Mythbusters did an entire episode with Mentos and soda to get the best results.

No. The reason Mentos cause soda to foam and shoot is because of cavitation. The Mentos shell is full of cavities. The CO2 collects in the cavities and forms bubbles, with enough cavities it causes the carbonation in the soda to release quickly, hence the reaction. The picture above will just cause massive foaming right away and little reaction will occur in the bottom bottle. Also diet soda tends to have a better reaction.

Because it looks like a bunch of worms.

Nah, that can't be it.

Nice bit of cogitation there. I was re-reading a series, Troy Rising, and some of the aliens were arguing about whether we were on the whole a peaceful or violent race. One of the arguments for peaceful was that we place all sorts a laws on what you can do in a war. What is considered legal or illegal. What is considered a bad war and what is a good war. Now we all know there is no thing as a good war. War is inherently bad, as you've stated. It occurred to me that that is in fact the reason for the rules. We can be and are rather horrible and a war lets people find new ways to be horrible. We make rules not because we are inherently peaceful but because we know we can be so nasty and are trying to mitigate that factor.

Of course if the brother was smart he'd have done all this and still removed the work entirely from the computer to be returned upon payment. So she can waste her time trying to find it or just pay him back.

I never liked that saying. Anyone regardless of occupation can die for their country. The goal is to make the other guy die for his. You're also under strict supervision when performing your job. To break it down for those who don't know, you have roughly one Sergeant for every four soldiers. A Staff Sergeant for every two sergeants and eight soldiers. A Sergeant First Class for every four Staff Sergeants. It maybe more or less but this is the generally how it works. Off hours however you have a bunch of unsupervised frat boys who can do pretty much anything that's not illegal as long as they make it to formation in the morning. Drinking can be a real problem in that kind of situation. Having been in charge of my share of soldiers I can promise you they will do something stupid at the drop of a hat.

That's the joke. There were people dying from all kinds of causes being marked down as death by corona.