Grrl Power #368 – Billions of bullions
Edit: Ok so I’ve updated Dabbler’s estimate from 2748 times as much, to 20 billion, because I am the worst at math. The actual worst. I’m getting a reverse Nobel Prize for it next year. A Lebon Prize.
Also, if you want to see a lot of gold stacked up in one place: British gold reserves
Having a ton of gold (531 tons, actually) in a virtually inaccessible location is not the same thing as having 531 tons of gold be totally inaccessible. Yes his identity is a secret, the location of his vault is a secret, there’s not an actual ten mile deep tunnel you can base jump down into to get the the gold, you either need his powers or something else that can tunnel through 10 miles of crust to get to it, Archon advised him on additional security he could take, etc, etc. I just wanted to include this page to show an example of a super using his powers intelligently. He does present a potential threat, but he’s not breaking any laws. It’s one of those “watch this guy closer than the strong guy making his living in construction, but otherwise live and let live” supers.
He could try to threaten cities on fault lines and ransom them for millions with is geokinesis, but he’s not living in a silver age comic book, so why would he? It is something that bothers me about a lot of supervillains. So many of them have powers, or their whole shtick is predicated on a gadget they made that with the tiniest application of intelligence could make them millionaires in the private sector. The Trapster made incredibly strong yet easily sprayable adhesive. The Green Goblin made something the size of an opened pizza box that not only can fly, it can carry the weight of at least two humans plus equipment, and based on some of the fights he’s had with Spider-Man, it’s not exactly short range either. Yes, the usual excuse is that most bad guys are a little bit crazy, but then consider this. The first time Spidey beats the Goblin, there’s this flying thing just sitting there. It’s not like the crazy bad guy filed a patent for it. Ok, maybe the first version before he went crazy, but Goblin’s been around for a while, and he’s probably upgraded the flyer, and post crazy, he’s probably not keeping up with the patent process. Somebody would take that thing apart, file their own patents, and boom. Delivery drones, extreme sports gliders, hoverboards, military hovering sniper platforms, whatever. Someone would do something constructive with it. That’s why I’m careful not to throw a lot of gadgeteers into the world, because it would cause an irreversible tech spiral, and the comic world would diverge dramatically from our own.
I actually worked out Dabbler’s math. The total amount of gold mined is estimated to be a 25 meter cube, converted that volume into a sphere, found a reddit thread where someone worked out the total volume of gold in the mantle and core to be a 52.25 mile sphere. Convert to meters, divide by 2 to get the radius, etc. Dabbler only had to google the volume of an Olympic sized swimming pool (which she can do in her head with her cybernetics) and did the rest in her head. She estimated the volume of gold because she knows the size of Earth and it turns out the composition of Goldilocks planets that support life are all pretty similar. (At least in the Grrl Verse) Spinning solid core surrounded by a mantle creates a magnetosphere, without which higher order life won’t evolve because the local star blasts the surface with too much radiation, and solar wind strips away too much of the atmosphere. Earth orbits a medium sized yellow sun which says a lot about its composition, planets are coalesced from stellar dust, debris and asteroid impacts, etc. Anyway, she’d been on enough planets to come really close on her estimates.
Harem jokes about marrying multiple people on this page, but legally, she is still considered a single individual.
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The Sun is white. It only looms yellow because the nitrogen in the atmosphere scatters the blue wavelength. NASA colors their photos yellow because the misconception is so widespread no one believes them.
For a good example of what happens without a magneto sphere, see Mars.
For those wondering about that: A picture of the sun as seen from Mars
https://i.imgur.com/GQM9epd.jpg (it’s a white dot)
Which is a stupid policy, as it helps propagate misconceptions, rather than educating people, to correct them.
Colouring photos to help features stand out is one thing, but pandering to public expectations, with photo manipulations, is another. Especially as the ignorant will then have photographic proof to argue their case, in a dispute. They will not think to check the small print, and could end up making a previously informed person unsure of their facts. After all, they are being shown a NASA photo, that ‘proves’ them wrong.
Do you have a source that NASA does that? And that the reason is “public misconception”?
There are many good reasons for false color images, public expectations is the least one.
How about other space agencies like ESA?
I was not the one making the claim. However they constantly do tamper with the colour, with no explanation other than ‘color enhanced’,* so I was willing to run with LaughingTarget‘s claim.
* For instance when you see photographs of the Earth from orbit, or the older ones from the moon,** it is hard to imagine valid reasons for changing those.
The most plausible, to my mind, being that boring pictures do not grip the imagination so much. Hence touching them up creates better PR. Whilst good for NASA budgets, it still does not make me approve of the process.
** Thank goodness for the guy who, very recently, decided to let us have all the raw untampered images!
Here’s a view of the Earth and the
darkfar side of the Moon, in one shot, to show the proper contrast between them. And a contrast there is.+1
ESA do much the same. And it irritates me equally. Mind you the fact that I prefer to have my news filtered by (otherwise) reliable news agencies does not help. Their editorial process will opt for the more visually appealing altered images, rather than choosing raw ones. Regardless of what might be made available otherwise.
But, personally, I would prefer that the media stopped that. Just the same as with, more commonly heard, complaints about celebrity photographs, on the front cover of glossy magazines.
Worse, it gives fuel to the conspiracy nuts out there who claim that NASA is a shill for the Illuminati or whatever shadow government they believe in. Granted, those people are rightfully dismissed as crackpots with no evidence, but why give them anything resembling an advantage, even if it’s really not?
But how do we explain Superman then? He’s supposed to get his powers from our yellow sun, isn’t he? If our star is really white and only appears yellow, then doesn’t that mean he shouldn’t have any powers? Or at least not the same ones that he seems to have?
Maybe Clark Kent is just delusional . . .
Perhaps that explains his glasses (other than their mysterious disguise capability)? They are actually rose-tinted. Which weakens his super-strength somewhat. Making it a bit easier to avoid accidentally squishing folks.
Then, when he flies up into space, he slips on his ‘Earth atmosphere simulating’ contact lenses. Very discreetly, of course, as he would not want to reveal yet another weakness!
While the sun is white. It’s classified as a Yellow Dwarf. So technically still Yellow Sun Radiation.
https://planetfacts.org/yellow-dwarf/
Our concept of “white” exists because that is what is put out by the star we evolved next to. Our sun is “yellow” because of it’s temperature relative to other stars. Color Temperature yellow and Crayola yellow are rather different things.
And now I’m picturing a big ball of Magnetos, each of them yelling “Welcome to die!” as they roll around absorbing other Magnetos.
na naaaa, na na na na na na, na, na katamari magnetoooo~!
