Export thread

Have you ever thought how weird it is that you take two of the most dangerous elements known to man: Sodium which fucking EXPLODES in mere contact with water and Chloride which would kill you with half a sniff... combine them and

Oh, yeah, please pass the salt!

Oh, this soup needs more POISON and BOMB.


Oh, the ocean, with it's infinitely high concentration of TOXIC EXPLOSIVE!


.... the world is so weird if you look at it from any other angle, isn't it?

you sweat poison and explosives

you also smoke way too much pot Calleja

^
|

:uhhuh:

I dunno, I think about things like that without the aid of drugs.

---------- Post added at 12:49 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:48 PM ----------

still Juski, that made me laugh

That's cause you're a natural Space Cadet there Cajun. :slywink:

Calleja said:

.... the world is so weird if you look at it from any other angle, isn't it?

Click to expand...

The world is weird period. You've just gotten used to the normal angle you see it from.

Shegokigo said:

That's cause you're a natural Space Cadet there Cajun. :slywink:

Click to expand...

My culinary school buddies called me 'natural stoner.'

why do we drive on a parkway and park on a driveway?

I mentioned this before in another thread, but it's REALLY cool to look at your hands really really close until the little lines and creases look like land.

Charlie Dont Surf said:

why do we drive on a parkway and park on a driveway?

Click to expand...

Unfortunately I couldn't find the line about we being God's salt. And that one day God is going to eat us.

What if C-A-T... really spelled... dog?

I like thinking about personal perception and brain chemistry. What if what blue looks like to me is the way hot pink looks like to you? If we did the ol' sci-fi consciousness swap, would the world look all LSD trippy through your visual hardware?

Don Draper had a really good explanation about what blue looks, but I forgot it.

I actually haven't smoked pot in 5 weeks now, I just sometimes think about weird stuff when I'm on the toilet.

Calleja said:

I just sometimes think about weird stuff when I'm on the pot.

Click to expand...

:uhhuh:

No, seriously, I had to promise my dad I wouldn't smoke while I lived at home after he sort of caught me.

I'm obviously now looking to move to Mexico City.

When you think about it, sweat contains a mild acid. I've had personal experience of that, since I have quite sweaty palms.

My mouse looks like it's been slowly roasted with a torch.

Quit getting caught smoking by your dad! >: |

Wait, whuh?

Hey, Calleja, quick question: La Malinche, how do people see this 16th-century lady in Mexico? Kinda curious as it touches on me Master's Thesis...

North_Ranger said:

When you think about it, sweat contains a mild acid. I've had personal experience of that, since I have quite sweaty palms.

My mouse looks like it's been slowly roasted with a torch.

Click to expand...

You haven't seen how I dissolve undershirt's armpits...

A Troll said:

Click to expand...

Weird, it's hardly recognizable like that!

Anyways, bananas have been known to explode.

RE: Upside-down world. I love that!

Just had to explain to my cousin that that picture was not how the world 'would' look if it were upside-down. I'm trying to get through his head that the world is neither 'upside down' or 'rightside up' It just is, and we decide how we represent it ...

Gurrg, prespectivefail.

What I'd like is a sideways world map, with, say, Africa at the top and Antartica in the middle.

Also, I'm sure I shared my nerdy musing before, but I might as well put it here too.

A few months ago I realized that if some calamity were to befall the earth, and the human race were wiped out, it would only be a matter of time before every bowling pin in the world fell over. Whether by critters knocking them over, or wind or rain, or something else, there would come a point where no bowling pin in the world stood vertical.

That would be the uber-strike, Rob.

could we somehow make an earthquake strong enough and worldwide enough to knock over all the bowling pins?

And here's a Peters Projection of the globe - showing all countries with the area size, rather than angles, being correct. We suddenly look mighty insignificant :-P

Wow, Mexico's a long country.

Calleja said:

Wow, Mexico's a long country.

Click to expand...

that's what she said

We talk a lot about map projections in the geology classes. It seems to be an endless source of confusion for students. The upside down map always rocks people's worlds. Partly because we think of north as up, and partly because the continental weight distribution feels upside down.

The Pacific-centered map tends to bother students, too:

Whoever put "yeah yeah yeahs?" as a tag is my hero.

CynicismKills said:

Whoever put "yeah yeah yeahs?" as a tag is my hero.

