Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

The desire to stay informed is directly at odds with the need to not be constantly enraged.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Washington Post Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

American history and black history cannot be separated.

Dear elected officials: Trump is temporary, dishonor is forever.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

The arc of the moral universe does not bend itself. it is up to us to bend it.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Happy Mole Day!

Happy Mole Day!

by | 159 Comments

This post is in: ,

Yo! Avogadro fans!

Today is our day!

I’m a little late getting this post up, as Mole Day ends at 6:02 p.m

Remember:  that equal number of molecules of a gas occupy equal volumes under the same temperature and pressure is not just a good idea.

IT’S THE LAW.

…for which insight Amadeo Avogadro received the honor of having his name attached to the number of molecules that make up one mole of a substance, a number set by convention as the number of carbon 12 atoms that add up to 12 grams of the substance. That number:  6.02*10^23.  Hence, Mole Day, running from 6:02 a.m. to 6:02 p.m on 10/23.

In Avogadro’s honor, a tune:

–
Geek out, my friends, and discuss whatever amongst yourselves.

Reader Interactions

159Comments

  1. 1.

    gene108

    So the rest of the world that uses a DD/MM/YYYY format are left without the ability to honor Mr. Avodagro today.

    USA! USA! USA!

  3. 3.

    Mike J

    @gene108: ISO 8601 is YYYY-MM-DD It’s the easiest format to sort on. For the sake of convenience, and for things that recur every year, we often drop the YYYY,

  4. 4.

    Sad_Dem

    The Freedom Caucus has pledged to repeal Avogadro’s law as furrin sounding and against constitutional principles.

  5. 5.

    Mary G

    I remember not understanding that very well in organic chemistry class, and I still don’t, really.

  6. 6.

    gene108

    The post also makes me sad, because it reminds me I have forgotten so much science I once knew.

  8. 8.

    Ultraviolet Thunder

    @Mike J:

    As a programmer who worked on mainframe Y2K remediation I will write dates as YYYYMMDD for he rest of my life, without fail.
    And nothing can make me stop.

  9. 9.

    Roger Moore

    @Mike J:

    ISO 8601 is YYYY-MM-DD It’s the easiest format to sort on.

    It can also be easily extended to include HH:MM:SS, which lets you sort further in strict chronological order. That’s the advantage of being big-endian.

    ETA: I think that a number of Asian countries use the ISO 8601 dates as their standard rather than DD/MM/YYYY (or DD-MMM-YYYY, with the month written as a three letter abbreviation, which is also common).

  11. 11.

    gene108

    @gene108:

    So the rest of the world that uses a DD/MM/YYYY format are left without the ability to honor Mr. Avodagro today.

    I read on Wikipedia that they have Mol Day on 6 February, i.e. 06.02

  16. 16.

    Not That Guy

    ISO 8601 is YYYY-MM-DD It’s the easiest format to sort on.

    We had an application that created lots of files, and the creation date was part of the file name, as a convenience to the users (there were a lot of files). The client made us change the naming of files to be MM/DD/YYYY. When we pointed out that this would cause them to sort in strange and annoying ways, he said “I don’t care. This is America, and that’s how we write dates.”

    Probably a Republican.

  18. 18.

    Tommy

    Had to search what Mole Day was:

    Celebrated annually on October 23 from 6:02 a.m. to 6:02 p.m., Mole Day commemorates Avogadro’s Number (6.02 x 1023), which is a basic measuring unit in chemistry. Mole Day was created as a way to foster interest in chemistry. Schools throughout the United States and around the world celebrate Mole Day with various activities related to chemistry and/or moles.

    For a given molecule, one mole is a mass (in grams) whose number is equal to the molar mass of the molecule. For example, the water molecule has an molar mass of 18, therefore one mole of water weighs 18 grams. Similarly, a mole of neon has a molar mass of 20 grams. In general, one mole of any substance contains Avogadro’s Number of molecules or atoms of that substance. This relationship was first discovered by Amadeo Avogadro (1776-1858) and he received credit for this after his death.

