OT - Making black and white smoke to order

[Dave Liquorice]

See the side bar about half way down. One to burn the papers one to make the appropiate smoke. Smoke making materials listed similar but not the same as prviously posted.

[Andy Burns]

That sounds close to what some or other Vatican spokesman said a few minutes ago ... meanwhile for we interrupt the paint drying channel to present you live chimney cam ...

[polygonum]

Now that's over (for now) we have two living popes. Frankie and Benny.

Surely not a sponsorship deal?

[Thomas Prufer]

"potassium chloride; lactose; chloroform"? Don't think potassium chloride will burn, no matter what you do with it.

And "chloroform" could have been a misheard "colophony" -- dunno what rosin is in Italian. Ah, google translator says "colofonia".

Thomas Prufer

[Martin Brown]

Transubstantiation fixes all these minor problems with wrong chemicals.

The ingredients in translation were obviously wrong unless it was for a mickey-finn or similar dodgy knockout drops that they posted by mistake.

[Mike Tomlinson]

In article , Andy Burns writes

And surprise, surprise, the old farts have elected an old fart as the "spiritual" leader of 1.mumble billion Catholics.

What is a 76 year old man going to be able to do to revitalise the church and deal with the never-ending stream of scandals: sexual abusers, financial shenanigans at "God's bank", gay priests, rent boys tripping in and out of the Vatican?

He'll be dead in 5 years, having achieved nothing, and they'll have to go through the whole rigmarole again.

[Tim+]

Life expectancy at 75 is 86 so 5 years is on the pessimistic side.

Tim

[polygonum]

Depends on PoV.

[damduck-egg]

A lot of comments in the press seem to make a big thing of him coming from South America , with both parents being Italian emigrants to Argentina his background isn't that different from the previous ones from Europe. If they had chosen someone whose background was descended from the inhabitants of South America,Africa or Asia before European colonisation it might be worth making a comment about it.

G.Harman

[Mike Tomlinson]

En el artículo , Tim+ escribió:

Most 76 year old men are not the leader of a worldwide organisation mired in scandal, such as child abuse, gay marriage, financial shenanigans, rent boys, etc. etc. etc.

This is mighty convenient:

the cardinals can pop downstairs for a bit of c*ck when it suits them.

I predict the stress will kill "Francis" within 5 years.

Having said that, a member of my family, not normally noted for their cynicism, said that the conclave has picked Pope Francis precisely because he'll be merely a figurehead. They've chosen someone they know will carry out all the ceremonial hocus pocus oblivious to what is going on behind his back. In other words, it'll be business as usual.

[djc]

In the photo I saw it looked dark grey against a darkening sky. A chemical additive is used I believe, but they can't do much about backlight and an overcast sky.

[Dave Liquorice]

Shhh, you're not supposed to notice that. Even with a surname like gigolo.

Or even a colonist of several generations rather than a decendant of relatively recent migrants.

[RobertL]

Surely god turns it into the appropriate colour much as he does with the wine and wafers.

Robert