With globalization and greed in full swing we get to see the aftermath that programs such as NAFTA as pushed by the Clintons, Al Gore and the Republican Congress (under the stewardship of Bohemian Grove camper,¹ Newt Gingrich) have had on America.  The fruits of their labor have been a continuation of the serfdom agenda for the middle class with concomitant accruing of value for the top few percent.  Bunches of low hanging fruit can be seen throughout much of the US, regardless of where my travels take me.  They are the shells of old factories, store shelves stocked to the gill with “Made in China” products,² and the ever so present real estate sign advertising “for sale, rent or lease.”  The fact is the US produces very little these days in terms of actual consumer goods.  Likewise, I’ve noticed that many products which scientists depend on are now being cranked out in China.  This initial diatribe, is not to be misinterpreted as angst against the Chinese but instead to contrast the subject of this actual blog post, that being Andrew’s Glass Company.

If I had to suggest one product made in America that would be a worthwhile investment of money and great addition to the laboratory I would say that hands down Andrew’s Glass would be near the top.  The main products they sell (or at least the ones I’m most familiar with) are glass pressure reactors.  My favorite is currently the 3 oz bottle of the footed variety (see above).  This little guy is a workhorse and despite its small size he is not to be underestimated (yes, they are male).³  Now one thing I need to mention before I go much further is that these reactors are originally encased in a protective plastic coating (probably to retain glass fragments in the event of an explosion) but I always remove this as soon as possible.  Removing this plastic coating probably voids any warranty that might come with the glass (if there is any) but the fact is it obscures the reactor contents (especially their true color) and I’ve been told that it does not fare well when heated in a drying oven.  Regardless of whether you keep the plastic coating on or not (and I’m not telling you to remove it) I highly suggest not only using the stainless steel mesh shielding sold by Andrew’s Glass Company but also to use a blast shield when possible for redundant safety.  These small reaction vessels are quite robust in terms of their operational pressure (rated > 200 psi); however, in practice I suggest using them at 50 % maximum operational pressure and make provisions for safety pressure release valves set to crack when they see pressure in excess of this amount.  These reactors are in truth the “poor man’s autoclave reactor.”  For those of you who need to operate at moderately high pressure and don’t have money for a autoclave reactor this is one way to get around that obstacle.  Another thing is for the cost of a small autoclave you can have at least 10 complete reactor setups (including all compression fitting components) which translates into massive returns when it comes to productivity.  Moreover, it is much easier to clean the glass pressure reactor than it is an autoclave (again saving time).

One other thing I need to say on behalf of Andrew’s Glass Company is that the sales representatives I’ve dealt with have been good overall.  Moreover, when I informed the company of my intention to discuss their product in a book that I am working on they offered to discount their products.  This is greatly appreciated and something that you definitely do not run into very often.

There are only two negatives (as I see it) to Andrew’s Glass pressure reactors.  The first is cost.  These pieces of glass are expensive (> $ 200) but since they are made in the U.S. and they are specialty glass I understand the cost.  The other problem that I have run into with these reaction vessels is that after repeated use > 100 experiments in at least two vessels I had unusual cracking/chipping (see below).  This may have occurred due to the repeated temperature cycles that these vessels see (drying > 100 °C and reaction temps as low as – 80 °C).  Possibly, minor impact to the vessel causes a small locus of failure to occur at and then repeated heating and cooling do the rest?  I’ve brought this sort of defect to the attention of Andrew’s Glass in the past but haven’t had any return input from them concerning this sort of failure.  Should the reader have experienced similar behavior please feel free to contact me.

In conclusion, I find this company’s products to be some of the best I have encountered in terms of “Made in America” and highly recommend them.

1. I found Luke Rudkowski’s recent and direct confrontation of Newt in regards to Newt’s denials (i.e. lies) of being a Bohemian Grover refreshing and applaud this young man for confronting such evil.
2. The sad fact is many of these products are made using technology originally developed in the U.S. and in many cases with investment capital that was U.S. owned (e.g. equipment/tooling) and in some cases (e.g. Chevy) the company in question was bailed out by taxpayers only to fund their move to China.
3. Of course they are sexless; however, this will setup a future blog post on the purposeful destruction of the sciences in the guise of equality.