    Made me think a little. Why I like to come here. I did not know this. I feel a little better I do.

  25. 25.

    max

    That number: 6.02*10^23.

    Tsk. It’s 6.022140857×10^23. Said constant I could never remember worth a damn for Chemistry class. Speed of light? No problem. Pi? No sweat.

    ‘So what’s Avogadro’s number?’
    ‘Isn’t fucking six something or other?’
    ‘You Have To Know This For The Exam!’
    ‘I can’t even remember how to spell the guy’s name right.’
    ‘What?
    ‘Euclid! Pythagoras! Ptolemy! Hypatia! Fermat! Euler! LeGrange! No sweat. And this guy is …. Aahgadro…crap…Avadro…crap…Amagado…Amadeus…fuck it…Avocado! Guacamole!’

    max
    [‘I hate that guy’s name.’]

  28. 28.

    Linda Featheringill

    LOL!

    Loved the entire thread! I was familiar with Avogadro [TMI?] but didn’t know that he had a special day.

    Happy day, Amedeo.

    :-)

  31. 31.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Southern Beale: It’s about the mole, a measure of “amount of stuff” that is big enough that you can measure it with simple lab equipment, but is scaled to how massive the molecules or atoms are.

    So a mole of some homogeneous substance should always be the same number of atoms or molecules (or roughly analogous “formula units”, for things like salts where speaking of molecules is not strictly accurate).

    And that number is Avogadro’s number. It’s a big number.

    It’s important in chemistry, since, among other things, the amount of stuff you have in moles is related to the amount of some chemical reaction it can do.

  33. 33.

    realbtl

    So that’s why I got a sudden craving for chicken mole and threw in a batch in the crock last night. It was yummy for dinner today and then I come upon this thread. Scary.

  34. 34.

    Brachiator

    Open thread, eh?

    Oh Carol, don’t let them take your name away.

    In the UK and Wales, the name Carol is nearly becoming extinct.

    11 girls names about to go extinct – including Debbie, Donna and Carol

    The names Carol and Annette could soon be history as no parents gave their children these monikers last year, according to Office of National Statistics data.

    Both Carol and Annette were in the top 100 baby names for girls in 1964, but disappeared entirely from the 2014 list.

    Other names that are losing popularity include Sandra, Susan and Denise.

    It comes after a set of parents named their newborn son Gary, in a bid to bring the name back into fashion. Only 33 baby boys were named Gary in 2014.

    This has led Prince Charles to run screaming to his momma. “Please let me be king soon!! **

    http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/11-baby-girl-names-about-to-go-extinct-a6702916.html

    ** Carol is the feminine of “Carolus,” Charles

  35. 35.

    SRW1

    When I think of one mole of substance I prefer 18 ml of water over 12 g of carbon. Cause when you gulp a pint of beverage that reminds you just what resource hogs humans really are.

    Also too: 18 ml of the liquid form corresponds to about 55 liters in the gaseous phase. Gives me the vapors.

  36. 36.

    Arm The Homeless

    @Ultraviolet Thunder:

    I will never forget being really stoned, watching the streetlight until 12:05, wondering if we had enough chips for the end of civilization. The rest of the night was fairly blurry.

    My thanks for your service to your fellow man.

  37. 37.

    Roger Moore

    @Tommy:
    That’s a bad, circular description of a mole. The simple explanation is that a mole is just a number, so that a mole of something is that many of them. We define that number, Avogadro’s number, to be the number of atoms in 12 grams of pure carbon-12 (the isotope of carbon with 6 protons and 6 neutrons), and it winds up being approximately 6.02 x 10**23. So if you have Avogadro’s number of anything- atoms, molecules, or moles– you have a mole of it.

