Posted on 04/27/2002 9:14:58 AM PDT by LarryLied
Hundreds of small decorative balloons filled with hydrogen have exploded in flames at a political rally in Turkey, injuring 46 people.
Dozens of balloons caught fire in the southern city of Malatya, local reporters say.
The victims, who suffered burns, were rushed to a provincial hospital.
Hundreds of balloons, about 40cms (16 inches) in height, were tied together and one apparently exploded while party officials were pumping hydrogen into it.
In Turkey, highly flammable hydrogen is often put in balloons instead of helium because it is cheaper.
That certainly didn't help the Challenger very much, though.
Note to Islamic radicals: Allah loves you more when you fill balloons and burn American flags in same area.
Turkey also has extensive military and economic ties with Israel, allowing the Israeli Air Force access to Turkish air space for high speed exercises which require vast amounts of space.
Modern Turkey also contributes the second largest number of troops to NATO, and is one of those heathen secular democratic states which the Islamicists wish to destroy. Those are just a couple of reasons why Turco-American relations are so important.
Aren't these the same guys who were the "Welfare Party?"
It was, of course, the solid rocket boosters that destroyed Challenger.
A friend of mine went to a conference, at which an employee of Thiokol (makers of the poorly-designed solids) stated that Challenger marked "the end of liquid propulsion."
Why? my colleague asked.
"If it hadn't been for that big tank of liquid propellants, there wouldn't have been a disaster," was the reply.
My friend pressed on. "So, when a solid fails, it is the end of liquids. Suppose one of our liquid-propellant engines had failed, flung a turbine blade into one of the solids and caused it to explode. Would that, too, be 'the end of liquid propulsion'?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because then it would have been the liquids' fault!"
In other words, when a liquid fails, it is the liquid's fault; when a solid fails, it is also the liquid's fault.
This reminds me of liberal/socialist/soviet logic, or perhaps 1984; I'm not sure.
--Boris
Well, to belabor the obvious, the solid guy's thinking was, a little gas leak from our solid wouldn't have been a big problem except that it ignited those nasty liquid propellants next door.
--Boris
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