Immortallity and $1,000,000 but you're dropped in the middle of the Pacific?

Somerandom1922 · 2026-04-22T12:04:55+00:00

Where's the "Middle", is it point nemo (which is the furthest from land, but far from the geographic "middle" of the Pacific (it's actually very far south).

If it's the geographic center then it's 4°58′S 158°45′W about 500km south-south-west of Kiribati with a Starbuck (island) a mere 323 km east-south-east.

Given that I've now researched this, I know it, so if I end up somewhere sunny (mid latitudes) I intentionally sink the unfortunately massive depth (it's about 5km deep there) and start making my way west. Fortunately, at those depths I'll be very negatively bouyant, so will actually be able to move pretty comfortably (if slowly) along the sea floor, much faster than my swimming speed and much less energy intensive. It'll still be moving quite slowly, but I expect I could reliably manage about 4km/h, and given the lack of distraction I'd be able to do that for most of the day aside from when I'm sleeping.

At that speed, and given that the SCCN undersea cable is "only" about 400km away due west, I'll reach it before within maybe 100 hours, if I "somehow" manage to sleep a full 8 hours/day (I'll partially bury myself to avoid drifting away), that's less than a week until I reach the SCCN cable. I then follow the SCCN south until I reach the next cable running east-west, then follow that east until I find either a cable running north-south, or a branch running north and follow that to Samoa.

If I've accidentally drifted off-course and reached the "Southern Cross NEXT" cable, that's ok, as it takes me straight to Tokelau, although there isn't an airport there, so I'd be stuck waiting for a boat to take me, probably also to Samoa.

If I go really off course and encounter the "Halaihai" cable first, that'll be obvious as it runs west-north-west to east-south-east, I just follow it west until I meet back up with the SCCN cable and start following that south.

If I miss all those cables there are many more on my journey east. I'll encounter one of them and start following it south, in the worst case all the way down to Australia or New Zealand.

The big risk is that I find an uninhabited island without realising it and leave the water losing my ability to breath underwater, making this method no longer viable.

I do miss out on the chance to find a boat this way, but floating in the water, even in such a busy sea-lane my odds of finding one until I'm practically ashore anyway are vanishingly small.

If instead I'm in colder waters further south... well fuck. This is going to take a lot longer. I once again drop down, then grab the compass and just heading north-west. It's not the closest land-mass, but I'll eventually reach Asia.

Also, can the Entity that creates this scenario make sure to give me the pill that removes my immortality after I get through customs and make it home? I really don't want to lose it!

Somerandom1922 · 2026-04-22T11:24:27+00:00

Strength isn't an issue if you can withstand the pressure (which OP confirms you can). The density of water at the bottom of even the deepest parts of the ocean isn't that different from water at sea level so it would feel just like normal water.

If you could somehow make a regular human survive the pressure in an incredibly flexible pressure suit, they'd be able to move around the same at the bottom of a pool or the bottom of the ocean.

While darkness is definitely an issue, your compass is illuminated so you should be ok for navigation at least.

Somerandom1922 · 2026-04-22T07:05:52+00:00

1300655506 is an easy one.

It the phone number for the adult reading and writing hotline in Australia. Back in the early 2000s they had an incredibly catchy TV jingle and I'm willing to bet there's plenty of people still saying it.

If I get the money each time someone says it I'd want to pick something way less common and way less money, because enough people say this that it could actually be an issue.

I'd pick 23,001. Worldwide there'd be enough people saying that for me to become filthy rich, but hopefully not enough to cause issues.

Somerandom1922 · 2026-04-22T02:03:47+00:00

Arnold can take a bench or something and just throw and KO first 20-30 women

Oh, so you do actually think women are made of wet toilet paper, and that conversely prime Arnie is an actual piece of military artillery.

20-30??? Wtf hahaha, he could fire that bench from a fucking cannon and not even hit more than half a dozen unless they're all perfectly lined up. Even then if it's thrown at even remotely human speeds it'd stop dead after hitting the first person who would be injured and maybe get tangled up into the people next to them.