    There is actually now a serious discussion about changing the way we define the kilogram to make this a bit more sensible. Right now, the kilogram is defined in terms of a unique physical object, a cylinder of platinum/iridium alloy kept in Paris; it’s the only one of our basic units that’s defined that way rather than in terms of some physical measurement that can theoretically be carried out anywhere. The goal is to redefine the kilogram in terms of a new reference object- a sphere of ultra-pure, isotopically enriched silicon- that can be measured precisely enough that we can define exactly the number of each kind of atom in it. That would then effectively redefine the mole from being the number of atoms of 12C in 12 grams to being some specific number, and the kilogram from being a unique physical object to being a specific number of moles of specific silicon isotopes.

  39. 39.

    dmsilev

    Remember: that equal number of molecules of a gas occupy equal volumes under the same temperature and pressure is not just a good idea.

    IT’S THE LAW.

    Ideally.

    Of course, if that temperature is sufficiently low or the pressure is sufficiently high, there are …loopholes.

  43. 43.

    scav

    Mole^3
    A mole of moles eating mole would occupy what volume?
    Extra credit: include napkins in calculations.

  45. 45.

    SiubhanDuinne

    O/T, but this is sad news for anyone who follows Booman: his brother died unexpectedly yesterday afternoon.

    http://www.boomantribune.com

    I have never yet been able to figure out how to comment on his blog, although clearly it is possible, but if I could, I’d send him condolences. RIP, Martin’s brother.

  47. 47.

    Baud

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    That sucks. You need an account to comment there. I used to post the occasional comment, but haven’t done it in a while. Glad to hear he’s with family.

  49. 49.

    dmsilev

    @Roger Moore: Thhhhbbbbt.

    Anyway, I mainly deal with micromoles (the numerical quantity, not the result of some twisted and rather confused genetic engineering, which is kind of a pity really).

  53. 53.

    David Koch

    With Webb and Chaffee dropping Hillary’s only competitors are Sanders and Baud.

    Thats going to be one hellva 3-way debate in November

  56. 56.

    David Koch

    Quinnipiac Poll — Iowa Oct 14-20 (Sept numbers in parentheses)

    Clinton………………51% (40)
    Sanders…………….40% (41)

    Sanders leads Clinton 51 – 39 percent among men, while Clinton leads Sanders 59 – 33 percent among women.

    favorability ratings, 82 – 16 percent for Clinton and 83 – 8 percent for Sanders

    Iowa Caucus participants who watched or listened to the debate scored it 2 – 1 for the former Secretary of State

    Two take aways:

    1. Sanders’ supporters have always insisted his numbers would grow when he gained more name I.D. His name I.D. is now at 91%

    2. Sanders supporters say all the polls saying Hillary won the debate are skewed because they’re not limited to only people who watched the debate. In this poll, Q limited the question to only debate watchers and Clinton still won by a 2 to 1 margin, just like in the other polls.

  59. 59.

    dmsilev

    @schrodinger’s cat: We’re moved, but we’re still setting up (target for being done is early January). Re: micromoles, the cryostats I use work by circulating a special fluid mixture[*] around in a loop, and the temperature you can reach is largely determined by how many micromoles/second your pumps can push. Along with things like heat exchanger efficiency and other practical annoyances.

    [*] a combination of ordinary helium and helium-3

  60. 60.

    Roger Moore

    @dmsilev:

    Anyway, I mainly deal with micromoles

    Oh, you work with big numbers. I routinely work with femtomoles down into attomoles, and with the right project, we can detect down into the high zeptomole range.

  63. 63.

    Baud

    @jl:

    Agreed. I will need to come up with a scheme so outrageous that Congress will have no choice but to investigate me.

    I will not be ignored.

  66. 66.

    srv

    Avacados are good any day, they don’t need a special day.

    A growing chorus of prominent economists and analysts are arguing those dynamics could tip the world — and the United States along with it — into recession within the next two years. The fear is showing up in the recent wild swings in financial markets, rare outside of broader economic downturns. The pace of U.S. job growth has slowed substantially compared to last year. And though the economic expansion has never quite reached many workers, it has actually lasted longer than the post-war average.

