戰績 - 殺戮

前晚的廁所入侵者

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR)

This is the recently installed nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) instrument in the university.
The actual instrument is the round thing in the middle, the rectangular machine next to it is its processor.
The black part on top-middle of the instrument is where you insert the NMR tube for sample analysis. (and that's why the orange step is placed there)

I won't go into the details of how NMR works, I'll leave that to Wikipedia.
Just to let you know the NMR spectroscopy is an important tool for organic chemists to determine a compound's structure.
For organic compound structure determination, a IR spectra, MS spectra and NMR spectra will be needed.

Tools that organic chemists use to determine molecular structures:
Mass Spectrometry - molecular size and formula
Infrared Spectroscopy - functional group present
Ultraviolet Spectroscopy - conjugated pi electro system present
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy - map of carbon-hydrogen framework


Further reading:

1. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy
2. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Spectroscopy

The Vampire Test - Are you one of Us?

At The Shooting Range 18-09-2010

I planned to go to the range with my housemate last weekend, but I ended up sleeping the whole day. (She was disappointed.)
A week later, we finally did it.
It's not my first time going to the range, but it was my housemate's first time and she was super excited about it.
We rented a .22 bolt-action rifle with 50 rounds and a .40 Glock 22 with 30 rounds.
The range officer gave us a wooden rifle first, after I tried holding it - "nope, too heavy", so I asked for the plastic one.
Then what happened was of course "Bang! Bang! Bang!" with the 50 rounds.
I didn't shoot well today and I wasn't very happy about it.
My housemate didn't really enjoyed it either because she couldn't hold and aim the rifle properly. (One time, she fired 5 rounds and there were only 2 holes on the paper)
Next - the legendary Glock handgun.
Unfortunately, the Glock 22 was busy (Damn! Why is it so popular!) and we tried a Beretta instead (Yeah Italian!).
It's a .40 Beretta 90two and "Wow!" the bullets are big (well, not super big but double the size of .22 if you do the maths).
She went for the first shot, "Bang!" she was terrified by the recoil and totally missed the paper target.
Then I tried. I didn't totally miss the target, I shot 4 rounds and there were 4 holes on it, but on the corner of the paper.
My precision did improve after a couple of rounds, but because the recoil was a bit too strong for me, so I kept breaking my wrist after I squeeze the trigger which resulted in either not hitting the bulls-eye or missing holes.
Okay, end of storytelling. Go photos!

.22 Bolt-action Rifle:

.40 Beretta 90two:

Holes:

Her Rifle Shooting (10 rounds were shot)

(Mine) Embarrassing...

(Mine) More embarrassing...

At least I made 4 holes with 4 bullets...

This is not the end...

A Strange World - Introduction

We live in a strange world. 

We perceive the world with our sensory organs, 

as this is the only way to know about the world around us; 

however, our senses often deceive us, 

along with the distorted views of reality that we have been taught since childhood.

We do not readily perceive the world as it is.

Rather, we live in a distance from the world that we remain in the midst of.

I am going to start writing a "Strange World" series, exploring the world in a different way.

Stay tuned.