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Don't forget about Texas City, Texas, home of two major disasters in 60 years.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_Disaster
April 16, 1947 saw the ignition of 2,300 tons of ammonium nitrate loaded on board the french-registered vessel SS Grandcamp. it is considered the worst industrial accident in US history with a death toll of 567.
58 years later, as insult to injury the BP refinery there exploded do to a running truck.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_Refinery_(BP)
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Another huge explosion occured in Siberia, 1982.
A Soviet gas pipeline system exploded after the CIA modified the firmware in a shipment of pipeline control chips.
The resulting 3 kiloton (approx) explosion was seen from space.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1071087/posts
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You also missed the PEPCON disaster http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PEPCON_disaster
The two explosions, measuring 3 and 3.5 on the Richter scale respectively, left a crater 15 feet deep.
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Closer to us, in 2001 (10 days after 9/11), 300 tons of ammonium nitrate ignited in a fertilizer factory in the middle of the Toulouse, France. It was a 100 kiloton blast that killed 30 people, injured 3000 and made 40000 people homeless for several days.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AZF
The factory next door produces rocket fuel and uses phosgen (mustard gas). Miraculously, there were no deadly leaks, or else the death toll would have been between 50 and 100000 deaths.
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A picture of the Fauld, Staffordshire crater can be seen here http://www.gearthhacks.com/dlfile27084/RAF-Fauld-Explosion-near-Tutbury,-Burton-upon-Trent-in-Staffordshire.htm
Also, regarding the anonymous comment about the Toulouse blast - there is no way 300 tons of ammonium nitrate can produce an equivalent blast of 100 kilotons. One ton of ammonium nitrate does not have the explosive force of 333.3 tons of TNT...
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In 1921 IG Farben (later BASF) used dynamite to break up a mixture of Ammonium Sulphate and Ammonium Nitrate that was stored in a warehouse. This was a process that they had reportedly followed numerous times previously.
On 21 September they learned empirically that the mixture was explosive. 500 people died.
A report: http://www.corporate.basf.com/en/ueberuns/profil/geschichte/1902-1924.htm?id=V00-QdITSDCGVbcp0-D
A picture of the blast damage: http://www.bufata-chemie.de/reader/ig_farben/pics/1-4-3_01_oppau-big.jpg
DRB is a compulsory daily read. Thanks for the interesting site.
Andrew J. Winks
Cape Town, South Africa
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Enschede, Netherlands
A local firework factory blows up:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ks5X0N8M_o8
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When I was a kid I read at Readers Digest about the Mont Blanc explosion and I remember a question. The anchor of the Mont Blanc it was found two milles far.
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I think the biggest non-nuclear explosion ever was the "Tunguska Event"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event
The Tunguska Event, or Tunguska explosion, was a powerful explosion that occurred near the Podkamennaya (Lower Stony) Tunguska River in what is now Krasnoyarsk Krai of Russia, at around 7:14 a.m.[1] (0:14 UT, 7:02 a.m. local solar time[2]) on June 30, 1908 (June 17 in the Julian calendar, in use locally at the time).[2]
Although the cause is the subject of some debate, the explosion was most likely caused by the air burst of a large meteoroid or comet fragment at an altitude of 5–10 kilometres (3–6 miles) above Earth's surface. Different studies have yielded varying estimates for the object's size, with general agreement that it was a few tens of metres across.[3]
Although the meteor or comet burst in the air rather than directly hitting the surface, this event is still referred to as an impact. Estimates of the energy of the blast range from 5 megatons[4] to as high as 30 megatons[5] of TNT, with 10–15 megatons the most likely[5] - roughly equal to the United States' Castle Bravo thermonuclear explosion set off in late February 1954, about 1,000 times as powerful as the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan and about one third the power of the Tsar Bomba, the largest nuclear weapon ever detonated.[6] The explosion knocked over an estimated 80 million trees over 2,150 square kilometres (830 square miles). It is estimated that the earthquake from the blast would have measured 5.0 on the Richter scale, which was not yet developed at the time. An explosion of this magnitude is capable of destroying a large metropolitan area.[7] This possibility has helped to spark discussion of asteroid deflection strategies.
Although the Tunguska event is believed to be the largest impact event on land in Earth's recent history,[8] impacts of similar size in remote ocean areas would have gone unnoticed before the advent of global satellite monitoring in the 1960s and 1970s.
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Januar 12, 1807 a ship loaded with 17 tons of black powder exploded in the cite of Leiden blasting away a great part of the inner citty and killing 150 people.
animation:
http://www.infofilm.nl/animaties/kruitramp/kruitramp.html
dutch wikipedia with some images:
http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leidse_buskruitramp
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How about the even BIGGER explosions of stars? National Geographic has a photo gallery:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2007/03/cosmic-explosions/cosmic-explosions-photography
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The Fauld crater appears to be more like 200m across, not 3/4 of a mile.
