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323
324

.016 seconds after a nuclear detonation (upload.wikimedia.org)

submitted ago by CheatasaurusRex

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[–]angrylawyer 30 points31 points ago

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It's taken from a rapatronic camera, and here some more!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e9/Tumbler_Snapper_rope_tricks.jpg/652px-Tumbler_Snapper_rope_tricks.jpg

http://www.gravestmor.com/strips/edgerton_03.jpg

http://graememitchell.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/nuclear_detonation_2.jpg

http://www.wgbh.org/News/Articles/2010/9/28/Images/3169_800x600.jpg

[–]bobbybusche 12 points13 points ago

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Wow, its amazing how much we miss out on in life when it isnt seen in slow motion.

[–]king_of_the_universe 4 points5 points ago

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Similar insights happen when you put a photo camera on a tripod at night and let it record for (it depends, let's say) 20 seconds or several minutes. The color and light is truly there at night, only the human eye usually doesn't see it.

[–]microchannelplate -5 points-4 points ago

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Our eyes don't have the exposure time that cameras do...

[–]roberrt777 0 points1 point ago

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Looks like an Alien. They are among us...... Hey did you hear

[–]mikemorley 4 points5 points ago

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From my desk, I can see one of the cameras used to photograph the British atomic bomb tests... still works. Still slightly radioactive.

[–]valkyrio 2 points3 points ago

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It looks so fluid

[–]mog86 1 point2 points ago

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I'm curious about the apparent overlapping layers. Does anyone have anymore information on this?

[–]blackbrock 4 points5 points ago

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Terrorist!

[–]3danimator 0 points1 point ago

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Really bizarre that 6 people downvoted you for giving this info. How odd.

[–]8002reverse 0 points1 point ago

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Aftermath of a meat vindaloo.

[–]Ravenloft -1 points0 points ago

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Now the slo-mo explosion at the end of Half Life 2 seems more... realistic.

[–]Solibran 34 points35 points ago

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Scrubbing bubbles hey-oh!

[–]juken 0 points1 point ago

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GET OUT OF MY HEAD!

[–]dick_hole2 0 points1 point ago

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Both of you get out of my head.

[–]xander787 0 points1 point ago

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All three of you stop stepping in my potato salad

[–]GET_OUT_OF_MY_HEAD -1 points0 points ago

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I'm not even gonna get started.

[–]justonemorecontract[!] -1 points0 points ago

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they work hard so you don't have to...

[–]Pravusmentis 11 points12 points ago

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The temperature reached by the nuclear explosion go near 30 million degrees; much hotter than even the core of our sun (of course it quickly dissipates)

[–]sneezesneezecough 6 points7 points ago

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So you're saying there's hope for survival?

[–]EyesAllOnFire 35 points36 points ago

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All you need is a fridge

[–][deleted] ago

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[deleted]

[–]elliothas 3 points4 points ago

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And you know... someone to come into the radiation zone and drag your fridge out. Nobody ever things about what to do after the explosion ends.

[–]king_of_the_universe -1 points0 points ago

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And long-fall-boots.

[–]redlightnetherlands 0 points1 point ago

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would i still be able to get on f7u12?

[–]Pravusmentis -1 points0 points ago

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if you had adequate shelter

[–]dmcnelly 5 points6 points ago

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So, if I were in a bathtub full of water, I'd be alright?

[–]CF5 3 points4 points ago

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For a few nanoseconds you would actually be enjoying a relaxing warm bath.

[–]kiltboy 0 points1 point ago

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Better off in an old refrigerator. That's way survivable.

[–]sweetburrahwine 9 points10 points ago

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This is a neat demonstration of scale--the weapon detonated here was an "atomic" one, releasing only 1/500 of the energy released in a "thermonuclear" detonation. At such an early point in the sequence, the pictured atomic explosion appears to be a miniature thermonuclear detonation, briefly looking like the latter's longer-lasting, glowing plasma-like orb.

....yay science!

[–][deleted] -5 points-4 points ago

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you. science. smart.

