As a chemist, shall I tell you what annoys me in this #Watch picture? The graffiti. Not because there's 20th century spray-paint in—what ought to be—a pre-industrial setting, but because #TerryPratchett was fascinated by science & engineering & you KNOW that if he'd WANTED
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spray paint he'd have carefully researched how spray cans work, how the pigments were developed, how solvents ensure a fine, even mist. He'd have looked up the original inventors (Francis Davis Millet & Edward Seymour, for the record) & read about how & why they
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developed aerosol paint, AND THEN he'd have come up with something to explain it all, probably involving imps and the Alchemist's Guild, making clever puns on the inventor's names & undoubtedly somehow referencing the Chicago World Fair & Seymour of Sycamore, then he'd
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probably have mentioned graffiti in a sentence & put the rest in a footnote, purely to amuse himself & half-a-dozen chemists that would read it and snigger.
And the people that made this never thought about any of that, or understand why it would be funny.
And that's sad.
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And the people that made this never thought about any of that, or understand why it would be funny.
And that's sad.
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@threadreaderapp unroll, please
