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jalopybrown
Oct 11, 2012

Alternative pants posted:

I was in elementary and middle school with a girl who was set on fire. Her mother's ex basically just dumped gasoline on both of them and lit them. That, combined with my cousin being killed in the OKC bombing were my first real exposures to death as a little kid.

e: I tried to find a wiki article to go with the case, but wikipedia doesn't have one. Instead I was redirected to "Anita Bernt" :doh:

Jesus, I'd assume that being together for 3 years meant that he knew the little girl for half her life, I can't imagine how she'd have felt or how he could do that just because she was seeing someone else.

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Alternative pants
Nov 2, 2009

WILL AMOUNT TO NOTHING IN LIFE.


I haven't talked to her in a few years but I occasionally see her on facebook. She's always seemed well adjusted.

e:

sweeperbravo posted:

I really appreciate the little :unsmith: moments that sometimes appear in this thread.

Yeah, for more :unsmith: she had a baby girl last year.

Alternative pants has a new favorite as of 23:45 on Jun 18, 2013

sweeperbravo
May 18, 2012

AUNT GWEN'S COLD SHAPE (!)

Alternative pants posted:

I haven't talked to her in a few years but I occasionally see her on facebook. She's always seemed well adjusted.

I really appreciate the little :unsmith: moments that sometimes appear in this thread.

Blackheart
Mar 22, 2013

weavernaut posted:

Do you mean the case of the Hispanic woman whose blood allegedly either made everyone sick or incited a case of mass panic?

I don't think that was it. I think it was a pretty old case, and the woman had been given a :barf: nickname like "burger woman" or something inappropiate like that, because of how she looked. I think that when I get home today I'll have to reread the whole thread carefully to find the link, if I'm even remembering right.


vvv Yeah that was it! Thanks, buddy! vvv

Blackheart has a new favorite as of 00:04 on Jun 19, 2013

Gyro Zeppeli
Jul 19, 2012

sure hope no-one throws me off a bridge

Blackheart posted:

I don't think that was it. I think it was a pretty old case, and the woman had been given a :barf: nickname like "burger woman" or something inappropiate like that, because of how she looked. I think that when I get home today I'll have to reread the whole thread carefully to find the link, if I'm even remembering right.

I know the story you mean, and I even know a song about the story, but I can't remember enough of the details to find any articles.

Here's the song, by the way. Some CREEPY poo poo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzDvpT-MjYs

jalopybrown
Oct 11, 2012
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaster_Al_Ackerman

quote:

Blaster Al Ackerman was the most commonly used name by an American mail artist and writer born as William Hogg Greathouse. Ackerman had been active various subcultures since the early 1970s. He died on March 17, 2013, in Austin, Texas.[1]
[..]
His influence in the 1980s was strongly felt by neoism founder Istvan Kantor, performance artist Andre Stitt, photographer Richard Kern (who published Ackerman's writing in his magazine Dumb Fucker) and musicians Genesis P-Orridge who used one of Ackerman's letters as the text of Throbbing Gristle's song "Hamburger Lady."[2]

Letter Excerpt

quote:

By far the worst is the hamburger lady, and because of shortage right now of
'qualified technicians', e.g. technicians who can work with her and keep
their last meal down, Screwloose Lauritzen and I have been alternating
nights with her, unrelievedly. If you put a 250-lb meatloaf in the oven
and then burned it and then followed that by propping it up on a potty-chair
to greet you at 11pm each night, you would have some description of these
past two weeks. Which is to say the worst I seen since viet napalms. When
somebody tells you that there is a level of pain beyond which the human mind
cannot retain consciousness, please tell them to write me. In point of fact
this lady has not slept more than 3-5 minutes at a stretch since she came to
us - that was over two weeks ago and, thanks to medical advances, there is
no end in sight; from the waist (waste?) up everything is burned off, ears,
nose etc - lower half is untouched and that, I guess, is what keeps her
alive. I took one guy in to help me change tubes and he did alright, that
is alright till he came out, then he spotted one of the burn nurses
(pleasant smiling zombies) eating a can of chile-mac at the desk, and that
did it: he flashed on the carpet. It is loving insane is what it is."