Not related to this page, but an interesting discovery nonetheless:
During the past few comic pages, Yorp had been doing calculations on a chalkboard for something & I wondered how he held the chalk. Well, now I wonder if Yorp also paints…
https://acidsquirrel.com/post/85838
Some animals are smarter than people expect.
Remember to all hail the One Squirrel. Give her an offering of your nuts and she may let you live.
Nooo! A Squirrel cultist? You’re nuts!
Hey DaveB, nice page.
Such a powerful geokinetic could be really OP if he goes rogue..
I found a couple of bugs in the text:
In Zeph’s last speech bubble in panel one, he says the guy has “siphoned an olympic size swimming pool’s worth of gold from the mantle”.
A quick search suggests that an olympic size swimming pool costs about a million dollars (depending on facilities), which is about 1.5 L or 28.5 kg (63 lb) or 2-3 bars of gold.
So, that should probably be “an olympic size swimming pool’s volume of gold” right? :)
Also, shouldn’t panel two read “its value as well as to …”?
Eh, colloquialisms.
If I say I have “a truck’s worth of lumber” I generally mean I have enough lumber to fill the bed of a truck, with no need to ask how old the truck is, or what it would sell for on the used car market.
A truckload would be more common in some areas of the USA, but less so in others.
Well, maybe it just looks weird to me because English isn’t my first language.
Perfectly understandable. Whilst I am a native English speaker, I actually spoke other languages more frequently on a day-to-day basis, as a pup. I had many Afrikaans friends, and Rooinek or Afrikaner, we all enjoyed speaking in various tribal languages. Especially as it allowed us to confound adults with our ‘secret languages’.
But, as a result, I have always been aware of the peculiarities of the English language. So am very sympathetic with the ‘outsiders perspective’ (I certainly did not identify as English, when younger, I was a South African).
Everyday speech can be very relaxed, and Dave was writing it correctly to reflect such. Public school educated* individuals (as Zephan is likely to be, from what we have seen of him) will tend to be more grammatically correct than average speakers. But the dialogue above is well within normal speech patterns, even factoring that in.
* This is another weird English term. That turn of phrase actually means ‘educated at elite institutes of higher learning, such as Eaton’. These are fee-paying institutions, usually involving boarding school education, and are typically the domain of the rich or privileged.
So is not to be confused with the broader English-speaking world’s concept of ‘public school’. Albeit that the latter is the far more logical (unless you know the detailed history of the turn of phrase)!
Note that this is just regarding the above turn of phrase. The various different categories of English schooling (not to mention changing policies, over time), means that even British speakers might say ‘public school’ when they mean to be saying ‘grammar school’ or as an abbreviation of ‘publicly-funded school’. So I have learnt to listen very carefully to context, to interpret what people actually mean.
Colloquial usage can be like that.
What’s even better? I’ve used the phrase. I *know* I’ve used the phrase. When I was typing it out for the example it just looked alien and weird, despite the fact that I’ve used it in casual conversation. My speaking and typing languages use different mental tracks.
I’ve been told by people learning English, especially American English, that it’s the second-hardest foreign language to learn, right after Japanese. The reason why is that Japanese has five different levels of formality ranging from ultra-polite to downright rude, as well as different forms depending on whether the person speaking is a man or a woman, while English not only has really oddball expressions (“method to his/her madness”, “the coast is clear”, etc.) that come from classic literature and professional jargon, but also steals words and even phrases from other languages all the time, and its syntax is pretty much insane relative to more “sensible” languages. Many other languages have definite rules about how a sentence can be constructed; English syntax has so many exceptions and just plain weird rules that it probably seems like it was created by crazy people. (Then again, considering how many Americans must appear to the rest of the world… -_^)
i can say as a non native english speaker that that is bullshit, maybe its because i learned it when i was little but english isnt hard at all to learn specially if you spend some time on the internet, hell i had a more dificult time with french and its from the same family of my mother language (which is spanish)
I think your versions would be more concise, which is actually how I picture Zephan talking, but it reads pretty naturally I think. I’m not sure about the “as well as to” in the second panel. I could go either way with that, but re-reading it now, I don’t like his use the the word “well” twice in one sentence, so maybe I’ll revise it a bit if I get a chance.
I’ve seen several comments in here about super villains wanting to rule the world. My question for about the last 40 odd years has been, “Why?” You’ve 7+ billion people, most of whom don’t get along with anyone else, to keep in line and keep track of for taxes and whatnot.You’ve got the Catholics who don’t like the Protestants who don’t care for the Jews who hate the Muslims some of whom want to kill everybody that isn’t them. Then you have the racial issues, the sexist issues, the political issues (Communists vs Socialists vs Capitalists vs the Poor). And you, Mr(s). Super villain want to volunteer for the job? You got it. Here’s your gavel. The first forklift full of paperwork will be in in just a minute. Welcome to Hell.
I totally agree with you – to the extent that I cannot even imagine why anyone would want the job of President, or Prime Minister, or Chancellor, or whatever.
Back in ye olde days in the US, as I understand it, people didn’t want to be seen to want power. Nobody ran for President since that just wasn’t done. Basically, they got together a team to do all of the campaigning for them while their friends pretended to be trying to persuade the politician to accept the job if and when they were elected.
Certainly, absolutely anyone who WANTS to be President / Prime Minister / Chancellor / etc. should be regarded as morally suspect at the very least. And/or probably crazy.
A friend of mine often refers to an SF story which he says has the right idea. Unfortunately, I don’t know the title or any further details. Anyhow, in the USA of the future, the President is selected from the general populace by a suitably programmed and thoroughly unbiased supercomputer. It is not a voluntary process either. Final selection is based on the needs of the time, looking for someone with the psychology, education, background, etc. most suited to dealing with the demands of the office
Did I mention the selection is involuntary? First inkling the “lucky” President-select has is probably upon waking up in the morning to find the Secret Service is serving breakfast – and all set to drag him / her to the White House immediately afterwards for swearing-in. Yes, the Secret Service is around to both protect the President and prevent any escape by same.
The standard term of service is four years, though there is time off for good behaviour. Do an especially good job and one can get out in less time. Get selected once, complete the term, and you’re off the hook for good.
Have to say, looking at the crazies out there who either are or WANT to be heads of state in various countries, something like the above process has a definite appeal..
One other story I had used a similar premise. Albeit that volunteering was permitted, even if it rarely happened. But with a darker twist. The leader was executed, at the end of his term in office!