The depth may have changed, but the crater width would remain unchanged.
If you look at the detailed google map of the area, it is easy to see the dimensions have "grown" with time....
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You should look up the SS Richard Montgomery, its still loaded with thousands of tons of ammunition from WW2 sunk in the Thames estuary, read that if it goes up it will be the biggest non nuclear detonation, I have fished from a boat next to it a few times, worst fishing spot on the planet I imagine.
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1800's - fertilizer plant in Opau Germany blew up. Flattened half the town.
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This is also a big explosion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nC0FetkeqA , a fireworks safety test(The tiny thing in the middle is the shipping container).
Great site you have btw, one of my favourites :).
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Its looking more and more like I don't want to live near harbors nor anywhere having anything to do with bulk fertilizer.
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"..300 tons of ammonium nitrate ignited in a fertilizer factory in the middle of the Toulouse, France. It was a 100 kiloton blast.."
Just to clarify, 300 tons of ammonium nitrate cannot ever equal 100 kilotons of TNT. For example, the fission weapon "Little Boy" detonated over Hiroshima produced a 13 to 16 kiloton blast. Ammonium Nitrate in a blast prepared slurry also containing nitromethane - not just stored fertilizer - has a TNT equivalency of 1.6, IE: 1 ton ANNM is equal to 1.6 tons of TNT.
Comparatively, the most common fission nuclear warhead in the US arsenal is the
B61 which has a
disclosed yield up to 350 kilotons
Better living through chemistry, eh?
Ref:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Boyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANFOhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_weapon_yield
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Thank you everybody for really explosive information... will go into the next part. Fantastic info.
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Ripple Rock--I believe it is supposed to be one of the largest intentional man-made non-nuclear explosions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ripple_Rock
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For another in humanity's long running attempts at self-immolation see:
www.reddit.com/r/wikipedia/related/7d98l/the_largest_nonnuclear_explosion
A tale of Russia executing the largest intentional non-nuclear explosion in our sorry history of blowing things up, intentional or otherwise.
arrtist
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1769 The city of Brescia, Italy is devastated when the Church of San Nazaro, near Venice, is struck by lightning. The resulting fire ignites 200,000 lb (90,000 kg) of gunpowder being stored there, causing a massive explosion which destroys 1/6 of the city and kills 3,000 people.
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You forgot the man made explosion in WW1. A whole line of trench was mined and filled with explosives. It obliterated everything. Second four of the sites are still active. (One exploded recently creating football long hole.) I believe this is the battle; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Messines
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I actually saw that digger climb the pole on TV. If I am not mistaken it happened in a German show called "Wetten Das".
A show in which people claim they can do something or the other (such as climb a pole with a digger) and celebrities wager on whether or not they think it can be done.
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About the "future man" picture: Where exactly is his "tricycle retractable landing gear" supposed to retract..? :)
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I believe the pole climbing excavator was part of an advertising campaign by the company that makes the excavator. But I have no source to back this up so take it with a grain of salt.
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I can't comment on the digger unfortunately (that looks awesome tho, would love to see a vid) but I can say that the second mtn. goat photo is from the following flickr user:
http://flickr.com/photos/wildphotons/2682928904/
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It is called the Kinetic Sculpture Race, not the "creative art race." Flatmo's team always takes some award for the art, but usually not for speed, flipper, etc. You should do some research about the race itself... quite an illustrious history.
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Space the final frontier,well maybe,I really love this type os SF art,very cool. Thanks!
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Thanks so much for this post... Brilliant!
And I hope i get to live to see the day space travel is as common as taking the bus...
Change we can believe in!
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> Some unnamed planet is getting explored by a spider-like vehicle
The planet is Mars, and the concept came from Arkadiy & Boris Strugatzkie's book "The land of crimson clouds" (Strana bagrovyh tuch).
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>> I hope i get to live to see the
>> day space travel is as common as
>> taking the bus...
There is a number of problems with that scenario.
[1] Energy. Going to space is uphill all the way. It takes a significant amount of energy just to put you there. Energy is getting more costly all the time.
[2] Space. As the name suggests, it's empty. So why go there?
[3] Planets are a credible destination because they have resources. What they don't have, is habitability. You could mine them, but why live there?
When you take the bus it costs only a small amount of energy, and wherever you get out you will find air rather than vacuum and cosmic rays. Space travel will *never* resemble this.
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party booper.
