Patents vs copyright

When a drug is patented, the patent last 20 years. It often takes 8-10 years of testing before a drug can be sold to the public. That means the drug company has only 10-12 years to recoup the costs. After which, anyone can make the drug and sell it.

Try that in any other creative endeavor and it gets labeled "outright theft of intellectual property."

Recently some Thai animators, created a nearly identical replica of Beauty and the Beast. Oh the horrors!!! Disney's patent on Beauty and the Beast would have run out long ago.[1] This knockoff would be totally legal if it were a drug. If so, you could buy it at Walmart for $4.

[1] yes, it was released in 1991, but I'm sure the testing and development started years before.

It's torture

Since the beginning of August (± several days), I have had three beers on tap. I have a pale ale, a dark lager and a saison. All fine beers.

About a month ago, I found out my brother was going to be in town during this coming weekend. Since he is an enjoyer of beer, I figured I would save some for him. Easier said than done.

I've spent the last several weeks doing my best to ration my beer. This has been challenging... no actually it's been torture. I enjoy drinking my beer, but I've abstained. I've limited myself to one (or two) beers every few days. I think I should have enough.

Thankfully, my local neighborhood liquor store is closing to make room for a CVS pharmacy. They've been selling everything dirt cheap. I've taken advantage to the tune of 2 cases of wine for $3 a bottle. Not bad.

Long story short, I should have enough beer to share with my brother, but it wasn't easy. I'll be sure to remind him of that.

To return or not to return

With the recent rash of delinquent bloggers returning to active blogging, (see here, here, here and maybe even here) I've asked myself if maybe I should return to blogging on a more regular basis.

hmmmmmmmm, what to do, what to do?!?!?

Nah, I'm just going to stay here and keep blogging at a local high school. .. Unless, three of my fellow blog buddies would like to fly out here and talk me into returning.

Or, you could just offer me $20 million.

Random thought as I randomly post sporadically

In the USA, yesterday was census day. Stand and be counted. I must admit, I still need to send in my census stuff. The USA Today published some interesting data on census participation. How does your state stack up? Notice that the highest participation rate is for states in the Midwest! Horray Midwesterners!!!! We are so responsible.

But, I was wondering. Where do these percentages come from? Let's review some math.

A percentage is mathematically described as the part over the whole times 100. In this specific example it is the number of people that responded divided by the total number of people in the state times 100.

But wait, the purpose of the census is to count the total number of people in the state. How can the percent be calculated if the total number of people isn't even known?

One equation with two unknowns cannot be solved.

The legend is true.

OMG, it does exist!!!

I just found my desk.

After I shred a pile of papers, I will have clean (in a very relative sense) desk.

hmmmm

Avatar has made a billion dollars and counting.

You would think they could have hired someone to teach Sigourney Weaver how to use an Eppendorf Pipette.

If you've seen it, did you notice? If you haven't, watch for it when they take the trailer to a remote location (you'll know what I mean).

Not to mention that since the film is set in 2154 it seems odd that Eppendorf would not have updated their design for about 160 years.

This blows

We are having a bit of a blizzard blow through our neck of the woods. The blizzard of aught-nine has descended upon us. Every school around here is closed.

I cleared the snow out my driveway using my grandpa's old snowblower. The thing is from the late 60's, it is big and it still works like a charm. There are zero safety features, but boy does it blow. The way my neighbor's house is aligned with mine causes the wind to blow all of his snow into a huge drift on my driveway. His whole front yard is nearly void of snow. It's all on my driveway. So, even though we only had about 8 inches of snow, I have a 3 foot drift across my driveway. Until this year, I was a one man shoveling crew. It would take me a few hours and several asthma attacks to clear it away. But, with this snowblower, I got rid of that thing in about 30 minutes with a lot less effort.

I made it to my office around noon. Since classes were cancelled, I'm getting a lot of things done since I don't have all of those pesky students bothering me.

Here's a problem for you

When I took over this teaching gig, my predecessor left a fold behind labeled "Diabolical Organic Problems." I love the word "Diabolical" but some may argue that that title is redundant with "Organic."

I have on occasion given my students diabolical problems to hone their skills. Today in preparation for the cumulative final exam, I gave my General Chemistry class the following question:

A 21.0 cm³ piece of dry ice is placed into a sealed 5.0 L container at STP. The dry ice is allowed to sublime while the temperature is held constant at 0°C. The container also contains 12.7 grams of sodium hydroxide. Sodium hydroxide reacts with carbon dioxide to form solid sodium carbonate and liquid water. What will the volume of the dry ice be when the pressure in the container is 2.5 atm? The density of dry ice is 1.5 g/cm³. Assume the volume of the container is 5.0L.