Only the most dedicated individuals, who placed the community above their own welfare, need apply. Because there were no frills or perks about being the boss. So even the hedonistic would not get a kick out of the job. The guards were there to ensure both that was enforced, and that justice was not evaded, at the end of service.
belgarath series has the best version a person is elected to office and forced to run the country but while they do that they can’t go home and do the job they normally do and after office they get a fee for how well the country prospered under the time in office to help rebuild the normally failing job (some people are lucky to have competent coworkers/employees that keep the place running OK) the elected was pulled from and no-one could pull office twice in a row. it was also a dutchy under a different name with the ruling party working as a farm cook but that doesn’t really matter to the discusion.
I don’t know about any Sci-Fi stories with this premise, but DC’s Legion of Super-Heroes has this exact method for selecting the President of EarthGov. You get drafted. The computer selects you based entirely on ability and suitability for the post.
Hmm, sounds like undetectable super hacking would be a pretty useful power in that verse.
“Evil Inc.” got around that ‘messy little problem’: they aren’t out to rule the world, just rent it, that way it’s up to the owner to sort out problems like leaky taps and overflowing toilets :D
Oddly, a group of super villains actually taking over the world for a brief time might fix a lot of that. Common oppression and common enemies would cause those groups to mentally re-categorize the other as “allies”.
A good dictator would be FAR superior to the politicians we have today to.
Theoretically: A benevolent (wise, well informed, etc) dictator is the best form of government. In practice that never happens. The closest we have come to that in the US is FDR, and even he had severe faults (like interring Japanese Americans)
A few have fairly good reputations in history. Much of it written by folks who had a ‘benevolent’ dictator looking over their shoulder mind. Or folks from later generations relying on such earlier sources.
Picking one as an example though, Alexander the Great. He did have to put down a few rebellions, so obviously not everyone was happy. But consider this, he had a policy that conquered nations were not to be treated as second-class citizens. Once they submitted to his rule, and paid tribute, they had all the same rights as citizens in Macedonia or Greece.
Something that most subsequent national leaders (of any nature) failed to learn from.
I believe the Roman empire did the same thing. I’m pretty sure not every Caesar was awefull
Nope. Remember their Empire ran on slavery. Throughout the Empire any Roman (or those allies raised up, above their countrymen, to live a Roman lifestyle) demanded slaves to keep them living in luxury.
Their entertainment were coliseums (the one in Rome just being a big example of something common throughout their empire). Said entertainment being people fighting to the death. Condemned women might be executed, by being tied naked to a pole and releasing a hungry predator. All in the arena, for the enjoyment of the Roman public.
Only by comparison to other Emperors, some were more enlightened. Especially as their preferred method of promotion was by assassination. But, no matter which one was in charge, if you were a typical Gaul or Briton or Hun, you were, at best, a second-class citizen, and, at worst, a slave.
Mind you one emperor did have a vision of a cross, when on a battlefield. And then proclaimed it was a sign from God, requiring that the Empire convert to Christianity.
But, from that point, they are no longer called Emperors, but are referred to as Popes.
benevolent dictator? Havelok vetinari, from the discworld series?
No well pre-dating his novel writing. But Pratchett was obviously equally well read as myself, and with similar tastes. So he was probably inspired by the same source, if the storyline sounds that familiar.
Not that such is necessary mind, it is a simple enough line of reasoning, that I am sure it has been thought up many times, under different circumstances.
But Pratchett was quite open, in his writing, about using common community intellectual property, for inspiration. The world being on the back of a turtle, being a prime example, drawn from an existing mythology. So either could be possible in his case.
Singapore’s recently deceased Founding Father/ Prime Minister is an example of a very successful benevolent dictator. Though he actually seen as a dictator.
That would be Constantine the Great, IIRC. But he was not a Pope, and was far from the last Roman Emperor.
I did abbreviate history, a wee bit, didn’t I?
:-D
From what I understand, there’s actually quite a bit of debate as to whether or not he actually saw a Christian symbol and converted or if he noticed the large number of people converting to this strange new cult* and decided to use it to his advantage. What is known, however, is that he decided that rather than the literally hundreds of different factions of Christianity that were around at the time, he was going to have one single, monolithic belief system for his entire empire, and forced the Nycean Council to convene, agree on one set of books for the Holy Bible, and one common dogma for the single Christian Church to use, in order to cement his hold on power.
*I use the word “cult” in the technical sense of a new religious movement created by a charismatic founder and possessing clearly defined dogma, rather than the derogatory meaning of “any religious group that I don’t agree with and think is a buncha whackjobs”.
So now we all know who to thank for the Spanish Inquisition, the Black Death, the Crusades, and so forth…
I certainly would not want to shoulder the burden. Not for anything short of saving humanity from destroying itself!
And even then I would want to be rid of the task, at the first available opportunity. But would go to extreme lengths to ensure my successor was not a sociopath. Plus would try to ensure a method of selection which did not bias towards doing that in future.
John Dalmas in his book “The General’s President”… awesome book just for the concept of someone doing almost exactly that…
I nominate Dimitri from the finished webcomic Spacetrawler.
Everything you said is pretty much why most “world-domination” type villains are considered crazy. Then there’s also the history of those types of (normal? Well, non-super) people in our real world that went crazy in the attempt.
As far as I’m concerned, anyone who actually wants a position of power pretty much confirms that they’re mentally unstable at the least & shouldn’t be granted such power in the first place. In truth, only the people who don’t want the power can be trustworthy with it, but only so far as they’re kept under scrutiny & can be removed from the position…Just in case they go crazy from the stress of it.
Some comic universes handle this issue by having “gadgeteers” be simply superheroes who have a phychological hang up. They are powered supers just like Maxima, they just can’t manifest it unless there is a physical thing that allows their mind to think is the source of the power rather than their own selves. Grab one of their devices and take it apart and all you find is a jumble of wires and led lights and nuts and bolts that don’t even work well as a prop, much less as a flying skateboard.
In the early Wild Cards books (“mosaic novels”), there was a character that was called the Modular Man, that was essentially a humanoid robot built by a Mad Scientist, Maxim Travnicek. Modular Man was intended to be a prototype used to demonstrate Travnicek’s designs to the military so he could mass-produce them and make lots of money. There were two problems:
1) Travnicek’s construction / production notes were made during essentially a “fugue state”; they made *no* sense when he came out of the building/adapting of the Modular Man.
2) Travnicek had a bad habit of giving large amounts of autonomy to the construct, which lead to develoment in the AI in area far different than he originally intended.
All went well, however, as Travnicek was always able to repair the Modular Man and add a great deal of new tech to him, until the day day Travnicek ran in “Typhoid Croyd” (otherwise known as Croyd Crenson, whose powers changed every time he slept – one of the best characters in the Wild Cards books). He was called Typhoid Croyd because he could give people the Wild Card virus (Takis 1 Xenovirus) by touch – including people who already had the virus (and yes, Travnicek tested positive for the virus but never displayed any powers). After that, he lost interest in the Modular Man, being far more interested in all the new senses he had.
