Grrl Power #1010 – Apocalypse watch
Leon and Zephan are both thinking “just hire some fish researchers and slip one of our own guys in the group” or coral researchers or marine geologists or whatever. FYI, a “fish researcher” is an ichthyologist, but a guy who studies coral is just lumped in as a “Marine Zoologist” and that makes me wonder if research professions that have their own special title are hoity-toity and swing their big science dicks around and push more specialized scientists out of the line at scientist pot-lucks, or if the guys who research increasingly obscure subjects look at the ichthyologists and lepidopterist and act all snobby and barely regard them as scientists, and are like, “I was surprised he didn’t end his paper on the migratory habits of Skipjack Tuna by asking the reader if they wanted fries with that.” Murf murf murf murf! <-snooty laughter.
I mean, you gotta figure there’s some kind of hierarchy among scientists, right? There’s got to be some disciplines that “get all the chicks” and whatever. Like I assume the astronomers are the bullies to the astrophysicists, and everyone thinks the quantum particle theorists are like the chess club, but those guys get to look down on all the other disciplines as kind of remedial.
Anyway, what going on in this page? Oh, right, well, it’s possible Sydney went swimming where few other people did, but even if she drifted out of bounds a bit, it’s not like she would have been the first person ever to be near the area the orbs were found in. It’s safer to assume either they were recently uncovered by some event, or there’s just something about Sydney that attracted them.
And yes, Ma Scoville is the family enforcer. It’s probably been like raising two children for the bulk of her adult life.
Tamer: Enhancer 2 – Progress Update: Getting Proofed!
Still getting proofed. Finished two proofer’s notes, which makes checking everyone else’s harder because half the stuff they catch is already fixed. Still, it’s funny seeing some incredibly obvious error in the third guy’s notes and thinking “well that’s definitely already been fixed” only to realize that the first two (and myself) missed it. Hopefully by the time I get through everyone, the first “final” version will have fewer errors than the average pulp novel on Amazon. Well, fewer egregious ones, at any rate.
This month’s vote incentive guest stars Lana of Spying with Lana. One of my own secret agents, Pixel, is trying to assist, with various levels of success and… nudity. Well, in the Patreon versions. The Vote Incentive will give you a pretty good idea of what might go down. Here’s a dedicated post in case you want to comment.
Check out Spying with Lana. Their current vote incentive features a certain gold-plated glamazon. Also it’s a funny comic with tons of skin.
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Syd’s dad: “Wow, I guess you have a type, eh kiddo?”
I see what you did there… I guess no one else picked up on the Aunt Cass reference. Check You Tube for “Aunt Cass Checks your browser history”. Some can get kinda randy by insinuation, but nothing too bad. It is YouTube after all.
How exactly is that a reference? Both Leon and Frix are tall, that’s what he meant.
Everything is a reference, you just have to figure out which to what and how
Every day Leon looks more like Guy Smiley.
One day he will get hit by ‘gamma rays’, lose his hair, and turn into Saitama.
now I can’t unsee it, thanks a lot!
He looked much betterer in the beginning when he had a more normal shaped head
On twitter, a while back, there was a whole hullabaloo when one of the geneticists that uses fruit flies as a model made fun of earthworms (which other geneticists use as their model). The worm guys are famously stuffy and no-nonsense whereas the fly guys are infamous for having a sense of humor and writing “fuck” in their research papers.
All you had to sa y was the ‘T’ word and i knew your post would be about people arguing about something inconsequential.
Heck, given the nature of the internet, in a few hours my reply to your comment will spark an argument about how twitter arguments are/are not inconsequential,
Twitter debates are Not Under Any Circumstances inconsequential. Have you never listened to the smaller avian dinosaurs solving the world’s problems on the power/phone lines up and down the country? Or in the trees and bushes?
I am not a scientist but had a couple of scientist friends. From what I understand (I haven’t asked in a long while), the heirarchy is something like this:
(from lowest to highest)
Graduate/Intern
Junior Scientist
Scientist
Senior Scientist
Lead Scientist
Principal Scientist
I’ve also seen them numbered (1-4 but there are still graduates/interns who I guess are 0). My friend stopped being a scientist as a profession because once you become a scientist, a lot of the title is basically based on seniority rather than quality of work. This isn’t to say you couldn’t become a lead or principal based on either serendipity or some special viewpoint or knowledge.
Again, I have no direct knowledge. It could also be sour grapes or what not. Its just what I’ve heard from scientists and researchers I have known.
