Shiniest living thing?

How are fireflies not considered shinier? They farking glow!!

Here's the Khloe Kardashian of fruit: 

disagrees

Grither: How are fireflies not considered shinier? They farking glow!!

Because this fruit reflects light kinda like a traffic sign, not through glowing with bioluminescence.

Ooooooh Shiny!

lokisbong: Because this fruit reflects light kinda like a traffic sign, not through glowing with bioluminescence.

So it's the most reflective living thing. Not the shiniest. Does the sun not shine? It sure does. So something that actually frickin glows in the dark would outshine something that merely reflects light.

That makes me a sad tarpon.

It's probably poisonous

How's it taste?

Grither: lokisbong: Because this fruit reflects light kinda like a traffic sign, not through glowing with bioluminescence.

So it's the most reflective living thing. Not the shiniest. Does the sun not shine? It sure does. So something that actually frickin glows in the dark would outshine something that merely reflects light.

I would call a firefly a "brightest" living thing and the sun the "brightest" thing in our sky but not shiny. I think of chrome bumpers and and mylar balloons and glass mirrors being "shiny" and kids with add getting distracted by them. but maybe that's just me.

Bright versus Shiny

THE SHINY CANDY LIKE BERRY!

It amazes me that no matter how cutting edge of a material we think we've made, there's almost always a better example of it in nature sitting on a beetle's wing casing, or spider silk, or worm jaws. Real advances in materials will come from finding how these natural systems work and how we can exploit their underlying principles.

So would that qualify it as MEALS^TM or CHOW^TM? 

/Dr. Raven Sable

poorjon: It amazes me that no matter how cutting edge of a material we think we've made, there's almost always a better example of it in nature sitting on a beetle's wing casing, or spider silk, or worm jaws. Real advances in materials will come from finding how these natural systems work and how we can exploit their underlying principles.

Holy shiat, why didn't anyone else in the history of mankind think to look to nature for anything useful whatsoever for advancing our species? I will use this knowledge you have passed, O Oracle poorjon, and elevate humanity beyond our current pathetic state into an age of untold glory and wonder. Truly your wisdom is Divine Providence, and will be looked up as a shining beacon...I can't go on, you're a moron, people have been doing this forever, you moron.

But do they taste good? This is important.

roc6783: poorjon: It amazes me that no matter how cutting edge of a material we think we've made, there's almost always a better example of it in nature sitting on a beetle's wing casing, or spider silk, or worm jaws. Real advances in materials will come from finding how these natural systems work and how we can exploit their underlying principles.

Holy shiat, why didn't anyone else in the history of mankind think to look to nature for anything useful whatsoever for advancing our species? I will use this knowledge you have passed, O Oracle poorjon, and elevate humanity beyond our current pathetic state into an age of untold glory and wonder. Truly your wisdom is Divine Providence, and will be looked up as a shining beacon...I can't go on, you're a moron, people have been doing this forever, you moron.

Which is why he said "It amazes me" and not "Hey, I just figured something out", you stupid shiat.

Although I suppose he could have said "Real advances in materials will always come from...", his statement is still more citing a fact than an attempt at prescience.

/you're still an asshole

Wolfmanjames: [www.sluggy.com image 269x375]

Oooh! Shiny!

Wow, a Sluggy Freelance reference. I almost scrolled right by it. That brings me back. I had no idea it was still going.

What the hell was that: Wolfmanjames: [www.sluggy.com image 269x375]

Oooh! Shiny!

Wow, a Sluggy Freelance reference. I almost scrolled right by it. That brings me back. I had no idea it was still going.

Pete Abrams is going to be up for the first "Webcomic" category in the Eisners.

He better damn win it.

/Seriously? You didn't know? Archive Crawl is required. Sluggy went from "That goofy comic where none of the stories are continual or make any damn sense?"

into (I quote):

"Sluggy Freelance isn't just good, if it were any better and published monthly it'd easily be the #1 comic each month The juggernaut of the Webomic world, and, arguably, the best and most consistent universe in comics. Characters can die, villains do quite frequently (and some come back... and they explain how and why) with all results being logical and fluid. Put down X-Men, start reading Sluggy."

