Before you decide to get the winner of the local school's "Why I think the smokestack should be blowed up" essay contest to flip the switch, you should probably make sure that the thing's going to fall in the right direction...
I'm just sayin'.
(H/T to Unc.)
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15 comments:
YEESH! The video I saw yesterday didn't show the group of people so close to the power lines coming down.
Glad no one was hurt. Those lines snapping probably had a bit of 'whip' to them.
Hmmmm....wrong sequencing in the charges?
Where's the nanothermite? Bring in the Danish(?) chemist!
The company president said that there was a previously undetected crack that failed during the charge sequence, causing the wrong area to fail first. Don't know about the validity of something like that claim without some kind of corroborating evidence, but that was their story yesterday.
Seriously, the experts on the subject don't always get it right on something as simple as a concrete gravity stack...and I'm supposed to believe Dylan Avery is some structural genius for pointing out things that he doesn't understand.
A DNS attack!
I swear by the ghost of
G H Daw, the captcha is MUZZY.
I'm thinking 'don't stand under power lines' is a good rule for about any time.
WV: Hammento - new candy flavor, or a reminder pig.
I'd like to think I'd have the sense to avoid that entire situation to begin with. I never watched an energetic event that I didn't like, but I wouldn't want that close!
Jim
I also apparently wouldn't want to proofread comments, either.
Jim
It's probably a good idea to not stand under anything the structure in question might take with it if it falls some way other than what you planned, too.
Hi Tam,
Fits in perfectly--I was just watching Final Destination.
Dave
First rule of demo work:
USE ENOUGH EXPLOSIVES.
(Second: Don't use too much.)
Seriously, I don't care what was wrong structurally with that tower, had the first charge blown out the correct side of the base, the tower would have fallen correctly. Unlike explosives, gravity is prefectly predictable.
First rule of demo work:
USE ENOUGH EXPLOSIVES.
(Second: Don't use too much.)
Seriously, I don't care what was wrong structurally with that tower, had the first charge blown out the correct side of the base, the tower would have fallen correctly. Unlike explosives, gravity is prefectly predictable.
You won't hear "timber!" shouted in the woods anymore, at least not in the professional sense. You will hear, "Falling!" shouted, though; certainly would have been appropriate in this case.
Although, "fore!" may have been just as handy, too, as the engineers seemed to have spent a bit too much time at the 19th hole before that shot went off.
Finally, to be a fly on the wall of the power company dispatch when that call came in. "You've dropeed a WHATSAT on our switching station?!"
IIRC, one of the major safety rules for dropping trees ad towers is that if it looks as if it is not moving - RUN at a right angle to the item because it is falling on you.
LittleRed1
To quote Mel Gibson:
"Grab the cat!"
and
"Oops."
You'd think the power company would kill power to that area just in case anything as remote as a demo fail would occur.
But of course that would be as anal retentive as wearing a belt with suspenders. And no one wants to be the dork of the class; the nerd, the Poindexter. Who wants to be the wet blanket who says cancel the Challenger launch for the umpteenth time because of a measly cracked O-ring?
Let's be manly men about it - even if it means 50kV to everyone in case of said fail. Just be glad it wasn't a rain slicked pavement under their feet.
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