Monthly Archives: October 2010

Staarkrakken Institute to Change the Standard Taper Joint

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Guapo, Arizona.  10/1/10.  The Staarkrakken Institute at Pultroon University in cooperation with ThermoFissure Corporation have announced the development of a new ground glass joint standard for the 21st century. The laboratory glassware joints to be retired initially are the 14/20, 24/40, and 29/42 joints. The taper angle will be raised by 1.8 degrees on all subsequent designs. Ball joint design standards will change as well. Look for ball joint standards to change in early 2014.  Additionally, the outside diameter of the joint will be increased, so Keck clips will also undergo a redesign.

This change is the result of years of marketing studies designed to determine how satisfied chemists were with the familiar standard taper joint. Market researchers found that customers rarely had strong opinions about their familiar standard taper joints or simply expressed “boredom” with the topic. So, in an effort to stimulate fresh demand, executives from ThermoFissure Corporation approached the Staarkrakken Institute for design studies that would lead to stimulated sales of lab glassware.

Olaf Staarkrakken, Director of the Staarkrakken Institute and grandson of founder Nels Staarkrakken, commented “this is the right time for change in the worlds laboratories. We believe that this upgrade in glassware will strengthen joints everywhere. The time is now and we’re proud to lead the way.”

Robert “Stone” Hanusly, Director of Sales and Marketing at ThermoFissure, announced the arrival of the Fissure brand of laboratory glassware using the new standard taper joints. Hanusly added that the Fissure brand is expected to be a big hit among R&D workers and that they have built up their inventory of Fissure glassware in anticipation of high demand. Mr. Hanusly commented that a wide array of adapters will be available.

Civic Hygiene

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I like to check in on Bruce Schneier’s website now and then. He is a security guy who seems to have a balanced view of these things.  In particular, his post on wire tapping the internet is insightful.

It’s bad civic hygiene to build technologies that could someday be used to facilitate a police state. No matter what the eavesdroppers say, these systems cost too much and put us all at greater risk.  Bruce Schneier, 10/1/10.

The problem with having massive infrastructure for threat assessment is that they’ll always find something, or at least imagine something. It is in the nature of the state security apparatus to rank its survival highest and to take measures to delegate resources to that end first.  

Just how much sympathy should citizens have in regard to the reach and efficiency of state security organs?  Civil liberties are more important than clerical efficiency.  Americans have been watching too many cop shows on television. It feeds a paranoia seated deep in the brainstem and leads to expectations that discount civil liberty.