As for naming, I don’t think there is a hard and fast rule. Its only if there are enough scientists that are in one class that want to segregate themselves from the general group, that a name is developed. I would guess a coral scientist/researcher would be an Anthozoaologist (coral specialist) but the name is so close to Anthrozoologist(human animal relations specialist), that it might be too confusing.
Yep, there is also hierarchy among different fields.
The unspoken top of the heap is Whatever-your-field-is+Computer-science. So if you’re a biologist, the top of the heap is the bioinformaticist. If you’re a Quantum Physicist, the top of the heap is the Quantum Physicist who writes the simulation software. This is by pure selective forces, because if you want quality data for your Thesis, you need the data-software to be able to crunch the numbers you’re looking for, which requires kissing up to the person who knows both your field *and* computers. So they’re the top of the bunch. Scientists trying to circumvent this bottleneck (or ensure other scientists aren’t *as* blocked by it) is the pure reason that the bulk of scientific programs are written in python – the easiest to learn programming language.
After them, the “official” top (which you’ll hear when people “joke” about hierarchies in science) is the mathematicians. This is because, even as very, very smart adults, most *still* hate doing math problems (and their math problems are way more obnoxious than what you had in high school!)
After them are the theoretical physicists, as they generally build the stuff that everybody else starts to experiment off of. They’re also basically mathematicians, but with weirder equations.
After them are normal physicists. Every uses them to get the numbers and values they need for their tests and experiments.
After this you have a large lump that’s all the hard sciences.
Then you get the soft sciences. Psychology, Archeologists, Historians, etc.
Then… you have biologists. You’d *think* Doctors would be super-interested in their research, but… not really. So they kind of get the short end of the stick for no good reason.
Now, all that said…. the topic was *heirarchy*. That is a 100% different topic than “get’s the girls”, which Dave *also* mentioned.
The fields that “get the girls” are two specific ones:
Psychologists and… in an an ironic twist…. Biologists.
In fact, I’ve known multiple Psychologists and Biologists who “get more girls” than Rock Stars or Sports Stars (I counted. They were just was a *lot* more subtle.) The reason being is that these two fields *specifically* study breeding. Both the act and the lead-up. You would not *believe* the number of scientific literature on human mate selection. And as a result, both these groups know how to circumvent the whole social norms of dating, flirting, etc. and optimize the process to statistical precision.
Encountered something similar when working internationally.
State Department=fully human
other government personnel (USAID, etc.)=semi-human
NGO personnel=non-human
Studying research on the MHC contributed to my finding my wife. ;) It’s actually remarkably informative about who’s going to be attracted to your smell without even realizing it. Romance is MUCH more successful between people if they differ greatly.
Regarding “Whatever-your-field-is+Computer-science”… A prior job was at a company that makes an open source file format that’s used in Big Data, supercomputing, etc. Pretty much all of our technical staff were people who had been working on a PhD in some area (ag, genetics, math, etc) and had to learn programming to complete their work. Each one decided they liked programming better (mostly C, C++, or Fortran (Python later)) and decided to work for us. They got to be the SME in their area and support the interests of the community they came from.
When it comes to biology, the medical sector pretends humans are Somehow Different and treats their fine-tuning to a single species as Something Incredibly Special. (It isn’t, get over it..).
Most of that fine-tuning is actually done by biologists… The only difference is that those peeps have specialised on humans as a species of interest instead of, say, cross-eyed stoats.
As it is we biologists are basically the Field Engineers of Science. We work in the area where theory hits reality, and as such have a rather pragmatic approach to Theory. Which the Theorists hate, with a passion.
We tend to upset their carefully crafted worlds with results that invalidate their ideas, or even, gods forbid, completely ignore them.
The fact that our discipline, by its very nature, requires us to be (relative) Generalists doesn’t help as well. The Pecking Order in the Sciences is entirely focussed on specialisation. Generalists are generally considered “inferior”.
Not that we mind… We simply recognise the deep-seated inferiority complex of the Specialists and simply use all that knowledge they *don’t* have to wind them up…
And yes, we do get the Girls ( and the girls get the boys..). Between us and the Psychologists we cover the entire spectrum of Sex, Drugs, and Rock ‘n Roll. It’s only natural… :P
Department of Corrections (prison police) hierarchy seems to go:
Yard Rover > Control Center Officer > Housing Officer > Gate Officer > Visiting Room Officer.
