[2:54 PM] Mr. Silver:
(Silver Jr.) "When do you think we'll have a World War III?"
(me) "Interesting question. Depends on how mature a civilization level we reach in the next decade or so, I guess. Either within that, or we'll never have a World War III."
(Jr.) "Which do you think?"
(Me) “Probably never. World War III already happened, really, it just wasn't very bloody. But things have changed. Only little powers are likely to do anything very stupid and everyone will turn on them. We're too smart and well connected. There will be wars, of course. Global conquest stuff? No."
[3:20 PM] Mr. Blue:
You think any nukes will ever be used anytime soon? I'd say it's doubtful.
[3:23 PM] Mr. Silver:
If it happens it'll be an idiot like NK and they'll be pounded utterly flat for it. Sure wouldn't rate as a "world war"
[3:25 PM] Mr. Blue:
Yes
I could see India & Pakistan getting into it
That could draw others in, but it wouldn't be a World War either
[3:29 PM] Mr. Silver:
Nope
Apocalypse-speculative futurists will talk about "World Resource Wars!!!"
But they won't happen either.
You can't have a resource war for very long or of large scope...turns out you need the resources to fight one.
Smaller and smaller local ones? Sure.
We're past Peak War
[12:55 PM] Mr. Blue:
What's up with Borg way down there in Malta?
[1:27 PM] Mr. Silver:
Borg...hehe
(Google Image search for "People of Malta")
Lotta Smiths in the UK
I've always wondered about that one.
And Miller
They strike me as a traditional fraud. It is far too common a pair of names for them to be real. There were just too few of either profession to account for so many.
Go back to where the recorded Smith or Miller in the line can be traced, and I'm guessing there's usually just nothing else at all.
[1:39 PM] Mr. Blue:
Nothing else?
[1:41 PM] Mr. Silver:
As in, Mr. Miller and Mr. Smith made up their names
[1:43 PM] Mr. Blue:
Ah
So they weren't millers or smiths?
Occupationally
[1:43 PM] Mr. Silver:
Say you are, in fact, “John of Nowhere”...dirt farmer.
And you had to move to the city and didn't want to look like a bum.
The two rich guy types of Nowhere are millers and smiths
[1:45 PM] Mr. Blue:
Yeah
[1:47 PM] Mr. Silver:
Fake resume - “I can't afford to build a mill here, but I'm good for hauling stuff about and can be trusted with math.”
Fake resume – “I can't afford to build a forge here, but I'm good with tools and crafting quality items.”
[1:51 PM] Mr. Blue:
It seems weird that some occupations endured as last names but others didn't
Ahh… butcher in German is Metzger... that's a last name I’ve heard before
[1:52 PM] Mr. Silver:
"One who meats"
[1:53 PM] Mr. Blue:
Went to high school with a Fleischmann
[1:53 PM] Mr. Silver:
“Man of Flesh”
"Like...Frankenstein's monster?"
"SH!!!"
Have to use that one...
The immortal Monster settles down in a small town as Mr. Fleischmann
[1:53 PM] Mr. Blue:
heheh
Wish I knew it meant "meat guy"
There’s a bridge in Nurnberg called the Fleischbrucke
"Meat bridge", with a statue of a bull in the middle
[10:56 AM] Mr. Blue:
Does your house have a garage, Mr. Silver?
[10:56 AM] Mr. Silver:
Yes
Not that it's used for anything but storing junk and gas
I was hoping those two would party one day for the insurance...
[10:59 AM] Mr. Blue:
Like about 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen?
[10:59 AM] Mr. Silver:
-oline
[10:59 AM] Mr. Blue:
;D
How come we don't breathe nitrogen, or, convert it to something when we do breathe it?
I guess the short answer is oxygen is more reactive, nitrogen more inert
What if you replaced the nitrogen with some other inert gas? Would any other inert gas work? Or would any others poison us?
[11:28 AM] Mr. Silver:
Well, for super deep diving they remove the N and put in He
So...no.
[11:29 AM] Mr. Blue:
Helium?
[11:29 AM] Mr. Silver:
Yes
The nitrogen is what causes the bends when you depressurize too fast after diving.