[–]AlexanderThemeek 3 points4 points ago

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Scrubbing bubbles... we do the work so you don't have to

[–]1337cake1337pie 4 points5 points ago

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It looks like those things from the scrubbing bubbles commercial.

[–]raynbec 0 points1 point ago

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how has this not been upvoted to first?

[–]FranMan32 2 points3 points ago

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Can anyone explain exactly what these images are capturing. Is that light that emanating from the explosion or is it something else? It looks plasma-like. Anyone care to shed some light on the matter?

[–]Skulder 1 point2 points ago

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I don't know, and would like to hear something about it as well, but my guesses are:

  • the intense radiation from the explosion covers a lot of the spectre. As it encounters something that can downshift it in the spectre, heat is released. At this intensity, the atmosphere is turned into plasma, the graduation we see across the upper part of the fireball corresponds to different levels of humidity. The pockmarks are where higher-energy radiation has left vapor-trails (like in a fog-chamber). I have no idea why it's not perfectly circular.

  • the effect on the ground has advanced faster than the effect in the atmosphere, and I guess that would be because the ground (and any moisture present) is more dense, and as such absorbs more energy from the radiation, thus reacting faster. Some of the ground vaporises, throwing the non-vaporised matter into the air. That's the billowing cloud we see underneath the dome.

That's all I got. It's all guesses, of course, but I think they're correct-ish.

[–]Haephestos 0 points1 point ago

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Do you mean spectrum?

[–]Skulder 0 points1 point ago

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Why yes, Of course. I don't know why I chose to write the plural of spectrum when I wrote this.

On a related note, does the explanation look correct?

[–]Haephestos 0 points1 point ago

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The Plural of spectrum is 'Spectra', anyway. A spectre is a ghost.

As for the explanation, afaik, it is due to the thermal radiation ionising the atmosphere causing blooms of plasma. I may be wrong. The billowing cloud, as well as being composed of vaporised matter from ground zero is also a dust cloud due to the sheer force of the blast.

Hope that helped.

[–]prameya 1 point2 points ago

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with all the heat and energy my uneducated guess is some short of plasma state.. like fire? Also, magnets. How the fuck to they work?

[–]Astrokiwi -1 points0 points ago

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I figure it's just the shockwave. When you have dump a massive amount of energy into a small space, as it expands it manages to plough up of the material with it, during the initial stage when it looks like a sphere.

[–]FranMan32 0 points1 point ago

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It just would seem that at a pressure of one atmosphere it would be a perfect sphere. I suppose that is why I, and other amateur scientists, are throwing around the idea of a plasma-like state. A shockwave doesn't have dents or imperfections in it. It moves in a very deliberate and flawless manner from its point of origin.

[–]Astrokiwi 0 points1 point ago

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Why would it need to be at a pressure of 1 atm?

I think what happens is you just get a massive blast, so that the gas is much less dense inside the bubble. The outflowing gas ploughs up loads of air, making a dense hemispherical shell of expanding air. Because this air has been condensed so much, the water condenses out of it, and you get an expanding white cloud.

That's my guess at least.

[–]FranMan32 0 points1 point ago

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To answer your question: Because it is at one atmosphere. To address your further analysis: Yes, you make sense. The competing (mine) school of thought still disallows for the common knowledge of such an event expanding equally in all directions. Such a great event would have all that energy expanding in all directions equally, thus there would be a perfect "ball" or sphere of energy. We see a glob instead. That's what prompted my inquiry.

[–]Astrokiwi 0 points1 point ago

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Well, it's pretty close to spherical really. It's a hemisphere rather than a sphere because the ground's in the way. And it's probably wider than it is tall because of gravity.

And it doesn't need to be at 1 atm to be a perfect sphere - there's no need for it to be in equilibrium at all. What we see is an extremely high pressure bubble, which expands because it has a much higher pressure than the air around it. If the expanding gas had a pressure of 1 atm there would be no net outwards force, so the explosion would have exactly stalled at this point - but that's not what we're seeing.

