Man Hole!!

Yep - not really that pornographic, but there was this really nice bit from the wikipedia:



"According to urban legend, a manhole cover was accidentally launched from it's shaft from an underground nuclear test in the 1950's, at a great enough speed to achieve escape velocity. The myth is based on a real incident during the Operation Plumbbob nuclear tests, where
a 900 kg steel plate cap was blasted off the test shaft at an unknown velocity, and appears as a blur on a single frame of film of the test; it was never recovered. A calculation before the event gave a speed of six times Earth escape velocity, but the calculation is unlikely to be accurate and they did not believe that it would leave Earth in reality. After the event, Dr. Robert E. Brownlee described the best estimate of the cover's speed from the photographic evidence as "going like a bat!!"

I can only assume that the urban legend edited the "Outta Hell" bit from the last line.

Also, I'm wondering, even if the calculations (for this urban myth) were off by a factor of 4 -that's pretty bad.

Nay. That's really, really, really bad! For those who are calling themselves nuclear scientists, dealing with energies most of us mortals can't understand - and even they can't really, without some super complex figures and math and stuff to deal with - these energies are beyond human scale. So even if they're wrong by a FACTOR OF FOUR, there's still 2x's the force required to achieve escape velocity for this manhole cover - and leave earth's gravitational pull, and shoot out into the stars.

Regardless if this is an urban myth or not...it kinda' sounds like to my ears, like it could have actually happened.

And as a pragmatic kinda' guy, I'd much rather a spacefaring race of aliens find a circular piece of iron that used to cover a hole, floating through space with "Made in Mexico" written on it...
than the one that has the instructions to find our planet, and how we reproduce, what our music sounds like, and our frikken DNA.

If they find the first one, they'll probably melt it down to make a cell-phone, or laser blaster, or mebee a nice side-table to hold a super-cool looking lamp. If they find the latter-well...we'll probably be working uranium mines until we die a horrible death of radiation poisoning. And I got a feeling, I don't think they'll care. Thanks to nuclear testing, and a super-nice manhole cover, we've got a 50 - 50 chance that that doesn't happen.

More manholes in space please, I'd like to up those odds.

Do you know how to create fire?

(click to embiggify this awesome photo)

I ask this (the title question), only because, without a lighter or matches or a gas stove or butane torch, it's not exactly something that can be generated without some really extra-ordinary effort. I honestly don't know if I could do it - I've never had to try. Fortunately, we do have these conveniences. I may have mentioned this in the past, and maybe not, but in any case it's worth reiterating. The only thing I know, that you can get for free at a convenience store is a book of matches.

Taken at a certain level, fire is one of the most basic of human technologies. It's so basic in fact, that it might rank in the level of "needs" for survival. At least the kind of survival that I don't want to live without. Taken to its most extreme, harnessing the power of fire has fueled our entire history.

*aside here - I actually posted a ways back - about what would be a good commodity as currency for the apocalypse - and I came up with a case of scotch - which, on it's merits is still a pretty good backup - but dang, once you loose the flame, what would you trade for a book of matches?*

Anyhoo - I wanted to take a tangent from this, into salt. I was forced a while back, by circumstance, to purchase a new supply of salt for the Casa Aloha. It used to be that salt was one of the most precious commodities humans had. It wasn't that is was exactly a commodity like metal was, (hell we got along just fine with stones) it was a basic technology. Who was the genius that thought up the idea to put salt on meat? whoever it was, made the leap from "this is here in front of me now" to, "This will be here five days, or ten days, or twenty from now." And that's the beginning of civilization.

Anywise - I went to the store the other day to buy some salt. I wasn't happy about it, but I had to. Thing is, I went to the salt isle, and a pound of generic salt was 99 cents. I actually paid an extra 60 cents to get the Morton's salt girl on my container. I just liked the packaging better.

Point being, what people used to wage wars over, salt, waaaay back in the day, were wars that would determine the outcome of entire nations. And now, it's available for less than a dollar a pound. I dunno about you, but a dollar in my book, is worth almost next to nothing. And although I wouldn't be happy about it, I'd probly be willing to shell out a buck for a book of matches.

And now we're done with my little rant. There's nothing life changing or revolutionary here, but there is something to appreciate in the commonplace. At any restaurant you get salt for free. Why? I dunno, guess it's cheap enough to give away. Same idea with fire. How does this have anything to do with anything? I can't say...but yet, building on this preposterous quicksand, we've somehow managed to create

this.

Sorry it's taken so long...

But there's quite a bit that I've had to tune in...

Before transmissions commence - there is this nice little ditty that came from the BBC.

(It's eveidence of what might be the first war ever...probly not, but, um, it's on!)

And before this actually becomes something, I'd like to thank the Beeb, for being an online preseance that for all this time, still supports it's archives. I'm a little pissed at how many of my youtube vids have been rendered inoperable to the most attractive of blog readers...but we can't get stuck in the past - no! No! Know! We have to move forward into the digital frontier - and it don't look like twitter or facebook, it's not updates, or 120 character posts, it looks like paragraphs, and sentences and text bullshit that actually means something.

Since my chops ain't quite up to speed yet...lemme drop you one that is.

Here's a great little bit about space suits.

As per always:

Thanks for swingin' by.

A Can of Raid Ain't Big Enough For The Job

Fjuckin' digital spiders!

Just Sayin' I know

yep