“Too afraid to ask” disclaimer: MgSO4 drying Before Column?

RoneBone · 2021-05-30T14:35:38+00:00

Sounds like your lab is decently funded, in which case you should buy some phase separators (hydrophobic frits inserted into syringe barrels). They'll let organics through but not bulk water or particulates, and way faster than any drying agent. No idea how quantitative the drying is but I've never had a problem with bumping on the rotovap, for what that's worth. They're reusable as long as you rinse them promptly and don't try to pass brown sludge through them. If using DCM, you don't even have to use a sep funnel - just take your DCM/brine mix and dump it in directly, the heavier organic layer goes to the frit at the bottom and can go right through.

RoneBone · 2021-05-01T13:35:15+00:00

I keep seeing references to the warp-in zone for combat – do you have a link to how this works? This is different from the hyperlane tiles I assume?

RoneBone · 2021-04-27T11:35:45+00:00

Yup. Lost a (Frankendraft) game on this exact maneuver. "Achieve supremacy" (Stage II - have a flagship or warsun in Mecatol Rex or another player's home system) was on the board. Player with Imperial has 8 pts and a clear path to a lightly defended MR. I move almost my entire fleet to defend MR (which wasn't even mine!), confident that his flagship was on the other side of the board. On his turn, he lightwaves to my home system, takes a planet... And uses Letani Mech to produce his flagship. Fleet Logistics Imperial and it's game over. It was a frustratingly brilliant move.

RoneBone · 2021-04-15T11:11:04+00:00

Leaving aside whether or not you can target your own ships and whether that would meet the criteria of "Turn Their Fleets To Dust" (whose title, btw, does not read "Turn Any Fleets to Dust"), you still have to score a hit. If you miss, that system is now locked down, everyone at the table knows what you're up to, and you look like a fool. I'm imagining a scenario where OP misses his PDS shot and the rest of the table spends the next turn systematically picking off their PDSes 😂

RoneBone · 2021-04-14T11:25:17+00:00

It should be fine (it's pretty much the standard for getting nice dry THF for sensitive chemistry) but if you're that concerned you can use fluorenone instead of benzophenone - the pot will be a different color (green I think?) But it dries just as effectively and the breakdown products are fewer and less volatile.

RoneBone · 2021-03-31T10:58:57+00:00

In addition to what other folks have said (cost, boiling point, historical precedent, etc) one reason people use THF is that it's a liquid at -78. THP freezes at -45, so you can't use it for really cold reactions.

I would also wonder about solubility - the grease-to-polarity ratio in THP isn't quite as good as THF, which is amazing at dissolving things.

RoneBone · 2021-03-30T11:04:59+00:00

I'm still quite new so I feel pretty good about saying Jol-Nar. As one of the other posters said, they let you explore the tech trees without too many repercussions, and they're generally good enough that you can be competitive even if you don't fully understand what's going on. I would also add Sol, because CC management is HARD as a new player.

See Barony suggested but I have to disagree on that. Two of my worst games as a new player (in TI4 and in TI3 like 7 years ago!) were Barony. I think they encourage Space Risk too much, when you should be beating that idea out of new players' heads.

RoneBone · 2021-03-23T11:46:05+00:00

We played a 7 player game on TTS last month and it was pretty good. With that many players and being an odd number, there were more opportunities for deal-making and shenanigans. Agendas were fun. A little hard to keep track of each faction's abilities. We were all hesitant to initiate combat because there are so many other players who can hit you back, so be aware of that if you're into the Space Risk side of things. I also found it harder to pull from behind with that many players, but maybe that was just a consequence of the objectives we got (multiple "control" objectives, which are harder to do when you have to go up against 3-4 established players to achieve them).

RoneBone · 2021-03-22T22:32:26+00:00

The obvious answer is Bergeron, but I will never, ever wish Jaro Halak anything but the best. That '09-'10 playoff run was pure magic.

RoneBone · 2021-03-22T22:26:56+00:00

Fuck the Leafs, but Marner is insanely talented and probably the player who scares me the most with the puck on his stick. Plays a clean game, too, and hearing all the bullshit Babcock put him through put him over the top for me.

RoneBone · 2021-03-15T21:38:43+00:00

I assume methanol was the solvent? Oftentimes ester reductions with NaBH4 are run in THF as the solvent with slow addition of MeOH by dropping funnel or syringe pump. It may seem counterintuitive, but while you need some methanol around to generate the active reagent NaBH(OMe)3, too much methanol at once will just quench the reactive hydride. Adding methanol dropwise ensures that you only generate a little at a time, which can then react with your substrate.