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Some people have a hard time separating space fantasy from space reality. I love retro sci-fi art but I know most of it is impractical if not impossible. That breaks the child heart inside me. Space is a really big place and things are a lot farther than they look.
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Load up the Vista Cruiser, kids ... we're headed for Uranus!
-from digg
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About the Nike Commercial, dude, that's not Walt Disney's style, that's John K! The guy who did Ren and Stimpy! C'mon!
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to the Obama facts:
Barack means peach in Hungarian :)
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Great post !
you did a lot of research finding these interesting pics !
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SO GREAT...WHAT IMAGINATION! P F
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I absolutely love stuff like this. Amazing post.
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Absolutely amazing photos. perhaps some of the best I have ever seen.
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Just found your blog and I think it's a keeper.
I had Mummy dogs on Halloween night. I hadn't seen them before and I was impressed by how simple they were to make.
I've got a recipe book for making eyeballs out of pickled onions but I've never taken the opportunity to try it.
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Just a bit of info for you Avi, The drunken angels are swimming around in Absinthe.
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OK, now somebody just have to drink absinthe with eyeballs from pickled onions...
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that's cool, i'll try some in my foods anyway, haha!
and anyway, seeing those pictures just make me feel hungry.. amazing how looks can affect your appetite.. ^^
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that was busterkeaton!! in that one picture. i love him!! :D
the chihauha was really cute
but i like all the pics on this site
:)
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It's unreal to me the amount of creativity some people have!
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Louise Bourgeois demos her version of the orange-peel guy for an interviewer--only hers ends up with a strategically placed spindle.
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part of me feels like a total spoiled jerk, getting so much joy out of seeing the (doubtless artful) wasting of food... but then the right side of my brain takes over, and i celebrate recklessly! ;) Love this post. thank you.
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about the turtle: "it lives", not "it leaves"
:)
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He has had trouble with keeping the airplane warm enough in winter. I'm in Fairbanks now, I ride my bike past the airplane frequently in summer, lots of fun.
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About the picture of the guy "jumping" on the carrier deck, that's a type of extraction, he's not jumping, as you see he's straped to a rope and probaply there a few guys below or/and over him. This kind of extraction makes the helicopter less vunerable to enemy fire, as it is not needed to land.
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The kawaii girl is Kipi cosplaying as Asuka.
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Nude mice as shown in that picture very much do exist. There are many different breeds of them.
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Emily, you just added another nightmare to my nightmare-busy life.
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Despite looking a little odd up close most of them really are just normal mice, sans hair. I bet most animals would look weird witout hair--
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Perfect post Avi! But the picture with the subtitle ant is a Spider too! Take a look at the front eyes. Could you link my blog on my name?
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I love this post... The spiders are incredibly beautiful. What made me laugh was the "I can has cheezburger?" lolspider. Totally made my day.
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I don't think I should have looked at this before breakfast. Not at all.
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atila is correct. Not only do the number of eyes give it away, but how about the legs? I don't think I've ever seen an ant with eight legs.
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Ok, I have to leave some comment: Some damn nice shots!! Greetings from the Netherlands!!
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:) Thanks!
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Good job, Atila!
Spiders are cool.
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Not a spider fan but this was really interesting. Though I was leary of the video. Didnt think spiders could be funny but you prooved me that was quite funny. The spider ants were just down right cool. Never heard of such a thing but its neat how nature works. Thank you for the great post.
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Beautiful and amasing!
Thank you so much!
Mara - Spider fan from Russia.
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Very Nice
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*shudder* Spiders really creep me out, but still an interesting post. Only problem is that I read this just before bedtime.....can't wait for the spider nightmares, lol!
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I ADORE spiders, and my all time favourites are Salticidae.
Your pictures are absolutely stunning, I can't get over the detail that you have been able to share with them.
Simply wonderful.
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Isn't the Outer Banks Ocean Front house the one from "Nights in Rodanthe?"
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What's unorthodox about a dogcart?
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The picture of the women on the pig is definetly from Norway as the sign in the background says: "Real goat cheese for sale" :)
...and is it just me or is that pig exceptionally tall compared to its length?
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The photo of the woman and the pig is taken in 1932 in Lærdal, Norway. It's the most selling postcard in Norway of all time :)
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Actually, the photo from CERN is a front view of the semiconductor trackers for ATLAS, one of the four enormous detectors for the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, built at NIKHEF, The Netherlands. It was taken by Peter Ginter and is copyright NIKHEF. Here's the original
url.
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Thank you Kees, credits updated.
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The Wright brothers do not appear among these pictures. The one identified as the Wright brothers is probably a craft by Glenn Curtiss, the Wrights didn't have an aft elevator and the pilot sat belly down, head forward w/o a seat.
