Saddam Hussein is dead.

McDuffies · Post by **McDuffies** » Mon Jan 08, 2007 11:16 am

I assume what would happen in vacuum is, your lungs would be quickly emptied through your nose and, hmm, the capilars would burst or something. In order for eyes to pop out, you have to have a head full of air. And if you did, it'd rather go out through your nose and mouth than through your eye sockets.

TRI · Post by **TRI** » Mon Jan 08, 2007 12:00 pm

rkolter wrote:"This container is empty." (Space is a vacuum).
"This emptyness, which we call a container..." (This vacuum, which we call space)

You have been pwned by science.

To be fair that one's more like "pwned by syntax."

Jesusabdullah · Post by **Jesusabdullah** » Mon Jan 08, 2007 2:16 pm

Joel Fagin wrote:
rkolter wrote:Total Recall was a curious flick.

On one hand, the science was appalling. A planetary core made of ice? Just thousands of feet below the surface? And something that boils that ice away, and it makes the atmosphere of the planet, in minutes?

Blah.
The book has the more thorough explanation that was cut from the movie. The water vapour was only step 1.

- Joel Fagin

There's a book?

Also: Have there been Death by Vacuum experiments? Also, how humane would that be as a form of capital punishment?

I'm trying to think about what deep sea fish and such look like when they're pulled to the surface. I remember seeing such a fish when I was like four with its tongue all swelled up...but otoh I haven't seen halibut and such looking all freaky either (though halibut I guess are only kind of deep sea).

Rkolter · Post by **Rkolter** » Mon Jan 08, 2007 6:44 pm

Humans have experienced hard vacuum accidentally in testing - two reported incidents are on file with NASA, I'm sure there are others. Nasa has determined that a human could probably survive without permanant injury for about 30 seconds if they exhaled (contrary to Hitchhiker's Guide, where they held their breath).

Animals have been put to death via hard vacuum.

It's NOT a humane way to go, and contrary to popular belief, can take quite a long time. You don't explode, Your blood doesn't instantly boil, and you don't immediately lose conciousness.

Here's a pretty cool link about the two incidents at NASA. The guy in one case reported his last memory was of the water on his tongue starting to boil...

http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_a ... 70603.html