I found by accident when I stuck something in the microwave at work. I failed to check the bottom for cleanliness and carelessly stuck my food item inside and started the oven.
When completed I actually saw ants crawling around the oven even after my food was heated. They were still alive with no effects of the radiation nor did their internal organs get damaged from internal heat created from the waves that heat your food.
Creepy if you ask me.
Quote from: roadman65 on March 16, 2024, 06:57:00 PM
I found by accident when I stuck something in the microwave at work. I failed to check the bottom for cleanliness and carelessly stuck my food item inside and started the oven.
When completed I actually saw ants crawling around the oven even after my food was heated. They were still alive with no effects of the radiation nor did their internal organs get damaged from internal heat created from the waves that heat your food.
Creepy if you ask me.
I bet this is due to the way the mode is distributed. 1/4" near walls isn't heating too much.
Take a piece of chocolate and put it in the same position for a quick run. I bet it will not melt, especially if there is a bigger chunk of food closer to center.
It isn't as though the magnetrons on household microwave ovens are super powerful. They tend be focused towards heating up a very specific and easily avoided area of effect.
Where does one obtain an exemption from radiation? Is ionizing radiation harder to obtain an exemption for versus non-ionizing?
How do you know from observation that the insect was specifically exempt from radiation and not, e.g. something that prevents all damage (from any source, not just radiation) that would be dealt to it?
Quote from: 1 on March 16, 2024, 07:53:13 PM
How do you know from observation that the insect was specifically exempt from radiation and not, e.g. something that prevents all damage (from any source, not just radiation) that would be dealt to it?
Nothing in the 5e Monster Manual is immune to radiant damage. Meaning that the ant would have to be a spellcaster. How powerful of one depends on how long roadman65 had the microwave running for. If it was a minute or less, Tasha's Otherworldly Guise (6) would do the trick (always fun to be able to draw energy from the Upper Planes), but if it was longer than that you'd be looking at things like Invulnerability (9!). The ant would therefore have to be an 11th level sorcerer or wizard to protect against cook times up to one minute, or a 17th level(!) wizard for cook times higher than that.
...I really need to find a D&D group in Vegas. :-/
I read the thread title and was like, "wait, so everyone has to get microwave radiation except insects?"
I think the right word is "immune". ;)
I have a childhood memory of my dad putting a cricket in the microwave oven for fun. Believe me, it was not exempt.
Poor cricket. They eat pests.
Yes, some pests eat pests.
Quote from: kphoger on March 18, 2024, 02:47:39 PM
Yes, some pests eat pests.
And you get the worse pests if you kill the beneficial bugs.
Quote from: kphoger on March 18, 2024, 02:12:15 PM
I have a childhood memory of my dad putting a cricket in the microwave oven for fun. Believe me, it was not exempt.
There was a story of a very well meaning lady (not a smart one though) who decided to dry a cat after a bath in a microwave.
Quote from: kalvado on March 18, 2024, 02:51:06 PM
Quote from: kphoger on March 18, 2024, 02:12:15 PM
I have a childhood memory of my dad putting a cricket in the microwave oven for fun. Believe me, it was not exempt.
There was a story of a very well meaning lady (not a smart one though) who decided to dry a cat after a bath in a microwave.
It was found that cats were not exempt.
(https://frinkiac.com/video/S05E15/YYiYTiZBj2PzgFcSq9LsT2ksiuA=.gif)
And I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords.
Quote from: Rothman on March 18, 2024, 02:52:24 PM
Quote from: kalvado on March 18, 2024, 02:51:06 PM
Quote from: kphoger on March 18, 2024, 02:12:15 PM
I have a childhood memory of my dad putting a cricket in the microwave oven for fun. Believe me, it was not exempt.
There was a story of a very well meaning lady (not a smart one though) who decided to dry a cat after a bath in a microwave.
It was found that cats were not exempt.
Maniac Mansion taught me that hamsters aren't exempt from microwaves.
Quote from: kalvado on March 18, 2024, 02:51:06 PM
There was a story of a very well meaning lady (not a smart one though) who decided to dry a cat after a bath in a microwave.
