Showing posts with label explosion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label explosion. Show all posts

Thursday, January 28, 2016

30 years


Three decades ago today, my wife and I were on the road somewhere on U.S. 60 in south-central Missouri, on our way to Washington, D.C., from Springfield, Mo.

We turned on the radio. There was network special coverage on. The space shuttle? What happened?

Then the punch in the gut. It's a cliché because it's true.

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Better living through chemistry

April 16, 1947 :
Texas City, Texas





April 17, 2013:
West, Texas


Twice in 66 years, the fertilizer that helps put more and cheaper food on your table also has blown up much of a Texas town.

Ammonium nitrate and fire don't mix. Large quantities of flaming ammonium nitrate and commercial or residential areas mix catastrophically.

When I was a kid, DuPont's ad slogan was "Better Things for Better Living . . . Through Chemistry." That may well be true, but that "better living" comes at a cost that well-off advertising executives are at little risk of having to pay.

THAT deadly check, when it comes, usually gets picked up by working-class folks in places like Texas City. Or West. Or my hometown, Baton Rouge.

You don't want to know what would happen if the entire Exxon-Mobil refinery there blew. We just found out what happens when a fertilizer plant blows in a town like West.

Not that we'll stop to count the costs of progress, however. That's just not the American Way.

Friday, January 08, 2010

Shutting up the fools


Some people were hating on the trailer for the upcoming A-Team movie.

Of course, this called for someone to step up and be Mr. T. The following comment is
all you need to know about the pending action-flick bliss coming to a cinema near you:

They just had a Tank fall out of an exploding plane and then proceed to -- while still in mid air -- blow up a fighter jet. I'm sorry, but that is f****** awesome.

Friday, May 15, 2009

It blowed up good


It blowed up real good.

The lightning-sparked fire -- and subsequent unguided launch of a tank full of "oil-industry byproducts" in Lamesa, Texas -- illustrates just why people put up "No Smoking" signs at gas stations. Unfortunately, there are no "No 50,000-Degree Bolts of Electricity" signs surrounding refineries and other facilities that can go boom in spectacular fashion.

Somehow,
no firefighters were killed in the making of this video. Some cuss words were uttered, however -- part of the tank hit and wrecked the van from which the camera-ready stormchaser was filming. He was 200 yards away.

You'd cuss, too. You know you would.