Alyx Woodward (obsolete) @Alyx@computerfairi.es

@kel@plush.city aw, sorry plush Kel. guess having all three of Toriel's kids in their head AND being a host for the embodiment of the luminiferous aether, or whatever the heck Kel was, was just a BIT too much for one human *laughs*

@Freylet bleh. wish I had some good advice to offer.

also this procedure shows how to split open a phenyl ester with methyl iodide. but who wants to play with methyl iodide, yuck

such free-radical reactions tend to have, at best, "moderate" yields and to produce by-products because of the high reactivity of free-radical intermediates. but intramolecular substitution, as here, seems to improve yields considerably. looks like electron-withdrawing groups on the phenyl ring (e.g. nitro, trifluoromethyl) decrease the yield to roughly 50% or lower. still okay, honestly

peroxydisulfate (usually in conjunction with silver catalysis, sometimes copper or other metals) is a fascinating organic reagent that's of use in certain oxidation and free-radical reactions, in organic chemistry

for instance the "Elbs hydroxylation" uses persulfate for para-hydroxylation of phenols (e.g. phenol to hydroquinone)

there's some similarity here in that the species attacking the aromatic ring is an oxygen species, probably the -COO. radical

now for _Organic Syntheses_ roulette

first random word I'm trying..."dance"

wow that actually matched a few articles. the first match is one I've already hit recently (i was the oxazole synthesis using an amide of N-aminopyridine) so I'm rolling with the second one

http://orgsyn.org/demo.aspx?prep=v95p0097

an intriguing and rather simple reaction, intramolecular ring-closure of o-phenylbenzoic acid to 6H-benzo[c]chromen-6-one (the fundamental ring structure of "urolithins") using peroxydisulfate and AgNO3

(I feel inclined to twit Chara a bit about that one, seeing as how they work "determination" into conversation an average of three or four times a day)

🔴 I'm not THAT bad

yeah sure let's ask @KaylinEvergreen about that

trying to spot anything noteworthy in the _mise en scene_. one detail that stands out is that there's a big chart labelled "SPECTROSCOPY" on a wall, but it's taller than it's wide, which is not usually how visible-light spectra are shown on a chart. also it goes from pink to white to yellow, but I'll chalk that up to stylization (or simplification)

finally Prof. Rodgers offers the help of after-school tutoring to Lomax...if they have "some DETERMINATION"

dun dun DUN!

the conversation between Lomax and the teacher, Rodgers, continues

https://www.parallaxcomic.com/comic/page-08

still no definite answer about why Lomax is in classes they do badly at (do we know Lomax's gender at this point?) but they're hinting that parents aren't the reason. well, like I said last night, it's fair to assume there's some _exciting_ reason for Lomax forcing themselves through classes they suck at other than the obvious ones

oh pfft I typed "p. 6" when I'm on Page 7

whatever, just...add one in your head for the previous three toots

"but I didn't choose it" dun dun DUN!

I mean, pretty safe to guess Lomax's parents made the kid do it, but since this is a sci-fi webcomic I figure that the safe guess isn't the right guess

anyway of course Lomax sucks as a student (just like we all did!) and Rodgers sorrowfully suggests that Lomax has given up. Lomax tries to shrug it off: "oh I'm just not good at studying."

Rodgers: "but why are you a science major then"? oh, so this isn't high school? and there's only one science major at this college? "the science major" (well I think that's not unheard of actually, sounds like some Evergreen State College write-your-own-portfolio crap though)

bleh

fine, page 7

https://www.parallaxcomic.com/comic/page-07

so it's the talk alluded to at the end of the previous page, except there's a bit of confusion because the teacher, Rodgers, referred to Lomax as a "new kid" on page 5 but now he's talking about Lomax's grades as though he's been dealing with Lomax for a while. maybe he's just looking at the kid's record as a transfer student or something...eh, whatever, but it feels like a slight inconsistency

@KaylinEvergreen gawd don't start giving her pretensions OK

when Kara was much younger we had a PowerPC 6100 that also had a 486 PC in it running off a daughterboard. that thing was sweet

@KaylinEvergreen just saying, dualities are far more interesting with some kind of mediating third party added