Undertoad Thursday Aug 31 01:19 PMAugust 31, 2006: Natural gas thief
I had seen this several times out there, but I thought it wasn't all that interesting. But I never knew what it was, exactly. We've had a lot of images of people with outrageous cargo. But not this kind. A lurker (thanks Tracy!) pointed to the original news item which tells us: this kid is stealing natural gas.
Quote:
Speeding from the scene of the crime, a Chinese boy tows a floating plastic bag of stolen natural gas last week. Flouting a government ban, farmers around the central Chinese town of Pucheng frequently filch gas from the local oil field.
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glatt Thursday Aug 31 01:29 PMI'd seen this one before too, but it's still cool.
Stealing natural gas this way seems so much better than those Nigerians(?) who were scooping up gasoline with bowls from a sabotaged pipeline.
Flint Thursday Aug 31 01:31 PMIs it just me, or is that kid wearing an old-fashioned, "Flintsones-style" caveman outfit ???
glatt Thursday Aug 31 01:31 PMI wonder how much natural gas that is? It's not compressed. It that enough to run a burner on a gas stove for 5 minutes? Or is it a month's supply? I have no concept of scale for this one.
Flint Thursday Aug 31 01:33 PMThe unit of measure is "how big the fireball would be if you melted through the bag with a can of hairspray and a lighter."
Shawnee123 Thursday Aug 31 02:34 PMHow come it looks like that bag has feet under it?
sproglet Thursday Aug 31 03:29 PMIt's a giant termite with a taste for young Asian boys on tricycles.
rupip Thursday Aug 31 03:29 PMhis mom is probably waiting to cook the families pot of morning noodle soup.
great job!
Flint Thursday Aug 31 03:31 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by sproglet
It's a giant termite with a taste for young Asian boys on tricycles.
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Or...it's a deformed one of those things from The Prisoner.
lulu Thursday Aug 31 03:59 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Shawnee123
How come it looks like that bag has feet under it?
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I was wondering about that as well.
Shawnee123 Thursday Aug 31 04:12 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flint
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That just looks like a big old ping pong ball.
Nothing But Net Thursday Aug 31 04:39 PMHow do you know it was stolen natural gas? Maybe he just found it.
Shawnee123 Thursday Aug 31 04:51 PMMaybe he produced it...don't they eat a lot of legume type foods?
Flint Thursday Aug 31 04:53 PMThere is like, a tube, or somthing, there . . . hmmmmmm
MaggieL Thursday Aug 31 06:25 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flint
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His name was "Rover", for obvious reasons.
MaggieL Thursday Aug 31 06:26 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flint
There is like, a tube, or somthing, there . . . hmmmmmm
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That's the Internet. It's a series of tubes.
Flint Thursday Aug 31 06:44 PMRight, it's not a big truck.
xoxoxoBruce Thursday Aug 31 08:45 PMI'm pretty sure I mentioned before, the guy at Westinghouse that filled balloons for his kid's birthday party, with acetylene. Stuffed them in two big trash bags and headed for the gate.
They couldn't fire him for theft, because there was no evidence. But he did lose most of his clothing...... in the explosion.
jaufrec Thursday Aug 31 08:45 PMfive hours of gas if you have a big grill
According to Reader's Digest, "A full-size gas grill (35,000 Btu) will cook for 30 minutes per pound of propane."
According to Wikipedia, propane masses 1.83 kg/m3, or about two pounds per cubic meter.
Say the bag in the picture has between 3 and 8 cubic meters of gas - let's say five. Then it's 10 pounds of gas, or half of a standard 20lb cylinder, or enough to cook on a (large, Western) gas grill for five hours. For a small stove, that's got to be weeks of cooking gas.
Note that natural gas is heavier than air, explaining the struts underneath.
milkfish Friday Sep 1 08:02 AMNatural gas is methane, not propane, and lighter than air.
glatt Friday Sep 1 12:04 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by jaufrec
According to Reader's Digest, "A full-size gas grill (35,000 Btu) will cook for 30 minutes per pound of propane."
According to Wikipedia, propane masses 1.83 kg/m3, or about two pounds per cubic meter.
Say the bag in the picture has between 3 and 8 cubic meters of gas - let's say five. Then it's 10 pounds of gas, or half of a standard 20lb cylinder, or enough to cook on a (large, Western) gas grill for five hours. For a small stove, that's got to be weeks of cooking gas.
Note that natural gas is heavier than air, explaining the struts underneath.
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Awesome, jaufrec. Even if this is natural gas, and not propane, that does give a sense of scale to it. Thanks!
onetrack Saturday Sep 2 08:08 PMIn the original news link, I think you guys missed the more important story .. about the Mexican Sewer diver .. .. now in THERE, would be a methane supply, that a Chinaman could go ga-ga over ..
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...wer-video.html
xoxoxoBruce Saturday Sep 2 11:52 PMI surprised how clear that sewage is, shooting film under water.
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