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FedEx afraid to ship air

posted by [personal profile] rfunk at 05:42pm on 17/01/2007 under , , ,
Sometimes [livejournal.com profile] schneier reads more like an absurdist-humor blog than a security-issues blog. Today he linked to the tragic tale of an artist unable to ship his empty (but labeled) containers.

The labels on the empty containers include one for rocket fuel ("type: infinite improbability"), as well as some for nitrogen ("78.084% pure") and neon ("0.0018% pure"). The idea of shipping this sort of hazardous material frightened the FedEx courier.

There may be some hope for the courier, however. Philosophically, if not intellectually. He said the bottle of "certainty" just sounded too suspicious.
Mood:: 'amused' amused
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There are 7 comments on this entry. (Reply.)
 

(no subject)

posted by [identity profile] surakofb5.livejournal.com at 02:31am on 18/01/2007
That reminds me of the story that appeared on the humor page of one of my chemistry magazines. No idea if it was true.

Guy goes to the post office to ship an *empty* dewar. "What's a dewar?" "You use it to hold liquid nitrogen." "You can't ship pressurized gases! It'll explode!" "It can't explode. Look, there's not even a lid." "What if it leaks?" (poor scientist sighs) "How clever of you to think of that. Fortunately, it's full of packing peanuts. Everyone knows peanuts are legumes, and legumes fix nitrogen, so it can't leak." "Oh, why didn't you say so?"
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shipping nitrogen

posted by [identity profile] rfunk.livejournal.com at 03:04am on 18/01/2007
I can certainly believe at least half of that story is true. But why wouldn't the guy just say it's not pressurized? (Probable answer: Saw a more fun, and possibly easier, way out.)
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Re: shipping nitrogen

posted by [identity profile] surakofb5.livejournal.com at 04:36am on 18/01/2007
I think you're giving the shipping clerk too much credit. The guy heard that it was a gas and simply mentally turned to "Regulation #nnn: we don't ship gases". Plus, of course, the dewar was *empty*. I've missed a few lines of the story because it's in my cube at work, so I've forgotten details.
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Re: shipping nitrogen

posted by [identity profile] surakofb5.livejournal.com at 11:12pm on 19/01/2007
Found the link to the original story:

http://pubs.acs.org/subscribe/journals/tcaw/12/i08/pdf/803lighter.pdf
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(no subject)

posted by [identity profile] duriyah.livejournal.com at 02:40am on 18/01/2007
"...cans of nitrogen (N2) and neon (Ne), with their store-advertised "purity" of 78.084% and 0.0018% respectively (which was our way of being clever about selling cans of normal air, since that's their percentage in the atmosphere..."

I am embarrassed to admit that I didn't imediately recognize the fact that the cans simply contained air.

Both nitrogen and neon are simple asphyxiants at 100% concentration, and both are extremely cold when in a liquid state. When compressed and shipped in bulk, both require placarding during transport.

But I'm fairly certain that shipping air is just fine and dandy.
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It's fun having scientists reading here.

posted by [identity profile] rfunk.livejournal.com at 03:07am on 18/01/2007
I'm fairly certain I never expected to end up with links to MSDS sheets on my LJ. ;-)
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Re: It's fun having scientists reading here.

posted by [identity profile] duriyah.livejournal.com at 03:16am on 18/01/2007
I'm happy to amuse you. Thank goodness all those years of annual OSHA-required 8 hour HAZWOPER refreshers have not gone to waste!
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