Blackheart
Mar 22, 2013

Thank you both, I just HAD to reread that or I would have it on my mind for the rest of the week. Yeah, I misremembered and thought there was more info or an article about it, but it was still pretty hosed up. Stories like that disturb me a lot, and I think only remembering small details somehow made it worse.

Jesus, working at a burn ward must take some huge mental strength. I burnt the palm of my hand as a kid and had to go to treatment for a long time, and I can't remember anything about the treatment. Like, anything at all, it was all erased from my brain. My mother, who had to take me there tells me of the awful screams we heard from some of the other patients. :smith:

A Pinball Wizard
Mar 23, 2005

I know every trick, no freak's gonna beat my hands

College Slice
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minamata_disease

The Chisso Corporation operated a plant in Minamata, Japan, that just dumped its waste water into Minamata Bay. It was bad enough that the company had to make payouts to local fishermen to make up for lost catchesstarting in 1932, but it became a whole lot worse in the 50's.

It started with animals dying; the locals called it "dancing cat fever" when cats began going crazy and dying. Then it started happening to people. They had trouble speaking and walking; their hand and feet went numb. A third of those reporting symptoms died.

The symptoms were eventually linked to loving methylmercury, which Chisso had been dumping into Minamata Bay, poisoning the fish that the locals relied on for food. Chisso responded by stopping pumping into Minamata Bay.... and pumping it into the Minamata River instead. Needless to say, it didn't help.

The victims of the mercury poisoning were stigmatized, both because the lay people didn't know if the "disease" was contagious, and because the Chisso plant was a major employer in the area, and shutting it down would've put half the area out of work. One of the victims' mother had poo poo thrown at her - literal human feces. Chisso eventually agreed to pay about $850 to families of people who died, and less to living sufferers. They also claimed to install a filter on their wastewater output; while they actually installed the filter, it didn't actually filter the waste water from the plant, so the rest of the area continued to be poisoned well into the 60's. Chisso eventually started "mining" the sediment near their waste water outlets; it contained enough mercury to be economically viable to mine.

Seriously, read the article. It's amazing how badly Chisso hosed up, and how little the Japanese government cared. It's easily comparable to the US detonating nukes and spraying random places with biological weapons just in the sheer callous disregard for human life.

edit: It also led to this photograph, considered to be one of W. Eugene Smith's greatest works: Tomoko Uemura in her Bath ( :nws: for naked people in a bathtub, :nms: for loving mercury poisoning :gonk: )

A Pinball Wizard has a new favorite as of 01:01 on Jun 19, 2013

Desperado Bones
Aug 29, 2009

Cute, adorable, and creepy at the same time!


Blackheart posted:



Jesus, working at a burn ward must take some huge mental strength. I burnt the palm of my hand as a kid and had to go to treatment for a long time, and I can't remember anything about the treatment. Like, anything at all, it was all erased from my brain. My mother, who had to take me there tells me of the awful screams we heard from some of the other patients. :smith:

I burnt my right foot with boiling water when I was a teen. It was the most terrible horrible pain I had felt, and on top of that you get to see your skin peeling like wet paper. I can only imagine the pain of getting 80% of your body burnt. :smith:

pienipple
Mar 20, 2009

That's wrong!

A Pinball Wizard posted:

Seriously, read the article. It's amazing how badly Chisso hosed up, and how little the Japanese government cared. It's easily comparable to the US detonating nukes and spraying random places with biological weapons just in the sheer callous disregard for human life.

