10:42 – I’ve been working with a woman who’s in charge of AP chemistry for a state distance learning program. I sympathize with her situation. College Board completely changed the lab portion of the AP chemistry curriculum for the 2013 school year, and she’s working madly trying to get something suitable ready to go for an August start. Complicating matters is that she has a very, very small budget. Obviously, “small budget” and “AP chemistry labs” don’t go well together. I told her that we planned to have a full AP Chemistry lab kit available for autumn 2014, but that it would probably be in the $250 range. That’s far, far higher than her per-student budget for this year. So we’re trying to do as much as possible within her limited budget, which isn’t easy.
Among other things, I was checking out the price of electronic balances for her. I was stunned to see the prices on Amazon.com. They had an American Weigh Scales (decent brand) AWS-100 (100 g capacity, 0.01 g resolution) for $10, with free SuperSaver shipping. Even more amazing, they had an AWS Gemini 20 balance for $21. That’s a milligram balance, with 20 g capacity and 0.001 g resolution. For $21. Both items are sold and fulfilled by Amazon, and their selling price is lower than what I’d have to pay if I were ordering them by the case. So I told the AP teacher that she should just buy her balances from Amazon, because I sure couldn’t match let alone beat their price. Oh, and I added a Gemini 20 to my own cart.
When I put together the AP chemistry kit for next year, I’m just going to tell buyers to get their balance on-line. It’s cheaper for them, and I don’t have to deal with warranty hassles and so on. Same deal for the pH meter.
So I told the AP teacher that she should just buy her balances from Amazon, because I sure couldn’t match let alone beat their price.
Now you know how B&M stores must feel.
No, not really. I have no interest in selling stuff if someone else sells it for less. I’ll just send customers to the cheaper source.
There has been an upsurge in demand for precision scales due to the interest in molecular gastronomy. The AMW-100, a bit fancier version of the AWS-100, is recommended by several sources, including the O’Reilly book Cooking for Geeks.
I assume y’all have seen the video “It’s not about the nail” by now. I was amusing myself by looking at some of the comments on various sites. It’s pretty amazing how many women (and, sadly, a few metrosexual men) completely miss the point and blame the guy for not listening properly. Gads.
I used to have a couple of female “friends” like this. Man, it didn’t even have to be something awful – give them a silver lining and they could find a cloud to go with it. Any excuse to whine about how unfair life was. I suppose that kind of gal appeals to a guy’s protective instincts, but eventually you learn that there’s no end to it…
Brad, I’ve got one of those living upstairs from me. Just last night I stopped by to tell her I could hear every word of her telephone conversations when her windows were open, so she might want to keep her voice down or close the windows. Instead of thanking me, she got all pissed! Go figure..
(She’s also a a shrink who smokes pot multiple times a day — do you see a picture forming here?)
I bought a cheapo scale from China a few months back but it didn’t work so had to get a replacement. Caveat emptor. New one worked fine.
I hadn’t seen it until just now, because of your mention of it, obviously.
And I am myself confounded, stunned, even, that there would be anyone who could POSSIBLY blame that guy for ANYTHING. But that is how messed up we are now in this culture. A hat tip to the chick for some nice acting…..or was it?
“….eventually you learn that there’s no end to it…”
There it is.
And thanks for the boffo laffs this early evening here in Retroville. Gorgeous day, 71, sunny with blue skies and blue water on the Bay. And no one, blessedly, if either of the TWO genders, walking around with nails in their foreheads.
Thanks for the tip on the scales, RBT. I’m going to use them in making up some so-called soylent, which I mentioned here a while ago. I’d hesitated getting them before because I was looking at $100 or more for the scales I’d need, which was too pricey for an idle notion.
Plus, if they last, I’ll be able to use them when Little Miss Short Stuff is a bit older and is ready for some of the junior science labs that will no doubt be ready by then.
The only problem I see with the Soylent is that it is relatively high carb. Not a good thing for older people, according to my PCP. He’s plugged into the research network at the Houston medical center, and the endocrinologists and cardiologists are coming to the conclusion that all the carbs in our diets are very destructive.
I also think that there may be a literal epidemic of obesity in the US, with much of the obesity being caused by enteric bacteria. I’ve seen some charts that show that there was a spread from a few loci in the South to the rest of the US.
Agreed on the carbs in Soylent-mark-1. I’d planned to start with the guy’s recipe, then reduce the carbs and increase the fat and protein and otherwise monkey with it until my skin turned orange or something. I currently get most of my calories from meat and don’t want to greatly change that. And anyway, I wasn’t planning on an all-soylent diet except maybe as an experiment for a week or two.
Post a pic when you do reach the correct hue of orange!
I like this. The world has changed since I was a kid and not all for the better. When I went to high school, many of the guys had shotguns or deer rifles in the back windows of their pickups. I graduated in 1978.
https://www.gunowners.com/marcum.htm
Ray Thompson should post his fart story here. That is one reason why I do not use ipods.
Ray Thompson should post his fart story here. That is one reason why I do not use ipods.
Life just gets better as you get older doesn’t it?
I was in a Starbucks Coffee recently when my stomach started rumbling and I realized that I desperately needed to fart. The place was packed but the music was really loud so to get relief and reduce embarrassment, I timed my farts to the beat of the music.
