YOOUUU ROTTEN SWINE! You have deaded me — again! Walks off, collecting knees for Mum to stick back on when he gets home.
— Not a direct Bluebottle quote, but in character, I think. (And for those who don’t know the Goons that well, yes, he is reading his stage directions aloud. Bluebottle does that.)
During WWII the sun still never set on the BE, and Singapore was still a British possession.
I suspect the mines laid in the waters around there could go anywhere in the Indian and Pacific oceans.
Since the girls have been hitting Pacific islands it would be safe to assume it was a Japanese mine. I have already sent the coordinates for a couple of nice uninhabited, non-volcanic, non-mined islands in the Caribbean (the larger of the two being a restricted wildlife preserve) to Paul They could poit over to Governors Harbor, Eleuthera, for lunch at Pammy’s Take-Away, Runaway Bay, or Sunset Inn. It is a very short poit away, the food is simple but excellent, and the staff is helpful and super friendly. Say high to Pammy, Angela, and Heather (in order of restaurants). Don’t waste your time at Unique’s. The waiters are more interested in each other than the customers.
I am not surprised with Monica’s love of antiquated technology. But I would have expected that the game choice would have been the Odyssey series of console games (they were the first programmable TV games) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnavox_Odyssey_Series)
Of course it could also have been the “Fairchild Channel F” system (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairchild_Channel_F)
But of course the Atari 2600 had a longer lifetime and many more games than the older systems put together.
Now that I think of it, I used to have one of those, too. I think it got damaged in one of the moves we made back in the late ’70’s, between frozen pipes and whatnot.
I remember what the Channel F controller looked like and that’s not it. It ws an 8-way stick with a roughly triangular knob and the base was a slim flattened cylinder with ribs.
Sad part is I still have a Fairchild system in storage. My Dad had it when I was younger, was only out during the winter, had to be put away otherwise, because he didn’t want me inside playing games instead of outside getting sunshine and fresh air.
Thought he was mean back then, but seeing how I turned out when I got older, I realize just how wise he really was, heh.
So how bad is it that I didn’t see “Fother Muck” there at first? I was a little shell-shocked, as were Monica and Jin, I’m sure.
*Chucks wallet and car keys into pun vault*
Correction: In the light of developments of the last decade or so, Good Friday Agreement, pressure on the IRA following 9/11, etc, it looks like they are now former terrorists.
All I can say is that it is a good thing that M has her self-preservation poiting thingy, because she seems to have no sense of self-preservation otherwise.
I think one of you two owe the pun jar something… not to mention owing Abbot and Costello recognition.
I will say, it’s a good thing it didn’t blow their clothes off… then it might have been called a strip mine… *shakes an empty wallet, checks an empty piggy bank, then reverently places his first edition copy of A Spell for Chameleon autographed by Piers Anthony into the pun jar*
XANTH?!?
Oh, Man … Great Book.
Remember reading that book way back in the early ’80’s – when the story was (suppose to be) a triology.
Have enjoyed all of them since.
@Cherish Bloom
Yeah Cherish, you just need to stop being a prude. Why don’t you join in on all the Girl-on-Girl smexy fun! Its a great way to grenade a relationship.
Wait a minute. that isn’t a big club. that is a bottle. Would the shattering of a glass bottle manage to set off a mine if running aground hasn’t already done that?
Guy my dad worked with was a regular in local Little Theatre productions. Scarecrow in “Wizard of Oz”, Applegate in “Damn Yankees”, Pickering in “My Fair Lady”, etc.
I forget what they were working on, but a scene called fro him to be hit over the head with a breakaway bottle – candy glass.
The person who hit him misjudged, and, instead of hitting him on top of the head with the side of the bottle, caught him with the bottom.
@Fairportfan: sounds live the Havana scene from “Guys and Dolls.” I distinctly remember being the guy to get hit with the bottle in that. I can tell you this; not all candy glass is created equal. That scene hurt a couple of nights, and that was when I got hit correctly with the side of the bottle.
It’s been years since i saw “Guys & Dolls” last – who gets hit?
It wouldn’t have been him if it was Sky Masters – given the roles he generally played, he’d more likely have been playing Nicely Nicely Jones or maybe Nathan Detroit.
The victim is an unnamed character (in the credits of the movie, I think he is referred to as “Cuban dancer”). Sky Masterson gets up to dance with the hot Latina who has been flirting with him, so Sarah starts dancing with her male counterpart. This leads to an altercation between Sky and the local man which Sarah breaks up via a bottle to the head.
That thing has been floating around for 50 years or more in the ocean. Any detonating device has long since rusted away to nothing. But the explosives used have a tendancy to mature with age and become unstable. Hitting it could do nothing, but most likely set it off. Heck a bigger wave if strong enough could set it off. So a bottle would do very nicely. But remember the girls were there to have a blast!
Actually, the way those mines work, the firing circuit is inert until you bend one of the lead horns. They have a glass vial of sulfuric acid inside each one, and electrodes, connected to wires, to a blasting cap, to a really big honking charge of TNT. Bend the horn, break the vial, acid forms a battery with the electrodes, electric charge goes to the blasting cap, and boom.
IMHO it’s entirely conceivable that the mine would still be in working order, if it’s physically intact.