[–]FranMan32 0 points1 point ago

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I had completely forgotten which photo we were discussing. Did you look at the others posted in the comments? Those are the ones I was referencing when talking about the irregular spheres. Also, the pressure I've mentioned is in reference to the medium, the environment, and not the event. I suspect the actual explosion is some astronomical number in terms of pressure.

[–]Astrokiwi 0 points1 point ago*

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I just looked at them now, and they do look fairly spherical. I think those types of irregularities are still consistent with a blast wave. Supernova remnants kinda look like that.

This is what I'm talking about. Basically, a guy saw photos of a nuclear bomb test and was able to work out how much energy had been released. The Sedov-Taylor blast wave is how you model big explosions like atomic blasts or supernovae.

Edit: ooh I think I get what you were getting at - that the pressure of the explosion is so great that you would expect it to grow much symmetrically, because the pressure variations in the atmosphere would be so small by comparison... I imagine the irregularities can be explained just be the explosion not be symmetrical when it starts. And saying "it's some sort of plasma" doesn't tell you why it's not symmetrical...

[–]Eustis 8 points9 points ago

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What kind of scale is that? That looks like something I'd like to pop.

[–][deleted] 6 points7 points ago

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If you go down from the center of the fire ball to the black surface (the earth) and move to the left along that plane, those little things you see coming out of the surface are trees...

[–]Eustis 7 points8 points ago

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God damn, that expands fast.

[–][deleted] 11 points12 points ago

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that's what she said

[–]Qender 0 points1 point ago

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Yeah, but they might just be joshua trees. Those are sort of small.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points ago

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Looked it up, the fireball is 600ft across @ this instant

[–]Nsfw-Dragoon -1 points0 points ago

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Or a broccoli used as a tree. They are also sort of small.

[–]gotohelldook 13 points14 points ago

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KANEDA!!!!

[–]DanielTeague 14 points15 points ago

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TETSUOOO!

[–][deleted] -4 points-3 points ago

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What can you see?!?

[–][deleted] 5 points6 points ago

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Sort of reminds me of a metroid

[–]metroid23 2 points3 points ago

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::squee squee::

[–][deleted] 2 points3 points ago

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.016 seconds after the FIRST nuclear detonation... It's name was Trinity.

FTFY

[–]MooBaloo 2 points3 points ago

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Stephen Colbert describes it best.

[–][deleted] 4 points5 points ago

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DUCK AND COVER

[–]Qender 1 point2 points ago

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It does sort of look like a giant turtle.

[–]Hipitoxx -1 points0 points ago

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amirite?

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points ago

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thumbnail looked like black and white picture of construction hard hat.

clicked with low regard, I am now very satisfied!

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point ago

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Exactly what I said, I have no idea why that was downvote worthy. :(

[–]coolhand83 1 point2 points ago

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Reminds me of these What us brits call chocolate teacakes.

[–]suspicious666 2 points3 points ago

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This looks like the Clitoris that Stan talks to in South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut.

[–]m3dos 1 point2 points ago

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Those blotches kind of look like sunspots.

[–]jmichael79 1 point2 points ago

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A metroid?

[–]LockedForever 0 points1 point ago

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I saw that, too! I'm kinda sad your comment was further down than I had anticipated :(

[–]redikulous 2 points3 points ago

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Kinda looks like the moon. DOES THAT MEAN THE MOON IS JUST A NUCLEAR EXPLOSION SUSPENDED ABOVE!?

[–]CheatasaurusRex[S] 13 points14 points ago

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No, it doesn't.

[–]ociffer 6 points7 points ago

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Yes Neil Armstrong landed on a nuclear explosion suspended above the earth ಠ_ಠ

[–]FightGar 2 points3 points ago

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Dude, it's frozen duh. Have you felt how cold space is?

[–]HazyEyedOwl -3 points-2 points ago

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ಠ_ಠ

[–]Coridimus -3 points-2 points ago

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ಠ_ಠ

[–]R9000 0 points1 point ago

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sorta looks like a quake2 explosion...

[–]elbistec7 0 points1 point ago

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I got excited. I thought it was a hat. I'll just go back to playing TF2 now.

[–]EightiesTwin 0 points1 point ago

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I would love a sense of scale for that moment....