If you haven’t read the first 6 Wild Cards books, you should. The books that come later are also good, but those first six were just amazing.
For most of the super hero games I’ve played in, “technomancy” relies on either “Black Box Science” (“well, we put in the blackbox, it works…”) or the character himself ends up being the power reserve for the weapon / gadget (“That Flat-Bed Semi? Yeah, that’s the capacitor for the pulse laser. We’ve got three more on the way. If four shots don’t take it out, we’re better off running…”).
I seem to recall Power Girl once questioning the rational behind super-criminals who invent tech worth millions to steal a gem worth half a mil, tops.
The half-mil gem might actually be a test run for a scheme to break into one of the DeBeers storage facilities.
But when you break the DeBeers monopoly like that, wouldn’t the gems also turn as worthless as they should be?
Flawless plays on that very fact, as part of its plot. An enjoyable film that I would recommend watching, rather than reading the plot. Obviously it substitutes the fictional ‘ London Diamond Corporation’ for De Beers, to avoid any lawsuits. But, given their very monopoly, it cannot be taken as anything else.
Although doing so does allow it to keep the feeling very much as a London setting.
Taking down DeBeers would make them a hero, not a villain.
A quick question for Yorp, DaveB or anyone else who might know about using tags. Which one do I need to use to put quotes into boxes in a post?
I use “
” at the end of the quote, without the ” “.
hrmph. Blockquote cite and /Blockquote cite. Add the pointy things at each end and your quote in between the two sets.
Thank you much!
Success! :D
“cool”
Balls. How do you even get such curved quotation marks?
I am not sure what you mean? The ones you had in your previous post are how they normally appear (automatically turning to face the text, on either side, and, for computer fonts also flipping upside down). Not necessarily normal for some other languages, but that is how English quotation marks should be shown.
If you are talking about embedding them in a blockquote, just use the following format:
<blockquote>”text_you_want_to_type”</blockquote>
Which should appear as:
I’m sure I’m not the only one, but damn I really didn’t recognise Leon.
He does seem to be aging as the fidelity of my art increases doesn’t he?
Yes, he looks much too old for Sydney now. She needs to think elsewhere for a suitable boyfriend, I think. Maybe someone with a nice English accent? Not Zephan though, he is even older!
You know, I had a thought a while back that all those gadgeteers could explain why technology in comics is able to keep up with our world even though years are passing inside while decades are passing outside.
Heh. Fight a paradox with a paradox. I like it!
I’m assuming the Geokinetic must have some sort of secondary power to allow himself to not get crushed by the heavier pressures that far down.
Err the primary powers would specifically be able to handle that. Pressure of earth/rock being countered directly by geokinetic power. Heat resistance is the implied secondary power that he might have.
I say implied simply because he could alternatively have incredible range on his powers. Allowing him to draw up gold from the mantle without having to descend to that depth himself. And likewise letting him prepare his vault,* at an otherwise inimical depth.
If the latter is the case, he probably has quite a complex means of travelling down there, as it does state that there is no tunnel. But it is doable. For instance moving aside the hot rock, as he descends, taking a column of cold, but insulating, rock around him. All the while using his power to counter the pressure.
Provided he descended fast enough that his shell/column of rock did not heat all the way through to his habitable pocket, he would be fine. The more powerful he is, the greater the volume of cool rock he could use. And he could take passengers (like Sydney did with Daphne, in her shield), thus explaining the presence of Archon members in panel 2 above.
* It would take a lot of engineering, but a well insulated outer area (either very thick or enhanced with his powers, much like Iron Cloth does with Archon armour) combined with a long heat vent, to cooler depths, would do the trick. The luminous walls depicted hint towards the latter.
Note that cooling, via engineering, would involve tunnels, but they would be cooling features leading down into the insulating layers, rather than the vault itself. And would not need to go anywhere near the surface. Plus they need not be filled with breathable air. Although if intending to use thermal cooling, rather than just conductive, it would require some kind of air, or fluid.
Possibly they could be filled with a liquid metal. Mercury springs to mind, but he would have other options at those kinds of temperatures and pressures, which might be more suitable. Hot highly toxic metal though would have a deterrent factor, in itself.
Albeit that thieves would probably be happy siphoning that off en-route. But such activity would be detectable by sensors,** thus giving him some warning.
** See my comment, elsewhere, for how to monitor those, from the surface.
I don’t think there is such a thing as ‘cooler depths’ at 10 miles deep.
Unless you mean closer to the surface, but that’d defeat the point of having his vault that deep.
It’s possible he has some sort of super conducting metal rods running all the way to the surface in order to syphon off the heat. No need for a tunnel. Maybe his powers capable of forcing the heat to travel up like that
After all, if he has some kind of tunnel running down, it could be drained and descended
I do mean closer to the surface. But you can still do that in places where they would not get close to existing mines. There are very few mines (as best I know from general knowledge) which go so far down as to suffer from heat problems. I have been down some mines, as a tourist, and they were all bloody cold.
If he did put his mine in international waters, he could have the shafts go close to the sea-floor, then top it off with metal radiator fins into the ocean. Just as one alternative. Another might be to come up into the middle of a mountain range, one that is inaccessible and mineral poor enough, that it is not mined. The Arctic being another obvious option, albeit that mineral rights and sovereign ownership would become more of an issue.
I did point out that having any shaft filled with things other than air would compensate for the compromised security. Super conductors would indeed be a viable solution, though. Except that the ones we presently have prefer to be kept abnormally cold.
But it is reasonable that a geomancer could enhance them to operate at room temperature rather than needing liquid nitrogen cooling too.
Or he might just have technology down there to keep the heat down and scrub the CO2 instead, like Yorp suggested.
Without somewhere to syphon the heat of TO, it’s impossible to keep it cool forever.
Closest example would be space probes designed to go near the sun (for example) which need to be kept cool but can’t do so simply by radiating heat. They carry years worth of cooling agents, but as soon as that runs out the probe will overheat
And the only place that you could syphon that heat off to is the surface
Nope. The near surface will do. There is a vast volume of cool rock and soil in regions between the surface (the bit we walk on) and 10 km down.
If I were him I would choose a mineral and fossil fuel poor area, where the surface is unsuitable to farming. This will naturally be an unpopulated region. Or, if not, find another. There are plenty of those around. Then narrow down the options to somewhere that has subsurface lakes. Ones that are too deep, underground, to conveniently access by folks seeking to farm even these inhospitable areas.