I don’t know why it surprises me to read such accurate descriptions of the firing mechanisms of a WWII mine in the discussion of a webcomic, but this is the kind of thing that keeps me reading the discussions.
And yes, TNT does eventually sweat out the nitro, which makes it likely to blow from any sharp jostle. Good catch.
Actually, that’s dynamite. TNT doesn’t sweat nitroglycerine, it’s a compound of trinitrotoluene. Dynamite is a mixture of nitroglycerine and a binder, like diatomaceous earth, which soaks it up and makes the nitro more stable…but over time the nitro will settle out of mixture. You have to rotate cases of dynamite to prevent this in storage. TNT, you don’t, it’s a single compound and doesn’t separate.
The most common explosive used in sea mines was TNT, because it could be poured into the charge barrel in molten form. Sometimes, Amatol (TNT and Ammonium Nitrate) was used because it was cheaper, or Minol (TNT + Aluminum powder). These do not separate or “sweat”. As far as I can find, they did not use dynamite or nitroglycerine-based mixtures.
No, TNT does not sweat out nitroglycerin, especially not in a sea mine. TNT is a completely different chemical (trinitrotoluene). Dynamite, on the other hand, is a chemical mixture or nitroglycerin and an absorbent (originally diatomaceous earth). Sticks of dynamite can, therefore, sweat out nitroglycerin and become very sensitive.
TNT is much less sensitive, and nines weren’t (usually) filled with pure TNT anyway. Allied mines used mixtures such as Torpex and Minol, which blended TNT with Ammonium Nitrate, RDX, or powdered aluminum in different proportions. Japanese mines (and I’m betting Isla Numero Dos is in the Pacific) used picric acid or trinitroanicol (TNA) and Hexanitrodiphenylamine (HND). No dynamite was used in any sea mines on either side.
Even if there were, nitroglycerine would not sweat out of the enclosed body of the mine. The sweating problem happens in sticks as the nitroglycerine seeps through the absorbent and the paper wrapping. The steel or iron case of a mine would keep the nitroglycerine confined.
Exactly. About the worst you’d see is the initiator and booster explosives becoming more sensitive over time, as has been noticed. Probably because these may have used an RDX-based mixture, and the desensitizing agent, petroleum or beeswax, broke down. RDX is very sensitive in pure form. So the blasting cap and booster charge might be really touchy, but the main charge probably wouldn’t be.
Also, formulations for sea explosives were long-impulse, not high brisance. The longer impulse caused more damage underwater than a short, sharp explosion. Torpex and Minol in particular were notable for their long impulse, achieving it with the inclusion of ammonium nitrate and aluminum powder with the high explosive RDX and TNT.
Naw, that’s be dynamite, which is nitroglycerin in an inert binder/stabiliser.
Lessee – TNT is, um, trinitrotoluene; it’s pretty stable. (By golly, i spelt it right.)
Properly made, high-purity TNT isn’t so bad about sweating, however (from Wikipedia):
TNT is prone to exudation of dinitrotoluenes and other isomers of trinitrotoluene. Even small quantities of such impurities can cause such effect. The effect shows especially in projectiles containing TNT and stored at higher temperatures, e.g. during summer. Exudation of impurities leads to formation of pores and cracks (which in turn cause increased shock sensitivity). Migration of the exudated liquid into the fuze screw thread can form fire channels, increasing the risk of accidental detonations; fuze malfunction can result from the liquids migrating into its mechanism.
(I love the fact that TNT was originally developed as a yellow fabric dye… Puts me in mind of red Fiesta Ware {qv})
Interesting… TNT is more prone to destabilize in high temperatures, and apparently RDX has the opposite issue… when dropped to freezing temperatures it can crystalize and becomes more shock-sensitive. Can’t always pick your battlefields in nice temperate climates, though.
We’re also being distracted from Dietzel using his opposable thumbs and human-level intelligence again. So Monica can out-poit a volcano. How the heck is Dietzel winning at Halo 3??
I also thought about this; it’s got to be much easier to use an old joystick if you’ve got opposable thumbs. (See the comments above; that seems to be a very old game system.) Dietzel is probably better at video games than Monica is.
We haven’t seen Brooke in a while either; maybe Dietzel should send her a text message ordering pizza?
Considering the final panel, they must be keyboard gremlins with a punnish sense of humor. Not surprising they would hang out here, where they could find such fertile ground for their mischief.
The horns contain glass vials full of acid; shatter the glass, erode the safety contact, and it go boom…Paul, these women (no matter how drunk) are too swift to pull a stunt like this…please just stop f**ing with us!!! (Though I have been known to pull some pretty bonehead stunts myself, with a snoot-full!) Thanks for the laugh!
There really needs to be a superhero story where all the people with powers reluctantly unite to deal with some threat… I think that pretty much is everyone except Owen, Lakshmi, Katherine, and Amanda. 🙂
Is that an old Atari that Dietzel is playing, or are there new systems with joysticks that look like that?
the great thing about those Atari controllers, is that they *behave* like proper joysticks..
I wanted to modify them to work on a pc, and was amazed they only used push switches!!! 🙂
No, the point being…. Neeeeeeeeerd. 🙂 Just kidding. Now that I think about it, I have seen some of those Joystick/Game packages. Alas, I grew up with Intellivision not Atari.
