The subject line was the teaser in a local TV news story. Even though I quickly figured out exactly what the guy was saying, the double entendre made my wife and me LOL.

Anyway, this is legit--a firefighter noticed that the only thing that survived unscathed in a devastating house fire was a diaper. So he's developed a product incorporating stuff used in baby diapers to help with firefighting and fire prevention. Since we're going to have a lot of first-time users of oil lamps, kerosene heaters, and the like (me included), something like this might just be a handy thing to have.

Link

-- Don (whytocay@hotmail.com), April 28, 1999

Answers

See also post by spun@lright in following thread re passive solar:

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=000le3

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), April 28, 1999.

Reckon the diaper was just wet?

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), April 28, 1999.

Hmmm. The stuff in a baby's diaper turns to gel when it's wet, so to speak ;-) It retains the water.

I have seen a product like that to mix in with potted plants to reduce time between waterings. I wonder if it's the same thing.

-- Deborah (infowars@yahoo.com), April 28, 1999.