This spawns from playing Age of Empires 2 with a few friends, where one person repeatedly called the teutonic knight "tectonic knight".

I got on the subject of techtonics, and discovered that it would be an interesting thing to have plates and dishes, that, upon recieving the correct signal, would vibrate violently, via hidden motors or something.

This would be a great joke to play on a friend, serving them food on a plate, that a moment later, begins to shake and vibrate. Think of what would happen if you served them jello?
-- DesertFox, May 11 2005

Why a plate, why not a cubicle? Tectonic_20Cubicles
[ldischler, May 11 2005]

subduction, interesting... http://www.windows....ction.html&edu=elem
[po, May 11 2005]

You could have a strength setting, from slow vibrate, to violent shaking. Different people like their earthquakes different ways. :)

Create little houses out of the jello and slowly increase the shaking power until they fall over. :)
-- DesertFox, May 11 2005


this would amuse the children (of all ages)

whoops, my beans runneth over.
-- po, May 11 2005


Is "techtonics" supposed to be related in some way to "tectonics"?
-- AbsintheWithoutLeave, May 11 2005


as [absinthe] says sp: Tectonics
-- jonthegeologist, May 11 2005


Or maybe it's a more advanced way of ingesting gin and quinine.
-- AbsintheWithoutLeave, May 11 2005


Did your friend also misspell tectonic when he said it? (Ah, I should read the annotations...)

Anyway, this was a disappointment, because I expected plates that would slowly move around the table, driving themselves under other plates.
-- ldischler, May 11 2005


\\discovered that it would be an interesting thing\\. Please tell me that you found a book that reads to the effect of "Incorporating this into chinaware would be an interesting thing".
Personally I get my chuckles by refusing to feed my friends at all and laughing at their misery.
-- hidden truths, May 11 2005


ldishler, the vibration would probably do that :)
-- DesertFox, May 11 2005


[ldischler] yes, I had ideas of crockery that slowly inches towards the centre of the table, colliding with other plates on the way and crumpling up under the immense forces etc.
-- zen_tom, May 11 2005


wouldn't be complete without a sloshing bowl of water.
-- dentworth, May 11 2005


I have this theory that tectonic plates are the earth’s fingernails since the forward edges move at the same speed as nails grow and that their southern ends are nearly all pointy.
-- FarmerJohn, May 11 2005


what an interesting thought. are they sometimes in-growing?
-- po, May 11 2005


yes, it's called subduction. and the growth in that direction produces great pain, [po]
-- dentworth, May 11 2005


pain? in what way?
-- po, May 11 2005


In the fingers of the earth
-- maximus5, May 11 2005


figuratively speaking of pain, subduction causes volcanoes to blow, earthquakes to rumble, and tsunamis. pain.
-- dentworth, May 11 2005


sounds like a really loooong dinner....
-- sophocles, May 11 2005


i wonder what teutonic plates were like...?
-- CombatChuck, May 11 2005


Would an imperfectly-secured toupee constitute a tectonic pate?
-- Basepair, May 11 2005


Hey. Where did the pun go?
-- st3f, May 11 2005



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