Monday Links from the Bench vol. XCVII

[TimberWolf]

...an expansion ratio of of 1 : 700.

Neon has the highest expansion ratio with 1 to 1438

Boomed.

[TimberWolf]

Scuba tank bottles are scary enough (especially the valve end). I've heard anecdotal stories of the velocities valves can reach when they pop (usually when being filled thankfully).

According to the Wiki, liquid nitrogen has an energy density of 97 watt-hours/kg, or 3.5 *10^5 J/kg - about a 10th the energy density of TNT. And an expansion ratio of of 1 : 700.

And by very ballpark calculation a 10 litre capacity cylinder weighing 10 kg could reach 800 m/s (twice the speed of sound) if all the energy went to kinetic of the bottle. Highly unlikely to happen of course.

[TimberWolf]

Loved the liquid nitrogen one.

Scary.

Worse than diamonds.

And compressed gas cylinders should be treated with care too.

Scuba tank bottles are scary enough (especially the valve end). I've heard anecdotal stories of the velocities valves can reach when they pop (usually when being filled thankfully).

According to the Wiki, liquid nitrogen has an energy density of 97 watt-hours/kg, or 3.5 *10^5 J/kg - about a 10th the energy density of TNT. And an expansion ratio of of 1 : 700.

[Freamon]

this disclaimer has no qualms about indulging in the more obnoxious trademarks of legalese, including but not limited to (i) the phrase “including but not limited to”

[NickFitz]

Doesn't it get dark early now? Time to curl up by the fire and read random nonsense:

• Alright, fine, I'll add a disclaimer to my emails - Nice parody of corporate email footers: "This email may contain confidential and/or legally privileged information. If it does, and you are not the intended recipient, then the sender hereby requests that you notify him of his mistake and destroy all copies in your possession. The sender also concedes that he is very, very stupid, and obviously should not be operating an electronic-mail machine without supervision."
  
  
• How Not to Do It: Liquid Nitrogen Tanks - "Now, liquid nitrogen cylinders are normally fairly benign, as long as you don't freeze your external organs off with the stuff or leave the liquid sitting around where it can condense oxygen out of the air. But idiocy will find a way..." Some good anecdotes and links in the comments, too.
  
  
• Wall Street Isn't Winning – It's Cheating - "Think about it: there have always been rich and poor people in America, so if this is about jealousy, why the protests now? The idea that masses of people suddenly discovered a deep-seated animus/envy toward the rich – after keeping it strategically hidden for decades – is crazy." Matt Taibbi considers the motivations of the Occupy Wall Street protestors.
  
  
• The Making Of "In Your Arms" - The stop-frame animated video for Kina Grannis's new single took almost two years to make and involved over 288,000 jelly beans. Here's the explanation of how it was done, and the video itself:
  
  
  

  

  
  
  

  

  
  
  
  
• The Fly-Pitchers of Spitalfields - "Commencing in the early hours and sometimes gone by first light, the existence of these traders in unknown to many visitors that come to Brick Lane on Sunday. So, for the last month, Spitalfields Life Contributing Photographer Colin O’Brien has been down there among the fly-pitchers and the result is this remarkable set of pictures which acknowledge the dignity of these people who are being subject to such unnecessary humiliation for sake of wanting to sell a little bric-a-brac."
  
  
• Sugar, and candy, do not make kids hyper - "Let’s cut to the chase: sugar doesn’t make kids hyper. There have been at least twelve trials of various diets investigating different levels of sugar in children’s diets. That’s more studies than are often done on drugs. None of them detected any differences in behavior between children who had eaten sugar and those who hadn’t." Always good to see this one debunked; again, good stuff (and idiocy) in the comments.
  
  
• Microsoft Video “Productivity Future Vision” - Microsoft have another hand-wavy vision of the future, here disssected by Josh Farmer: "There are some really great gadgets going on there. And they look like Apple products."
  
  
• OMG! Twitter has roots in the 17th century - "The explosion of information via social media is nothing new. Europeans were similarly bombarded with an avalanche of new communication forms during the 17th and 18th centuries." Interesting look at the way social networking, such as letter-writing, has affected history.
  
  
• Great CoverUps - Handy collection of conspiracy theories.
  
  
• The Kitten Covers - classic album covers - now with kittens!

Happy invoicing!