The Woke! O.M.G.

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Full disclosure. I’ll define wokism as a state having a kind of asymptote- no final end-state has been identified. One can always increase their wokism in this description. With this in mind, I’ll confess to being partially woke according to the Merriam-Webster definition–

“aware of and actively attentive to important facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice)“

Wokism has become a very popular straw man in conservative circles. In contemporary rhetorical usage, to be woke is to have an allegiance to left-leaning ideals. As usual, words relating to the left are pejorative and meant to suggest a character or moral flaw. This is to aid in rendering a philosophical or policy stance null and void, often with a twist of humiliation. It is meant to delegitimize and cancel a left-leaning group or individual. Wikipedia defines cancel culture as-

“Cancel culture or call-out culture is a phrase contemporary to the late 2010s and early 2020s used to refer to a form of ostracism in which someone is thrust out of social or professional circles – whether it be online, on social media, or in person. Those subject to this ostracism are said to have been “cancelled”. The expression “cancel culture” has mostly negative connotations and is used in debates on free speech and censorship”.

It is interesting how those who make accusations of wokism are themselves guilty of the kind of cancel culture that they whine about so strenuously. Is the irony lost on them? I do believe it is.

Most of the public accusations of wokeness I’ve seen are in the context of a speaker desperately trying to be captured on video as having made the accusation in the most emphatic way possible as a sign of loyalty to doctrine.

A common big boogie man of wokeness are those aligning with the loosely organized groups like Antifa. Naturally, Antifa activists and everyone else left of center are smeared into one large group. Remember this if you ever decide to become a fascist dictator, you must have a maligned group at home to pile on blame for the woes of society. Hitler had the Jews and Lenin had the capitalists. In the USA, the boogie man today are those who may be liberal on immigration, enthused with the good that can be done with government, feel sympathy for the plight racial minorities and of LGBTQ+, concerned about the erosion of women’s rights and those who generally want to help the disadvantaged. All of these things can be heaped into a pile called “kindness”.

The Diesel Crack Spread

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Here is an intriguing headline for you. The diesel crack spread. What is it?

It is the amount of profit you can make from cracking a barrel of crude oil into shorter chain diesel fuel. The current crack spread reached a 30-year seasonal high of nearly $70 per barrel yesterday, compared to the less than $20 per barrel this time last year. Worse, US diesel stockpiles are at the lowest since 2000. Going into the winter season, we’re likely see diesel demand and prices increase as high natural gas prices cause some to switch to diesel in the northeast US.

Twittered

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So, after a long period of abstinence I recently added the Twitter to my daily feed from the interwebs. In a moment of weakness my resistance to Twitter folded like a lawn chair. Almost immediately I began to notice that my background level of social/political anxiety had increased.

On the plus side, I was pleasantly surprised to see all of the interesting chemistry-related content that appeared from day one. How did Twitter know that I really dig organic/organometallic chemistry having never experienced my internet shadow directly darkening their servers? I guess because I told them so. My shadow did darken their floors. In signing up, I did select a number of interests and this accounts for my connection to chemistry feed.

What is startling though is that they already had a good inkling of my philosophical and political leanings from day one. I do not recall disclosing this. While it is indeed an echo chamber, there are many tweets that articulate notions and ideas that I’ve had trouble putting into words myself. Clearer thinking is always a plus.

The side effect of hearing all of the “agreeable” echo chamber content is that my world view is more broadly negative and my general level of peaceful equilibrium has diminished. There is a constant rattling noise of cogent observations about negatives. While thankfully I do not receive tweets from Margorie Taylor Greene or her ilk, I do get many tweets with excoriating comments on her latest outrageous utterings and pathetic stunts. This just keeps me front and center with this malignant political movement #45 is leading.

There are certainly many negatives to be found in American history and culture. People from all quarters are plainly aware of this. What is less frequently shouted across the interwebs are the positives from our technologically advanced democratic republic. Okay, technology has indeed produced net negatives like nuclear weapons and anthropogenic climate change. But there is a vast wealth of good that has come from our culture as well. We dare not lose sight of this for fear of perishing from the ever-growing circular firing squad that we find ourselves in. Returning to fundamental principles is often a good exercise.