They're not the only ones!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Big_Pollution_Diseases_of_Japan

Showa Electrical also dumped methylmercury in the Agano River and poisoned the people living along it in Niigata prefecture

Sulfurous smog produced by Daichi Petrochemical Complex caused mass pulmonary disease

Mitsui Mining pollutes the Jinzu River in Toyama, causing massive cadmium poisoning for over 30 years

quote:

One of the main effects of cadmium poisoning is weak and brittle bones. Spinal and leg pain is common, and a waddling gait often develops due to bone deformities caused by the cadmium. The pain eventually becomes debilitating, with fractures becoming more common as the bone weakens. Other complications include coughing, anemia, and kidney failure, leading to death.

Nckdictator
Sep 8, 2006
Just..someone
So, in honor of Egypt apointating former leader of Gamaa Islamiya as governor of Luxor. I figured I'd post the wiki about the massacre they committed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luxor_massacre

quote:

In the mid-morning attack on 17 November 1997, six gunmen from the Islamic Group and Jihad Talaat al-Fath ("Holy War of the Vanguard of the Conquest") massacred 62 people at the attraction.[5] The six assailants were armed with automatic firearms and knives, and disguised as members of the security forces. They descended on the Temple of Hatshepsut at around 08:45. They dispatched two armed guards at the site.[5] With the tourists trapped inside the temple, the killing went on systematically for 45 minutes, during which many bodies, especially of women, were mutilated with machetes. They used both guns and butcher knives.[5] A note praising Islam was found inside one disemboweled body.[6] The dead included a five-year-old British child and four Japanese couples on their honeymoons.[7][8]

The attackers then hijacked a bus, but ran into a checkpoint of armed Egyptian tourist police and military forces. One of the terrorists was wounded in the shootout and the rest fled into the hills where their bodies were found in a cave, apparently having committed suicide together.[9]



Four Egyptians were killed in the massacre,[10] including three police officers and a tour guide. Of the 58 foreign tourists killed, 36 were Swiss,[11] ten were Japanese, six were from the United Kingdom, four from Germany, and two were Colombians.[6] Six gunmen who perpetrated the massacre were also killed.

Everything about it just really bothers me.

Kimmalah
Nov 14, 2005

Basically just a baby in a trenchcoat.


Desperado Bones posted:

I burnt my right foot with boiling water when I was a teen. It was the most terrible horrible pain I had felt, and on top of that you get to see your skin peeling like wet paper. I can only imagine the pain of getting 80% of your body burnt. :smith:

I burned my hand once by spilling scalding hot soup on it and even though it was only my thumb and a small section on the back of my hand, it still hurt badly enough to make my arm shake uncontrollably for a while. I can't imagine having even more severe burns all over your body like that.

A Pinball Wizard posted:


edit: It also led to this photograph, considered to be one of W. Eugene Smith's greatest works: Tomoko Uemura in her Bath ( :nws: for naked people in a bathtub, :nms: for loving mercury poisoning :gonk: )

Wow even the guy who took that photo didn't get out unscathed:

"For his expose, Smith was attacked and seriously injured by Chisso employees which left him with a permanently damaged eye and crippled health."

Kimmalah has a new favorite as of 03:31 on Jun 19, 2013

Hoopy Frood
May 1, 2008

Blackheart posted:

I've been trying to find a disturbing article someone posted here, but I only remember some details of it. It was about a woman in an hospital, with some kind of horrible injuries (possibly extensive burns?) The nurse(s) who had to treat her daily described everything as a nightmarish experience for everyone involved and it was taking a toll on their mental health. Did I dream that one up or does somebody else remeber it?

I'm pretty sure I know what you mean. I believe it was written by someone who worked in a burns unit in the 60's (in Canada, perhaps?), and I'm certain that an audio reading of it was used in a song. I think it started with the line 'But the worst one was the one we used to call [something]...' and I'm pretty sure it went on to describe how a burn victim was horribly mutilated but somehow conscious, and there was nothing the nurses could do for him/her.

I'l post it here if I find it.

