Thermite is a powdered mixture of iron oxide and aluminum which, once lit, burns at 4000 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s hot enough to destroy anything it’s sitting on, save for a few rare metals or special high-temperature ceramics. This makes thermite incredibly destructive.
So it’s great, then, that you can buy five pounds of powdered iron oxide for $13.50 and two pounds of powdered aluminum for $23.00, giving you seven pounds of fiery, destructive hellmetal. The only difficult part of the thermite reaction is getting it ignited, and of course, the same online mega-vendor sells long rolls of magnesium ribbon, which can be ignited with a cigarette lighter but burn hot enough to start a pile of thermite.
As a former chemist I feel compelled to note the energy output of the reaction as defined above (using 5 lb of iron (III) oxide as the limiting reactant) is equivalent to the kinetic energy of a 20-ton truck traveling at roughly 70 miles per hour.
(Source: -labyrinth)
Wise words indeed.
75% of Americans think being Transgender is a choice.
Compared to 47% thinking that being gay is a choice. (http://www.queerty.com/47-of-america-thinks-being-gay-is-a-choice-and-yet-43-supports-gay-marriage-20091218/)
Dear LGB people, we’ve fought for and supported your rights, mind returning the fucking favor?
Emphasis added. I got your back, socialistexan.
Why Won’t President Obama Support Our Right To ‘Choom’ A Doobie Like He Did? | Mediaite
Washington Post editor David Maraniss‘ forthcoming book Barack Obama: The Story at points describes the president’s marijuana hijinks during his high-school and Occidental College days. Book excerpts posted online reveal that young Barack Obama frequently smoked marijuana, and he and his “choom gang” developed clever strategies for how to better maximize the impact of the “sticky-green.”
On its own, stories like these about a young adult are actually kind of funny, even humanizing — like something straight out of a stoner comedy. But when you realize it’s about President Obama, it becomes a little less humorous.
Less humorous because President Obama has repeatedly laughed off and dismissed serious discussion about drug policy, like in that 2009 virtual town hall where the president mocked online voters for picking a question about marijuana legalization.
Less humorous because the president shuts down medical marijuana dispensaries with a frequency that would have made Richard Nixon stand up and cheer. He presides over a DOJ, IRS, and DEA that have threatened, audited, and shut down legal pot sellers in California, Colorado, Montana, and Washington. All this despite once promising to respect state laws regarding medical marijuana.
From the World Wildlife Fund:
“Today’s the day Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff will announce whether she’s going to approve or veto the damaging changes to the country’s long-standing forest laws. A petition with two million signatures was officially handed in to her yesterday.”
Rouseff is likely to line-item veto parts of the bill, but it’s not clear which ones. We’ll know soon.
(Source: bunnyfood)
By now you are probably well familiar with the concept of the urban heat island effect, even if you can’t quite pinpoint the physics at play when your sneaker sole melts a little on a hot black street in July. Asphalt is an awesome material for storing the sun’s heat. On a steamy summer day, the surface of a road may be as hot as 140 degrees Fahrenheit. And it’ll stay that miserable long after the sun sets, pushing up the temperature of whole neighborhoods covered in this blacktop.
A lot of work has gone into figuring out how to combat the effect. We could plant more tree cover. We couldpaint black surfaces white. We could construct… artificial glaciers. But this idea might top them all: Why don’t we use that heat instead of fighting it?
“The bottom line is that roads get hot in summertime, even springtime,” says Rajib Mallick, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts. “They have a large surface area, which is collecting solar energy. Why not use that solar energy for something? It’s free energy, and if you use it, at the same time you can lower the temperature of the pavement.”
Mallick and other researchers have been developing a model that would harness the heat contained in asphalt and put it to productive uses. Asphalt, for instance, could heat water coursing through a series of pipes embedded in the road. And that process would both cool street surfaces and send their heat somewhere useful.
Very cool. Cheesy pun intended.
Douglas Coupland-created ‘V-Pole’ may take high tech to the streets in Vancouver
To clear its streets of cellphone towers, parking meters, Wi-Fi terminals, streetlights and even community message boards, the city of Vancouver is pushing forward with a scheme to compress all the technologies together into specialized “Vancouver poles” planted throughout the city.
“Meet your inevitable future,” wrote novelist Douglas Coupland, the technology’s creator, in an introductory Tweet.
The device, no larger than a telephone pole, would manage cell signals for multiple carriers, as well as wireless Internet for the surrounding neighbourhood. In-ground pads plugged into the pole would provide inductive charging for parked electric cars. An integrated touch screen would display maps, ads or payment interfaces, and an LED street light would be perched at the top of the pole. (Photo: Martin Tessler/Mathew Bulford; Illustration: Andrew Barr)
This 15 year old just won $75,000 for developing a test for pancreatic cancer that’s over 90 percent accurate, 28 times faster, 28 times less expensive and over 100 times more sensitive than current tests.
There’s more to the story here. His idea is actually quite simple and ingenious:
Andraka’s dip-stick sensor can test urine or blood for a certain protein (mesothelin) that indicates the existence of the specific cancer. The paper strip changes conductivity based on how much of the protein is in the blood. It can, according to Andraka, detect the cancer even before it becomes invasive.
My mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in April of 1995. She died in December of 1995 after many painful, humiliating and ultimately pointless treatments. Pancreatic cancer is not generally even noticed until it causes problems with other body systems by blocking the duodenum or bile ducts. By that point the cancer has spread and it’s frankly too late. Very few people with pancreatic cancer survive a year. If they can get certain treatments or surgeries they can survive for up to five years. But that is rare. Very rare.
Were early detection around at the time there may have been a small chance that my mom would have had a chance to meet the woman who eventually became my wife. I think we all would have liked that.
So kudos to this kid, The Intel International Science and Engineering Fair and the Society for Science and the Public for making science opportunities like this possible.
(Source: societyforscience.org)
