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There's an excellent article on the Wired.com website today in which shows just how stupid the world has become.

When I was a kid, one of my most longed-for and coveted possessions was my chemistry set. I clearly remember the day that I'd saved up my 5 pounds (yeah, aren't *I* old?) and returned home from the local toy shop with a box full of test-tubes, litmus paper, brightly coloured crystals, meth burner and short length of magnesium ribbon.

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I learned an awful lot from this little box of chemicals (like not to use petrol in your meth burner) and it helped stimulate a powerful interest in science that persists to this day.

Without that chemistry set, I might have turned to the dark side, perhaps even becoming a Telecom employee -- who knows?

It must be admitted however, that the potassium nitrate, "flowers of sulfur" and a few other chemicals did catalyse my interest in pyrotechnics. For many years I made my own fireworks and explosives, including the occasional batch of nitroglycerin and guncotton (it's all in my book :-).

With this in mind, you might be tempted to agree with those who say such things as chemistry sets (which are really just bomb kitsets don't you know?) should be banned. Clearly they induce terrorist-type tendencies in anyone who owns one.

Well I've never injured myself or anyone else and the destruction of property has been minimal.

I'm really worried that we're so busy passing laws and regulations designed to protect our kids and ourselves from life's "risks" that we're missing out on the chance to have the kind of fun we had, and stimulate a passion for science.

How come it's okay to sell tobacco, alcohol and ultra-fast cars (all of which we know have the very real potential to kill or injure) but at the same time we're cracking down on so many far less harmful things?

No longer can you let schoolkids hold a puddle of mercury in their hands, enjoy "bangers" or skyrockets at guy-fawkes, make your own beer-can mortars or any of the stuff that helped shape young minds and instill a real appreciation for one's own mortality.

When I think back, I realise that I didn't lose a single friend or schoolmate to the effects of any of the things that are now banned as "evil" -- yet I can name at least half a dozen that have died from things that are still quite legal (smoking, booze, fast-cars).

Are we now raising a nation of sissies who actually listen when their parents tell them not to run with scissors?

What are some of the things you legally enjoyed as a kid but which have now been ruled illegal by the "nerf police".

Oh, and I see you can still buy chemistry sets here in NZ but they seem to have taken all the "fun" chemicals out of them. Yes, there are pretty colours, lots of ionic bonding -- but no bangs or even flashes :-(

The Week in Review
It's been a very interesting week hasn't it?

Aardvark readers will have learned how to extract not just $3.25 but a whole $200 from Telecom by way of compensation for the DSL outage earlier this month (I wonder when mainstream media will cotton onto this one?) and The NZ Herald was given a kick up the backside for going all tabloid (again) over the Rakon story -- although I now see the business writers are publishing some actual *facts* about Rakon for a change.

The Coming Week
Now that Aardvark has a new sponsor and the archiving issues appear resolved, I'll (finally) be rolling out the new look next week. Woo hoo!

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