Sometimes schneier reads more like an absurdist-humor blog than a security-issues blog. Today he linked to the tragic tale of an artist unable to ship his empty (but labeled) containers
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That reminds me of the story that appeared on the humor page of one of my chemistry magazines. No idea if it was true.
Guy goes to the post office to ship an *empty* dewar. "What's a dewar?" "You use it to hold liquid nitrogen." "You can't ship pressurized gases! It'll explode!" "It can't explode. Look, there's not even a lid." "What if it leaks?" (poor scientist sighs) "How clever of you to think of that. Fortunately, it's full of packing peanuts. Everyone knows peanuts are legumes, and legumes fix nitrogen, so it can't leak." "Oh, why didn't you say so?"
shipping nitrogenrfunkJanuary 18 2007, 03:04:23 UTC
I can certainly believe at least half of that story is true. But why wouldn't the guy just say it's not pressurized? (Probable answer: Saw a more fun, and possibly easier, way out.)
Re: shipping nitrogensurakofb5January 18 2007, 04:36:09 UTC
I think you're giving the shipping clerk too much credit. The guy heard that it was a gas and simply mentally turned to "Regulation #nnn: we don't ship gases". Plus, of course, the dewar was *empty*. I've missed a few lines of the story because it's in my cube at work, so I've forgotten details.
"...cans of nitrogen (N2) and neon (Ne), with their store-advertised "purity" of 78.084% and 0.0018% respectively (which was our way of being clever about selling cans of normal air, since that's their percentage in the atmosphere..."
I am embarrassed to admit that I didn't imediately recognize the fact that the cans simply contained air.
Both nitrogen and neon are simple asphyxiants at 100% concentration, and both are extremely cold when in a liquid state. When compressed and shipped in bulk, both require placarding during transport.
But I'm fairly certain that shipping air is just fine and dandy.
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Guy goes to the post office to ship an *empty* dewar. "What's a dewar?" "You use it to hold liquid nitrogen." "You can't ship pressurized gases! It'll explode!" "It can't explode. Look, there's not even a lid." "What if it leaks?" (poor scientist sighs) "How clever of you to think of that. Fortunately, it's full of packing peanuts. Everyone knows peanuts are legumes, and legumes fix nitrogen, so it can't leak." "Oh, why didn't you say so?"
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http://pubs.acs.org/subscribe/journals/tcaw/12/i08/pdf/803lighter.pdf
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I am embarrassed to admit that I didn't imediately recognize the fact that the cans simply contained air.
Both nitrogen and neon are simple asphyxiants at 100% concentration, and both are extremely cold when in a liquid state. When compressed and shipped in bulk, both require placarding during transport.
But I'm fairly certain that shipping air is just fine and dandy.
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