Tunicate posted:

What does peat turn into if you leave a bog alone for a million years? "Old peat"?

Tunicate posted:

What does peat turn into if you leave a bog alone for a million years? "Old peat"?

AzureSkys posted:

A truly terrifying Lawnmower Man clip for this October season.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHzmSjvtyp8

Jabor posted:

It's hard to draw conclusions about what you need for an industrial revolution because unlike the development of agriculture, it's only happened once in the entirety of human history. But you can kinda make some guesses, based on comparing it to all the other places in history that didn't start industrialising.

In order to really kick off, you need a way for the worst, shittiest possible mechanical engine, built by someone who knows absolutely nothing about engine-building, to still be economically viable. In our history, this happened because the British clearcut the forests on their entire island and had to start using coal for heat, and then they mined all the surface coal and had to start digging it out of the ground, and then they needed some way to deal with pumping water out of an underground mine at exactly the same place coal was the cheapest (because you were right at the coal mine, it didn't have to be transported anywhere).

If a lovely engine is economically viable somewhere, then it can get used, and people can figure out how to make it better and more profitable (in terms of energy output for fuel input). Eventually they improve it to the point where it's worthwhile building an engine elsewhere for some other industry and transporting coal in to fuel it, and then your whole industrialization process is well under way.

wesleywillis posted:

Coal isn't coming back. What about oil? It's mostly made from dead algae and plankton is it not? Is there poo poo that breaks it down before it can be buried at the bottom of the sea and turn into oil in a billion years?

Flash Gordon Ramsay posted:

Those definitely exist I just don’t think they’ve been widely adopted.

Sagebrush posted:

It is now impossible to reach our current level of technology starting again from scratch, because we've already consumed all of the easily accessible deposits of raw materials.

When people first started using copper, you just built a fire next to some rocks and the copper would melt and run out onto the ground. You could pick up gold nuggets the size of marbles from streambeds in California. All those metals are now used up. You can't have a bronze age if there's no copper or tin on the surface of the planet anymore.

You could not have the industrial revolution again today, simply because we've used up all of the coal that can be mined with pre-industrial technology. Without an easily accessible source of dense energy, nothing happens.

Oh, and coal isn't coming back, either -- not even in 500 million years. Coal is a product of the Carboniferous period, when trees had evolved lignin but bacteria hadn't evolved a way of decomposing it, so dead trees just piled up like rocks for millions of years. This pulled massive amounts of carbon out of the atmosphere, and eventually the geological processes turned the trees into coal. Contemporary bacteria and fungi decompose dead trees and return their carbon to the cycle too quickly for that process to happen. Our industrial revolution was a one-time thing

chitoryu12 posted:

It's basically a Roomba but with blades instead of vacuums.

Cartoon Man posted:

https://i.imgur.com/F4zw7qd.mp4

Sagebrush posted:

that's the same system they use for sorting and aligning hot dogs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRbdQaFg8m0

or you can alternately use a vibratory conveyor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NpZsTQ00oY

or you can go extra and use the vibratory system plus some delta robots

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPTd8XDZOEk

monolithburger posted:

https://i.imgur.com/iEdXZ6k.mp4

monolithburger posted:

Sound on for both, please

https://i.imgur.com/vg0doHt.mp4

https://i.imgur.com/iEdXZ6k.mp4

monolithburger posted:

Sound on for both, please

https://i.imgur.com/vg0doHt.mp4

https://i.imgur.com/iEdXZ6k.mp4

namlosh posted:

Oh wow… did you make these? They’re freakin awesome lol

Sagebrush posted:

Oh, and coal isn't coming back, either -- not even in 500 million years. Coal is a product of the Carboniferous period, when trees had evolved lignin but bacteria hadn't evolved a way of decomposing it, so dead trees just piled up like rocks for millions of years. This pulled massive amounts of carbon out of the atmosphere, and eventually the geological processes turned the trees into coal. Contemporary bacteria and fungi decompose dead trees and return their carbon to the cycle too quickly for that process to happen. Our industrial revolution was a one-time thing

Captain Hygiene posted:

What's lignin?

Runa posted:

lignin balls

Garrand posted:

What's balls?

monolithburger posted:

https://i.imgur.com/iEdXZ6k.mp4

Runa posted:

Kith posted:

i guess it shouldn't surprise me that dr. manhattan was rated as an electrician

Garrand posted:

What's balls?

StoryTime posted:

Not sure if I enjoy the idea my hotdog being handled by the "FlexPicker rear end".

Runa posted:

Captain Invictus posted:

while you were photosynthesizing, I studied the blade

Mister Speaker posted:

Until one day, when I was passing through the park at like 5AM after a party, and I saw a guy mowing the hill with a remote-controlled mower. They mow the lawn with drones. He stood at the top of the hill with a big remote and this robot just went up and down the hill. This was like five years ago, I haven't been around at the right time to see it since then, and everyone I tell about this thinks I'm a liar, but I know what I saw.

I know what I saw.

Humphreys posted:

I love this poo poo. Imagine being a kid and seeing that

Mister Speaker posted:

I live across the street from a really popular park with a somewhat-treacherous valley system that people call 'the Dog Bowl' because it's bowl-shaped and the low parts are an off-leash dog park. I always wondered how they mow the wild grass and weeds on the hillsides, which are not just steep, but 'treacherous' in the sense that they're full of rocks and ditches. Only real daredevils ride their bikes down the Dog Bowl hillside.

Until one day, when I was passing through the park at like 5AM after a party, and I saw a guy mowing the hill with a remote-controlled mower. They mow the lawn with drones. He stood at the top of the hill with a big remote and this robot just went up and down the hill. This was like five years ago, I haven't been around at the right time to see it since then, and everyone I tell about this thinks I'm a liar, but I know what I saw.

I know what I saw.

By popular demand posted:

First they came to mow lawns and then they came to mow PEOPLE!