Monica can poit a person by thinking about them (She did that to her BF when she was drunk once just before Bud had set it so she could tell him about her secret) so I would guess her emergency poiting can do the same thing.
and never underestimate the power of being drunk. It can get out all sort of crap you dont know about (usually stuff you are happy to not knowing like love to pink dresses or such)
Exactly. I play pool better when buzzed (though not when hammered). I think it’s because when I have a gentle buzz going I haven’t lost enough motor skills to interfere with my play, but I have lost enough of the inhibitions that would normally make me doubt and second guess my shots.
It’s always possible Monica still holds herself back (not like we haven’t seen a few episodes of her still in denial, right?) but while drinking her mind is in “grip it and rip it” mode.
This was not a day they should have just stayed in bed.
This was a week during which they should have just stayed in an induced coma!
There is apparently a grave malfunction in the local Anomaly Generator, and it is cross-circuiting with the Undeserved Bad Karma Processor and emitting all sorts of toxic life-events. I think an exorcism by a senior Techno-mage is called for!
‘Tis arguable that a mine that big could obliterate an island, but this is the Wapsiverse and the regular laws of physics don’t seem to apply here – especially to the main characters.
OK first, I think the drunken island hopping isn’t turning out well for them. From now on they should agree to take along a friend who stays sober (designated poiter?) and keeps an eye on them til the place is thoroughly checked out. Ow. Just … ow.
And secondly, that last panel … take out the speech bubble and air brush out the burns/abrasions …
Just removed the abrasions.
Kept the speech bubble but changed the “How’s” to “ow’s”, removed “Fother”, etc, moved the “Owie” line down and copied the “ow ow ow” line to fill the space.
Definitely hot stuff…..
(Just notinced that the “w”s in the speech bubble are definitely Freudian. Or Monica. 🙂 )
Hey Paul, you forgot to put in the panel where Monica looks in Jin’s eyes and says, “Screw it! Let’s make out.” You know you want to do it.
Two drunken girls…. in bikinis…. laying on top of each other. That’s always the way it starts at frat parties.
Oh, wow, Monica must’ve never seen Gilligan’s Island! I love how Shelly did the guest art on panels 2 and 3! Wonder if she’s illustrating her diary? Ok, that’s 3 islands that went boom. Since things come in 3’s I think the next island is going to be the one.
Good way to see the poor judgement from the girls’ point of view.
Even if Monica doesn’t own a vintage 2600, there’s still the Atari Flashback 2.0, the Flashback+, or the recent Flashback 3. And they are compatible with original Atari joysticks and paddle controllers. My 16-year-old nephew love playing Combat, Tank-pong with invisible tanks. I even showed him how to do the jump through the walls trick.
Now that I’ve had a blast mining through the comments for priceless gems, I’ll add a few of my own (at the very least, they’ll be comments, posterity will determine if they were also gems…)
Looks like M and Jin mistook their island for a Surf and Turf restaurant…
That gave them an urgin’ to crack open an urchin…
I’d mention something about Dietzel getting a bad influence from the video games he plays, but I think that’s nothing compared to the influence he gets by just watching Monica’s latest antics… But hey, it looks like he’s having a blast too…
Yeah, I know… mine aren’t very good puns… I guess I bombed, after all…
Places a paper bag of shame with cutout eyes into the pun vault.
How pissed would you have to be to try to crack open a floating mine? Yes, when the girls sober up they’re going to be hurtin’ for certain. Plus the effects of a force-ten hangover.
Imagine the effect on that F5 hangover, of the sound of Dietzel playing his combat videogame a few feet away.
Early in the morning.
Loudly.
When heard through eardrums which have already been punctured and started bleeding.
Monica may end up envying Shelly for her 80,000 years of exile… at least it was probably fairly quiet in the Time Forest.
On the other hand, it would not surprise me if Dietzel’s manual dexterity and intelligence are up to the task of carrying out an act of corporal mercy, and honoring Monica’s pitiful condition and Latina heritage by cooking her up a big pot of menudo. It’s supposed to be just the thing for a hangover, although I’m not sure why…
I think Dietzel takes care of them sometimes…
I guess it will be Dietzel handing round damp towels and Prairie oysters on monday, to a chorus of moans, ow’s, and arggh’s… 🙂
– or they will escape Dietzel’s noise by poiting to a nice *cold* place to help their burns/ bruises…. 😀
You know it just hit me… What is that thing Jin uses to crack open the… “sea urchin”?
Is it the wine bottle? Or did Jin just pull a coconut cleaver out of hammer space (or perhaps “poit space” in this universe)?
Ummm, i do not think it was a giant sea urchin.
The main question is, was it American, German or Japanese?
“Don’t worry about the Mine, fellas, It’s one of ours”.
Eccles – ‘The Terror of Bexhill-on-sea’
Ying tong liddle I po!
This marks how many times they’ve almost been deaded? Or if you prefer… “shut up, Eccles!” <- I'm impressed autocorrect didn't try to muck that up.
YOOUUU ROTTEN SWINE! You have deaded me — again! Walks off, collecting knees for Mum to stick back on when he gets home.