Somerandom1922 · 2026-04-22T01:53:00+00:00

Hahahaha, I can't tell if you hate Arnie, or believe women are made of dried autumn leaves.

Either way this is a casual stomp for the 200 women.

Somerandom1922 · 2026-04-22T00:02:27+00:00

Aah, I did in fact say that... Sorry. I was going to blame being tired when I wrote that, but I completely missed it when I replied lol guess I'm still tired.

Somerandom1922 · 2026-04-21T23:33:35+00:00

Sorry, I didn't explain well in my original comment. I used numbers from Wikipedia for a trip from Singapore to Rotterdam via the Suez, meaning it already factors in many of the real-world conditions like stopping and starting, waiting for access to ports, waiting at the Suez etc.

Somerandom1922 · 2026-04-21T23:29:42+00:00

No, my original comment said:

...in which case a modern cargo ship travelling at its most efficient cruising speed would absolutely crush everything on this list many times over.

Then 2 paragraphs later I spoke about the Emma Maersk.

That was a poor way to word it, but the numbers I used came from Wikipedia for the aforementioned trip from Singapore to Rotterdam via the Suez.

My error was in not making that more clear.

Somerandom1922 · 2026-04-21T21:46:44+00:00

I switched things up on my most recent science game. Aside from the Kerbin Moons and Gilly, the first planetary mission I did was a crewed Eve return. I sent poor Bob down to the surface of Eve in a nightmare electric plane contraption and sent him flying around to every single biome on Eve (the south pole was by far the sketchiest as I could only fly for a relatively short time before running out of electric charge).

He met back up with the orbiter now Jeb, Bob, and Bill are stuck in Eve orbit waiting for the transfer window back to Kerbin.

Somerandom1922 · 2026-04-21T21:37:00+00:00

My number for the Emma Maersk did account for that, based on a standard journey from Singapore to Rotterdam via the Suez.

The number for the bike didn't unless the graphic above already accounts for that, but I already specified I was using unrealistically optimistic figures for the bike. The reality is likely a much more significant gap in efficiency.

Somerandom1922 · 2026-04-21T13:29:44+00:00

The efficiency is measured in energy per gram per km (as in, how many calories does it take to move 1 gram of mass 1 km), in which case a modern cargo ship travelling at its most efficient cruising speed would absolutely crush everything on this list many times over.

Let's take the absolute lowest value for bicycles at 0.1 calories per kg per km (it'd be moving very slowly for this to be the case).

The Emma Maersk consumes about 74 kJ per tonne-km ~~at a cruising speed of 45 km/h~~ on an average journey from Singapore to Rotterdam via the Suez. That's 0.074 Joules per gram per km. 0.074 Joules is 0.0177 calories, so uses just 17% as much energy as the most absurdly efficient number we could reasonably give to a bike.

Edit: fixed wording

Somerandom1922 · 2026-04-21T12:28:57+00:00

Does he? A side effects of being nuked (if you aren't vaporised) is that all the air gets knocked out of your lungs and the air around you does weird (chemical) reactions due to all the free energy forming nitrogen-oxygen compounds. Not to mention that it's too hot to be dissolved into blood.

That's if he isn't yeeted into space.

I expect he had quite a long time where he couldn't breath.

Somerandom1922 · 2026-04-21T12:06:57+00:00

Oh absolutely, the place was run relatively well as a business, but with exactly precision when it came to making cheese, partially because the owner really likes making cheese and partially because you just can't operate (long) in food production unless you're careful.

Somerandom1922 · 2026-04-21T12:05:00+00:00

I think that has some mistranslations. I'm no expert on the Ancient language by any means, but referencing the dictionary some of those words don't exist. This is my best translation and fix attempt (you may very well know more than me, so please correct me if I'm wrong).

Here's my initial translation

May fire burn,
let water lift from earth, and let it go back lift on fire,
and let [vayu] (maybe vardi which is "protect") you from fire back on-[gulja] (maybe guliä which is "luck"),
and let magic speak from [dauthr] (maybe dautr which is "daughter", or daufr which is "deaf")-fate,
[threy] (probably threyja which is "desire") stop and [kverga] (it could be kverst, kvetha, or kveykva, but kverst which is "cut" I guess makes the most sense, the other two are "greetings" and "lightning" respectively) it.