It has no relation whatsoever to who does the most work, since (having been all of those at one point or another) the yard cops pretty much stand around trying to stay out of the sun/wind/rain/snow, and have hours at a stretch where they don’t even see a prisoner, vs. housing staff who have 2-300 felons around them at all times and have basically no time where they can kick back and let their guard down. And don’t get me started on how hard it can be to deal with the public who are visiting their innocent angel (and didn’t see him get into that knock-down-drag-out fistfight last month).
But yard cops are apparently the coolest, which rubs off on me when I happen to be working outside. I become a little bit cooler those days.
An engineer, a scientist, and a mathematician went to the horse races.
They all bet on different horses.
The engineer’s horse lost. The scientist asked him how he made his selection. The engineer said that he spoke to all of the breeders and trainers and selected the horse that had the most rigorous training.
The scientist’s horse also lost. The engineer asked him how he made his selection. The scientist said that he looked at all of the horses previous records, their previous starting positions, and also the jockeys and selected the one that he thought had the highest probability of winning given all known data.
The mathematician was sitting there with a big grin on his face. The other two asked him “why are you so happy?”
“Because my horse won” he said.
“And how did you select your horse?” they asked him.
“Well, first I assumed that all the horses were spheres of equal diameter, mass, and density …”
Reminds me of the one about the duck shoot. The engineer draws a careful aim on the first duck, leading the shot by just the right amount – only for it to change course at the last moment, and his shot flies a foot to its left. The theorist notes this, eyeballs the shot at the second duck, factoring in that last-minute course change – which doesn’t happen, so his shot flies a foot to its right. At which the statistician shouts “Bullseye!”.
NO HUMANS ARE INSULTED IN THIS RANT
Python is totally unsuitable for writing high quality software and it’s an appalling choice for writing software that is likely to be in service for a long time. However, it’s not bad for fast sloppy work iterating a model toward something that predicts first the known future (this is how you test) and then the unknown future. Since science is basically iterative guesswork and checking at the fringes of the known, Python is not bad for this. Notice the faint praise.
Once Python achieved widespread use in this role it BECAME the easiest to learn for the simple reason that the easiest language to learn is the one that all the people with whom you professionally associate use Python because all the people with whom they professionally associate use Python. Yes, it’s circular. It isn’t inherently the easiest to learn but there are social factors in play.
It’s hilarious but also alarming that many scientists cannot see that (a) they are not competent to hold an opinion on the relative merits of software development tools and (b) “everyone uses it and thinks it’s great” is not the same as “the narrow clique in which I operate thinks it’s great despite a conspicuous lack of experience with any other tools or formal qualification in the development and testing of software”.
In case anyone wonders what qualifies ME to opine, I am a professional software developer and my whole job is developing models for scientists. In this particular case the scientists have sufficient formal training with software development to know how good (or bad) they are at it. Also, we aren’t trying to develop the model itself, we’re commercialising an established model for use by less qualified people. The objectives and constraints aren’t the same as when you’re experimenting.
I have mixed feelings about Python. I wouldn’t use it, but I don’t need programming to be more accessible, I’m already more than competent with other tools. My disparaging remarks about maintainability really don’t apply to throwaway models that will only be used a few times even by the people who create them, and for people in the science community it really is easy to learn Python, because the value of peer support cannot be understated.
That’s just asking for a short story where they request a specialist in human sciences and get a coral specialist instead, but the coral specialist turns out to be useful in unexpected ways
I’m curious, Sydney had been gifted that magical hair brace from Decollete that promised to keep her hair perfectly in check.
Would she be allowed to wear something like that in uniform, instead of a gazillion hair pins?
“Shared ‘Spot the civilian’ look.”
Nope, no way. Then entire point of “uniforms” is to give a “uniform” look. No way something like personalized ear bands permitted. There are rules about what kinds of studs women can wear.
What kind of stud it Fritz?
*is
[I wish we had an edit button!]
You and I both, friend. You and I both.
I hope we never get a edit option here. It’s a bit more fun when everything you write is here to stay.
Yes, anyone who isn’t perfectly dressed gets hidden at the back/middle of public formations.
Now to give the general the good news and bad news.
Good News: there is a theory that Sidney’s orbs may reach an Omega power class.
Bad News: this same theory is because they were found in proximity to the KY boundary extinction event crater.
Same note: Sidney..if PPO is upgraded enough never aim down.
(granted the several factors already presented in comments that would be evidence against all of this but better safe than sorry).
Previous owner felt a need for speed. Nothing stops Mr. Bubble… well… the bubble didn’t get stopped. Everything inside it though just… probably pasted.
Everything against the orbs.
