{"id":374,"date":"2008-10-30T14:40:18","date_gmt":"2008-10-30T19:40:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/?p=374"},"modified":"2008-10-30T15:08:53","modified_gmt":"2008-10-30T20:08:53","slug":"i-scoff-at-the-puny-efforts-of-human-flesh-bone-and-muscle-to-change-my-erratic-course","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/2008\/10\/30\/i-scoff-at-the-puny-efforts-of-human-flesh-bone-and-muscle-to-change-my-erratic-course\/","title":{"rendered":"I scoff at the puny efforts of human flesh, bone, and muscle to change my erratic course"},"content":{"rendered":"

It sounds like my new motto, but it is, in fact, a line from this great old safety poster that caught my eye during a tour of the old Collider Experimental Hall (where electrons and positrons used to smack into each other…for science!) at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (click to embiggen):<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

I can’t find it anywhere online, except one reference to the poem (reprinted below) in a university material safety document. The date in the lower left looks like it was revised 5-87, but it could just as likely be ’67.\u00c2\u00a0 I wish I knew who Marshall Peterson is\/was. And what, for that matter, is an A.M.A. (American Medical Association, Against Medical Advice, American Music Awards, etc.)?<\/p>\n

What I do know is that the poster makes me more likely to want to see Mr. Scruffy Canister go off in as violent manner as possible, not less.<\/p>\n

A Sleeping Giant<\/p>\n

I am a compressed gas cylinder. I weigh in at 175 pounds when filled.<\/p>\n

I am pressurized at 2,200 pounds per square inch (psi).<\/p>\n

I have a wall thickness of about 1\/4 inch.<\/p>\n

I stand 57 inches tall.<\/p>\n

I am 9 inches in diameter.<\/p>\n

I wear a cap when not in use.<\/p>\n

I weaer valves, gages, and hoses when at work.<\/p>\n

I wear many colors and bands to tell what tasks I perform.<\/p>\n

I transform miscellaneous stacks of material into glistening ships and many other things — when properly used.<\/p>\n

I transform glistening ships and many other things into miscellaneous stacks of material when allowed to unleash my fury unchecked.<\/p>\n

I am ruthless and deadly in the hands of the careless or uninformed.<\/p>\n

I am too frequently left standing alone on my small base, my cap removed and lost by an unthinking workman. Then I am ready to be toppled over, my naked valve can be snapped off — and all of my power can be unleashed through an opening no larger than a lead pencil.<\/p>\n

I am proud of my capabilities — here are a few of them:<\/p>\n

I have been known to jet away faster than any dragster.<\/p>\n

I smash my way through brick walls with the greatest of ease.<\/p>\n

I fly through the air and reach distances of half-a-mile or more.<\/p>\n

I spin, ricochet, crash and slash through anything in my path.<\/p>\n

I scoff at the puny efforts of human flesh, bone, and muscle to change my erratic course<\/p>\n

I can, under certain conditions, rupture or explode — your read of these exploits in the newspapers.<\/p>\n

You can be my master only under my terms:<\/p>\n

Full or empty, see to it that my cap is on, straight and snug.<\/p>\n

Never — repeat — never<\/em> leave me standing along. Keep me in a secure rack or tie me so that I cannot fall.<\/p>\n

TREAT ME WITH RESPECT — I AM A SLEEPING GIANT.<\/p>\n

–Marshall Peterson A.M.A.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It sounds like my new motto, but it is, in fact, a line from this great old safety poster that caught my eye during a tour of the old Collider Experimental Hall (where electrons and positrons used to smack into each other…for science!) at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (click to embiggen): I can’t find […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","post-preview"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7V2xo-62","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}