Appropos of nothing thread.

[shrader]

I’m in Arizona right now and was driving behind a car yesterday with the license plate ASTERSK. I can only assume that was a pats fan. 

[devnull]

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/digital/microsoft-buys-activision-blizzard-1235076457/

[shrader]

Spending time around the mountains out here in Arizona has me wondering how much of an “awwww crap” moment Lewis and Clark had when the Rockies started to pop up on the horizon. 

[Sherpa]

4 hours ago, shrader said:

Spending time around the mountains out here in Arizona has me wondering how much of an “awwww crap” moment Lewis and Clark had when the Rockies started to pop up on the horizon. 

 

The interesting thing is that they thought the Rockies were at the Pacific coast.

Little did they know.

My favorite book ever is "Undaunted Courage," by Stephen Ambrose, which details the expedition of the Corps of Discovery, commissioned by Jefferson to explore the land acquired in the Louisiana Purchase.  A fabulous book. 

 

[devnull]

6 hours ago, shrader said:

Spending time around the mountains out here in Arizona has me wondering how much of an “awwww crap” moment Lewis and Clark had when the Rockies started to pop up on the horizon. 

 

And then there were the Spanish explorers at the Grand Canyon.  They were thirsty and saw what looked like a stream at the bottom of a gorge...

[KD in CA]

20 hours ago, shrader said:

Spending time around the mountains out here in Arizona has me wondering how much of an “awwww crap” moment Lewis and Clark had when the Rockies started to pop up on the horizon. 

 

I always think about the Donner party when we're driving over the pass heading to Lake Tahoe;  that must have sucked.  And the Chinese guys who dug out those train tunnels you can still see above Donner Lake.  We walked through those a couple years ago.  Kinda cool.

[Foxx]

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1489351220628230147

 

[Foxx]

A landfill in the middle of the Pacific.

what the hell is wrong with these people...

 

 

[snafu]

40 minutes ago, Foxx said:

A landfill in the middle of the Pacific.

what the hell is wrong with these people...

 

 

 

 

Heck, they sink old subway cars to make artificial reefs.

 

 

 

[Seasons1992]

On 1/20/2022 at 1:30 AM, shrader said:

Spending time around the mountains out here in Arizona has me wondering how much of an “awwww crap” moment Lewis and Clark had when the Rockies started to pop up on the horizon. 

 

My best friend is OBSESSED with L and C and knows everything about what they went through. It's fascinating stuff.

[Foxx]

It's a good thing we got rid of those pesky plastic bags...

 

MIT Engineers Create the “Impossible” – New Material That Is Stronger Than Steel and As Light as Plastic

Quote

The new substance is the result of a feat thought to be impossible: polymerizing a material in two dimensions.

 

Using a novel polymerization process, MIT chemical engineers have created a new material that is stronger than steel and as light as plastic, and can be easily manufactured in large quantities.

 

The new material is a two-dimensional polymer that self-assembles into sheets, unlike all other polymers, which form one-dimensional, spaghetti-like chains. Until now, scientists had believed it was impossible to induce polymers to form 2D sheets.

 

Such a material could be used as a lightweight, durable coating for car parts or cell phones, or as a building material for bridges or other structures, says Michael Strano, the Carbon P. Dubbs Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT and the senior author of the new study.

 

“We don’t usually think of plastics as being something that you could use to support a building, but with this material, you can enable new things,” he says. “It has very unusual properties and we’re very excited about that.”

 

The researchers have filed for two patents on the process they used to generate the material, which they describe in a paper published in Nature on February 2, 2022. MIT postdoc Yuwen Zeng is the lead author of the study. ...

 

[Crap Throwing Clavin]

7 hours ago, Foxx said:

A landfill in the middle of the Pacific.

what the hell is wrong with these people...

 

 

 

Where else you going to put it?  The Australian Outback?  They'd ticket NASA for littering again.

[devnull]

2 hours ago, Foxx said:

It's a good thing we got rid of those pesky plastic bags...

 

MIT Engineers Create the “Impossible” – New Material That Is Stronger Than Steel and As Light as Plastic

 

 

[IDBillzFan]

This is the most perfect commentary by the only person who could do it justice.

 

It makes me want to never visit St. Louis in  February.

 

 

[Crap Throwing Clavin]

 

Those jets?  Pretty similar to the pulse jet on the German V-1 in WWII.  Combine those with some large-scale model plane experience, and minimal online research on Raspberry-PI programming...

 

Videos like this always remind me how building a GPS-guided cruise missile is within the abilities and financial means of a lot of people.

[shrader]

At a doctor’s appointment today I was asked if anyone at home is hurting or abusing me. My response:

 

-My 7 week old tried to gouge out my throat yesterday. Does that count?

[Uncle Joe]

When you spend the night in the wilderness with a broken leg in sub freezing temperatures, get airlifted off the mountain on a black hawk helicopter the next day, one of the 1st questions they ask when admitting you to the hospital, "are you having suicidal thoughts?"

[devnull]

On 2/25/2022 at 2:28 PM, shrader said:

At a doctor’s appointment today I was asked if anyone at home is hurting or abusing me.

 

Do a**holes on an internet message board count?

[shrader]

On 2/26/2022 at 12:54 PM, Uncle Joe said:

When you spend the night in the wilderness with a broken leg in sub freezing temperatures, get airlifted off the mountain on a black hawk helicopter the next day, one of the 1st questions they ask when admitting you to the hospital, "are you having suicidal thoughts?"

I love all of the automatic questions. I couldn’t stop myself from laughing out loud when they started asking my wife the postpartum depression questions. We adopted. 

[shrader]

20 hours ago, devnull said:

 

Do a**holes on an internet message board count?

There’s this one guy who is always calling people idiots.