…. unless covered in paste counts as pasted.
*everything except
KT boundary event, I typed on my phone and auto-correct got weird on me…
Oh, good. My mind went to a very strange visual place
and now my brain *mostly thanks to a weird youtube video I saw* went to Earth Chan having an “encounter” with a cosmic lesbian waifu.
this video is not sexual (directly) but I am blaming partially for that visual LoL
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlTg4BPwmc4
I too must search for a KY boundary extinction event crater. The ultimate fulfilment!
You might have to ask Dabbler about that one.
B-but… The Enemy’s Gate… I… must. aim. down…
there’s some foreshadowing for ya, back when Maxima told Sidney to consider what is behind her target and assume you will hit that instead…say like…a planet.
*must use the omega destroyer beam to defeat the elder god…sure the planet with billions on it is behind him, but he’s the size of a mountain what the chances I’ll miss and cause an extinction level event instead…
Reminds me of Satima getting pissed at all the complaints after he stopped an asteroid from totally destroying the city, and people were complaining about the resulting explosion wrecking their homes.
I mean we’ve already seen the ominous fuzzy warp icon on the fly orb’s previous destinations. Gate shenanigans or mis- plotted course though a galactic center later, and the orbs are suddenly free to a new owner… once the planet developed something resembling sentient life anyway.
Trope wise would we now call this chekhov’s crater? Chekhov’s KT event? Chekov’s apocalyptic potential?
I still hold that the distortion was more due to the time distortion than anything that happened to the previous owner. Like last location before Alar was Earth but method of leaving there was distorted and if the Aethereum is a super field of the quantum field than a time distortion may have caused a location glitch. Heck since the orbs were intact when found you’d think since all previous locations were fine on it that it would have recorded the place they were just at with Sidney as just fine. Yet it was after she left and came back that they are now *evidence with trips back and forth* perfectly fine.
Unless…they traveled sideways.
The distortion isn’t because of something happening to the owner but because the orbs had TWO Earths overlapping in the data base, having come from an alternate timeline/reality. But after Sidney left and came back set this Earth firmly in the history…we do need to see the history in the orb again to see if the glitch is actually gone or if it is still there and Earth is too. (if both are there than the fuzzy glitch wasn’t Earth but a planet that is *no longer available*.
Sydney never travelled back through the portal though, so if they did travel ‘sideways’, then none of these people (aside Sydney) are the real people she knew (including her parents)
Not Sidney, the PREVIOUS owner of the orbs.
Oh, Sydney still didn’t travel back through the portal
That’s the point. The distortion was caused by it so her return to Earth later reset the check point. If the time portal didn’t cause the distortion than there could be other reasons besides “something” bad happening to the previous owner that could have caused only one check point on the list to be distorted.
on the trope, I have seen someone say Chekov’s Apocaylpse or dooms day device. Where this backstory is brought up or is visible in the background so you know its important to the plot or some element of it will be brought up…although this feels more like general foreshadowing than *in the background but is actually important*, closest I’d say is Nausicca where story wise they didn’t need to bring back in ancient super weapons but the fact the now ancient stories were brought up foreshadowed the bad guys would try to use these ancient weapons.
otherwise its just a McGuffin (everyone is after it, but doesn’t directly affect the plot beyond setting the chase or events in motion),
Somewhat related to the musings on a coolness hierarchy among scientists:
In Washington state there is one state park that is an astronomical observatory rather than a nature preserve. It’s near Goldendale and it’s called Goldendale Observatory State Park. The park rangers who work there are all astronomy geeks. I have this mental image of a meetup for park rangers, and it would have all these outdoorsy types talking about bears and drunk campers and such… and in one corner three or four astronomy geeks talking about telescope maintenance.
BTW I’ve only been to Observatory State Park once (pre-COVID) but it was a good time and I recommend it to anyone. We went during the day and looked at the sun through a telescope with a sun filter on it, then went back in the night time and the lead ranger pointed out where to watch for the International Space Station and an Iridium satellite, and then we took turns seeing Saturn through the big telescope. I want to go again.
https://parks.state.wa.us/512/Goldendale-Observatory
When I was a kid and spent Summer vacation at OMSI’s science camp the Astronomy group always did an overnight or two at Goldendale and loved it
Laura’s going to join the “Ladies who Lunch” group, isn’t she?
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-753-a-civilized-abeyance/
Ohhhhhh, I hope so. That is just ripe for humor.
Ugh. Okay, since we’re on comic 2 of this, and there is very little by way of explanation, let’s be clear:
There is no Law when it comes to the Great Game. And treaties are agreements between liars.
