Annoying Questions I'd Like Answered...

Mundane & Pointless Stuff I Must Share: The Off Topic Forum

Moderator: Moderators

hyzmarca
Prince
Posts: 3909
Joined: Mon Mar 14, 2011 10:07 pm

Post by hyzmarca »

Ignoring the Klingon origin theory, what is the stupidest and most obviously wrong of the anti-Stratfordian theories?
Shady314
Knight
Posts: 323
Joined: Thu Feb 19, 2015 4:54 am

Post by Shady314 »

Any theory that hinges on someone faking their death. So Marlowe.
Schleiermacher
Knight-Baron
Posts: 666
Joined: Wed Sep 05, 2012 9:39 am

Post by Schleiermacher »

I'm really curious why you want to know that.
User avatar
Shrapnel
Prince
Posts: 3146
Joined: Fri Jan 06, 2012 4:14 pm
Location: Burgess Shale, 500 MYA
Contact:

Post by Shrapnel »

Klingon origin theory?
Is this wretched demi-bee
Half asleep upon my knee
Some freak from a menagerie?
No! It's Eric, the half a bee
hyzmarca
Prince
Posts: 3909
Joined: Mon Mar 14, 2011 10:07 pm

Post by hyzmarca »

Shrapnel wrote:Klingon origin theory?
Shakespere's plays were written by a Klingon, and translated into English.
Chancellor Gorkon wrote:You have not experienced Shakespeare until you have read him in the original Klingon.
Last edited by hyzmarca on Sun Feb 07, 2016 7:15 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Schleiermacher
Knight-Baron
Posts: 666
Joined: Wed Sep 05, 2012 9:39 am

Post by Schleiermacher »

Star Trek canon is that Shakespeare's plays were written by a Klingon, and Shakespeare either had contact with Klingons and translated them from the Klingon or was secretly a Klingon himself and translated them as a side project. (I don't watch Star Trek so I don't know which. It could also be an option C.) It's basically just minor, occasionally recurring joke of the series, as I understand it.
Last edited by Schleiermacher on Sun Feb 07, 2016 6:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Prak
Serious Badass
Posts: 17353
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by Prak »

Who holds the property rights for statues commissioned in the mid 1800s? The statue I'm thinking about in particular (Le Génie du Mal) was made for a cathedral, so does the cathedral hold the right to sell reproduction of the statue?
Cuz apparently I gotta break this down for you dense motherfuckers- I'm trans feminine nonbinary. My pronouns are they/them.
Winnah wrote:No, No. 'Prak' is actually a Thri Kreen impersonating a human and roleplaying himself as a D&D character. All hail our hidden insect overlords.
FrankTrollman wrote:In Soviet Russia, cosmic horror is the default state.

You should gain sanity for finding out that the problems of a region are because there are fucking monsters there.
User avatar
Chamomile
Prince
Posts: 4632
Joined: Tue May 03, 2011 10:45 am

Post by Chamomile »

Copyright lasts lifetime of the creator plus 70 years. Anything made by someone who died 1945 or earlier is now public domain. I very seriously doubt that a sculptor from the mid-1800s lasted until 1945.
User avatar
virgil
King
Posts: 6342
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by virgil »

Chamomile wrote:Copyright lasts lifetime of the creator plus 70 years. Anything made by someone who died 1945 or earlier is now public domain.
That only applies to works published after 1978. It's 95 years after publication for stuff predating that (presuming they renewed it). The only true claim to public domain is stuff made before 1923.

Really, it's safer to assume that if it predates Steamboat Willie, it's in public domain. Otherwise, if it's good enough to be worth owning, someone does and will sue your pants off.
Come see Sprockets & Serials
How do you confuse a barbarian?
Put a greatsword a maul and a greataxe in a room and ask them to take their pick
EXPLOSIVE RUNES!
User avatar
Occluded Sun
Duke
Posts: 1044
Joined: Fri May 02, 2014 6:15 pm

Post by Occluded Sun »

And keep in mind that every time "Steamboat Willie" threatens to go out of copyright, the American laws are changed. Presumably not even Disney can manage to get Congress to extend the period indefinitely, but money talks, and they have a lot of it.
"Most men are of no more use in their lives but as machines for turning food into excrement." - Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci
User avatar
Prak
Serious Badass
Posts: 17353
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by Prak »

Now to find someone interested in and able to make a fiberglass replica of the statue.
Cuz apparently I gotta break this down for you dense motherfuckers- I'm trans feminine nonbinary. My pronouns are they/them.
Winnah wrote:No, No. 'Prak' is actually a Thri Kreen impersonating a human and roleplaying himself as a D&D character. All hail our hidden insect overlords.
FrankTrollman wrote:In Soviet Russia, cosmic horror is the default state.

