08:11 – Until yesterday, we were missing two of the chemicals that will be included in the biology kits. One of those, methyl cellulose, is still on order. The other, four pounds (1.8 kilos) of dipotassium hydrogen phosphate, showed up yesterday. I used it to make up 8 liters of fertilizer concentrate part A, enough for 60+ kits. Although the stuff is fertilizer-grade, it looked quite pure, white crystals that resembled table salt or sugar. I was surprised that it dissolved to form a pretty pale blue solution.
Friday, 2 March 2012
34 Comments and discussion on "Friday, 2 March 2012"
Comments are closed.
Idle curiosity: For quality control over months or years, do you quantify the color of the mixed chemicals? Take photos, possibly with a standardized color card next to the beaker?
Nah. For that to be of any use, I’d have to use a spectrophotometer, which’d be more trouble than it’s worth. For most of the solutions, I just use pretty high-purity chemicals, usually reagent grade or USP/FCC grade. This particular solution is an exception. I used the fertilizer-grade chemical because it costs about a tenth what the reagent-grade chemical would cost, and the solution is, well, fertilizer. The concentrate contains 100 grams/liter and is diluted 1:100 for use, down to 1 gram/liter. It’d probably work just as well anywhere in the range of, say, a quarter that to four times that, so it’s a waste of effort to worry about exact amounts or chemical purity.
What does it taste like? đ
Chicken.
Dipotassium phosphate tastes “sharp”. It’s one of the core flavors of a lot of soda, especially Coke. Diet Coke has even more than regular Coke, since it helps mask the artificial sweetener aftertaste.
Here we go again.
http://www.modbee.com/2012/02/28/2090490/enochs-high-teacher-resigns-after.html
This time, it is a male teacher in a relationship with a female student. They both maintain it did not get serious until several months after she was 18.
By the way, remember Mary Kay Letournau? the woman who was jailed for raping (a court said it was rape, so it is legally rape) a 12 year-old student when she was 34? She went to jail for 7 years, and the pair were married when she was released. They are still together, and their oldest child is now 15.
I am at a loss as to what to do with these people. My initial gut reaction is just to execute them all, but I know that is way wrong. Probably some leftover Puritan DNA or something, I will have to get that taken care of soonest in this rotten kultur. Oh shit…I just heard a holster unsnap…
I am at a loss as to what to do with these people.
What does it really matter? If both are over 18 who gives a rat’s ass. The Hef is getting chicks (money whores) that are 50 years younger than him. Everyone seems to think it is cute. Me, I just admire a guy that can get a workable boner at the age of 80, and still remembers where it goes.
Where what goes?
Down here a senator from a left wing got involved with a *former* student when the student was 18 and out of school. There was a fuss, and it was pointed out that a male teacher screwing a former female student, even over 18, would be in deep doo doo.
Having sex with a 12 year old student is simply not on, IMH. Letournau got what she deserved.
*left wing party
Heck, more than one of my high school teachers married a student after the student graduated. There were no repercussions whatever. Nor should there be. It is none of anyoneâs business what 2 people do, regardless of any jobs their past included or how they met.
Actually Letourneau only got a slap on the wrist at first. But she refused to abide by the court order that she stay away from Fualaau, who some said could pass for 18 when he was 12. Testimony indicated he had been having sex starting at age 10, and that he staunchly indicated he was no âvictimâ. Nevertheless, the court disregarded his protests, until he was 18, then it suddenly stopped ignoring him and dropped his âvictimâ status, and he and Letourneau were free to marry.
It was disobedience to that âno contactâ court order that landed Letourneau in jail for an extended period — not her original transgression. IMO, she did not get what she deserved. While I think that schools themselves should not condone sexual association of teachers and students, I firmly believe that — unlike girls — no male, whether boy or man, can be raped, except by another man penetrating him unwillingly. Boys and men do not bear children, thus have no change in their bodies because of anything that results from sex, nor are they presented with any emotional challenges as a result of carrying or birthing a child, as are girls.