Click to expand...

:humble:

HA took me a minute BUT I GOT IT.

<3 Yeah Yeah Yeahs

When my friends ask me whats up I usually go into a whole thing on what is really up and how it all depends on your perspective. I think I tend to annoy them but I find things like that fascinating to think about.

I always hated in the different Star Trek shows, when the star-ship enters orbit and the crew mentions how they should land on the western continent, or northern .... whatever.

Directions do not really exist...

Umm.. they're conventions. They decide what's north, what's south, what's west so they can.. y'know.. decide where they are.

That's entirely reasonable.

ElJuski said:

HA took me a minute BUT I GOT IT.

<3 Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Click to expand...

I only got it because I learned of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs from Rock Band.

I've been meaning to get more of their stuff ever since.

The main reason I want to see Where the Wild Things Are? Karen O.

In a similar vein to the Star Trek continents 'problem,' I have an issue with the designs of most space ships in fiction. They look sleek, and boat-inspired (inb4 picture of Space Battleship Yamoto), a lot of the times, which are both unnecessary.

Also, space battles irritate me. It occurs to me that most fighting would occur at a distance, with whoever has the farthest range having the upper hand. Also, ships should be designed to have the smallest shoot-at-able surface area as possible, while still bringing to bear as many guns as possible. This leads me to imagine very long ships, which look like stars, or asterixes when viewed from the front. They would always be positioned to be pointing at the enemy while in battle.

Probably would have to have lots of small engines distributed around something like that. There's no atmospheric effects, but inertia and angular momentum still exist. Turning something like that would be a pain.

Also, they have a very weak point tactically in that they can encounter enemies coming from different angles. But the angular momentum seems worse. Something like a sphere or ellipsoid or a cube or whatever ftw. Or, better, whatever minimizes Surface/volume.

Rob King;283683][quote=ElJuski said:

HA took me a minute BUT I GOT IT.

<3 Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Click to expand...

I only got it because I learned of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs from Rock Band.

I've been meaning to get more of their stuff ever since.[/QUOTE]

Their latest album "It's Blitz!" is my favorite. The main single "Zero" you can probably find easy on youtube, and is awesome.

Rob King said:

In a similar vein to the Star Trek continents 'problem,' I have an issue with the designs of most space ships in fiction. They look sleek, and boat-inspired (inb4 picture of Space Battleship Yamoto), a lot of the times, which are both unnecessary.

Click to expand...

You have no way of knowing what aspects of ship design are needed to meet the demands of interstellar travel.

I'm always amazed when I think about the human body and all of the different substances it produces.

Charlie Dont Surf;283751][quote=Rob King;283683][quote=ElJuski said:

HA took me a minute BUT I GOT IT.

<3 Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Click to expand...

I only got it because I learned of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs from Rock Band.

I've been meaning to get more of their stuff ever since.[/QUOTE]

Their latest album "It's Blitz!" is my favorite. The main single "Zero" you can probably find easy on youtube, and is awesome.[/QUOTE]

HUMPH. Their best was their first! Fever to Tell is a fucking dirty, new-york pop-punk inspired mess of wails. Half those tracks stink of sex, drugs and rock n' roll.

BUT YOU KNOW WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT ASSHOLES




AND OPINIONS

ElJuski said:

BUT YOU KNOW WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT ASSHOLES




AND OPINIONS

Click to expand...

Yours stink?

Silver Jelly said:

I'm always amazed when I think about the human body and all of the different substances it produces.

Click to expand...

Me too, but now that I've been studying a bit the inner workings of the cell, I'm even more amazed by them.

When I was younger, I had the hardest time convincing my friends that Americans do, in fact, have an accent that sounds funny to people in other countries.

One of them was convinced that since American culture was a combination of so many different cultures, Americans would sound normal to everyone.

I never did manage to convince those guys...

A Rush song came on the radio while my boyfriend was coaching, and someone asked, "Is someone playing Rock Band nearby?

It's funny to think how a lot of younger people get acquainted with older music through that kind of medium. Not nerdy, maybe, but interesting to me.

Soliloquy said:

When I was younger, I had the hardest time convincing my friends that Americans do, in fact, have an accent that sounds funny to people in other countries.

One of them was convinced that since American culture was a combination of so many different cultures, Americans would sound normal to everyone.

I never did manage to convince those guys...

