[TheForge] Fun with thermite anyone?

[marilyn traber 011221]

> So if you want to know about Thermite that is fine,
> just don't hold some in your hand and then light it.
> 
> Jerry

Well, I consider the discussion here to be informational. Anybody here who 
decides to light some thermite off in their hand deserves what they get ;-) 
However, if our discussion gives just one listener here, the same reaction I 
had when I first heard exactly what thermite was made of, the discussion has 
served a useful purpose. My reaction was, "Holy SHIT! Glad I know that now, 
before I got to grinding steel and aluminum~!!!".

OTOH, we're talking with a bunch of folkss who heat up metal to 2000 degrees 
F, pick it up with their bare hands, and hammer the Hel out of it. People 
like us, who constantly play with fire, are understandably interested in some 
of the other things that can be done with fire, like lighting barbecue grills 
with liquid O2, thermite, or fer Chrissake, anvil blasting!!! Doesn't mean 
we're going to do it in our back yards, most of us have more sense than that, 
but there IS a fascination with that stuff, and it's better to deal with it 
vicariously, than to go out and try it ourselves, "just to see what would 
happen".

So, don't try to kill the discussion, just sit back and listen, and hope 
people draw the right conclusions. And, if they don't? Oh well, that's Darwin 
in action again...

Phlip