Warning : May contain more than your daily recommended allowance of randomness
It is once again time for a caption contest. The photo this time features a group of people in military uniforms with balloons trapped inside large nets. Are the balloons being held hostage? Are they being taken away? Will they be released? What is the purpose of all this? You decide.
(To see our other caption contests, click on the “Say What?” category in the sidebar.)
If you take boiling water and toss it into the air when it’s -22 degrees outside, it evaporates into steam before it hits the ground. Here’s a video of it. Looks neat. At first it looks like it’s instantly turning into snow, but it’s in fact steam.
I remember hearing that hot water can actually freeze faster than cold water. Turns out that’s only sometimes true — according to science, water at 100 degrees C will freeze before water warmer than 60 degrees C but not before water cooler than 60 degrees C. Although if you put hot water and cold water in the freezer at the same time, the hot water can freeze faster because the bottom part of the hot water can start freezing while the top is still warm (and no convection is occurring). Further explanation is beyond the scope of this article, but you can read more here if you’re feeling particularly nerdy today. (It’s actually called the Mpemba effect.)
Also on the page right now is a video of Jim Cantore of The Weather Channel getting surprised by “thundersnow“. It’s basically just thunder and lightning, but it’s more rare in a snowstorm. His reaction is interesting, which is why this video has been making the rounds on TV.
While reading product descriptions online, I came across a word I wasn’t very familiar with and it sounded out-of-place. The word was discommodiously. It is an actual word, but it doesn’t mean what it sounds like. I mentioned this word to Mango-Man, and he didn’t have to look it up to suggest a definition:
Discommodiously sounds like something you do while on the can! 🙂
Usage: After eating all those bean burritos last night I had to rush to the restroom and use the toilet quite discommodiously!
The word actually means “to cause inconvenience or annoyance to; disturb”, so it kind of fits his example. On second thought, when Mango-Man uses my restroom, it does cause inconvenience and annoyance because the paint peels off the walls! So maybe he does know what he’s talking about!
So I nominate discommodious as the word of the week. Use it any chance you get, to add more flavor and spice to your conversations.
Once again, it’s time for our weekly caption contest. I’m fairly sure we have yet to exhaust the previous one, but I’ll give you another one anyway. Feel free to peruse the archives — your comments will be seen, no matter how old the post is.
Anyway, rambling aside, here’s the picture. There’s someone standing outside a small stone house, looking at a volcano starting to erupt. It looks like something action-packed is about to happen. From the filename, I deduce it’s the Kliuchevskoi volcano in Russia. But you need not concern yourself with the facts, because it’s a caption contest, so you get to make up the context. Create some funny story / explanation / joke to go with the picture.
(To see our other caption contests, click on the “Say What?” category in the sidebar.)
Buffet o' Blog 