We must ban all chemicals of any kind immediately, with retrospective effect
This is a quote from an article in the NY Times:
Chemistry is one of the most holy disciplines that a man can follow. It is rigorous and unforgiving. There is only one answer, but infinite paths lead you there. Charlatans are immediately obvious. The truth is all that matters. The truth cannot be diluted or disguised. Chemistry is chemistry.
And so - phosgene is phosgene. It is nothing else, and nothing else but phosgene is phosgene. There is not, as with beer, a variety of phosgene. There is no such fucking thing as Iraqi phosgene. Phosgene does not care about such artificial constructs as Iraq. It is a stable molecule. I dunno exactly how stable, but I'd guess that its stable enough that a molecule somewhere will have outlasted Gilgamesh and fucking Saddam Hussein.
Carbonyl Chloride is its real name. It is useful in industry in making plastics. It will kill humans, however. In fact it will kill 50% of a population of humans at a concentration of 800 parts per million. You get it in your eyes, it does nothing. Much like the goggles. You get it on your skin, it does nothing. Breath it in, you're fucked. If your lung capacity is 5L, then inhaling 4 mL at a time as a gas (about the amount of smoke that fills just the filter part of a cigarette) will kill you stone dead 50% of the time and if it doesn't the next breath will. Of pulmonary edema. I'm a chemist, not a doctor, but I think pulmonary edema sucks. Blood comes out your lungs till you die, or something.
The common name comes from the fact that it was first synthesized by exposing a mixture of carbon monoxide (what comes out of your car exhaust) and chlorine (green gas you get from fucking with pool chemicals) to sunlight (light that comes from the sun). It is not hard to make. It is so easy to make that an Iraqi could do it. An American could do it. Even a journalist working at the New York Times could do it.
"made of carbon monoxide and chlorine"! Makes it sound like fucking Lego. Put them in a bowl and mix them. Bah. It's not like baking fucking cookies. You need to break bonds and move electrons. Its easy to do but it isn't simple. Its art.
Anyway, I don't know why the fuss. You're allowed to have up to 500 pounds of the shit if you want. What they found in NY was the size of a coke can. You don't even have to tell anybody in post 9/11 NY that you've released any amount up to 10 pounds. And its not like it was smuggled in by tearists. Fucking weapons inspectors put it there 11 years ago. Dickheads. Phosgene eats metal, unless its gold or platinum and other rare and fabulous substances.
Chemistry has a similar power over the muggle mind to The Law. Some malign force that comes into your life and fucks your shit up and there's not a goddamn thing you can do about it cause its The Law. You're in more danger from dickheads than you are from chemicals or The Law. Stay away from dickheads.
... Iraqi phosgene, a volatile, highly poisonous chemical made of carbon monoxide and chlorine...
Chemistry is one of the most holy disciplines that a man can follow. It is rigorous and unforgiving. There is only one answer, but infinite paths lead you there. Charlatans are immediately obvious. The truth is all that matters. The truth cannot be diluted or disguised. Chemistry is chemistry.
And so - phosgene is phosgene. It is nothing else, and nothing else but phosgene is phosgene. There is not, as with beer, a variety of phosgene. There is no such fucking thing as Iraqi phosgene. Phosgene does not care about such artificial constructs as Iraq. It is a stable molecule. I dunno exactly how stable, but I'd guess that its stable enough that a molecule somewhere will have outlasted Gilgamesh and fucking Saddam Hussein.
Carbonyl Chloride is its real name. It is useful in industry in making plastics. It will kill humans, however. In fact it will kill 50% of a population of humans at a concentration of 800 parts per million. You get it in your eyes, it does nothing. Much like the goggles. You get it on your skin, it does nothing. Breath it in, you're fucked. If your lung capacity is 5L, then inhaling 4 mL at a time as a gas (about the amount of smoke that fills just the filter part of a cigarette) will kill you stone dead 50% of the time and if it doesn't the next breath will. Of pulmonary edema. I'm a chemist, not a doctor, but I think pulmonary edema sucks. Blood comes out your lungs till you die, or something.
The common name comes from the fact that it was first synthesized by exposing a mixture of carbon monoxide (what comes out of your car exhaust) and chlorine (green gas you get from fucking with pool chemicals) to sunlight (light that comes from the sun). It is not hard to make. It is so easy to make that an Iraqi could do it. An American could do it. Even a journalist working at the New York Times could do it.
"made of carbon monoxide and chlorine"! Makes it sound like fucking Lego. Put them in a bowl and mix them. Bah. It's not like baking fucking cookies. You need to break bonds and move electrons. Its easy to do but it isn't simple. Its art.
Anyway, I don't know why the fuss. You're allowed to have up to 500 pounds of the shit if you want. What they found in NY was the size of a coke can. You don't even have to tell anybody in post 9/11 NY that you've released any amount up to 10 pounds. And its not like it was smuggled in by tearists. Fucking weapons inspectors put it there 11 years ago. Dickheads. Phosgene eats metal, unless its gold or platinum and other rare and fabulous substances.
Chemistry has a similar power over the muggle mind to The Law. Some malign force that comes into your life and fucks your shit up and there's not a goddamn thing you can do about it cause its The Law. You're in more danger from dickheads than you are from chemicals or The Law. Stay away from dickheads.
posted by TenDollarMan at 13:37
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