Odd Lots

[jeff_duntemann]

• 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

Comments

[etfb]

Speaking of demolitions as tourist attractions reminded me of the Canberra town council equivalent, and their attempts to turn the unnecessary demolition of the old Royal Canberra Hospital into a spectacle. Working on the principle that bread and circuses would distract people from asking why a servicable, if ageing, hospital building was being demolished when the health infrastructure in the city wasn't up to handling the increased demand, they scheduled the demolution for a Sunday and invited people to come and watch from the far side of the lake. The demolition went wrong, naturally, and a large piece of hospital flew across the lake and decapitated a young girl named Katie Bender as she sat on a picnic rug. The coroner found that the demolition company had been negligent.Fun, eh? We talk of government incompetence and greed leading to death as "doing a Bender", as when our current Minister for the Environment opened up a free-for-all with the installation of insulation that led to a bunch of poorly-trained installers being

I guess if you're going to blow a demolition, do it this way.

[anonymous]

Except that the remaining structure isn't safe for anyone to enter, much less set explosives inside.

[apostle_of_eris]

"Originally, DPUs were just for coal trains facing steep hills." There's a complication in supporting rail transport as "greener" that I'm waiting for more people to notice.
If we want to cut CO2, then trains look real good. Except that one of the financial cornerstones of today's rail system is coal trains to power plants. Which we want to drasticly reduce . . .

[jeff_duntemann]

Three-word solution: Go. Nuclear. Now.

Nothing else will do the job.

[apostle_of_eris]

I find it inspiring that Stewart Brand can still provoke such consternation at his age.

However, my comment was coming more from the aspect of The Universe is perverse and will bite you in the ass, than from Climate Change or Peak Oil. It's difficult to keep those conversations on track.