Comments on: Making Things Go Boom

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 04:27:45 +0000

They talk about the distinctive odor of this stuff. If it’s anything like making an ester, it is beyond “distinctive”. The end product esters might be used in flavoring and perfumes, but the intermediate odor could gag a maggot.

We made some in high school chemistry, and we did it inside the hood with the ventilation going full blast, all of the windows open, everyone wearing masks, and Vicks Vaporub on our upper lips. Half the class lost lunch. That is some foul stuff.

I can’t believe they don’t use the detectors that are readily available to spot this stuff. It would speed things up and make life much easier.

By: Steve Bates

Steve Bates — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 02:48:55 +0000

Oh, and TinyMCE is constantly in flux. I reported a bug once; it was a genuine bug, but by the time they addressed it, I was being afflicted by another. Web 2.0 stuff is dicey at best; the SourceForge TinyMCE group does it about as well as anyone, but when you look at the tools and then think of the task, it’s like the proverbial talking dog.

With most software, you don’t have to mix anything; it goes “boom” of its own accord.

By: Steve Bates

Steve Bates — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 02:42:41 +0000

On the other hand, I actually did almost poison myself once by using two cleaning products I thought were compatible. Fortunately, I knew almost immediately what had happened, and cleared out right away. File it in the category labeled “when bright people do stupid things.”

By: Bryan

Bryan — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 22:42:24 +0000

If you really get to know a chemist, you would be terrified of the cleaning aisle of a grocery store and the lawn and garden section of a hardware store. I had a friend whose job was safety and he was really annoying when he visited my place trying to convince me to move all of my cleaning supplies around so certain things couldn’t accidentally mix. He was well intentioned, but I really didn’t need anything else to worry about.

Yes, they can be dangerous, but but the drunk in the pick-up who continues to drive after they pull his license is a bigger threat.

By: andante

andante — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 20:38:42 +0000

Oh, crap. I use generic brand bleach to clean the toilet.

I suppose we’ll have to start digging trench latrines. Or is quick-lime on the list of dangerous terrorist substances?

By: Bryan

Bryan — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 19:37:29 +0000

Clorox and anything with ammonia releases chlorine gas which is bad enough, but chlorine can combine with ammonia to produce an explosive compound.

I don’t keep ammonia in any form around the house because it is just too easy to have problems.

Swimming pool chemicals tend to be heavy on chlorine compounds and they can mix with natural gas to produce some nasty surprises, which is why you should only use them in well ventilated areas, which air conditioned Florida homes aren’t.

There will be another round of “nannyism” coming, and I preferred mine when it was for the health of the planet, rather than the Republican party.

By: John B.

John B. — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 17:44:18 +0000

Bryan,

Remember that news story a few months back about the old couple in So. Fla. who blew up their home while trying to mix pool chemicals in the kitchen? They could have been working for the terrorists, too, don’tcha think? Jesus! Homeland Security’s gotta ban swimming pools, now, and maybe showers, too.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 14:34:22 +0000

I always enter links manually, Steve, the key is saving twice. If you save twice it corrects itself apparently.

Links are fixed.

Thanks, Andante, that’s the one.

By: andante

andante — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 13:25:34 +0000

Maybe this will help - Flying Toilet Terror Labs

By: Steve Bates

Steve Bates — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 12:03:52 +0000

Links to articles are broken in this and the Oops post. It appears that you typed A HREF, and TinyMCE changed it to A XHREF. It apparently happened because you typed a link manually into the TinyMCE editor, rather than going through the editor's controls. Here's the WordPress trouble ticket resolution on the subject:

* status changed from new to closed. * resolution set to wontfix. TinyMCE uses xhref as a temporary attribute in order to work around a Mozilla bug. If there is realistic scenario where this causes a problem to a WordPress user, reopen. Otherwise, please submit your bug report to the TinyMCE project at Sourceforge.

I guess that means "don't type explicit links manually into the rich text editor." Feel free to delete this comment when you've fixed the links.