I'm kind of proud of this question as it incorporates several concepts we covered in the first half of the semester. I'll give anyone who answers this 50 extra credit points.

UHP He for the kids

So, what do you do when your tank of ultra-high purity helium drops down to 100 psi? The pressure is too low for the GC (gas chromatograph). I could just send it back as is to the gas store when I get a new tank, but I see opportunity here.

I brought it home to the kids.

I filled some balloons I had on hand and then filled some garbage bags I stole from the janitor's closet.

The garbage bags are surprisingly good at holding He.

My kids think I'm the greatest dad ever.

I think I'm in the running for:

Personal revelation

While teaching my math class, I just realized I have been doing FOIL wrong all these years.

I've actually been doing FIOL instead. My God, how embarrassing.

Victory for the little guy

The little guy has won. Rock Art Brewery in Vermont has won the right to use the name "Vermonster" for one of their beers. This came several weeks after receiving a "cease and desist" letter from the makers of "Monster" energy drink telling them to stop using the "Vermonster" name as people may get confused by the similar names. That's pretty stupid if you ask me.

You can read all about it here.

Rock Art Brewery realistically had no chance of surviving the potential lawsuits. Even though they had every right to use the name "Vermonster" the mega-corp had the money to sue Rock Art into submission.

Well, that was until the people spoke up. They spoke loudly and persistently enough to convince the Monster people that it wasn't worth it.

A victory for a small business, but more importantly, a victory for a craft brewery.

Until this, I had never heard of Rock Art Brewery, but I would love to try the Vermonster some day. I hope the attention increases their brand awareness and improves sales.

A short post to follow the long post

OK, so my last post was too freakin' long. But, it could have been longer. I could have gone into how even though they took my water heater back, the folks at Lowe's didn't offer much in the way of help picking one out.

Regardless or irregardless, what's done is done.

Midterm break is here... or Fall break or MEA... whatever it is actually called, I have a 4 day weekend.

I bemoan the fact that I have no sports to watch tonight. None. Yeah, I know the MLB playoffs are on, but I don't care since my beloved Twins are done. The Viking don't play until Sunday. The Huskers are taking on Texas Tech but not until Saturday.

*sigh*

I guess I will have to grade mid-term exams. YUCK

Water Heaters 101

So, if you read a recent post of mine, you might have gotten the impression that I had some water heater issues in my house. I did. Let me tell you all about it. I've included some chemistry to entertain those so inclined.

Several months ago as I was giving my children a bath, I noticed the water was kind of rust colored. I did some investigating and determined the colored water was coming from my water heater. "Crap!" I said. My water heater was probably rusting.

All water heaters will eventually fail. They are made of metal and since they are filled with water, the metal will eventually oxidize (i.e. rust). That is what happened to my water heater.

SCIENCEY PORTION

So let me ask you this: does water conduct electricity?

The answer is no. Water does not conduct electricity. Ions (positively and negatively charge ions such as sodium and chloride) dissolved in the water conduct electricity.

The oxidation of metal (such as the rusting of metal) involves the removal of electrons from the metal to something like oxygen. In the case of the rusting of iron the following reaction represents what is happening:

4Fe(s) + 3O₂ ----> 2Fe₂O₃

This reaction converts a nice structural metal such as iron into a really lousy solid such as iron (III) oxide (Fe₂O₃).

To avoid this undesired reaction, water heaters contain what is called a sacrificial anode that gets oxidized more easily than the iron. The metal of choice is usually aluminum. Why aluminum you ask? Well, it gets oxidized more easily than iron. This ability is measured by what is called reduction potential.

Oxidation is the lose of electrons. If something loses electrons, something must gain those electrons. That process is called reduction. Reduction is the gain of electrons. To simplify and generalize things we chemists write these processes as what are called "half-reactions" and by convention (for easy comparison) we write them all as reduction reactions. For example the reduction of iron (III) cation and aluminum cation are shown:

Fe⁺³ + 3e– ----> Fe(s) E°= –0.036 V
Al⁺³ + 3e– ----> Al(s) E°= –1.66 V

This is the conventional way of writing ALL half-reactions, but this is NOT what is happening in the water heater. The reverse of these reactions (i.e. oxidation) is occurring and should be written like this:

Fe(s) ----> Fe⁺³ + 3e– E°= +0.036 V

Al(s) ----> Al⁺³ + 3e– E°= +1.66 V

The E° is the potential, in a sense it is a way of writing how easily the reaction occurs. Without getting into ∆G° and Faraday's constant suffice it to say that since aluminum metal has an oxidation potential of 1.66V, it will react in preference to the iron which has a lower oxidation potential.

