Pro-skaters keep reminding me that it's "in-line skating" and not "rollerblading". They are pretty adamant that using the word "rollerblading" is outright WRONG! So what's all this fuss about political correctness?
Okay, so Rollerblade is a brand of skates, and supposedly not the official name of the sport so you CAN'T use their name, or so they say. Is that really so? I hear that the sport was originally called "rollerblading", and in fact the very first society founded in the US to govern the sport had the name "rollerblade" in it!!!
While its perfectly alright to call "quad-skates" roller-skates (yes, I'm so not kidding, that's the "official" name!), and its perfectly alright to call tissue paper "kleenex", it is not okay to use the term rollerblading. What about using "Xerox" to mean "photocopy"? How 'bout Q-tips (that's what they call cotton-buds in the US)?
Nobody gives a hoot if I say xerox, or roller-skates, or Q-tips or kleenex, but I'd almost get shot by the pros if i say "rollerblade". In fact, I'm pretty sure the original "Rollerblade" company is pretty proud that their name is synonymous with the sport worldwide.
I don't buy all this political correctness. We should all just call things whatever we feel comfortable calling them.
Friday, June 10, 2005
Pozzolanic
What the hell is Pozzolanic? That's what you're probably asking right now. Well, a Pozzolanic substance is a siliceous or siliceous and alumnous subtance that is unreactive, but will react with CH in the presence of water to form CSH at normal temperatures.
You're probably thinking: "Why do i care?" Pozzolans are the basis for the emergence of modern civilization. The Greeks did not discover Pozzolans, so their architecture was restricted to post and lintel structures with many ugly columns obstructing the entrance to any building. The Romans, on the other hand, created concrete via the use of pozzolans. They figured that when they mix limestone (which produces CH) with pozzolan (from volcanic ash) and add water, voila!, you get cement, which can be used to produce concrete! Thus the wonderful arches, domes and not to mention the colisseum....
The use of Pozzolans subsequently declined when a British dude discovered Portland Cement. Basically if you take limestone, and clay (from the ground), mix grind heat to 1400 celcius in a kiln, you can get much better concete than what the Romans were using. However, you can imagine that mix grind heat probably pollutes the earth a lot. Did you realise concrete production is one of the most environmentally unfriendly buisness around the globe?
Take heart however, thankfully we are not neccessarily doomed to endless global warming. It turns out that a large part of cement in concrete can be replaced by environmentally friendly good quality Pozzolans which are waste products of polluting industries (rather than volcanic ash). Class F fly ash from coal fired power plants, Silica Fume from silicon plants, Rice Husk Ash from padi farms, and Metakaolin from oil sands operations/paper sludge are all waste material that can be RECYCLED to actually enhance the properties of concrete while saving the environment! That is, if enough people actually bother to use them....
So in the end, its the little things that the Romans discovered that could eventually save our planet.....
You're probably thinking: "Why do i care?" Pozzolans are the basis for the emergence of modern civilization. The Greeks did not discover Pozzolans, so their architecture was restricted to post and lintel structures with many ugly columns obstructing the entrance to any building. The Romans, on the other hand, created concrete via the use of pozzolans. They figured that when they mix limestone (which produces CH) with pozzolan (from volcanic ash) and add water, voila!, you get cement, which can be used to produce concrete! Thus the wonderful arches, domes and not to mention the colisseum....
The use of Pozzolans subsequently declined when a British dude discovered Portland Cement. Basically if you take limestone, and clay (from the ground), mix grind heat to 1400 celcius in a kiln, you can get much better concete than what the Romans were using. However, you can imagine that mix grind heat probably pollutes the earth a lot. Did you realise concrete production is one of the most environmentally unfriendly buisness around the globe?
Take heart however, thankfully we are not neccessarily doomed to endless global warming. It turns out that a large part of cement in concrete can be replaced by environmentally friendly good quality Pozzolans which are waste products of polluting industries (rather than volcanic ash). Class F fly ash from coal fired power plants, Silica Fume from silicon plants, Rice Husk Ash from padi farms, and Metakaolin from oil sands operations/paper sludge are all waste material that can be RECYCLED to actually enhance the properties of concrete while saving the environment! That is, if enough people actually bother to use them....
So in the end, its the little things that the Romans discovered that could eventually save our planet.....
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