LOL-November 9
Cidu Bill on Nov 9th 2009
Filed in Abstruse Goose, Batman, Bill Bickel, Brevity, Dave Blazek, Guy & Rodd, John Deering, Loose Parts, M.I.T., Medusa, Michelangelo, Non Sequitur, PVP Online, Scott Kurtz, Strange Brew, Wiley Miller, astronauts, comic strips, comics, comics that made us laugh out loud, humor, lol | 29 responses so far
Mitch4 Nov 9th 2009 at 12:52 am 1
Wasn’t it Michelangelo who described his sculpting technique as removing the extra stone to find the statue hidden inside? But now we see it was a different trick …
CIDU Bill Nov 9th 2009 at 12:58 am 2
Actually, the Michelangelo comic reminded me of “Blink” (and it’s not worth explaining that to anybody who doesn’t know what I mean)
Marshal Nov 9th 2009 at 01:14 am 3
The two kids in the middle in the Non Sequitur comic must be bored. Only
the two kids on either end will move. And that is probably a rush. From
zero to whatever then a jarring stop again.
The PVP Online comic is more of an eww for me.
CIDU Bill Nov 9th 2009 at 01:20 am 4
Mitch4, I do know Michelangelo described how he sculpted David by saying something to the effect of “I just cut away everything that wasn’t David.”
Some years back mystery writer Lawrence Block wrote a very weird story that played off this idea.
Tullia Nov 9th 2009 at 02:07 am 5
There was an actually funny Dilbert about the statue thing — he decides he’s going to sculpt an elephant using the remove-the-non-elephant-parts way, and in the last rubble-and-fail-filled panel, Dogbert sarcastically says, “Well, this is very strange,” and Dilbert says, ” I know — _this_ block of marble doesn’t have an elephant in it, _either_!”
mkilby Nov 9th 2009 at 04:16 am 6
I agree with Marshall (3), the fourth panel makes that PVP strip a definite EEEwww.
The clacker toys that I have seen always had 5 balls, which made it possible to do a double (by pulling two balls from one end and letting them fall). I’m not sure how well that would work on the 4 ball (or 4 kid) model.
chuckers Nov 9th 2009 at 08:46 am 7
If I remember my laws of the conservation of momentum properly, even with just 4, pulling 2 away would result in 2 being shot off after the collision.
The balls in the middle are just for the cool effect of “wow, only the ones at the ends are bouncing.”
I liked pulling both ends apart at the same time and releasing them simultaneously so that when they collided in the middle, they both bounced back again.
Actually, they aren’t clacker toys. The proper name is apparently Newton’s cradle.
You can sort of see the what I as trying to explain at the end of this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UxYnWpqwbY
Powers Nov 9th 2009 at 09:04 am 8
Mkilby, a basic understanding of the physics involved ought to tell you.
Dan Nov 9th 2009 at 09:33 am 9
I’ve seen the gag in Loose Parts before, on the website Chicken Crap; it was a picture of a real-life “free pieces of paper” notice.
Karen Nov 9th 2009 at 11:00 am 10
Bill, “Blink” was what I thought of when I saw the David cartoon. That episode scared the crap out of my kid, so we let him smash an angel statue that was left in our garden by the previous owner. Gave him a sledgehammer and let him go to town. No more bad dreams after that!
Daniel J. Drazen Nov 9th 2009 at 11:15 am 11
Fourth panel of the bottom strip straddles the LOL-Ewwww line.
Frank the curmudgeon Nov 9th 2009 at 11:59 am 12
A real genius like Scrooge McDuck would have used King Midas instead of Medusa.
