Josiah Ramsay Johnston

Theres a highway in my state called senator Hoyle highway,. I decided to investigate who this senator hoyle was to deserve to have a highway – which i had to ride on to and from the ariport in charlotte. This is what i found;

Approproations Subcommittee on General Government and Information Technoglogy Vice chariman,

Joint Legislative utility review committee Chairman

I took these facts to mean that in this day and age it takes a mere perusal of the regulations regarding the running of private energy companies and the procurement of giri-laptops from the east to get a highway named after you.

They range from big to enormous, have a blue/gray skin, and taper at the ends. Like all winter squash, they have an inedible skin, large, fully developed seeds that must be scooped out, and a dense flesh. They are generally peeled and boiled, cut up and roasted, or cut small and steamed or sautéed.
That being siad, these things look like dreadlocks on an iceplanetalien…

Heinrich Himmler, S.S. officer, organized the greatest-ever expedition in search of Atlantis.

Annealing: The controlled cooling of blown glass.

Definition of Pleochromism:

The property of an anisotropic crystal to absorb different wavelengths of light, and thus have different colors, depending on its orientation

Expresses the sense of Congress that: (1) the anti-secession law of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) provides a legal justification for the use of force against Taiwan, altering the status quo in the region, and thus is of grave concern to the United States; (2) the President of the United States should direct all appropriate U.S. officials to reflect the grave concern with which the United States views the passage of China’s anti-secession law in particular, and the growing Chinese military threats to Taiwan in general, to their counterpart officials in the Government of the PRC; and (3) the U.S. Government should reaffirm its policy that the future of Taiwan should be resolved by peaceful means and with the consent of the people of Taiwan, and continue to encourage dialogue between Taiwan and the PRC.

S.J.RES.15 (Brownback) A joint resolution to acknowledge a long history of official depredations and ill-conceived policies by the United States Government regarding Indian tribes and offer an apology to all Native Peoples on behalf of the United States.

Calls upon the President to issue a proclamation: (1) recognizing the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe; (2) reasserting the U.S. commitment to full implementation of the Helsinki Final Act; and (3) urging all participating countries to abide by their Helsinki obligations.

Calls upon the President to convey to all Helsinki signatories that respect for human rights, democratic principles, and economic liberty continue to be vital elements in promoting a new era of democracy, peace, and unity in the region covered by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

Hiddenite is an attractive gem mineral, but is rare and for the most part known only to collectors. The green color varies from a yellowish to a bluish green and can even approach the beauty of an emerald green. Hiddenite is one of two gemstone varieties of spodumene. The other variety is pink and is called kunzite. Hiddenite is strongly pleochroic, meaning there is a color intensity variation when a crystal of it is viewed from different directions. The top and bottom of the crystal reveal the deepest colors and knowlegable gem cutters take advantage of its effects. Hiddenite was exclusively (until recent finds in Madagascar and Brazil) found in Alexander Co., North Carolina and was first discovered there in the latter part of the nineteenth century. Due to hiddenite’s cleavage, splintery fracture and strong pleochroism, it is considered a real gem cutter’s challenge

Alkaloids

Many of the earliest isolated pure compounds with biological activity were alkaloids. This was due to the ease of isolation. The nitrogen generally makes the compound basic and the compound exists in the plant as a salt. Thus, alkaloids are often extracted with water or mild acid and then recovered as crystalline material by treatment with base.

Prior to approximately 300 years ago, malaria was the scourge of Europe, likely having been introduced through the Middle East. Malaria is caused by protozoa of the genus Plasmodium, contained as spores in the gut of the Anopheles mosquitos, which then spreads the spores to humans when it bites. As the Spanish and Portugese explorers began to colonize South America, they discovered a cure for malaria known to the native Indians. This was the bark of the Cinchona trees. The use of Cinchona bark to treat malaria was first reported in Europe in 1633, and the first bark reached Rome about 12 years later. Teas made from the bark cured people suffering from malaria, one of the major scourges in Europe at the time, and the bark became known as Jesuit’s bark. Because of the philosophical differences between Protestants and Catholics, many Protestants refused to be treated with the bark. One of the most prominent Protestants of the time, Oliver Cromwell, reportedly died of malaria because of this stubbornness.

