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Post by Darin on Mar 8, 2020 10:09:10 GMT -5
Haven't spoken to him since he called me wanting to know how far away the moon was. He had watched a movie about an asteroid heading for the earth, and as it passed the moon was still ten minutes from impact. He thought that was really stupid because the moon's like what, five miles away? He thought the atmosphere was about a mile thick. How many things do you have to know nothing about to believe that?? Also made of cheese, right? So, when the blazing rock passes by, will it create a great Fondue in the Sky?  |
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Post by trailboss on Mar 8, 2020 11:54:28 GMT -5
No fond memories of the days of acid rain. And was it the Cleveland River that you could roast marshmallows over at night? It was the Cuyahoga river in Cleveland that caught fire in 69. I'm surprised the Mahoning river in Youngstown Oh. didn't have the same happen because of all the steel mills that dumped waste in it and it wasn't a very large river. They are supposed to begin dredging to clean it up but don't think I'll see it in my lifetime. In California there was talk of dredging the delta that fingers into Stockton from the SF bay, but so much heavy metals would be dredged up, it was a non starter... they figured that the silt covering it all caps the problem better than the mess they would stir up. |
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Post by Ronv69 on Mar 8, 2020 12:21:37 GMT -5
It was the Cuyahoga river in Cleveland that caught fire in 69. I'm surprised the Mahoning river in Youngstown Oh. didn't have the same happen because of all the steel mills that dumped waste in it and it wasn't a very large river. They are supposed to begin dredging to clean it up but don't think I'll see it in my lifetime. In California there was talk of dredging the delta that fingers into Stockton from the SF bay, but so much heavy metals would be dredged up, it was a non starter... they figured that the silt covering it all caps the problem better than the mess they would stir up. That's the situation with the San Jacinto River downstream from me. It has 2 adjacent Superfund sites that have been left undisturbed for 30 years, but after the recent flooding the river has to be dredged and it all has to go. There was a couple of papermills there for almost 100 years and a bunch of sunken barges carrying who knows what. |
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Post by Ronv69 on Mar 8, 2020 12:25:05 GMT -5
They did a pretty good job of cleaning up the Houston Ship Channel in the 80s. Considering the amount of shipping and chemical plants it's probably as clean as it is ever going to get. Most days it doesn't smell, and some people eat channel catfish out of it. Not me. But it is not dumping toxic chemicals into Galveston Bay anymore.
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Post by kbareit on Mar 8, 2020 20:17:51 GMT -5
In California there was talk of dredging the delta that fingers into Stockton from the SF bay, but so much heavy metals would be dredged up, it was a non starter... they figured that the silt covering it all caps the problem better than the mess they would stir up. That's the situation with the San Jacinto River downstream from me. It has 2 adjacent Superfund sites that have been left undisturbed for 30 years, but after the recent flooding the river has to be dredged and it all has to go. There was a couple of papermills there for almost 100 years and a bunch of sunken barges carrying who knows what. We have a lot of flooding from the Mahoning because of the sediment that's built up at the many dams and it's becoming uncontrollable. They want to remove the dams but are afraid of what will get stirred up in the process and decided to dredge to dam and remove it and do the same working downstream until it all clear. On a different note they pulled a body out it today. |
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Post by Stearmandriver on Mar 8, 2020 20:42:01 GMT -5
I have friends that work construction, and they're usually able to "find" big chunks of magnesium when they're on a road bridge job. I guess sand bags containing these big magnesium bricks are buried with a piling when it's set, as a sacrificial metal?
We burned one on the beach by the Illinois river one night. Lot of silica in that sand, there's a few mines for it nearby. We made glass lol... and it was so damn bright you could see the far shore like it was daylight. River is about a half mile wide there...
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Post by kxg on Mar 8, 2020 20:56:25 GMT -5
My high school chem teacher was from Kentucky. Looking back, I realize he was a relatively young man at the time. He taught us the principles of distillation with a double secret sour mash recipe and a small still fashioned from lab ware, set up in a storeroom behind the classroom. It was potent and smooth, but we didn’t get to go into mass production. He retired a few years ago after a full career. Best chem teacher ever!
