NLBS #27: NASA Never Spent One Million Dollars on a Pen, and more BS Misconceptions

Loved the video!

My favorite line:

"And you don't want your cat to have diarrhea."

I had to pause the video because I was laughing so hard!

Hi Joe, something you said about a "lead" pencil is not correct. Pencils have never contained lead (Pb) but instead have cores of graphite and a clay binder (probably kaolin) based core. One cannot get lead poisoning from a pencil. The shards in space would be undesirable, however.

en.wikipedia.org...

Other than that, love the videos and keep up the good works!

a reply to: NightFlight

Sure… but they're still commonly referred to as a lead pencil for some reason… and you buy lead refills for mechanical pencils. Go figure.

originally posted by: NightFlight
Hi Joe, something you said about a "lead" pencil is not correct. Pencils have never contained lead (Pb) but instead have cores of graphite and a clay binder (probably kaolin) based core. One cannot get lead poisoning from a pencil. The shards in space would be undesirable, however.

en.wikipedia.org...

Other than that, love the videos and keep up the good works!

The Lead(Pb) was actually in the paint on old pencils.

source

So after moaning about NLBS hogging the front page I thought it only right I watch one...

Thoroughly enjoyed it!

that vid of the guy of the guy getting struck by lightning multiple times. Oh man I even posted that on some sites, and there is all kinds of talk about it either being fake or being real long before even that, bunch of people in one camp or another, some even did whole frame by frame comparisons and all kinds of examples with anything that the lighting is not real ie the way the whole scene lights up is not how it would happen in real life and even a few were arguing that it was fake because the way the lightning comes, which in most cases everybody know lightning travels from the ground into the sky. Or even that its fake because the way the shadows on the cars in the street dont match the light pattern in the still frames, or how because in some it looks like the shadows of the cars are still there even when the lightning hits and light up the area.

To even that the thing was messed with and shoped, they dont even believe that somebody would just get struck like that and walk off, or they believed he fell then got back up and fell again and the lightning was added in latter. I mean its ridiculous what a little vid would do, even that the little spots on the ground which are shown clearly when he gets hit and gets back up are even fake. Personally I think its real, but hey who knows, it could be faked, I suppose we just have all these guys going around faking lightning videos all the time for one reason or another.

OH and some cats do like milk and are not effected by it at all. Not my cats though if I put milk in one bowl and water in another they will go for the water, but cats in other parts of the world really dig the stuff, this I have seen.

Good show and nice change of pace.

They're getting better and better.

There's sure no shortage of material.

a reply to: theNLBS
The video was informative, but I think it should be noted that there is actually no lead in the writing core of the pencil. It's all graphite.