[11:29 AM] Mr. Blue:
I was just gonna throw that one out there
It probably wouldn't work in atmosphere though... like outside of a tank, since it's probably lighter or heavier than nitrogen
[11:29 AM] Mr. Silver:
Helium is much lighter
[11:30 AM] Mr. Blue:
So if we replaced nitrogen with helium the oxygen would fall and we'd be in 100% oxygen
[11:32 AM] Mr. Silver:
(ponders) Yes, and we'd burn up.
[11:32 AM] Mr. Blue:
Neat
[11:35 AM] Mr. Silver:
For a while there, earth was toxic with oxygen
Then some clever microbes figured out how to be aerobic
Still plenty of anaerobic critters out there. I can only think of a couple
Tetanus...botulism...
[11:42 AM] Mr. Blue:
Where did the carbon dioxide come from before creatures became aerobic?
[11:43 AM] Mr. Silver:
Naturally occurring
I suppose everything would have died out if things didn't start adapting to the poison of other things.
“Photosynthesis makes OXYGEN! YAY!”
(All critters that are poisoned by oxygen start to die...)
Critter figures out how to use oxygen! Population explodes! Poops CO2 back out to feed the photosynthesizers that were going to kill everything...
[11:48 AM] Mr. Blue:
So if there was enough naturally occurring CO2 for the plants to begin with, but without the critters plants would eventually have used up the CO2 and died too?
[11:49 AM] Mr. Silver:
Plants in name maybe...this was microbes and algae. It all balanced out like any other cycle
And now there's a majority CO2/O cycle...and a bunch of lesser weirdos
CO2 levels got so bad at one point it would kill us now. Anti Climate Change people will sometimes trot out that there's not too much CO2 because it used to be much higher and "Earth was fine!"
[11:51 AM] Mr. Blue:
"Yeah. *Earth* was"
[11:51 AM] Mr. Silver:
Heh. Yep.
It was back in a time where there wasn't much multi-cellular life going on.
Can't recall the exact details...period name... (looks)
That little upswing at the end is what we did.
[12:12 PM] Mr. Blue:
Those dinos musta been heavy breathers
[12:13 PM] Mr. Silver:
It was all their factories and stuff
[12:13 PM] Mr. Blue:
I was just thinking about dinosaur civilizations
[12:16 PM] Mr. Silver:
I was remarking the other day at our game night that there was more than ample time and conditions for dozens of intelligent societies to have risen and fallen.
There wouldn't necessarily be much - if anything - left.
"But we'd know, Mr. Silver! It takes 50000 years for the environment to break down plastic for God's sake!"
“Look at this time scale. Now take this calculator and divide by 50,000.”
"… … Ok"
[12:11 PM] Mr. Brown:
Had a dream that the Alving and the Chipmonks and I were fighting a den of vampires
in a house
[12:13 PM] Mr. Silver:
The Alving and the Chip Monks???
[12:14 PM] Mr. Brown:
Alvin
I wrote that too fast
[12:14 PM] Mr. Silver:
munk
[12:14 PM] Mr. Brown:
Oh, that too
I mean I guess they could have been chipmunk monks fighting vampires with me too.
When I woke up this morning the theme song was stuck in my head
[12:15 PM] Mr. Silver:
"The Holy Brothers of Saint "Chip" Charles"
[12:16 PM] Mr. Brown:
They were movie sized too, not the cartoon size
[12:16 PM] Mr. Blue:
I couldn't stand them, ever
[12:16 PM] Mr. Silver:
What are St. Chip's miracles?
[12:16 PM] Mr. Blue:
The cartoon was awful. I used to dread when nothing else was on
[12:20 PM] Mr. Silver:
I was too young for their first round, to old for their middle round, and parent age for the current Chipmunk phase.
"You want to watch 'The Squeakuel'? Sigh. OK, Silver Jr., we'll watch it... Man I can't wait til you're old enough for 'Dragonslayer'."
[12:22 PM] Mr. Brown:
Yeah looks like first show was The Alvin Show
Then became Alvin and the Chipmunks
[12:35 PM] Mr. Silver:
I looked up St. Chip.
He's known for the following miracles:
1. Being a total bro up until martyrdom.
2. The, like, Thousand Tacos.
and
3. “Dude!”
Under additional consideration were the “12 Popped Collars”, and “The Half Hour Keg Stand”.
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