Our research group has been exploring the anionic ROP of cyclic siloxanes and epoxides in water using strong phosphazene bases (e.g. P₄) in conjunction with surfactants. These polymerization systems share many characteristics with other related systems based on metal hydroxides and we will be reporting our results in the peer reviewed literature towards the end of this year. Release date 7/1/12.

The following is an email that I sent to a couple professors at The University of Washington regarding a table that appears on their website (a table with incorrect information {see below}*).  Although I’m not special enough to have attended Havard I do know the correct formula for things like nitrite ion…

Dear Professors:

Not long ago I wished to look and see what tabulated information was available concerning acid strength.  I ran across a table with the following address

http://depts.washington.edu/eooptic/links/acidstrength.html

I printed this table out and posted it next to a work computer and promptly forgot about it.  During a fit of boredom I happened to glance over at it a few days later and noticed a number of errors in it.  For example, the formulas for nitrite ion, carbonic acid, and hydrogen sulfite ion are all incorrect.  As of yet, I haven’t given it much of a critical review but I wonder if this table contains other serious errors?  I suggest you take time to review it extensively (including Ka values) and revise it.

Cheers,

Stew (Dr. Stewart P. Lewis)

* I’m invoking fair use since this posting is not for profit and only for educational purposes and by the fact that the table was not marked as being copyrighted.  Should they request I remove it I’ll let my readers know…

Wash Univ acid strength table (with mistakes)

Since adding a blog to my website I’ve notice a disproportional number of readers from Latin America.  Although I do appreciate your patronage I’ve been unable to accept and post (thus far) 100% of comments coming from such readers.  Seeing that my targeted audience is those who have some sort of affiliation to the sciences I welcome commentary related to those issues and spam anything that is outside this realm or geared towards self-promotional purposes (e.g. websites that promote travel and other non-science related services).

Oddly enough, people from these regions apparently enjoy reading my blog series on the Goat Man.  Because of this, I want to take a few minutes and dispel any misunderstanding about the true nature of the Goat Man.  Although the Goat Man is an intellectual crook who steals ideas from others (including the assumed name that he has used while residing in the US) he is not a chupacabra (i.e. goat sucker).  No, unfortunately this individual is not as benign a being.  In fact, to make such an association is to malign the chupacabra.  Unlike the Goat Man (who hides behind the façade of being a great scientist and a self-proclaimed patriot of the U.S.) the chupacabra does not disguise its true nature.  Instead, everyone knows the chupacabra when they encounter it (just ask Coast to Coast AM listeners).  Still, there are some parallels between the Goat Man, the chupacabra, and their prey that I should point out.

Just as a chupacabra preys upon weak herding animals (e.g. goats and sheep) the Goat Man too has lived off the life blood of ideas of herd like research scientists and students.  This sort of prey too, is sheep-like in its behavior, mentality, and lack of courage.  Furthermore, the Goat Man one ups the chupacabra by stealthily feeding off the endless life blood of the public as a whole using their tax dollars to fund his feeding frenzy.  Unwilling to put up a fight, they too become a tasty meal for the “sucker of inventions” just as sheep and goats are for a chupacabra.  It is said that the chupacabra has the ability to put its prey into a trance-like state prior to feeding and thus reduces the effort required to fulfill its needs.  Likewise, the Goat Man has mastered this skill and fooled a great many individuals into thinking he is a prodigy as they offer their wealth of knowledge to him on their own free will when in fact he is nothing more than a parasite.

