Comments on: Meth and mirror images: errors in Nick Reding’s “Methland”

By: Chemjobber

Chemjobber — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 02:35:04 +0000

Oh, heck. While I’m at it, why don’t I just add more pedantry:

This is one of the opening passages of the book, where a meth addict burns his house down:

“So bottle by bottle, container by container, he poured down the floor drain in the floor of his mother’s basement the chemicals he had stored there: anhydrous ammonia, Coleman lantern fluid denatured alcohol and kerosene. Finally, he poured 2 gallons of hydrochloric acid down the drain. Then he lit his cigarette.

It took about a quarter of a second for the ionized hydrogen in the hydrochloric acid to propagate from the lighter’s flame and into the drain. This made the entire basement into a vacuum. Jarvis [the meth cook - CJ] heard a soft Whoosh! Then came the blast…”

Huh? Ionized what? Propagating from where? Who is Reding’s scientific adviser and why does he or she stink?

By: We Hate Your Blog

We Hate Your Blog — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 02:37:41 +0000

We’d love to have a beer. You’re paying.

By: Chemjobber

Chemjobber — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:38:40 +0000

Wow — I think I’m honored. And yes, my sense of humor sucks. But there you are!

By: azmanam

azmanam — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 18:20:43 +0000

I dunno… I’m kinda honored.

The only real beef he has with you is your sense of humor (twice). Sounds like projection to me.

Guess what? We hate you back. Let’s go have a beer.

By: We Hate Your Blog

We Hate Your Blog — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 17:57:02 +0000

No particular offense, but we hate your blog.

http://wehateyourblog.com/2009/10/21/we-hate-chemistryblog/

It’s just what we do.

By: We hate ChemistryBlog « We hate your blog.

We hate ChemistryBlog « We hate your blog. — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 17:55:35 +0000

[...] PDRTJS_settings_412488_post_295 = { "id" : "412488", "unique_id" : "wp-post-295", "title" : "We+hate+ChemistryBlog", "item_id" : "_post_295", "permalink" : "http%3A%2F%2Fwehateyourblog.com%2F2009%2F10%2F21%2Fwe-hate-chemistryblog%2F" } We hate ChemistryBlog, and we hate the post Meth and mirror images: errors in Nick Reding’s “Methland.” [...]

By: Markos Strofyllas

Markos Strofyllas — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:38:00 +0000

Plus, if you want to get *really* pedantic, epinephrine is the exact same thing as adrenaline

By: Andre

Andre — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 20:38:21 +0000

Technically, the hydroxy group reduction is the net loss of a single oxygen atom (replacement of OH with H), so the writer is correct there. But everything else you point out is utter nonsense. I noticed all this a while ago when I first read that quote that you gave, and I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who was annoyed by it.