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| Double-Pronged Extension Cord |
 Title text: 'Oh, and can I borrow 50 sacks of loose flour, a pile of lithium-ion batteries, a bucket of bleach, and a bucket of vinega--' 'NO!!!!!!' |
Explanation
This comic begins with Cueball approaching Ponytail at her desk, asking to borrow an extension cord with prongs at both ends. Ponytail immediately replies with a horrified "NO!!!" This design of extension cord (created to solve some power-connectivity issues, but likely to cause other problems) is lethally dangerous, as Ponytail points out. In real life this design has been nicknamed suicide cords for this reason.
Ponytail seems to relax when she persuades Cueball to use a regular extension cord instead. But then he elaborates that rather than wanting the cord to carry electricity, he actually intends to use it as some kind of support prop. He thinks the plug prongs at each end are suitable for fixing the cable between two walls (though he doesn't specify, presumably two regular wall-sockets - depending upon the exact type of plug/prongs he uses, this itself would be a problem, connecting the opposite polarities of the same building supply together), anchoring the cable as a makeshift rope so it can support something even more dangerous: plutonium. Based on his description his setup appears to be a recreation of Louis Slotin's infamous "Demon Core" or "Tickling the dragon's tail" experiment, which proved fatal for Slotin, with the extension cord replacing the flat-head screwdriver. Understandably, this horrifies Ponytail even more.
This is the third comic to reference the Demon Core experiment, after 1242: Scary Names and 2593: Deviled Eggs.
The title text escalates the innocently mentioned hazards… though arguably not as much as the radioactivity. Loose flour is a well known fire hazard and the key to a flour-air explosion; 50 bags of it plus some way to get it into the air could blow up a sizable building. Lithium batteries are well known fire hazards when overcharged, which is why the TSA restricts them in checked luggage, and there have been numerous fires caused by the lithium batteries in "hoverboards" leading them to be oft-banned in cities, airports, and by retailers who might otherwise sell them. A bank of 50 might be overkill, but if charged in parallel (series probably wouldn't work as well), could cause a noticeable explosion or fire once one of them hit its limit. And while vinegar and bleach aren't a particular fire hazard, they do release chlorine gas when combined, which is lethal.
Any acid will tend to liberate chlorine from bleach, though vinegar is a relatively dilute solution of a weak acid (acetic acid). Other acidic household cleaning products, such as drain openers, would be much more dangerous to combine with bleach, but generally come with explicit warnings about avoiding this. While a bucket of vinegar (while an unusual request, in this particular manner) could fulfil the same threat even/especially while not being so easily associated with any danger. As such, the theme of the title text appears to be "innocuous-appearing supplies which are actually quite hazardous". Ponytail, being both a more knowledgable person and intimately familiar with Cueball's 'error prone' nature, easily imagines enough of the various unfortunate circumstances that could arise. Possibly in combination.
Transcript
- [Cueball is approaching Ponytail, who is sitting at a desk with a laptop, from off-screen.]
- Cueball: Do you have an extension cord with prongs at both ends? Can I borrow it?
- Ponytail: No!!!
- [Close up of Ponytail raising her arms in an exasperated fashion]
- Ponytail: No one should ever buy or make those!
- Ponytail: They start fires, destroy equipment, and risk electrocuting you or grid workers!
- Cueball: OK, OK, I get it.
- [The view zooms back out, showing Ponytail handing Cueball an extension cord.]
- Cueball: Can I just borrow a regular cord, then?
- Ponytail: Sure. Here.
- Cueball: The prongs aren't important. I just thought they'd help anchor it to the wall.
- Ponytail: Wait, what are you-
- [Cueball is walking away from Ponytail, who sits at her desk with her hands to her head.]
- Cueball: I need it to help hold up the top half of the reflector for this plutonium core that I'm-
- Ponytail: AAAAAAAA!!!!
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