Definition: The term whippersnapper is an informal word used to describe an inexperienced and presumptuous young person. A whippersnapper is a know-it-all-kid.
In other words, whippersnapper refers to a younger person than you, who is irritating and self-assured and shows no respect towards others, especially the older people. So, if you happen to see a young person whom you disapprove of their confident and pertinent behavior, you can refer to them as a whippersnapper.
A Deadly Tsunami Of Molasses In Boston's North End JANUARY 15TH 1919 HISTORY
Firemen stand in thick molasses after the disaster in 1919. The Great Molasses Flood in Boston's North End killed 21 people and injured 150.
Courtesy of the Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection
On Jan. 15, 1919, a tank of molasses burst, releasing a thick, sugary tsunami down the streets of Boston's North End. This "Great Molasses Flood" killed 21 people, injured 150, and had effects far beyond the Boston waterfront.
Walking around the North End today, Stephen Puleo, author of Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919, points to a plaque where the 50-foot-tall steel tank once stood. Baseball fields now line Boston Harbor, but Puleo says a hundred years ago, you'd find a bustling port, a municipal yard and an elevated railway.
[The tank] leaked from Day 1. It was very customary for children of the North End to go and collect molasses with pails.
Stephen Puleo, historian
"This was one of the busiest commercial sites in all of Boston," he explains. "Almost all of the shipping that left Boston to go up and down the East Coast, to go to Europe, left from this site. So there were deliveries all day long, this was a bustling, hustling kind of place."
The tank was used to store molasses, which came up on ships from the Caribbean, until it could be transported to a nearby distillery where it was expected to become rum in the last days before Prohibition. Though only a few years old at the time of the flood, the tank showed signs of instability.
Enlarge this image
The ruins of tanks containing 2.5 million gallons of molasses lie in a heap after an eruption that hurled trucks against buildings and crumpled houses in the North End of Boston on Jan. 15, 1919.
AP
"There were often comments made by people around the vicinity that this tank would shudder and groan every time it was full," Puleo says. "And it leaked from Day 1. It was very customary for children of the North End to go and collect molasses with pails."
When the tank burst, it unleashed a 30-foot-high wave of 2.3 million gallons of molasses that moved 35 mph down Commercial Street. The neighborhood was destroyed, coated in a thick, sticky layer of molasses.
Why did the tank fail?
Researchers have been fascinated by this flood, studying the causes behind it as a phenomenon of science and poor engineering.
According to Ronald Mayville, an engineer who researches the flood in his spare time, there is no surefire reason the tank failed. However, "one thing is very clear: it was under-designed. Whoever did the design failed to provide the adequate thickness of the steel. On top of that, the steel that they used, although it was state-of-the-art of the day, we know today that it could be relatively brittle under certain circumstances."
Puleo says that U.S. Industrial Alcohol, the company that owned the tank, had rushed to build it, employing an overseer who was an expert in finance, not engineering. When the company received complaints that the tank was leaking, it painted the tank brown to disguise the leaks rather than repair them.
Besides the structural aspects of the tank, researchers have explored how the scientific properties of the molasses itself explain why the flood was so destructive.
Nicole Sharp, an aerospace engineer and science educator, explains: "You basically have a giant stack of something that's really heavy and as soon as you remove whatever's holding that — in this case, the walls of the tank — all of that's gonna rush out. A lot of that potential energy that you had from stacking this thing up really high is going to turn into kinetic energy. It might as well be a tsunami."
Two days before the accident, a new shipment of hot molasses had been added to the tank, so when it burst, the molasses inside might have been slightly warmer than the outside air. As it spilled out, it cooled and thickened, trapping survivors in the mess.
A precedent-setting lawsuit
Rescue efforts continued for days, and cleanup took even longer.
Immediately following the flood, 119 plaintiffs filed a civil lawsuit against U.S. Industrial Alcohol, the tank's owner. The case was historic in many ways.
According to Puleo, the case set the stage for future class action lawsuits and was "the first case in which expert witnesses were called to a great extent — engineers, metallurgists, architects, technical people."
The case also completely changed the relationship between business and government. "All the things we now take for granted in the business — that architects need to show their work, that engineers need to sign and seal their plans, that building inspectors need to come out and look at projects — all of that comes about as a result of the great Boston molasses flood case," explains Puleo.
For a short time, the story was all anyone could talk about. "Boston has seven daily newspapers at the time," Puleo says. "And the molasses flood is so big that it knocks off the front page the Prohibition Amendment, which essentially passes the night of the molasses flood, and it knocks the Versailles peace talks, the talks that ended World War I, off the front page."
Even today, the flood lives on in neighborhood folklore. According to Nick LaBonte from Polcari's Coffee, "Supposedly, you can still smell the molasses when it gets hot enough."
