“If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you’re misinformed.” — Mark Twain Anymore, despite knowing that they cannot believe much of what they read or hear there, most people get their news from the internet. If not there, then the evening news or cable news. When it comes to [...]
“The United States is like a gigantic boiler. Once a fire is lit under it, there’s no limit to the power it can generate.” — Winston Churchill When it comes to process safety, we worry about three things: fires, explosions, and toxic releases. When it comes to worst case scenarios, the EPA requires that we [...]
“Words are the tools with which we work, the material out of which laws are made, out of which the Constitution was written. Everything depends on our understanding of them.” — Felix Frankfurter One of my favorite things about summer is all the fresh fruits and vegetables. Especially strawberries in June and blackberries in July. “Well, [...]
“I believe life is a series of near misses. A lot of what we ascribe to luck is not luck at all. It’s seizing the day and accepting responsibility for your future.” — Howard Schutz A chemical incident in Southern California unfolded over the 2026 Memorial Day Weekend that captured the attention of every major [...]
“Everything that comes together falls apart.” — John Green When we think of decomposition, we usually think of it as a slow, inexorable process of breaking down useful things into malodorous glop. Think of that six-month-old head of lettuce in the bottom of the refrigerator. Or the carcass of the dead animal in the woods, [...]
“But you don’t ever think it would happen to you.” — Kyla Kennedy, server at Stooges Bar and Grill, near SDF (as quoted by CNN) The first time I ever gave any thought to the risk of a plane crashing into a chemical plant was when an acquaintance approached me at a conference with the [...]
“To be beyond any existing classification has always pleased me.” — Boyd Rice Every distiller understands that they are working with extremely explosive hazards. There is ethanol, a flammable liquid. And there is milled grain, a source of combustible dust. Despite this, when I visit distilleries, I often see areas that should be electrically classified [...]
“At this time, we have not located any survivors.” — Chris Davis, Humphreys County Sheriff Not long ago, I was at a plant to facilitate a HazOp and LOPA for one of their processes. As is usually the case, my visit included going out to the process, accompanied by my host—an engineer from one of [...]
“Ventilation is the profound secret of existence.” — Peter Sloterdijk Most people, when hearing about the legal limits of ethanol, will think of Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC). Except for Utah, where the BAC limit for driving is 0.05%, the BAC limit in the United States is 0.08%. That applies to drivers that are 21 years [...]
“Obsolescence is a factor which says that the new thing I bring you is worth more than the unused value of the old thing.” – Charles Kettering I am the blacksmith at a historic village. I burn coke, coke I make right there on the forge. I start by laying bituminous coal around the coke [...]
