Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Oh my!!

jackm1943 Loc: Omaha, Nebraska

I agree re. Omaha Steaks. They aren't bad, but they are over priced. I do like their hot dogs tho.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

That reminds me of a line from Animal House uttered by "Dean Vernon Wormer":

"Who dropped a whole truckload of fizzies into the swim meet? Who delivered the medical school cadavers to the alumni dinner? Every Halloween, the trees are filled with underwear. Every spring, the toilets explode."

When I was in eighth grade, I took Latin. The classroom was downstream from the boys' bathroom. One day, we were conjugating verbs, and heard some muffled pops, a gurgle, and a bang. A crack in the floor appeared, revealing waste and sewage, about a foot in front of the teacher's feet. We learned later that some of our resident delinquents had dropped M80 firecrackers with waterproofed fuses down three toilets at the same time. One of them exploded in a clogged toilet, blowing vitreous china and other goodies all over the stall... We met in the library for two weeks while the sewer and bathroom and classroom were repaired.

Ahh, South Carolina in the late 1960s...

troutwild

I concur. I ordered from them once and received an order as a gift. Both orders were overpriced and of mediocre quality. Support your local butcher.

drobvit Loc: Southern NV

Good one! Back in my Navy days (NNMC Bethesda MD), there was an event involving M80s and toilets, 2nd floor in the barracks.Two toilets, including the $600 toilet seats, destroyed and one made it about 6-7ft down the pipe before...BOOM. One heck of a mess! I knew about the plans but was not involved in the process. An investigation was sorta conducted but the perps were never caught.
Dry ice... haven't used it for photography but add water and it does put out a lot of "smoke". Also, dry ice in a 16oz plastic water bottle, add water, cap it off. Be quick with your throw! They KABOOM nicely.

ELNikkor

Put some in a 2 liter Coke bottle, cap it off, throw it down the cellar stairs, then, nonchalantly wander into the bedroom and ask the wife if she smells gas?

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

We played with that stuff a lot when we were little kids. There were always a shitload of big blocks (about 5 feet long) laying around on one of the train tracks in that area, We could easily gather about 50 of them together in a matter of an hour! We did all sorts of things with them, but most fun was, using them for pranks!

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

Unlike carbon monoxide, which is toxic to the human body because of its habit of combining with the hemoglobin in the blood and preventing it from carrying oxygen, carbon dioxide is actually not toxic to the body, at least in a traditional sense. But it does cause problems by displacing oxygen when it accumulates near the floor or in pockets in the low areas of a space. There is much myth around carbon dioxide, and it is one of the compounds that is seeing some very irrational change in acceptable environmental and exposure levels.

It is generally present in the atmosphere at a very low concentration, about 0.04% today. In the past, it's been as high as 10 times that level. It can be quite a bit higher inside buildings or other enclosed spaces...perhaps as high as 0.1%, which is 1,000 parts per million. It turns out that the 0.04%, or 400 parts per million, represents just about the lowest level evident over any sustained period in the earth's history. If the level decreases much from that, respiration in plants will overtake photosynthesis, and plants will become net consumers of oxygen instead of producers of it.

Anyway...it is fortunate that CO2 is something of a "self-alarming" chemical. As long as you are awake, you will feel tired or feel a headache long before any dangerous exposure occurs. And the effects are acute. Just move to fresh air and they will reverse immediately. Besides...if you look, you will note that when you put dry ice in water, a layer of water ice immediately freezes onto the surface. This ice serves as an insulator, reducing the rate of sublimation, and as a container, except for a few cracks or fissures, which allow small amounts of the gas to escape.

In summary...feel free to play with dry ice in water. Keep the big blocks outside. Small amounts will work much better than big pieces, and will be safer. Use in a well-ventilated area. A fan blowing air across the floor and out the door is a really good idea. The basement is really not a good idea of a place to work. Oh...if you have bought a Pulse Oximeter as part of your preparation for the SARS-CoV-2 situation and are really concerned, wear it as you work.

And finally...make sure that there is someone nearby but not in the room with you. Just in case. And that they know not to come into the room and try to pull you out if something happens. No matter what. Call for help instead. Otherwise they are likely to end up in the same shape as you.

Amielee Loc: Eastern Washington State

Just a couple of weeks ago there was an incident in Russia where a guy threw a 25 lb. block of dry ice in a swimming pool during a birthday party. One dead and several hospitalized. If you throw some in a toilet make it a small piece, to large a piece will crack a toilet, I have seen that done. And read Larryepage's entry again, he must be a chemist because he knows what he is talking about.

Bill P

It is generally present in the atmosphere at a very low concentration, about 0.04% today. In the past, it's been as high as 10 times that level. It can be quite a bit higher inside buildings or other enclosed spaces...perhaps as high as 0.1%, which is 1,000 parts per million. It turns out that the 0.04%, or 400 parts per million, represents just about the lowest level evident over any sustained period in the earth's history. If the level decreases much from that, respiration in plants will overtake photosynthesis, and plants will become net consumers of oxygen instead of producers of it.

interesting. A city-owned performance facility where I live was forced by the EPA to redo the HVAC system in the concert hall where the local symphony performs. The air was recirculated like that in an airplane, and the level pf CO2 was well above legal limits. So it isn't classical music that puts folks asleep, it's CO2!.

scsdesphotography Loc: Southeastern Michigan

Two things; 1- Unlike some assertions made above, CO2 (the 2 should be a subscript, hard to do on a typical keyboard) is toxic to the human body. Yes. in large quantities it will suffocate you. However, it poses another threat, carbonic acid poisoning. Submariner 101, if the CO2 concentration in the air your breathing exceeds 3%, toxic carbonic acid forms in your blood and that will kill you long before you suffocate. So, as suggested, avoid using large quantities of dry ice in confined spaces.

2- This will entertain kids and photographers. Take a 2 liter pop bottle and fill it about 1/3 with warm water, add a squirt of Dawn, some drops of food coloring for additional effect, now drop a few small chunks of dry ice into the mix. This will generate a mountain of colored foam. Beware it can be quite messy. Have fun.

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

Not a chemist. But an engineer that spent the last few years as safety and environmental manager in a manufacturing plant. We used liquid carbon dioxide to chill cookie dough. After being introduced to the dough, it would gradually evaporate. It was then exhausted by fans to the outside, but we had to have a plan in case the exhaust system didn't work for any reason. Not a frightening situation, but it did require that we be continually attentive to what was going on.

scsdesphotography Loc: Southeastern Michigan

Ps. larryepage, It was gratifying to see the word sublimation used in connection with dry ice. For those unaware, dry ice doesn't melt under normal conditions of temperature and pressure, it sublimates.

halraiser

bsprague, Your comment about putting it down the toilet reminds me of what a friend told me. He was in dorms called Helaman Halls at BYU and someone had discovered two "useful" facts.

1. The plumbing was cast iron.

2. The time it took for a toilet flush to get from one floor to the floor below was almost identical to the time it took a cherry bomb fuse to burn and set off the explosion.

They would have someone tell when a particular stall was occupied, then you can guess what they did next. Toilet backfires on the poor guy.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Dropping a tube of Mentos into a 2-liter bottle of Diet Coke will give you a thrill, too.

https://youtu.be/-X1X7HuFHSg