From Geekosystem: [This is a must watch video / safe for work]
On Wednesday, thousands of Springfield, Ohio residents were left without power when a 275-foot smokestack being demolished fell the wrong way, knocking down two 12,500 volt power lines and crushing “several pieces of power equipment,” including a building that stored backup generators.
According to the demolition company that handled the work at the former Ohio Edison Mad River Power Plant (not a nuclear power plant –Ed.), the explosives detonated correctly, “but an undetected crack on the south side of the tower pulled it in a different direction. ‘Nobody’s happy with things that go wrong in life, and sometimes it’s out of our hands and beyond anybody’s prediction. … We’re all extremely thankful no one was injured,’ Kelly told The Columbus Dispatch.”
Watch the video below:
I can think of many metaphors for what this wayward tower represents: politics, the economy, and climate change come to mind. Anyone think of some specific metaphors…?
Seems they should have had cables attached to not allow it to fall the wrong way.
Can the UN manage and ordinary collapse of the IPCC? It also has a crack in it the defies patching!
What’s the big deal? This snafu is within one standard deviation of the 30 day running average snafu anomaly during the baseline period 1979-2000. So it’s not worse than we thought.
Obama needs to convene a team of non specialist, to look into the matter, and put a moritorium on blasting until the EPA can determine if this is fit for the environment..yada yada yada….
There was an undetected negative cloud feedback at the base of the conjecture.
====================
ZZZ,
I remember the Challenger explosion, and school teacher/astronaut Christa McAuliffe.
[SNIP – There. Saved you from hell. (You can thank me after you’re dead.) ~ Evan.]
[I know, I’m going to hell for that one.]
I’m just surprised no one has blamed Obama yet. This happened under his watch! But wait, it’s really Bush’s fault because it happened under regulatory schemes he instigated. Or was that Clinton? No, it’s the Republicans letting their industry cronies get away with murder. Unless of course it’s the liberals breaking their promises of hope and change. All I know is its the governments fault.
Doug Badgero says:
November 12, 2010 at 7:16 pm
I agree Doug, the last explosion was probably an electrical fault which occurred as the electrical substation was destroyed.
What? A tipping point behind us?
Undetected crack indeed.
Total screw-up by the contractor more like.
DaveE.
ZZZ says:
November 12, 2010 at 7:22 pm
It seems to be quite common for some organization, in support of some charity or another, to sponsor a contest, raffle or simple drawing to allow someone, usually a child, to push the button for these type demolitions. I agree someone had a brain-fart to have not been clear of power lines within the drop radius. I do not agree there is any similarity to NASA’s decision to send a civilian.
To “I do not agree there is any similarity to NASA’s decision to send a civilian”, add “into space”.
If only Greenpeace had been trying to hang a banner, ……
Marcia, Marcia says: “Seems they should have had cables attached to not allow it to fall the wrong way.”
Now you tell us.
Computer Modeling FAIL
Look at the idiots trying to predict when a rock will fall “Computer models LOL”
Gravity is a curvature of spacetime. QED
On the last explosion it looked like the base moved to the right just before the smokestack fell to the left.
Maybe it was rotten bricks???
HEY! There was an undetected crack…….. prove there wasn’t!
Maybe they were the contractors own kids, one of those bring your kids to work days.
One thing’s for sure, next time they need to put that kid that cut and ran first in charge.
He/she summed up the situation and the potential outcome miles before anyone else.
I’d keep kids well away from these, in 1997 in Canberra a fragment from a hospital “implosion” flew across a large lake and hit a girl in the crowd killing her
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Canberra_Hospital_implosion
Seems to be a successful demolition company, but I can’t wrap my head around how a crack could have “pulled” the stack in a different direction from where the charges were set. The second set of charges were obviously on the side that collapsed and brought the tower in that direction, after the first set of charges failed to adequately cripple the tower. If there was a structural crack it should have been identified beforehand, and is a really lousy excuse in any event.
Springfield, Ohio is my old home town. The Edison Power Plant was a familiar landmark. I used to fish for crawdads in the nearby Buck Creek. We’ll miss it. Glad none of the kids were hurt.
http://media.kickstatic.com/kickapps/images/6688/photos/PHOTO_10060191_6688_4524954_main.jpg
Consider the technical difficulty of blowing up an old building with drilling a well in the floor of the Gulf of Mexico. Yet there seems to be a higher percentage of screw-ups with the former. Do those in need of explosive folks hire the Marx brothers?
Now consider the technical difficulty of measuring atmospheric temperature in contrast to the technical difficulty of measuring the mass of sub-atomic particles. Which set of numbers do we believe? Which set of researchers is being paid too much?
The long and the short of it is: $#it happens!
Sorry folks, people performed to the best of their ability, and something outside of their analysis caused things to go wrong. I don’t know about the qualifications of the firm involved, but somebody approved the entire episode.