Re: H,He;Li,Be,B,C,N,O,F,Ne;Na,Mg,Al,Si,P,S,Cl,A

Post #20,785 by wharris2 12/8/01 2:43:26 PM Reply	Re: H,He;Li,Be,B,C,N,O,F,Ne;Na,Mg,Al,Si,P,S,Cl,A Ah, fond memories of Mr. Kruse. (my high school chemistry teacher.) He gave us the local college's final exam and most of us passed it. :=) He bitched about that; was going to apply a state college exam the next year. His class was the last time I ever used a slide rule, the next year they were all using TI-94's. Valences... pity I had to go to Google and refresh my memory. Why O2 is stable and O3 isn't. "Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it." -- Donald Knuth
Post #20,794 by Ashton 12/8/01 6:58:54 PM Reply	Well, ya got the basics at least. That's comforting, a bit. I suspect that the key to beginning to appreciate the beauty of 'chemistry' prolly begins with several hours of (brilliant!) lectures, demos of - the Periodic Chart; how prescient was Mendeleev - the chart even predicting the [holes]: missing elments! IIRC #43 called (uninspiredly) Technetium (Tc) was the first one as verified the correctness of the model. The valence numbers would appeal to a numerologist's heart too, the series 2:8:18.. describing and explaining how the shells of electrons are filled. Everything around us (that we think we 'see') derives from these few magical relationships. Sad when a new group gets their driving licenses (after which.. most thought ceases? for a lengthy period) before - grokking this stuff. Anyway.. there have been some great Showmen around. One comes to mind - he would dress in the costume of the period (of some great Chemist, Physicist) and do a demo lecture - to give the flavor of what was known/ not yet known, and how they reasoned about his New Theory (and rejected and dissected) etc. Methinks that great ideas deserve great theatre: folks remember and generate that Interest essential for moving further. Bland techno-texts cannot catalyze this - only great teachers. The Biznesss Model ever believes: a spreadsheet can measure anything 'important'. And currently: These pipsqueaks Rule all life on the planet. {sigh} Ashton Hell, mere brain chemistry explains autistic Billy! - and look at what He's brought us (to). Now as to Ashcroft's brain chemistry? Think: Control.. of All. As raison d'etre.
Post #20,806 by ben_tilly 12/8/01 9:52:16 PM Reply	Don't be so pessimistic You keep on thinking that people who think that all which can be measured is to be found in spreadsheets control everything. Not so! They merely control everything which can be easily recorded in spreadsheets. As none of friendship, knowledge, or conversation are describable in spreadsheets, they control none of them. In fact your judgement of the value of what they do control is strongly dependent upon how much you share their values. Do you care about pieces of paper that say people have learned things? Then they are big and powerful, they run universities! Do you care about sitting down and having a fascinating conversation where you learn a lot? Then relax. They don't know what that is, and will fail in taking that away. Cheers, Ben
Post #20,815 by Ashton 12/9/01 1:07:04 AM Reply	If you say so. Quite true. In splendid metaphysical isolation. On that scale: nothing here matters except as a play to be transcended. Then relax. They don't know what that is, and will fail in taking that away. They thought that in 1933 in the great German Universities too, as Hitler became Chancellor. Ignore these thugs; they don't know what we're about and will leave us alone... I can quite ignore the trends all around, too. 'They' haven't come for me yet, either! Comfort is a serious drug: don't OD on it. Ashton

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