— Not a direct Bluebottle quote, but in character, I think. (And for those who don’t know the Goons that well, yes, he is reading his stage directions aloud. Bluebottle does that.)
how does one walk without knees?
No, the main question is why there are no islands on Earth that do not contain exploding booby traps.
No vacation poits to the Falklands, ladies.
talking about boobys …… :-D:-D
LUV the stick figures!!! 🙂
and cannot wait to see the extreme pain, when those two nuts sober up!!!! :O :O
Yes. One so rarely sees stick figures with curves, or wearing detailed clothes like these.
Time to check out Island Numero Tres?
XKCD would be ever so much more interesting if Mr. Munro would follow suit…
Agreed! 😀
It could just as easily be British, but I understand the Iranians are building the damn things now.
British mines tended to be laid in the higher latitudes. (So did German ones, actually.)
Mines in the tropics would likely be either US or Japanese.
During WWII the sun still never set on the BE, and Singapore was still a British possession.
I suspect the mines laid in the waters around there could go anywhere in the Indian and Pacific oceans.
Since the girls have been hitting Pacific islands it would be safe to assume it was a Japanese mine. I have already sent the coordinates for a couple of nice uninhabited, non-volcanic, non-mined islands in the Caribbean (the larger of the two being a restricted wildlife preserve) to Paul They could poit over to Governors Harbor, Eleuthera, for lunch at Pammy’s Take-Away, Runaway Bay, or Sunset Inn. It is a very short poit away, the food is simple but excellent, and the staff is helpful and super friendly. Say high to Pammy, Angela, and Heather (in order of restaurants). Don’t waste your time at Unique’s. The waiters are more interested in each other than the customers.
These girls just are NOT having any luck with islands and explosives. The booze isn’t helping either.
more naval vessels were damaged/sunk by mine warfare in WW2 than by gunfire and aircraft combined.
problem was not ALL the damage was ‘enemy action’.
The old Avalon Hill “Panzerblitz” wargame had “Minefield” counters.
The rules said that mines attacked any unit that wound up in the minefield hex at 2-to-1 …”Minefields have no friends”
It bears a rough resemblance to a Japanese type 88 deep sea tethered mine, but a lot of Japanese mines had that configuration.
Dietzel has an Atari??? 😀
I am not surprised with Monica’s love of antiquated technology. But I would have expected that the game choice would have been the Odyssey series of console games (they were the first programmable TV games) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnavox_Odyssey_Series)
Of course it could also have been the “Fairchild Channel F” system (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairchild_Channel_F)
But of course the Atari 2600 had a longer lifetime and many more games than the older systems put together.
Now that I think of it, I used to have one of those, too. I think it got damaged in one of the moves we made back in the late ’70’s, between frozen pipes and whatnot.
I remember what the Channel F controller looked like and that’s not it. It ws an 8-way stick with a roughly triangular knob and the base was a slim flattened cylinder with ribs.
Sad part is I still have a Fairchild system in storage. My Dad had it when I was younger, was only out during the winter, had to be put away otherwise, because he didn’t want me inside playing games instead of outside getting sunshine and fresh air.
Thought he was mean back then, but seeing how I turned out when I got older, I realize just how wise he really was, heh.
I remember the oddesy … far too much for my 16 yr old finances though… got the 2600 a bit later, loads of fun!:-)
Could even be an Amiga. They could/did use the Atari joystick.
Ditto the Colecovision with the Atari expansion module.
Could also just be an Arcade 500 Pro, that he’s using.
Was a standard joystick for the Commodore machines, and it worked on the Amiga as well.
Sturdy as hell as well. Seen some last 10+ years, even with heavy use.
you could buy those joysticks separately in any decent game shop of the time.. I think they also fitted straight into the gaming card on most PCs… 🙂
Yes you can, just cut off the plug section and rewire the controller to a port connector and plug it in.
I don’t recall Atari having any #!*&@% words.
you forgot the 🙂 …
you must understand ‘comic noises’ surely???
Is…Is M and Jin getting dumber when they’re drunk?
I am not going to correct Monica’s language.
So how bad is it that I didn’t see “Fother Muck” there at first? I was a little shell-shocked, as were Monica and Jin, I’m sure.
*Chucks wallet and car keys into pun vault*
good for you, I, on the other hand had to go back and check the words after reading your comment 🙂
Sly one, this Pablo dude 🙂
Holy crap. I didn’t notice it either until just now, and probably wouldn’t have if you hadn’t pointed it out.
Most people do. Impaired judgement is the first effect alcohol has on the brain.
Gilligan’s Island Syndrome?
“Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale/a tale of a fateful poit…”
She’s getting so quick – the expression should have been more in the line of “Nast Fother Mucker”. (Slips IRA account into he pun vault)
What have Irish terrorists to do with anything?
Correction: In the light of developments of the last decade or so, Good Friday Agreement, pressure on the IRA following 9/11, etc, it looks like they are now former terrorists.
@Francisco – Has nothing to do with the Irish – “Individual Retiremeni Account”
Just as well. We have enough explosive situations around here as it is.
USED to be a joke:
What’s the difference between the IRS and the IRA?
answer: the IRA are the IRISH terrorists.