The positives we have produced are too numerous to count. But, how about this- why don’t we each strive to be grateful about some particular benefit every week? Yes, it seems pollyannish. I get that. But let’s train our minds to seek gratitude. This week I’m going to be grateful for our electrical distribution system. We’ve all grown quite accustomed to it and it continues to provide elevation in our quality of life.

Literacy in the Permian Basin Oil Field

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There was an interesting article cited from the Houston Chronicle in today’s news letter from the American Petroleum Institute. Here is the link. Unfortunately there is a pay wall.

From the API news letter- “Low levels of adult literacy and limited access to higher education in the Permian Basin are compounding the skilled labor shortage already facing oil and natural gas companies as the industry’s digital transformation creates a growing need for workers with specialized skills. Ray Perryman, founder of consulting firm The Perryman Group, estimates that Permian Basin residents could lose almost $425 million in potential earnings and $292 million in economic output unless literacy skills improve, a challenge that’s being addressed by initiatives such as the Permian Strategic Partnership.”

Even in the rough and tumble world of the oil patch, folks need to be a little more educated to keep it going forward.

I could crack wise about education in the Republican Evangelical Republic of Tejas, but I’ll leave it alone this time. This problem speaks for itself.

Simple PFAS Destruction Process Disclosed

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An article titled Low-temperature mineralization of perfluorocarboxylic acids, Dichtel and Houk, et al., Science, 18 August 2022, Vol 377, Issue 6608, pp. 839-845, DOI: 10.1126/science.abm8868, came out yesterday with a method for defluorination and chain scission of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Blessedly, the article is available without charge.

The article describes the mineralization of reactive perfluorocarboxylic anions with NaOH in water and dimethylsulfoxide, DMSO, at 80 to 120 C and ambient pressure.

Ok. If the prefixes “per” and “poly” are unknown to you, read below, otherwise skip ahead.

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First, some clarification of the name “PFAS” for you non-chemists out there. The “P” in PFAS stands for either prefix “poly” or “per”. Both prefixes appear in common use. The prefix “per” is used to abbreviate the name when some atom or fragment is attached at every possible alkyl (see below) carbon connection point in a molecule or specified fragment of the molecule. The much lengthier proper name would have a number of the position of each separate fluorine atom on the molecule. “Per” and “poly” saves everyone from having to trip over a great many tongue-twisting syllables.

Hydrocarbons consist of only hydrogen atoms on a carbon skeleton. Hydrocarbon carbon atoms can have 0 to 3 hydrogen atoms attached to each skeleton atom. The exception would be methane, CH4, which has 4 hydrogen atoms attached. “Alkyl” refers to a subclass of hydrocarbon fragments or molecules that are absent multiple bonds between atoms of a carbon skeleton. A molecule with a carbon skeleton having no multiple bonds between carbon atoms and linked to hydrogen atoms only is called an “alkane”. An alkane fragment that is connected to something else is called an “alkyl” group.

Gasp! So, a perfluoroalkyl molecule or fragment would have 2 or more of its hydrogen atoms replaced with 2 or more fluorine atoms on a given carbon atom (see definition below).

From Wikipedia “According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD): “PFASs are defined as fluorinated substances that contain at least one fully fluorinated methyl or methylene carbon atom (without any H/Cl/Br/I atom attached to it), i.e. with a few noted exceptions, any chemical with at least a perfluorinated methyl group (–CF3) or a perfluorinated methylene group (–CF2–) is a PFAS.“

The prefix “poly” is much simpler. It is meant to indicate that the word it is attached to has many units of something, as in polyfluoroalkyl, which means many fluorine atoms attached to alkyl carbon atoms. Or it could refer to a string of repeating units as in a polymer.

Outside of the narrow PFAS world, the prefix per in “perfluoroalkyl” would indicate in common usage that the alkyl fragment is completely saturated with fluorine atoms.

