Not the Largest Man Made Non Nuclear Explosion
Halifax has you beat.
The Halifax Explosion occurred on the morning of Thursday, December 6, 1917. SS Mont-Blanc, a French cargo ship fully laden with wartime explosives, collided with the Norwegian vessel SS Imo in the Narrows, a strait connecting the upper Halifax Harbour to Bedford Basin. Approximately twenty minutes later, a fire on board the French ship ignited her volatile cargo, causing a cataclysmic explosion that devastated the Richmond District of Halifax. Approximately 2,000 people were killed by debris, fires, and collapsed buildings, and it is estimated that nearly 9,000 others were injured.The blast was the largest man-made explosion prior to the development of nuclear weapons with an equivalent force of roughly 2.9 kilotons of Trinitrotoluene (TNT). In a meeting of the Royal Society of Canada in May 1918, Dalhousie University's Professor Howard L. Bronson estimated the blast at some 2.4 million kilograms of high explosive.

MONTREAL - Eighteen people have been arrested in a massive heist of maple syrup, Quebec police said Thursday.

The accused face a variety of charges including theft, conspiracy, fraud and receiving stolen goods.

Provincial police said in a statement they are looking for seven more people in the case.

The sweet stuff was stolen in the town of Saint-Louis-de-Blandford between August 2011 and this past July.

About 2.7 million kilograms of maple syrup, worth up to $18 million, was reported missing after a routine inventory check last summer.

Officers from the RCMP, the Canada Border Services Agency and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement helped Quebec police in the investigation, which featured interviews with 300 people in the maple syrup industry in Quebec, Ontario, New Brunswick and the northern U.S.

http://www2.macleans.ca/2012/12/21/police-announce-a-slew-of-other-arrests-in-maple-syrup-heist/

Its not nearly as much in kilograms.

>> ^deathcow:

at current $56694.63 USD per kilogram of gold, the gold is worth
2204 lbs / 2.2 = 1001.8 kg of gold
1001.8 kg $56694.63 = 56.796 million dollars worth of gold
so what gives with the $1,000,000 face value?


No idea bud, just typing in what I'm seeing.

at current $56694.63 USD per kilogram of gold, the gold is worth

2204 lbs / 2.2 = 1001.8 kg of gold

1001.8 kg * $56694.63 = 56.796 million dollars worth of gold

so what gives with the $1,000,000 face value?

Many countries (like here, Canada) are kind of a mix. I buy deli meat in grams, but I weigh myself in pounds. I travel kilometers, but I measure my height in feet and inches. Gas and milk are sold by the liter, but recipes (even ones from Canadian sources) are usually still in cups.

Really, the States isn't so different than that. There's plenty of metric floating around there already in places where it helps the most.

The divisions that are actually used are also not consistent. Nobody uses centiliters or decigrams (or many of the other units he mentions) - and very few would know whether a decimeter is longer or shorter than a decameter. The actual commonly used units vary on the measure: millimeters, centimeters, meters, kilometers; milliliters, liters; milligrams, grams, kilograms.

And the system misses chances for natural alignment. For example, a liter of water fits in a 10-centimeter wide cube and weighs a kilogram. I have no idea why it was made that way. In particular, it seems like it would have been more intuitive to have a kilogram be called a "gram" (and thus have a short word that corresponds to a more generally useful amount, like a pound) - and then a liter of water would weigh a gram. Though I guess then we'd then need less weildy micrograms for, say, medication. I suppose there's no clear right answer.

Anyways, obviously the metric system is superior for a lot of things - but there's a reason beyond stubbornness that other measures persist for different uses (I like the British "stone" measure for human weight for example - and certainly a "cup" of an ingredient is pretty handy). All in all, I don't think it's that big of a deal.

Thanks for the information and the quality

In reply to this comment by Ornthoron:
This is the absolute best footage I have ever seen of aurora. From this news article (in norwegian): This video is composed of 22 000 images, which the photographer Terje Sørgjerd gathered in the beginning of march this year using 40 kilograms of equipment, after waiting 4 years for the right opportunity (a major solar storm).

*quality

This is the absolute best footage I have ever seen of aurora. From this news article (in norwegian): This video is composed of 22 000 images, which the photographer Terje Sørgjerd gathered in the beginning of march this year using 40 kilograms of equipment, after waiting 4 years for the right opportunity (a major solar storm).