Click to expand...

On my roadtrip back in May it was hilarious to hear people saying that WE had accents. Chicago ones, to boot, although the suburbs have softened those barbs way long ago.

Jake;283805][quote=Rob King said:

In a similar vein to the Star Trek continents 'problem,' I have an issue with the designs of most space ships in fiction. They look sleek, and boat-inspired (inb4 picture of Space Battleship Yamoto), a lot of the times, which are both unnecessary.

Click to expand...

You have no way of knowing what aspects of ship design are needed to meet the demands of interstellar travel.[/QUOTE]

How about The Bebop from the anime Cowboy Bebop. It is literally a space-faring fishing trawler.

ElJuski;283866][quote=Soliloquy said:

When I was younger, I had the hardest time convincing my friends that Americans do, in fact, have an accent that sounds funny to people in other countries.

One of them was convinced that since American culture was a combination of so many different cultures, Americans would sound normal to everyone.

I never did manage to convince those guys...

Click to expand...

On my roadtrip back in May it was hilarious to hear people saying that WE had accents. Chicago ones, to boot, although the suburbs have softened those barbs way long ago.[/QUOTE]

Man, I know how that feels.

I spent a semester in London, and there were times when I actually had to fake a British accent in order to be understood.

Me: "Do you know where I can find a watch?"
Clerk: "A what?"
Me: "A watch. I want to buy a watch."
Clerk: "I'm sorry, a what?"
Me: "A, uh... a wotch."
Clerk: "Oh, a wotch! Try Argos."
Me: "I'm sorry, where?"

Ah, it was a fun semester.

Jake;283805][quote=Rob King said:

In a similar vein to the Star Trek continents 'problem,' I have an issue with the designs of most space ships in fiction. They look sleek, and boat-inspired (inb4 picture of Space Battleship Yamoto), a lot of the times, which are both unnecessary.

Click to expand...

You have no way of knowing what aspects of ship design are needed to meet the demands of interstellar travel.[/QUOTE]

I guess not, but does anyone?

What I'm saying is that starship designs are based more off of style and/or familiarity than any lengthy pondering regarding what the best design would be as far as we know.

I mean, I understand that it's fiction, and that concessions need to be made. It doesn't bother me really, just like it doesn't bother me that the English they speak in Star Trek is altogether too recognizable for something that is spoken a few centuries hence. But it's something I'd like to see considered more.

---------- Post added at 11:36 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:35 PM ----------

General Specific said:

How about The Bebop from the anime Cowboy Bebop. It is literally a space-faring fishing trawler.

Click to expand...

The Bebop == One of my favorite fictional vessels of all time

tegid;283860][quote=Silver Jelly said:

I'm always amazed when I think about the human body and all of the different substances it produces.

Click to expand...

Me too, but now that I've been studying a bit the inner workings of the cell, I'm even more amazed by them.[/QUOTE]

I'm amazed at the inner workings of the cell and almost everything I know about them comes from here:

To be fair, those are the inner workings of the body. The characters in the show are the cells.



---------- Post added at 03:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:36 PM ----------

but great show anyway

If it's bigger than a cell, I don't wanna know about it.

In a similar vein to the OP, what about the fact that water is made from hydrogen, a highly inflammable gas, and oxygen, the high reactive gas required for combustion, yet as a compound it is relatively inert.

Gill Kaiser said:

In a similar vein to the OP, what about the fact that water is made from hydrogen, a highly inflammable gas, and oxygen, the high reactive gas required for combustion, yet as a compound it is relatively inert.

Click to expand...

Not just inert, it will put out most types of fires. Flammable + Flammable = Fire Retardant

Re: Water and salt - Part of that is because the two things are so interested in combining with one another that they don't want to let go to combine with anything else. That's why salt (an ionic solid) takes such a high temperature to melt and why you have to rip water (a covalent one) apart with electricity (electrolysis) to get it back to its component parts.

Me, I've always wondered just exactly how violent the reaction between Cesium (or Francium!) and Flourine would be. Their respective electronegativities are so far apart that it promises to be particularly vigorous.

Yes, I'm a nerd. Knowing chemistry is fun. Don't believe me? Remember this--don't clean aluminum with muratic (hydrochloric) acid. Trust me on this one.

--Patrick

tegid said:

To be fair, those are the inner workings of the body. The characters in the show are the cells.