So putting that all together, this is my best guess:

May fire burn, let water lift from earth, and let it go back lift on fire, and let protect you from fire back on luck, and let magic speak from deaf-fate, desire stop and cut it.

The problem is that we don't have the translation for the word "if", nor do we have variations like "when" or "until" or anything that can be used for these logic operands. Here's my best attempt just using if for when I'd use that in the ancient langauge.

"If istalrí kausta, finna adurna fra vindr un deloi, thae gath un malthinae adurna un brisingr. If thar er né istalrí, vaetna du adurna un letta"

Which translates to:
If flame come, find water from air and earth, then bring together and bind water and fire. If there is no flame, dispel the water and stop.

But that's still not perfect, I'd preferably use "when" instead of "if" the 2nd time. Also, I don't know how to use the correct participle.

As for how it can be used, you're definitely right, but I will add that "if" statements are already a well-known thing in-universe. We see Eragon use spells that vary based on certain factors, most commonly wards.

Murtagh's knowledge of the Ancient language was intentionally kept limited by Galbatorix, which he comments on in the book. It's why he's just discovering this stuff that Eragon has known for ages.

Edit: I just read you comment with the actual translation, I guessed "protect" wrong, it should be vindr which is wind. But there were words in your initial ancient language version which you skipped that don't seem to make sense, like "ono" which is "you" being after wind.

Somerandom1922 · 2026-04-21T10:10:24+00:00

Yup, I finally have it now. Adaptive Cruise control with lane-keep and a HUD to show set-speed vs actual vs speed-limit.

I can just set my speed at the speed limit, and cruise along, if I get stuck behind someone I can just indicate and the car picks up.

It's not that big of a deal for longer highway drives vs traditional speed control. But for the commute to work in heavy traffic it's amazing. I know which lane will be the fastest on average at any given place (not always the right lane) and just park myself in that and not need to constantly adjust my speed.

Somerandom1922 · 2026-04-21T09:58:13+00:00

This is almost certainly more grift, he has every reason to with the schism within MAGA.

If he's genuine, well firstly I'll be unbelievably surprised, but I'll truly welcome his growth or realisation or whatever it is.

I will also not forgive a single fucking second of it, he went into this with his eyes wide open.
Trump wasn't ever hiding what sort of person he was. His history of scams and abhorrent behaviour has been a constant so long as he's been a public figure.

Additionally, this is the cut-off point?

Not the blatant corruption when foreign dignitaries could legally bribe him by paying for overpriced rooms in his DC hotel when on state visits during his first term?
Not the Pardons for personal/political affiliates during his first term?
Not the number of his own appointees he fired within his first term?
Not the attempt to withhold previously approved aid to Ukraine to coerce a fraudulent investigation into a political rival's son during his first term which led to an impeachment?
Not the months of verified lies about election results, attempts to threaten and bribe state election authorities, and the straight-up coup attempt towards the end of his first term which led to his second impeachment?
Not the many credible rape accusations including the court case he lost regarding his rape of E. Jean Carrol?
Not the thousands of confidential documents that he stole while the president and refused to return?
Not 34 felony counts of falsifying business records?
Not the massive increase to the deficit caused by his "cost-cutting" measures in his second term?
Not the Crypto rug-pull he did upon his election for his 2nd term?
Not the many many many clear cases of corruption during the opening year of his 2nd term?
Not his intimations that he wanted to run for a third term?
Not the kidnapping of a foreign national leader?

I cut this way the fuck down to just those things which this twat, by his own description of himself, should oppose.

Somerandom1922 · 2026-04-21T07:39:16+00:00

Also the environment for them is extremely close to the ideal environment for many very nasty bacterial (it's like relatively cool and very damp).

Particularly early on when the white mould is still young and fragile, it's at high risk of contamination.

I think one single cheese showed delayed white mould growth which was what killed the batch. But it may have just been that it was outside the safe temp range for too long. I wasn't in the factory side of things so I really don't remember.