Again, that is not uncommon. So he can then pick and choose a spot that is convenient to him for tax or mineral right purposes.
Then just run his superconductor (using your preferred technique) or thermal cooling shaft (using mine), from the vault, up to the area with the subterranean lakes. I would use radiator structures, to top off the shaft (rather than letting the fluids get anywhere near one another). And would pick a spot for those that had natural flow anyhow, and further scope for thermal circulation.
That would then allow the heat to be dissipated naturally, amongst the surrounding geology, without conspicuous thermal shafts needing to approach anywhere near the actual surface. Underground lake networks can extend for tens of, or even hundreds, of miles. More than enough to keep a (relatively) small vault cool.
A nice side-effect being that even future mining would avoid the area, as the lakes would interfere with that.
And the heating of the lake would just be taken as natural geological heating, from volcanic sources. So he would be wise to choose somewhere where that would seem plausible from the geology in the region (but not getting too close to any that would actually complicate his own cooling system).
My point was that without any sort of tunnel upward, that deep down (far, far deeper than the Marianas Trench even) the amount of pressure on the rock around the cave and the air pocket trapped in there, would be immense, and would have to be very, very, very hot and probably have a significant amount of CO2 buildup as well. Which might explain why Ariana had to catch her breath, but not sure why Zephan wouldnt have been in the same state. I can understand why Maxima wasnt though…. unless he has some secondary power to keep changing the CO2 to oxygen and also some secondary power which somehow offset the pressure that deep down. Regardless of how the rocks surrounding it are, that deep down, they’d start heating up and liquefying normally.
Also there has to be some sort of secondary power involved just from the fact that they arent all getting the bends from descending and ascending from that deep within any reasonable period of time :)
Think of it like this – the marianas trench is 7 miles straight down. And surrounded by water instead of rock. Even so, the amount of water and the pressure around any craft is so high that there’s no material strong enough of doing down that deep without being crushed by the pressure. And even if there was, there would need to be pressure pushing out at the same level to not still get crushed anyway. His vault seems to be twice as deep from the diagram. So he must have some sort of power which either negates that pressure, or some way to make the rock or whatever around him STRONGER than the pressures being exerted on it in order to keep the people inside from dying (including himself).
Little note – the bottom of the Marianas trench exerts the pressure of 1,100 atmospheres. And it gets exponentially larger the lower you go.
Much of the mantle the rock remains solid, and only behaves like a liquid in geological time-frames (science jargon for ‘millions of years or more’). Basic fact checking confirms that the melting process begins at 75 km depth. Although, recent research suggests it may not be until 200 km depth.
Ok now I must be fair, you did not claim yourself that liquefaction was involved. But that is what would be necessary in order for the pressure from the rocks to be directly transmitted to air. Loose soil and gravel can behave like a liquid mind. Hence tunnels and mines needing artificial walls and supports going through such areas.
But if you have a tunnel through rock, the pressure (if built right) is distributed through the surrounding rock, avoiding a collapse. The deeper you go, the more intense the pressure, and the harder it will be to do that.
However we can see the vault does have an arched ceiling (and appears to be made of something super-enhanced). So granting artistic licence, and ignoring the engineering difficulties if building with just concrete and steel, all the rock pressure has no direct bearing on the air pressure.
However, contrary to an earlier answer of mine, there would be air down there (in that case my intent was to say that naturally occurring air filled voids of this size would be unlikely, but was trying to be very concise). However there would be air in between soil, in cracks and so on. This becomes pertinent, if the air is not cut off in isolated pockets.
Anywhere that air is under direct pressure, it will be transmitting that to the surroundings. It does not like being compressed (at all) so will do that very well. I shall ignore any issues about air turning into a liquid under severe compression, as the temperatures at these depths complicates that. Air or liquid, the same kinds of pressure effects would still need to be considered.
So even if our vault is avoiding the pressure of the rock above, it will be feeling the effects of the air pressure from the surrounding region. So your point about the pressure below the depth of the Mariana Trench is well made.
To solve this our Geomancer simply needs to locate his vault in solid rock. No air within that means no air pressure. He would need to bring in any air he required, but it would be under as much pressure as he wanted it to be. Essentially the vault is like a submarine. And that answers your issue about the bends.
The air will only be suffering sea-level pressure (assuming he chose to pump in sufficient air to do that), so there will be no risk of the bends (in his vault or in any similarly pressure proofed means of getting to or from it). Submarines can rise from the ocean floor to the surface, and crew can safely exit without needing to go through decompression.
Your comments about CO2 are true. But they would be solvable by the same technologies as used on a submarine. Bear in mind that nuclear ones can stay submerged for years at a time. The only reason why they can do that is because their energy source does not burn up oxygen. And this area has thermal power coming out of its butt. So we can assume he has a plant down there giving him unlimited electricity (as implied by the vault being illuminated).
All of this allows the vault to exist independently of him. With the nice cinematic effect that if the walls are infused by his super energy and he dies, that they might cease to work. As we know super heroes emit an aura that delays complete collapse of such structures, until the moment that they are exiting them. Phew!
Ok, my previous dealt with his vault. He clearly spends some time on the surface, enjoying spending the odd gold bar every now and then. But I have shown how it does not need him there actively supporting it. At worst he needs to use Iron Cloth’s trick of enhancing the walls.
At best (and I leave this to any engineer readers) sophisticated construction techniques and free access to the toughest materials on Earth might be sufficient for the vault. All assembly being handled by his power.
Getting to and from it though, would clearly require using his power, given there is no tunnel. I covered how he can cope with the heat elsewhere, so shall ignore that here, and just deal with the pressure.
To handle that all he needs is a thin shell of sand around him.
See, problem solved.
Oookay, I see you looking sceptical still? He has geokinetic powers. In order to use his telekinesis he just needs his medium of choice. Silicon will allow him to exert whatever force his power can provide. Clearly he has power enough to overcome the forces even deep within the mantle. So raw power is not a problem for him.
Thus no matter how much pressure the surrounding rock (or more pertinently the pressure from air and other materials behaving in a fluid-like manner), he merely needs to get his grains of sand to push back even harder. He can ensure that his habitable pocket is under no pressure at all. Allowing him to transport himself, his oxygen supply and CO2 scrubbers, power supply and passengers, as if in a submarine.
Ok that sand shell pushing the air back will be generating heat. But then you just refer to my previous solution for heat. Carrying a large volume of cool rock, in a deep shell, around him. Ensuring that the pressure is being pushed back on the outer part of that, rather than pushing just from the inside.