Individuals in the Great Game have their own (individual) limits. And you don’t lie to your friends unless you know that to tell them the truth would put them past their limits.
But the Great Game, even more so than war proper, is about maneuver. If, due to some freakish security breach, Mexico were to ever get wind of what happened, the result would be a quiet conversation at the top about what kind of comment to drop, and at what event, to let the Americans know that the Mexicans are aware of this ex-post endorsement of violation of various Mexican laws and sovereignty claims, and that while nothing public will be said, that some sore of pro-quid-quo IS due.
Mexico has nothing to gain by publicly attacking the US government over this chain of events. But having a superhero-sized tab to collect on at some point is VALUABLE.
Well said.
“All treaties are agreements between liars” – is that original?
I am totally going to use it.
Having done diving, the most important rules are to keep track of your diving partner(s), depth, air supply, and location. I’ve also seen divers get distracted. Watched one guy I was diving with follow a sea turtle below our agreed depth and keep heading down.
I’m expecting Sydney had this happen. She’s down with good visibility, sees something, and starts following it. She’s not sure where exactly she spots the orbs. Next thing she knows her air runs out and she heads to the surface followed by these glowing orbs. Scared out of her mind the only thing she can think to do is stuff them in her BCD and start swimming towards the dive boat.
Not knowing how to explain to her parents “These strange orbs followed me home”, she’s kept them secret. Course I’d LOVE to see a page of her finding them, playing with them on the bottom, then needing to go top side in a hurry WHILE THEY CHASE AFTER HER!
That is so near-fetched I am going to assume it’s how it happened.
checkaircheckdepthFISHgestureatbuddy
Swim swim
Thisisjustlikeaquamangopastbuoyline
*SHINIES!!!*
wowiwonderwhattheyare12345564567seven
airAIRupupupup
“Sydney, where were you?’
“Oh, right behind you all the way.”
Don’t forget that the orbs don’t show up on ANY of DABBLER’s scans. Thus it’s just an empty tube thru customs…
Brings up a good question:
You always dive with a buddy. Always They are, besides a friend, a neccesarry piece of survival equipment.
So… who was Syd’s dive buddy? And why didn’t they see the orbs? Is there a mundane explanation, or is there something weird… like after bonding, they’re invisible underwater? Or… as continues to be my favorite theory… are they just a manifestation of a power that Sydney already has? (Having a level-up system to her power does seem like a more “Sydney” move than getting something like, say, regeneration. Her power does seem the one most attuned to someone who would be genre-savvy.)
I assume Dad would be.
I used to dive, and one time I had a problem and I had to surface. My buddy did not want to quit his dive, so he stayed down. People do dumb things all the time and it is easier to get separated than you think – you see one thing your buddy sees another, and you swim a little bit apart, and you are alone. You are supposed to surface in that case but as I said before people do dumb things all the time.
Good thing too…just imagine if they’d interacted with the high energy photons from the X-ray machine for some reason…
There was an earthquake off the coast of Puerto Rico in 2012, that brought up a lot of sediment and sea glass and stuff. Maybe that did it?
Or maybe Deepwater Horizon triggered some kind of release valve.
The Deepwater Horizon platform was off the coast of Louisiana, at 28°44’12.0″N 88°23’13.0″W, about 550 miles from where Sydney found the spheres.
Exactly, in the Gulf. Just a rounding error away. :D
It’s like one of those Indiana Jones temple traps where you have to release the hidden latch which both triggers the deathtrap and opens the access hatch the treasure. Guess the prior owner didn’t quite get the timing right and triggered the KT event without retrieving the loot.
And that is why your temple-raiding party should always include a designated
ablative pointmantrap neutralisation operative.“just hire some fish researchers” – I know at least one person with scientific credentials who I am 99% certain is working for “the company,” given how they’re always off in foreign parts near where the action is. So this idea isn’t even very odd.
I dunno how you could look at Neil DeGrasse Tyson and think that astrophysicists get bullied.
It’s worth noting that Sydney DID bully him, specifically, when they met at the comic shop.
I think it has more to do with which Astrophysicist is being bullied…not so sure you can bully Brian May…his hair will come and get you! [“I’m putting the hair away, River”…”It’ll still be there, waiting” yes I know different reference…but anyone who’s seen Dr. May’s hair will understand the humor]
Wait, the Queen is now a scientist?
