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Though I have participated minimally in this thread, with brief comments on decriminalization, I would rather not be turned into a Straw Man, or attached to other posters' positions. I have no problem with the rule of law, or control of harmful substances, be it leaded paint, horse dewormer, or crystal meth. I was referring only to end-user decriminalization, which has mountains of evidence as an effective alternative to dumping sick people in prisons or letting them OD in gutters. AFN.

Me too. I'm no more than a hobby geologist but it has been a somewhat obsessive fascination since I was about 8! (a very long time ago) One observation that strongly colours my view of this topic is that it must square with not only the surface geology we see around us, but also a very long term gradual trend of oxidation from the global reducing conditions of the earliest times due to photosynthesis. The banded iron formations around the world record oxygen fugacity being controlled by the oxidation of oceanic Fe II to Fe III in the Archean. And to this day, there is still an iron oxidation front controlling oxygen fugacity - called the FMQ (fayalite-magnetite-quartz) redox buffer - now deep within the earth's crust. 3Fe2SiO4 + O2 = 2Fe3O4 + 3SiO2 Compare this with @exchemist's serpentisation reaction 1a) 3Fe2SiO4 + 2H2O → 2Fe3O4 + 3SiO2 + 2H2 ... which can proceed when FMQ has exhausted all the free silica in its environment, and water becomes the favoured source of oxygen. I'm all too aware that this picture is simplistic in the extreme, and maybe the second reaction is not favoured at some key limiting temperature, but it does raise a question in my mind about the stability of water in the low silica reducing environments found at depth. Or perhaps I'm completely off-track, and the ocean is busy converting the lower mantle to topaz!

This is why bars hire bouncers. They're not necessary until people start drinking.

Oh please. The foodservice giant they use for catering at the US House is uber-greedy, they used to be a client of mine. Sodexho took over the contract in 2015 and like all big corporations, they need steady growth, and offering booze to their clients is an easy way to assure that. This isn't because of liberal politics or even alcohol, this is because we've allowed too much privately owned enterprise in our public intstitutions.

Yes I think we are still well in information gathering and hypothesizing phase. +1 Information about high temperature, high pressure geomaterials is sparse. One comment about the water is that we are (or should be) talking about seawater. This, of course, contains many minerals and is not just the plain H2O that appears in the simplified chemical reactions.

I'm out of my depth here --no pun intended. I'd heard that when temperature in the mantle goes down below 650º, water can start leaking into the deeper mantle and essentially disappear from the water cycle. If I understand correctly, the formation of hydrous minerals is essential for this removal. I understand @exchemist's example of CaO2 as simply an example that if you include oxides, you can account for this. I've been looking for online credible literature about the subject, and I've found this: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/hydrous-mineral#:~:text=The hydrous minerals like rock,water in a shallow sea. I won't pretend I understand every argument there, but it seems as if we're at some point in a shift of paradigm here, and people are pushing the boundaries of the depths at which it's thought that this hydration can occur. Am I reading this correctly?

Fair enough, but the link I provided also includes reaction such as : 3Mg2SiO4 + SiO2 + 4H2O → 2Mg3Si2O5(OH)4.

Never tried VB, but I did like Fosters when it was first imported, Beecee. It was crisp and refreshing, which I like since I drink beer to quench thirst ( not get drunk ). When it became a local brew, it tasted like all the other Canadian beer, and I stopped buying it. Same happened with Carlsberg. I tend to like beers brewed in the German tradition ( Heineken, Stella, Kronenberg, or even Tsing Tao ), not beers that require 'chewing'; sorry Stringy.

Coming into this a bit late but - I think cannabis should be fully legal for adults - like alcohol it is widely used and widely accepted and I think prohibition causes more harms than it prevents. A significant number of people who are otherwise law abiding see the police as enemy because cannabis (and other drug use) is illegal. Counseling and rehab as well as education make better use of taxpayer funding than policing cannabis. Other drugs should be legal to use and possess (in small amounts), with efforts to limit availability, but supplying them outside of medical supervision (which may be indicated for confirmed addiction, as harm reduction) should probably not be legal, although I suspect education and harm minimising for users will still give better outcomes than harsh policing. Anecdotally crackdowns on cannabis supply tended to be followed by increased use of other drugs that have more significant medical and social harms, including alcohol. I remain a bit skeptical of significant increase in society wide incidence of psychosis and mental illness from cannabis, suspecting it is one trigger amongst many for susceptible people rather than being a specific cause. The reality around here (rural Eastern Australia) is that policing of cannabis is sporadic and the police don't have their hearts in it, and the penalties are minimal - to the point where Magistrates have actually berated the police for wasting the courts time with arrests of people growing a few plants. The helicopter raids on growers are ineffective - occasionally a very large crop is found but most of that policing is of small crops - a tiny fraction of them - and the police presence is for appearances sake.

I think you get a tank with liquid nitrogen with it. By freezing it solid instantly you prevent any from accidentally entering your mouth.

It's good to have everyone's obsessions, political histories, ignorances and agendas cleared up, innit?

Putin dies and goes to hell, but after a while, he is given a day off for good behavior. So he goes to Moscow, enters a bar, orders a drink, and asks the bartender: -Is Crimea ours? -Yes, it is. -And the Donbas? -Also ours. -And Kyiv? -We got that too. Satisfied, Putin drinks, and asks: -Thanks, how much do I owe you? -5 euros.

Not quite sure that society already "dictates Alcohol as a social necessity in all walks of life", although if "Pelosi is {really?} opening a liquor store in the House where Members can buy alcohol with their taxpayer-funded MRAs." See : https://twitter.com/AustinScottGA08/status/1525215777032482816?ref_src=twsrc^tfw Then, it appears that it just may be a "necessity" in that walk of life at least. So? Note the Hours that the Alcohol is available for purchase.