And, of course, he would be moving the hot rock out of his path, as he advances. In solid rock, he could even take advantage of forming a vacuum to help insulate and surround his rock submarine. This would allow very fast passage with no turbulence. When in suitable regions. And can deliberately form such, within his vessel, by layering his shells of cool rock, onion style, with voids between each layer.
DaveB, in your comments you’ve essentially described the ‘Cut Lex Luthor a Check’ trope :)
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CutLexLuthorACheck
Kinda wondering if any of you have ever read a book called “how to succeed in evil” it’s about an efficiency consultant effectively banging his head against the wall trying to get supervillians to act not only subtlely but profitability only to be inevitably undone by his clients unfortunate sanity shortages.
I was just reminded of this by DaveB ‘s comments about supervillains missing obvious profit from tech sales. Not a big book but a good fun read
Regarding the idea that Supervillains would be better off selling tech legally, I’d point you to the end of the CutLexLuthorACheck trope page that Pander mentioned. Going the legal route opens you up to all sorts of problems you don’t have as a Supervillain. Sure you invent an Arc Reactor (for example) that could power your fleet of killer Omni-Droids and conquer the world, but the moment you try and market it all hell would be out to noon. Every fuel company in the world would send their lawyers to bury you under a mountain of legal red tape, not to mention they’d be pushing their pet politicians hard to get the device banned as “Dangerous”. Every battery manufacturer in the world, and Apple, would be suing your ass for patent infringement, claiming they invented and have title to something similar. Sure you’d be able to find business colleagues to help you bring it to market and handle the legal mess but remember what happened to John Dearheart!
Look at Tesla. Brilliant man who invented awesome things and ended up dying poor because the system is rigged to favour those who already have the money and to enable them to steal anything that might make them more. If anything, I would have thought going legal is more likely to turn an honest businessman into a Supervillain rather than the other way around.
IMO, Tesla is not actually a good example for your claim.
All technical brilliance aside, he pretty much made a career out of being a doormat. When it came to finding employers (eg. Edison) OR assistants (eg. Marconi), seems like he almost always ended up with total d##ks, who would then screw him at their convenience.
Because that is pretty much who populates the high end of the corporate world. They frequently aren’t d-bags in their non-buisiness lives, but they “maximize shareholder value” by being “shrewd and efficient”. AKA: screwing people over to get more money, patients, and market share.
+1 to each of the above,* in this thread.
* +3 to be distributed evenly, to ease the qualms of any probate lawyers reading this. Specifically to Mark, 7thsealord and aboo, just in case claim-jumpers attempt to insinuate themselves into the thread.
Claim-jumpers can expect to find a wormhole appearing underneath them, on their way down from their jump, to introduce them to Fluffy and Miss Kitty Fantastico.
Probate lawyers??? Wiktionary sez:
Bit strong, old chap…
Anyway, given the nesting, no usurpers are possible. We’ll have to earn our prized “Yorp +1” ™ the hard way.
I’m quietly confident of getting one before the revolution.
*cough, cough*
Wheeze.
Don’t worry… gasp…. I *voice fading*
I think I will pull through….
Last panel keeps making me think that Harem would gladly be one for someone… in exchange of massive amounts of money.
Erm, by “Be one” I mean “a harem”, in case that’s not really clear.
Note, she did only say ‘four sisters’ She’s still keeping one Harem in reserve for her independence :)
four to one is still a harem ratio.
I was wondering if moonlighting is permissible in the US military? That site seems like it might be reputable, but would be interested to hear from readers in the know, either about its reliability or if they are correct in indicating that it is.
Obviously my curiosity stemmed from the vault owner being potentially in need of super security. And thinking that it would be in Archon’s best interests to ensure that he did not have to turn to the private sector to obtain it. Given that the ‘secret’ is now known to all of Arc-SWAT, they would at least be a suitable pool to draw security from, without further endangering the secret to the wider world.
Not that any of the members should be hurting for money, of course. But, who knows, one of them might want to buy Peggy a helicopter for her birthday?
who says they aren’t ALREADY doing it? Remember we are coming into this story as of when Sydney comes into it… but in the press conference it was stated that Archon (in whatever name) has been around since the 1800’s at least. where else do you think their PAYCHECKS are coming from? the government selling off those $500.00 Hammers*?
no, those are going to fund the secret base under Area 52…
active duty military is considered on duty working 24/7 even sleep is part of the job maintaining government property (the soldiers body) and can not get a second job officially. reserve is allowed another job as they are only soldiers part of the time and not paid/provided the same as active (leaving survival a matter of having another job)
Mmm, that is the kind of attitude I would have expected the military to opt for, at first thought.
Ah the Lebon Prized named for Gustave Le Bon. I originally looked him up as a joke since Nobel was a person but the more I read on his wikipedia page the more fitting an award for being wrong seems to be.
How hot would a cavern 10 miles underground be? Would there be significantly higher air pressure? Would there be any oxygen down there at all?
Hot enough to kill, without protection. Yes, it would be like being deep underwater. With comparable risks of the bends, if rising too fast. Unlikely, as air filled voids would be collapsed by the weight of the rock, in natural circumstances.
In other words, that vault has some form of sophisticated (or super powered) protection beyond being a simple cave.
Isn’t the earths core significantly denser than most planets of equivalent size?
To to higher amounts of iron in our core and all that?
We cannot even say for sure what Venus’s core is like, and that is right next to us! However we do know that the overall density of Venus is indeed less than Earths. And you are correct in as much as Earth is the densest planet in our solar system. But that is too small a sample size to assume that holds true elsewhere.
For example, we have only found one exoplanet with lower density than Earth, Kepler-138!
But do not read too much into that statement, as that is thought to be a mini-gas giant, rather than a rocky type planet. Plus (although I am happy to be corrected by astronomer readers) we have too little information to reliably predict core compositions for exoplanets.
Given the lack of consistency in size to mass, it is clear that exoplanets have a wide range of material components. But presently we are limited to statements like ‘probably gas giant’ or ‘probably rocky’. However equally either (in the near-Earth size bracket) might be a watery world, with a rocky core, or something completely different.
<blockquote cite="…we have too little information to reliably predict core compositions for exoplanets."
To be honest, we don’t even have a real core sample of our own planet either…In essence, what we got is the “best guess” available to indirect methods of study, such as measuring electromagnetic fields, & the like.
*sigh*
I intended to type “only found one exoplanet with significantly lower density than Earth”, but when I spotted that I failed to, I decided to have a look to see if we had an actual list, for near-Earth planets by density.
But have reached my boredom threshold without finding such. So shall just leave it as the above, amended, statement. I have no reason to assume that the Earth is anything other than average though. There are only four rocky planets in our solar system, and one of them had to be the densest.
