This story (http://www.wftv.com/news/4202585/detail.html) caught my attention- Looking back, several of the chemistry labs and demonstrations I saw and did in high school and college chemistry would now likely get an instructor fired/prosecuted. No more distilling nitric acid and using it to make nitrocellulose, in particular... I got to do that in high school chemistry before I was 18, back in the 70's.

I'd be interested to learn exactly what this guy did in his classes- Any of you kids go to his school???

In my chemistry class we made tye-dyed t-shirts. That was about as amazingly chemical as we got. Oh and the one time we used about 3% HCl to find out about indicators. One week devoted to dropping Phenalopine(sp?) drop by drop(I think the thresh-hold was 17 drops), to find out that HCl is acidic.

The teacher was pretty good though, and he could only do so much with all the dumbasses in the class.

It was not the fact that he told them how to make an explosive, come on, they just ignited some blackpowder. The problem was that they video taped the experiment. I can tell you how this went down...

Dumbass to friend 1 "Dude you gotta check this out! We made a video of our mad bomb."
Friend 1 "Wow that great, lets go show the guys."
The guys "Holy shit that awsome dudes, lets go show the girls"
The girls "Wow that's neat, I don't believe you guys did that"
Everybody else "Did you hear about dumbass's bomb, he's got a tape. It's cool"
An evasdropping teacher hears "bomb" and "tape" goes to principal.

The principal questions everybody, who fingers the girls, who fingers the guys, who finger dumbass, who says "Teacher made us do it. I have a videotape."

Why do you think we discourage you guys from spreading around pics of your "experiments?" We have sense enough to get the proper licensing... About 3 years and 5 months ago this kind of thing would not have been an issue, then a few planes crashed into some buildings and all of a sudden we are all just one firecracker away from a firing squad.

I had a chemistry professor who ignited a hydrogen filled balloon during class. Should that be grounds for arrest, or maybe she should have lost her tenure? I say if they want to ban explosives so bad they should start with the military. Just imagine, an organization that trains teenagers to shoot guns and blow things up :rolleyes:

So, it�s now illegal to disseminate knowledge and approve of its use? This country�s attitude toward chemistry really sickens me.
In Pieski's classroom, authorities said they found the chemical breakdown for an explosive used by Middle East suicide bombers.
So, knowing about something makes you a terrorist? Truly Sickening.

@Silentnite: 3%!? My chem. teacher barely trusted us with 1%.

Chemical breakdown as in the names of chemicals used, or perhaps a synth? Either way, I see no wrong....


To lose liberties like this is intolerable.