Feb 19, 2010 15:51
Today's Odd Lots is a rare (nay, to this date unique) all-video edition. I dislike TV sufficiently so that that's a contrarian act all by itself. To begin: We used to make five-stick "popsicle bombs" on the fourth-grade playground, and compete to see whose bombs would toss sticks the farthest. (I actually devised a 4-stick bomb, but nobody seemed impressed. The technology has clearly advanced since 1961 .) Anyway: Here's a linearly detonating, 2,250-stick popsicle bomb , and it is indeed a thing of beauty. While we're blowing things up, consider this unfortunate attempt to demolish what appears to be an apartment building molded of solid concrete . They should feel fortunate that the building had not been erected on even a mild slope, or it would simply have rolled down the hill until it struck something bigger and denser than it was. (Thanks to Pete Albrecht for the link.) I guess if you're going to blow a demolition, do it this way . Then you either buy more dynamite, or advertise it as a tourist attraction. And this may be the most amazing video clip I've seen in years: An Atlas booster breaking the sound barrier at just about the altitude where ice crystals responsible for sundogs form . Watch what happens to the sundog! (Thanks to Mary Lynn Johnson for the link.) Admittedly this is a hybrid, but don't miss the video if you're a train freak. That double-stacked consist is 18,000 feet long , propelled by what is essentially a local-area network of nine computer-controlled diesel-electric locomotives distributed evenly among the cars and operated by one guy in the cab of the lead engine. (Thanks to Bruce Baker for the link.)
memoir ,
trains ,
science