    “The global economy is uncomfortably close to the edge,” said David Stockton, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

    Is Obama setting up Trump?

  70. 70.

    dmsilev

    @Roger Moore: Basically, yeah. I’m all about mass transfer rates, the more the merrier. Or, the more the colder, which is what we’re really after. If I can push my fridge to hit 10 mK instead of 15, it’s a good day.

  72. 72.

    David Koch

    US special forces and Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga forces have carried out a daring raid on an Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group stronghold in Iraq and freed about 70 hostages facing execution, according to US defense officials.

    Thanks Obama

  76. 76.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @benw:

    No, because all of the, say, June dates, from whatever year, will sort ahead of all the July dates:

    06/20/2014
    06/23/2015
    07/03/2009
    07/20/2014

  77. 77.

    Seanly

    I was just talking about Avogadro’s Number with my wife the other day. She was wondering what the fugg I was talking about…

  78. 78.

    dmsilev

    Troller-in-Chief:

    “Overall, we’re making enormous progress,” Obama said. “And it does make you wonder, why is it that Republican politicians are so down on America? Have you noticed that? I mean, they are gloomy. They’re like Grumpy Cat.”

  79. 79.

    NotMax

    Mole Day? Once again, Secret Squirrel gets short shrift.

    BTW, Obama’s proclamation in advance of tomorrow’s United Nations Day:

    … Even as we recognize the significance of the progress that has been made, we know that grave challenges to our common security and principles risk pulling us back to a more disordered world. In meeting those threats, we must summon the spirit of unity and cooperation at the heart of the United Nations Charter — signed in 1945 by 51 countries — and rededicate ourselves in support of the United Nations. Source

  80. 80.

    Roger Moore

    @benw:

    As long as you keep the leading 0’s any order of MM/DD/YYYY still sorts chronologically right?

    No. It winds up sorting first by month, then by day, then by year, so 10/23/2015 comes before 10/24/2014.

  81. 81.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    My own mother died very unexpectedly (40 years ago this week). My dad died slowly and incrementally. I can argue the upsides and downsides for both, not that there’s a whole lot of upside (usually) to having a parent die.

    @Baud:

    Thanks for telling me about needing a Booman account to comment. I suppose it probably explains that somewhere on the site, but I’ve rarely been moved to say anything so I doubt I’ll bother. Still, I’d like him to know that he and his family have my sympathy. Putting it out there in the universe.

  83. 83.

    Roger Moore

    @dmsilev:
    OK, that makes sense. I’m doing mass spec, where we can get some pretty good sensitivity as long as stuff ionizes efficiently. We aren’t to the point where we’re actually able to measure 100% of the generated ions, but we’re getting closer than I ever thought we would.

  85. 85.

    Seanly

    @srv:

    If only governments could institute some spending programs. Like if there were significant components of our public infrastructure that could use revitilization and repair. Too bad all of our bridges, roads, dams, sewers, water systems, electrical grid, and airports are in such excellent shape that they don’t need an infusion of work worth trillions of dollars.

  87. 87.

    EthylEster

    Speaking as a former chem prof, I was always amazed at the difficulty many students had with the chemical concept of a mole.

    Dozens(=12) of things, they got. A mole (=6.02 times ten to the power of twenty three) of things, they did not get.

  88. 88.

    jl

    @Baud: They may call HRC again Nov 7. Start sending her lots of emails, that should get your named mentioned and you can work from there.

    In honor of this post, send some recipes for chicken mole tamales.

  89. 89.

    David Koch

    While Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, said earlier that Obama did not plan to meet with him, the President did speak briefly with the boy and gave him a hug.

  91. 91.

    Rising Above

    I see some of you are prematurely celebrating Jeb Bush’s announcement of campaign funding cuts.

    I have two words for you:

    Pump fake.

