nuclear power is impressive until you get up to why. “we use the most precisely engineered machinery ever created to split atoms to release energy” oh yeah how come? “boil water to turn a fan” get the fuck out
The power of atom turns out to be, yet again, the power of steam
Just went to grab a tech appointment, about 3 minutes after they announced (getting stuff ready for it) and the little girl, who was probably 8 or 9, looked up at me and very snidely said “Finally.”
Now, I can’t say anything because this is a- a kid not related to me and b- a *client’s* kid and I don’t want to be fired.
So I turned to face her, raised up my eyebrows, and stared. She lasted about 2 seconds before she started squirming and ducking her head between her shoulders. And then mom piped up with “We do not say things like that!”
When leaving she gave me a very sweet “goodbye!” and I gave her a happy one in turn.
But yegods that first couple seconds of interaction just confirmed for me that I am not cut out to be a parent because my first *thought* was an incredulous “you little shit”
I mean, you probably did a month’s worth of parenting by staring down that kid. Seriously.
Sometimes kids are just sort of testing out ways to be, and you giving them a “EXCUSE me??” look lets them know, gently but very clearly, which behaviors are appropriate with others in a society and which are not.
We also figured out—the hard way—that the ancients probably cut each layer of linen to the proper shape before gluing them together. For our first linothorax, we glued together 15 layers of linen to form a one centimeter-thick slab, and then tried to cut out the required shape. Large shears were defeated; bolt cutters failed. The only way we were ultimately able to cut the laminated linen slab was with an electric saw equipped with a blade for cutting metal. At least this confirmed our suspicion that linen armor would have been extremely tough. We also found out that linen stiffened with rabbit glue strikes dogs as in irresistibly tasty rabbit-flavored chew toy, and that our Labrador retriever should not be left alone with our research project.
I love this in every way possible. What is it from? Where can I read more?
The pitfalls of experimental archaeology and puppies.
link to source:
“Unraveling the Linothorax Mystery, or how Linen Armor Came to Dominate our Lives.”
We found that even more of a threat than rain was one’s own sweat on a hot day. So, yes, it does need waterproofing, both inside and out. We did a number of experiments along those lines, and found that rubbing a block of beeswax over all sides of the armor provided nice waterproofing. It also makes the armor smell nice! When you wear it for a couple hours, your own body heat softens the glue a bit and makes it conform to your body shape, so it is much more comfortable to wear than rigid types of armor. Our reconstructions weighed about 10 pounds–about one third the weight of bronze armor that would provide the same degree of protection.
Honey i gotta go to war… not to smell my bee armor or hang with the boys or anything no.. uhh we need to uh do war things?
While all of this mayhem (both scientifically controlled and free-form) convinced us that our linothorax was ancient-battlefield-ready, we still felt compelled to try a real-life scenario, so Scott donned the armor and Greg shot him. And while we had confidence in our armor, our relief was still considerable when the arrowhead stuck and lodged in the armor’s outer layers, a safe distance away from flesh.
a good life-size mannequin is expensive but i guarantee it would’ve cost way less than they were spending on all that linen.
