Odori's post made me think of this shot of the Army engineers, which really leaves me uncomfortable. Not that the others don't, but it's just got this feel of ambivalence to it, like, "Okay, looks like we blew up this place pretty good. Next..." Though I'm sure that's not fair. That guy on the right (played by a young Harrison Ford) could easily be thinking, "Oh fucking god. We just did what?"
23 comments:
I think they are looking at the city map and thinking "ok...what the fuck used to be here?"
Man, I would be terrified out of my mind.
People talk about hearing a magic number that switches off the empathy chip in your brain, because the number of people killed becomes too abstract for our minds to accept. I don't think that it works the same way for destruction. When people die, they are usually disguised under things like dirt and plastic tarps. You can't disguise destruction like this.
You can't not be affected by destruction on that level. I kind of imagine they are just trying to do their research and move on. They would attempt to kill all memory of this with copious quantities of alcohol later in the evening.
I really wish there hadn't been a comment thread under that amazing photo set.
Mrs. Pony and I were just talking about this the other day. That is, we were talking about technology, and the relative maturity of the culture that develops it. Despite actually being insane enough to use the bomb on people a couple of times, we've done fairly well in not initiating a full nuclear exchange, sticking to using them as a deterrent. It's pretty clear that if the atomic bomb had been invented in the 11th century, we'd all be very very dead by now. Or would we?
We found ourselves wondering if dangerous new technologies might actually promote the moral development of a species. Maybe, somehow, if you can see the ultimate outcome of your violent urges, it can make you think twice, and maybe grow a little from the sobering details. I wonder if there were war protestors when war was just slings and arrows.
I think there's probably a reversal of abstraction in regards to sling and arrow warfare. Those battles would only be heard about thru word of mouth, or messenger birds or what have you. I am sure there were people against the wars for specific reasons, like having your direct relatives involved. But I think the horror of war didn't really start coming into vogue until the development of photography and the printing press when war could be vividly illustrated and documented for all to see.
Just my hypothesis, of course.
Hey so I was thinking: Here's a good argument against ghosts. If ghosts existed, they'd sure as fuck exist in Heroshima and Nagasaki, and in very large numbers. And fucking pissed, too.
I'd say that the fact people have moved back there and aren't getting kicked out by etherial zombies in droves kind of goes to show that maybe, just maybe, they don't exist.
I mentioned this to a certain PoT member who flatly refuses to drive by 8th and Harding because a haunted house there might give him diarrhea, and he said that I'm an idiot because radiation kills ghosts! I did not know this!!!
Interesting, your 11th century comment, Pony. I recently read Harry Harrison's scifi short, "The Final Battle", which goes along with what you said. I'll bring it by sometime (it's just two pages. yay).
I agree that the evolution of our culture is often driven by dangerous technologies. Pretty much almost always though, they're also insanely useful. Yanagamachi, the guy who made mice glow green, said that we were once afraid of The Knife because of all the deadly stuff it could do. Which, while true, they sure help a lot with meal preparation and whittling. Nuclear power is much the same. We're probably going to rely on that a whole lot more in the future. Gene therapy--really not so bad. GMOs: fucking love them. Anyway. YES. that's what I'm saying.
Here we go again, turning everything into pro-science propaganda!
Radiation kills ghosts, man. How can you call that good?
There's a diarrhea inducing haunted house on 8th and Harding? How did I miss that? I walk by that area all the time with no ill effects.
I don't want ghosts around, and I'm glad that radiation kills them.
As the resident radiation "expert" (only because I willfully nuke myself every workday) I have to refute Galspanic. Radiation does not kill ghosts.
1. Does radiation really kill?
All depends on dose. Radiation is everywhere. I am sure there is an appropriate BrainPop (tm) movie you could watch about it.
Radiation is everywhere. Right now. It's in your pants. Among other places. It's bombarding your eyes as you read this.
Random mutations and cell damage at low doses. Usually easily repaired. Massive cell damage and systems failure at high doses.
Might be more of a guns don't kill, bullets kill argument, but the radiation itself doesn't kill, it's the resultant systems failure. Cells with rapid turnover are especially susceptible to radiation damage. Skin and gut can't cope. Bleeding orifices for everyone.
2. Do ghosts exist?
NO.
3. What if ghosts did?
More people/things have died in the history of the world than are alive right now. Spirits would be fucking everywhere. Ghost splooge on your couch right now.
4. Can radiation kill ghosts if they existed?
Aren't ghosts already kilt/dead?
AyBOO! I have a question for you, don't go anywhere!
My boss and I were having a debate today.
