And not a criticism of you for responding, but that shouldn’t be in the pit unless the asker was actively complaining about it. Legit questions go in ATMB. 
I think it’s probably borderline; ATMB seems to be more the place to put questions of the “what is board policy on X?” (i.e. for all members), whereas the pit tends to be more suitable for questions regarding specific decisions regarding specific members (although admittedly it’s usually the member in question that raises the pit thread in this case).
But I’m no expert.
Maybe the whole question would be better handled by email…
Salted, or unsalted, Tom?
I was going to side with dantheman but.
A google.com search for “salt peter” (as the OP refers to it) gets me sites like this:
http://www.arm.ac.uk/press/Armagh-Digs-for-SALT.html
Professor Peter Cottrell, Head of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand, visited Armagh last week to discuss new research links between Armagh and New Zealand under the auspices of the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) partnership.
http://www.innermostimagery.com/promo/programs.htm
The Snail Shell Cave System of Rutherford County
Of course, Google also asked me "Did you mean: saltpeter "
Well, true - I didn’t chop it into two words. But still, I’d love to know where the searches were performed. I know I’d probably not just give up if one search turned up nothing, and then turn to an anonymous MB for help.
Y’know, I often go directly here for answers to questions. How many “HELP! My Windows 2000 is acting wierd.” posts have you seen in GQ? Sure, you can find the info on the net, but sometimes it’s easier/better to just get the SD, no? And what better way to stop lurking than to ask a question?
There is a version of this in the pit where I bitch about the post-nazi-police tactics used, unfortunately, yet again on the SDMB. Only got 2 posts? ferggedaboutit. Yer either with us, or a troll… :rolleyes:
Here.
-T
Actually, it’s a bad idea to come directly here before doing any research whatsoever, at least for GQ-type questions. Although it’s true that some people on here are experts in their own fields, this is not an “expert” resource - you’ll either get opinions of people whose credentials you cannot immediately verify - or you’ll get a host of factual answers from people who found them on the Internet itself.
Asking a question in GQ that can be answered easily by searching the Internet is discouraged, because a) who knows, the answer you get here might not be the correct one and b) there may be several answers to choose from. Always best to check with the authorities first - references such as Google, Snopes, HowStuffWorks, and so on. If you can’t find an answer to your query after doing at least a little research, then it makes sense to come here and see if people have any ideas - but even then, try to keep in mind that there’s always going to be a degree of credibility when you’re getting responses from people whom you do not know.
The thing is, those two links I gave were the first two results (in practice, the first page of results is generally the most on-topic) on Google, which is one of the better search engines, IME, for finding sites most relevent to your search terms. I shudder to think what the OP found if she was using, for example, Yahoo and searched for “salt peter” rather than “saltpeter”. 50,000 geocities pages talking about some guy named Peter putting salt on his dinner, I expect. I’d give up and go to an anonymous message board after that.
Not that this isn’t a huge hijack and all, but - would you really give up and come here? I sure wouldn’t. There are countless sites out there to find info on, even if the search engine doesn’t help you. If you’re thinking of saltpeter for medicinal purposes, for example, you might try WebMD or Merck or anything that sounds remotely medical - heck, try the site for your drugstore. Anything.
tomndebb, I respectfully must disagree with your position. It’s quite true that Beckyvs posed a question, namely where she could get some saltpeter, and obviously was not aware of the potential dangers. However, I don’t think that’s what triggered the response here.
Personally, what creeped me out about her question was the underlying assumption: that she, as a parent, has the right to control her son’s sexuality by chemical means. That’s highly problematic, in my mind, and I think is what contributed to the response she got - people responded to her assumption, not her question.
There’s two aspects to the assumption, and both of them are worrisome, in my opinion. First, the casual acceptance of chemical means to affect someone else’s sex drive. Adminstering chemicals to someone else, without any knowledge of the chemical’s possible side effects, for the purpose of suppressing sexual drives, strikes me as downright scary. That’s not like putting a bit of weedkiller on the lawn - if it’s to be done at all, it should only be done on the advice and supervision of a medical professional, who knows what’s at stake and what the chemical will do.