After a couple of songs I started to feel much better. I finished my coffee and noticed that everyone was staring at me.
I suddenly remembered that I was listening to my iPod. And how was your day?
This is what happens when old people start using technology.
The world has changed since I was a kid and not all for the better.
Indeed it has. When I went to school all the boys carried pocket knifes. It may have been part of an unwritten dress code.
We were doing a school play and we needed a rifle in the play. So I brought my .22 to school on the bus. No one blinked an eye.
There was that little incident where I used a starter blank while rehearsing for the play. Starter blanks produce a LOT of flame and concentrated out the end of a rifle it is rather spectacular but unsettling to the others.
Never did get in any trouble for that incident, just a scolding. Today I would be locked up for 20 years, probably water boarded, and my phone and email permanently tapped as I would be considered a terrorist.
My uncle (now deceased) used to tell me how he was brought before the principal of his school way back in the late 1920s, to answer questions about his .22 rifle. At the time they lived in the small farming community called Fort MacLeod, in southern Alberta. There were numerous reports of wolves nearby, and the older boys (10 and up) were told to carry their rifles to protect the smaller kids from harm, and he forgot his that day. So he ended up with a detention for NOT bringing his rifle to school.
The kids weren’t even asked if they had rifles, it was simply expected that they did.
Yep, things were saner back then. In fact, they were still sane when I was in high school from 1969 – 71. Guys used to bring their new deer rifles to school to show off, and those on the rifle team carried their rifles and ammunition to and from school with no one giving it a second thought. Back then, everyone assumed that nearly everyone was sane and that someone opening fire on random civilians was about as likely as being struck by lightning.
The reality hasn’t changed. Shootings like those all over the headlines are still extraordinarily rare mathematically. But we have two factors operating that weren’t operating then. First, 24-hour-a-day news on the TV and web means that everyone hears about such events almost instantly. Back in the day, one of these shootings might have gotten a short paragraph on page 8 of the newspaper. (Granted, a major event like the Newtown shootings would have been page one, but there’d have been little or no follow-up to keep the event in people’s minds. I remember the Texas Tower shootings, but they quickly faded from the news.) Second, we now have this ridiculous Safety First culture, which is increasingly being taken literally. If safety really is the First Priority, nothing will ever get done. No bridges or buildings could be built. No one could even drive to work or the supermarket, because that’s dangerous. We’d all have to live in bubbles and have no interaction with other people, because that’s dangerous. That’s why my slogan is Safety Third.
Two college students got a rude lesson in fear management at the university campus here in K-town. One dared to bring a perfectly legal paint ball gun in his car trunk, and was showing it to a friend in the parking lot, when some fearful twit (go ahead and guess the sex!) called the cops. Who reprimanded the “perps” and confiscated the paintball gun for destruction. Somewhat illegally, I might add.
We had two middle schools and a high school locked down recently, when it was reported that a man with a rifle was seen in the area. Four hours later, they finally puzzled out that the senior citizen out walking with his walking stick was the man with the gun. Well, I guess a stick can be construed as a weapon.
This is the same police force, when asked to help subdue a “violent” patient in the hospital, elected to Taser a 83 yr old man, who threatened a male nurse with a Swiss Army knive. You know the one I mean, the keyfob one with the 1″ blade and the toothpick and tweezers.
I should point out that the “perp” was a paraplegic, and was bed-ridden. The nurse could simply have thrown a blanket over the man, or waited until he napped. Instead he called 911, and the was tasered multiple times, and ended up in cardiac arrest.
It was later found that the nurse had screwed up the medicine and had been giving the man a drug that induced hallucinations. I suspect the old guy realized this and was trying to protect himself. Not in Canada, you don’t!
And your post begs the question, what should the first and second priority be? I have my own ideas, of course, but want to see your answer.
I’d rather leave it up to the reader…
There was a TED talk by a guy who made the point that businesses cannot run on “safety first”. Getting things done has to be job 1. Safety can be, yes, about #3.
If there’s any interest I can dig up which talk it was. I’m not sure it’s important to the regular commenters here; we’re experienced enough to identify bullshit when we smell it. I flagged it for my sons’ edification.
Safety of the business production process or Safety of the product itself? Ford used to have a slogan “Safety is Job #1” meaning that their cars were safe.
Risk is inherent in everything but I find myself getting more risk adverse with age.
“I find myself getting more risk adverse with age.”
Same here, to a point; won’t go outta my way to get potentially jammed up, so no snowboarding or double-black-diamond trails in the wintuh; no squirrelly little kayak right now that Mrs. OFD just tools around in all over the Bay. Where she is right now, in fact. And very careful with tools and household stuff more so than I ever used to be.
Also, one of the safest and most aware drivers on the face of the earth, I kid you not; two accidents in 44 years, neither my fault whatsoever and no chance at all to avoid them. Plus extensive driver training, emergency reaction training, etc., etc.
We won’t get into other activities that are ongoing and probably will be for the foreseeable few-chuh.
The talk was by Mike Rowe in 2009. This may be a URL which gets you the broadcast; I’m not impressed with ted.com’s site: http://www.ted.com/talks/mike_rowe_celebrates_dirty_jobs.html or you can try http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/477
He was talking about safety in the work process not being priority #1. I don’t recall the safety of the consumer product being mentioned.