BACK TO THE WATER HEATER SAGA

I hoped that the rust was just because the anode was bad and that the tank had not begun to corrode to terribly (I know, I was delusional). So, I went down to Home Depot and got a new Al anode and proceeded to replace the old anode. I got me a 1 1/16 inch socket and with great difficultly remove the old anode. Except, there was nothing left. Just the big bolt that screws into the top of the tank. The Al was totally gone. Not a good sign. I put the new on in and hoped that was the end of that knowing full well it would not be.

A few weeks went by until on Saturday evening, my wife asked why the floor in the laundry room was wet. Crap. The structural integrity of the water heater had been compromised. Thankfully, it was a slow leak, but one that could not be ignored. On Sunday, I went to Lowe's to buy a new water heater. Here's where I made a big mistake.

In Minnesota there are a lot of rules to make sure no body is ever in danger of getting any type of injury. And, there are apparently a lot of rules when it comes to water heaters. By law in MN, a gas water heater must be power-vented (i.e. with a noisy fan on top of the water heater) out of the home. As far as I know, this law is only about 7-8 years old. Most water heaters that need to be replaced are the conventional kind. These water heaters vent up through a vent in the roof thanks to the updraft of the hot air.

The cost of a power-vented water heater is about $800. The cost of a conventional one is about $450. hmmmmm. I thought I would save some money and go conventional. It thought I could vent it out of the vent that goes out of the side of my house that was currently being used by the power vent of the broken heater.

Long story short: it doesn't work. I bought the conventional water heater, hauled it into my basement, cut it out of the box, installed it, filled it with 50 gallons of water and fired it up. It took 2 minutes for me to realize, I had just made a $450 mistake. This water heater was not going to work. This was Sunday night. I shut off the gas and hoped I could find a fix.

The next day I called a plumber to see if anything could be done. In summary, he said,"no you freakin moron!" though he was much more polite than that. I spent all day feeling sick to my stomach because I had just made a $450 mistake. I was mad at myself, and I felt sorry for my family.

Then I had an idea. In all of my construction projects I've done over the years, I've returned a lot of unused stuff. Stuff that no store would have to accept. So, I called Lowe's to see if I could return the water heater that I had installed in my basement. The lady said, "probably." That was good enough for me. That Monday night, I went to a different store and bought the kind I needed. I hauled it into my basement and drained and unhooked the wrong one. I installed the new one only to find out I needed a different water connector. No problem, but I'd have to wait for Tuesday to get it. We'd be without hot water for a few more hours, but it would work. I hauled the wrong one to my garage.

A few days later, my dad and I hauled the wrong one back to Lowe's and those suckers nice people took it back. I was nervous that they wouldn't, but I was upfront with why I was returning it. The guy that helped me actually seemed sympathetic.

So, I learned a lot about gas water heaters. The whole thing ended up putting me $1000 deeper in the hole, but this is what we do for the modern conveniences of life, and it could have been a lot worse.

Water Heaters 101

So, if you read a recent post of mine, you might have gotten the impression that I had some water heater issues in my house. I did. Let me tell you all about it. I've included some chemistry to entertain those so inclined.

Several months ago as I was giving my children a bath, I noticed the water was kind of rust colored. I did some investigating and determined the colored water was coming from my water heater. "Crap!" I said. My water heater was probably rusting.

All water heaters will eventually fail. They are made of metal and since they are filled with water, the metal will eventually oxidize (i.e. rust). That is what happened to my water heater.

SCIENCEY PORTION

So let me ask you this: does water conduct electricity?

The answer is no. Water does not conduct electricity. Ions (positively and negatively charge ions such as sodium and chloride) dissolved in the water conduct electricity.

The oxidation of metal (such as the rusting of metal) involves the removal of electrons from the metal to something like oxygen. In the case of the rusting of iron the following reaction represents what is happening:

4Fe(s) + 3O₂ ----> 2Fe₂O₃

This reaction converts a nice structural metal such as iron into a really lousy solid such as iron (III) oxide (Fe₂O₃).

To avoid this undesired reaction, water heaters contain what is called a sacrificial anode that gets oxidized more easily than the iron. The metal of choice is usually aluminum. Why aluminum you ask? Well, it gets oxidized more easily than iron. This ability is measured by what is called reduction potential.