I learned my lesson once by trying to dry out a pair of gloves in the microwave at work. (I was the guy pushing shopping carts at Target, and I used the snack area's kitchen microwave.)
Several years ago I caught a hilarious clip on YT of what happens when you put a standard chicken egg into a microwave oven and hit 'high'. The door did not survive it. :-o
Also, isn't the oven's transmitting antenna on its inside top?
Mike
Quote from: Rothman on March 18, 2024, 02:50:20 PM
Quote from: kphoger on March 18, 2024, 02:47:39 PM
Yes, some pests eat pests.
And you get the worse pests if you kill the beneficial bugs.
Depends on your definition of "worse pests". The insect keeping me awake in the middle of the night with its incessant chirping is, in that moment at least, the worst pest. Ten hours later, my opinion might be different.
Quote from: kphoger on March 19, 2024, 11:02:50 AM
Quote from: Rothman on March 18, 2024, 02:50:20 PM
Quote from: kphoger on March 18, 2024, 02:47:39 PM
Yes, some pests eat pests.
And you get the worse pests if you kill the beneficial bugs.
Depends on your definition of "worse pests". The insect keeping me awake in the middle of the night with its incessant chirping is, in that moment at least, the worst pest. Ten hours later, my opinion might be different.
Two cops in a car on patrol.
-Joe, can you check if our flashers work?
-It does... no longer. Now it does again. Stopped. Works again...
These insects' exemption should be rescinded. What kind of government is this!
Quote from: kphoger on March 19, 2024, 11:02:50 AM
Quote from: Rothman on March 18, 2024, 02:50:20 PM
Quote from: kphoger on March 18, 2024, 02:47:39 PM
Yes, some pests eat pests.
And you get the worse pests if you kill the beneficial bugs.
Depends on your definition of "worse pests". The insect keeping me awake in the middle of the night with its incessant chirping is, in that moment at least, the worst pest. Ten hours later, my opinion might be different.
Take it outside.
Quote from: Scott5114 on March 16, 2024, 09:12:52 PM
Nothing in the 5e Monster Manual is immune to radiant damage. Meaning that the ant would have to be a spellcaster. How powerful of one depends on how long roadman65 had the microwave running for. If it was a minute or less, Tasha's Otherworldly Guise (6) would do the trick (always fun to be able to draw energy from the Upper Planes), but if it was longer than that you'd be looking at things like Invulnerability (9!). The ant would therefore have to be an 11th level sorcerer or wizard to protect against cook times up to one minute, or a 17th level(!) wizard for cook times higher than that.
...I really need to find a D&D group in Vegas. :-/
This is going totally off-topic but I can't help myself. Your post reminds me of a September 1980 installment of the great Cecil Adams'
The Straight Dope column, in which he took up a reader's inquiry about Dungeons & Dragons. A few excerpts:
Quote
D&D was invented in 1974 by one Gary Gygax, whose father was a violinist for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. (This strikes me as significant, somehow.) ...
By means of guile and threats of violence, it happens I have managed to get my hands on a couple of the sacred rule books, and let me tell you, buddy, this game is weird ...
To play D&D you need at least two acolytes, who play under the guidance of a vaguely Mansonesque personage called the Dungeon Master (DM). By means of various murky protocols involving the use of charts and dice, each player establishes the persona of the "character" he or she will manipulate in the game, who typically ends up (if male) being an antisocial cutthroat of some sort, or (if female) possessed of large, grapefruit-like breasts. I deduce the latter from studying the illustrations in the book. Apart from predictable characteristics like strength and intelligence, players also have to determine such baffling minutiae as their likelihood of contracting communicable diseases or becoming infested by parasites. I am at a loss to comprehend the significance of such things, but that is what the rule book says.
The preliminaries having been dealt with, the players are led through an imaginary dungeon devised by the DM in search of treasure or something similar. On the way, they will encounter various obstacles and evil creatures, which they will have to defeat or evade.
