Friday Ephemera

Some heavy tongue action. // There’s plenty of meat on a Chinese hornet. // “If a man were in that chamber, unprotected, he would first boil, then explode.” // The loveliness of Mars. // Robert Mitchum croons. (h/t, Kurt) // Because you’ve always wanted concrete plates. // Snakes wearing top hats and moustaches. // Best try this first with someone else’s TV. (h/t, MeFi) // All glory is fleeting. We’ll have to fix that. // Fun with J-Lube and washing-up liquid. // New York of the ‘70s. // The sizes of galaxies. // When animals gather. // Penn & Teller on “diversity.” (h/t, Mr Briggs) // “Apparently our penis beaker is strange and not the done thing.”

Comments

[XRay]

I stand ready to be corrected but should not the "pressurised" chamber be "vacuum" instead.

[Mark]

Anyone else notice the text below the pics in the Mars link?

"Aperture: This is Mars"

Now I've got this image of an Aperture Science facility on the red planet :P . Wonder if GLaDOS is running it...

Also... the J-Lube and washing-up video mentions adding... wait for it... diluted water.
Oh dear.

[Henry]

I notice the man in the pressurized chamber has unprotected hands - with boiling water spilling over them.

It may not be fake, he does wear a pained, pressurized sort of expression.

Kind Regards,
your resident Friday Ephemera wet blanket

(I give you the Bony King of Nowhere)

[Rafi]

Some heavy tongue action.

I want to know what's on the glass that's so tasty.

[sk60]

“Apparently our penis beaker is strange and not the done thing.”

You really don't want to get the beakers on the bedside table mixed up.

[ajf]

But the water isn't boiling because it's hot. It's boiling because the pressure is so low that it 'prefers' to be a gas. So no reason to think it's a fake from the observation of bare hands.

[David]

I notice the man in the pressurized chamber has unprotected hands - with boiling water spilling over them.

No, the chap doesn’t appear to be wearing pressurised gloves. I’d assumed that’s to illustrate the point about the water and its new boiling point. That said, I’d imagine the blood would eventually start to pool in his hands, rather unpleasantly, as it did for Joe Kittinger, who had a faulty glove while skydiving from an altitude of 103,000 feet, or 32 kilometres.

[Joan]

Because you’ve always wanted concrete plates.

No concrete cutlery? Pffft.

[David]

No concrete cutlery? Pffft.

I’m suddenly picturing poor Mrs Wilson clearing the table after dinner. “Barry, fetch those big lads from next door. And a wheelbarrow. I need some help dragging these bloody things over to the dishwasher.”

[Henry]

okay okay. So this is not the first time my grasp of school-level physics has been exposed for it's resemblance to swiss cheese.

Ask me anything about maths, though, and I probably knew it way back then..

[theophrastus]

Those giant hornets will probably make the Beijing street food scene.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=beijing+street+food&hl=en-GB&rlz=1T4GPCK_enGB315GB315&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=WStYUrzgJ_Dv0gXMn4HABQ&ved=0CC8QsAQ&biw=1264&bih=545&dpr=1

[Xerxes Bihandle]

Well that was an experience! I follow the link to the beautiful film of slo-mo bubbles.

I didn't know what J-Lube was - so I googled it.

One begins to suspect something is amiss when Google, asked "What's J_Lube", directs you to www.anus.org/SEX/

[sackcloth and ashes]

Visiting Mumsnet is like taking a holiday in the DRC. There should be no conceivable, possible reason why you'd possibly want to go there.

[David]

We’ve managed to get Mumsnet and veterinary fisting lubricant into the same thread. I think that’s a first.

[ACTOldFart]

Rafi asked:

Some heavy tongue action.

I want to know what's on the glass that's so tasty.

There's nothing tasty on the glass. Dogs are just stupid.

[David]

Shockingly, there’s some arrogant, doctrinaire whining in the pages of the Guardian. Tim Worstall takes a big patriarchal hammer to it.

[rac]

Complete History of the Soviet Union arranged to the melody of Tetris: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWTFG3J1CP8&feature=youtu.be

[dicentra]

For your delectation, how the complexity of technology plus gubmint incompetence = Maybe there really is a God, who works in mysterious ways.

A sample of the botched code on healthcare.gov (Obamacare signup).

The NSA super-storage spy site in Utah can't get basic electricity right.