Isolated originally from Cinchona succirubra, quinine is one of 31 alkaloids with related structures, and the principal antimalarial compound, in the plant. (Alkaloids have been defined in various ways, but one definition comes fairly close to actuality. An alkaloid is a plant-derived compound that is toxic or physiologically active, contains a nitrogen in a heterocyclic ring, is basic, has a complex structure, and is of limited distribution in the plant kingdom.) Malaria is still a major problem throughout the world, and, although synthetic antimalarial drugs largely supplanted quinine as the treatment for malaria during World War II, quinine is often once again the drug of choice as strains of malaria have become resistant to the synthetic drugs. However, the search for other antimalarial drugs from natural sources has also continued. One of the most promising new drugs is qinghaosu, isolated from Artemisia annua, a sesquiterpene (see below) which contains a unique trioxane structure.

Among the most famous of the alkaloids are the Solanaceae or tropane alkaloids. Plants containing these alkaloids have been used throughout recorded history as poisons, but many of the alkaloids do have valuable pharmaceutical properties. Atropine, the racemic form of hyoscyamine, comes from Atropa belladonna (deadly nightshade) and is used to dilate the pupils of the eye. Atropine is also a CNS stimulant and is used as a treatment for nerve gas poisoning. Scopolamine, another member of this class is used as a treatment for motion sickness. Cocaine, from Erythroxylum coca, is closely related in structure, is also a CNS stimulant, and has been used as a topical anesthetic in opthamology. It is also a drug of abuse. Cocaine was found in very small amounts in the original Coca-Cola formula, but was not the main concern of the USDA at the time. Caffeine was considered to be the major problem with the drink. Datura stramonium (Jimsonweed), a plant found in Virginia contains similar compounds.

The ergot alkaloids come from a fungus, Claviceps purpurea, which is a parasite on rye and wheat. The ergot alkaloids are responsible for ergotism (St. Anthony’s fire), which manifests itself as gangrenous ergotism, resulting in loss of limbs, or convulsive ergotism, resulting in hallucinations. In both cases, death usually follows and outbreaks of ergotism caused 11,000 deaths in Russia as late as 1926. Today the problem is recognized and controlled. Some of the ergot alkaloids have been used to treat migraine headaches and sexual disorders in clinical applications. The most famous of these alkaloids is lysergic acid diethylamide, LSD, a powerful hallucinogen that is a synthetic derivative of the natural products. Similar alkaloids, particularly ergine, are also found in Mexican morning glories, such as Ipomeoa tricolor.

The morphine alkaloids, derived from the opium poppy, Papaver somniferum, are powerful pain relievers and narcotics. The narcotic activity of P. somniferum was noted on Sumerian tablets in 3500 B.C., making it one of the oldest drugs known. Opium is the dried latex of the seed heads of P. somniferum, and has been used as an analgesic (eliminates or relieves pain) and narcotic (induces sleep or drowsiness) in preparations such as laudanum and paregoric. Morphine is the principal alkaloid and was first isolated between 1803 and 1806. It was widely used for pain relief beginning in the 1830’s, but was also recognized as being addictive. In an attempt to make morphine less addictive, Bayer chemists acetylated the hydroxyl groups to produce diacetylmorphine. This was marketed as a non-addictive pain reliever under the trade name Heroin for about two years in the early 1900’s, until it was recognized to be more addictive than morphine. Other derivatives of morphine have been developed and found use as opiate antagonists or as animal tranquilizers.

