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Comment: Broken Summary -- industrial alcohol != methanol (Score 1) 630

by 4181 (#31301562) Attached to: US Government Poisoned Alcohol During Prohibition

... it [the government] decided that the problem was that readily available methyl (industrial) alcohol — itself a poison — didn't taste nasty enough.

The article got it right:

Industrial alcohol is basically grain alcohol [ethyl alcohol] with some unpleasant chemicals mixed in to render it undrinkable. ... Some 70 denaturing formulas existed by the 1920s. Most simply added poisonous methyl alcohol into the mix.

It's not as if you would ever need to denature methanol. Denatured alcohol is typically ethanol with 10% methanol (a toxin) added. Such a formulation is also called methylated spirits.

--

I find it amusing that one of the antidotes used to treat methanol poisoning is ethanol.

Comment: Re:Mock ups (Score 1) 300

by 4181 (#31138686) Attached to: Astronauts Having Trouble With Tranquility Module

Or for that matter did they not think to try testing the actual module on the ground prior to launch?

Lead ISS Flight Director Bob Dempsey was asked that during the most recent mission update briefing. (He discusses the problem in his initial remarks at 5:00, and answers the fit test question at 12:50.) He replied, "The main reason is the Center Disk Cover that we are installing was on orbit for many years before it could be fit checked on the module. Similar Disk Covers were fit into the module, but not the actual flight hardware, and not exactly in the configuration with the Cupola mated to the Node 3 as well." He later said that "every Center Disc Cover is a little bit different" (while discussing the Cupola relocation at 17:15) but didn't elaborate on it any further.

ISS commander Jeffrey Williams removed two bolts from a Cupola handrail mount which gave just enough clearance to install the center disc cover, but at the time of the briefing the ground engineers were still determining if the clearance was sufficient to proceeded with the relocation of the Cupola to the Node 3 nadir port, or if they should remove additional pieces and delay the relocation by a day. They eventually decide to go ahead with the relocation as is, and shuttle pilot Col. Terry Virts and lead robotics mission specialist Capt. Kathryn Hire will be relocating it in a couple of hours.

Watch it all live on NASA TV.

Comment: Re:RPN Better than algebraic? (Score 1) 289

by 4181 (#31056712) Attached to: 7 of the Best Free Linux Calculators

I looked on Youtube for some videos of the HP calculators, ...

For a good video of the philosophy behind RPN, see Rocket Girls Ep.2:

What are the values of delta v1 and delta v2?

But some of those numbers have seven digits...

You have a calculator, don't you?

Right, right! ... the heck is this? There's no equals key!

Of course not! Don't you know reverse Polish calculation?

Of course not!

Oh, really? In that case ... I'll take five minutes to cram its operation into your head. When I'm done with you, you'll never be able to use a regular calculator again. Prepare yourself.

War is never imperative. -- McCoy, "Balance of Terror", stardate 1709.2

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