Our intrepid trio can’t help but be impressed that a traffic cone was successfully used to break the security glass surrounding the crown jewels. Well done.
This one via the request line:
sarcasmtrumpsapathy asked:ok ok i got one! what if moriarty actually used a traffic cone to break the crown’s glass? lol
Teach me the way of Traffic Cone. Look! More! #traffic cone tag.
sebitron asked: Just wanted to comment on the aerogel question, from some quick research it looks like this would be a highly unlikely solution because it's incredibly expensive (several places sell small sample disks for $30) so anything large enough to actually break Sherlock's fall would be prohibitively expensive. Also, regardless of cost, aerogel is a brittle substance, even if it's strong, so the impact of a falling body would cause it to shatter.
Some kinds of aerogel aren’t brittle, but still. I just don’t think that’s what we’re dealing with here.
It’s great for catching space dust, though. So somewhere maybe there’s a little space dust Sherlock and John and Jim…
Anonymous asked:
You’ve already confirmed that the binary code was nonsense. Could you *please* stop the absurdity that is this: bakerstreetconfessionsDOTtumblrDOTcom/post/18737768724 You’ve already nipped the “sos” debacle in the bud and this is just as frustrating…if not moreso!
Hmm. After this post and this post, I’m running out of ways to explain that the supposed “binary code” Jim tapped was nonsense that doesn’t translate to anything.
But I guess I can think of one more way to try proving Jim didn’t tap “there is no key” to anyone who’s still confused. Let’s give it a shot.
Step 1: Look at the screenshot above. Those are the first few digits of “binary code” Jim tapped out when he was in 221B. (Check at about 1 hour and 10 minutes into Reichenbach if you’d like to confirm this.)
Step 2: Go to a binary translator such as this one.
Step 3: Use the translator to convert the text “there is no key” (or “THERE IS NO KEY” or “There is no key” or all three) into binary code.
Step 4: Compare the first few digits of the translated binary with the first few digits in the screenshot above. They won’t match, because Jim didn’t tap out that or any other message.
Anonymous asked: I don't have time to research and calculate this myself, but can aerogel be used to soften a fall? I don't know how hard it is but it's some kind of clear substance.
…are you assigning me science homework?
If so, as much as I love science-ing, I respectfully decline.
Even without doing a bunch of research and math, I can say I don’t think aerogel is very likely as a solution. Here’s the usual three reasons thing, though there are more:
- Clear is not the same as invisible.
- I don’t see how that fits into the idea of “fair clues” at all.
- Any explanation of how Sherlock could have quickly acquired sufficient quantities of aerogel to involve it in his plan in any way would surely be complex enough to raise questions of why he didn’t use those same resources to make simpler and safer arrangements.
evil-sherlock-holmes asked: no obviously sherlock wanted john to recognise him by ... not his face.
Oh, what crazy, mutant Reichenfeels there would’ve been if Sherlock had been naked when he jumped.
dancingsoot asked: I was rewatching ASiB, and something dawned on me. It is a coincidence that both Irene and Sherlock disguise their deaths as head injuries?
I don’t know if I’d even say Sherlock disguised his death as a head injury, exactly… It was more like a jumping off of a building injury that involved a head injury.
Irene did the head injury thing so the corpse couldn’t be easily identified as not-her, but Sherlock had a different goal. He wanted John to see and recognize him. So yes, I think any connection there is coincidence.
howtoquityou asked: Did a quick scan of your lists (brilliant, by the way, absolutely brilliant) and not sure if I missed it, but do you have anything to do with the question of why Sherlock was bouncing a rubber ball when John came to visit him the morning of the Fall? Maybe it's a hint (something stuffed under Sherlock's coat to cushion him from the impact - wouldn't be surprised if Mycroft had access to the technology)?
I think the rubber ball is a much more literal clue than that—Sherlock used it to temporarily stop his pulse. See this post, this post, and this post for a more detailed explanation.