You should gain sanity for finding out that the problems of a region are because there are fucking monsters there.
User avatar
Shrapnel
Prince
Posts: 3146
Joined: Fri Jan 06, 2012 4:14 pm
Location: Burgess Shale, 500 MYA
Contact:

Post by Shrapnel »

So, people are carbon based life, right? Would it be possible to somehow compress all the carbon atoms in a person into a diamond, or could that only happen in the realm of a Golden Age Superman comic?
Is this wretched demi-bee
Half asleep upon my knee
Some freak from a menagerie?
No! It's Eric, the half a bee
User avatar
Prak
Serious Badass
Posts: 17353
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by Prak »

Cuz apparently I gotta break this down for you dense motherfuckers- I'm trans feminine nonbinary. My pronouns are they/them.
Winnah wrote:No, No. 'Prak' is actually a Thri Kreen impersonating a human and roleplaying himself as a D&D character. All hail our hidden insect overlords.
FrankTrollman wrote:In Soviet Russia, cosmic horror is the default state.

You should gain sanity for finding out that the problems of a region are because there are fucking monsters there.
User avatar
Shrapnel
Prince
Posts: 3146
Joined: Fri Jan 06, 2012 4:14 pm
Location: Burgess Shale, 500 MYA
Contact:

Post by Shrapnel »

Sorry, shoulda specified that I meant while a person is still whole.
Is this wretched demi-bee
Half asleep upon my knee
Some freak from a menagerie?
No! It's Eric, the half a bee
User avatar
Prak
Serious Badass
Posts: 17353
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by Prak »

Given that you can do it with parts of people, I would imagine so, it's just a matter of process at that point.
Cuz apparently I gotta break this down for you dense motherfuckers- I'm trans feminine nonbinary. My pronouns are they/them.
Winnah wrote:No, No. 'Prak' is actually a Thri Kreen impersonating a human and roleplaying himself as a D&D character. All hail our hidden insect overlords.
FrankTrollman wrote:In Soviet Russia, cosmic horror is the default state.

You should gain sanity for finding out that the problems of a region are because there are fucking monsters there.
User avatar
Shrapnel
Prince
Posts: 3146
Joined: Fri Jan 06, 2012 4:14 pm
Location: Burgess Shale, 500 MYA
Contact:

Post by Shrapnel »

Alright. Follow up question: Is there an amount of pressure that a person can be put under that will cause the carbon atoms in 'em become graphititized?
Is this wretched demi-bee
Half asleep upon my knee
Some freak from a menagerie?
No! It's Eric, the half a bee
...You Lost Me
Duke
Posts: 1854
Joined: Mon Jan 10, 2011 5:21 am

Post by ...You Lost Me »

No to that. There are too many extra atoms that the carbon is wrapped up in, and they are all bonded in different degrees of stability. I doubt you would get anything other than particularly gruesome ashes.

The solution is to remove all the other atoms... But at that point, you no longer have anything resembling a living being.
DSMatticus wrote:Again, look at this fucking map you moron. Take your finger and trace each country's coast, then trace its claim line. Even you - and I say that as someone who could not think less of your intelligence - should be able to tell that one of these things is not like the other.
Kaelik wrote:I invented saying mean things about Tussock.
User avatar
Blasted
Knight-Baron
Posts: 722
Joined: Wed May 26, 2010 5:41 am

Post by Blasted »

With memorial diamonds and any other process to turn organics into carbon; be it graphite, diamond, etc. you first need to extract the carbon. Because the carbon in people is contained in organic compounds including hydrogen and oxygen and other elements, merely compressing someone won't work. It will have other things in it that won't fit into the structure of what you're intending.
So: no. Pressure by itself will not work*
* generally carbon is extracted with a heat process and I could imagine a scenario where you use a pressure process, but you've still got other atoms in there messing your lattice. You need to separate them out.
Eikre
Knight-Baron
Posts: 571
Joined: Mon Aug 03, 2009 5:41 am

Post by Eikre »

When you force a phase-state with pressure, you're essentially applying a situation where a denser formation is more stable than otherwise (and generally you'll apply lots of heat so that things move around on the atomic level and actually end up in that position) Thing is, though the tetrahedral formation of carbon may be very dense, humans have about twice as much oxygen in them and nearly three times as much hydrogen. So the question is, is there an hydro- or hydroxo-carbon polymer with a metastable profile and a density sufficiently higher than elemental allotropes?