Also, cartoony Monica and Jin are adorable!
Jin in the third panel looks so Muppety that it’s wonderful!
Absolutely. Also the use of the sketchy some amplifies the stupid… Love it
Jin looks like Suzzy in the “Tiny Toons Adventures” segment featuring the Roches.
All I can say is that it is a good thing that M has her self-preservation poiting thingy, because she seems to have no sense of self-preservation otherwise.
Remember kids, don’t drink and poit. Or make sure you have a designated poiter.
Sexiest stick figures ever.
Yeah, you gotta be real careful with how you crack open them giant sea urchins.
Mine!
You can have it.
I think one of you two owe the pun jar something… not to mention owing Abbot and Costello recognition.
I will say, it’s a good thing it didn’t blow their clothes off… then it might have been called a strip mine… *shakes an empty wallet, checks an empty piggy bank, then reverently places his first edition copy of A Spell for Chameleon autographed by Piers Anthony into the pun jar*
XANTH?!?
Oh, Man … Great Book.
Remember reading that book way back in the early ’80’s – when the story was (suppose to be) a triology.
Have enjoyed all of them since.
Had they said, “Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine!” they would owe at least a footnote to _Finding Nemo_.
*is jealous of Shneekey’s book*
That is NOT a sea urchin.
It is an abandoned mine. Abandoned like a street urchin.
Great. So it IS a sea urchin!
Dammit, girls! Sober up!
and I just happen to know the perfect island for you. If you don’t mind having five neighbors.
bf is saying that if this girl-on-girl thing continues, he’s gonna subscribe to Wapsi Square, too.
Someone get me a club. Jin’s would do if it survived.
Sometimes Hot Girl-On-Girl Action is a good thing.
This isn’t one of those times.
@Cherish Bloom
Yeah Cherish, you just need to stop being a prude. Why don’t you join in on all the Girl-on-Girl smexy fun! Its a great way to grenade a relationship.
Wait a minute. that isn’t a big club. that is a bottle. Would the shattering of a glass bottle manage to set off a mine if running aground hasn’t already done that?
If you hit it smack on one of the horns, maybe.
Guy my dad worked with was a regular in local Little Theatre productions. Scarecrow in “Wizard of Oz”, Applegate in “Damn Yankees”, Pickering in “My Fair Lady”, etc.
I forget what they were working on, but a scene called fro him to be hit over the head with a breakaway bottle – candy glass.
The person who hit him misjudged, and, instead of hitting him on top of the head with the side of the bottle, caught him with the bottom.
The side of the bottle broke; the bottom didn’t.
Multiple stitches in his scalp.
@Fairportfan: sounds live the Havana scene from “Guys and Dolls.” I distinctly remember being the guy to get hit with the bottle in that. I can tell you this; not all candy glass is created equal. That scene hurt a couple of nights, and that was when I got hit correctly with the side of the bottle.
It’s been years since i saw “Guys & Dolls” last – who gets hit?
It wouldn’t have been him if it was Sky Masters – given the roles he generally played, he’d more likely have been playing Nicely Nicely Jones or maybe Nathan Detroit.
The victim is an unnamed character (in the credits of the movie, I think he is referred to as “Cuban dancer”). Sky Masterson gets up to dance with the hot Latina who has been flirting with him, so Sarah starts dancing with her male counterpart. This leads to an altercation between Sky and the local man which Sarah breaks up via a bottle to the head.
That thing has been floating around for 50 years or more in the ocean. Any detonating device has long since rusted away to nothing. But the explosives used have a tendancy to mature with age and become unstable. Hitting it could do nothing, but most likely set it off. Heck a bigger wave if strong enough could set it off. So a bottle would do very nicely. But remember the girls were there to have a blast!
Actually, the way those mines work, the firing circuit is inert until you bend one of the lead horns. They have a glass vial of sulfuric acid inside each one, and electrodes, connected to wires, to a blasting cap, to a really big honking charge of TNT. Bend the horn, break the vial, acid forms a battery with the electrodes, electric charge goes to the blasting cap, and boom.
IMHO it’s entirely conceivable that the mine would still be in working order, if it’s physically intact.
-JRS
And knowing is half the battle!
YO JOE!
Is it bad that I read that as “knowing is half the bottle”? 🙂
TNT. If I remember right, that stuff exudes crystallized nitroglycerine as it ages, doesn’t it?
Wouldn’t take much to set it off, if that’s the case.
I don’t know why it surprises me to read such accurate descriptions of the firing mechanisms of a WWII mine in the discussion of a webcomic, but this is the kind of thing that keeps me reading the discussions.
And yes, TNT does eventually sweat out the nitro, which makes it likely to blow from any sharp jostle. Good catch.
Actually, that’s dynamite. TNT doesn’t sweat nitroglycerine, it’s a compound of trinitrotoluene. Dynamite is a mixture of nitroglycerine and a binder, like diatomaceous earth, which soaks it up and makes the nitro more stable…but over time the nitro will settle out of mixture. You have to rotate cases of dynamite to prevent this in storage. TNT, you don’t, it’s a single compound and doesn’t separate.