---------- Post added at 03:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:36 PM ----------

but great show anyway

Click to expand...

Except when they explain how cells work, you SMARTPANTS.

PatrThom said:

Re: Water and salt - Part of that is because the two things are so interested in combining with one another that they don't want to let go to combine with anything else. That's why salt (an ionic solid) takes such a high temperature to melt and why you have to rip water (a covalent one) apart with electricity (electrolysis) to get it back to its component parts.

Me, I've always wondered just exactly how violent the reaction between Cesium (or Francium!) and Flourine would be. Their respective electronegativities are so far apart that it promises to be particularly vigorous.

Yes, I'm a nerd. Knowing chemistry is fun. Don't believe me? Remember this--don't clean aluminum with muratic (hydrochloric) acid. Trust me on this one.

--Patrick

Click to expand...

This stuff takes me back half a decade to when I did my chemistry A-level.

I can only imagine how logistically difficult it would be to set up a fluorine/francium reaction. The subsequent explosion would probably be one of the most powerful chemical reactions possible, presumably.

Gill Kaiser said:

I can only imagine how logistically difficult it would be to set up a fluorine/francium reaction. The subsequent explosion would probably be one of the most powerful chemical reactions possible, presumably.

Click to expand...

And it's videos like this one that really w(h)et my appetite.



--Patrick

PatrThom;284452][quote=Gill Kaiser said:

I can only imagine how logistically difficult it would be to set up a fluorine/francium reaction. The subsequent explosion would probably be one of the most powerful chemical reactions possible, presumably.

Click to expand...

And it's videos like this one that really w(h)et my appetite.



--Patrick[/QUOTE]

I remember reading somewhere that the explosions in that video were faked.

Soliloquy;284459][quote=PatrThom;284452][quote=Gill Kaiser said:

I can only imagine how logistically difficult it would be to set up a fluorine/francium reaction. The subsequent explosion would probably be one of the most powerful chemical reactions possible, presumably.

Click to expand...

And it's videos like this one that really w(h)et my appetite.



--Patrick[/quote]

I remember reading somewhere that the explosions in that video were faked.[/QUOTE]

Wouldn't need much faking, depending on the amount of caesium they used. I've seen that stuff in action before, and even small lumps can make a big boom.

Fake or no, my appetite remains unsated.

--Patrick

That dude's all like XTREME!! science. I'm surprised he didn't skateboard onto the set. Still cool, though. Imagine injecting someone with a couple of grains of cesium coated with that same plastic that is used in medicine capsules. Or feeding it to them.

Soliloquy said:

I remember reading somewhere that the explosions in that video were faked.

Click to expand...

Yes, they were faked. Here is a link to video of what really happens when alkali metals are exposed to water:
Alkali Metal Bangs from theodoregray.com

Heh. I've seen that guy's sodium party articles before. Obviously, then, what we need is to break open an ampule of powdered cesium to give us more surface area. This also explains why chemists like to do their experiments in round mols of a substance rather than by equal masses.

--Patrick

figmentPez;284543][quote=Soliloquy said:

I remember reading somewhere that the explosions in that video were faked.

Click to expand...

Yes, they were faked. Here is a link to video of what really happens when alkali metals are exposed to water:
Alkali Metal Bangs from theodoregray.com[/QUOTE]

Now that's just disappointing.

That's what she said

Explain to me, then, how my Chemistry teacher managed to wreck our fume cabinet and singe off part of his moustache with some inadvisably-applied caesium. Yeah, he was kind of nuts.

Those guys just weren't trying hard enough.

ElJuski said:

Unfortunately I couldn't find the line about we being God's salt. And that one day God is going to eat us.

Click to expand...

HOLY SMURF JASON SEGAL WAS IN THAT?!
I clearly haven't seen that movie in a really long time.

Iaculus said:

Explain to me, then, how my Chemistry teacher managed to wreck our fume cabinet and singe off part of his moustache with some inadvisably-applied caesium. Yeah, he was kind of nuts.

Those guys just weren't trying hard enough.

Click to expand...

Put that explosion in a confined space like a fume cabinet.

Just a little gasoline in the wash once blew the back door off my parents' house. The explosion was only as loud as a slamming door, but blew two doors through their door jambs. It also blew the top 2 inches off of the washer.