Freudian slippers
Jun 23, 2009
US Goon shocked and appalled to find that world is a dirty, unjust place

Middle of the page, bro :)

Phlegmish
Jul 2, 2011




quote:

Chisso used yakuza in order to threaten and silence patients and their supporters.[8] Patients and their supporters started the "single shareholder" movement by buying one share of Chisso each, which was aimed at accusing the executives of Chisso in its general meeting. A thousand of the single shareholders participating in the movement gathered in front of a hall in Osaka to attend the general meeting called on November 28, 1970, but the company prevented them from entering the hall by asking yakuza to become shareholders and occupy the hall. The meeting ended in five minutes with all the bills submitted by the board approved.[8]

In addition, Chisso had American photographer and photo-journalist W. Eugene Smith beaten by yakuza goons after Smith published a highly regarded photo-essay showing the caustic injuries and birth defects Chisso had caused the Minamata population.[9][10] The centerpiece of the work, titled "Tomoko Uemura in Her Bath", depicted the severe deformation of a child in her mother's arms after the child was exposed to the effects of Chisso's contamination of the water supply. In response to Chisso's beating of W. Eugene Smith for dissemination of the photographs, Smith was awarded the Robert Capa Gold Medal in 1974 for "best published photographic reporting from abroad requiring exceptional courage and enterprise".

What the gently caress. You know how earlier in this thread, there was this story about survivors of a bear attack in Japan becoming bear hunters? Why does the equivalent of that never happen in these situations? The thing I hate the most about these stories is not even the sociopathy, cruelty and lack of empathy displayed by people in positions of responsibility, it's the fact that they almost always get away with it. I would love it if there was some kind of superhero to punish Chisso's board of directors by putting mercury in their food or something. I need to stop reading this thread, because it's pissing me off too much.

I Killed GBS
Jun 2, 2011

by Lowtax

Phlegmish posted:

What the gently caress. You know how earlier in this thread, there was this story about survivors of a bear attack in Japan becoming bear hunters? Why does the equivalent of that never happen in these situations? The thing I hate the most about these stories is not even the sociopathy, cruelty and lack of empathy displayed by people in positions of responsibility, it's the fact that they almost always get away with it. I would love it if there was some kind of superhero to punish Chisso's board of directors by putting mercury in their food or something. I need to stop reading this thread, because it's pissing me off too much.

I think there was a manga about some crazy dude who created a bunch of copies of himself and murdered corrupt government and business leaders in absurdly extravagant public ways while expounding upon the horrible stuff they did. Black Mask or something like that. That was back before I knew anything about Japanese politics though, so I can't say whether it was about legit monsters like Chisso or stupid crypto-fascist fantasy bullshit.

AnonSpore
Jan 19, 2012

"I didn't see the part where he develops as a character so I guess he never developed as a character"

Small Frozen Thing posted:

I think there was a manga about some crazy dude who created a bunch of copies of himself and murdered corrupt government and business leaders in absurdly extravagant public ways while expounding upon the horrible stuff they did. Black Mask or something like that. That was back before I knew anything about Japanese politics though, so I can't say whether it was about legit monsters like Chisso or stupid crypto-fascist fantasy bullshit.

Akumetsu. It started off alright, ended terribly.

duckmaster
Sep 13, 2004
Mr and Mrs Duck go and stay in a nice hotel.

One night they call room service for some condoms as things are heating up.

The guy arrives and says "do you want me to put it on your bill"

Mr Duck says "what kind of pervert do you think I am?!

QUACK QUACK

into the void posted:

The Wiki article says he had "a history of violence and torture against former lovers". My question is, how can someone have a history of torture and still be allowed to roam the streets....dating?

Well the prisons are full of black people who stole a VCR in the nineties and white people who gave some weed to their friends, so the torturers and psychopaths just get let out on probation, subtlety encouraged to cross a state line and forgotten about. The politicians get their statistics and the state saves some money, it's win win!!