Fortunately, just as people are becoming aware of the chupacabra they too are waking up to the Goat Man.  Recently a student of a former student (now professor) of the Goat Man told me that the validity of works published by the Goat Man have been questioned and in some instances would appear to have been falsified.  Another comment was the proclivity of the Goat Man to publish so extensively in a certain journal, one which as it turns out he served as an editor to (that little fact seemed to escape these people’s attention).  I found it laughable that Sam informed me the Goat Man stated that is former student of his (now professor) “always steals my best ideas.”  One would think this former member of the Goat Man’s herd might have something to say about that but all I’ve heard is silence [ 🙁 ] despite contacting him directly.  As I have previously mentioned, the Goat Man has left a visible trail of deceit and thievery throughout the chemical literature (some of which has been and other which will be publically disclosed in the not too distant future).  These clues are similar to the corpses of livestock that the chupacabra leaves behind during its nocturnal feeding frenzies.  Just as farmers have taken extreme measures to protect their animals the witnesses to the Goat Man’s acts should be called to duty in carrying out long deserved justice.  Despite having raised the alarm to many (including previous prey victims), I have to note that it would seem that I am the only one to have what Latin Americans would refer to as “huevos.”  With that I’ll close with the following.  That being, the Goat Man’s time of reckoning is fast approaching!!!

For some time Innovative Science Corporation has been involved in basic R&D on new systems for the green polymerization of isobutene (IB).  This series of projects (conducted under contract) have yielded a number of interesting and valuable methodologies for the polymerization of IB where benefits include lower energy consumption, high yields, and no toxic solvents required.  In this blog we announce (publically) the details of one such system.

It has been discovered that scandium(III) triflate is capable of inducing polymerization of IB to both low and high MW grades of PIBs in neat monomer (and in aliphatic media) in conjunction with a number of initiator subsets (e.g. halogens, Brönsted acids, alcohols, ethers, nitroalkanes, and water {just to name a few}).  Depending on the identity of the initiator, products with high MWs can be obtained at elevated reaction temperatures.  For example, in one experiment reaction at 0 °C led to the production of PIB with M_w = 250 kg/mol (in limited yield).  In many instances, low MW grades of PIBs with high exo-olefinic end group contents (ca. 80-90 %) can be produced in high yields at room temperature.  Moreover, studies have indicated that the coinitator is itself recyclable and retains is activity upon reuse.

More specific details concerning this research will be disseminated in the peer-reviewed literature.  For those who have interest in owning US patent rights please contact our president, Dr. S.P. Lewis.  Release date 6/21/12

Note: the following comments are not from a physician and are the author’s opinion.  Consult a health care professional before taking any nutritional supplements.

I wanted to write briefly about these products.  One is called “Beyond Tangy Tangerine^®” and I find it to be a good overall supplement.  Steady low dosage of this (i.e. diluted at about 2 times the recommended concentration) along with frequent exercise led to an increase in energy level and weight loss.  There was a definite difference in these results compared to other supplements (at least in my case).  The supplement tastes good and in my opinion should be easier for your body to uptake since it is already solubilized.  One thing that I have noticed is occasionally insoluble material will still remain (although it is minor) and this appears to be Mg(OH)₂ if I had to give an educated guess (no I didn’t try to analyze it).  The other Youngevity product I like is Osteo-FX plus^TM.  It tastes good, has no sugar or other harmful sweeteners, and mixes well with both water and milk.  I would highly recommend this to anyone with young children or older adults who absolutely need to support healthy bones.  I’m also guessing that this would be an excellent supplement for pregnant women as well (again, consult a doctor first).

Given all that, I need to comment on two negative aspects of this company.  First is the high price of the products and second is their terrible customer service.  As for the first I believe you get what you pay for (usually).  So with that line of thought, superior supplements should (potentially) come at a higher price.  As for the second, I absolutely do not understand how a company can offer such high quality products and yet have such sucky (excuse this adjective; however, it adequately describes their service) customer service.  Here is just one example of several interactions I’ve had with them.  Not long ago I requested my auto-ship to be sent to a new address.  I went online and changed this myself and then I called Youngevity^® and was told by their customer service that everything was good to go with the new address.  Well, guess what?  The package went to the old address.  So I attempted to contact Youngevity^® by email (to both their customer service as well as Dr. Wallach).  Both emails bounced back due to problems with the mail accounts as provided on their website!  I then called Youngevity^® and got a recording saying that it was outside their normal business hours and to leave a message.  So I left them with all my information and requested a return phone call but never received one.  When I began to explain this to the customer service representative (on my second call some days later) there was no sympathy, apology, or attempt to correct all these wrongs.  The best they could do was arrange for UPS to pick the package up to where it had been incorrectly delivered and reroute it to me (at my own cost of course).  So, if someone knows of a company that offers similar products at similar or lower cost with better customer service please let me know and I’ll review them as well.

