Mercury Fulminate and Crystal Meth in Breaking Bad

Mercury Fulminate and Crystal Meth in 'Breaking Bad' Episode 6 of AMCs Breaking Bad has a scene where our hero, Walt, passes a plastic bag of mercury fulminate off as crystal meth. Why mercury fulminate? I guess there arent many easy-to-make explosives that look like crystal meth. The thing is... I dont think fulminate of mercury looks like it was portrayed in the tv show.Mercury fulminate [or fulminate of mercury, Hg(ONC)2] was first prepared in 1800 by Edward Charles Howard. It is an explosive that mainly was used in favor of flints to ignite black powder in a firearm. Its pretty easy to make... the synthesis involves dissolving mercury in nitric acid and adding ethanol to the solution. However, you end up precipitating a white to grayish-brown powder (depending on purity) like what you see in this photo and not big chunks of glassy crystals, as seen in Breaking Bad.Although mercury fulminate is easy to prepare, you dont want to try it. The explosive is highly sensitive to just about everything... shock, sparks, flame, friction, and heat. I dont think Walt could have been so casual handling a bag of it without having a little accident. If you dont blow yourself up with the compound, you could gas yourself with fumes from the synthesis (reaction should be done outdoors or inside a fume hood). Then there is the product... mercury compounds are toxic. The mercury doesnt magically disappear when the compound explodes.The episode got me wondering. If you were in charge of props for a tv show and were asked to come up with crystal meth, what would you use? Im going to guess using the illegal drug would not be an option. I am betting they used rock candy. What do you think?Breaking Bad - Elements in the Body | Breaking Bad - Hydrofluoric AcidPhoto:

How to Conjugate Italian Verbs Like a Native

How to Conjugate Italian Verbs Like a Native Learning vocabulary for nouns like â€Å"toothbrush† and â€Å"tomato† are important, but without verbs, they’re not as useful. Verbs are essential to communicating in any foreign language, and while Italian verbs have a consistent, logical pattern of conjugation, there are still many verbs that are irregular. Plus, even if you memorize all of the verb conjugations, being able to use them quickly in conversation is another story. I say this to emphasize the importance of getting a lot of practice with verbs both with written exercises and with plenty of speaking.    To get you started, or perhaps to fill in some gaps, below you can read about the three Italian verb categories along with suggestions for your studies so you can learn how to conjugate verbs like a native. Step 1) Learn the present tense conjugations of the verbs avere (to have) and essere (to be). They are the key to learning all of the other Italian verb conjugations. Step 2) Understand that Italian verbs fall into three categories of conjugations depending on the endings of the infinitive: -are verbs Comprare - To buyImparare - To learnMangiare - To eatParlare - To talk -ere verbs Credere - To believeLeggere - To readPrendere - To takeScendere - To get off, to descend -ire verbs Salire - To go upUscire - To go out The stem of regular verbs is obtained by dropping the infinitive ending. In English, the infinitive (linfinito) consists of to verb. Step 3) Recognize that Italian verbs are conjugated in the various persons, numbers, and tenses by adding the proper ending to the stem. To start, let’s use the regular verb â€Å"credere - to believe† as an example. io - credo noi - crediamo tu - credi voi - credete lui / lei / Lei - crede loro, Loro - credono Notice how the ending changes based on the subject. â€Å"I believe† is â€Å"credo† and â€Å"they believe† is â€Å"credono.† Let’s use the irregular verb â€Å"andare - to go† as another example. io - vado noi - andiamo tu - vai voi - andate lui / lei / Lei - va loro, Loro - vanno Since the endings are different for each subject, more often than not you can drop the pronoun. So, for example, instead of saying â€Å"Io credo - I believe,† you can just say â€Å"Credo - I believe† with the â€Å"io† as a subject pronoun. Step 4) Memorize the present tense conjugations of common, irregular verbs. These are â€Å"dovere - must,† â€Å"fare - to do, to make,† â€Å"potere - can, to be able to,† and â€Å"volere - to want.† Step 5) Learn how to use common verbs in the following tenses: Il presenteIl passato prossimoL’imperfetto How do you know which verbs are common? While you could use the lists of the most common verbs online, I think it’s more useful to think about the verbs you commonly use and learn how to be flexible with those. One exercise for figuring out which verbs those are is by writing short compositions about your life, like how to introduce yourself, talking about your family, and discussing your hobbies. You’ll start to notice which verbs are used most often and then you can focus on those to memorize. Tips: Note that in the third person plural the stress falls on the same syllable as in the third person singular form.In a pinch, you can always consult a table of verb endings to determine the correct tense.