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The Universal Solvent
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Ideas & Questions
- Hits: 56
I haven't abandoned my interest in chemistry, just finding different ways of expressing it. And as over the winter I'd developed an interest in crystal growing, what with the lab-grown diamonds and other gems (most of which one way or another we've found means to synthesize, I merely want the high pressure environment and a few tens of thousands of dollars equipment. Actually, sapphires and rubies can be done with reasonably basic chemistry, it's the other gems that need the high pressure chemistry).
Anyways, looking at solvents, the problem with using water as a solvent (called the universal solvent, because it dissolves more substances than anything) is that crystals produced this way also tend to dissolve in water. It's ease and universality are also it's downfall.
Then there's Alkahest, a theoretical universal solvent first conceived by Paracelsus, which you can read about here:
Link: Wiki on Alkahest
That's a gold mine of a link that can take you any number of directions.
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Of course, smarter than me, you've already figured it out. There can be no such thing as a universal solvent, it would by it's nature dissolve the containers that were used in it's manufacture, the beakers and test tubes, stir sticks, the floor, and it would keep on dissolving until it's essence were used up...
***
But in fact there is a Universal Solvent, one so obvious nobody, not even Paracelsus conceived it.
Time. And it never runs out and devours all things...
The 1.38 Billion $$$ Powerball
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
- Hits: 44
And Cathy, coming home from the US, and I'm telling her to pick up a PowerBall Ticket. In Oregon, she'll be passing through. And I tell her my lucky numbers: 3 - the multiplier, then 9 (because it's 3X3 and the month that both Bilbo and Frodo Baggins were born), and then, what the heck there's an eclipse coming so let's do that again, 27 (9X3), 22, because it's both Bilbo and Frodo birthdays, and 44, because its double 22, and 52 for the weeks in the year and 69 because, hell, everyone loves that number.
Grilling her, now she's back, did she get my lucky ticket? And yeah, but she did the quick pick in Idaho not Oregon and I'm like "CAAAAAATTTTHHHHHYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!".
I'm quite literally the world's best numerologist and yet nobody believes me ... but lemme tell you, that jackpot woulda helped.
The Ghost Passengers of Japan
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Ideas & Questions
- Hits: 45
I can find no reputable news sites to link to for this, so you'll have to do your own research.
But a curious tale nonetheless. First reported in 2016, the lede is that after the 2011 Tsunami that hit Japan, in which some 16, 000 people were killed/disappeared, Taxi Drivers started getting "Ghost Passengers", people who needed a ride home, usually from the zone of disaster, only to disappear before being dropped off. Some 7% (Skepticism is healthy!!!) of Taxi Drivers reported this. If indeed this is a real story (and in some ways I believe it is) than you could safely presume that number to be a great deal higher. Most people prefer to keep tales like this to themselves.
In any event, a curious look at how collective trauma and grief imprint itself upon our collective consciousness, and how we might deal with it. IN this there are echo's of "The Vanishing Hitch Hiker", wherein a driver picks up a hitchh-hiker only to have him or her disappear before they get home. This is often followed by the driver confirming the circumstances of the disappearance or tragedy by checking with the address given them by the passenger.
Everyone loves a good ghost story, and so you can see how this grew legs. And, who knows? Maybe there's something to it...
The Pursuit of Happiness
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
- Hits: 37
You see this everywhere, everyone looking for what they can't have.
The problem, is of course, in the question. When there's no ready answer you need to think it through and come up with a better question. The question is better asked "What can I do to improve the world", and, understanding your own unique skills find a way to contribute them to the general well being of the both your community and the world.
There are other things that rather follow naturally from this, such as exposing oneself to new ideas, art, people and culture, to forge meaningful and hopefully lasting relationships, and to - very hopefully, find one's "tribe" in an increasingly fractured and diverse world. But start at the beginning and you'd be surprised at how things start falling into place...
I just saved you $20 bucks on some lame-assed bestseller, and 3-4 hours reading 50-100, 000 words of drivel that would try and tell you the same thing.
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