I Killed GBS
Jun 2, 2011

by Lowtax

duckmaster posted:

Well the prisons are full of black people who stole a VCR in the nineties and white people who gave some weed to their friends, so the torturers and psychopaths just get let out on probation, subtlety encouraged to cross a state line and forgotten about. The politicians get their statistics and the state saves some money, it's win win!!

This was in the UK.

Sharkie
Feb 4, 2013

by Fluffdaddy

Well, if it helps, I know people can be horribly burnt, but there's no reason to believe this particular story has any truth to it. It's just the result of somebody trying to be edgy and shocking (with a dash of misogyny thrown in - the female nurses are "smiling zombies," the victim stays alive because of vanity over the non-burnt parts).

I dunno, I guess the fact that some people and their families actually have to go through stuff like this makes the exploitation of suffering and the dehumanization of the victims for the sake of a gross-out a pretty cheap and ugly thing to do. And before people say that the thread is guilty of the same thing, I'd say that there's a difference between discussing these things and creating works that exploit, and this thread doesn't really have the "whoa cool how gross is this" sympathy-lacking rubber-necking of victims that the story revels in.

lenoon
Jan 7, 2010

Small Frozen Thing posted:

This was in the UK.

The same thing happens here, but to a slightly lesser extent

Helmacron
Jun 3, 2005

looking down at the world

Sharkie posted:

...and this thread doesn't really have the "whoa cool how gross is this" sympathy-lacking rubber-necking of victims that the story revels in.


I don't think you can get out of it, man. Like, you can make your own categories all you want to win the contest and get through the night without waking up sweating you're a bad person, but most of this thread is rubber-necking and in particular is the serial killer chatter. Serial killer chatter is always rubber-necking, you can't spin that poo poo into a PSA.

I want to take this opportunity to say that I immediately think anyone who says "I've lost all faith in humanity" is like, an ultimate rubber-necker. Not just someone who takes a second glance at a hobo making GBS threads off a bridge, but someone who slows down at accidents on freeways and eats popcorn when watching Cops.

When something makes me lose all faith in humanity, I wake up in hospital two days later tasting plastic with brain damage and decreased liver function and like, a word on the tip of my tongue that I keep guessing at compulsively for no reason. Apple? Duvet? Motor? What's the word... what's even the context?

Barnaby Rudge
Jan 15, 2011

so your telling me you wasn't drunk or fucked up in anyway.when you had sex with me and that monkey
Soiled Meat

Sharkie posted:

Well, if it helps, I know people can be horribly burnt, but there's no reason to believe this particular story has any truth to it. It's just the result of somebody trying to be edgy and shocking (with a dash of misogyny thrown in - the female nurses are "smiling zombies," the victim stays alive because of vanity over the non-burnt parts).

I dunno, I guess the fact that some people and their families actually have to go through stuff like this makes the exploitation of suffering and the dehumanization of the victims for the sake of a gross-out a pretty cheap and ugly thing to do. And before people say that the thread is guilty of the same thing, I'd say that there's a difference between discussing these things and creating works that exploit, and this thread doesn't really have the "whoa cool how gross is this" sympathy-lacking rubber-necking of victims that the story revels in.

I'm am 99% sure that 'hamburger lady' was written to be a shock piece, I'm really not seeing any misogyny nor do I get why you are so offended why you find it disrespectful, as far as exploitation goes it's no worse than a cop show in my opinion.

Anyway, for actual content I don't think I've seen Elephantitus mentioned yet (not work safe due to giant swollen nutsacks).

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Dec 28, 2007

Kiss this and hang

Nckdictator posted:

So, in honor of Egypt apointating former leader of Gamaa Islamiya as governor of Luxor. I figured I'd post the wiki about the massacre they committed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luxor_massacre


Everything about it just really bothers me.

My mom and my dad took an epic honeymoom in the early 60's. They went to all these place that now you can't go to. Iran, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Afghanistan and in the back of my mind I always thought..gee at least I'll get to go to Egypt. Yeah, I pretty much put that dream aside when that happened. And now that "Arab spring" has curdled into "Lets just poo poo on everybody as hard as we can" I doubt even my Son will get to go safely.

