[765] The Ol' Donlan Slowball

Haha, nice. I love Kat wearing leggings!

Maybe they could fly it over.

snes: Don't think I haven't forgotten that little bit of nonsense a second ago. I'm watching you.

Riiiiiiiight.

Kat sounds like she's channeling some 19th century Victorian inventor!

Because Gunnerkrigg's security is perty lame.

Do you guys think ether-Annie could fly?

Edit: haha Max! You beat me to posting. I was thinking of Tom's comment too.

I'm one to tend to believe that everyone gets all the references, but I have to remind myself that I've probably read ch. 1 over 100 times in the course of the GKCFP. I have to say, I was amused at how even Kat's pose is the same as Annie's was. That was funny.

On another note, to all the speculators from the last page's discussion thread: seriously, ever heard of Occam's Razor?

Nice. Very self-referential. Glad to see Tom's not above poking fun at GC's melodramatic beginnings.

If 80's children's films taught me anything, it's that all problems can be solved with a remote controlled toy car.

Here's an easier way that I just thought of as I was sitting here.

Tie a string to it that is longer than the distance from the steps to the edge.

Throw it as hard as you please, and don't let go of the other end. It would end up dangling from the string, resting against the cliff face.

Then you just let go of the string. Problem solved.

But that's the non-hardcore way. And it doesn't provide an outlet for Kat's genius.

And Kat's genius needs an outlet. Believe it.

That might work, but there's a risk that the stone will bounce off the cliff face on the way down. Still way easier then building a robot though, and so worth a try.

make a LONG string, and use it as a reel. if it bounces wrong, simply pull back and make it descend slowly!

Either that, or use an etheric-aided guided rocket system on which to mount the stone! Voila, problem solved.

The problem with that is then the string has to be within a somewhat narrow range of lengths. Too long, and you can't reel it in. Too short and it doesn't make it to the bottom. But it's a tall cliff face, you don't want to be measuring the length of the string precisely. You want a plan that either uses a short string that barely makes it over the edge, or a whole spool.

Using a whole spool is worth a try as a one shot deal. Throw the spool, with the stone in the center or tied to the inner end of the string, and hold the normal end as it falls.


The problem with Kat's plan of building a catapult, is that the trajectory will still be parabolic. You'd have to shoot very high to it to be approximately flat going down the side of the ravine.

The melodrama was a comedic effect in the first place. "Only one sensible resolution to the problem." Tom's eluding to an old joke.