(And, as an aside to Beckyvs on her comment about birth control bills for girls - to the best of my knowledge, you need a doctor’s prescription to get birth control pills, so the doctor can assess the possible risks and side-effects. Parents can’t just “go out and put their daughters on birth control pills” - they need the opinion of a medical doctor that the prescription is appropriate and safe.)
The other scary aspect about Beckyvs’ starting point is that as a mother, she has the right to control her son’s sex drive. That also strikes me as highly problematic. If she wants to provide guidance for her son, giving him advice, moral inculcation - that’s great. But simply assuming that she can veto his sexual impulses - that kind of control approach is creepy. Sexuality is one of the most personal aspects of one’s personal autonomy. For a parent to assume that she can unilterally control the child in that way - ick.
So yes, Beckyvs posed a question and the SDMB is the place for factual questions to be asked and answered. But it’s also a place where we talk about the moral implications of questions - and this question cried out for that kind of comment, in my respectful opinion.
I also had the impression that Becky was thinking about administering the saltpeter secretly, without her son’s knowledge. (Can you imagine this conversation: “Here, son, take this. It’ll keep you from getting it up.”) Daughters who are on birth control at least know they’re on it.
So um…Since I’m still not altogether sure where I should ask this question I’m going to reask it…Gulp…So why can’t Handy answer medical questions?
I’m just guessing, but it seems likely that he must have dished out some crap advice at some point in the past, a search in the pit against his user name (in the thread titles) reveals a number of complaints.
handy said
This is an example of the medical opinions that handy gives.
A similar example is the chemical sodium fluoride which is put into most/many flouride toothpastes. My tube of Crest here as home says it is present in 0.243% concentration. The tube of Crest also has a warning lable: Keep out of the reach of children under 6 years of age…If you accidentally swallow more than used for brushing, get medical help or contact a Poison Control Center right away.
WOW! If you read that, you might conclude that fluoride toothpaste is gonna kill you. How can the guvmint allow them to put a poison in our mouths?
The trick here is, everything is poisonous in too large a quantity and probably safe in very miniscule dosages.
Same goes for potassium/sodium nitrate/nitrite
From Curing meats
I don’t agree that she was necessarily ‘attempting to control the child’s sexuality’ . She seemed (to me) concerned about the effects of the sexuality (ie pregancy for the female), and given that she had no control over the female part of the equation, and the b/c capabilities of the male part of the equation pretty much relies on the correct use of a condom, which assumes that the male is going to exercise good judgement, and she didn’t seem to believe this young male was capable of good judgement (deep breath here), I’m willing to see it as a desperate attempt to prevent a pregnancy vs. “I want to control his sexual urges” specifically.
As support of this, she didn’t express concern over him masturbating or anything else, just the potential for pregnancy.
OTOH, the whole two user names etc. is rather odd.
and ‘gee I tried a search and couldn’t get a result’, too.
I suppose it’s a moot discussion, since the OP hasn’t said much since starting the thread, other than to take issue with people taking issue with the OP. As was said before, it was as if they came looking for affirmation and solid information and, dissatisfied with the response, wrote the whole board off.
Actually, I’m guessing that the OP bailed because she asked “is this safe?” and immediately got a deluge of “you’re a terrible mother!” Poor lady didn’t even know what the stuff was, ya bastids.
I and many other posters deluged Becky with “you’re a terrible mother!” not because she would give her son a potentially toxic substance (She wouldn’t. I agree with you that concern for saltpeter’s saftey is what motivated her question). We deluged Becky because she planned on slipping her son a chemical so that she could control his sexual drive and activities.
OP-*
‘I can’t find an effective method to talk to my son about this, or get him to behave the way I want. Rather than seek new ways to talk to him or work together on a solution, I wanna slip him saltpeter. Is this stuff safe? Where can I get some?’
Flood of Responses-
'1 It don’t work. Saltpeter has no effect on sexual desire or ability.
2 It’s poisonous in big enough doses.
3-For reasons expressed in DocCathode’s brilliant post(we all want to sleep with Doc, but feel we are unworthy), you’re a terrible mother!
*-note the use of single quotes. I do not claim that anybody said these words. I claim only that they expressed these or very similar ideas.
BTW-Nametag I dunno if “bastids” is suitably comical enough tyo be an acceptable insult in GQ. Next time I suggest using “bastiches”. This works especially well when paired with the exclamation “Feetal’s giz!”
What the fuck?