A while back when I was foolishly* dating a Chinese woman I had the opportunity to chauffer around a Mr. Ba, who to my understanding is a high ranking official for Wanda real estate (possibly the president of their real estate in Dongying).  I had earlier met this individual in Dongying and from various discussions with a one time friend was told that he was a multimillionaire who operated a real estate business in China.  As many of you know (or should know) one of the basic tenants of communism as prescribed by Marx is the outlawing of private property ownership (likewise a tenant in UN agenda 21).  Thus, in actuality all properties are more or less leased in the vassal slave state.  I also believe that is why everything is so dirty and people don’t bother to maintain the property they live on over there.

As I further my digression it just so happens that I had the opportunity to walk past one of the gem communities built by Ba**.  It was a gated community where houses were isolated by a canal system (prevalent in Dongying) with entry through a large bridge that was supposed to look like a medieval entrance to a castle (this will ultimately lead to more digression of my part).***  In any event, I was told that houses in this division sold for 1 million or more US dollars.  Thinking back to the high quality workmanship of Chinese builders (yes this is sarcasm)*** and the overall filthiness of the surroundings I thought to myself who in their right mind would spend so much money to live there?  My one time friend, also a supposed friend of Mr. Ba told me that Ba was an idiot for designing the community in such an arrangement.  It was retarded not only due to the stink that the canal no doubt would bring but as I realized immediately one way in, one way out is a death trap.  Of course this leads to yet another digression in that the building (top most picture) my one time friend supposedly owned in Dongying was multi-floored with a single staircase, no elevator, and no alternative escape routes in case of fire (let alone no sprinkler system).  But I guess that is no surprise seeing that the hotel I stayed in had no fourth floor due to superstition of the number (2nd picture top).

So anyway, Mr. Ba accompanied my ex-girlfriend’s mother (who hated me since I am a white man) and I got to spend a great deal of quality time with the two of them.  Ba (being the smart individual he is) tried to set up the usual animosity**** between me and my one time friend; however, unbeknownst to Mr. Ba I knew of it right away and my ex-girlfriend and I pretended to have potential interest in his plans (which were to circumvent my one time friend on business related matters).  It was during one of these discussions that Ba asked me how do people succeed here in the US?  Although I didn’t say this at the time (due to the long translation it would require {even though he knew a lot of English and pretended to be ignorant}) I wanted to comment that in today’s world things in the US are primarily done by who you know and not what you know.  Furthermore, the problem is that true free-market capitalism that once made this country great no longer existed and that was one of the main reasons why the country was going to hell in a hand basket.  Instead I told Ba that things were accomplished by making a product or having a service that was superior to others and therefore in demand and that through hard work you could advance yourself.  Of course his response was more or less laughter which I would expect from a communist elitist where people advance through connections and not by talent (with the fascist form of capitalism here in the US not lagging far behind).

What caught my eye recently was the fact that the Chinese (either to influence US media and propagandize how wonderful their country is or to simply dump worthless dollars) bought the movie chain AMC.  The buyer?  Wanda Group, the same company Ba was tied into.  When I told this to a friend of mine he like many others didn’t see the inherent danger that such things bring.  More so ever, he like many ignorant Americans do not realize the true hatred many of these people possess against the US and how a large number are chomping at the bit to overtake and destroy the country (I know this first hand).  Still, another digression is required.  During his stay I noticed who Ba was and what he was about.  He is a soulless individual like so many others from his country (mainly the well to do ones)***** where his primary driver was money.  This man had no real life and is symptomatic of the plaque infecting society as a whole; that is, greed…

Footnotes:

* Mordeth 13 had warned me about dating Chinese, especially those from the mainland; however, I stupidly did not heed his warning.