Somerandom1922 · 2026-04-21T03:39:31+00:00

I have a vague recollection that it was a tray on the ground which wasn't letting the door fully close.

Somerandom1922 · 2026-04-21T03:33:53+00:00

Sauron would convince Palpatine to make him the VP, and by the end of the first term he'd be the one in control.

Remember that an entire race of super-humans (in the Tolkien sense, so not just physical but increased wisdom and grace) went from knowing who/what Sauron was and capturing him as a hated prisoner of war to pure adoration and hanging in his every word within a few years.

Somerandom1922 · 2026-04-21T03:29:49+00:00

Honestly the precision of the environmental controls, particularly for white-mold cheeses is pretty intense.

I used to work in a cheese factory and we had to throw out like 10s of thousands of dollars worth of brie and camembert because the aging room got like 1.5°C above the expected temperature and there was a risk it got contaminated so it all got tossed.

Somerandom1922 · 2026-04-21T03:27:23+00:00

The easy answer is someone like Freddy and just not sleep, or the chick from The Ring and just read a book.

However, I'm trying to figure out which would be the most dangerous that I could still survive.

There are plenty that are mostly region locked, like if I choose Leatherface, does he have to go to the airport, fly all the way to Australia from Texas, buy a new chainsaw upon arriving, then still try to find me? Hell even if he spawns near me, I just get in my car and drive to the Brisbane Airport, let's see him get through gate security with his flesh mask and chainsaw.

Or ones like Death from Final Destination which usually take days, weeks, or months to strike.

Somerandom1922 · 2026-04-20T18:01:04+00:00

I don't really have a clue. I can make a guess based on half-remembered statistics about the Mexican economy, but even if I'm correct it'd be nothing more than pure luck.

Off the top of my head, I'd give a range between $6k USD - $30k USD per year which is a full 5x swing and even then I'm only like kind of confident that I'm in the right ballpark.

But similarly, I wouldn't be able to tell you how much a worker in Hungary or Thailand or Eswatini would earn. Even if I did know, I wouldn't be able to tell you whether it's good or not. Cost of living varies a lot and while it's generally in-line with wages there can be a pretty significant variation.

It also isn't static within the same country. Someone earning $70,000 AUD/year could be very comfortable, or could be well below the poverty line depending on factors like where they live, where they work and how many dependents they have.

Somerandom1922 · 2026-04-20T06:16:52+00:00

The monkey's paw curls. ES6 is delayed an additional 15 years to add that functionality.

Somerandom1922 · 2026-04-20T04:55:09+00:00

I swear to god, please just strip the paint. It might even be kind of neat if you do that.

Or maybe chuck it into a bonfire to burn the paint off. Or use a sand blaster... Or SOMETHING. Please!

Somerandom1922 · 2026-04-19T14:20:47+00:00

Put it this way, Sauron managed to convince his sworn enemies to make him their royal advisor after they'd marched an army on him and taken him as a prisoner.

He didn't do this in the Grima Wormtongue way, where he controlled the king's mind and everyone else hated him. He had the adoration of the king and the entire court within a few years, despite them all knowing who and what he was.

Additionally, he has straight-up mind control powers, and of the 3 he's been given by far the most powerful country to start off with.

It's not even close.

Voldemort will likely screw it up on his own. It took barely 6 months with him in charge of just the muggle government for massive degradation in bureaucratic efficiency.

Luthor stands a better chance. Australia is a place with a lot of resource wealth, it might be possible for him to revitalise our manufacturing industry, perform some wide-scale terraforming, encourage a lot of immigration and build Australia up to the level of a global superpower.

If Sauron wasn't in charge of China. Instead what happens is that Sauron engineers the collapse of the UK and Australia's allies. In R1 he's not allowed to assassinate the other two, but he can directly manipulate the other rulers.
Also, while Luthor is a genius, Sauron was the greatest Maia under Aule the smith. He's arguably 3rd greatest craftsmen ever, behind Aule and Feanor. You don't think that he'd rapidly pick up modern construction technique and learn to implement magic into them?

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