Slashdot Mirror
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.'"
post it on slashdot?
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
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...
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.
—Men in Black
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
I don't this this science stuff is going to be a problem
Apparently that grammar stuff isn't a problem anymore right now.
An Erlenmeyer Flask? Are they kidding? I used to have one as a flower vase! Thank goodness I live in MA. Oh. Wait.
An armed man can mix whatever chemicals he damn well pleases.
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.
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...
I'm a chemistry,
Are you, now. I'm a skepticism.
sudo ergo sum