A++ (Only the fourth title to get that rating from Wizard.) in 2011.

Dave Sim is also a huge fan. THAT Dave Sim.

Grither: lokisbong: Because this fruit reflects light kinda like a traffic sign, not through glowing with bioluminescence.

So it's the most reflective living thing. Not the shiniest. Does the sun not shine? It sure does. So something that actually frickin glows in the dark would outshine something that merely reflects light.

Who pissed in your corn flakes?

I will see your shiny berry and raise you gold and silver beetles

. >

Chrysina aurigans [left] and Chrysina limbata [right]

Your move science.

Jedekai: What the hell was that: Wolfmanjames: [www.sluggy.com image 269x375]

Oooh! Shiny!

Wow, a Sluggy Freelance reference. I almost scrolled right by it. That brings me back. I had no idea it was still going.

Pete Abrams is going to be up for the first "Webcomic" category in the Eisners.

He better damn win it.

/Seriously? You didn't know? Archive Crawl is required. Sluggy went from "That goofy comic where none of the stories are continual or make any damn sense?"

into (I quote):

"Sluggy Freelance isn't just good, if it were any better and published monthly it'd easily be the #1 comic each month The juggernaut of the Webomic world, and, arguably, the best and most consistent universe in comics. Characters can die, villains do quite frequently (and some come back... and they explain how and why) with all results being logical and fluid. Put down X-Men, start reading Sluggy."

A++ (Only the fourth title to get that rating from Wizard.) in 2011.

Dave Sim is also a huge fan. THAT Dave Sim.

I read it for a few years, kinda forgot about it along with Penny Arcade and 8-Bit something (used Final Fantasy characters). I tried picking it back up, but there was so much to catch up on, it became so tedious.

I don't know about that. My balls look pretty shiny if the light hits them just right.

so black men find it irresistible and take turns rubbing their penis on it...

roc6783: poorjon: It amazes me that no matter how cutting edge of a material we think we've made, there's almost always a better example of it in nature sitting on a beetle's wing casing, or spider silk, or worm jaws. Real advances in materials will come from finding how these natural systems work and how we can exploit their underlying principles.

Holy shiat, why didn't anyone else in the history of mankind think to look to nature for anything useful whatsoever for advancing our species? I will use this knowledge you have passed, O Oracle poorjon, and elevate humanity beyond our current pathetic state into an age of untold glory and wonder. Truly your wisdom is Divine Providence, and will be looked up as a shining beacon...I can't go on, you're a moron, people have been doing this forever, you moron.

Perhaps you should consider switching over to decaf. Its an amazing new form of coffee I have invented.

poorjon: It amazes me that no matter how cutting edge of a material we think we've made, there's almost always a better example of it in nature sitting on a beetle's wing casing, or spider silk, or worm jaws. Real advances in materials will come from finding how these natural systems work and how we can exploit their underlying principles.

Yes and no. Organics have the advantage of evolution to craft more useful systems over billions of years and billions of generations. However, that's also their downfall for creating "useful" substances. They're concerned with survival and reproduction, which is a bit different than human materials engineering concerns. Biological systems in nature require use of what is available in their immediate environment. Could a beetle do something even more awesome if it had abundant access to uranium, palladium, or polymers? Perhaps. But they don't have that, so they use soil nitrates, cellulose from trees, etc, to make materials. They can "perfect" it for their own survival, but they're not concerned with specific magnetic conductivity properties or malleability for rapid construction.

I would argue that our best materials engineering comes from standing on the shoulders of these concepts - we've observed how animals build structures and use materials in the organic environment, and we've begun to apply that to materials we can make that most biological systems can't - advanced alloys, polymers, nanostructures, etc.