The most common explosive used in sea mines was TNT, because it could be poured into the charge barrel in molten form. Sometimes, Amatol (TNT and Ammonium Nitrate) was used because it was cheaper, or Minol (TNT + Aluminum powder). These do not separate or “sweat”. As far as I can find, they did not use dynamite or nitroglycerine-based mixtures.
No, TNT does not sweat out nitroglycerin, especially not in a sea mine. TNT is a completely different chemical (trinitrotoluene). Dynamite, on the other hand, is a chemical mixture or nitroglycerin and an absorbent (originally diatomaceous earth). Sticks of dynamite can, therefore, sweat out nitroglycerin and become very sensitive.
TNT is much less sensitive, and nines weren’t (usually) filled with pure TNT anyway. Allied mines used mixtures such as Torpex and Minol, which blended TNT with Ammonium Nitrate, RDX, or powdered aluminum in different proportions. Japanese mines (and I’m betting Isla Numero Dos is in the Pacific) used picric acid or trinitroanicol (TNA) and Hexanitrodiphenylamine (HND). No dynamite was used in any sea mines on either side.
Even if there were, nitroglycerine would not sweat out of the enclosed body of the mine. The sweating problem happens in sticks as the nitroglycerine seeps through the absorbent and the paper wrapping. The steel or iron case of a mine would keep the nitroglycerine confined.
Exactly. About the worst you’d see is the initiator and booster explosives becoming more sensitive over time, as has been noticed. Probably because these may have used an RDX-based mixture, and the desensitizing agent, petroleum or beeswax, broke down. RDX is very sensitive in pure form. So the blasting cap and booster charge might be really touchy, but the main charge probably wouldn’t be.
Also, formulations for sea explosives were long-impulse, not high brisance. The longer impulse caused more damage underwater than a short, sharp explosion. Torpex and Minol in particular were notable for their long impulse, achieving it with the inclusion of ammonium nitrate and aluminum powder with the high explosive RDX and TNT.
Naw, that’s be dynamite, which is nitroglycerin in an inert binder/stabiliser.
Lessee – TNT is, um, trinitrotoluene; it’s pretty stable. (By golly, i spelt it right.)
Properly made, high-purity TNT isn’t so bad about sweating, however (from Wikipedia):
(I love the fact that TNT was originally developed as a yellow fabric dye… Puts me in mind of red Fiesta Ware {qv})
Interesting… TNT is more prone to destabilize in high temperatures, and apparently RDX has the opposite issue… when dropped to freezing temperatures it can crystalize and becomes more shock-sensitive. Can’t always pick your battlefields in nice temperate climates, though.
TNT blah blah, destabilize blah, sweaty BOOM!
(What, weren’t we all supposed to chip in? 😉 )
OW! OW! OW! KIDDING! KIDDING!
NOTDilbert, if you’re looking for a job, you can take this hammer and test the spare mines to see which ones are too sensitive to shock. . . .
Now THAT’s funny.
At least they have all weekend to heal up. And hopefully sober up.
Bullets that had actually pierced her clothing.
Yeah, M seems to be getting better at that.
Though at this rate, they’re both in danger of getting cross-hatched to death.
They could claim it’s a really strange (and oddly patchy) form of tan.
That made my day. I can quit internetting for today, It’s unlikely that I’ll find anything funnier.
This comic creates more questions than it answers. Also, it’s great to see Dietzel again. 🙂
We’re also being distracted from Dietzel using his opposable thumbs and human-level intelligence again. So Monica can out-poit a volcano. How the heck is Dietzel winning at Halo 3??
AND, he’s wagging his tail while playing!
cuteness squared 🙂
Could he be a secret master of doggie cheat-codes?
I also thought about this; it’s got to be much easier to use an old joystick if you’ve got opposable thumbs. (See the comments above; that seems to be a very old game system.) Dietzel is probably better at video games than Monica is.
We haven’t seen Brooke in a while either; maybe Dietzel should send her a text message ordering pizza?
I thought she was Dylan.
And that is the sound of the other she dropping.
Which “she” is the other one? I think they both dropped. 😛
hsss
*sigh* ‘shoe’ Frikken’ keyboard gremlins….
Considering the final panel, they must be keyboard gremlins with a punnish sense of humor. Not surprising they would hang out here, where they could find such fertile ground for their mischief.
I know that there is a limit to “drunk and stupid”; But the girls seemed to have not found it yet.
No beach ever needed a lifeguard tower more than whatever one the girls are on at the time.
found it?
sheesh. they found it, mugged it, took its money, buried it, and disappeared over the horizon.
The horns contain glass vials full of acid; shatter the glass, erode the safety contact, and it go boom…Paul, these women (no matter how drunk) are too swift to pull a stunt like this…please just stop f**ing with us!!! (Though I have been known to pull some pretty bonehead stunts myself, with a snoot-full!) Thanks for the laugh!
you mean “mucking with us”, right? 😉
There really needs to be a superhero story where all the people with powers reluctantly unite to deal with some threat… I think that pretty much is everyone except Owen, Lakshmi, Katherine, and Amanda. 🙂
Is that an old Atari that Dietzel is playing, or are there new systems with joysticks that look like that?