Oxidation is the lose of electrons. If something loses electrons, something must gain those electrons. That process is called reduction. Reduction is the gain of electrons. To simplify and generalize things we chemists write these processes as what are called "half-reactions" and by convention (for easy comparison) we write them all as reduction reactions. For example the reduction of iron (III) cation and aluminum cation are shown:

Fe⁺³ + 3e– ----> Fe(s) E°= –0.036 V
Al⁺³ + 3e– ----> Al(s) E°= –1.66 V

This is the conventional way of writing ALL half-reactions, but this is NOT what is happening in the water heater. The reverse of these reactions (i.e. oxidation) is occurring and should be written like this:

Fe(s) ----> Fe⁺³ + 3e– E°= +0.036 V

Al(s) ----> Al⁺³ + 3e– E°= +1.66 V

The E° is the potential, in a sense it is a way of writing how easily the reaction occurs. Without getting into ∆G° and Faraday's constant suffice it to say that since aluminum metal has an oxidation potential of 1.66V, it will react in preference to the iron which has a lower oxidation potential.

BACK TO THE WATER HEATER SAGA

I hoped that the rust was just because the anode was bad and that the tank had not begun to corrode to terribly (I know, I was delusional). So, I went down to Home Depot and got a new Al anode and proceeded to replace the old anode. I got me a 1 1/16 inch socket and with great difficultly remove the old anode. Except, there was nothing left. Just the big bolt that screws into the top of the tank. The Al was totally gone. Not a good sign. I put the new on in and hoped that was the end of that knowing full well it would not be.

A few weeks went by until on Saturday evening, my wife asked why the floor in the laundry room was wet. Crap. The structural integrity of the water heater had been compromised. Thankfully, it was a slow leak, but one that could not be ignored. On Sunday, I went to Lowe's to buy a new water heater. Here's where I made a big mistake.

In Minnesota there are a lot of rules to make sure no body is ever in danger of getting any type of injury. And, there are apparently a lot of rules when it comes to water heaters. By law in MN, a gas water heater must be power-vented (i.e. with a noisy fan on top of the water heater) out of the home. As far as I know, this law is only about 7-8 years old. Most water heaters that need to be replaced are the conventional kind. These water heaters vent up through a vent in the roof thanks to the updraft of the hot air.

The cost of a power-vented water heater is about $800. The cost of a conventional one is about $450. hmmmmm. I thought I would save some money and go conventional. It thought I could vent it out of the vent that goes out of the side of my house that was currently being used by the power vent of the broken heater.

Long story short: it doesn't work. I bought the conventional water heater, hauled it into my basement, cut it out of the box, installed it, filled it with 50 gallons of water and fired it up. It took 2 minutes for me to realize, I had just made a $450 mistake. This water heater was not going to work. This was Sunday night. I shut off the gas and hoped I could find a fix.

The next day I called a plumber to see if anything could be done. In summary, he said,"no you freakin moron!" though he was much more polite than that. I spent all day feeling sick to my stomach because I had just made a $450 mistake. I was mad at myself, and I felt sorry for my family.

Then I had an idea. In all of my construction projects I've done over the years, I've returned a lot of unused stuff. Stuff that no store would have to accept. So, I called Lowe's to see if I could return the water heater that I had installed in my basement. The lady said, "probably." That was good enough for me. That Monday night, I went to a different store and bought the kind I needed. I hauled it into my basement and drained and unhooked the wrong one. I installed the new one only to find out I needed a different water connector. No problem, but I'd have to wait for Tuesday to get it. We'd be without hot water for a few more hours, but it would work. I hauled the wrong one to my garage.

A few days later, my dad and I hauled the wrong one back to Lowe's and those suckers nice people took it back. I was nervous that they wouldn't, but I was upfront with why I was returning it. The guy that helped me actually seemed sympathetic.

So, I learned a lot about gas water heaters. The whole thing ended up putting me $1000 deeper in the hole, but this is what we do for the modern conveniences of life, and it could have been a lot worse.

Double brew and stuff

I recently brewed two batches of beer at the same time. I brewed my Carbon Black Stout and my Metathesis Pale Ale. Things went well. Which is amazing since I was also taking care of my 4 kids and managed to feed them and give all of them baths. I am a world-class father, no doubt about it.

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The Carbon Black recipe calls for flaked oats, but I had none. No problem. I used some instant Quaker Oats which will serve the same purpose.

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I exploded some hydrogen balloons for my General Chem class today. I love doing that. It makes my kidneys move.

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The weather in Minnesota this time of year is just unbelievably perfect.

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I suspect I am almost beerless. The only beer I currently have on tap is a Grand Cru kit beer from my favorite supplier. It is deceptively strong and blatantly delicious. Based on consumption patterns, the keg is close to dry. Due to my poor foresight and time, I am 2 weeks from having something new on tap.