    That’s all this is. A good old-fashioned pump-fake. Make the opponents both in the GOP and Democrat Party overconfident, and then strike when they least expect it. Cash flow is great–this is all a PR move.

    After all, I’m still here, aren’t I?

    It’s All About the Benjamins, baby…

  94. 94.

    schrodinger's cat

    @EthylEster: Students struggle with the concept of exponents, even exponents of 10. Over reliance on calculators is making our students opposite of smart.

    ETA: I had no problems with exponents or Avogadro’s number, organic chemistry on the other hand, do not want.

  95. 95.

    jl

    @Baud:

    ” Who do you think I am? Sid Blumenthal? ”

    For Gawd’s sake, are you as bad a campaigner as Jeb??
    You need to aim for that level of infamous depravity. Absol-Fing-utely!

    The GOP ever called you a combo of Hitler/Stalin/Mao? You have a lot of ground to make up. Those are HRC’s and Sander’s nicknames by now.

    Edit: Yeesh! I want all my campaign contributions back. You can find yourself another mega-donor. I’m not sure you’re a first rate political product anymore.

  97. 97.

    some guy

    @Rising Above:

    so the Cheerios are still as fresh as the waffles at that morning complimentary breakfast at the Motel 6? Yes, good to know jeb! is keeping the most useful cogs in his machine well fed. too bad about the other 40% of the drones.

    Now that Marco is beating him on both national and Florida polling, it’s good you can keep with the stiff upper lip. you go, girl!

  98. 98.

    David Koch

    Secretary of State John Kerry and others renewed their push at a tense White House meeting on Monday to use air power to shield Syrians from the fighting, officials said.

    But advocates of a greater American role left discouraged.

    Skeptics of intervention saw no indications that Mr. Obama would reverse himself, viewing the process as mainly an exercise in due diligence.

    Thanks Obama.

    It matters who is President. Kerry and Hillary would have us knee deep in the big sandy.

    You do what you can, but it must be grounded in realty and pragmatism, and above all, don’t do stoopid shit.

    Gawd, we’re gonna miss his steady hand.

  100. 100.

    some guy

    Jeb Bush “will attend a finance meeting this weekend in Houston convened by former President George H. W. Bush and attended by Bush’s brother, former President George W. Bush,” CBS News has learned. “The session, designed to assess where Bush’s candidacy stands in the face of large-scale staff cutbacks and underwhelming poll numbers, will also be attended by Bush’s mother, Barbara Bush. The governor’s campaign confirmed the meeting will be held Sunday and Monday.”

    are those bells tolling?

  101. 101.

    PurpleGirl

    @gene108: I know what you mean. In high school I took a lot of physical science classes and in college I began as a chemistry major. (Chemistry for chemistry’s sake, not as a pre-med chemistry major as many were doing in the early 1970s.)

  102. 102.

    Baud

    @some guy:

    will also be attended by Bush’s mother, Barbara Bush

    Oh man. I cringed. Do you know how much it takes for me to feel bad for a Bush.

  104. 104.

    PurpleGirl

    @Roger Moore: I did that for file names at the non-profit I worked at. The file names began with the date and then had an abbreviation for what the item was. It meant the files sorted easily and I could tell what the item was — a letter or training materials.

  106. 106.

    jl

    @some guy: That is sad. Mommy and Daddy and Big Brother are going to convene an effing meeting to kbbitz and nitpick and generally ‘help’ poor old Jeb?.

    “Awww pa, I’m trying real hard… I really am…”

    Maybe one of the reasons Jeb?’s campaign stinks so much is that dysfunctional family is trying to pull the strings on Jeb? “my own man” Bush. How many BS rules they got for Jeb?? Don’t criticize W…. don’t rock the GOP boat… what else?

    What a sad shit show.

  107. 107.

    ruemara

    For those who care, shoot is going amazing. We’re already on the last 3 scenes of the day and I had to break the team twice for an hour or so to give the sun time to move into position. Now, off to polish off today’s scenes.