Knew he was behind the Save the Badger thing, but thought that that was just because he loved the song
May was in the fourth year (1970-1974) of a PhD in astrophysics when the band took off. And then finished it in 2007, only 37 years after starting! Luckily for him, that gap coincided with a very quiet period in that area of research, so the original results were still relevant and there wasn’t too much newer material to review and include.
Re Scientists: The only real hierarchy is how cited you are. And I guess the “softer” sciences, like ecology & sociology, where the laws have exceptions, can be a little looked down on. But in general we love hearing about niche discoveries in other fields! Wherever someone knows something you don’t, there is respect.
Ahh, so the orbs are attracted to beings with Intelligence stats in the negatives. Good to know.
Or they are literally powered by random brain synapse fires that we of the ADD and ADHD group enjoy daily squirrels.
you forgot shinys’ and funny noises lol
Perhaps the orbs don’t interface well with brains the have too much norepinephrine. Or perhaps in order to find the sparkling orbs a person would need to be able to notice unexpected sparklies.
I was treated for ADHD since I was 6 to adult and my tested IQ was 156 it’s not stupidity it’s the ability to see 14 things at once and focus on what interests you. Granted it’s not always what matters that takes training and effort something most youngsters lack.
I suspect as Sydney ages her connection to the orbs will grown and her skill tree options as well.
Read https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-278-alarmingly-disorderly-harnessing-of-doom/ this is a perfect example of why I think the orbs attached themselves to Sydney Never think if someone is distractable then they are dumb!
I’m guessing the comm ball can move pretty darn fast. Maybe as fast as the fly ball? Or would equaling their speed be one of the ‘link’ nodes that’s not filled yet?
But anyway, Syd holding the comm ball can send out the ‘bee’ while she’s seated right there in Archon headquarters and go have a looksee. If it’s par with her flight speed it can be there in under half a minute. Otherwise, you can park her in an old VW microbus somewhere in the Florida Keys and she can access the site in an afternoon or so.
Risk of being observed by Mexican authorities or causing an international incident would seem very small. Especially since the ‘bee’ is absolutely invisible to scanning.
I guess figuring out how fast the comm ball moves and whether it has a maximum range is important.
If it’s very far, and very fast, and the light bee is as ‘unscannable’ as the balls themselves … Syd has the kind of intelligence-gathering capabilities that wars are fought over.
Seriously, describe that ‘equipment’ to any intelligence officer and watch them either salivate (if it’s something that they can have access to) or defecate (if it’s something their perceived enemies have access to).
As a psychologist I’ve noticed in the scientific fields that the hierarchies depend on both the company you’re working for and especially on where people went to school. Generally the hierarchies are only important for the people who put up with them. Some colleges encourage a lot of ego while others are more team and experience oriented. TLDR it varies a lot. The military tends to have the most clear cut hierarchies while religious organizations tend to have the most vague in my experience.
It’s the Chicxulub impact basin. All you have to do is claim you want to use a new higher resolution multispectral sonar, for surface and subsurface imaging of the basin. It’s been sonared so many times, they’ll give permission and then turn the tv back on to watch soccer.
Simple truth. It’s like saying “I want to photograph El Capitan.”
Of course unless they actually have something new to look at it with they won’t find anything because the previous guys didn’t find anything. (Note that the orbs themselves are invisible to such things and thus there’s no mystery that they were overlooked until they were attracted to Sydney.)
Hire Cora’s ship to do a public deep scan of the area as a PR move. Claim it is to stop internet conspiracy theorists from claiming aliens did it. Make a point of getting the Mexican government to agree that any alien stuff found that is not something Cora put there or already on Cora’s ship before the scan starts becomes Mexico’s property unless a clear owner can be determined (in which case it goes through the courts).
Word it right and you just tricked the Mexican government into agreeing the Orbs belong to their current holder (i.e. Sydney) because Sydney will be on the ship when this is done. \O/
Oh, panel 3…..
……so very, very much panel 3…….
Given Brian May [yes, that one, from Queen] is an Astrophysicist [was on the team that got the probe to Pluto], its more likely they look down THEIR noses at the Astronomers and get all the chicks … or at least the Fat Bottomed Girls [I’ll see myself out]
Btw a scientist who studies coral and coral reefs is just called a coral ecologist or coral biologist. They don’t have a fancy scientific name, as far as I know. :)
What if the orbs are designed to be attracted to a brain like Syndey’s? With her ADHD and everything else… Makes me wonder about the species that designed the damn things.
when you get above the 3rd tier of civilization species (or at least individuals of them can get…weird..and unpredictable) the examples below though jump from what one could claim is a 4 or 5 straight up that 7th-10th (depending on your scale) -describing the stages between is rather difficult like…yeah this being controls a greater galactic cluster..vs just going to the top with the universe makers.