Oh, and I was restricting all my exoplanet comments to the near-Earth sized categories. Obviously gas giants will be less dense. The size limit was intrinsic to the question asked though, so it should not be necessary to emphasise that.
But my pedant-detector sense has been tingling, nonetheless.
For once, Maxima blends in.
nope, the Digi-camo’s give her position away… she’ll have to strip to the buff, in order to blend in…
*tap tap tap tapity tap tap*
*glances up, through the haze, caused by a steaming hot keyboard*
Sorry, bit too busy to reply. Something inspired me to start working on a screenplay for Grrl Power, After Dark, the Movie.
[buffs fingernails on shirt lapel] “I have my moments…” *
*= (they’re few and far between, but i DO have them… and NO they’re NOT “senior moments”… :D
Total gold mined in history : 183,600 tonnes which is 9513 m^3
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold
volume of an olympic swimming pool is 2500 m^3
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic-size_swimming_pool
So the total gold mined in the world would fill 4 Olympic swimming pools, with the fourth pool 80% full. Arianna got it wrong saying it would barely fill one olympic pool.
The volume of an olympic pool is about the same as a cube 13.5 meters on a side.
all the gold ever mined would be a cube about 21.3 meters on a side.
One pool worth of gold would be 2500 cubic meters which is 48,250 tonns of gold
at $35,000/kg which is todays gold price that would be 1.689 Trillion dollars
so he is still obscenely rich even if he only has 25% as much gold as the rest of the world combined. :)
Arianna is sitting down for this. Zephan is talking.
She has to do that. All the memories of her money-gasms, in the vault, will be causing her severe… um…. moistness problems. She really does not want those to be spotted, by the audience.
What if Zephan Zoeng acquired an ancient magic potion “known only to a tribe of ancient Gauls?”
He has Dabbler duplicate it with the proper ingredients,right down to mistletoe cut with a golden sickle!
All the ARC members line up to consume it.
Except Dabbler doesn’t let Anvil have any…! :(
Anvil:Why can’t I have any magic potion???
Dabbler:Because you fell into a cauldron of the stuff when you eight years old and it had a permanent affect on you!
Anvil storms off like a perpetually stubborn nine-year-old.
Sydney calls Joel and tells him to order some Asterix comics for the shop
He he.
Oh, and you make me realise something interesting. We have no characters who have expressed an interest in music yet. Other than the ‘My Little Pony’ ringtone. They should be very wary of turning on a karaoke machine. I suspect that Achilles will have a cringeworthy Elvis impersonation. On par with the Asterix bard’s skills.
Actually, you missed someone else with an interest in ringtone music; Arianna has the Empire Theme Song on her phone, used for Maxima’s ringtone…
Has anyone seen Super Hiro recently? Just compare jaw sizes, if you suspect a magical disguise might be in use.
Because it looks like the real one has been captured, on video, conducting a secret test!
wow….i wonder where zoeng gets his facts. Im pretty sure Fort Knox could have done that on its own
but it is a comic and i have been a idiot before so i could be wrong horribly
He gets his facts from the readership. Yes, it is true, we have opened a gateway to a world of superheroes!
And we don’t have any superpowers, ourselves. Uh, guys, is this such a good idea?
Ahh, what can go wrong? What flowers do you think Sydney likes? Never mind, I will wing it when I get through…
Harem jokes about marrying multiple people on this page, but legally, she is still considered a single individual.
That kind of caught my eye. I mean it is reasonably easier for her to just legally keep her old personal identification documents and claim she is a singular individual.
But if she would, for tax purposes, for example, decide to claim to be separate persons, how would that go? Based on what would court decide whether they are separate persons or one and the same?
One person
• Harem only has one birth certificate. Further she can only use that to apply for one driving license and one passport. So all legal paperwork only identifies her as a singular individual.
• Harem has only one mind. One mind = one person.
• In a democratic country, like the United States, the principle is one person one vote. Had she cloned herself, in the normal fashion, and each clone developed separate memories, as they had different experiences (ie also not having her telepathy), then they might have different opinions.
Thus an argument could be made that they were different people. With identical opinions though, if Harem were to be recognised as five people, she would gain five times as many votes as normal. Yet, being of one mind, would vote as a block. Giving her five times more say than a normal person. This would not be permitted.
Especially when you realise that, in principle that there is nothing stopping her from creating 235,248,000 copies. Which would grant her one more vote than the entire voting population of the USA. Should she choose to run for office she could vote herself as President, without a single other person’s vote needing to be counted!
The five version argument decided to submit itself before being completed *sigh* And I can’t be bothered incorporating counter arguments to those here. But ultimately the one person ones bear up more under scrutiny. However Harem would need special consideration in various respects.
Such as tax breaks to ensure that the needs of five bodies get recognised when balanced against society assuming that each person would only have one. Or allowing her more than one copy of her drivers licence, so that each body can provide ID on demand. Or allowing her to vote for State issues, for each body living in different states. But restricting her to a single vote for national matters.
Harem jokes about marrying multiple people on this page, but legally, she is still considered a single individual.
That kind of caught my eye. I mean it is reasonably easier for her to just legally keep her old personal identification documents and claim she is a singular individual.
But if she would, for tax purposes, for example, decide to claim to be separate persons, how would that go? Based on what would court decide whether they are separate persons or one and the same?
Five people
• Harem could apply for a birth certificate, for each body, as she creates it. Including the option of applying for one retroactively. She could argue that the act of duplicating herself was giving birth to another person. Wherever it happened would be considered the ‘place of birth’.
• If she is only considered one person, then a malicious person could destroy one of her bodies, but not be chargeable with murder or attempted murder. Provided they had no intent to destroy any of her other bodies, they would have no intent to murder the person. Given that she would still be walking around, with her other bodies, even had they succeeded. Harem would lack the fundamental right to protection from being killed.
• Harem could have a body kidnapped, yet not be deprived of her freedom, because her other bodies would be at liberty. Could a kidnapper be charged with any offence, if that body, on its own is not recognised as being a person, in her own right?
• Many countries allow people to apply for nationalisation, after they have been living in the country for a set number of years. Should Harem decide to live in five such countries, she will have met the criteria to apply for nationalisation in each.
Thus each country would recognise her as a citizen of their country, issue her national identification papers. Therefore each of the five bodies would gain legal recognition in her own right. This would also gain her recognition as five individuals, under international law. Able to be conscripted, and die for her country, if need be. Each body separately, for its own country.
• If the previous argument is true for foreign countries, should it not be true for the United States of America?
• If Harem chooses to have each body live in a separate State, in the USA, should she not be granted the right to vote for her Senator? As a resident of the state, she would be entitled to do so. Yet if she were only recognised as a single person, she would only be allowed to vote in one of the states. Is it fair that the bodies resident in other states would have no legal right to representation?