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If we were at the bar during happy hour slamming well drinks after a long day of shaking separatory funnels, washing glassware and trying to vacuum distill something useful out of tar, someone might have groused that the PFAS destruction process is simply a process where you heat the piss out of a DMSO/water mixture of NaOH and PFAS to destruction. Ok, the word they used is “mineralization” rather than the more chaotic sounding words “destruction” or “digestion”. Everyone has thermally decomposed a reaction mixture in the past. We would pause for a moment, shrug our shoulders and say “well, of course that works”. DMSO is a highly polar, high-boiling solvent which supports the formation of ionic decomposition products at elevated temperature. Kendall Houk even did some snazzy DFT calculations on decomposition mechanisms. Now, that is how to develop a new approach to decomposition! Get out the big stick of quantum mechanical computing power and swing it around! The rascals Dichtel and Houk worked it out first so we’d raise our glasses and drink in their honor. Here’s to you, boys and girls!

As we stagger out to the Uber for the ride home, somebody mutters “I wonder how far along the patent application is and who will be the assignee?”

Prey

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I watched the latest Predator action movie “Prey” on Hulu recently. The Predator franchise is at it’s core a SciFi-alien-slasher series. While slasher films are not my first choice of entertainment, I do enjoy a good SciFi story. The story takes place in 1719 North American Comanche country. The exact geography is not revealed. The cast is predominantly Native American and there is considerable spoken Comanche. French trappers make an appearance in the story and speak in French.

In the beginning the Predator is dropped off a space ship, by friends I assume, and left to have a grand ole time slaughtering the local wildlife. No camping gear or supplies, just weapons that are strapped on and nasty looking jaws.

A common flaw with stories set in the past or the future is anachronistic language. Vocabulary or contemporary cultural references slipping in from a different time can interfere with the disbelief that you’re trying hard to set aside. For example, the current SciFi series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, while entertaining, serves as a terrible example of lazy and shameless anachronisms. In Prey I didn’t notice much in the way of this. But, my knowledge of Comanche history and culture is vanishingly small.

If you want more background and details on the movie, I’d recommend the review in Vulture or IMDB. Or, just watch it. Earlier I said that Prey is a slasher film. Yes, there is plenty of slashing in a way that only the Predator can manage. There are white hats and black hats in the story and well as an appealing protagonist. Plenty of conflict to go around. One nasty bear has a particularly bad day. And the trappers? Well you’ll just have to watch it.

New oil refining capacity set for 2023

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Since 2019, the US has lost over 1 million barrels per day of oil refining capacity, according to Energy Intelligence. On top of this, 2023 will see an additional loss of 268,000 barrels per day refining capacity with the closure of the LyondellBasell refinery in Houston, TX. Loss of oil refining capacity translates directly into greater scarcity of fuel distillates, which exerts upward pressure on retail fuel prices.

But, there is good news as well. In 2023 there will be a combined 505,000 barrel per day uptick in refinery capacity according to Energy Intelligence. ExxonMobil will see an increase in capacity at its Beaumont, TX, refinery. Valero Energy will be adding two coker and sulfur recovery trains to increase their heavy sour crude oil throughput to provide a 55,000 barrel per day increase in fuels output at their Port Arthur, TX, plant.

The controversial Limetree Bay refinery in St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands, now owned by West Indies Petroleum Limited and Port Hamilton Refining and Transportation, LLLP, is scheduled to reopen, but information is scarce. Formerly the Hovensa facility, a joint venture of Hess Corp. and Petroleos de Venezuela SA, this refinery processed Libyan and Venezuelan crude and has supplied much of the US gulf coast. According to Energy Intelligence, the refinery is thought to be able to restart and produce 200,000 barrels per day. However, the former Hovensa facility has a recent history of losses, Clean Air Act violations and a bankruptcy sale. It doesn’t sound like the situation has fully played out yet.

Yellow Gold and Black Gold in the Ground

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Some years back I visited the large CC&V open pit gold mine by Cripple Creek, Colorado. Standing at the bottom of the pit we could see haul trucks busily transferring ore to a staging site. Suspecting that it might be overburden, I asked what they were doing. Our guide, a geologist, said that this ore would be staged as unrefined until the price of gold rose to a certain higher value. The whole ore body had been mapped 3-dimensionally so at any given location and level where they blast, they have a rough idea of how much gold is present. At the time, ~10 years back, the geologist said that each large haul truck was typically carrying about $10,000 worth of gold. I don’t know how accurate that is, but there you have it.

