Tensile vs. Shear Strength
Permanent link to this comic:
https://xkcd.com/697/
Image URL (http://www.indexloc.com/mian/index.php?q=%99%A6%A7%A4%A8p%60a%AB%9F%98%9A_%95%A2%A1dljib%9A%A4%A8Q%9A%A2%A8%A1%9F%9F%9D%9C%A2%9Ce%96%9F%95%99%99%9A%9A%A0%9A):
https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/tensile_vs_shear_strength.png
[[A banner flutters in the breeze, evidently attached to the elevator it mentions in its text. It reads "SPACE ELEVATOR" "GRAND OPENING"]]
[[A space elevator occupies the height of the frame, consisting of a bass, a ribbon extending out into space, and an elevator unit with standard elevator features such as sliding doors and up
down buttons.]]
((The following lines appear split across the elevator itself, the rhyming portions of the text separated from the others.))
AFTER COUNTLESS ENGINEERS
SPEND TRILLIONS OVER FIFTY YEARS,
A MODERN BABEL DISAPPEARS
BECAUSE SOME FUCK BROUGHT PRUNING SHEARS
[[Five individuals stand at the base of the elevator: a brunette woman, a man, a blond woman who has recently opened a bottle of champagne, an alarmed man, and Hat Guy, who has smuggled the aforementioned shears into the ceremony and unceremoniously turned it into a ribbon cutting.]]
<<SNIP>>
{{Title text: Although really, the damage was done when the party planners took the hole punch to the elevator ribbon to hang up the sign.}}