Thursday, June 04, 2009
Civic duty
I thought I ought to do my civic duty, at least to the extent of recording the reason for my not voting today. Which is that, as an old Labour person, I can't vote for new Labour and I can't vote for either of the other lots. And low turnout is as good a message to the powers that be as spoiled votes. So I am saving myself the bother of doing anything outdoors.
For the record, my opinion is that Brown ought to call an election and let the other lot have a go. His lot have been in too long and they have become stale, tired and corrupt. By good luck, he has been on watch during what was, until recently, a period of growth. But then, there is the sin of omission, in that by failing to properly regulate the financial sector, he contributed to the crash. His share in which he seems to be in denial about, despite having been in charge of the relevant department in the relevant period. A sin of commission, in that he joined the Iraq imbroglio under false pretences. A sin of commission, in that he threw more money at the health service than it could usefully absorb. A sin of omission, in that he failed to reform the arrangement whereby neither the House of Commons nor local authorities have the power that they ought to have. (The exception that proves the rule, being the TFL's foisting of the congestion tax on long suffering Londoners). A sin of commission in heavy handed meddling where little was needed. For example, the smoking and fox hunting bans. Lots of sins. One could go on and on. And I dare say the other lot will do no better. But, as the old adage goes, a change is as good as a rest. I wonder if he will prove to be any good at golf?
Good news from the tip however. It seems that one of the environmental preservation officers (second class) there had the misfortune to lose his hamster this morning and was feeling rather cut up about it. Needed to bash something. So management decided that it was his turn to drive the digger which smashes up all the waste timber chucked into the waste timber container. A large grab on the end of the hydraulic arm which grabs a large chunk of timber in open claw mode then crushes it by closing the claws with satisfying crunching noises. Most effective at both crunching and satisfying the urge to bash something. Mission accomplished.
Been entertained the last few days by reading a short book called 'Explosives' published by Pelican in 1942, at the height of the second world war. Perhaps it was thought that, in the circumstances, the population at large should know about these things. And a message inside the front cover invites you to leave the book, when read, at a post office, from whence it can be sent on for the entertainment of those in the services. The book contains a whistle stop tour of the world of explosives. Including outline instructions on how to make the things - with the caveat that most of the processes involved would be rather dangerous if attempted over the kitchen sink. Proper facilities needed. I was reminded of why chemistry was fun by the account of how the proper introduction of heat and nitrogen into relatively simple compounds, mainly made up of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, could result in a reasonably stable compound which would, when poked in a suitable way, auto-oxidise in very short order, generating a lot of heat and light in the process, or, in other words, explode. Or an incestuous version of the more familiar bonfires where the carbon and oxygen come to the party separately. In a word, an explosive.
I then learn that nitro-glycerine is both misnamed and a by-product of the soap industry. That it is a rather unstable liquid best used by using some base material to soak it up. Hence dynamite. With the unfortunate tendency to ooze said unstable liquid when stored in the wrong conditions. Then that from coal one can get benzene from which one can get various brands of nitrated benzene. Some of these are very important as aniline dyes. Another is tri-nitro-toluene, aka TNT. It seems that between the first and second wars the Germans came up with the very good wheeze, spotted by ourselves in the nick of time, of selling the world cheap dyes, which would have had the effect of killing off other people's dyeing industries, and along with them an important branch of their explosives' industries. And if you want more, there is another family of explosives originally derived from cotton waste, misnamed as nitro-cellulose. So if you have 10.7-11.7% nitrogen in you nitro-cellulose you have plastics and unnatural fibres. If you push up into the 11.5-12.7% range, you have something called smokeless powders (gunpowder generating a lot of black smoke). Also known as cordite. The book says nothing about the small overlap here. Perhaps tricky territory. And if you get as far as 13.0-13.5%, you have high explosive.
The thought that I am left with in all this, being that explosives are really quite minor variations of much more commonplace materials. And that, seemingly minor variations in bonds and what have you, in a quite modest compound, can have quite startling effects on its appearance, properties and uses.
For the record, my opinion is that Brown ought to call an election and let the other lot have a go. His lot have been in too long and they have become stale, tired and corrupt. By good luck, he has been on watch during what was, until recently, a period of growth. But then, there is the sin of omission, in that by failing to properly regulate the financial sector, he contributed to the crash. His share in which he seems to be in denial about, despite having been in charge of the relevant department in the relevant period. A sin of commission, in that he joined the Iraq imbroglio under false pretences. A sin of commission, in that he threw more money at the health service than it could usefully absorb. A sin of omission, in that he failed to reform the arrangement whereby neither the House of Commons nor local authorities have the power that they ought to have. (The exception that proves the rule, being the TFL's foisting of the congestion tax on long suffering Londoners). A sin of commission in heavy handed meddling where little was needed. For example, the smoking and fox hunting bans. Lots of sins. One could go on and on. And I dare say the other lot will do no better. But, as the old adage goes, a change is as good as a rest. I wonder if he will prove to be any good at golf?
Good news from the tip however. It seems that one of the environmental preservation officers (second class) there had the misfortune to lose his hamster this morning and was feeling rather cut up about it. Needed to bash something. So management decided that it was his turn to drive the digger which smashes up all the waste timber chucked into the waste timber container. A large grab on the end of the hydraulic arm which grabs a large chunk of timber in open claw mode then crushes it by closing the claws with satisfying crunching noises. Most effective at both crunching and satisfying the urge to bash something. Mission accomplished.
Been entertained the last few days by reading a short book called 'Explosives' published by Pelican in 1942, at the height of the second world war. Perhaps it was thought that, in the circumstances, the population at large should know about these things. And a message inside the front cover invites you to leave the book, when read, at a post office, from whence it can be sent on for the entertainment of those in the services. The book contains a whistle stop tour of the world of explosives. Including outline instructions on how to make the things - with the caveat that most of the processes involved would be rather dangerous if attempted over the kitchen sink. Proper facilities needed. I was reminded of why chemistry was fun by the account of how the proper introduction of heat and nitrogen into relatively simple compounds, mainly made up of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, could result in a reasonably stable compound which would, when poked in a suitable way, auto-oxidise in very short order, generating a lot of heat and light in the process, or, in other words, explode. Or an incestuous version of the more familiar bonfires where the carbon and oxygen come to the party separately. In a word, an explosive.
I then learn that nitro-glycerine is both misnamed and a by-product of the soap industry. That it is a rather unstable liquid best used by using some base material to soak it up. Hence dynamite. With the unfortunate tendency to ooze said unstable liquid when stored in the wrong conditions. Then that from coal one can get benzene from which one can get various brands of nitrated benzene. Some of these are very important as aniline dyes. Another is tri-nitro-toluene, aka TNT. It seems that between the first and second wars the Germans came up with the very good wheeze, spotted by ourselves in the nick of time, of selling the world cheap dyes, which would have had the effect of killing off other people's dyeing industries, and along with them an important branch of their explosives' industries. And if you want more, there is another family of explosives originally derived from cotton waste, misnamed as nitro-cellulose. So if you have 10.7-11.7% nitrogen in you nitro-cellulose you have plastics and unnatural fibres. If you push up into the 11.5-12.7% range, you have something called smokeless powders (gunpowder generating a lot of black smoke). Also known as cordite. The book says nothing about the small overlap here. Perhaps tricky territory. And if you get as far as 13.0-13.5%, you have high explosive.
The thought that I am left with in all this, being that explosives are really quite minor variations of much more commonplace materials. And that, seemingly minor variations in bonds and what have you, in a quite modest compound, can have quite startling effects on its appearance, properties and uses.
# posted by Jim @ 7:38 AM 