The concept seems simple enough. It's the application that throws me. There are two main problems: (1) There are one billion rules, and (2) the game requires nonstop mathematical finagling that would constipate Einstein. The rule book is laden with such mystifying pronouncements as the following: "An ancient spell-using red dragon of huge size with 88 hits points has a BXPV of 1300, XP/HP total of 1408, SAXPB of 2800 (armor class plus special defense plus high intelligence plus saving throw bonus due to h.p./die), and an EAXPA of 2550 (major breath weapon plus spell use plus attack damage of 3-30/bite) -- totaling 7758 h.p." Here we have a game that combines the charm of a Pentagon briefing with the excitement of double-entry bookkeeping. The lure of this sort of thing is beyond my comprehension ...
Forwarded to my DnD-playing child :)
There's DnD groups all over the place, Scott. Try a comics store?
If you haven't seen this before, you might enjoy this comic:
https://xkcd.com/393
Quote from: wanderer2575 on March 19, 2024, 09:30:43 PM
September 1980
Well, there's your problem. That would have been only a few years after the game came out, and boy, were the rules screwy back then. I can barely understand them myself. Also, you died a lot more.
The current rules set, 5th edition, is much more streamlined, so I can actually hold them in my head. Which means it's actually kind of fun to work out how you could use them to make something like, say, an ant that's exempt from microwave radiation. If I was using the original rules set from 1980 there would be way more math involved than what I did, which was just basically just cross-referencing something in the back of the book with a table from the front of the book.
Quote from: kkt on March 20, 2024, 12:33:47 AM
There's DnD groups all over the place, Scott. Try a comics store?
Oh, I know for a fact there's groups here. The main reason I haven't seriously gone looking for one yet is that while games are all over, finding a group that you actually gel with isn't easy. Some people prefer a game that's very technical and want to optimize their characters so that the party does the absolute highest amount of damage on every possible turn. Meanwhile, I have more fun deciding what my characters are
bad at, since the flaws make them more interesting. The sort of game I like plays fast and loose with the rules and is more focused on getting to know the characters and telling a fun, silly story about them. Basically, I want a game to look like the front half of the Alanland thread. I'm sure there's one out there, but you have to sort of weed through the groups available to find one you like, and that can take a serious time investment.
As an aside, there is also a particular type of player that, for reasons that escape me, has to haggle with every single shopkeeper they interact with to get the absolute best price on everything. I've run into two of these. This makes no sense to me, because it's not like every character doesn't end up rich by the end of a campaign anyway. And it's boring as hell to sit through the haggling if you're not the player doing it. (I've already decided if I ever have to DM for one of those players, I'm going to whip out a prewritten script for a playthrough of Grocery Game from
The Price Is Right, but translated into D&D prices. If this fake money matters so much to you, let's see you price a package of Little Debbie snack cakes with it, fucker.)
I'm still in the same group that I was in when I was in Oklahoma, since we play online, but one player is now enrolled in school and has homework all the time and the other two are constantly working, so it's basically inactive until one of the two changes.
My wife and I recently bought a DnD starter kit since we're looking to learn to play. Were not really sure where/how to get started either.
Quote from: Takumi on March 22, 2024, 07:58:35 PM
My wife and I recently bought a DnD starter kit since we're looking to learn to play. Were not really sure where/how to get started either.
You're going to need another player or two.
Quote from: Takumi on March 22, 2024, 07:58:35 PM
My wife and I recently bought a DnD starter kit since we're looking to learn to play. Were not really sure where/how to get started either.
Here is how I would recommend you get started: Just focus on making characters. Don't worry about anything else yet. Don't even worry about the game rules. First off, you want to get an idea of what sort of person you're going to be piloting around the game world.
Start with the race and class chapters of the book. The first few paragraphs of each option are flavor text that give you the gist of what that option is about, and then it gets into the various mechanical features of that choice. Just read the flavor text for the races and the classes and stop when you get to the rules. Each class has a few subclass options as well, so read the flavor text on those. Once you've read them all, pick a combination of race, class, and subclass that seems interesting.
