Idiot Test

[phoenix]

In article <33...@hplabsb.UUCP> b...@hplabsb.UUCP (Bruce T. Lowerre) writes:
>> >What is a nickel primarily composed of?
>> money
>You may not believe this, but the correct answer is copper.

It actually depends on where you live. Here in the glorious Dominion of
Canada (known to you Ahmurikans as "The Great White North"), nickels
are made of 100% pure Canadian-mined nickel, mostly mined in Sudbury
(you know the one: the acid fumes from the smelters have devistated
the land around the town so badly that Apollo astronauts came here to
test the lunar rover, because the area so resembled the dead surface
of the moon).

Of course, our silver dollars are nickel, too....

--
The Phoenix
(Neither Bright, Dark, nor Young)

---"A man should live forever...or die trying."
---"There is no substitute for good manners...except fast reflexes."
---"Never appeal to a man's "better nature". He may not have one.
Invoking his self-interest gives you more leverage."

[Henry Spencer]

> ....100% pure Canadian-mined nickel, mostly mined in Sudbury

> (you know the one: the acid fumes from the smelters have devistated
> the land around the town so badly that Apollo astronauts came here to
> test the lunar rover, because the area so resembled the dead surface
> of the moon).

Yes, but for reasons having nothing to do with acid fumes. The Apollo
astronauts trained at Sudbury because the Sudbury basin is strongly
suspected to be a meteorite crater. The barrenness of the landscape was
irrelevant, although this misunderstanding was so prevalent that the
mayor of Sudbudy (among others) took offense.
--
Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry

[Mark Brader]

Going off on a tangent to something in net.jokes, we find:

> > ....100% pure Canadian-mined nickel, mostly mined in Sudbury
> > (you know the one: the acid fumes from the smelters have devistated
> > the land around the town so badly that Apollo astronauts came here to
> > test the lunar rover, because the area so resembled the dead surface
> > of the moon).

Henry Spencer remarked:

> Yes, but for reasons having nothing to do with acid fumes. The Apollo
> astronauts trained at Sudbury because the Sudbury basin is strongly
> suspected to be a meteorite crater. The barrenness of the landscape was
> irrelevant, although this misunderstanding was so prevalent that the

> mayor of Sudbury (among others) took offense.

But he left out the interesting part. The nickel comes from the meteorite.
Something like 70-80% of the world's total supply of nickel comes from
this one meteorite! [I can't find where I read this, but I suspect that
it refers to the total of nickel that has been mined rather than reserves.]

Mark Brader