They sell “retro” systems with several games. Just plug into the TV’s RCA ports. Some are built into the a reproduction of the system’s controller.
the great thing about those Atari controllers, is that they *behave* like proper joysticks..
I wanted to modify them to work on a pc, and was amazed they only used push switches!!! 🙂
– the point was, I was thinking of using a ‘variable voltage’ type controllers, but they were way too expensive… 🙂
No, the point being…. Neeeeeeeeerd. 🙂 Just kidding. Now that I think about it, I have seen some of those Joystick/Game packages. Alas, I grew up with Intellivision not Atari.
They shouldn’t have been there anyway. It isn’t their island. It’s mine.
-tosses an old tank shell into the pun jar-
Well, who ever it was. That island sure was the bomb!
*tosses cookies into the pun jar*
Monica can poit a person by thinking about them (She did that to her BF when she was drunk once just before Bud had set it so she could tell him about her secret) so I would guess her emergency poiting can do the same thing.
and never underestimate the power of being drunk. It can get out all sort of crap you dont know about (usually stuff you are happy to not knowing like love to pink dresses or such)
Exactly. I play pool better when buzzed (though not when hammered). I think it’s because when I have a gentle buzz going I haven’t lost enough motor skills to interfere with my play, but I have lost enough of the inhibitions that would normally make me doubt and second guess my shots.
It’s always possible Monica still holds herself back (not like we haven’t seen a few episodes of her still in denial, right?) but while drinking her mind is in “grip it and rip it” mode.
That looks like it fother mucking hurt 🙂
No, I think it hurt like a bun of a sitch.
Does a sitch in time save nine?
Actually, on average, 8.774. We just round up….
This was not a day they should have just stayed in bed.
This was a week during which they should have just stayed in an induced coma!
There is apparently a grave malfunction in the local Anomaly Generator, and it is cross-circuiting with the Undeserved Bad Karma Processor and emitting all sorts of toxic life-events. I think an exorcism by a senior Techno-mage is called for!
and who says the bad karma is not deserved?
getting so ‘sauced up’ (without even a good steak) earns ya an A-1 helping of bad karma of 57 different flavors in ya heinz end.
If your are not careful, the pun vault will chew on your well-sauced heinz end. Probably over in Worchestershire.
You’re liable to use up all your HP, too.
Do not taunt Happy Fun Mine(TM).
Cue theme song: “Fifty ways to nuke your island”
or-o/ the island’s mine, the gosh darn island’s mine o/
-puts single glove in pun jar
‘Tis arguable that a mine that big could obliterate an island, but this is the Wapsiverse and the regular laws of physics don’t seem to apply here – especially to the main characters.
I’m just disappointed that we don’t get to see the cliff-hanger as it hung over their heads in the moment before they poited away.
I think Bud & Brandi need to sit on Monica & Jin until they sober up.
HEY NOW! GrumbleBear, I like the way you think
😉
OK first, I think the drunken island hopping isn’t turning out well for them. From now on they should agree to take along a friend who stays sober (designated poiter?) and keeps an eye on them til the place is thoroughly checked out. Ow. Just … ow.
And secondly, that last panel … take out the speech bubble and air brush out the burns/abrasions …
Um …
I’ll be in my bunk.
Heh. “Designated Poiter – Don’t Poit Drunk!”
And we now know why the Lanthian Society really was destroyed – they drank too much.
Friends don’t let friends drink and poit.
Just removed the abrasions.
Kept the speech bubble but changed the “How’s” to “ow’s”, removed “Fother”, etc, moved the “Owie” line down and copied the “ow ow ow” line to fill the space.
Definitely hot stuff…..
(Just notinced that the “w”s in the speech bubble are definitely Freudian. Or Monica. 🙂 )
😀 show us!!! 😀
HAH!! If/when Bud learns about this, Mon & Jin will never hear the end of it.
“SEE!! It’s pretty frikkin’ EASY to blow up an island with Second World War-era naval ordinance!”
So we went from a fire-storm to a blast-storm. I shudder at what could be next . What if they went back in time – and ended up in Area 51 ?
I’ll notify Cassie not to let the girls use her time machine, under ANY circumstances.
Aaaaand..there went the next Island in a giant “kaboom!!’
Sjeezz, Jin and M together are even more of a danger to the world than the whole chimera ever was…. 😛
Whahahaha .. just noticed the fother muck..
This week is full of win.
When all girls get together, they can compare notes on how to asplode islands. Jin and M beat Bud 2:1 on that…
and Squeeky helped Bud “do” hers.
You meant Stinky, right?
oh yeah.
Guess I was thinking how Bud wasn’t exactly ‘squeeky clean’ after that.
Seems M and Jin are getting rather roughed up, too.
Y’know, is Jin being passive-agressive suicidal or something?
Jin’s still used to being an immortal, invulnerable Golem Girl. It takes a while to get used to the curse of flesh.
Monica however, is being an idiot. I don’t know what her deal is right now.
oh, the look on Deitzel’s face!!!
Huh? Oh nooo, what now?
One question…
how in the ache, eee, double-toothpicks did Monica survive puberty?
My guess is that Monica has probably had D cups ever since she was 12 years old (hey, it happens). So… built in airbags.
