyone, except themselves, with the small amounts of chemicals they sell. I certainly would hate to see the company go down. I will also admit that they sell some chemicals that I wouldn’t buy. I know better and have no use for them. But they should be able to sell them in small amounts to whomever they please. It’s a shame there isn’t a good Nerd lobby, like the NRA for guns. 😀 This is similar to the knee-jerk reaction with guns. Hey, we’ll get rid of all the chemicals! It’s just misguided. People who want to do bad things are not going to use exotic, easily traceable chemicals. I grew up in a small farming town in Southern Illinois. Every farmer had ammonium nitrate (now made infamous by Timothy McVeigh) in their barn, for its intended use… fertilizer, for goodness sakes. Yes, if they had a stump to remove, they knew how to use it for that. It’s a pretty crappy oxidizer though. I used it to show my kids its endothermic properties, which is, uh, cool. Anyone who’s used a Coldpak activated by breaking a container of water inside has done the same thing. Should anyone be allowed to buy hundreds of pounds of any chemical that can be hazardous or used to do real harm? Of course not! That’s another issue. The government has every right to know who’s buying what in those quantities. Guaranteed it’s not for well-intended, scientific purposes, unless it’s a university or legitimate farmer for ammonium nitrate.

So I apologize for my previous posts. My nephew left for his second tour in the Middle East last Thursday–this time Afghanistan, and I’m as proud as I am worried about him. I guess I’m just upset about politicians stepping on what I mistakenly perceived as taking away freedoms while members of my family (or any family) are going away to defend those freedoms. His dad, my brother-in-law, goes in August. So I’ll at least get to see him before he goes back, too, over the 4th of July. That’s why I won’t be at a July launch, if there is one. The cost of freedom is never cheap. My reaction is also probably a latent reaction to the attack on our hobby, a hobby that has saved many hands, definitely mine had it not come along, and allowed good, fun science to thrive. No more of this, back to rockets! Sorry.

[denverdoc]

Persnally, i see no forgiveness as necessary–there are plenty with good intentions doing the wrong thing and the attack on the fireworks industry by the group in question is IMHO, misguided. Most of the accidents occurring are by drunks not using the products as intended–so should all fireworks be removed from the market ? Methinks not. Boating causes lots more deaths/serious injury per year.

Whether external or internal forces are a greater threat to our freedom is an open question in the very least:

to avoid any political debate, i would simply suggest that we all need to exercise continual vigilance from the encroachment of any right, including buying “potentially” dangerous compounds (not mercury, not high level carcinogens where proper disposal is critical) or even wearing the t-shirt of your choice. 🙄
JS

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