We are as snug as a bug in a rug here. No power interruptions although it flickered a few times last night. We are expecting a high temperature in the upper 40s this afternoon so much of the ice in the trees will come down.
How are you folks west of me doing?
Garden update
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| I stuck about a dozen rosemary sprigs yesterday. I did a quick-dip of 1000 PPM borax solution as some literature suggests that boron helps rooting. |
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| The onions are sprouting. If you enlarge the picture you will see very pale, worm-like shapes. Those are the onions. I have a red LED on the pepper seeds which raises the temperature from 65F to almost 80F. |
The war on fertilizer
I wonder how much of the elites' war on fertilizer, specifically nitrogen, is tied to the fact that nitrates are a keystone resource in the manufacture of high-explosives?
If I were an elite and I anticipated a class-war, Us-against-the havenots, I would outlaw nitrates and ammonia (which can be converted to nitrates).
Blackpowder is 75% potassium nitrate by weight. Smokeless powder is cellulose nitrate. The first "T" and the "N" in TNT is "Tri-Nitrate". RDX, the primary explosive in C4 also has three nitrate groups bound by a nitrogen ring and so on and so forth.
A pound of C4 or TNT properly configured on the bottom of a manhole cover will breach any armored vehicle made today.
"But you can collect nitrates from chicken-shit" you object...
Don't look now, but elites don't like chickens, either (somewhat tongue-in-cheek)
Bananas and babies
Southern Belle informed me that this is how all of the cool mothers feed bananas to their infants.
They cut them into quarters and then expose about a 1/2" to 3/4" of the edible part. It gives their child and easy-to-grip handle.
Quicksilver is into "finger foods" like strips of toast, firm scrambled-eggs and dog kibbles.
My son ate a banana whole when he was young.
ReplyDeletePeel and all...
Is he now a line-man for the power company?
DeleteI hear they make darned good wages and get lots of overtime.
West of Chiraq, it was just cold,cold rain as far as I saw.
ReplyDeleteWhen I started working for Farmer Dave, my first task was to clean out the chicken coop. It hadn't been cleaned in a while.
It was like sticking your head in a bag full of Top Job.........
Center of wis. 14 inches, 2 more coming. Out of rye. Woody
ReplyDeleteMy first thought was Quick Silver was eating the peel. Roger
ReplyDeleteHardtimer report SW of ERJ: Mass tree casualties, 3/4"-1" ice, winds 20mph with gusts to 40mph. Widespread power outages. Both wood stoves loaded for bear, generator running as needed for watering animals.
ReplyDeleteThe first "T" and the "N" in TNT is Tri-Nitro. The whole compound is Tri-Nitro-Toluene. Not Nitrate.
ReplyDeleteNitro groups on aromatic carbon ring compounds increases chemical instability by attracting electrons out of the ring structure, if I recollect my second semester of organic chem class properly.
TNT is a nitrated product, unless I am mistaken. Just like cellulose is nitrated with nitric acid to make gun cotton(nitrocellulose) or glycerin is nitrated in nitric acid and makes nitroglycerin. Same idea, with toluene
DeleteAll are made with nitric acid, but the functional groups are different from the nitrate in ammonium nitrate fertilizer. TNT has nitrite functional groups (NO2-), not nitrate (NO3-).
DeleteMay seem like not much difference, but a chemist or chemical engineer will tell you it matters.
It just cleans the ditch, or it gets the hose again. No second semester chemistry class here to call upon, just a general idea of how things are made and experience with how people do awful things to each other. Nitric acid is an ingredient in the manufacture of things that go bang at a high rate of speed, and ammonium nitrate is a component of ANFO, which goes bang at a much slower speed. I do believe that Mr. ERJ's point was that with ammonia products and ammonium nitrate, much in the way of hazardous shenanigan supplies can be manufactured.
DeleteAh yes, dog and cat kibbles... sigh... Feed one, eat one...
ReplyDeleteskin a banana. break it in half poke your little finger up the center. it will divide into three parts. perfect finger food.
ReplyDelete