The November 10 explosion in Indianapolis has resulted in criminal charges for arson. See:
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local/indiana&id=8928285 QUOTE December 21, 2012 ( INDIANAPOLIS) -- A homeowner, her boyfriend and the boyfriend's brother were charged Friday with murder and arson in a massive explosion that killed two people, destroyed five homes and damaged dozens more in an Indianapolis neighborhood. . . . Investigators determined that Shirley's home - at the epicenter of the devastating blast that killed her neighbors, John Dion Longworth, 34, and his 36-year-old wife Jennifer Longworth - filled up with gas after a gas fireplace valve and a gas line regulator were removed, Curry said. A microwave, probably set to start on a timer, sparked the explosion and flattened much of the Richmond Hills subdivision in the far south of the city, he said. . . . A man fitting Bob Leonard's description was seen at Shirley's home on the day of the explosion, and investigators believe this is when the gas line and valve were tampered with. . . ." UNQUOTE This illustrates the fact that conventional energy systems are inherently dangerous. They seldom cause damage or death because they are tightly controlled, monitored, and regulated. Only licensed people are allowed to work with them. In the 19th century, in the decades after natural gas distribution began, and electric power distribution began, there were many accidents. People learned from experience. The technology improved, but it was almost as important that people generally become more experienced and adept using these new energy sources. People at home learned to fear the smell of leaking gas, and they learned you must never let an electric appliance touch water. We worry about the dangers and unknowns of cold fusion. We should worry about that. But we should bear in mind that the dangers of conventional energy are only held at bay by constant effort and at great expense. And by society-wide experience -- which is an interesting thing. We do not sense it because it is all around us. After WWII, when vacuum cleaners and other machines were introduced into Japan by the Occupation, Uncle Sam published a book in Japanese for the young women working as maids and staff telling them things like, "never try to vacuum up spilled liquids. Do not wash this vacuum cleaner in water, or put it in a bucket of water; you might electrocute yourself." They had to be told what everyone now learns from childhood. We know as much about how to keep safe with gas and electricity as our grandparents knew how to deal with kerosene lamps and coal and wood burning stoves. Kerosene lamps can be dangerous, by the way. Sometime around 1925 my grandfather walked into a house and saw one on a table which had burned low. That is to say, the level of liquid kerosene had fallen, the cloth wick was no longer uptaking the fluid, and the fire was starting to burn down the wick toward the remaining fluid at the bottom of the bowl. When that happens, the lamp explodes. My grandfather picked up the lamp, ran through the room, and threw the lamp straight through a closed window, shattering the glass, into the back yard. A modern person would probably have no idea what he was seeing when the flame starts moving down the wick. He would not react in time. Plus you can't throw an object through a modern window. This is why I do not recommend inexperienced people use obsolete technology. To heck with nostalgia -- you will blow yourself up! In the PBS documentary "1900 House" they set up a kitchen, bathrooms and other living arrangements that were not so different from those I grew up with, and were actually well ahead of those my wife grew up with in rural Japan. In the 1900 House they had a coal fire stove in the kitchen with some kind of barrier around it, and screens, to prevent people from burning themselves. One of the people cooking on it burned herself despite this. I looked at it and thought to myself, "we didn't have any barriers around those things when I was a kid." I don't recall ever burning myself on one but I must have come close on many occasions. Honestly, until I saw that documentary, it never occurred to me that having a large iron stove in the middle of the room with burning wood in it might be considered dangerous. Lots of people had those things in the 1950s and 60s, and we took it in stride. We also kept a 22 cal. rifle on a shelf in the foyer. I don't recall where the ammo was, but it wasn't locked up. We did that just because people did that sort of thing in those days. Not for fear of crime or anything. I used to shoot it on weekends, in Pennsylvania, for the heck of it. We thought nothing of it. The WWII generation was used to firearms. Society-wide experience may also explain why automobile accident rates per passenger mile seem to decline year by year even when safety standards do not change. General knowledge of how to avoid accidents seems to be spreading through society, three or four generations after cars came into widespread use in the 1920s. Experience is taught deliberately or by example from one generation to the next. My mother was the first in our family to drive a car, in the 1920s. My mother was crazy about cars. She drove, cars, army trucks, tractors and "anything with wheels" during WWII. She took many risks that I would not take. She thought nothing of driving without a seatbelt because seat belts did not exist. She said "unless you grew up in a world without cars, you will never understand how liberating they were." I feel the same way about computers. I am a much more cautious driver -- or just plain timid. My children do not own cars. They borrow a Zipcar when they have to. Driving has gone from being a pleasure, to an unpleasant chore, to an occasional nuisance. Driving is no longer considered a coming-of-age ritual. When cold fusion begins -- if it begins -- we will not have society-wide experience with it. We will not be able to depend on people who learned from childhood how to use it safely. We will have to build many more safeguards into the machines than we did with the first gas and electric systems, and the first automobiles. We will have to start off with a more idiot-proof technology, because society will not longer tolerate a learning curve lasting decades. It is reasonable that society demands this. - Jed
