Alyx Woodward (obsolete) @Alyx@computerfairi.es

@kara_dreamer@plural.cafe you know at some point we're gonna have to break down their resistance to having our own sources of high heat, on-site, too. like, furnaces

we've got plenty of space

anyone surprised by this sort of thing?

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jun/17/recycled-plastic-america-global-crisis

I've always kinda known that municipal plastics recycling was a really dodgy business. but yeah, it's real bad

ugh. Kara, you really need to start thinking about how to handle all your garbage on-site

@garfiald Pres. Obama basically punting the issue of the hideously illicit Guantanamo prison was proof enough that American liberals are more or less okay with concentration camps

@ky0ko I am totally blue skying here

@ky0ko kinda wondering how that would play out, as a method of computer programming

@ky0ko yeah I am being kinda vague

we tend to think of programming in this very centralized way. a string of commands, one after the other. either they're executed or they go wrong

it's very much the way logicbros regard thought itself to work, as purely deductive. a string of logical inferences, and either they're correct and "logical" or they're not

but reality is more about dialogues, about alternating between point and counterpoint

so I am gonna ask a silly conceptual #programmer question

I am gonna make up a term here

is _dialectical_ computer programming a thing

@dirk good luck :=3

oh, and the thirst?

"and the porous Vycor plugs are cut from lengths of 1/8-in.-diameter porous Vycor rod (_thirsty_ glass or Corning Vycor No. 7930), available from the Electronic Parts Department, Corning Glass Works, Houghton Park, Corning, New York, 14830."

so there ya go. glass can be thirsty.

so far as I know you can't really substitute anything for mercury, when you're using it as a liquid electrode. mercury's electrochemical properties are pretty unique to it

what's the alternative anyway? for closing these small rings, Wurtz coupling with sodium metal, usually a crap reaction, is actually good. but the electrolytic procedure probably has more selectivity and control.

I've vaguely heard of, like, activated non-alkali metals being used. or samarium diiodide

ok trying the random word thing with _Organic Syntheses_ again. the word of the day is "thirsty"

and it matches one article, wow

http://www.orgsyn.org/demo.aspx?prep=CV6P0153

cyclization of 1,3-dihaloalkanes to cyclopropanes by an electrolytic method! (also 1,4-dihaloalkanes yield cyclobutanes but it's not as good)

preparative electrochemistry is always one of those things I kinda look at with a slightly jaundiced eye. you need specialized equipment. and, in this case, a mercury-pool cathode. bleh

#chemistry