4 ms·
I work as a professional mechanic for a small chain of truck repair shops in the midwest. This reminds me of a customer we had who owned a cemetery and was hav
by nimbius 8y ago
I work as a professional mechanic for a small chain of truck repair shops in the midwest. This reminds me of a customer we had who owned a cemetery and was having a hard time with their front end loader...specifically, the tires.
About once a month they were spending a few thousand dollars on new tires for this brand new Kubota LA525. The tires would show excessive wear and, curiously enough, enormous golf ball sized holes that look like they were burned through with a torch. we all figured it was vandalism.
We'd recently unmounted one of the tires to replace it when a golf-ball chunk of white rock fell out and shot across the shop floor with a startling bang. Curious, I took it to our OSHA office and our inspector nearly screamed, 'Thats phosphorous!' Turns out the cemetery was built on an old lot used by a chemical transportation company. It also explained why the sod was being replaced about twice a year.
- toomuchtodo 8y agoI'm always surprised how few identified Superfund sites there are.
- nimish 8y agoIt's a lot easier to toss some dirt over the land and water you polluted. With deregulatory fervor on the rise, it shouldn't be surprising that there's fewer identified sites.
- mousadafousa 8y agoCould you explain what a superfund site is?
- grzm 8y ago> "Superfund is a United States federal government program designed to fund the cleanup of sites contaminated with hazardous substances and pollutants. Sites managed under this program are referred to as "Superfund" sites." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superfund https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superfund
- microcolonel 8y agoFun fact: in a single Northwest Territories mine [0] lies an amount of arsenic trioxide dust sufficient to kill every mammal on earth many times over; and in the early '90s an organized labour terrorist planted and detonated a bomb inside the mine, killing nine workers who were there in spite of a strike. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_Mine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_Mine
- bsder 8y agoAnywhere that Max Gergel worked: "Excuse Me Sir, Would You Like to Buy a Kilo of Isopropyl Bromide?" https://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/reading_list/indices/book_856.html https://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/reading_list/indices/book...
- HarryHirsch 8y agoThe Gergel mess was small and in no way comparable to the PCB mess in the Hudson or the Love Canal site in Buffalo. Chemophobiacs may remember Edward Tyczkowski, featured here in a breathless Salon article: https://www.salon.com/2004/03/23/armageddon/ https://www.salon.com/2004/03/23/armageddon/ He was a very talented fluorine chemist, who ran a custom synthesis and contract research outfit out of a shed in the ghetto somewhere in the South. From colleagues who knew him I understand that he was a true gentleman and righteous. He wasn't known for mishaps, but when he retired he left behind cylinders of sulfur tetrafluoride (10 times more toxic than phosgene) and perfluoroisobutylene (100 times more toxic than phosgene, supposedly the Russians had a stash because it passes through your regular gas masks) and much other stuff. A trained chemist knows how to use SF4 without incident (I have done so myself), but it's remarkable that Tyczkowski, who recruited his workers from the ghetto - Apartheid was strong in the 1960s Southern US, didn't have deaths amongst his workforce. It shows what properly training one's workforce can do. Meanwhile Information Technology tries to achieve the perfect fit through endless rounds of interviewing and teambuilding and keeps failing.
- iggldiggl 8y agoSee also http://library.sciencemadness.org/library/index.html http://library.sciencemadness.org/library/index.html. While you're browsing around there, you might also want to pick up a copy of "Ignition!", which I personally liked even better than the Gergel books.
- starbeast 8y agoA method for bolstering private profits by socializing any losses.
- pankajdoharey 8y agoNice, i am surprised to see Professional Mechanic's to hang out on HN.
- Casseres 8y agoThere's at least one other Merchant Mariner (I used to be one), and I'm (now) an Air Traffic Controller. I'm sure there's a bunch of other fields represented here.