this post was submitted on 06 Apr 2025
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Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

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Posts and discussion about the webcomic Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal by Hugo Award-winning author Zach Weinersmith (and related works)

https://www.smbc-comics.com/

https://www.patreon.com/ZachWeinersmith

@ZachWeinersmith@mastodon.social

New comics posted whenever they get posted on the site, and old comics posted every day until we catch up in a decade or so

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http://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/humourous

Alt textAll natural, in the sense of not having been made in a particle accelerator.

Bonus panelBonus panel

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[–] mmddmm@lemm.ee 12 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (4 children)

That one needs an explain-smbc...

Anyway, looks like "green vitriol" = iron sulfate (so it's enriched with iron), "spirit of hartshorn" = amonia (spoiled beans certainly release lots of this), "brimstone" = sulfur, "quicksilver" = mercury, and "aquafortis" = nitrates (on this context, but also nitric acid - afaik, our bodies can't use nitrates for anything).

(EDIT: yes, quicksilver is mercury, not lead.)

[–] Bhaelfur@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago

I thought quicksilver was mercury.

[–] Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Aquafortis is specifically nitric acid. It's called that because it can dissolve "any" metal except for gold. Where "any" is "anything they knew about in the middle ages".

also, green vitriol is actually green. And blue vitriol, copper sulfate, is (surprise) blue. Copper sulfate is also what they put in antifreeze as a vomiting agent. I once had a single drop as a mistake, and it works REALLY well.

[–] psud@aussie.zone 3 points 2 months ago

And the stuff that can dissolve gold: aquaregia

[–] davidgro@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

Quicksilver is mercury, but anyway thank you!

[–] Scubus@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Where are you seeing aquafortis

[–] ryedaft@sh.itjust.works 9 points 2 months ago
[–] mmddmm@lemm.ee 3 points 2 months ago

All from the first result in Duckduckgo. Mostly wikipedia, but I got "aqua fortis" on some dictionary.