  108. 108.

    Gravenstone

    One of my co-workers today thought Mole Day to be taking things a bit too far. Or course, he just shook his head and sighed when introduced to the concept of Pi Day.

  111. 111.

    Cervantes

    Tom Levenson, you might take another look at your post (and some of the comments) to see if you want to clearly distinguish Avogadro’s number from Avogadro’s constant. Plus his name was Amedeo.

    On the other hand, it is the week-end.

    Of which have a great one!

  112. 112.

    farthestnorth

    thanks for the Mole Day info. Sent it to my chem major kid who had never heard of it but has until 6:02 to celebrate..Fortunately he’s in Alaska so he still has some time…

  114. 114.

    Gravenstone

    @Mary G: Fairly simple. One mole of a material is equal in mass (expressed in grams) equal in value to its formula weight. That was the real genius of the thing, being able to express a fixed amount of something abstract (molecules) by looking at it as something that is readily measured.

  116. 116.

    David Koch

    I saw ¿Jeb? on MSNBC and he said he’s cutting back on staff and GOTV so he can use the money for more ads.

    He really is dumber than his brother.

    Ads won’t win low turnout caucuses and primaries. You need field organization.

  118. 118.

    Josie

    @SiubhanDuinne: If you go to the home page, there is a choice on the right hand column to open an account. You fill in a name and email and they send a password to your email. Then, once you are signed in, you can click to leave comment at the end of a post.

  120. 120.

    Gravenstone

    @dmsilev: I look at things like this and just shake my head. Coldest crap I can lay hands on is just liquid nitrogen. That’s nearly tropical from your perspective.

  122. 122.

    Elizabelle

    @RSA: Yes! I was thinking of that tasty chile and chocolate dish. Viva Mexico, especially you in the path of Patricia tonight.

  123. 123.

    Josie

    @SiubhanDuinne: I hadn’t either. I wanted to send condolences so much that I kept searching and clicking on stuff until I found it. They don’t make it obvious.

  125. 125.

    dmsilev

    @Gravenstone: We use liquid nitrogen at a couple of points in the cycle. It’s used when first starting the system up to get things moderately cool, prior to cooling to 4 K with liquid helium (you could use LHe solely, but it’s much more expensive than LN2), and once we’re running, we purify our working fluid by running it through a nitrogen-cooled filter (to freeze out any air which has found its way into the loop).

  127. 127.

    David Koch

    “By any honest analysis, the first 10 months of this year have been a political disaster. Candidates need to understand this and make changes,” said one senior Republican in Washington, who frequently speaks with the Bush campaign and asked for anonymity to speak candidly about the position the candidate now finds himself in.

    “Belt tightening is one thing, but sometimes you need to change pants,” said a Republican strategist who insisted on anonymity to speak candidly.

    Mr. Bush’s low showing in the polls prompted the Fox News host Megyn Kelly to ask him Thursday night what it would take for him to get out of the race.

    Even supporters are saying he’s a disaster who crapped his pants.

  128. 128.

    farthestnorth

    don’t often agree with Barbara Bush but she is proving right in her earlier opinion that the country really does not need or want another Bush

  135. 135.

    Matt McIrvin

    @EthylEster: I think the problem is that that number is not exactly known, so the actual definition is this roundabout thing involving “a number of grams equal to the molar mass”. What is the molar mass? Well, you could say it’s the molecular mass except that we have to apply it to things that don’t have molecules, so it’s the “formula unit” mass, but what is a formula unit?, and so on and so forth, and it gets just abstract and seemingly circular enough to be confusing.

  137. 137.

    srv

    Cutting taxes and spending results in growth. Jeb is just extending this long proven truism to his campaign staff.

    There’s a reason Rise isn’t here – he was part of the bloat that was dragging Jeb’s campaign down.

    /s

  139. 139.