Thanking
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kl2nJQrpksc
Explaining why they made the universe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ko7409Bvt5I
The one in the bunny suit is “God” with locked memories but still alters time and space subconsciously (also this series is one of the reasons I eyeball Sidney as maybe being a baby Nth or avatar..well that and Washy from the link above this one with her sealed memories and powers for her experiment).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnJ8cmaT3Ek
and any talk of the capricious behavior of such beings wouldn’t be complete without the Lord of Nightmares *who created…or had created from her four universes and in her capricious nature can’t decide to destroy them or keep them going…and this classic scene where the “devil” of one world tried to use her power through a sorceress to destroy the world only for her to show up instead.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9L3cDKvOtfQ
to use a more modern example they could be childish, Zeno
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9VO6K9s3jM
That said most of these are very…mythological in behavior except for Q and the Tenchi Muyo chousin; it is very rare to find examples of aliens or entities at these levels that the story doesn’t just treat as “super gods”. I would link to Lost Universe treating the Lord of Nightmares as a super alien but…couldn’t find a good clip, that anime wasn’t very popular so just clips of certain scenes are hard to come by like moments where science and magic are treated as one thing.
but it seems (capricious) and (easily distracted but will super focus on one thing) seem to be reoccurring traits. The gods aren’t crazy, they just have divine ADHD or ADDD Attention Deficit Divinity Disorder
I will admit these are not the best examples of being compared to Sidney *except Haruhi*, but for some reason I couldn’t find english clips on youtube of Ben Ten. Mostly find clips in Hindi oddly enough.
which had a few higher dimension beings with personality quirks.
Anodites: flightly, playful, mischievous.
Countmelia: full of themselves (even do that whole you can’t perceive our true form so we appear as something else to you..which sorry side rant here but beyond comprehension does not equal invisible or madness inducing, if you interact with photons in any way the person will see something. if you look at a rock, not knowing its minerals, atomic structure, reactive elements, what is inside it, ect… doesn’t make the person any less capable of seeing the damned rock)…so they’d have to be creating a psionic shell around themselves to cause this effect. okay back on track. they have despite being universe makers a ADD behavior like Q or the 5th dimension beings from DC that they are clearly based on, and go into said universes to play pranks.
Naljian: only seen once in the show, beyond the 26th dimension beings whose children’s toys are just as advanced as the Omnitrix. They are very dismissive and amused by the antics of lower dimensions and even visit them on vacations.
Celestial Sapiens: weirdly the only cosmic scale beings (aside from whatever Atomix was and the Chronosapiens) whose “DNA” could be sampled by the Omnitrix, basically transuniversal beings with absolute control of universe physics but are born with split personalities; each one has to negotiate with its self and vote on every single action they take.
Honestly this (fairy personality disorder…ADHD, capricious, ethics and morals shift seemingly at random, mischievous and playful, scatter brained, ect…) seems far more common in western media with reality warping, higher dimension, and what not entities; possibly due to influence from fairy stories.
a point on the end of page note. It says that embarrassing Sydney is Sydneys job, while it was indeed Sydney (senior) embarrassing Sydney (junior), in case people didn’t notice
I was looking for shows to watch with my daughter for bonding and found Kim Possible. I started gushing to her about how awesome it was while out in public and she was like “Daddd you’re so embarrassing” Then we ended up binge watching the whole series together.
Sooo… as long as it doesn’t turn into Apocalypse now, we’re good!
Surprised that it dimension of boyfriend material Lauras Grandma clock didn’t go off… Yet.
That clock is always running and highly sensitive.
Man I hate spell checking along with speech-to-text….
“It dimension” should be “the mention”
You should check the YT CC thing. Even when it’s set up properly — English to English — the speech recognition is terrible. I wonder how they go for non-English languages?
So, out of curiosity, are you going back to page 1008, and putting the medals in? It’s kind of conspicuous that they’re missing, then show back up the next page.
One minor art quibble. I know that Leon is eating a burrito, but that diagonal line across it makes it look like the tube from a roll of paper towels (or some other paper product roll we shall not mention).
While I am *loving* the series, the new art direction that has Syndey’s eyes being five times the size of everyone else’s makes her look like a bizarre alien imposter that nobody else has cottoned onto. Very soap-opera-inappropriate-actor-replacement sus and very disconcerting. 3/10, would cringe again.
she has always had an anime style while everyone else has been more western comic book style.
and yes it has always made her look like an alien and likely was responsible for the earliest theories that she was one in disguise.
