First, to SKS: Keep counting my friend. I am still out there, just in a swarmier form You should know that you were one of my first commentors… from a long time ago (I think during the Tenderbutton year…..)

Second: I have notified hostmonster.com that 7/22/09 shall be lights out day for milomuses.com. My big er… small industry salary is stretched a little to far for this non-profitable hobby of mine.

As a parting thought, the ACS salary survey, even if off by 10% plus or minus, offers a sobering view of one’s compensation. I wonder what it is like at the 50% mark….

milo Uncategorized

I don’t think I’ll be too popular for this….

I was rolling into work yesterday morning listening to the news discuss the pros and cons of Bernie Madoff pleading guity sans plea deal. On the one hand, it gets things moving quickly with regards to his sentencing. On the other, he does not have to divulge any information regarding any additional help he may recieved (here).

I have to say, I have a limited amount of sympathy for those investors who “lost everything” by placing all their money into Bernie’s trust. To me, that is just stupid. How many times have we heard that old saying “don’t put all your eggs in one basket” when discussing investment strategies. The promise of big returns made people forget this advice.

Charities and those burned by their broker investing with Madoff get more of my sympathy. Those folks who had a broker between them and Madoff have all rights to be pissed.

Those people who invested directly with Madoff on the promise of huge payouts have little right to be pissed. They gambled and lost. In the end they took a risk, and it did not payout. If they were foolish enough to bet it all, then they have only themselves to blame.

Diversify folks, it is the only way to minimize your risk.

Of course, Madoff deserves all that he gets. His blatant violation of personal trust is bordering on the inhuman. I have no sympathy for him.

milo Money Investing, Madoff, Money, social statements

Hmmm…  

I realized this weekend that I need to renew this little domain in August. Right now the pricing is a little steep (having a child puts your expensive hobbies in perspective…). 

I am not going to have ads, nor ask for sponsorship (not that I would turn it down…). So I think I shall begin to think of alternatives to Milomuses.com.  Alas, this means that come August, you all will need to updatee your RSS feeds and bookmarks again! 

I will probably end back up at wordpress.com, a quality blog site that is 100% free (if not a bit limited in capabilities).

Five years blogging, five different blog addresses. 

Fortunately there is still a bunch of time left here for interesting conversation.

milo Blog

Some poor soul got to this humble, and sometimes non-existent, blog via a Google search for “organic chem makes me feel dumb”. I suspect that this is a sentiment shared by a great many undergraduate (and graduate) students. By nature, organic chemistry demands a different type of thinking. It demands a different approach than other subjects like English, math, art or engineering. Organic chemistry, from the very beginning requires a thorough understanding of the subject matter. It is not enough to memorize the fact that E1 and SN1 reactions almost always happen together. You have to know 1) why and 2) what influences each pathway. 

Memorization in organic chemistry works only so well. pKas and bond energies can be memorized. Other than than…. not much else. 

So if O-chem makes you feel dumb, you need to change your approach. It is possible to succeed at it, although you might still hate the subject at the end of the term.

milo Edumacation Edumacation, study habits

I came across this presentation whilst perusing linkedin.com. I have always been 100% skeptical of the prospect of hydrogen being the panacea for our energy woes. There just seemed to be something wrong with the whole idea. This presentation should make it clear the hydrogen is not as good as people hope it is.

Enjoy.

milo Science Economy, fake science, hydrogen, scam

One of the things (of a quite a few) that is keeping me and my family from buying a piece of the American Obligation Dream (a house) here in the fiscally confused state of New Jersey are the incomprehensible property taxes. There was talk here about instituting real tax reform, but as you can guess, that has not happened. The current opinion is that if you want lower taxes, just move out… which frankly makes a lot of sense.

My question to both my readers is: Can anyone point to a municipality (town, county, state) that has actually implemented successful tax reform policies?

milo Home BullSh*t, Money, NJ, Taxes

Look Inside >> March 2, 2009

The current issue of C&EN (3/2/2009, pg 49) has a little write up on the Thomas Lane’s (current ACS president) thoughts on what it takes to be successful in today’s chemical industry. Since my career is close to making a left turn, I read this with more than a passing interest.

He described what he calls the “7 Cs of Career Success” (no, not cesium). These are, in no particular order are:

milo Career Career, collaboration, commitment, communication, competence, competitiveness, courage, creativity

From the Baltimore Sun:

Common flu strain resists popular drug Tamiflu
Resistance of Type A strain attributed to mutation

Holy cow! The virus has… mutated! Now we shall all have to suffer the chills and muscle aches for one day longer.

For some reason, I have always had a problem with Tamiflu. It has always seemed to me that there are issues that are more pressing than reducing the severity of the flu for brilliant pharma types to work on.

milo Science, Society Flu, mutation, Tamiflu

How many catch phrases as the recession spawned?

I can only think of three:

1. From Wall Street to Main Street… 
2. Pain (or price) at the Pump (we all know what the pump is, apparently). 
3. A Bailout (of any kind)…

Any more?

Update: I forgot the Fishing Metaphor…

milo Society Economy

Water is one of those chemicals, much like carbon dioxide, that is often referenced when chemistry and the environment find themselves in the same paragraph. It must be the near- deity like status that we tend to place on good old H2O. 

It is the image of a pristine mountain stream, clear and cool, and its inevitable destruction that people think of when they think of industrial chemistry. How wonderful would it be if society (industry) could use that clear, clean, natural water as a solvent for industrial chemistry? Could we reduce our dependance on oil as a source of nasty chemicals like toluene, benzene, hexane and….gasp….MTBE? (ok, I don’t know a lot about MTBE, but I know that it is public enemy number 1 when it comes to evil solvents….)? If we, as chemists, design processes that use water, we could pipe it from the cool stream, to our reactor and run our process and then just put it back. It is only water, right? It is natural and clean and golly… green!

Unless you have been in a coma for the past couple of years, you have probably read at least one article that touts its chemistry as being “an environmentally benign method of….(insert chemical transformation) due to the use of water as the solvent”. I get miffed, nay offended, when researchers spout off in their Chem Comm, JOC or Org Lett papers about how great water is, how it is the greatest and greenest solvent in the world. Here is the truth: it is really difficult to take a process and make it “green” by running it in water. I am not even considering the fact that the chemistry may not even work. I am only condsidering the following two things: 

1. Water has a specific heat of 4.186 J /g K (toluene’s specific heat is 1.67 J /gK), which is higher than most common substances.
2. The ecosystem is really sensitivve to things like acetone, boron, chromium… ie. waste that needs to be removed from the aqueous waste stream. 

Regarding 1. It takes almost three time the energy to bring a kilo of water to reflux than it does a kilo of toluene. Where does that energy come from? Your solar farm? Not yet buddy. It comes from coal, oil or the plant’s own burning of organic waste. No matter how, there is probably a lot of CO2 getting generated. Not green to me sir. 

Regarding 2. as was suggested here, if the bugs cannot chew it up, it needs to be hauled away and treated. Forget distillation, that is expensive (see #1). 

So yes, using water can be great. But it can also be a false hope. In any event, stop using it to sell your research. If you really want to do research in to green chemistry, do it right.

And really, running something in water (even a BOC deprotection!), beit room temperature or super critical, does not an environmentally acceptable process make. 

I hate it when people try to sell their research by stretching things too much… makes me nuts. 

I once heard an executive type say: “Can we greenify that product by making it in water?” That was a fun day.

milo Science BullSh*t, Chemistry, Green, non-scientist goons, Water