Freudian slippers
Jun 23, 2009
US Goon shocked and appalled to find that world is a dirty, unjust place

Sharkie posted:

with a dash of misogyny thrown in - the female nurses are "smiling zombies"

Is it difficult to find new things to be offended by every day? Because you're really scraping the bottom of the barrel here.

Grape Juice Vampire
Aug 1, 2009

Sharkie posted:

the victim stays alive because of vanity over the non-burnt parts).

You're really reaching here. I'm pretty sure he meant that the fact that most of her organs weren't destroyed were literally keeping her alive.

Sharkie
Feb 4, 2013

by Fluffdaddy

Helmacron posted:

I don't think you can get out of it, man. Like, you can make your own categories all you want to win the contest and get through the night without waking up sweating you're a bad person, but most of this thread is rubber-necking and in particular is the serial killer chatter. Serial killer chatter is always rubber-necking, you can't spin that poo poo into a PSA.

I want to take this opportunity to say that I immediately think anyone who says "I've lost all faith in humanity" is like, an ultimate rubber-necker. Not just someone who takes a second glance at a hobo making GBS threads off a bridge, but someone who slows down at accidents on freeways and eats popcorn when watching Cops.

When something makes me lose all faith in humanity, I wake up in hospital two days later tasting plastic with brain damage and decreased liver function and like, a word on the tip of my tongue that I keep guessing at compulsively for no reason. Apple? Duvet? Motor? What's the word... what's even the context?

For a second I wasn't sure why you seemed to get upset over my comment, what with your odd remarks about "win the contest" and "waking up sweating," which I still don't really understand . Then I read your post about cancer patients you made and got probated for; it reads like a tacky Palahniuk knock-off. Apparently striving to be edgy is kind of your gimmick, so I guess you took my comment a little personally.

Anyway, sorry for derailing, Graham's number disturbs me...the fact that there's a number so large the known universe couldn't hold the digits needed to write it, and that there's a problem requiring that number as a solution. Something about it just completely demolishes my sense of scale. It reminds of that Stephen King story "The Jaunt," where an unimaginable span of time just breaks people. Stuff like that, or large spans of space , give me a sort of conceptual agoraphobia. I guess it's kind of dumb to be scared of a number, but if I try to think about it for too long, suddenly myself, and the world, start so seem immeasurably small and vulnerable.

edit: I was just expressing my opinion on that story; I don't want to derail this thread anymore so I'm just dropping it here. My bad.

Sharkie has a new favorite as of 14:30 on Jun 19, 2013

lenoon
Jan 7, 2010

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang posted:

My mom and my dad took an epic honeymoom in the early 60's. They went to all these place that now you can't go to. Iran, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Afghanistan and in the back of my mind I always thought..gee at least I'll get to go to Egypt. Yeah, I pretty much put that dream aside when that happened. And now that "Arab spring" has curdled into "Lets just poo poo on everybody as hard as we can" I doubt even my Son will get to go safely.

Syria, Egypt and Libya have only become dangerous fairly recently and Egypt is still not a bad place to go on holiday. I was in Libya in 2011 just before everything kicked off, it was actually really nice. Friends of mine were in Egypt and Syria last year. Don't be so down on the area - Tunisia and Lebanon are still really lovely places to go and Jordan is pretty wonderful.

Dross
Sep 26, 2006

Every night he puts his hot dogs in the trees so the pigeons can't get them.

Sharkie posted:

Well, if it helps, I know people can be horribly burnt, but there's no reason to believe this particular story has any truth to it. It's just the result of somebody trying to be edgy and shocking (with a dash of misogyny thrown in - the female nurses are "smiling zombies," the victim stays alive because of vanity over the non-burnt parts).