Judge Mental Nov 9th 2009 at 12:00 pm 13
Reminded me of the old joke:
Two little boys are walking down the street when they notice a billboard in the distance with a scantily clad female model. One of the little boys screams and immediately bolts the opposite direction. The other boy catches up with his friend and asks what’s wrong. “My mother told me that if I ever did anything naughty, or even though about it, I would turn to stone. And I could feel it starting to happen”
Brent Nov 9th 2009 at 12:04 pm 14
@6, mkilby:
Actually, you can do a triple or quadruple with five balls (technically, you could also do all five but that’s an aberrant case). The thing is that however many balls you let go, that many will swing off the other end… if it happens to mean that some balls in the middle have to swing in both directions to accomplish that, that’s what happens. Which is why I swing 3 of the 5 balls (or 4 for that matter)… it looks much cooler.
Personally, I think these kids should be doing 3, meaning that it would be the kids on the end that get less swinging. As it stands, the kids in the middle are just going to keep getting jolted.
Jeff in Ann Arbor Nov 9th 2009 at 12:48 pm 15
Assuming the astronauts are on the moon, where does the air come from to pump up the Bouncy Time?
Mark in Boston Nov 9th 2009 at 01:33 pm 16
The second astronaut is indulging the first by letting him pump the pump up and down even though it has no effect.
firedmyass Nov 9th 2009 at 02:01 pm 17
The actual statue of David is 17 feet tall
firedmyass Nov 9th 2009 at 02:02 pm 18
^^ *pedantry sincerely unintended
Cidu Bill Nov 9th 2009 at 03:01 pm 19
Oh yeah, Karen, I can see how that episode would scare the bejeezus out of any kid with angel statuary in his back yard.
Kate C Nov 9th 2009 at 04:41 pm 20
Bill–
Do you by chance remember the Block story, or which collection it was in? I am a huge fan of Block’s novels, but have only read one book of short stories, which I found enjoyable in a nouveau-Roald Dahl kind of way.
Cidu Bill Nov 9th 2009 at 04:54 pm 21
Kate C, the story is “Looking for David” and I’m 99% sure it’s in the collection “Enough Rope.”
paperboy Nov 9th 2009 at 06:21 pm 22
I like the “David” joke, plus the cartoon symbol for “artist”, the beret, on Michelangelo.
ShireNomad Nov 9th 2009 at 10:02 pm 23
“Blink” was a neat concept but never really scared me… the fate of those caught never seemed particularly bad to me.
mkilby Nov 10th 2009 at 03:54 am 24
@ Powers (8), Brent (14) -
My doubts about the “two of four” model had nothing to do with the theoretical physics, but rather with the practical engineering. Those toys never work as well as they are supposed to. Theoretically, in a perfect universe (composed entirely of frictionless, inextensible “unobtainium”), everything always works perfectly, but in my “real-world” experience, the central ball in the 5-ball model provides an important “dead weight” (or “shock absorber”) effect, which would be missing in the 4-ball model. The “3 of 5″ effect (as Brent mentioned) does work, but it decays more rapidly than the “1 or 2 of 5″ trick. The “1 of 4″ pictured in the cartoon would work OK, but I think “2 of 4″ would devolve into chaotic movement relatively quickly (even if spherical, perfectly elastic children are used).
eeyore19 Nov 10th 2009 at 07:45 pm 25
Those bounce houses sometimes have a moon theme to them to make kids feel like they’re bouncing around in the low gravity of the moon. Taking one to the actual moon would just be redundant.
David N Nov 11th 2009 at 12:16 am 26
I don’t like to talk in the 3rd person, but occasionally it sucks to be David.
apricoco Nov 11th 2009 at 01:42 am 27
What comic is the robot strip from? I’m too dumb to figure it out apparently.
Aaron Nov 16th 2009 at 03:02 pm 28
Eeyore,
At least in Texas, and I assume most places, the bounce houses are collectively known as “moon walks.”
ljdarten Nov 27th 2009 at 01:45 am 29
ShireNomad: the fate of the statue victims never bothered me. But the way they moved was creepy. just the idea that they could cross a room and do “whatever” to you in a blink is kind of freaky.
especially when they go from a serene angel to a demonic whatever.