Abd ul-Rahman Lomax wrote: As Bob Dylan wrote, if you ain't got nothin, you got nothin to lose. On the other hand, if the bucks start pouring in the door, hey, an attorney should get some. How likely is that? I can see the headlines:
Cold Fusion Fad Hits High Schools, Physicists Hysterical Sales of LDA Cold Fusion Kits Skyrockets after American Physical Society Issues Press Release: It's Impossible! Jed wrote: That's funny, but this is no laughing matter. There has been and continues to be serious, prolonged opposition to cold fusion. Many powerful people such as Robert Park have gone to great lengths to prevent research. They have done unethical things such as destroying people's reputations in the mass media, and firing scientists who published positive results or tried to organize or attend conferences. They have destroyed people's lives, happiness and marriages. I advise you not to play games with such people. Do nothing that will give them the opportunity to get you in trouble ... Abd ul-Rahman Lomax wrote: Consider me, Jed, a lab assistant for a kind of community consciousness that will be voiced through all the people who comment, experts and others. But I'm also independent, I'm charged with making my own decisions according to the best judgment I can muster. It's my money I'm spending at this point, though I've been offered some kind of donation or loan, I'll see what comes in the mail! Jed wrote: Amateur experiments have caused more harm than good, except for the ones conducted by high school kids at Portland State University ... I sympathize with the lawmakers trying to legislate away all of life's risks. But I think their goal is unattainable in their methods may actually increase risk. As I noted here previously, I have encountered 12-year-old children who have never used a kitchen knife to cut a watermelon because their parents and society are so protective. This does not make them safer in the long run. Abd ul-Rahman Lomax wrote: Yeah, I knew a little girl who was drastically overprotected by her father, and the mother, who had done a much better job with her earlier children, was afraid to confront him. The result? Very, very protected, ran away from home at 15, got involved with drug addicts, lived very dangerously for a few years ... ------------- This was Morris County, New Jersey. And http://radlab.nl/radsafe/archives/0002/msg00768.html contains a description of ... as a teenager, except I never did anything with radioactive materials, just some oxidizers and stuff, and when there was an hysterical report in a local newspaper recently about some kid having some thermite, I was able, from experience, to write a calming report. Abd ul-Rahman Lomax wrote: I'm in so much trouble already, what are they going to do? Put me out of my misery? ... ------------ Hi Abd, 10-30-09 I suggest that you do not sell kits to anyone under the age of 21. If anything can go wrong in high school science, sooner or later it will. One day, in the middle of a lab, a girl started screaming that her eyes were burning, although she had on eye protection. I grabbed her by the hair, dragged her to the eyewash, and washed out her eyes. Here's what happened: The students, as part of a titration experiment, were supposed to prepare standard HCl solutions. A beaker of concentrated HCl was in the hood along with a graduated cylinder. The students were supposed to pour a small amount (as per a calculation) of the concentrated HCl into the graduate and then pour the HCl into a beaker of water. No concentrated HCl was supposed to leave the hood. A student. stationed next to the victim, took the beaker of concentrated acid from the hood to her work area and set it on the lab bench, despite emphatic written and verbal instructions not to take it out of the hood. Fumes from the beaker drifted into the victim's eyes despite her goggles. Jack Smith
