Don't Play With ACID SLIME

But why would you even...

I mean, what did you think...

It's just gonna...

smh...

These stand-in kings of random try acid slime a few different ways. They take slime (glue slime, not PVA) and dunk it in various acids (sulfuric, hydrochloric, muriatic - which is just hydrochloric, and sulfuric - yes, I wrote that twice). They mix the glue with the acid instead of water and try to make slime. And they mix baking soda into the slime before then putting that slime in the acids.

None of it comes out terribly exciting.

The slimes made with the acid don't work, though, because I assume the acids break down the polymers - since the polymers are just organic molecules to begin with.

Risk List 2015

I'll readily admit that I'm not 100% sure that I understand what rare earth elements are all about. While driving around on vacation, I listened to most of this On Point radio show about them, and I'm still a bit dodgy about which elements they are, why they're useful to us, and why the heck China apparently owns all of them.

What I do know, however, is that loads of politicians and talking heads say that rare earth elements are desperately important to loads of our defense and manufacturing sectors and that China apparently has the entire world of rare earth elements in the palm of their hand.

So says that 2015 Risk List, ranking the relative risks to our supply chains from disruptions in various element production.

What I do know is that we need to get us some of that there reform.

Source - http://www.bgs.ac.uk/downloads/start.cfm?id=3075 

Rare World Metals Mint

Check out Rare World Metals Mint.

They sell - and I know this will shock you - rare metals that have been minted.

Mostly they sell one troy ounce samples of rare metals in high (99%+) purity. They don't do bulk. They don't do raw. They just sell these samples for - as far as I can tell - collectors who want to have rare metal samples.

They do offer some relatively inexpensive offerings.

• a minted AVDP ounce of copper, for example, is going for $1.49 as I type this
• nickel is $3.95 per AVDP ounce
• zinc for $8.95 per troy ounce

but things go up quickly from there...

• rhenium $179 per troy ounce
• iridium $1895 per troy ounce
• palladium $58.95 per gram
• osmium $965 per troy ounce
• rhodium $3500 per troy ounce
• platinum $59.50 per 1/25 of a troy ounce

...because why not splurge if you're going to collect the good stuff?

As they write at the end of their rhodium description, "own what's rare!"

I wonder if they have a wishlist feature so I can make life easy for my loved ones this Christmas...

How It's Made Crude Oil

For a video about crude oil, the accent of the narrator seems fairly refined.

When I was teaching one of our ASM summer camps in Houston a few years back, I was lucky enough to get to go to a working (but not producing) oil rig where the management company (I really should remember their name, but it escapes me at the moment - started with a W) tested their equipment and helped troubleshoot the rigs they managed for their customers. That experience - going their even once - made the drilling of crude oil much more real for me.

The above video goes through the process of drilling and purification - though they stop short of the fractionating columns, but I have a few videos lined up for that over the new few months.