Vincristine, one of the most potent antileukemic drugs in use today, was isolated in a search for diabetes treatments from Vinca rosea (now Catharanthus roseus) in the 1950’s along with vinblastine, a homologue in which the N-methyl group is oxidized to an aldehyde moiety. This is such a complex structure that it is still isolated from the plant (the Madagascan periwinkle) today rather than prepared by synthesis. The small change in structure, however, causes a significant change in pharmoacological efficacy. Vincristine (leurocristine, VCR) is most effective in treating childhood leukemias and non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas, where vinblastine (vincaleukoblastine, VLB) is used to treat Hodgkin’s disease.

Sir William Ramsay – Biography
William Ramsay was born in Glasgow on October 2, 1852, the son of William Ramsay, C.E. and Catherine, née Robertson. He was a nephew of the geologist, Sir Andrew Ramsay.

Until 1870 he studied in his native town, following this with a period in Fittig’s laboratory at Tübingen until 1872. While there his thesis on orthotoluic acid and its derivatives earned him the degree of doctor of philosophy.

On his return to Scotland in 1872 he became assistant in chemistry at the Anderson College in Glasgow and two years later secured a similar position at the University there. In 1880 he was appointed Principal and Professor of Chemistry at University College, Bristol, and moved on in 1887 to the Chair of Inorganic Chemistry at University College, London, a post which he held until his retirement in 1913.

Ramsay’s earliest works were in the field of organic chemistry. Besides his doctor’s dissertation, about this period he published work on picoline and, in conjunction with Dobbie, on the decomposition products of the quinine alkaloids (1878-1879). From the commencement of the eighties he was chiefly active in physical chemistry, his many contributions to this branch of chemistry being mostly on stoichiometry and thermodynamics. To these must be added his investigations carried on with Sidney Young on evaporation and dissociation (1886-1889) and his work on solutions of metals (1889).

It was however in inorganic chemistry that his most celebrated discoveries were made. As early as 1885-1890 he published several notable papers on the oxides of nitrogen and followed those up with the discovery of argon, helium, neon, krypton, and xenon. Led to the conclusion by different paths and, at first, without working together, both Lord Rayleigh and Sir William Ramsay succeeded in proving that there must exist a previously unknown gas in the atmosphere. They subsequently worked in their separate laboratories on this problem but communicated the results of their labours almost daily. At the meeting of the British Association in August 1894, they announced the discovery of argon.

While seeking sources of argon in the mineral kingdom, Ramsay discovered helium in 1895. Guided by theoretical considerations founded on Mendeleev’s periodic system, he then methodically sought the missing links in the new group of elements and found neon, krypton, and xenon (1898).

Yet another discovery of Ramsay (in conjunction with Soddy), the importance of which it was impossible to foresee, was the detection of helium in the emanations of radium (1903).

With regard to the scientific honours which – besides the Nobel Prize have been awarded to Ramsay, mention can be made of a great number of honorary memberships, viz. of the Institut de France, the Royal Academies of Ireland, Berlin, Bohemia, The Netherlands, Rome, Petrograd, Turin, Roumania, Vienna, Norway and Sweden; the Academies of Geneva, Frankfurt and Mexico; the German Chemical Society; the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society of London; the Académie de Médecine de Paris; the Pharmaceutical Society, and the Philosophical Societies of Manchester, Philadelphia and Rotterdam. He also received the Davy and Longstaff Medals, honorary doctorate of Dublin University, the Barnardo Medal and a prize of $ 5,000 from the Smithsonian Institution, a prize of Fr. 25,000 from France (together with Moissan), and the A.W. Hoffmann Medal in gold (Berlin, 1903). He was created K.C.B.(Knight Commander of the Order of Bath) in 1902, and was also a Knight of the Prussian order “Pour le mérite”, Commander of the Crown of Italy, and Officer of the Legion d’Honneur of France.

In 1881 Ramsay married Margaret, the daughter of George Stevenson Buchanan. They had one son and one daughter. His recreations were languages and travelling.

Sir William Ramsay died at High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, on July 23, 1916.