Comments for Fetzthechemist's Weblog

Comment on About by William Lee

William Lee — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:22:21 +0000

Our website Science.org is a informational databases and online news publication for anything and everything related to science and technology. We recently ran a poll asking our website users regarding what online informational resources they use to keep up to date or even to simply find great information. It seems many of our users have labeled your blog as an excellent source of Space information. We have reviewed your blog and must say, we absolutely love the information you have made available to the public and would love to make your blog a part of our top science blogs. After browsing your blog, our research team has decided to award you a Top science Blogs award banner.

Comment on Water, water, everywhere by psi*psi

psi*psi — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:30:00 +0000

Ah, water analysis. I’ll never forget the smell of raw sewage influent or the sight of a black sample from a coal slurry spill…

Comment on NSF GRFP opinions sought by fetzthechemist

fetzthechemist — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 05:11:46 +0000

Thanks for replying. I am getting the sales pitch from the other side and wondered how true some of that perspective is.

With all the contacts you have in studentdom, please solicit comments. This might be a useful conduit for feedback.

Comment on NSF GRFP opinions sought by psi*psi

psi*psi — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 04:52:28 +0000

Hella prestigious. Kind of a pain to apply for it, though.

Comment on and while they’re at it…. by fetzthechemist

fetzthechemist — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 02:36:33 +0000

Copyrights were meant to be more or less a lifetime’s length, but they conservatively chose a span that would cover a adolescent living to a ripe old age. The mega-online corporations are positioning themselves through electronic readers and universal archives, of becoming that monopolistic portal everybody has to use. Look at how Apple structured iTunes for iPhones and iPods – a friggin’ monopoly for a captive audience. You spend several hundred sollars to get a device, then your music has to be Apple compatible – that means only from iTunes.

Comment on and while they’re at it…. by The Chemist

The Chemist — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 01:52:04 +0000

I agree with everything you just said, especially copyrights. I absolutely believe an author has the right to a copyright to span his life, and even deserves for the copyright to provide some income for his heirs- but this business of Disney extending copyright indefinitely for no good reason is ridiculous and corporations have an unfortunate longevity that makes any kind of copyright in their name problematic. I’m reminded of Kurt Vonnegut’s comment in “Breakfast of Champions” on how you couldn’t be on anyone’s private property without their permission, but how almost every bit of ground you touch is somehow owned by one person or another.

Now that we have situations where Amazon can delete your library willy-nilly and with the advent of streaming, expiring, and pay-per-view digital content it seems that viewing information could soon be a pay-as-you-go experience if we are not wary. This goes double with Internet providers and monopolies/semi-monopolies that are doing their damnedest to undermine net neutrality.

Comment on The King of Posthumous Pop by tyrosine

tyrosine — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:55:12 +0000

Record companies. Vampires. Maybe we should pay them back by file sharing.

Comment on Snippet chemistry fadtoids from my trips by organikchemist

organikchemist — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 15:53:57 +0000

With modern NMRs, the need for deuterated solvent is dimishing. I used the “No-D” method on quite a few crude reactions and got great spectra. The key is a good set of starting shims. If you magnet drifts a little and you must have a lock, a sealed capillary of D6 Benzene (or whatever) placed in the NMR sample does a fine job of providing a lock signal .

Comment on When did the apron strings get so long? by Rhenium

Rhenium — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 19:16:29 +0000

Off to boarding school at 11 and only back during the summers to chase cows and cut firewood.

Comment on When did the apron strings get so long? by psi*psi

psi*psi — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 01:57:45 +0000

It’s not all of us! I was out at 17, and never turned back.