[–]MagicSPA 0 points1 point ago

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That is the Trinity explosion. Pedantic details follow.

The reason the fireball/shockwave is touching the ground is because the bomb was sitting in a tower that was only 100 feet high. If the bomb had exploded at a great height then we'd be looking at a free-hanging, roughly spherical shape instead of an interrupted sphere like we're seeing now.

For anyone wanting a sense of scale and proportion, if we imagine that the explosion is basically an "interrupted" sphere, then the 'centre' of the sphere in that photograph - the centre of the detonation, basically - is about 100 feet off the ground.

Incidentally, by the time that photograph was taken the steel tower had already melted.

[–]furbait 0 points1 point ago

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I love the power surges going down the guy wires, massive column of yowza, one end of the wire already vaporized before the other has a chance to go slack.

[–]RadicalRaid 0 points1 point ago

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So my fart bubbles in the bathtub and nuclear explosions have even more in common now.

[–]apomme 0 points1 point ago

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What's the scale of that? How far away from the blast are we at that point?

[–]IfeelSublime 0 points1 point ago

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What's the scale on this? Like a city block or ?

[–]BenjiBlakeway 0 points1 point ago

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Someone needs to give the dome a clean..

[–]greenflea3000 0 points1 point ago

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"I am become Death, destroyer of worlds." -Robert Oppenheimer

[–]shakakaku 0 points1 point ago

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But what does .026 seconds look like?

[–]Dabbijo 1 point2 points ago

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This!

edit: you missed it... ಠ_ಠ

[–]orloff 0 points1 point ago

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SCRUB BUBBLE!!!! :B

[–]BigBlackBeaSSt 0 points1 point ago

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Beautiful.

[–]TheBruceMeister 0 points1 point ago

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Jellyfish creep me the fuck out.

[–]mysmilingmask 0 points1 point ago

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Epic jellyfish.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point ago

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Looks tasty.

[–]i_am_new -1 points0 points ago

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it cleans so you don't have tooooooo /joe dirt

[–]smitti9 -1 points0 points ago

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WHAT THE FU---

[–]jjb227 -1 points0 points ago

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kinda looks like ying yang symbol a little

[–]Tennyson98 -3 points-2 points ago

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http://graememitchell.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/nuclear_detonation_2.jpg

I have killed this alien before!!!

              IIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
             I""""""""""""""""""I
           I"""""""""0000"""""""""I
          I""""""""""0000""""""""""I
         I""""0000"""0000"""0000""""I
         I""""0000""""""""""0000""""I
         I""""0000""""""""""0000""""I
         IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
           | |  | |        | |  | |
           | |  \_\        /_/  | |    
           \ \                  / /
            \_\                /_/

[–]communistcow -4 points-3 points ago

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The Clitoris?

[–]syntaxgs -3 points-2 points ago

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It prolab lee The Rock it roud

[–]nullCaput -2 points-1 points ago

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BOOM

[–]dick_hole2 1 point2 points ago

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Headshot.

[–]_mach 2 points3 points ago

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Everything-shot.

[–]appliedphilosophy -1 points0 points ago

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Even though it does not have kriptonite, how on earth could Spuerman stop that from expanding? Of course he could swallow the bomb just before it explodes, but even then, it does seem like it would kill him.

[–]furbait 0 points1 point ago

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or give him outrageous farts

[–]fatfook[!] -1 points0 points ago

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Of all the things I've seen in my life, nothing even cones close to how scary a nuclear explosion is.

[–]r4mtha -1 points0 points ago

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that's not iraq.. those are just balls!

[–]portage -1 points0 points ago

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We'll meet again

[–]SchrodingersHotBox -1 points0 points ago

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Happiness

[–]Evernoob -2 points-1 points ago

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Looks like one of the oozes from world of warcraft.

[–][deleted] -2 points-1 points ago

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I thought it was a hard hat at first.

[–]j1mmie -2 points-1 points ago

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That's no moon.

[–]potatosack -2 points-1 points ago

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we all scream for ice cream...

[–]acs43 -2 points-1 points ago

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you jelly?

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