Now, delve into what would cause that person to exist. Why would an orc become a wizard? What would make a dragonborn become a cleric? Did their parents encourage them to take this life path, or was it something that they picked up themselves? Did they have the guidance of a mentor of some kind? With some classes (like warlock and sorcerer) the person doesn't necessarily choose to become that class, it just happens through circumstance. What sort of effect has that had on their life and how the world sees them? Also, it takes a certain sort of person to be type that a D&D game will be focusing on—they are going to be in dangerous situations and probably traveling around a lot. Why are they choosing this life, instead of just sitting at home and being a tailor or blacksmith or accountant or something that doesn't put them in mortal peril all the time? Is this a young person just starting out, or an older person forced into this situation by circumstance or going through a mid-life crisis?
You get the idea—you want to know what your character is good at and what their motivations are. A lot of people have more fun with this part of the game than anything else, and you don't need to have anything special to do it. If your wife is the sort of person who likes road trips, take her on one and talk about this stuff the whole time you're on the road (ask her to take notes if you're prone to forgetting details). Bounce ideas off of each other. Your character doesn't have to be serious, either—they can be as ridiculous as you want. You want the end result to be someone you like as much as your favorite character from your favorite book or TV show or whatever; that you love so much you feel compelled to find out every little thing about what makes them tick. How do they speak? Do they have any funny little mannerisms? What are they afraid of? What's their pet peeve? You want to be invested in them enough that you care about what happens to them. (You might realize along the way that you've actually made a dud character that you can't get to this point with. Don't feel bad if you need to scrap them and start over with a new idea. It happens.) You basically want to know everything that an actor would need to know to play this character. Because that's basically what you're going to be doing when the game starts.
(One asterisk on this—make sure you make a character that has the ability to play along with others. Too many people have fallen into the trap of making an aloof cool-guy character who doesn't let anyone get under his skin...then proceed to have no fun at all because nobody wants to talk to the guy who gives no indication of his personality other than being cool and aloof. Or they make a character who has no reason to go on an adventure to begin with and is Just There for the whole game. Or they make a character who is just an out-and-out asshole that undermines what the other players are trying to do. Nobody wants to play with one of these. You're in a cooperative game. Use your common sense.)
Now go and read the rest of the book. When it comes time to fill the character sheet out, you probably won't have to sit there and evaluate whether this bonus or that ability will be better, because the correct choice for each option presented to you will be obvious based on their background or their motivations. You just
know your elf will have a longsword, because she's been training for years to become a fighter, so she was gifted this sword by her mentor after such and such event...
When it comes time to play the game, this preparation will pay off, because it means you have everything you need to step into the character's shoes and make decisions the same way they would, and say the same things they would. (You may not even have to think about it too hard—if you know a character well enough it can feel like they're the one in charge and you're just along for the ride!) The rules and the dice rolling basically exist solely to facilitate whatever it is you want to do. "I think Russell would want to try to swim across the river." Okay, there's a dice roll that will you whether he succeeds or not. You can
try virtually anything, and it may be difficult enough you can only make it happen if you roll a 20, but you're allowed to at least
try.
And that's the fun of the game, really. You are all collectively telling a story about your favorite characters, going on the adventure of a lifetime together. Enjoy the ride. Years afterward you'll probably still be referencing stupid running jokes that get made and shenanigans that happened from botched dice rolls.
Quote from: Rothman on March 22, 2024, 10:25:07 PM
You're going to need another player or two.
Not necessarily—one-on-one games are possible, and can be quite satisfying because whichever person that's running the game can focus on tailoring the game to the taste of one player and not have to worry about keeping everyone in the group satisfied.
But that's also something you get a lot more out of after you've played a few group games to get used to the "normal" dynamic. I wouldn't recommend it for a first game. The ideal number of players, in my opinion, is four (one DM and three players).
Pfft. When my friends and I played in elementary school, had a friend who was the DM, he handed out character sheets based on a couple of preferences and away we went. All this background stuff is for the birds. :D
Quote from: Rothman on March 23, 2024, 09:11:01 AM
Pfft. When my friends and I played in elementary school, had a friend who was the DM, he handed out character sheets based on a couple of preferences and away we went. All this background stuff is for people who don't want to play the Olive Garden of D&D games.
ftfy