At a cursory glance, polycarbonyl (carbon monoxide) has a density of 0.059 molecular moles/cm3, as reported by wikipedia. That's a lot less than diamond's 0.29 atomic moles/cm3, but it is higher than even solid oxygen's 0.045. So that means for every oxygen atom you have, you can make a carbon atom vanish and get a substance that is slightly denser than the oxygen atom was alone. So, presumably, if you've got captive oxygen along with the carbon, in the molar preportions of the human body, and you raise that to 5 GPa (that being where diamonds form), you'll likely not get one before a sheet of polycarbonyl, because that's it's wheelhouse, too. Not looking good for the possibility of alchemizing the human directly.

The addition of the hydrogen, though, probably means you get graphite oxide, which is less difficult to make in the first place. So, yes, by virtue of "graphititization" being a less precise goal, you can do that.
This signature is here just so you don't otherwise mistake the last sentence of my post for one.
User avatar
Prak
Serious Badass
Posts: 17353
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by Prak »

Conceivably your pressure process can create heat which can separate out the carbon, right?
Cuz apparently I gotta break this down for you dense motherfuckers- I'm trans feminine nonbinary. My pronouns are they/them.
Winnah wrote:No, No. 'Prak' is actually a Thri Kreen impersonating a human and roleplaying himself as a D&D character. All hail our hidden insect overlords.
FrankTrollman wrote:In Soviet Russia, cosmic horror is the default state.

You should gain sanity for finding out that the problems of a region are because there are fucking monsters there.
hyzmarca
Prince
Posts: 3909
Joined: Mon Mar 14, 2011 10:07 pm

Post by hyzmarca »

Prak wrote:Conceivably your pressure process can create heat which can separate out the carbon, right?
Your pressure precess is also going to hold things is, by virtue of being pressure.
Eikre
Knight-Baron
Posts: 571
Joined: Mon Aug 03, 2009 5:41 am

Post by Eikre »

Your pressure process isn't going to make heat that can do that. An unrelated and preliminary process can make the heat that can do that, which is what you actually do if you are interested in synthesizing diamonds from people.
This signature is here just so you don't otherwise mistake the last sentence of my post for one.
User avatar
Prak
Serious Badass
Posts: 17353
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by Prak »

So cremate then pressurize. Got it. How much pressure is needed?
Cuz apparently I gotta break this down for you dense motherfuckers- I'm trans feminine nonbinary. My pronouns are they/them.
Winnah wrote:No, No. 'Prak' is actually a Thri Kreen impersonating a human and roleplaying himself as a D&D character. All hail our hidden insect overlords.
FrankTrollman wrote:In Soviet Russia, cosmic horror is the default state.

You should gain sanity for finding out that the problems of a region are because there are fucking monsters there.
Eikre
Knight-Baron
Posts: 571
Joined: Mon Aug 03, 2009 5:41 am

Post by Eikre »

Five gigapascals, which is about fifty thousand atmospheres.

But if you are interested in getting the job done within the lifetime of the human species, then you may want to kick that up a couple magnitudes.

You can make that number a little less difficult if you accept smaller diamond masses, keep the cremation going through the whole process (a couple thousand kelvin, if you please) or kick in a little pre-made diamond grit to seed the crystal structure.

EDIT: Oh, also if you have some metal to use as a solvent. Did you know diamonds dissolve in liquid steel? So if the human you're crushing happened to be a knight in shining armor, you might be in for a spot of luck.
Last edited by Eikre on Tue Feb 23, 2016 5:38 am, edited 2 times in total.
User avatar
Stahlseele
King
Posts: 5988
Joined: Wed Apr 14, 2010 4:51 pm
Location: Hamburg, Germany

Post by Stahlseele »

I am german. This means english is not my mother tongue . . but i think i have a pretty firm grip on the language.
And then shit like this crops up:
Worcestersauce is pronounced "wooster sauce"
WHY?
How?
Why the fuck?
How would you get to that pronounciation from that spelling?!
Or the other way around?
Is this like . . this stupid shit?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghoti
Welcome, to IronHell.
Shrapnel wrote:
TFwiki wrote:Soon is the name of the region in the time-domain (familiar to all marketing departments, and to the moderators and staff of Fun Publications) which sees release of all BotCon news, club exclusives, and other fan desirables. Soon is when then will become now.

Peculiar properties of spacetime ensure that the perception of the magnitude of Soon is fluid and dependent, not on an individual's time-reference, but on spatial and cultural location. A marketer generally perceives Soon as a finite, known, yet unspeakable time-interval; to a fan, the interval appears greater, and may in fact approach the infinite, becoming Never. Once the interval has passed, however, a certain time-lensing effect seems to occur, and the time-interval becomes vanishingly small. We therefore see the strange result that the same fragment of spacetime may be observed, in quick succession, as Soon, Never, and All Too Quickly.
Post Reply