HexFailure's New Writeups

The Truce (thing)

2003-05-29T16:29:15Z

In 1945 the Italian chemist Primo Levi was liberated from the camps at Auschwitz by the arrival of Russian troops. Within a short while of his return to Turin he had written the astonishing and essential If This Is a Man (in America titled Survival in Auschwitz), a memoir and analysis of the year he spent as a Jewish prisoner in the camp, culminating in his liberation. Though the book is now rightly held as one of the defining works of the 20th century, Levi's rise to literary fame was gradual, and after publication he returned to his old life as an industrial chemist.

Not until 1962, inspired by increasing acclaim and self-confidence, did he write The Truce (in America, The Reawakening), the story of his nine-month journey home from the camps. Like If This Is a Man, the book is written without pretence, self-pity or gratuitous anger; instead, Levi presents a rational, thoughtful analysis of a journey that was frustratingly long but full of event.

For…

ionic compound (thing)

2003-05-27T22:36:58Z

All ionic compounds, and therefore most solids, are crystals. That is, they consist of a regular, infinitely repeated array of anions and cations: a crystal structure. The arrangement of this crystal structure is not the same for all ionic compounds; rather, it varies depending on the nature (principally the size) of the ions which form the compound. The crystal structures of many ionic solids can be rationalized into about eight principal types.

First it is best to review the basics of crystallography. The structures of all crystalline solids are described by a regular array of atoms (or ions). For every structure there is a smallest possible set of atoms, the unit cell, which when infinitely reproduced completely describes the structure. The unit cell is in turn described by a Bravais lattice, an array of points in 3-D space which has the property that every point has an identical surrounding arrangement of points. The Bravais lattice is a…

3-Way Tie (for Last) (thing)

2003-05-19T17:48:34Z

Released in 1985 on SST, 3-Way Tie (for Last) was the fourth and final album by the Minutemen, one of L.A.'s most creative and eclectic '80s punk groups. The band had already made punk history with the 50-song masterpiece Double Nickels on the Dime, and now they were relaxing a little.

The self-deprecating title is a good hint that this was one of their more laid-back records. A lot of this influence came from their contemporaries the Meat Puppets, to whom Minutemen singer D. Boon was paying close attention. In trying to emulate their loose style of playing, he conflicted somewhat with guitarist Mike Watt, who preferred a more disciplined approach. On the other hand, Boon was still writing political songs (leftist, of course) while Watt was interested in more experimental lyricism. The result was an extremely diverse and disparate record with some moments great, others forgettable.

Perhaps the most notable thing to long-time Minutemen fans was that the songs were getting so…

Barringer Crater (thing)

2003-05-19T15:32:15Z

Barringer Crater, often called Meteor Crater, is a large and striking geological structure in the northern Arizona desert. The crater, which is roughly circular, is about 1.2 kilometres across and 200 metres deep, with a rocky, substantial rim rising around 45m above ground level. Lying in one of the driest parts of the country, the structure is the best preserved meteoritic crater on Earth and was the first terrestrial crater to be ascribed to meteorite impact.

For over 100 years the crater has been among the most discussed and debated geological structures ever found. The area around the crater is strewn with lumps of iron, and in the 19th century it was proposed that there might be enough iron beneath the surface to justify mining. It was then that the debate about the crater's origin began. It was soon recognised that the crystal structure of the iron identified it as meteoritic in origin, and the obvious implication was that the crater had been formed by a meteorite; but no one had…

25th Hour (thing)

2003-05-01T12:19:10Z

Released: 2002
Director: Spike Lee
Screenplay: David Benioff, based on his novel
Running time: 135 minutes
Starring: Edward Norton, Barry Pepper, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rosario Dawson, Anna Paquin

Synopsis: The life of a successful young Manhattanite is about to be torn apart after he is sentenced to seven years for selling drugs. His final day of freedom plays out as a reflection on personal responsibility and on America itself.

25th Hour is the latest film from Spike Lee, starring Edward Norton as a small-time drug dealer who is about to be put away for seven years after the police finally get to him. The theme of crime and violence in New York City is hardly a new one for a Spike Lee movie (remember Do the Right Thing, Clockers, and to an extent He Got Game). But the difference - as no end of critics and enthusiasts have pointed out - is that this is the first major film to be set…

ether (thing)

2003-04-29T15:52:16Z

"Ether" is the familiar name for the compound discussed above, but it is also the name for a class of organic compounds of which diethyl ether, or ethoxyethane, is the best known.

The ether functional group is R-O-R', where R and R' are two (not necessarily identical) alkyl groups, e.g. methyl, CH₃. In other words, ethers are compounds in which an oxygen atoms bonds singly to two alkyl groups. Compare esters, where the bridging oxygen atom connects an alkyl group to an acyl group:

 
                            O
  |       |                 ||      |
- C - O - C -             - C - O - C -
  |       |                         |

 an ether                    an ester

In official nomenclature, simple chain ethers are named by splitting the structure R-O-R' into two parts: one which contains the oxygen atom (R-O), and the other which does not (R'). The first part is an alkoxy group named after the corresponding alkyl group: CH₃O is methoxy (after…