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Post by pepesdad1 on Mar 8, 2020 21:13:19 GMT -5
Had a college roommate...Orville Scoggins from Ky., used to drink a glass of "water" every morning before class...took a drink one day from his glass, turned out to be moonshine from his grandfather's still in the basement of his grandfather's house back in Ky.
Stuff lit me up like I was on fire...he drank a glass every day before class...probably had a liver that was as hard as a rock...I'm sure he is dead by now had to have his glass in the morning, had no problem with it getting him drunk, he was waaayyy past that didn't seem to have any affect on him or his ability to think or drive...I got to visit him one summer and see the still in the basement...truly a work of art, shinny copper.
PS: Grandfather was a Federal judge.
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Post by Ronv69 on Mar 8, 2020 21:38:43 GMT -5
That's the situation with the San Jacinto River downstream from me. It has 2 adjacent Superfund sites that have been left undisturbed for 30 years, but after the recent flooding the river has to be dredged and it all has to go. There was a couple of papermills there for almost 100 years and a bunch of sunken barges carrying who knows what. We have a lot of flooding from the Mahoning because of the sediment that's built up at the many dams and it's becoming uncontrollable. They want to remove the dams but are afraid of what will get stirred up in the process and decided to dredge to dam and remove it and do the same working downstream until it all clear. On a different note they pulled a body out it today. Congratulations on the exciting day! It's a daily thing in Houston. |
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Post by Ronv69 on Mar 8, 2020 21:44:09 GMT -5
One of the assistant scoutmasters was a machinist that specialized in alloys. For a couple of years he brought a barrel bag, (big paper grocery bag), full of magnesium shavings to every campout. What fun!
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Post by Deleted on Mar 9, 2020 6:49:57 GMT -5
Now you know why i never eat anything from the water around Houston. Ron mentions the paper mills and they sit beside a UTILX rail car work over yard. I really do not want to know what has been hauled in a tanker car that has to be refurbished. Such is the cost of keeping America mobile. Funny how they want to ban plastic bags in favor of paper. Making paper is a giant mess and far more complicated than making a plastic bag. I wonder which one has a bigger foot print. I do know that paper straws suck and fearing a certain New Yorker could become president have hoarded a mass of plastic straws. Sure you can laugh now but i can trade those straws like tins of aged Dunhill packaged in tins made from Sandvik steel by Greta's grand father.
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Post by Ronv69 on Mar 9, 2020 9:28:16 GMT -5
We are using stainless steel straws. 😁🤠
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Post by Legend Lover on Mar 9, 2020 10:44:46 GMT -5
Seeing sodium and potassium fire up in water was one of the things that got me into chemistry. I love fire and explosions.
In school, a classmate stole some magnesium strips and lit one under the desk in maths class. The whole desk glowed. The teacher told him to put it out, which you can't do easily when it's burning (certainly not in a maths class with no sinks or sand), so the desk continued to glow until the thing burned out.
Teacher didn't know what to do.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 9, 2020 14:56:05 GMT -5
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Post by oldcajun123 on Mar 9, 2020 15:06:48 GMT -5
 Sean that quite the education, thank you.
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Post by pepesdad1 on Mar 9, 2020 15:42:15 GMT -5
Outstanding video...thanks, Sean...as oldcajun said..."quite an education"....interesting as well.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 9, 2020 18:00:15 GMT -5
Magnesium is pretty cool stuff it is used to set the thermite off. Those guys make using it look easy.
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Post by toshtego on Mar 9, 2020 18:17:20 GMT -5
No fond memories of the days of acid rain. And was it the Cleveland River that you could roast marshmallows over at night? The Cuyahoga River in Cleveland. "Burn on, Big River", wrote Randy Newman. |
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Post by toshtego on Mar 9, 2020 18:25:03 GMT -5
I am thinking Sweden. The concrete sleepers, the tidyness of the tracks, the precision of the work. Clearly, not American.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 10, 2020 6:48:02 GMT -5
The newer tracks on the USA stuff is like that after several derails the Houston area put in a lot of the new concrete and weld track.
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Post by Ronv69 on Mar 10, 2020 9:20:32 GMT -5
It looks like it would be easier to just get a good welder.
