Principia Discordia

Principia Discordia => Two vast and trunkless legs of stone => Topic started by: Doktor Howl on February 15, 2021, 03:57:15 PM

Title: Old Timey History Lessons with Dok.
Post by: Doktor Howl on February 15, 2021, 03:57:15 PM
#1:  Operation Plumbbob.

Once upon a time, kiddies, a man named Dr Robert Brownlee, from Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, was asked to examine whether nuclear detonations could be conducted underground. I guess it was believed that this would be less polluting, though by then we knew our nukes worked and we were mostly doing it because it made a loud noise.

So in Operation Plumbbob, the bombs were placed in deep boreholes, and a 2000 pound steel manhole cover was placed at the top of the shaft.

The first test, the manhole cover just flat-up disappeared.  The second test, they ran the highest speed camera they could, and they got the steel cover moving in one (1) frame.  They were able to calculate the speed of the manhole cover from that, which came out to 69.5 miles per second.

That's higher than the static escape velocity of the Earth (7 MPS) and in fact of the solar system with a starting point of Earth's orbit. 

This test was conducted 29 times.

So we flung 1 ton manhole covers at random into interstellar space as often as we could.  Which I approve of.  It will give aliens a much clearer view of us than Voyager 1 did.  Specifically, it will tell them to stay the fuck away from us.  We don't want to be friends.  Fuck off. Go home.
Title: Re: Old Timey History Lessons with Dok.
Post by: Cramulus on February 15, 2021, 04:56:50 PM
:mittens:

that's probably how they should launch shit into space from now on
Title: Re: Old Timey History Lessons with Dok.
Post by: Doktor Howl on February 15, 2021, 05:08:05 PM
Quote from: Cramulus on February 15, 2021, 04:56:50 PM
:mittens:

that's probably how they should launch shit into space from now on

Way back when I was a kid, before fun was invented, we had "cannon crackers", which were just Goddamn huge fire crackers.

You could put one on a wooden chair, light it, and put an upside down, empty coffee can over it.  When it went off, the coffee can would go flying, and there'd be a hole in the seat of the chair that matched the coffee can.

That's what we did when we were kids; we learned about shaped charges because there was literally nothing else to do.
Title: Re: Old Timey History Lessons with Dok.
Post by: rong on February 15, 2021, 05:25:32 PM
kinda wish it was called Operation Plumbbomb
Title: Re: Old Timey History Lessons with Dok.
Post by: Brother Flight Risk on February 16, 2021, 09:32:59 AM
All grand until they gain sentience and return to Earth seeking their Creator mere thousands of years from now, only to be disappointed in their findings.
Title: Re: Old Timey History Lessons with Dok.
Post by: chaotic neutral observer on February 16, 2021, 01:39:44 PM
Quote
So we flung 1 ton manhole covers at random into interstellar space as often as we could.  Which I approve of.  It will give aliens a much clearer view of us than Voyager 1 did.  Specifically, it will tell them to stay the fuck away from us.  We don't want to be friends.  Fuck off. Go home.
In one of the Star Trek movies, there was a scene where some Klingons shot up an antique earthling space probe.  Now I wish that scene had been written with a manhole cover smashing through the Klingon bridge, killing the captain and bridge crew, and causing a diplomatic incident.
Title: Re: Old Timey History Lessons with Dok.
Post by: Doktor Howl on March 04, 2021, 08:54:58 PM
Quote from: chaotic neutral observer on February 16, 2021, 01:39:44 PM
Quote
So we flung 1 ton manhole covers at random into interstellar space as often as we could.  Which I approve of.  It will give aliens a much clearer view of us than Voyager 1 did.  Specifically, it will tell them to stay the fuck away from us.  We don't want to be friends.  Fuck off. Go home.
In one of the Star Trek movies, there was a scene where some Klingons shot up an antique earthling space probe.  Now I wish that scene had been written with a manhole cover smashing through the Klingon bridge, killing the captain and bridge crew, and causing a diplomatic incident.

"AND DON'T COME BACK."
Title: Re: Old Timey History Lessons with Dok.
Post by: Eater of Clowns on March 05, 2021, 12:09:43 AM
They recreated this experiment with Roger's poomp once and named the resulting hole in reality Tucson.