![Mark Gatiss: It’s worth saying that there were a couple of things that influenced his creation. One (which works equally for Sherlock) is the story that Isaac Newton was so clever, so brimming with ideas that when he woke every morning he had to sit on the end of the bed with his head in his hands, just to let his mind ‘settle’. I think that’s just so thrilling as an idea and we wanted Moriarty to have something of that quality. Secondly, I remember when I was a child watching Peter Sellers being interviewed and he said something at once extraordinary and chilling. He was such a chameleon, such a repository for other characters and their quirks that he said to the interviewer “I THINK this is my voice’. Like a lost soul who no longer knows what he is. That sense of an empty human being with something dark and terrible inside him, Andrew can do like no one else. [x]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m41dnqgtjV1rnw7ato1_r1_500.jpg)
Mark Gatiss: It’s worth saying that there were a couple of things that influenced his creation. One (which works equally for Sherlock) is the story that Isaac Newton was so clever, so brimming with ideas that when he woke every morning he had to sit on the end of the bed with his head in his hands, just to let his mind ‘settle’. I think that’s just so thrilling as an idea and we wanted Moriarty to have something of that quality. Secondly, I remember when I was a child watching Peter Sellers being interviewed and he said something at once extraordinary and chilling. He was such a chameleon, such a repository for other characters and their quirks that he said to the interviewer “I THINK this is my voice’. Like a lost soul who no longer knows what he is. That sense of an empty human being with something dark and terrible inside him, Andrew can do like no one else. [x]
(Source: imthestoryteller)
Right, then. Officially adding mince pies to the list of things you guys have a lot of feelings about.
Anonymous asked:
Thank you for answering my crazy mince pie question (and with the silly/awkward Sherlock eating screencaps)! They’d definitely be a novelty food item out here in California. At Christmas, my local grocery store might have two shelves of kale chips while prepackaged mince pies would be on a bottom shelf with a sad little sign saying “A Merry Olde English Tradition” to try to explain their presence.
utherandarthur asked:
In response to the anon’s question about the food shown in A Scandal in Belgravia, they are indeed mince pies. Which are a Christmas tradition in England. Basically, they are sweet pastry cases filled with ‘mincemeat’ (a mixture of suet and raisins and things) which have been around since Tudor times (I think. I’m not that great on our history). They’re also quite tasty, if you like that sort of thing. :)
doubleadrivel asked:
Quite right. Mince pies are to English Christmas what zucchini are to [midwestern?] American summers. Nobody really likes them (not more than one or two a year) yet there is always a seasonal overabundance which you will find yourself trying to get rid of by offloading onto neighbors loved ones and coworkers for months… ;)
timelordlivesinbakerstreet asked:
You’ve never eaten mince pie? I saw that on the Sherlock easti one post. But Mince pies are amazing!
Reasons I have never had a mince pie:
- We don’t really do that here.
- Even though I have seen them at UK/international food shops, they’re always in the freezer case so I’d have to remember to bring a cooler if I wanted to buy them.
- Buying mince pies from those shops would clearly be foolish, because it would take up room in the car that could be used for biscuits or candy.
- Even if I was feeling foolish, I’d still have to find the vegetarian version because I don’t eat suet-based foods.
- I actually dislike the taste of most “Christmas-y” foods.
- So I don’t even eat most of the ones that are more common where I live.
- But, again, when it comes to mince pies…
- We don’t really do that here.
…
Do not toy with my feelings, sir.
“In your own case,” said I, “from all that you have told me, it seems obvious that your faculty of observation and your peculiar facility for deduction are due to your own systematic training.”
“To some extent,” he answered, thoughtfully. “My ancestors were country squires, who appear to have led much the same life as is natural to their class. But, none the less, my turn that way is in my veins, and may have come with my grandmother, who was the sister of Vernet, the French artist. Art in the blood is liable to take the strangest forms.”
John watched helplessly from the wrong building as Sherlock was about to actually ingest a lethal dose of tiny traffic cone.
Let me tell you about traffic cones. Let me show you more: #traffic cone tag
Anonymous asked:
This is a bit ridiculous but do you know or could you crowd source what the food item that’s pasted around the Christmas party (and Sherlock later steals one from Mrs. Hudson’s fridge) could be? It’s like rounds of white bread with melted cheese on top maybe? It strikes me as an odd food item when it pops up in Scandal but I don’t know English food very well (not that I’m looking for recipes since English food is, well, English food).
Ooh! Wait! I know this!
Not that I’ve ever eaten one in my life, but I saw it mentioned in passing at some point: they’re mince pies.