Also, I have long opposed the modern-day practice of keeping people âchildrenâ until they are practically 25, and postponing the significant contribution they can make by insisting they be subservient to adults and toe a contrived line waaay past the age earlier generations took charge of their lives. My grandfather AND grandmother on my dadâs side, left school after the 5th grade, went to work, and lived a mighty productive life. I have told the story here of that grandmotherâs parents, who married at 15 and 14; he took over the family farm at 19 and, within just a few years, had the most productive farm in the county. They had 15 children, and my grandmother always told me that there could not have been a better childhood than the one provided by those parents. To further show how things have changed in the wrong direction, in Kentucky, until recently, a girl could get married at 14 without her parentsâ approval. Oddly, and reprehensively, boys could not get married without their MOTHERâS approval until 21. One of my friends who skipped grades in school had to get his motherâs written legal consent before he could marry his girlfriend, even though both had graduated from college at the time of their wedding!
All through the â50âs, 60âs, and â70âs, teenagers from age 14 to 20 were the ones most instrumental in shaping the music industry. Some — including Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry — left school and never suffered from that. But by golly, we are going to have a legal system that ignores differences between the sexes, moves the line demarking a grown-up ever upward in age, and thus we WILL call and treat anybody under 18 a child, regardless of their capabilities, physical build, or emotional maturity. My WWI veteran grandfather said there were kids as young as 15 in his outfit, and the younger guys turned in every bit the performance the older guys did (and obviously looked older than 15 to get inducted). They were exemplary MEN at 15. Fact is, Fualaau and his mother cared for his children made with Letourneau while he was a teenager, until Letourneau was released from jail and the pair married.
Our legal system no longer passes sentence rationally. It mandates a one-size-fits-all solution for everyone — no exceptions. And even in states that have jury nullification rules, which could provide more rationality (Indiana has it embedded in its Constitution), both judges and lawyers hate it, and see to it that anyone aware of, and favoring jury nullification, never lands on a jury. In fact, the most sure-fire way to escape serving on a jury in Indiana, is to make the lawyers and judge aware that you know about the constitutional provision for jury nullification — then you are outta there!
Court evidence did not contradict the fact that Fualaau initiated all the sex in question between the two — including the first time. But irrational, unthinking Washington state law demands that anyone under 18 is a âvictimâ and anyone having sex with someone under 18 is a ârapistâ. A mental exam of Letourneau even pointed out that it felt she was too easily âdominatedâ by a 13 year-old (he had turned 13 by the examination point), giving a good strong clue that this was no ordinary 12/13 year-old. So, no, she did not get what she deserved, and time and events have proved the veracity of that. SHE was the victim. Of unthinking, non-rational one-size-fits-all justice.
Oh, I agree that once a kid is 18+ that it’s okay. What I was complaining about was that if a male teacher had been involved, rather than a female left wing teacher, the man would be pilloried.
Chuck wrote:
“But she refused to abide by the court order that she stay away from Fualaau, who some said could pass for 18 when he was 12.”
When she was 12 my elder niece had a girlfriend like that. The girlfriend was 11 and had a figure most women would kill for. My sister (who taught at their school) told me the girl was 11, and it was obvious from her face and other juvenile features. But that figure… 90% of women have smaller busts than this girl did at 11.
Anyway, all this is irrelevant. Letourneau must have known his age, must have known he was a student. If she was weak she shouldn’t have been in that profession. Unless both are adults students and teachers shouldn’t be having that sort of relationship. Now that they’re both of age what they do is up to them, but I feel very strongly that the barrier between teachers and until students should be rigorously enforced until the student is an adult.
And the boy could easily have gotten, or given, a sexually transmitted disease.
Letourneau should have known her actions could have ended her marriage and job. If she didn’t know this, or still couldn’t control her actions, then I question her judgement and qualifications to be a teacher.
You know, I donât see how the two are — or should be —related. While it is true that most people, apparently including you, believe when someone else does not conduct their life the same as you would, then that somehow proves the other person is impaired or demented. I do not agree with that.
In Letourneauâs case, one can easily find support for what she did. She was being mistreated by her husband through physical violence against her at home. The husband was having affairs, and she knew it (in fact, there is a claim that he fathered a child outside the marriage at that time). It appears that her husband WANTED her to leave the marriage. The bottom line of that is: would she care if what she did caused her to lose the marriage? I donât think so.
