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Recently I noted an article about how the Dodo had been found - not quite alive unfortunately, but still found. And today, thanks to the wonders of my tivo I watched a show on PBS (american public broadcasting) about the Hindenburg air ship. A NASA scientist who specializes in Hydrogen has debunked the belief that the Hindenburg was a hydrogen disaster. In fact, it was powdered aluminum added to a "doping" mixture that coated the fabric covering of the airship that caught fire from an electrostatic charge, causing the conflagration. Apparently, the same powdered aluminum is currently used by NASA as part of their rocket fuel and is highly flammable.
At the end of the show, an air ship enthusiast says that now that we know that Hydrogen was more stable than believed, airships should come back as meaningful, viable, safe, and environmentally friendly travel options. EXCELLENT!!
It's often strange to me how sometimes the world of Thursday Next intrudes upon our own. :)
I gotta say, I'd still be wary about jumping into a basket suspended below a huge ballon filled with hydrogen gas... Although if it was helium, I'd be the first on board with my best micky mouse impression.
Airships - well dirigibles anyway - are still around and viable. While alumin(i)um is certainly flammable, and in its powdered form relatively easy to ignite, i would still feel safer with inert Helium rather than flammable hydrogen.
I plan to live forever, of course, but barring that, I will settle for a couple hundred years of good health.
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'We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad." [said the Cat.]
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland
I want to live for four thousand years- I'd like to see a certain comet again (what was it called? it was near betel geuse andm near earth about 9 years ago?
Hale-Bopp? Only one I can think of off-hand with such a long orbit.
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'We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad." [said the Cat.]
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland
Posted by: Anonymous User (---.hsd1.mn.comcast.net)
Date: August 29, 2007 04:19AM
I have seen small balloons filled with hydrogen burst into flames fairly quickly, so I think I will pass.
When I was a very little girl, I remember seeing an old movie about people having a costume party while riding in a dirigible. I would like to see it again, but have no idea what it was called. Ring any bells? I think it was very old--black and white.
But it can mean something naughty if you want it to. :)
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'We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad." [said the Cat.]
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland