lionfloss:

source

todays-problematic-ship:

astraltrickster:

thereflex1984:

thereflex1984:

watching a video about this cargo ship that blew up in texas in the 40’s and it’s like . i know that with a lot of incidents especially older ones like this the reason that the safety standards were so shitty was because they literally did not know that these kinds of disasters COULD happen (and in many cases these disasters are what MADE the safety standards better) but sometimes you just learn about this shit and you think. how could all these people be so stupid

- cargo of the ship consisted of twine (flammable) peanuts (flammable, oily) and cotton (FLAMMABLE) from houston and POST WAR AMMUNITION (OH MY GOD) FROM CUBA

- additional cargo they were picking up in texas city was LOOSE BAGS OF AMMONIUM NITRATE that the dock workers described as being ANOMALOUSLY WARM UPON BEING LOADED INTO THE SHIP ??????

- small fire breaks out in cargo hold, instead of putting it out with water that could damage the cargo the captain decides to close all the hatches to try to make the cargo hold airtight and smother the fire (stupid but you can kind of understand how they got there)

- the heat of the trapped smoke in the cargo hold instead causes the aforementioned LOOSE BAGS OF AMMONIUM NITRATE to undergo a chemical reaction and turn into nitrous oxide, massively increasing the pressure inside of the airtight hold

- one of the hatch covers fails

- mfw all the pressure in the cargo hold is released at once causing an explosion that fucking levels everything in the port within 2000 feet

- mfw the shockwave shatters windows up to a hundred miles away

- mfw on-fire twine and peanuts and fucking grenades are raining down over texas city

- mfw some of the pieces of the ship got launched into the sky faster than the speed of sound

- mfw they found the ship’s anchor inside of a ten foot wide crater over a mile and a half away

- mfw this was one of the largest and most devastating non-nuclear explosions in world history

- mfw this could have been avoided if they’d just taken the L and put the fire out with water

also worth a mention: the SECOND boat that exploded in a very similar manner the next day which was an even more violent explosion, but less devastating because most of the port was. you know. already leveled and evacuated

someone running rescue and recovery after the FIRST boat exploded noticed that the second boat’s cargo was on fire and reported it….and this just went. ignored. for several hours. until someone was like “oh shit better get this under control” and tried to move the boat to no avail and they just gave up and evacuated

next day it started raining glowing-hot metal boat chunks all over the city. AGAIN.

Today’s problematic ships are the Grandcamp (first explosion) and High Flyer (second explosion).

ellynneversweet:

thefingersofgod:

ellynneversweet:

ellynneversweet:

Cannot recommend enough doing a cold read of the Wikipedia article for clam juice out loud for eliciting wonder and disgust in a post dinner crowd. There was shouting from the room next door. I was very nearly crying by the end.

@marzipanandminutiae @anghraine @freetoflythecrimsonsky

A geographical story in three parts (with thanks to @freetoflythecrimsonsky for pointing out that clam juice is a regional ingredient and no one outside New England understands it, and also that we can probably blame the concept that you should use the leftover water from steaming clams on the Puritans taking a zero-waste mentality to an extreme).

To be clear, I can understand adding it to fish-centric dishes for extra fishiness, since that’s not terribly different to, say, oyster sauce, but it was the Wikipedia section on its use in beverages that drove me into hysterics. To quote (please imagine a rising pitch of incredulous horror throughout, audience contributions added in square brackets, my emphasis etc etc):

Some restaurants and bars in the US serve shots of pure clam juice. For example, the Old Clam House in San Francisco, California serves a shot glass of hot clam juice [‘…ew’] at the beginning of each meal. In the early 1900s in the United States, clam juice was purported to be a hangover remedy. [‘as an emetic?!’ — my horrified audience]

The Everleigh Club, a former brothel in Chicago, Illinois, that was in operation from 1900 to October 1911, would serve iced clam juice and a tablet of aspirin as a starter for breakfast, which began at 2:00 in the afternoon. [indistinct scoffing and some juvenile chortles]

In the United States in the early 1900s, clam juice was used as an ingredient for various beverages at soda fountains. Beverages prepared with clam juice included hot clam juice, HOT CLAM SODA, [‘WHAT?!’ — visiting sibling in the next room, who let out a blast of steam from the iron in shock and promptly came in to hear better] hot ginger clam broth, hot celery punch, hot clam cream, [‘that might actually just taste like a sad bisque?’ — tentative commentary] clam night cap, tomato clam broth and others.

I mean…hot carbonated clam water. There’s no coming back from that. That’s the devil’s drink. No wonder New England’s full of horror stories, it’s cursed by clams.

[whispering] Just wait till they find out about Clamato.

NO.

menlet:

Holy shit I would kill this man if I had to live with this

ashenprincx:

ashenprincx:

ashenprincx:

frothing at the mouth over the sheer number of undeclared allergens in both prescription and otc meds

ID: screenshot of tags via @deathcallsmedaddy reading “#but how do you feel about it #on a scale of one to ten #how bad is the frothing?” End ID.

we are at a fucking 12/10

“Worryingly, they discovered that 93 percent of medications contain allergens, including lactose, dyes, and peanut oil. Almost all medicines contain ingredients that some people might not be able to tolerate, such as gluten.”

and medications have none of the same requirements to label allergens as foods, and supplements don’t even need to be truthful about their content. im currently having to go through and throw out/replace my medications bc I recently had an allergy escalate to “potentially deadly” and am now finding that process was helped by the fucking thing being hidden in half my fucking medications

so yeah for anyone with moderate to severe allergies, check ALL the meds you take, especially if you’re reacting and don’t know why.

this is one of those “reblog to actually save a life” things i think

icykalisartblog:

@221bentleys​ I lost a lot of respect for the DS9 writers’ room too, the more I learned… even what they did to Bashir wasn’t the grossest of their decisions. And I thought that proposed season 8 was pretty bad! Even in the artwork Bashir’s skin was way paler than it’s supposed to be, as if poor Bashir didn’t have it bad enough already!

Bashir is my favorite DS9 character, but I still only like him in about half the episodes, where he’s what I used to see many people refer to as a cinnamon roll. But I think we fans should be willing to throw out the bad parts of canon, especially when Siddig himself clearly does and embraces Bashir as the kind, gentle guy he is. He is definitely iconic! The actors in this show were often the ones who had the best ideas for their characters (I continue to praise Nana Visitor for refusing to let the writers make Kira and Dukat have a romance). I’ve also seen that same video and I agree! Bashir is such a healthy representation of manhood (and not to mention great POC representation) and it’s a shame that people tried to change that in order to please the chart.

I’m normally not like this, but DS9 fanworks are a case where I think it’s fine to throw out the canon and let most fanworks be a kind of fix-it. 

unicorn-and-bluebells:

gracehansonfailwife:

still bizarre to me that ezri is a year younger than nog but also i think not enough people realise ezri is a year younger. than Nog

Also Nog, B'elanna, and Wesley were all at Starfleet Academy at the same time