** Well, not built by him specifically as my guess is he never did a single day of physical labor in his life.

*** My ex-girlfriend’s parents were supposedly traditional Chinese.  The thing that always blows my mind (despite their overt racism to all ethnic groups except mainland Chinese) is the fact that China really has no culture of its own.  What I mean by that is the Chinese have adopted so many facets of western culture it is unreal.  For example, clothing, jewelry, perfume, foodstuffs, automobiles you name it not one is derived from Chinese culture.  So, it didn’t surprise me that the architecture for the bridge was stolen from western culture as well.  Another comment I have to add here is that in some cities(e.g. Wuhan) buildings are quite nice and fit and form is good.  One of the main problems with Chinese builders is lack of attention to detail.  Large gaps in windows, doors, molding and so forth are not uncommon.

**** Chinese are some of the most manipulative, and evil people I have seen (I thought Americans were bad).  A common game among Chinese is called Three Kingdom Killers Game where players more or less try to build an empire through various nefarious methods.  This gives you an idea of the mentality of these people.  Unfortunately for my one time friend, Ba and his other cohorts in Dongying did not hold my one time friend in high regard.  One thing that they found interesting was his proclivity for cheating on his spouse during his numerous trips to China.  But knowledge of his weaknesses were used to manipulate him to their advantage (such great players of Three Kingdoms Killers Game).

***** I have to say that from my experience the lowest working class people of China are the most human like and least greedy that I have known anywhere (see picture below).  Many of these people are caught in the system as pawns and serfs and it is a sad situation to see first hand…

Some months ago we conducted follow-up studies on the trimethylchlorosilane(TMSCl)/methylaluminoxane(MAO)/2,4,4-trimethyl-1-pentene (TMP) modeling reaction, this time using ²⁹Si NMR spectroscopy.  ¹H NMR appeared to support addition of silicenium ion to TMP; however, ²⁹Si showed that instead silyl halide undergoes ligand exchange type reactions with MAO and that polymerization is initiated in an ill-defined manner by this process.  Our group will be submitting a paper on this soon and the purpose of this announcement is to alert the reader to the fact that the chemistry described previously for this initiator system is incorrect.

Peewee's standards

I wanted to take a moment and write about Peewee’s environmental diagnostic laboratory (EDL).  For of those of you who haven’t had the unpleasant experience of meeting Peewee count yourself lucky.  Peewee is one of two people in the New River Valley area whom I’ve never heard a single person say anything good about them (the other is a guy by the name of Joe who runs a research center locally).  In any event, I don’t want to drone on how terrible Peewee is.  This particular blog post is for the amusement of the many people who I have befriended over the years that have jumped ship and left employment at Peewee’s company (in addition to those unfortunate souls still trapped there).

For those of you who don’t know, I use to rent laboratory space from Peewee; however, the rent slowly became too rich for my blood.  In his ever so gracious nature, Peewee offered me an option that was supposed to be to my benefit.  That is, I could use part of Peewee’s EDL space and through consolidation (i.e. downsizing) my rental fee would be more palatable.  As it turns out, nobody wanted to work in Peewee’s EDL (or for Peewee, period) so over the years it continually shrank in size both in terms of people and projects.

In any event, after spending a few weeks in Peewee’s EDL (while waiting for Peewee to get his company reinstated with the VA SCC as well as deliver a lease agreement) I noticed some interesting things that made me really begin to wonder how is it that Virginia is so stupid as to hire Peewee to do anything lab-wise?  For example, I found it quite interesting that volumetric flasks containing stock solutions used in tests (I’m guessing standardized by the EPA?) were sealed with glass stoppers with a sliver of tissue paper wedged between the stopper and the ground joint (see above)!  I’m guessing they should be better termed “variable standardized solutions” seeing that not only would volatile titrants evaporate but so would the solvent (i.e. water).  Possibly this sort of chemistry does not require accurate knowledge of things like concentration?  More likely, this is a new science that is standard for those with ABT or EBD designators in place of a real degree abbreviation.  I also found it amusing that the acid storage cabinetry for the base cabinet of the fume hood had a flammables sticker (see below) slapped across it when indeed it is not rated for flammables.  Despite my pointing this obvious fact out I was dismissed (by the god Peewee) as not knowing what I was talking about.  I could go on about how the EDL hood lacks any lab scaffolding, didn’t have water service and was missing access panels (covered originally with trash bags) but why digress?  The sales rep for the manufacturer of this hood chuckled when I called in context to replacements for the latter stating that the model in question hadn’t been made for almost 30 years.

The last straw for me was once a lease agreement was delivered not only did I discover that use and storage of reagents in Peewee’s EDL was forbidden but that large swaths of space that were supposed to be occupied by my company were actually not included in the lease CAD figure.  According to Peewee, a chemical consulting and R&D for hire operation (like the one I run) doesn’t need chemicals to do business.  Hmm, maybe I missed out on something by getting a Ph.D. instead of an ABT or EBD?   Moreover, I also was required (by the lease) to undergo laboratory training from the EDL manager.  In passing conversations where the manager was ignorant of what abbreviations like NMR stood for (and my casual observations of various things in the EDL) I realized that despite the entertainment value that such training would provide in the end it would be a royal waste of my time.  Next time around I’ll have to see if the EDL manager (former DEQ) can teach me how to insert tissue into ground joints without having it fall into the variable concentration (aka standardized) stock solution…

Well, finally I am writing about something that is a consumer product and not beating the scientific horse to death.  My father was nice enough to purchase one of these units for me about 1 year ago.  At the time I was dating the daughter of the mayor of a city in Shandong province China and I was getting ready to relocate my life there.  Water is an essential (of course) and all of the water I’ve ever had in China is horrible.  So my intention was to use this unit to purify water for my personal use.  In any event, the racism so prevalent in China surfaced its head and through a series of what appeared as misfortunes (which in reality could turn into blessings), many which arose because I’m a white male, I decided to not move.  So there was a delay in using the unit as I was drinking water filtered through a refrigerator (which was potable but not much more).  Finally in 2012 I broke this bad boy out (see above) and after discarding the first couple aliquots of water was pleasantly surprised to see just how good it tasted.  It turned the crappy city water that tastes almost like swimming pool water into high quality water (the type you actually want to drink over other beverages like pop or event bottle water).

According to Berkey^® this unit can purify stagnant pond water.  I fit my unit with the alumina columns to remove fluoride as it is something your body simply doesn’t need (another poison) although they do potentially add soluble alumina to your water (in very minute quantities though).  At the time the only complaint I could possibly have had was that filtration is slow (especially on one filter).  If you drink a lot of water fill the top reservoir with water all the way to the top (if using one filter set) because by the time night rolls around you will find you’ve drank the bulk of that.  With two filters I suggest you fill the reservoir half way in the morning and half way at night.  One other thing to keep note of is for non-chemists hydration of alumina is an exothermic process.  I recall seeing some mention of this in the literature that came with the unit but you do not want the initial first 10-25 mL of effluent water coming out of the end of the alumina column to contact you as it is quite hot (yes I accidently {just barely} got a little taste of that while trying to charge the filter).  That might be the only other drawback, priming filters; however, with time they self-prime themselves if you place a column of water on top of them in the top chamber.

Unfortunately, the black filters (which are some sort of microporous {in actuality maybe in the Angstrom region pore size wise} ceramic) of my unit had some issues.  My guess is it is not an isolated incident because I noticed Berkey^® implemented new return instructions not long after the first of two black filters delaminated from its plastic base (see below).  I sent it back and got a replacement which worked fine; however, when I installed it the second (of the two original) black filter decided to laminate.  So that got sent back and the replacement is on its way.  It would appear that the adhesive (which looks to be a hot melt type) was out of spec and just didn’t have sufficient tack to do its job.  I covered the empty filter slot with clear packaging tape which allowed me to use one filter.  One thing I do have to say on the behalf of Berkey^® is that they seemed to acknowledge the defects were their fault and they even cut me slack on the warranty seeing that I had the unit in my possession for ½ a year and never started using it until 2012.

So right now I would definitely suggest this unit to people.  It makes absolutely great tasting water, free of all sorts of heavy metals, toxic halides (e.g. F^–), pathogens and so forth.  This water is a good start to making great coffee and in critical food applications I would highly suggest it as well.  Should anything change my outlook on this product I will alert the reader in future posts.

Manufacturer Made a Boo Boo