Many people have said lots of witty & moving things about #Discworld#TerryPratchett and the awful The Watch today.
I shall just add this.
They people behind this were told.
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If this is a ‘mistake’, it is the equivalent of being warned not to climb Ben Nevis in flip flops and a pair of shorts whilst looking at the horizon and saying “oh, they’re just clouds, clouds can’t hurt anyone!”
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The people who made this somehow, gods only know how, failed to recognise that @terryandrob and @rhipratchett are, deep in their hearts & souls, fans. They told them it was umpteen kinds of wrong. They were ignored and dismissed.
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And this is the disastrous result.
But one day, there will be a properly-organised expedition, with mint cake & waterproofs & solid walking boots all around.
And we shall all stand at the top of the mountain and say, “this is bloody gorgeous.”
... and there were people there dressed as Granny Weatherwax & ... I can’t remember who else she said. Might’ve been Cheery? Or Angua? I have a feeling it was someone from the Watch. Anyway,
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I don’t know if they were cosplayers or an official part of the event, but my Nan being my Nan insisted that THEY sign the book, too...
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Hey #ChemTwitter gotta mystery for you. A friend painted my nails with a UV-cured gel. It was pink when it went on. Over the next 48 hours, it’s increasingly turned yellow (lighting is different in pics but I think you can see...) 1/2
... what could possibly have caused this? I haven’t handled anything (that I can of) that might cause discolouration or pigment breakdown. Friend has painted her own nails same colour since, no change yet. It’s apparently me! 🤷🏼♀️
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Quick add: could it be hand sanitiser perhaps? IPA? Ethanol?
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 1/4
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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This seems like a good time to have a little thread on the #Discworld#TerryPratchett philosophy of not treating people as things...
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If you google this quote, you'll find it referenced to Carpe Jugulum, first published in 1998, in which Granny Weatherwax says:
'sin, young man, is when you treat people as things. Including yourself. That’s what sin is.’
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But that's not the first mention of the idea. I'm actually not 100% certain (and happy to be corrected), but I think the first time might be Hogfather, first published 1996...
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I have just found this: “The New SI Metric and Imperial Tables” booklet (no pub. date but I reckon early 1970s based on the decimal currency stuff) and it’s awesome! (Thread)
The morse alphabet! Because you really never know when you might need that.
Rules of divisibility! (Is it just me, or does that sound like a magic system?)
Here's a fabulous bit of #chemistry I've just learned about:
French physician Séverin Icard devised a test to confirm death: write "I am really dead" on a piece of paper using lead(II) acetate (Pb(CH₃COO)₂). It's soluble & invisible when dry...
THREAD 1/5
The paper is then placed over the nose & mouth of the "corpse". One of the gases produced during decomposition is sulfur dioxide (SO₂), which reacts with lead(II) acetate to form lead sulfide (PbS) which is black. So the writing becomes visible... 2/5
The corpse thus has a piece of a paper with "I am really dead" on their face.
(I do not know if Terry Pratchett knew about this & Granny's "I Ate'nt Dead" sign was a reference. Wouldn't surprise me. Perhaps @terryandrob knows...)