A guy comes along, — who has been described by those around the case as a grown-up in everything but years, — and pursues her. (I, myself, had reached my full adult height of 71.5 inches at 12, as had several of my male friends.) With all that is going on around her, could she do something that most people consider unwise? Sure. Does that automatically make her a nutcase and strip her of all the rest of her intelligence, capabilities, and expertise? Not according to the mental tests she was given. They only pointed to the fact that she was suffering from severe depression and MAY have been bipolar.
In fact, Letourneau was considered an exemplary teacher — repeatedly given awards for the quality of her teaching over many years, very well-liked by her students, and never with even a hint of a problem previous to this one. Even the lawyers on both sides of the case said the bond between the pair was quite noticeably strong from the beginning, and a couple of those lawyers (on both sides of the case) predicted that they would marry, if it ever became possible. Those people were right.
I admit that it is a thorny issue — especially for schools. But IMO this does not even come close to comparing with the ring of repeatedly predatory, intentional abuse that occurred by RC priests throughout the US. Actually, most of these teacher-student relationships that have come to light during the last decade, have appeared to be genuine relationships, and not predatory ones.
Letâs take the case of somebody you are likely to know. One of the pop group The Monkees met his wife when he was 20 and she was 16 (before he became famous). She got pregnant, and they were married when she was 17. Did the world get incensed about this? Quite the contrary. Now change a couple facts: make the guy 22, and make him the girlâs teacher. Whoa! That changes EVERYTHING, say most people.
Most teachers back in the days of one room school houses were required to be single (and they were all women, most with only 6 months or so, of teacher training). What happened if at the time she was 20, one of her older students courted and married her? Nothing, except she lost her job to another single girl. My great aunt was one of those who lost her job for that reason. No matter; her husband became a salesman in St. Louis, and she got a job teaching at a city school where it did not matter if you were married or single.
But Mary Kay Letourneau? Send her to jail and put her in solitary confinement for trying to be in contact with the person she most loved. There is as much wrong with a society that would do that, as there is with one which drowns or executes âwitchesâ.
I am willing to listen to reason about this case, and Lord knows Chuck has plenty of reasoning ability and is persuasive.
I will only say this for now, and I have said it before, regarding RC clergy: yes, there was abuse, and it was horrible. But the overwhelming amount of illicit sexual activities among RC clergy were homosexual encounters, many apparently consensual, between adult RC clergy and each other, and adult RC clergy and teenage males. This, of course, is A-OK with the usual suspects and is routinely ignored and glossed over, in favor of the years-long media firestorm over the pedophiles, a number of whom could also be found among other Christian denominations, Jewish congregations, and amazing as it may seem, secular organizations like our wonderful publik skook systems.
Once it became known that Roman Catholic priests were involved, the media went hog-ass-wild and millions jumped on that bandwagon, because ever since Winthrop waxed enthusiastic over the ‘City on the Hill,’ it has been open season on Catholics in this country, an active and virulent vestige of the Puritans, Calvinists, and Cromwellian Roundheads who settled these colonies.
And when this information is presented, it seems to drive the haters and bigots, the secularists and atheists, apoplectic. How dare anyone defend pedophiles! Well, who is? I would happily machine-gun the lot of them, RC clergy or not. Well, then, Pope Benedict let it happen. Bullshit. He was one of the first high-ranking clergy to battle it and seek and end to it and hold the bastards accountable. All on record.
As I understand it, before Ratzinger became pope, he failed to take sufficient action against a perverted priest under his dominion — he moved him to another location, tutted that he should be kept away from children, and then ignored it when that same priest perpetrated further abuse.
After he became pope, Ratzinger sent confidential letters to bishops, urging them not to cooperate with the police — to keep accusations of abuse secret from everyone but the church. That sounds a lot like letting it happen.
OFD, I don’t think people particularly dislike Catholics. What people despise is the Catholic Church, and rightfully so.
Chuck, none of what you say excuses Letourneau. Sure, I feel sympathetic about her problems, and I’m glad that she’s hitched to the guy now that he’s and adult. But I and 99% of people know whan a person is under age, and 11-12 certainly is. I mentioned an 11 year old girl with the figure of a woman. But I could tell at a glance that she was a kid, I didn’t need my sister to tell me.
Letourneau got involved with a tall kid she new to be a kid. That’s not on.
