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From YKTTW

• Do we have a trope for "using ordinary utility in fantastic ways"?

• A real life example: using the reflected thermal pulse of a nuclear blast to light a cigarette.

Colin: When and where did this happen?

Earnest: Ted Taylor, a nuclear physicist, did this in one of the tests for an atomic bomb. It's in the pic to the right.[1]

• No! Bad Link! No Soup for you!

YYZ: I can't tell you precisely how often I've seen stuff like this, but my favorite was always the example of the sorcerer who snaps his fingers, conjures a small flame at the tip of his index - and lights his pipe or cigarette with it.

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At the start of the Fate Stay Night anime, Shirou uses his powers to see patterns to sense where broken appliances need fixing. He scoffs this off as "weak." The applications of this alone could be staggering, but of course nobody ever thinks of the applications.

Citizen: If there are implications of this alone, make a mention in Misapplied Phlebotinum—I'd be interested to hear it.

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BT The P: Should we perhaps split off the Dangerous Lighter part? It seems like it's specific enough to be tropeworthy, and it doesn't just apply to superpowers. It covers any situation where someone lights a smoke with something potentially face-burning, for badass effect.

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Raekuul: While I can never overcome "Make Pizza, Not War", might I point out that this was invoked in that one DOS trilogy, Pickle Wars? I'll have a screencap of the relevant scene soon enough.

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Is it just me or in Harry Potter, doesn't magic mess up technology, not the other way around? I'm not confident enough that I remember the line correctly, but I'm pretty sure Hermione said so. Stargate70

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Peteman: I'm pretty sure Scorpius' body armour doesn't count. He needs that suit to survive. If he would have used it to cool beer bottles under his arm pit or something along those lines, then we've got mundane utility.

• Scorpius' immensely tough body armour doubles as a coolant suit. In an inversion, the coolant rods inserted into his brain can also be used as firebombs when overheated to critical levels.