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In a pudding
Aug. 29th, 2006 10:51 pmAs I was checking Snopes about the latest email my sister sent me, I ran across this true story about a Swiss freighter. It has everything - a ship in peril, heroic firefighters and tons of... tapioca?
It appears a Swiss freighter hauling caught fire while in port. The wood in the upper hold smoldered for 25 days while the crew poured water on it. The heated water, however, managed to leak into the cargo hold below. It began to cook the 1,500 tons of tapioca. It began to cook, and to expand, as tapioca is wont to do.
The race began to extinguish the fire before the tapioca time bomb buckled the steel plating of the hull. It worked, and the damaged ship sailed for Rotterdam.
I love Snopes.
ETA:
You all know that *snicker* dioxin does not occur in plastic water bottles and *giggle* that chemical compounds tend to bind more tightly when cooled so *titters* freezing plastic water bottles cannot possibly result in releasing dioxin? *chemist rolls on floor laughing*
No one from Johns Hopkins or Walter Reed ever said they did. What the guy from Johns Hopkins said was to use only microwave safe plastics in the microwave. The internet wanks embellished it.
It appears a Swiss freighter hauling caught fire while in port. The wood in the upper hold smoldered for 25 days while the crew poured water on it. The heated water, however, managed to leak into the cargo hold below. It began to cook the 1,500 tons of tapioca. It began to cook, and to expand, as tapioca is wont to do.
The race began to extinguish the fire before the tapioca time bomb buckled the steel plating of the hull. It worked, and the damaged ship sailed for Rotterdam.
I love Snopes.
ETA:
You all know that *snicker* dioxin does not occur in plastic water bottles and *giggle* that chemical compounds tend to bind more tightly when cooled so *titters* freezing plastic water bottles cannot possibly result in releasing dioxin? *chemist rolls on floor laughing*
No one from Johns Hopkins or Walter Reed ever said they did. What the guy from Johns Hopkins said was to use only microwave safe plastics in the microwave. The internet wanks embellished it.