The Cripple Creek gold load was discovered about 1893 and occurs in the throat of an extinct volcano. The ore contains gold and calaverite, AuTe2, a gold telluride mineral. The gold and AuTe2 is so finely dispersed that most people who work at the mine have never actually seen the gold. The recovery method they use is cyanide extraction. Unfortunately, tellurium interferes with this extraction process and unavoidably some of the gold as the telluride is left in the tailings. The ore is said to contain about 1 gram of recoverable gold per ton.

What prompted this essay was a moment of clarity I had reading a notice from the Energy Information Administration, EIA. It is common to hear about oil reserves. One might suppose that this refers to the total proven reserves in the ground. But this article referred to “economically recoverable oil resources”. When oil reserves are expressed in this way, the recoverable oil then becomes a function of the current oil prices. If oil prices are low, then the reserves are considered smaller than when oil prices are high. It seems so obvious but I never gave it a thought before. As with gold, the lesson is to pay attention to the type of reserves being discussed.

Top Gun: Maverick

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History. I’m preparing myself for the upcoming May 27th release of Top Gun: Maverick. To be blunt, I’m still disappointed by the first movie which was released in 1986, so I’m bracing to be disappointed again. Make no mistake, I am an aviation enthusiast and I did really enjoy the flying action scenes with the F-14’s in the first movie. The flying shots were well thought out and captured on film. So, what’s not to like? Well … the rest of the story. The content that is left over when you take out the aircraft and the flying. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times said it best, “”Movies like Top Gun are hard to review because the good parts are so good and the bad parts are so relentless.”

Current. On to the recent release, Top Gun: Maverick. As before the flying sequences were quite good. But again it was against the backdrop of, well, a dumb story. As before the story is written to feature studly macho bravado against the lone-wolf instinct on the part of Maverick. The strenuously independent behavior of Maverick flies in the face of military discipline and is where I part company with the story.

The old timer, Maverick, is finally brought in to lead a group of Top Gun fighter jocks to bomb a highly defended hard target in what looks like a deep crater with impossibly steep walls. Among the best of the best, Maverick is regarded by old timers to be the very best despite his undisciplined ways. Of course, the new generation of fighter pilots are skeptical.

A lot happens … yada, yada, … love interest … yada, yada … guilt trip …. etc, etc … steal a fighter from the enemy … resolve to overcome adversity one more time … zip, zing, zowie … triumph!!

A movie is entertainment that requires you to set aside disbelief. Very often I can do it. But this time I couldn’t.

Cracker Barrel vs Cry Babies

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I have nothing constructive to add here, but it’s just too funny to leave alone. A scandal has hit the news. Cracker Barrel has announced they are offering a new plant-based sausage on their menu. It has resulted in an flood of outrage on the interwebs. Here in the land of the free and the home of the brave, indignant customers are venting their outrage over an optional menu item as a menacing sign of what is to come.

The US Navy may be adding it to their menu, sparking righteous indignation from our very own pistol packin’ Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO). It was proposed for the 2023 defense budget. Boebert cried out that it is “liberal woke garbage”. It’s a new food choice for our sailors, Lauren. You are crying wolf again.

According to a source that I don’t trust and never quote, the New York Post, Tejas Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) voted against it in 2021. In a Twitter thread, he exclaimed

“A woke military that drafts our daughters, wastes resources on Green New Deal garbage, holds no one accountable for Afghanistan disaster, and prioritizes playing leftist politics over destroying our enemies,” he wrote in the thread. “Rep. Roy voted no.”

Oh! The horror of it! A vegan meat substitute is an example of wokeness, they rage. To be woke is to be aware of social injustice and to tolerate the choices of other people. But to the lunatic fringe, it is a crime against MAGA land.

It will be interesting to see what the restaurant does about this, if anything. It is an amusing tempest in a teapot.