Molasses had long been a major part of the city's industry, from the key ingredient in Colonial baked beans to World War I munitions. But today, molasses is not a common sight on the Boston waterfront. The tank's destruction brought an end to 300 years of tradition.
On April 16, 1947, a ship called the Grandcamp docked at Texas City, just north of Galveston on the Gulf Coast. It was scheduled to be loaded with thousands of tons of ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer, to deliver to farms in recovering postwar Europe. The ship had come from Houston, a port that did not allow the loading of the chemical, which in addition to use as a fertilizer, was a powerful explosive and oxidizer. Signs pointed toward the ominous early that morning, as soon as workers noticed that the paper bags of ammonium nitrate they were loading felt warm to the touch.
Workers had already loaded 2,300 tons of ammonium nitrate laced with flammable anti-caking agents like petroleum jelly and paraffin wax when, around 8 a.m., a plume of smoke wafted from the cargo hold. No one knows what caused the fire, but to save the cargo, emergency responders filled the hold with steam, rather than water, to snuff out the supply of oxygen. But the idea went seriously amiss. When ammonium nitrate decomposes, oxygen molecules are liberated. And it’s possible heat from the steam ushered along this process. In any case, there was enough oxygen in the hull to fuel a large explosion.
Spectators gathered around the ship, now producing an odd, yellow-orange smoke. They saw the sea water near the hull begin boiling, while high-reaching waves vaporized upon contact with the ship. Indeed, many of these witnesses proved too close when, at 9:12 a.m., the Grandcamp exploded in the port of Texas City.
In the massive blast, the ship’s steel hull — loaded also with tobacco, sisal twine, and small arms ammunition — was turned to shrapnel. The explosion sent a 15-foot wave over nearby piers and to the shore, killing dockworkers and thrusting an entire oil barge onto land. The Grandcamp’s anchor was blown a mile and a half, and is still preserved as a memorial. The surrounding dock was destroyed, as were 1,000 buildings in the area. Many of them were oil refineries and hazardous materials plants, which caught fire. The resulting conflagration sent a massive cloud of black smoke into the sky. The Monsanto chemical plant across the way was leveled, killing 145 employees inside. Two small sightseeing planes flying in the air at the time were caught in the shockwave and came crashing to earth.
The ensuing chain reaction continued to the following day. A second ship, the SS High Flyer, carrying sulfur and more ammonium nitrate, exploded 15 hours later, killing two more. Oil refineries burned for days after. Destruction poured into nearby residential areas, leaving 2,000 homeless. Some 3,500 people were injured. The death toll was immense, amounting to what is likely the greatest industrial accident in United States history: at least 581 people were killed, including 40 members of the ship’s crew and all but one of the 28-man Texas City volunteer fire department. One real estate broker reflected that the town was not left with enough survivors or skilled labor to “erect one building in a year.”
On January 17th, 2007, scientists changed the Doomsday Clock from seven minutes to midnight up to five minutes to midnight. This change indicated their belief that the world had edged closer to nuclear armageddon.
Although this was in direct response to North Korea’s first nuclear test, it was also a reflection of the fact that the two major nuclear powers, the USA and Russia, were stalled in negotiations on nuclear arsenal reduction. This was leading to increased tensions globally. Additionally, the scientists behind the Doomsday Clock were now beginning to consider the increasingly dire threat of climate change.
The statement on the reasons for moving the Doomsday Clock forward also included some suggestions on reducing the threats to humanity. These included:
Reduce overall readiness of nuclear forces in both the US and Russia
Remove nuclear weapons from day-to-day military operations
Cease production of nuclear weapons materials
Engage in political discussions about the proliferation of nuclear technologies and their environmental impact
The Doomsday Clock was created in 1947 in response to the threat posed to humanity by nuclear weapons, in particular the arms race between the USA and the Soviet Union. It has been reset 24 times since then. Over the years, it has been updated to include threats from other sources, such as environmental catastrophes or pandemics.
The last reset was in 2021, and the clock is currently at 100 seconds to midnight, closer than ever before. The latest statement raised concerns about the global pandemic and threats from hypersonic missiles with nuclear capabilities.
What scientists-do you know who they are? Any references or author's names, affiliations, credentials? How and where these decisions are made? What is their goal in doing this? Maybe I just missed answers in your post.
Cheers,
Dick
On January 17th, 2007, scientists changed the Doomsday Clock
Editor’s note: Founded in 1945 by Albert Einstein and University of Chicago scientists who helped develop the first atomic weapons in the Manhattan Project, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists created the Doomsday Clock two years later, using the imagery of apocalypse (midnight) and the contemporary idiom of nuclear explosion (countdown to zero) to convey threats to humanity and the planet. The Doomsday Clock is set every year by the Bulletin’s Science and Security Board in consultation with its Board of Sponsors, which includes 13 Nobel laureates. The Clock has become a universally recognized indicator of the world’s vulnerability to catastrophe from nuclear weapons, climate change, and disruptive technologies in other domains.