I was thinking dumb luck but airbags… Yeah that could work.
as auto manufacturers had been telling authorities for years…
“air bags can’t cover all situation”
Their tops can’t cover all air bags either. . . .
but they’re making a valiant effort to cover M’s.
Hey Paul, you forgot to put in the panel where Monica looks in Jin’s eyes and says, “Screw it! Let’s make out.” You know you want to do it.
Two drunken girls…. in bikinis…. laying on top of each other. That’s always the way it starts at frat parties.
Being blown up, burned, and abraded does not make a girl feel sexy. Just a clue.
Neither does going to too many frat parties–especially drunken bashes–make a girl sexy. I can’t really say if it makes her feel sexy, but I doubt it.
…and today’s lesson?
FAIL!!
We now return to the adventures of “Monica Villarreal: Destroyer of Islands,” already in progress.
Islands 2 Girls 0 (3-0 If you include the one Bud blew up)
What I can’t figure out is how their swimsuits keep surviving these explosions!
At least they’re both cooked on both sides now.
Coming soon, Bud’s lecture, part 2: Mines Do Not Contain Sushi.
That island ought to be safe now, anyway, provided there aren’t more mines.
And providing there still is an island.
Oh, sure; the island is fine. The beach probably has a respectable dent in it, however.
Oh, wow, Monica must’ve never seen Gilligan’s Island! I love how Shelly did the guest art on panels 2 and 3! Wonder if she’s illustrating her diary? Ok, that’s 3 islands that went boom. Since things come in 3’s I think the next island is going to be the one.
nah, Bud had Stinky’s help exploding hers. That was part of another story arc.
the “charmed #3” of that cliche’ still awaits M and Jin.
Am I the only one who flashed to a scene from Hot Fuzz?
“Sea Mine!” 🙂 God I love that character…
I smell a new extreme sport for the Danger Girls.
Good way to see the poor judgement from the girls’ point of view.
Even if Monica doesn’t own a vintage 2600, there’s still the Atari Flashback 2.0, the Flashback+, or the recent Flashback 3. And they are compatible with original Atari joysticks and paddle controllers. My 16-year-old nephew love playing Combat, Tank-pong with invisible tanks. I even showed him how to do the jump through the walls trick.
Now that I’ve had a blast mining through the comments for priceless gems, I’ll add a few of my own (at the very least, they’ll be comments, posterity will determine if they were also gems…)
Looks like M and Jin mistook their island for a Surf and Turf restaurant…
That gave them an urgin’ to crack open an urchin…
I’d mention something about Dietzel getting a bad influence from the video games he plays, but I think that’s nothing compared to the influence he gets by just watching Monica’s latest antics… But hey, it looks like he’s having a blast too…
Yeah, I know… mine aren’t very good puns… I guess I bombed, after all…
Places a paper bag of shame with cutout eyes into the pun vault.
I thought I was done extracting these jokes of mine… I was wrong:
Turns out that urchin was booby trapped …
Puts a few sea anemones into the pun vault.
Have you coraled all your puns now? Are you done atoll?
Some of them were real beaches to pick, I’m sure.
[Drops a vacation brochure and a half-used cruise ship ticket into the pun maw.]
How pissed would you have to be to try to crack open a floating mine? Yes, when the girls sober up they’re going to be hurtin’ for certain. Plus the effects of a force-ten hangover.
Imagine the effect on that F5 hangover, of the sound of Dietzel playing his combat videogame a few feet away.
Early in the morning.
Loudly.
When heard through eardrums which have already been punctured and started bleeding.
Monica may end up envying Shelly for her 80,000 years of exile… at least it was probably fairly quiet in the Time Forest.
On the other hand, it would not surprise me if Dietzel’s manual dexterity and intelligence are up to the task of carrying out an act of corporal mercy, and honoring Monica’s pitiful condition and Latina heritage by cooking her up a big pot of menudo. It’s supposed to be just the thing for a hangover, although I’m not sure why…
Not in a million years.
Dietzel was grossed out when he found out what’s im menudo…
I think Dietzel takes care of them sometimes…
I guess it will be Dietzel handing round damp towels and Prairie oysters on monday, to a chorus of moans, ow’s, and arggh’s… 🙂
– or they will escape Dietzel’s noise by poiting to a nice *cold* place to help their burns/ bruises…. 😀
and will run into ‘hell-bears” (polar bears from hell).
😀
M: “forgesh the resh of t world, my sofa’s a loft safer!” 🙂
I would have thought that the previous skin rashes mixed with salty seawater would give enough pain to cause them to snap out of their drunken haze.
…Guess not…
1. Love the stick figures! They are GREAT!
2. Love that Dietzel made it in AGAIN! Go Dietzel!
3. What is it with Paul and exploding + islands? 3rd time
Well, at least they did not destroy the Island this time.
Now that’s a spoonerism!
Perhaps it’s wrong of me to think so, but I can’t help but feel they deserved it… Being THAT drunk.
You know it just hit me… What is that thing Jin uses to crack open the… “sea urchin”?
Is it the wine bottle? Or did Jin just pull a coconut cleaver out of hammer space (or perhaps “poit space” in this universe)?
Prolly the wine bottle, I’m thinking. Not sure they have enough coordination to reach into hammerspace at this point.
Good point. XD