Does electro-magnetic radiation in today's regular doses (power lines, cell phones) have any effect on humans? I mean, have there been any credible studies that would throw weight behind this theory?
I heard you're not supposed to play near high tension lines if you a re a small kid.
BECAUSE OF ALL THE FUCKING GHOST CORPSES.
If it's okay, I think I can field this one while Ayboo sleeps: Unless everything we understand about physics and biology is wrong, there's no real evidence at all. Just some punk-journalists and doctors who like to cause trouble. As an analogy, it's the difference between "shattering" kidney stones with ultrasound and playing Mozart to your unborn child. Mozart doesn't explode your babies.
NOTE: if you don't want to read the crap I'm about to write, just watch this Penn and Teller Bullshit show.
Here's a good explanation from someone who teaches about such things.
And here's the best picture I found illustrating it, by XKCD! (this one might be more accurate)
And here's a summary of the important bits:
That stuff to the right on the spectrum in the XKCD pic--past the visible light range--that's all the high-frequency/high-energy EM waves that can harm you: UV rays, X-rays, gamma rays...
To really understand why you've gotta look at this picture here. See how the wavelengths (high frequency = short wavelength) on the right are about the size of molecules and atoms? When you're bombarded by X-rays or UV-rays, that's the key. Because they're the same size, the molecules and atoms in your body are able to absorb all that energy. This ionizes them, breaks them apart, and damages the fuck out of them. You then get skin cancer because you didn't wear sunscreen.
Now go back to the XKCD pic (and that other one). The EMF emitted by cell phones is similar in size to that of radio waves and microwaves (and apparently WIFI routers). From those two diagrams you can see that their wavelengths are around the size of baseballs to small buildings. And that's why they're not a problem: the molecules in your body simply cannot absorb energy at those large wavelengths because they're orders of magnitude smaller, just like a baby's head doesn't explode if you play it Mozart (relatively low frequency sound waves).
Because of the size difference, atoms and molecules cannot be damaged on a molecular level from low-frequency energy released by cell phones, power lines, microwaves, WiFi, or anything else operating at that range.
If they could we'd have been birthing flipper babies left and right ever since we invented radio. And with the insanely popular use of cell phones today, if there was any appreciable risk we'd absolutely be aware of it by now. If there's any unappreciable risk that we just don't know about, it's so small that it's statistically insignificant, and you've got a much greater chance of dying from a thousand other improbable deaths than using a cell phone.
As an interesting side note: Microwave ovens are a bit more complicated and heat food due to the polar nature of water and not so much because of the wavelengths of microwaves interacting with things of the same size.
BUT! Those little holes in the front of microwaves? That shit's there because the 2.5 GHz microwaves used in the ovens have a wavelength just a little bit bigger than the holes, so they can't get through and out to boil your brain! I love that shit.
BTW, even if the microwaves did get out they wouldn't cause cancer. They'd just boil the water in your brain. That's all. But they don't. Because they're completely blocked. So use a microwave. It's fine. >.>
Nice ref to our other sadly neglected blog!
You ever see that mythbusters where they superheat water with microwaves? Fun stuff.
Other than that, nice lecture Fufu. you should really get on the lecturer circuit.
Just kind of have to ask you this, Fu.
The first line in your answer to LC;
"Unless everything we understand about physics and biology is wrong"-
Why would you type that?
Why would you even suggest it?
Why not just say, "there's no real evidence at all."
by saying "real evidence" wouldn't that kind of give you a little bit of leeway incase there turned out to be some evidence, just not justifiable?
Why do you have to go to such an extreme?
I think it harkens back to your being shocked awake by the crazy lightning storm a few years back. I remember you told me your first thought was "Alien apocalypse!"
You secretly harbor a fear that maybe, just maybe, everything you know is wrong!
Think of the ghost corpses, people.
Fear, or secret wish?
Either way, GET OUT OF MY HEAD.
BTW, plix 4 to drawr ghost corpsez thx.
WTF?!? I go to sleep and all of a sudden Fugu grows a pair - er, brain.
Impressive Fugu. Nice rundown on the EM spectrum. Absolutely correct answer to LC's question.
Don't fuck with science Galspanic. Science kills.
BTW, Mozart DOES explode babies. You just have to use it right.
Thank you so much for the answers. I never believed it, but now I know why. I like how in one of the drawings, it labels 99.3 The Fox, which is a radio station in mah 'ome town.
Well I did major in physics and all, Ayeboo. Plus, my senior thesis was on the IR absorption spectra of accretion disks around young stars. Similar principles, You see.
Fu, majored in physics seriously?
He majored in physics yes, but not seriously.
I'm finding it hard to disagree with that statement, Panic.
haha
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