Sciencemadness Discussion Board

On the related topics thread proliferations...

UnintentionalChaos - 22-7-2008 at 09:56

Ritter, I hate to sound like the bad guy here, but do you think you could keep all these posts about incapacitating agents in the same thread? You have several threads on the first page of this forum and quite frankly, I think you're catering to a very limited audience that is interested in this stuff. Also, coming from a semi-paranoid mindset, I am sure someone from the government watches this site and I'd rather not see something happen to anyone here because of the explosion of incapacitating agent and chemical weapon threads. :cool:

Edit by Nicodem: This thread was split off from 'One of the most potent lung irritants known'. I think it is better not to derange that thread and since members tried to express their view on the multiplication of similar topic threads by Ritter (mind that he is not the only one with this tendency!), I thought to rather move this to Forum matters.

[Edited on 23/7/2008 by Nicodem]

Sauron - 22-7-2008 at 10:53

While I am rather disinterested in arsenicals, I must say that Ritter is posting about a public US patent document disclosure, so there is no secrecy or security issue. It's in the open. The government can hardly complain when they were the ones who put this information out "on the street" in the first place. They have the power to place patents under a secrecy order when they deem it appropriate. In this case obviously they didn't do that.

That being said, no one but me usually participates in Ritter's threads and I won't be adding to this one. Just not my cup of poison.

Ritter - 22-7-2008 at 10:53

Quote:
Originally posted by UnintentionalChaos
Ritter, I hate to sound like the bad guy here, but do you think you could keep all these posts about incapacitating agents in the same thread? You have several threads on the first page of this forum and quite frankly, I think you're catering to a very limited audience that is interested in this stuff. Also, coming from a semi-paranoid mindset, I am sure someone from the government watches this site and I'd rather not see something happen to anyone here because of the explosion of incapacitating agent and chemical weapon threads. :cool:


All of this information is in the public domain. Patent means 'open.'

A number of subscribers to this forum are interested in this stuff if only from both historical & technical perspectives. I certainly don't advocate anyone actually practicing any of this chemistry. This arsine, for example, would be a difficult project for even a well equipped lab staffed with trained synthetic chemists.

I happen to be researching this particular area of chemical technology for my own purposes & only post interesting bits & pieces here.

The different threads relate to different series where those interested in structure-activity relationships in biologically active compounds where lumping all these agents into one thread would just be making things harder to digest.

If my posts bother you, I suggest you not read them.



[Edited on 23-7-2008 by Ritter]

ScienceSquirrel - 22-7-2008 at 14:11

I find Ritter and Sauron's stuff on nerve agents etc interesting once in a while.

I can't see anyone carrying out this sort of chemistry without a lot of gear and money.

The preparation of potassium chlorate, hydrazine sulphate etc is widely discussed on this board.

Cheap and practical home chemistry that could result in a serious accident :(

[Edited on 22-7-2008 by ScienceSquirrel]

Klute - 22-7-2008 at 16:04

I don't want to divert this thread, but I would like to say I agree with UnintentionalChaos, about the large amount of threads that could be merged. I'm obviously not suggesting merging any CWC threads together, but new ideas on certain class of compounds could be kept together. Multiple threads to present one compound is jsut a bit too proliferating IMHO, and actually people with limited interest in the subject might simply stop reading them, while a few, more general thread would sum up your contributions, there often some discussion jumping from one thread to another, and it can all be a little to dispersed for people that didn't follow every post.

This is just a suggestion, not a critic. I just think it could be beneficial for you and everyone.

Ritter - 22-7-2008 at 17:05

Quote:
Originally posted by Klute
I don't want to divert this thread, but I would like to say I agree with UnintentionalChaos, about the large amount of threads that could be merged. I'm obviously not suggesting merging any CWC threads together, but new ideas on certain class of compounds could be kept together. Multiple threads to present one compound is jsut a bit too proliferating IMHO, and actually people with limited interest in the subject might simply stop reading them, while a few, more general thread would sum up your contributions, there often some discussion jumping from one thread to another, and it can all be a little to dispersed for people that didn't follow every post.

This is just a suggestion, not a critic. I just think it could be beneficial for you and everyone.


Anyone not interested in these matters is free to not read them. Those who do choose to read them may further their knowledge.

[Edited on 22-7-2008 by Ritter]

Sauron - 23-7-2008 at 04:15

I've been on this forum for going on two years. There were a number of threads already in existance on various chemical warfare agents which seemed to me to indicate a certain level of interest in the general topic, although generally the technical competence in those old threads was not particularly impressive. (As a generalization of course.)

Ritter has been around here a short time and has posted more such threads in that time than I ever did in a much longer period. This in and of itself is not a bad thing IMO. However, opening a thread to post a single structure or reaction scheme that is not of general interest, as evidenced by the lack of response from other members to that thread, ought to be a lesson to the thread author. Of course he can't predict with any reliability whether or not any subject will be of general interest. But, if he continues in this course and no one comes out to play, so to speak, then maybe he ought to consider desisting. Such threads will rapidly descend and disappear.

OPAs are of more general interest because they are of concern to a number of localities where stockpiles are being destroyed. Their low level long term health effects are of concern to veterans who were exposed to them in voluntary testing, those who may have been exposed in the first Persian Gulf war, and so on.

Deleriants are of general though somewhat lesser interest because of their pharmacological potential for therapeutic applications.

Arsenicals appear to be of particularly low interest. The particular one Ritter dug up is probably of interest to him because he is by background a fluorine chemist. But he may be the only one on the forum.

It has been mooted that posts of this nature might raise the profile of the forum in a negative way. However the same argument is a dangerous one because it can most certainly be made about posts concerning energetic materials, "recreational" drugs particularly those which are widely prohibited by law (and not just in the US), etc. Censorship is a slippery slope.

The recent large scale multinational raids in Europe appear to have been aimed at energetics and recreationals, and HCN precursors. Cyanides are a common topic of widespread interest on the forum. The fact that chemicals were legally possesed and legally acquired did not seem to deter the police from confiscating them.

As far as I am concerned, chemistry is chemistry is chemistry. Stay away from weaponization and stick to chemistry and all is fair game. Is that not the policy?

[Edited on 23-7-2008 by Sauron]