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xkcd presents "What If?"
 
#51
Obviously one too many inquisitive eight-year-olds.

My favorite line from this one:

"I’ve always thought that one of the the great thing about physics is that you can add more digits to any number and see what happens and nobody can stop you."
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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#52
"(Judging by the amount of ammunition they had lying around their house ready to measure and weigh for me, Texas has apparently become some kind of Mad Max-esque post-apocalyptic war zone.)"

(With a close second to "Do you know why I pulled you over?" "No.")
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
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#53
Spartan Jetpack, anyone?
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#54
"Which means that by reading this article, you’ve quite possibly erased the gains from all the pennies you’ll pick up in your entire life and any gains in fuel economy due to keeping a clean change cup."
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
Reply
 
#55
It's a "short answer" week, so multiple quotes!

"It makes me happy that an arm of the US government has, in some official capacity, issued an opinion on the subject of firing nuclear missiles into hurricanes."
"It works, but it feels so wrong."
"I’m curious what tactical advantage you’re expecting to gain by having the high explosive fly back at you if it misses the target."
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
Reply
 
#56
"Essentially, what you’ve created is an unstable pile of gunpowder the size of Central Park."
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
Reply
 
#57
Heh. The YouTube video linked at the end already has a comment from a reader of XKCD...
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
Reply
 
#58
http://what-if.xkcd.com/25/
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
Reply
 
#59
"In the end, there’s only one solution: Hitting the Earth with asteroids."
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
Reply
 
#60
Or moving teratons of rock to the poles to create a new continent.

Hmmm. Will the melting of the antarctic ice sheet and the subsequent extra drag all that water going into the oceans will iumpose, outwight the effects of all that landmass underneath bouncing back up once shorn of so much massive weight?

That seems to be the case for the Northern ice sheets....
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
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#61
"The death rate in all of these countries is going to go up. It has to, because of math."
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
Reply
 
#62
robkelk Wrote:"The death rate in all of these countries is going to go up. It has to, because of math."
"Strictly speaking, the observed death rate for the human condition is something like 93%—that is, around 93% of all humans have died. This means the death rate among humans who were not members of The Beatles is significantly higher than the 50% death rate among humans who were."
Heh.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
Reply
 
#63
"I started by looking at some papers from industrial food production which simulated heat flow through various pieces of meat. It took me a while to realize there was a much easier way to learn what combinations of time and temperature will effectively heat the various layers of a steak: Check a cookbook."
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
Reply
 
#64
Quote:If anyone puts a steak in a hypersonic wind tunnel to get better data on this, please, send me the video.
You know, now, someone will.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
Reply
 
#65
It's no sillier than the invention of the Chicken Cannon.
Originally created to test the behavior of bird impacts on high-speed bullet trains, some group of people were paid to create a device which would project a bird at high speed in a wind tunnel at a mockup of a bullet train front.
Well, they finally built it, and went ahead to test it. One of their number was sent to get a bird for testing, and when they fired it, the bird punched through the plexi window, and buried itself in the concrete wall behind it.
Apparently no one told this guy not to use a frozen chicken. Hence the name...
---
Those who fear the darkness have never seen what the light can do.
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#66
I always enjoyed the Royal Canadian Air Farce's (rubber) chicken cannon.
___________________________
"I've always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific." - George Carlin
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#67
Same tech, different payload...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
Reply
Silly? Oh hell no.
#68
http://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/eng/achieveme ... annon.html
Science bitches!
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#69
“You’d die pretty quickly, before reaching the water, from gunshot wounds.”
---

The Master said: "It is all in vain! I have never yet seen a man who can perceive his own faults and bring the charge home against himself."

>Analects: Book V, Chaper XXVI
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#70
I knew that if you were extremely patient you could eventually develop lead poisoning as a result of the slow radioactive decay of uranium because the decay sequence ends up with lead as the end result, but that is a lot faster than I figured it would be Tongue
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#71
Hazard Wrote:I knew that if you were extremely patient you could eventually develop lead poisoning as a result of the slow radioactive decay of uranium because the decay sequence ends up with lead as the end result, but that is a lot faster than I figured it would be Tongue
On tombstone: Died of old age while trying to commit suicide via Radiation induced lead poisoning.
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#72
If humans put on artificial wings to fly, we might become Titan versions of the Icarus story
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#73
I was about to flip a coin for which quote to use this week: "Your plane would fly pretty well, except it would be on fire the whole time, and then it would stop flying, and then stop being a plane." or "But I've never seen the Icarus story as a lesson about the limitations of humans. I see it as a lesson about the limitations of wax as an adhesive."
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
Reply
 
#74
I like the first of those, or at least the first two clauses. Past that, it starts feeling a bit like gilding the lily.

-Morgan.
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#75
I forget the proper term, but I found the mouse text for the 'test flights' to be hilarious. 8)
___________________________
"I've always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific." - George Carlin
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