    Gimlet

    @srv:

    Cutting taxes and spending results in growth.

    But.. But.. the deficit, the debt!

    How can we afford a tax cut when all we’ve heard the last eight years is “The Debt”.

  140. 140.

    PurpleGirl

    Anybody else having problems playing the video? I get a message that it “can’t be played in my country”.

  141. 141.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @ruemara:

    So bringing that riding crop to the set helped?
    ;-p

    You can make yourself a little crazy with pre-production planning, but it’s better to go a little crazy before you get on the set than to try and wing it and go completely crazy *on* the set. Mazel tov!

  142. 142.

    Mike in NC

    NBC Nightly News tonight featured a segment on “A Campaign in Crisis” regarding a certain low energy, low testosterone mama’s boy.

    Why did the troll just run away?

  144. 144.

    Renie

    Just when RtR morphed into his new super-power Rising Above he gets kicked out. Oh well, guess he was thrown under the BRINKS TRUCKS.

  149. 149.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @catclub:

    There is a very, very bad monster movie called “The Killer Shrews” that stars James Best and helps explain how he later ended up on “The Dukes of Hazzard” (desperation).

    The “shrews” are all dogs in shrew masks who are *really* excited that they’re going to get more treats any minute now. They’re the happiest monsters you’ll ever see onscreen.

  150. 150.

    mclaren

    Jeb Bush “will attend a finance meeting this weekend in Houston convened by former President George H. W. Bush and attended by Bush’s brother, former President George W. Bush,” CBS News has learned. “The session, designed to assess where Bush’s candidacy stands in the face of large-scale staff cutbacks and underwhelming poll numbers, will also be attended by Bush’s mother, Barbara Bush. The governor’s campaign confirmed the meeting will be held Sunday and Monday.”

    Source: Jeb Bush hunkers down with family to assess his candidacy,” CBS News, 23 October 2015.

    The Shelob of Kennebunkport is angry. You can practically see her venom sac throb with rage. There are going to be a lot of blood-drained husks hanging by cocoons from the ceiling after that meeting.

  151. 151.

    mclaren

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone):

    “Attack of the Killer Shrews” is so bad it’s good. The “shrews” are dobermans with blankets on their backs. That 50s B movie is right up there with “Attack of the Giant Leeches,” “Earth Vs. the Spider,” and “Santa Claus Vs. the Martians.”

    And do not underestimate the 1968 classic “Mars Needs Women.” Nothing is more terrifying to an earth woman than a green-faced guy wearing a gold football helmet.

  153. 153.

    mclaren

    @David Koch:

    With Webb and Chaffee dropping Hillary’s only competitors are Sanders and Baud.

    Hahahaha! You forgot about the Spanish Inquisition.

    Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!!!

  154. 154.

    mclaren

    @gene108:

    Oh, c’mon! A mole is just 6.02 x 10 exp 23 molecules. Moles are useful because when you multiply a mole by the number of atomic mass units in a given molecule, you get the mass in grams of that amount of molecules. Hydrogen, for example, has amu of 1.0079, so a mole of hydrogen atoms masses 1.0079 grams.

    Working the other way, you can find out how many molecules there are in any given mass of a compound or element. 10 grams of hydrogen has (10/(1.0079)*6.02 x 10 exp 23) hydrogen atoms.

    Why do we care about that?

    So you can proportion amounts of chemicals properly to produce chemical reactions without having anything left over or wasted.

    Also, so you can apply the simple law pV = nRT to get changes in volume or pressure or temperature as you add or subtract the amount of gas in a mixture.

    So moles are very useful. They’re even used tangentially in molecular gastonomy, when you cook using a combi oven. Yes! Cooking involves chemistry! And it’s good to know if you want to cook gourmet meals using sous vide cookers or combi ovens.

  159. 159.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Pee Cee: It’s actually slightly odd that the SI base unit is the mole, rather than a kilomole (to be consistent with the kilogram as the fundamental mass unit).

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