Anti-Terrorism and the Death of the Chemistry Set

An anonymous reader writes "A recent unfortunate casualty of anti-terrorism laws is the home chemistry set. Once deemed the gift that saved Christmas, most Slashdotters probably remember early childhood experimentation with one of the many pre-packaged chemistry sets that were on the market. Unfortunately the FBI has decided that home chemistry sets are a threat to national security and they are rapidly disappearing from the market entirely. Those that remain are shallow boring versions of the old kits."

It totally makes sense now...

[machinelou]

Mr. Wizard wasn't interested in "educating" youth, he was trying to build an army for his own jihad!

Re:When's it going to stop?

[RLiegh]

Why not just throw everyone in jail now, so we don't have to worry about terrorists running loose in the streets?

Patience, patience. We're getting there!

Tinkertoys Next?

[Nom du Keyboard]

I can only believe that Tinkertoys will be next.

They burn if ignited.
They can cause physical injury if someone is stabbed with one, or has a hub thrown at them from close range.
They can be assembled into a gun that might look too realistic if viewed under poor conditions.

Got to get rid of this stuff now. Leave the kids ignorant of any toys that might actually teach them critical thinking by doing.

Re:Next

[Versatile Dinosaur]

The Bible is already under threat. The democong would love to ban it. In the new "liberal totalitarian" state, only the Qur'an will be allowed.

just use regular household and yard products

[Anonymous Coward]

When I was a kid I used to mix #$%@#$%#$@ with ^*%^%%^* to make a great rocket fuel for launching magic markers. I did no serious damage... well there was the time I had 10 to 13 foot high flames coming out of a 7up can. After hosing out the fire it was about five years before a tree would grow to replace the nearby tree that died.

man those were the days

[circletimessquare]

dissolving ants in hydrochoric acid, pouring bleach into ammonia and giving myself chemical pneumonia from chlorine gas, setting the house on fire with burning trails of isopropyl alcohol, fiddling with the mercury drops i squeezed out of that weird battery

heh

Re:I've still got mine-CHEMICLES DECAY

[Nom du Keyboard]

I'm afraid to open the small chemical bottles to see if they're still good.

Yes, chemicles decay. It's just like food. Leave them around too long and they go rotten. They probably decay to atoms, which if left untouched decay to protrons, neutrons, and electrons. Leave those alone and they'll decay to quarks. Yeah, you've got to stay away from those old chemicles.

Dynamite decays too. Becomes to unstable that you look at it wrong and it can go off with a big bang! Avoid chemistry sets with dynamite in bottles.

Re:just taking care to take care.

[Anonymous Coward]

I think it's time you Yanks got a new national anthem.

"O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave"

Sadly I don't think that's true anymore.

Well, just like the Lawn Dart and the steel dash

[WheelDweller]

There are a lot of things that have changes. The Lawn Dart was the original version of the game college kids now use beanbags to throw into distant circles, usually holes in a wood box; I forget the name. Oh, no...it was a nearly foot-long object with about 1/2 of it metal, flung downrange to a yellow, tubular target. I'm sure someone, somewhere got hurt on them, but not if they were using them carefully. They weren't really sharp, outta the box.

And steel dashboards used to be the rage; I remember the one on our 1963 International Travellall was nothing but a flat plate, screwed to a rounded metal dash, and you could swap out gauges with your International tractor, if need be. It was very cool; huge, as fuel was cheap before the Carter Administration, came with a tailgate, an electric glass rear window, and plenty of room around the engine to work, under a hood that held itself up with springs. I'm amazed the danger of this rolling house-o-horrors didn't strike us on the salesfloor. :)

But things change; they have to. I can remember dozens of times hearing about a friend or relative mixing sodium and water because the effect was "cool". And probably the most popular effect was making stink bombs. But I suppose like the erector set before it, it's time had to come.

Now that GI Joe is becoming some watered-down blue-helmeted dweeb, when he was once a huge man-doll with a huge Jeep and weapons, I don't think the change in the toys seems to have followed the politically-correct crowd, too. And just for the record: No Conservative nor Republican was the source of this nonsense. Say what you will, "PC" is from the mouths of grown-up hippies.

Sorry, guys; you would have loved a childhood in the early 60's and 70's.

Re:just taking care to take care.

[ArcadeNut]

Good thing you didn't write it small like John Hancock did on the Constitution!

Re:man those were the days

[fyngyrz]

pouring bleach into ammonia and giving myself chemical pneumonia from chlorine gas

That's the stuff that burned out your ability to use capital letters, eh? I knew there had to be a reason...

Fun toys for kids

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm just buying the kids on my list the two types of drain cleaner (conveniently located next to each other at Home Depot -- NaOH (in both solutions and crystals) and H2SO4 solutions), and some commercial cleaning fluids (acetic acid, ammonia, HCl, CCl4.. oops, that one really is hard to get).

No instructions, though. If they can't figure out how to blow up the house on their own, they're no kids I want anything to do with.

Re:just taking care to take care.

[catalina]

Vin Diesel is a fairly hip, and current Hollywood type, and we all know that TinselTown is full of drug users?

Re:options

[Tablizer]

I wonder if this might signal an opportunity for some entrepeneur to develop a virtual chem lab.

"Java applet kills family dog; news at 11..."
       

Re:Mod Parent Up

[zmollusc]

Is that how it goes in the states?
UK Gov : We are nice and want to sort everything out for you.
People : Hey, the media say you are nice! You got my vote.
UK Gov : Hurrah!
People : Hey, everything is still crap.
UK gov : Look at picture of us being concerned whilst we line our own pockets.
People : Things aren't improving.
UK Gov : We will pay our friends a load of tax money to look concerned and talk on tv about the high level of concern.
People : Nobody is actually doing anything constructive.
UK gov : STFU! Look, a circus! And bread!
People : Ooooh! Cool!

Re:just taking care to take care.

[tgd]

Hmmm, anyone know the steps to turn meth back into pseudoephedrine Hcl? Its pretty easy to find meth these without needing an ID, wonder if you'd go to jail for turning it back into an OTC drug?

Re:just taking care to take care.

[mapkinase]

I am glad FBI discovered the sinister chemical plans of terrorists. Apparently the thickening plot started long time ago [wikipedia.org]:

In the history of science, the etymology of the word chemistry is a debatable issue.[1] It is agreed that the word "alchemy" is a European one, derived from Arabic.

Arabic. Do I have to spell it for you?

1. Introduce unsuspecting Westerners to chemistry
2. Make sure it becomes popular
3. USE THE CHEMICAL KITS TO BLOW UP OUR FREEDOMS!!!

Re:just taking care to take care.

[fprintf]

Gotta love the right to "bare arms". Be careful, though, because when you start to bare other more naughty bits you can get in trouble with the constabulary.

Re:just taking care to take care.

[PachmanP]

Let's elect men and women, not parties. Add instant-runoff voting, and we could actually start to get decent candidates.

I vote for parties. With kegs and scantily clad women.

Re:just taking care to take care.

[HomelessInLaJolla]

You just struck a chord [slashdot.org]. Let me know if you ever want to do an interview to make a movie script around that post.