It neither states that the nurses were female nor does it say anything about vanity - which really doesn't apply to someone who has nothing going on in their life but horrible unending pain. Seriously, no dogwhistle being blown here. And the reason the nurses are "smiling zombies" is because they work on a loving burn unit and they're desensitized to an unnerving degree.

Kimmalah
Nov 14, 2005

Basically just a baby in a trenchcoat.


lenoon posted:

The same thing happens here, but to a slightly lesser extent

I'm guessing that case probably wasn't the first time that he had used a variation of the "She's always making me so mad on purpose/she dared me to do these crazy things to her!" excuse. Just this time he went so insanely far with the torture that it wasn't even the slightest bit believable. Unfortunately stuff like "She did something that made me do this to her" or "She's just into rough sex and is too embarrassed to admit it" and other excuses are alive and still being believed.

It's also possible the previous victims didn't pursue charges and just counted themselves lucky to get away from the guy. I don't know how it works specifically in the UK but I know sometimes in the US (depending on the crime) this can tie the police's hands to a degree in terms of what they can actually do.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Dec 28, 2007

Kiss this and hang

lenoon posted:

Syria, Egypt and Libya have only become dangerous fairly recently and Egypt is still not a bad place to go on holiday. I was in Libya in 2011 just before everything kicked off, it was actually really nice. Friends of mine were in Egypt and Syria last year. Don't be so down on the area - Tunisia and Lebanon are still really lovely places to go and Jordan is pretty wonderful.

I actually didn't want to derail by getting specific, but I meant they are all places that since the 60's are difficult to get visas for because politics and more recently for other reasons. I didn't meant to give the impression I thought they were hell holes. On the contrary they are wonderful places and I weep for what their people are going through.


Kiss Kiss Bang Bang has a new favorite as of 16:35 on Jun 19, 2013

Christopher Robin
Apr 28, 2013

Sharkie posted:

Anyway, sorry for derailing, Graham's number disturbs me...the fact that there's a number so large the known universe couldn't hold the digits needed to write it, and that there's a problem requiring that number as a solution. Something about it just completely demolishes my sense of scale. It reminds of that Stephen King story "The Jaunt," where an unimaginable span of time just breaks people. Stuff like that, or large spans of space , give me a sort of conceptual agoraphobia. I guess it's kind of dumb to be scared of a number, but if I try to think about it for too long, suddenly myself, and the world, start so seem immeasurably small and vulnerable.


This is the first I'd heard of it and I'm fascinated by it. I stumbled upon the Simple English Wikipedia page and it had this:

quote:

Even if every digit in Graham's number was written in the tiniest writing possible, it would still be too big to fit in the universe.

I just can't even deal. That's awesome.

Yoshi Jjang
Oct 5, 2011

renard renard renarnd renrard

renard


Sharkie posted:

Anyway, sorry for derailing, Graham's number disturbs me...the fact that there's a number so large the known universe couldn't hold the digits needed to write it, and that there's a problem requiring that number as a solution. Something about it just completely demolishes my sense of scale. It reminds of that Stephen King story "The Jaunt," where an unimaginable span of time just breaks people. Stuff like that, or large spans of space , give me a sort of conceptual agoraphobia. I guess it's kind of dumb to be scared of a number, but if I try to think about it for too long, suddenly myself, and the world, start so seem immeasurably small and vulnerable.

It's good to finally have something to be scared about in this thread that isn't depressing.

What's absolutely fascinating about this number is where it begins. This number is composed of 64 "layers", in that each layer is used to denote how many exponentials (arrows, actually) the next layer uses, and so forth. The first layer is written as 3↑↑↑↑3. I won't dive into Knuth's up arrow notation here, but basically that means 3^3^3^3^3^3^...3. Basically, if an exponent tells you how many times a number multiplies itself, the up arrow tells you how many times a number exponentiates itself.

The amount of exponential "towers" used to write out just the first layer alone goes beyond the amount of Planck volumes in the observable universe. And to put the Planck length into perspective, it's about 1 ten-octillionth the diameter of an atom, depending on who you ask.

