Images Thread 18

[Labster]

The artificial island for the bridge was next to Salt Island, so what did they name the new island, pictured?  Pepper Island.

Ah yes, good old DHMO.  I think at least one municipality banned it.  Back in uni, a group of us went to the Whole Earth Festival, and circulated a petition to ban dihydrogen monoxide.  We got lots of signatures.  And lots of PII too, because why not?  Of the people that actually talked to us, about a third were of the "ha-ha very funny" type.  The others signed up pretty easily.  I loved how one guy was convinced he had heard of this dangerous chemical, and was eager to sign up.  "Monoxide, that's really bad."

Another guy looked at me with annoyance and said, "How dumb do you think I am?"

I pointed to the long list of signatures, relating, "Statistically, there was a pretty good chance."

As a meteorologist, it was fun and easy coming up with more water facts for the petition.  "DHMO is a byproduct of the combustion of jet fuel -- once released in the upper atmosphere, it significantly contributes to global warming."  Real long-lived atmospheric pollutants also contribute to global warming -- CFCs are something like 500 times more potent per molecule than carbon dioxide.  Not really because of the chemical being special, but because nothing else up there absorbs on that part of the infrared spectrum.  Water is significantly less effective as a greenhouse gas, because there's already so much of it that it's basically heated up the planet +30°C already.  Oh, right:  studies suggest that high levels of DHMO can heat Earth's atmosphere by 30°C!