#nerd dads

[dimples-of-discontent]

The South Congress Bridge in Austin Texas is home to the largest bat colony in North America. Over 2 million bats live under the bridge, and watching the bats take flight at sunset is a major tourist attraction for the city.

Cool!! I’m clearly too lazy to have Googled “Austin + bats” for myself. 🦇 🦇 🦇 🦇

[kazimir29]

I’ve been blessed to listen to this wonderful podcast and I‘ve devoured every episode in less than a week. We’ve got the hot Glenn and Darryl moment that caused me to do this abomination: the dads as daddies (dilf energy is high on this one) 

[theglintoftherail]

“Hold up, pause it and rewind - I need to check and see if that gun is an anachronism.” - My dad, just now, watching Deadwood

[rockemsockemrocket]

A moment of appreciation for scientist dads (in text message form)

Me: Can you settle a disagreement for me? If a grilled cheese sandwich were launched into space, would it instantly shatter or would it be able to be thawed and eaten? (Assuming it does not incinerate while exiting the atmosphere - maybe it's launched out the airlock of a space ship.)

Dad: It depends. The temperature an object reaches in space represents the balance between heat in and heat out. Since space is a vacuum, heat leaves an object mainly by thermal radiation. The amount of heat that can be radiated depends very strongly on the object’s temperature. If the object is near the sun, then its temperature must be high enough to radiate away as much heat as it receives in solar radiation. It turns out that when you are as far away from the sun as the earth, the equilibrium temperature for thermal radiation is about room temperature. This is why we don’t all freeze, because after all the earth is just a big grilled cheese sandwich.

Dad: This also assumes that the sandwich is rotating quickly enough so that it has a uniform temperature. If only one side faced the sun permanently, then the sun-facing side would be hot and the space-facing side would be cold. If it were a thick enough sandwich, I suppose it’s possible that the sun-facing side could melt while the space-facing side would freeze.

Dad: If the sandwich were in a place where there was very little heat input--for example in the earth’s shadow or in a shadow on a lunar pole--then it would quickly radiate away all it’s internal heat and freeze. No shattering or explosions would be involved, unless the cheese were to become hot enough to boil and generate vapor. Then the bubbles could pop and spatter melted cheese all over your spacecraft.

Dad: This is something that’s never actually happened, of course, because no one sensible enough to become an astronaut would be foolish enough to throw away an uneaten grilled cheese sandwich in space!

Me: You're a jewel among men.

Dad: I hope you won your argument!

Me: My theory was that it would freeze and then probably get struck by passing space debris and shatter. If it were in a random place in space the chances of it being close enough to a star to be above the equilibrium temperature for thermal radiation is close to zero, yeah?

Dad: Yes you are correct. Of course, if you're that far out in space, then that's all the more reason to hang on tightly to your grilled cheese sandwich!