Dale
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That unknown Cody kite looks like a Shadow ship from Babylon 5.
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Where is Traian Vuia? ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traian_Vuia
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Ask anyone from New Zealand and they would say that Richard Pierce actually pioneered powered flight before the Wright Brothers
Google the name there is a reasonable amount of debate on the subject, but here are a couple of links.
http://www.royalhigh.edin.sch.uk/departments/departments/cdt/links.html
http://www.alldeaf.com/current-events/6400-wright-brothers-fraud.html
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Hi, if you're interested in old flying machines, a UK program called 'Scrapheap Challenge' did an international challenge to build flying machines of old. The English teams plane (approx. 4 minutes in) flys beautifully. Link > http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=LIhRVAp1Qy4
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I've heard about Richard Pierce, but there are a lot of stories of people who achieved powered flight before the Wrights from all over the world. I'd say that the Wrights were certainly not the first. We must also remember that people were flying around in hot air balloons long before so it wasn't that revolutionary. History is not about sudden changes it's all gradual. I wish people would stop perpetuating the Wright brothers myth. If Americans looked around the world a bit they'd find that people don't hold to this myth.
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I hope that George Cayley gets a mention soon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Cayley
as he was working on flight a good 50 years before the Wright brothers. Richard Branson flew a replica of his machine a few years ago which was a hell of a sight, especially as Mr. Branson organised a Virgin jet to do a "fly past" over Brompton Dale the same day
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You forgot about the true first flight, by Burrell Cannon in 1902 in Pittsburg, Texas. The plane is called the Ezekiel Airship and it's quite a looker... www.texasescapes.com/AllThingsHistorical/EzekielAirshipBB1103.htm
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Am I counting wrong, or does the Ca.60 Transaero have nine wings and not eight as stated in the captions? It sure looks like three sets of three wings each to this observer.
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During the early 20th century, Santos Dumont built the 14-bis and later the Oiseau de Proie (French for "bird of prey"). This flying machine was the first fixed-wing aircraft officially witnessed to take off, fly, and land. (not catapulted)
Most americans don't know anything about Santos Dumont.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Santos-Dumont
Ah, and yes, I'm brazilian, thanks.
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Great info, thanks - will go into next part.
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Curioso! No es la primera vez que en apenas pocos días publicamos cosas similares, ¿Nos leeremos el pensamiento a pesar de estar tan lejos? Gran blog!!
Traducido/Tarnslated
Funny! It is not this the firs time that with few days of diference we both have published similar post... Are we reading each other thinking? Great Blog!!
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check...
http://www.flyingmachines.org/
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Check Abbas Ibn Firnas's flight, although his unsuccessful landing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbas_Ibn_Firnas
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Hazerfan Ahmet Çelebi
Hezarfen Ahmet Celebi (Turkish: Hezarfen Ahmet Çelebi), who lived in the 17th century in Istanbul in the Ottoman Empire, is one of the first aviators to have succeeded in flying with artificial wings. He is supposed to have been inspired by and used the studies of Leonardo da Vinci on the flight of birds. He started flying from the Galata Tower, a high tower in Istanbul, and managed to fly over the Bosporus. The few people known to have succeeded in this kind of flight are an aviator from Moorish Spain and an English monk in the 9th and 12th centuries, respectively. One of Hezarfen's friends Lagari Hasan Celebi is known to have performed the first flight with a rocket in a conical cage filled with gun powder. Ahmet Celebi, because of his vast scientific knowledge was given the name Hezarfen, meaning "a thousand sciences". In his early studies of flying, he was motivated by the 10th century Turkish scientist Ismail Cevheri. Celebi, after carefully studying Cevheri's findings and when he felt confident enough arranged a public demonstration. He climbed the Galata Tower and launched himself into the wind; he passed over the Bosporus and landed in the slopes of Üsküdar on the Anatolian side.
This event created a great sensation. Sultan Murat IV was delighted and wanted to award Hezarfen but religious leaders and palace advisers soon changed his mind. Hezarfen was exiled to Algeria where he died soon at the age of 31.
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I'm currently reading Absolution Gap by Reynolds, absolutely amazing.
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SFSite
4 Comments:
I love the "Black Hole Office" video but I'm sorry it had an unhappy ending.
Quite an amazing array of geeky goodness. The tower designs were pretty freaking amazing!
Re: Japanese Toys Resting
Ummm, I am not sure, but I think that the toys are possibly for ADULT MEN if you know what I mean. I believe that the Japanese make them in Anime style as well as more human-like form
chocolate hills are spectacular
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