Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

On the credit union; Yes! Send them a check for $0.00 and put "Zero dollars and zero cents" in the appropriate place. It's twisted and bizarre, but this comes of people trusting computer programs they don't understand to do their thinking for them. Somewhere in their system is a note that you are in debt to them for an amount that disappears in the rounding, ie., less than $0.005!

The computer will Never let go without paperwork being sent unless a clue falls on someone (not too likely, sadly). A check for nada is cheap to avoid the hassle and even potential damage to your credit rating. Just because it's inherently insane doesn't detract from the fact that it's real.

And on caffiene being a drug: Not only IS it a drug, it is specifically a psychotropic, highly psychoactive one at that. In the normal dosage ranges, this isn't so obvious, but I once (a decade ago or so now) made a small error in my lab and found out about it the hard way, in spades ...

I had been working with various chemicals, and the last one was a potent catalyst, platinum black, an oxide of platinum that tends to encourage biological protein reactions Hugely. I washed my hands rather too quickly and evidently missed completely cleaning off a fingertip.

A few minutes later I went up to the kitchen from my lab and made a strong cup of Earl Grey tea. As I put sugar in, a drop of tea slopped over the edge of the cup. Without conscious thought, I scooped it up with my finger and licked it off. Then I took a sip of the tea.

As the tea coursed over the point on my tongue where the fingertip had just touched, the walls started to slither! Colors wavered in ways all too characteristic of LSD-type effects. My first thought was "Who the HELL dosed my tea!?" Then it occurred to me that I had just made it, in a clean cup and with tea from a sealed box. This didn't leave much room for anyone other than moi to have done it. Eventually (after the couple of hours of interesting visual and related neurological effects wore off), I did a bit of research and concluded that the platinum black had amplified the caffiene by a factor of 5-10 thousand in potency. Effectively very much like the way you can amplify an utterly trivial amount of cocaine into a kick that will rock the brain Hard by making it into crack.

That I was Very lucky is clear. On the other paw, it was exceedingly educational, both on catalysts in general and on just how interesting the chemistry of caffiene and similar compounds is. Do take them seriously.

Take care,
---- Rattler

PS: WARNING! Platinum black is Also a very deadly poison in any significant quantity for the same reason; it completely unbalances any biological reactions nearby. So I got only a tiny amount, probably less than a few micrograms, and it was saturated out of functionality as a catalyst almost immediately. Otherwise, I might well not still be around to mention it.