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Post by Ronv69 on Mar 10, 2020 9:28:08 GMT -5
A friend had been living in an apartment for a year and his neighbor kept having his car towed. One drunken night he poured a stream of Thermite down the hood of his neighbor's car. That put a stop to the towing. But the guy was still a creep and kept hassling him, so one chemical altered night I drilled a hole through the baseboard at a downward angle into the edge of the neighbor's carpet, took a funnel with a tube on it and poured in the 2-part skunk scent from Academy, then caulked and smoothed the hole. The guy moved out a week later. It pays to be nice to your neighbors.
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Post by oldcajun123 on Mar 10, 2020 9:30:39 GMT -5
Is it a smoother and stronger connection than welding?
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Post by Ronv69 on Mar 10, 2020 10:35:02 GMT -5
Is it a smoother and stronger connection than welding? Didn't look any smoother. They had to grind it after the weld. |
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Post by sperrytops on Mar 10, 2020 16:27:09 GMT -5
I am thinking Sweden. The concrete sleepers, the tidyness of the tracks, the precision of the work. Clearly, not American. All the Japanese high speed bullet trains run only on elevated concrete sleeper rail. In cities they run on concrete slab embedded track. Those babies run at 350 km/hour or more. Wood sleepers just can't handle it. It would be nice to see the US come out of the 19th century and start implementing high speed electric trains. Japan and Europe seem to manage it. Why can't we? Perhaps the airline and oil lobby... |
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Post by Ronv69 on Mar 10, 2020 16:38:35 GMT -5
I am thinking Sweden. The concrete sleepers, the tidyness of the tracks, the precision of the work. Clearly, not American. All the Japanese high speed bullet trains run only on elevated concrete sleeper rail. In cities they run on concrete slab embedded track. Those babies run at 350 km/hour or more. Wood sleepers just can't handle it. It would be nice to see the US come out of the 19th century and start implementing high speed electric trains. Japan and Europe seem to manage it. Why can't we? Perhaps the airline and oil lobby... Diesel is cheap, highest energy content, infrastructure is in place and the rest of the country doesn't want to pay California taxes to subsidize it. How do you like the way your state spent (wasted) millions on the high speed rail between LA and SF? 😁 |
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Post by sperrytops on Mar 10, 2020 19:03:03 GMT -5
All the Japanese high speed bullet trains run only on elevated concrete sleeper rail. In cities they run on concrete slab embedded track. Those babies run at 350 km/hour or more. Wood sleepers just can't handle it. It would be nice to see the US come out of the 19th century and start implementing high speed electric trains. Japan and Europe seem to manage it. Why can't we? Perhaps the airline and oil lobby... Diesel is cheap, highest energy content, infrastructure is in place and the rest of the country doesn't want to pay California taxes to subsidize it. How do you like the way your state spent (wasted) millions on the high speed rail between LA and SF? 😁 Unfortunately, not really wasted. The environmental laws in all the states now require extensive planning and testing before they can handle electrified rail. Japan and Europe built their infrastructure before all these laws were in place. Florida got smart and put the work out to one of the local railways and construction of high speed electrified rail is under way. Probably a better and cheaper option to incent the existing railroads to do this. California unfortunately couldn't get their heads around the concept of privatizing the electrification. In any case, diesel locomotives can't handle the speeds required and weigh too much. |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 10, 2020 20:53:23 GMT -5
The real problem with trains is you can never re coup the cost outlay hauling passengers and by the time you did it would be time to start all over. After watching Jay Lenos Garage I wonder if missed the boat when we went to all internal combustion. 1925 was the last steam car made and it would outrun anything made at the time. The torque out put was a 1000 ft lbs and did not even need a transmission. The Doble could run 100 mph all this at 14mpg on kerosene. Not to shabby for a 6500 lbs of car. www.damninteresting.com/the-last-great-steam-car/ |
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Post by Ronv69 on Mar 10, 2020 21:40:47 GMT -5
When we were in Ireland we got in the middle of a steam car rally. Mostly Stanley's. I know that they could do over 125mph. The ones that we saw smelled good too as they were burning peat 😁🤠
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Post by trailboss on Mar 10, 2020 21:49:27 GMT -5
Interesting video. The crew looked really competent, but at the least I would wear a face shield... molten iron in the eyes could end in a bad day. |
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Sean that quite the education, thank you.