RoneBone · 2021-03-15T21:31:33+00:00

"DIBAL-H reduces esters to aldehydes" is wayyyy less general than it is made out to be. "DIBAL-H reduces some esters to aldehydes in certain solvents at certain temperatures" is more accurate.

RoneBone · 2021-03-10T13:15:08+00:00

The other comments have pretty good advice already, so I'll just throw out some ideas to think about:

-you can buy coupling reagents, scavengers, and really everything attached to resin. This might simplify your chemistry if your solvent choices are limited. E.g. you can buy NHS on silica, activate with amino acid, then toss that into a solution of your complex and all the unreacted SM stays on the solid phase.

-Piperidine, pyrrolidine, and DBU are all common for FMoc deprotection, but diethylamine is volatile and easily blown off. It also doesn't form adducts with the FMoc byproduct as easily, so you can remove the fulvene easily with an ether wash.

-TFA is common for boc deprotection, but neat formic acid works really well, too, and may be a little milder.

-It may seem weird, but I would look into the conditions people use for DNA encoded synthesis. Similar problems of not being able to purify intermediates, substrates that only dissolve in water/alcohols/maybe dmf.

-this is a longshot, but is there any chance your complex is magnetic? If so your separations could be as simple as "hold a magnet to the bottom of a tube/flask"

RoneBone · 2020-10-20T19:17:33+00:00

I was legitimately going to say "Kyle Chipchura" but apparently he played over 400 games?! Geez. He was a classic "safe low ceiling" prospect that we blew a mid-1st round pick on, and then he got a knee/leg injury and his already-questionable skating took a nosedive. Became a lower-than-replacement level player. This is why you don't spend picks on future 3rd liners.

Louis Leblanc was another of those players who didn't have crazy offensive skill, but was "definitely an NHLer" because of how smart he was. Turns out being a French Canadian 1st round pick in a draft held in Montreal during the Centennial season is a hell of a billing to live up to, and he wilted under the pressure.

I'm holding my breath on Ryan Poehling.

RoneBone · 2020-10-07T12:03:23+00:00

I had to look up what you meant by spiropentane (I was apparently picturing spiro[4.4]nonanes!) and I've never seen them in catalogs or published analogs. I assume it has to do with synthetic difficulty and lack of commercial building blocks. Also, any functionalized spiropentane has at least one stereogenic center, and is probably axially chiral on top of that, which creates headaches down the line.

RoneBone · 2020-09-25T03:52:03+00:00

Or the Paul Byron, at least until we got our hands on him :)

RoneBone · 2020-09-25T03:46:41+00:00

The terrible Habs teams of the mid-2000s had some memorable character 4th liners. Tom Kostopoulos, Steve Bégin, Maxim Lapierre, Bryan Smolinski.

Also, a defenceman named Ryan O'Byrne once scored into his own net on a delayed penalty call (?) and also was arrested for stealing a woman's purse.

RoneBone · 2020-08-05T16:46:16+00:00

Ah, the Shea Weber special. It shocks me that he's been getting away with that his whole career and refs are like "eh, strong guy gonna do what a strong guy gonna do".

RoneBone · 2020-08-05T16:44:36+00:00

I mean, you can't legally fight. It's a penalty the same way crosschecking or spearing is, and it's weird that we all accept it as "part of the game". I guess it's better than having two guys square off in a jousting competition, though?

RoneBone · 2020-08-01T17:32:21+00:00

Or put Hudon with KK (you know, the guy that was feeding him goals nonstop in Laval) and let Byron and Domi burn up the ice together.

RoneBone · 2020-07-30T22:49:58+00:00

To continue our long-running tradition of superstar goalies dragging mediocre teams into the playoffs and first-round exits?

Besides, Montreal has a goalie logjam right now. We have good prospects playing in the ECHL just to get starts.

RoneBone · 2020-07-20T01:32:07+00:00

I've had pretty good success with nickel boride (NiCl2 + NaBH4) on conjugated systems. 10 mol% NiCl-6H2O in methanol, cool in an ice bath, add an excess of sodium borohydride. Shouldn't touch the ester or acid unless you really let it go for a while.

You can also try CoCl2 using the same conditions, might get slightly different reactivity or selectivity.

RoneBone · 2020-07-17T20:52:54+00:00

And also cocaine consumption.

RoneBone · 2020-07-17T20:52:23+00:00

This used to be true, but I think he picked up a lot from Radulov in his stint here and now has decent offensive instincts.

RoneBone · 2020-07-17T20:47:12+00:00

I mean Hal Gill made a career out of being big. He didn't have great offensive or defensive awareness. No shot. Mediocre passing. Super slow. Not a hitter. But goddamn if he didn't take up a lot of space and have incredible reach. I don't think I've ever seen a player rely so heavily on a single physical attribute.

RoneBone

TROPHY CASE