This is a bit late, but its never too late for safety. . .

According to ASVAP (American Society for Velociraptor Attack Prevention):

September is National Velociraptor Awareness Month! The American Society for Velociraptor Attack Prevention, along with the North American Velociraptor Defense Association and the United Velociraptor Widows Fund, will be providing free velociraptor safety seminars at local Red Cross centers across the nation. Contact your local center for more information.

Velociraptor compared in size to a human

The American Society for Velociraptor Attack Prevention is a bi-partisan group of professionals, dedicated to the diffusion of knowledge concerning velociraptor attack prevention.

I know, I know. . . You are probably sick of hearing about the NH Blog-Con now that its over.

But here’s one more piece:

The Interview
(Big thanks to Tony from Politizine who recorded the interview and made me sound so good!)
Audio interview with Yours Truly, during the Blog-Con

As everyone knows, my little community of Keene, New Hampshire, is world famous for our yearly pumpkin festival!!

Pumpkin Festival website
Wikipedia Entry on the Pumpkin Fest

Keene set the world record for the most lit jack-o-lanterns in one place in 2003.

The pumpkin festival started in 1991 as a “harvest festival”, and steadily grew from there. In 1992 the pumpkin festival set the first world record for the number of lit jack-o-lanterns, and Keene has broken its own world record 7 times since then. Keene holds the current world record, with a whopping 28,952 lit jack-o-lanterns.

Woot! sing it with me!
(to the tune of “Proud to be an American”)

I’m proud to be a New Hampshirite
Where I can Die or else Live Free.
Where I can eat some pumpkin pie
and carve a jack-o-lantern in the street. . .

You can fill in the rest, i’m sure. (Just make up the words as you go along — you know, like when you’re in church).

The pumpkin festival will be held this Saturday, October 21th.

Ghazal asks:

Dear AaC,

Hi, I am an engineering student, and I will be working on remediation of TCE using ZVI. My problem is that TCE is very volatile, so it’s hard to know how much of exactly I have, for example, if i wante a 50mg/l concentration, by the time is added, weight, how can i know how much i have in my vile ? I will also be using a GC, but the problem with that also is that i have to define concetrations for it, before i can give it an unknown concentration. ANother problem is that i need to make my viles are anaerobic as possible, but the ones that i have tend to contain a bubble of air in them as soon as put the cap on it. how can i avoid that?
thanks alot

Translation: Ghazal is (I believe) using a permeable reactive barrier (PRB) made of zero-valence Iron (ZVI) to reduce toxic Trichloroethylene (TCE) to non-toxic ethylene and water. In general, the system works by passing contaminated groundwater through the ZVI-PRB which de-chlorinates the TCE, so that only purified water passes through to the other side. He states that he will be using a gas chromatagraph (GC) to examine his samples before and after the remediation process in order to determine how effective the process is.

Solution
There are two ways to reduce the evaporation rate.

1. Lower the temperature. TCE freezes at -90 C. It is fairly easy to find a commercial freezer that can go down to -50 C or lower. If you place all of your equipment, including your sample of TCE in the freezer for about an hour, and then (quickly) take it to the lab and measure your sample, you should lose very little of your TCE due to evaporation. If you are in Canada, you can just go outside and do this.
2. Reduce the surface area. If you weigh your TCE into an extremely narrow glass tube, and then quickly cap it once you have your measured amount, you can assure minimal loss of TCE due to evaporation.

The only way to eliminate the problem of oxygen in your samples is to use a nitrogen blanket to displace the oxygen. Prepare your samples under a nitrogen blanket and then cap them so they are not contaminated with oxygen.

Benjamin Writes:

Dear AaC,

I am doing an assignment on removing certain inks and ethyl acetate seems to
do it best. I need to know whether i am able to dilute ethyl acetate in
water so as to reduce the quantity of purchase.

Ethyl Acetate is in a class of compounds known as Esters. Like most esters, Ethyl Acetate has a slight fruity smell. It is a non- to slightly polar molecule. Although it mixes well with other solvents, such as acetone, ethanol, and benzene, it is not terribly soluble in water.

According to the literature, ethyl acetate has only an 8.3% (by w/v) solubility in water, so you would not see a great savings if you were to mix some water into it. However, you may be able to mix in a less expensive solvent that is miscible with ethyl acetate and make a small savings that way.

Original Cindy and I are the godparents of a 4 year old autistic boy.

Mathew is a pleasure to be around. He normally doesn’t speak, but on very rare occasions he comes out with a complete, clear phrase. Since it happens soy infrequently, it is a startling wonder, and we always get a kick out of it.

Last week, Cindy was babysitting for Mathew, and they were watching The Lion King. There is one scene where Simba, Timon, and Pumba are eating grubs and other nasty things, when Simba lets out with a huge burp. . .

Mathew: He farted.

Cindy (not really paying attention): No, Mathew, that wasn’t a fart, it was a burp. (Cindy then does a double-take, realizing that Mathew just spoke, and her jaw drops open).