*quality

I read that one liter of water is equal to one kilogram...perhaps thats were you got things mixed up so long ago. >> ^BoneRemake:
my entire life I have believed 1 litre is 1 pound. Now I am finding out its been a sham... I am glad i was forced to check myself before I wrecked myself.

I didn't have enough information when I initially commented on this video (because the video didn't provide it), and I jumped to conclusions - my bad!! In any event, it would definitely have been helpful if the video had indicated if the otter was a sea otter, river otter, or ...

Here's some fun and interesting information about otters from the World Famous San Diego Zoo web site:
Class: Mammalia (Mammals)
Order: Carnivora
Family: Mustelidae
Genera: 6
Species: 13
Length: largest—giant otter Pteronura brasiliensis, up to 7.8 feet (2.4 meters); smallest—Asian small-clawed otter Amblonyx cinereus, up to 3 feet (0.9 meters)
Weight: largest—sea otter Enhydra lutris, males up to 95 pounds (43 kilograms); smallest—Asian small-clawed otter, up to 11 pounds (5 kilograms)
Life span: 15 to 20 years
Gestation: from 2 months for smaller species to 5 months for sea otters
Number of young at birth: 1 to 5, usually 2
Size at birth: 4.5 ounces (128 grams) for smaller species to 5 pounds (2.3 kilograms) for sea otters
Age of maturity: 2 to 5 years
Conservation status: four species, including the sea otter, are endangered; three otter species are vulnerable.
Fun facts
• You can tell otter species apart by the shape and amount of fur on their noses.
• Unlike other marine mammals, sea otters do not have a layer of blubber to keep them warm; they rely on warm air trapped in their fur. Sea otters have the densest fur of any mammal, with about 100,000 hairs in a space about the size of a postage stamp!
• Most otter species capture prey with their mouths, but Asian small-clawed otters and sea otters have flexible fingers and grab with their hands.
• North American and European river otters have been known to share dens with beavers—but the beavers do all the building!

Mammals: Otter
Range: Africa, Asia, and parts of North America, Central America, and South America
Habitat: sea otters are found in the Pacific Ocean and along the coastline, but most otter species live in rivers, lakes, and marshes

Champion swimmers
Otters are the only serious swimmers in the weasel family. They spend most of their lives in the water, and they are made for it! Their sleek, streamlined bodies are perfect for diving and swimming. Otters also have long, slightly flattened tails that move sideways to propel them through the water while their back feet act like rudders to steer.

Almost all otters have webbed feet, some more webbed than others, and they can close off their ears and noses as they swim underwater. They can stay submerged for about five minutes, because their heart rate slows and they use less oxygen. They’re also good at floating on the water’s surface, because air trapped in their fur makes them more buoyant. Have you ever noticed that when an otter comes out of the water, its outer fur sticks together in wet spikes, while the underneath still seems dry? That’s because they have two layers of fur: a dense undercoat that traps air; and a topcoat of long, waterproof guard hairs. Keeping their fur in good condition is important, so otters spend a lot of time grooming. In fact, if their fur becomes matted with something like oil, it can damage their ability to hunt for food and stay warm.

Party animals
Otters are very energetic and playful. You might say they love to party! They are intelligent and curious, and they are usually busy hunting, investigating, or playing with something. They like to throw and bounce things, wrestle, twirl, and chase their tails. They also play games of "tag" and chase each other, both in the water and on the ground. River otters seem to like sliding down mud banks or in the snow—they’ll do it over and over again! Otters also make lots of different sounds, from whistles, growls, and screams to barks, chirps, and coos. All this activity is part of the otters’ courtship, social bonding, and communication, and since otter pups need practice, they tend to be even more playful than the adults.

Life as a pup
Most otters are born in a den, helpless and with their eyes closed. The mother takes care of them, often chasing the father away after their birth, although in some species the dad may come back after a couple of weeks to help raise them. The babies, called pups, open their eyes and start exploring the den at about one month, start swimming at two months, and stay with their mother and siblings until they are about one year old, when they head off on their own.

For sea otters in their ocean habitat it’s a little different—the pups are born with their eyes open, and they have a special coat of hair so they can float, even though they can’t swim yet. They are carried on their mother’s stomach until they are about two months old, when they start swimming and diving on their own.