Dave, some of those RC clergy would never have got into illicit relationships with males, or females, kids or adults, if the RC church didn’t insist on clerical celibacy. That demand, unwarranted by scripture, is evil.
As it happens I know a guy who had sex with an eight year old boy. I knew he was gay but not that he liked boys. Well, I think that was an aberration, he’s been to jail and is now out, and working in a new career. I hope he doesn’t re-offend, and I don’t think he will. It’s the serial offenders who should get an appointment with the surgeon, or the hangman, not necessarily the one off offenders.
Chuck, I’m more sympathetic to the Letourneau’s situation having read your reply to my comments. I agree the Church’s handling of the Priest scandals is unacceptable. I think the priest scandals were made all the worse by the fact that the Catholic Church forbids priests from marrying. Nobody in the Catholic Church responsible for dealing with the problem of pedophile priests would ever look at a victim and say what if that were my son? Because Bishops, Archbishops and Cardinals don’t have sons.
Of course they have sons, at least some of them. In the RC hierarchy, sons of priests are called “nephews”. Some of them have become popes.
In the Basque region in the Middle Ages towns wouldn’t accept a priest unless he had a “housekeeper”. I assume that was because they didn’t want the priest preying on their womenfolk.
eristicist wrote: “OFD, I donât think people particularly dislike Catholics. What people despise is the Catholic Church, and rightfully so.”
Precisely, though I have met a couple of Catholics that I wanted to assist getting to heaven sooner, rather than later, 98% of my wrath is directed against the Vatican and the Church. The final 2% is for people who think pointing at other organizations somehow excuse their own guilt.
And I’ve never defended any organization that kicked child abuse under the carpet.
I can’t add anything to the discussion above except that it confirms my view that Americans are neurotic, for lack of a better term, when it comes to sex. Is there such a verb as “to fetishsize”? That’s what Americans and their uptight germanic ancestors have done to sex. The Calvinist puritanism in this country is mind-boggling. I’ll take the Sotadic Zone any day, thankyouverymuch.
OTOH, I think the RC ought to take vows of celibacy much more seriously. That’s the whole friggin’ point, ferchrissake! A mere whiff of scandal and they ought to be stripped of their collars and jettisoned. Nephews notwithstanding, lol.
I just Googled Sotadic Zone and the meaning Burton (and I) intended encompasses far more than homosexuality. It’s an understanding of sex as a normal part of social life — the way monkeys and dolphins do it.
Much of the world — Western Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, at least — makes fun of the US for our Puritan attitudes towards sex, alcohol, and many other social issues.
The way I see it, they should be thanking us. We took those Puritans off their hands. After the intolerant Christian sects had been driven out of every location occupied by decent folk, they settled in the “unoccupied” Americas… where they’ve infested and contaminated many aspects of life.
What we decent Americans should do is deport our modern-day Puritans. Air-drop the tards across Western Europe, where they came from. Europeans, of course, would rightly regard this as an act of war.
Jim Cooley says:
OTOH, I think the RC ought to take vows of celibacy much more seriously.
Or drop it altogether.
They’ll be forced to drop celibacy and/or allow women priests due to demographic factors. The hierarchy just forced a Melbourne priest out who was only 75. A spring chicken.
http://www.theage.com.au/national/catholic-church-tells-father-bob-to-retire-20090907-fdae.html
I agree with Jim and SteveF: celibacy should be enforced (although maybe they ought to consider the Orthodox model of two orders of priests, one married, which can never become bishops, and the other celibate, who may go on to become bishops. ) And one does not have to be ordained at all to become a cardinal; our own host could become one. I think he’d look good in a red hat.
Also, send the Puritans, Calvinists, et. al., and their modern descendants to Antarctica; they’ve caused, and still cause, untold misery for countless millions, and not only in this country, either.
Then we have this:
“… 98% of my wrath is directed against the Vatican and the Church.”
What can I say? A billion people.
Dave, there’s no reason to enforce celibacy. It’s evil, pointless and turns some otherwise good men into adulterers and paedophiles.
No, OFD, not a billion people. Just one church and one city state that meddles far more with the world then DC could ever dream of.
Not sure about that Bill, DC can dream pretty big.
But it would forever remain a dream, due to incompetence. The Vatican almost succeeded in taking over the world.