And you use THAT number to write out the number of ARROWS (not towers) in the next layer. Repeat this incomprehensible madness 63 more times. :eng101:

A Pinball Wizard
Mar 23, 2005

I know every trick, no freak's gonna beat my hands

College Slice
Forgive me for showing my ignorance, but what's the point of even having a number like that? The Wiki page says it solves some long-standing proof, but how do you know it solves the proof if you can't even conceive of the number? How do you know that's the right answer? How do you know someone didn't forget to carry the 1 on the 62nd tower? Or am I dumb and that's what everyone is :psyduck:ing about?

peter gabriel
Nov 8, 2011

Hello Commandos
I'm really ignorant about this too, but how can you have a number like that and it deserves a wiki page and everyone is in awe of it?

To my feeble mind that isn't how numbers work, I mean, see that Graham's Number? I just added 10 to it, do I get a wiki page now?

I do apologise, I just don't get it, times it by 10 or something, tell me it needs a Graham's Number of universe to fit it in, then add another 1, erm gently caress it, times that by another Graham's Number. Can someone explain?

Veggie Patties
Apr 22, 2010

Before I felt fine,
but now I feel weird.
io9 has a great article on largest numbers: http://io9.com/5807256/whats-the-biggest-number-in-the-universe
As I understand it, Graham's Number resulted from some kind of mathematical theory. So it's not a random number but it is specifically constructed in a certain way for a specific purpose something something to do with hypercubes.

I just have to quote this from the article because it is so fantastically creepy:
"I have this vision of hoards of shadowy numbers lurking out there in the dark, beyond the small sphere of light cast by the candle of reason. They are whispering to each other; plotting who knows what. Perhaps they don't like us very much for capturing their smaller brethren with our minds."

Seconding loving the sciency stuff in this thread.

Veggie Patties has a new favorite as of 00:16 on Jun 21, 2013

MatildaTheHun
Aug 31, 2011

here's the thing donovan, I'm always hungry
Graham's number was the original upper bound to the solution of a problem, it wasn't ever published because Graham found an upper bound smaller while working on the problem (that number also has more digits than particles in the universe). It's interesting because it's the largest number ever used in a genuine proof, and not a googolplex-esque arbitrarily large number.

Here are people with bad teeth talking about it

peter gabriel
Nov 8, 2011

Hello Commandos
So the thing about it is that is a genuinely useful and used number? I can get behind that, I guess it's all about context.
Thanks for the links and info.

Popelmon
Jan 24, 2010

wow
so spin

Yoshi Jjang posted:

It's good to finally have something to be scared about in this thread that isn't depressing.

What's absolutely fascinating about this number is where it begins. This number is composed of 64 "layers", in that each layer is used to denote how many exponentials (arrows, actually) the next layer uses, and so forth. The first layer is written as 3↑↑↑↑3. I won't dive into Knuth's up arrow notation here, but basically that means 3^3^3^3^3^3^...3. Basically, if an exponent tells you how many times a number multiplies itself, the up arrow tells you how many times a number exponentiates itself.

The amount of exponential "towers" used to write out just the first layer alone goes beyond the amount of Planck volumes in the observable universe. And to put the Planck length into perspective, it's about 1 ten-octillionth the diameter of an atom, depending on who you ask.

And you use THAT number to write out the number of ARROWS (not towers) in the next layer. Repeat this incomprehensible madness 63 more times. :eng101:

I read the Wikipedia articles before I read your post and they really broke my brain. That number is just so loving huge. But it's also really cool that there are actually algorithms that spit out the last numbers of Graham's number.

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M42
Nov 12, 2012


Yoshi Jjang posted:

And to put the Planck length into perspective, it's about 1 ten-octillionth the diameter of an atom, depending on who you ask.

My favourite way of explaining a Planck length: If a single atom was the size of the entire universe, a Planck length would be the size of a tree.

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