For most otters, social groups are made up of a mother, her older offspring, and her newest pups; the males spend most of their time alone or with a few other males. During breeding time or where there’s lots of food, though, larger groups of otters may gather, especially among sea otters in kelp beds.

The seafood diet
Otter food may not all come from the ocean, but it is definitely fishy! River otters eat mostly fish, frogs, crayfish, crabs, and mollusks, with an occasional small mammal or bird. Sea otters eat many of the same things, but mostly sea urchins, abalone, crabs, mussels, and clams, which they crack open against rocks they hold on their stomachs. Otters have long, sensitive whiskers that help them find prey, even in murky water. Some species, like the Asian small-clawed otter Amblonyx cinereus, also use their hands to probe into mud or under rocks to find a tasty meal that might be hiding there. River otters use lots of energy and digest their food very fast, so they eat several times a day. Sea otters need to eat 20 to 25 percent of their body weight each day. That’s a lot of abalone!
The otters at the San Diego Zoo are fed carnivore diet, carrots, and either squid or trout. They also get small amounts of "treats" for enrichment, like crayfish, worms, potatoes, or yams.

>> ^Shepppard:
"One kilogram of plastic waste produces almost a liter of oil while using about 1 kilowatt of electricity."
source

this seems all kinds of bullshit to me
1 liter of water is 1kg. density of crude oil is about ~8/10th of water.
so this about 80% efficiency of conversion plastic into "oil" in materials itself.
"while using about 1 kilowatt of electricity" isn't a complete measure of the amount of energy.
amount of energy usage is measured in kilowatt/hour or Joules or even 'horse power'. just "1 kilowatt" doesn't tell anything.
so it's using 1 kilowatt of electricity during what period of time? per second? per minute? per day?

plus the whole conversion seem to be way too simple.
if you'll take a look at the bottom of most (any?) plastic container you'll see some symbols, they indicate how recyclable that plastic is. most plastic deteriorates after repeated recycling. so not all plastic is created equal. different types have different polymers which do not turn back into crude oil when heated.

Aha!

"One kilogram of plastic waste produces almost a liter of oil while using about 1 kilowatt of electricity."

source

On a related note, the biggest bird that ever flew was Argentavis magnificens, an ancestor of the Giant Condor. Impressive picture of replica here.

>> Discovered decades ago and formally described in 1980, Argentavis magnificens is the largest bird known. It lived six million years ago during the Miocene period throughout Argentina. It is nearly the size of a Cessna 152 light aircraft, with a 23-foot (7-meter) wing span and weighing approximately 150-pounds (70-kilograms).

It would have been impossible to take off from a standing start. The bird probably used some of the same techniques used by modern-day hang-glider pilots such as running on sloping ground to get thrust or energy, or running with a headwind.
But once it was on a thermal, it could easily rise up a mile or two without any flapping of its wings -- a free ride, just circling. Then at the top, the bird could simply glide to the next thermal and in this way it could certainly travel 200 miles a day -ScienceBlogs excerpts

edit: And the biggest creature that ever flew was a Quetzalcoatlus.

>>A pterodactyloid pterosaur. More recent estimates based on greater knowledge of azhdarchid proportions place its wingspan at 10-11 meters (33-36 ft). However, similar claims to an upper size limit for flight accompanied the discovery of large (up to 9 m (30 ft)) Pteranodon, and azhdarchids larger than Quetzalcoatlus with wingspans 12 meters or more (such as Hatzegopteryx) have been discovered.
A 2002 study suggested a body mass of 90–120 kilograms (200–260 lb) for Quetzalcoatlus, considerably lower than most other recent estimates.[7] Higher estimates tend toward 200–250 kilograms (440–550 lb). -wiki excerpts

Just for clarification, over here in good old English land, we actually use a messed-up combination of both Metric and Imperial systems.

Our road-signs are in MPH but we buy petrol (gas) by the Litre.

Our food has to be labelled in Grams and Millilitres by law (damn the EU!) but you can still buy a pint of milk (which is actually 568ml).

As an occasional engineer, I work in metric sizes for measurements but we still throw back for feet and inches or stones and pounds when we're talking about height and weight. Your average Brit wouldn't be able to tell you how heavy they are in Kilograms.

Also, there's a lot of Imperial measurements that you guys use that we don't - quarts and cups are a couple of examples that I know of.

Thank $deity we converted to decimal coinage before that got out of hand; I still have no idea how Pounds, Shillings and Pence works...