A little bit of overkill: https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-doomsday-clock-75th-anniversary-university-of-chicago-20220113-qscczyu3vrcgvdzazo4pcmlewq-story.html
The ability to speak several languages is an asset, but the ability to
keep your mouth shut in any language is priceless,
Be decisive. Right or wrong, make a decision. The road is paved with
flat squirrels who couldn’t make a decision.
Happiness is not having to set the alarm clock.
“The starting pay is $40,000. Later it can go up to $80,000.”
“Great, I’ll start later.”
If you’re not called crazy when you start something new, then you’re
not thinking big enough.
Only in math problems can you buy 60 cantaloupe melons and no one asks
- "What the Hell is wrong with you?"
“I’m 85 and my body is full of aches and pains.”
“Well, I’m 85 and I feel like a newborn baby.”
“Really?”
“Yep, no teeth, no hair, and I just wet my pants.”
Tip: Save business cards of people you don’t like. If you ever hit a
parked car accidentally, just write, “Sorry” on the back and leave it
on the windshield.
When I get a headache I take two aspirin and keep away from children
just like the bottle says.
Just once, I want the username and password prompt to say, “Close enough.”
“Your call is very important to us. Please enjoy this 40 minute flute solo".
I envy people who grow old gracefully. They age like a fine wine.
I’m ageing like milk. Getting sour and chunky.
Does anyone else have a plastic bag full of plastic bags, or is it just me?
I hate it when I can’t figure out how to operate the iPad and my tech
support guy is asleep. She’s 5 and it’s past her bedtime.
Today’s 3 year-olds can switch on laptops and open their favorite
apps. When I was 3, I ate mud.
Tip for a successful marriage: Don’t ask your wife when dinner will be
ready while she’s mowing the lawn.
So you drive across town to a gym to walk on a treadmill?
An engineer died and was mistakenly sent to hell. Fairly quickly, he had redesigned the place. Hell cooled down considerably thanks to the air conditioning he built and installed. The escalators and elevators worked just fine. Manual labor was quickly becoming a thing of the past.
God looked down one day and noticed all the changes. He called down to the devil to ask how these improvements came about.
The devil replied, “That engineer you sent me.”
“What engineer? You’re not supposed to have an engineer. Send him back up here!”
The devil’s answer was simple… “No.”
“If you don’t send that engineer back right now, I’m going to be very angry. In fact, I’ll sue you!”
The devil replied, “And . . . where are you going to get a lawyer?”
#2 A lawyer had to have extensive dental surgery, so the dentist put him under. When he woke up, he saw the room was completely dark with curtains drawn. He asked the assistant why the room was so dark. She informed the lawyer that there had been a 3-alarm fire across the street with lots of flames and smoke; the dentist was afraid if he woke up and saw it, he’d think he had died.
The leaders of the community chest visit a local lawyer who has not contributed to the welfare of the community. Hat in hand they ask the lawyer to pony up.
The lawyer looks at them and says that they know nothing of his situation. He says his 82-year-old mother has suffered a massive stroke, is in a vegetative state, and requires 24 hours care. He goes on to say that his brother lost both of his arms in an accident, the brother is not able to work, receives disability checks of only $2,000 per month on which to support his 5 children, and his one and only daughter had no kidney function and due to her rare blood type had been on the transplant list for over 6 years.
The community leader expressed regrets to the lawyer for intruding and understood his dire circumstances.
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The lawyer said, "...and I don't give them a dime, what makes you think I would give any of my money to you?"
“Human Trafficking is a crime that hides in plain sight and it involves the use of force, fraud, or coercion to obtain some type of labor or commercial sex act,” said Special Agent in Charge Douglas M. Korneski of the FBI Memphis Field Office. “The FBI works closely with local, state, and federal law enforcement partners, as well as non-government agencies and non-profits on the front lines to combat human trafficking.”
Human trafficking victims can be imprisoned through force, fraud, physical or psychological coercion. Warning indicators of human trafficking include:
Victims work in the same place they live;
Poor living conditions;
They let someone else speak for them;
They are not in possession of their own travel or immigration documents;
There are locks on the outside of doors where they live;
They are constantly watched and guarded by someone;
They pay their boss for food, clothing, and rent;
They are lied to about the work they are to perform;
Victims are subjected to debt bondage in which traffickers demand labor to repay debt.
Victims of human trafficking are encouraged to call the National Human Trafficking Resource Center Hotline at 1-888-373-7888.
just a side note I have used the hot line to turn someone in.
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Keep them coming...love reading and even LAUGHING. 