• If Harem’s extra bodies can killed and abducted without it being recognised as murder and kidnapping/unlawful imprisonment respectively, is not allowed to vote and is not legally recognised as a person, she cannot be held to account as a person for her own actions legally. As such she could commit any act, criminal or not, with impunity. Not being considered to be a person, she could not be held accountable as a person.
• Harem will be working five jobs. But, even if she worked for five different companies, and got paid five times as much, if she were counted as one person, she would
• Each body could live a completely separate life. Already they have been educated in five different ways. Each can have a separate career, and yet be far more effective in each one, due to the knowledge gained from the other five.
(Sorry for necroposting, but this is an interesting philosophical argument lol)
If Harem is one person, each of her bodies is basically analogous to a body part of a human; therefore, we can make philosophical and legal analogies based on that:
>Harem would lack the fundamental right to protection from being killed.
On the contrary; the situations in which someone would not be charged for her murder are precisely the situations in which she is not in fact killed; she would still be walking around alive. It would be like cutting off a body part–traumatic, and still illegal (probably classified as battery), but not lethal, and perhaps slightly less awful than cutting off a normal human’s body part assuming she can clone herself back (and therefore effectively “regenerate”).
>Could a kidnapper be charged with any offence?
Yes; their behavior would still be battery, just like if you grabbed a person, zip-tied their hands around their back, and left.
wow that guy is missing out. being a geo kinetic would be the only way to dive into that money pool safely.
If I had that much gold, I would want to have a pool of it, in gold-dust form. Although I would not be able to swim in it, I could build gold-dust castles! Then I could roll in it, and sunbathe in it. And when it got too hot, for my paws, I could dive into the adjacent real swimming pool to cool off.
Then, when I walked up to the car park, I could tip the attendant, for bringing my golden Cadillac convertible,** simply by giving myself a good shake, before getting in!
*shakes a cloud of gold-dust, for all and sundry*
** A far safer way to experience the joys of driving, than the alternative.
Just a point of clarification, there is probably about 3 1/2 Olympic-sized swimming pools full of gold that has been mined and is in circulation. In terms of the ratio to the total amount of gold in the mass of the earth, still small.
The last panel has Arriana’s face but based on the context (outfit and dialogue) shouldn’t that have one of Harem’s faces instead?
No, Harem cannot carry passengers (other than Varia). Her capacity is too low (Peggy’s gun is her upper limit). Both Arianna and Maxima must have been transported down there by the geomancer, however he does that for himself and the other things he had to bring down from the surface (such as lighting and carbon scrubbing equipment).
See this thread above for my speculation on the details of how he does that (the relevant post being right at the end, of the thread, as at the time I am writing this).
Based on her collar it appears to be Harem in the last panel. She resembles Arianna because she is the blonde Harem with her hair pulled back.
For some reason people never seem to bring up the Comstock Load when discussing super-powers and acquiring wealth via valuable mineral extraction. Probably one of the largest known sources of silver in the world and going down nearly a mile into the Earth the only reason it was never depleted as technology simply could not deal with the demands it imposed to mine it out (the heat and pressure being one problem, and the inability to keep up with the pumping needs to deal with the flooding being the other). A super who could mitigate that could easily work out how to legally mine it all to his profit along with everyone else’s.
Didn’t Family Guy already show us what would happen if one tried to dive into a “pool” of solid coins?
Yup. Just check the author’s blog above, to confirm that. Dave provides a link entitled ‘Obligatory’, which shows the relevant clip.
Can’t help but wonder if that guy helps fund their group for not making a stink about what he does?
Wonder away. But it is not necessary. They are cops and he is doing nothing illegal.
However bribing cops would be illegal. If he did that, they would have an excuse to take him off the streets. Thereby remove any fears that politicians might have about the economic threats he poses. They (the government) certainly would not be happy having their combined super army and super police being in the pocket of a private individual. So would not authorise any pretext he might use to legally fund Archon.
So you may cease wondering. Archon’s political masters would already have enquired if there were any legal pretexts to arrest him on. The fact that none were found, is sufficient proof that he did not make a bribery attempt.
No way it doesn’t fill an Olympic swimming pool. I mean, literally googing How Many Olympic-Sized Swimming Pools Can We Fill With Gold?” provides a different answer. Specifically 3.17 pools as the 2007 estimate.
Your comment estimates 25m^3 mined gold. However it’s more like 157,000 tonnes, which when divided by the desntiy of gold gives 8.2 million liters (not 25,000). The amount you used wouldn’t even come close to a single pool.
It bugs me that he’s wrong here. But it bugs me more how you’re value is so off from the true value.
It looks like you misread DaveB’s comments. He said “25 meter cube” not “25 cubic meters”. The difference is 15,625 cubic meters versus 25 cubic meters! That comes out to 15.6 million liters which is very close to your estimate of 8.2 million liters.
First the “Lebon Prize” quip (which made me chuckle like an idiot), and now you link to Perodic Videos? Dude, you are my frigging HERO.
I’m not even kidding, either. I said it once before, way back in a much earlier comic, but your writing is pretty much exactly what I want my writing to be like for a particular story I’m writing. So this comic is enormously enjoyable and inspiring to me, and you’re seriously my hero.
This… would only be a problem to countries that still use the “Gold Standard”.
Which… I don’t know of any off the top of my head. America, everything in Europe, China… they all use currencies instead of gold anymore…. I think.
I mean when’s the last time you went to buy something and thought “This item costs ‘this many’ ounces of gold!?” Or did you think of the price in terms of your own currency?
In essence, gold is now a separated commodity that can be exchanged for money, but only because the society you exchanged it in allows such a trade.
Gold is almost like an “obsolete backup” for money nowadays.
Graphene… now that’s a miracle substance!
Imagine the Graphene standard… Oh boy!
Malleable income discoveries! No wait… I want them to use that to make rollaway TV’s so I watch Netflix in my camping tent….
Hmmm… or a shirt that can display custom designs or logos from a queue.
Uh… screw a currency standard… I want Graphene technology!
GIMMIE!
The more I think about it, the more I think this resembles Chekov’s Economic Downturn.
I’m not placing bets, mind.
It’s not a liquid! It’s a great many pieces of solid matter that form a hard, floor-like surface!
fun fact, I recently did the math, and though if measuring the opening to base of the Kola Super Deep Bore Hole is deeper than the Mariana trench measured from sea level to base, however, since the bore hole is on an elevated peninsula it is about 1/10 of a mile more shallow id you measure from sea level to the base of both