Factless

The 'Witch-Children' of Akwa Ibom
By Reuben Abati, Friday, November 28, 2008
from the Guardian (Nigerian newspaper)

original editorial

Posted by mctaylor at 10:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After reading yet another story about home / amateur chemistry becoming less than welcome from government officials I have to admit I am more than mildly annoyed.

• Underground Science: Chemistry hobbyists face a labyrinth of local and state regulations (Chemical & Engineering News November 10, 2008 Volume 86, Number 45 pp. 38-40)
• Home science under attack - referring to original newspaper report (Worcester Telegram & Gazette News "Chemist allowed to go home, sans his lab" August 9, 2008)
• Don't Try This at Home (Wired 14.06, June 2006) about United Nuclear

So I'll mention some useful forums:

• HomeChemLab created by Bob Thompson, author of related book, Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments: All Lab, No Lecture
• ScienceMadness (via SSL, note self-signed SSL certificate may make some browser's cranky)
• MadSciNet - not limited to chemistry
• Rogue Science
• APC Forum - Amateur Pyrotechnics & Chemistry forums

References (for amateur/ beginner chemists):

• Readily Available Chemicals - affordable (typically) and readily available sources of chemicals, ~50% of this can be found in either grocery or a hardware store
• Household Chemistry, brief intro from supplies to lab safety
• Concise Chemitry - Prof. Krasnic's chemistry textbooks, chemistry references (contains redundant recommendations, i.e. you don't necessarily need multiple chemistry dictionaries), and chemistry books recommendations are useful for considering when looking to build your personal library but take with a grain of salt.

Posted by mctaylor at 9:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I believe I have linked to Shop Class as Soulcraft in The New Atlantis web-zine before, but I keep running across in various venues, and it is too good to miss.

Anyhow, what I really wanted to mention was a couple of very readable articles written by Jim WIlliams, a famous analog (electronics) designer at Linear Technologies, the first of which you don't need to be an electrical engineer or a geek to understand. Try fixing it yourself is as much philosophy as electronics, and I think anyone can appreciate the lesson Jim is trying to share. The second is "Tripping the light fantastic: a case study in circuit design" which although more technical is still an insightful essay on process (the good kind) and is a wonderful description of what engineering really is. You can browse more of Jim's writings at EDN, including Somthing from nothing.

While at EDN's website, and have some time to kill, or you want to see engineers in their own personal glory, peruse Tales From The Cube column which is second to reading Bob Pease's column, Pease Porridge in EDN.

Enjoy.

Posted by mctaylor at 10:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)