Re: Olympic torch relay

Richard Packer wrote:
On Mon, 7 Apr 2008 17:31:13 +0100, "Stephen and Jane"
<stephenDOTblockley@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


kdavies@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:

Regarding the celebrities on the relay, I couldn't agree more. Who the
heck put that list together?
Kit

It seems the eponymous celebrity may not have actually taken part......

If my understanding of the BBC News report of the flame's truncated, troubled journey through Paris is correct, the French torch-bearers carried an imposter. The report indicates that the torch was extinguished three times during its route, but "The flame itself has been kept alight the whole time in a safety lantern."


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7327079.stm explains how it all
works.


No ;) It works is like this:

C3H8 + 5O2 -> 3CO2 + 4H2O + HEAT
propane atmospheric carbon steam which makes the
oxygen dioxide gases glow

A minimum temperature in the mixed gases must be exceeded for their sustained combustion (at which temperature the rate of heat generation exceeds that of heat loss). Gases enter the flame cold & require ignition to burn (react rapidly). Sources of ignition are applied heat, normally either from a lighter or other hot object or, in the case of a flame, the flame front itself. Catalytic surfaces can lower the ignition temperature, even down to room temperature, by reducing the activation energy barrier which generally prevents ignition at lower temperatures.

So what? Well, there's now't remotely sacred or significant in a gas flame. Just good old chemistry & physics. Only the mentally befuddled see a meaningful connection between infra-red solar radiation, focussed by a parabolic mirror somewhere in Greece to heat & ignite some suitably combustible matter & some flame begun later in yet another propane torch,, on the one hand, & between one flame lit in a cobbled-together ceremony by lightly-clad resting actors of pleasing proportion & people taking part in a high-cost, high-tech sports-fest.

There's something truly queasy-making in a bunch of wealthy elderly men at the top of the IOC, & particularly about someone from practical, materialist China, pretending 'cos it suits them that this assortment of flames has some quasi-religious significance. When things go not according to plan, & they start to talk in terms of sacrilege, you realise they're either a bunch of silly old fools who've really lost the plot, or of cynics who see their totemic nonsense losing its commercially-valuable grip on the minds of the gullible. Which is when things get nasty.

It's sad that we seem unwilling to invest a fraction of what this torch relay is costing, in itself & in its associated policing, in boosting sport for all.

Carl

PS The IOC's website seems not to be carrying any news of this torch relay, only stuff on the plans for it, & about previous such relays. I wonder why?
C
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