It’s fine in the earlier art, but has gotten *WAY* too much lately.
Nah, Sydney is fine, Leon on the other flipper…
He’s turning into Beaker (once he starts meep-ing, the conversion will be complete)
wow. could this be the beginning of where Halo finds out the origin of her orbs? that sounds like a hell of an arc. cannot wait to see where it goes.
Back at Uni, the general consensus on the “hierarchy” of the sciences was thusly:
Sociology is just applied Psychology
Psychology is just applied Biology
Biology is just applied Chemistry
Chemistry is just applied Physics
Physics is just applied Maths.
However, the usual rejoinder to that was that Maths is to the Sciences what masturbation is to sex…
Credentials snobbery established, that doesn’t quite answer the question of which discipline had more… erm… Interpersonal Relationships. However the fact that biology-adjacent subjects had a much less stereotypically skewed gender ratio might.
I can’t help but hear Jacksepticeye’s voice while reading for Sydney’s dad, I can’t understand why nether.
A loud, hyperactive man hmmm I wonder…
I had the same idea to be honest or my own I had to learn to scale my volume a bit as well lol
vote
The quotes around “scuba diving” keep throwing off my internal inflection of what Leon is saying. Like, she was scuba diving, so the “sarcasm” or “figure of speech” air quotes seem odd.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DqoQq1zME8
I’m pretty sure Leon’s taking the piss outta Syddles there. Then Syddles wants to hand some back, but I read a fail on that.
Even the funny images on scuba hand signals don’t have air quotes meaning stupid.
Or maybe I didn’t find the right list. >>>>
Thinking about it, this conversation seems to be getting to the point where Sidney’s civilian parents may need to be asked to leave the room.
Any further thinking about checking out the area, the potential of the orbs, or comparisons to Maxima’s origin, intelligence work. (like say covertly *as in Sidney and a team just go back where she found them as tourists and she used her orb’s true sight to see if there is anything that stands out or if they put markers on anything like they did with the magic items before), and other such discussions *especially extra legal and such* that may require that the civilians *and possibly Arianna honestly* not be privy to.
Not gonna lie: looking forward to February when that face is off the Vote Incentive tile.
Lana is lovely
That expression doesn’t do her justice.
She’s surprised that someone as smol as Pixelicious has the strength to lift her (either that, or it’s the expression one makes when being lifted via your nipple rings, haven’t seen the nekid version)
With talk of Nth level tech again, thought I’d share this. Stumbled upon real scientific theories about types of beings we normally only consider as part of the more fantasy end of sci-fi.
Okay so in my sci-fi I came up with the idea that the founding generation of the Amana came into existence when the equivalents of black holes of two different quantum fields fused together when the different quantum fields *universes* collided with one another resulting in the extreme anomalies forming such deformations and rearrangements of the quantum fields that they effectively fertilized becoming a new kind of trans-dimensional life forms that were born eternal and eventually gained sapience.
and…apparently this might actually be scientifically possible, but would still be an extreme version of it with the many (lower) but still naturally high energy, plasma, or quantum life forms existing…
*exotic life forms*, theoretical, although apparently an experiment in 2007 showed that under certain conditions plasma would start to arrange its self like DNA strands and even divide with slight mutations…
and then go on from there, some thing something quantum field string anomalies and deformations of space/time by extreme forces causing exotic matter, strange matter, or negative mass matter or just not matter but no good way to visualize it *presence* to arrange and rearrange and possibly code into life…and some stuff about quantum mechanics may cause molecules to arrange into life like some rebranded “life force” over time.
trying to link to articles on the subject its such a new thing or for some reason barely experimented with that finding something beyond *yes this may be possible, here is a short sentence saying just that*.
seriously, the Amana of my series would be an extreme variation of what these guys are calling “cosmic necklace based life”…and the theories in real world science only date back to…2020.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypothetical_types_of_biochemistry#Cosmic_necklace-based
okay found a non-wiki page that talks more on the subject.
https://www.sciencealert.com/physicists-argue-that-life-based-on-cosmic-strings-may-be-possible-inside-stars
“…and the theories in real world science only date back to…2020.”
But who cares about science? Stapledon in 1937 was knee-deep in sentient (sapient?) stars (“Star Maker”); and Herbert jumped on the bandwagon in 1970 with “Whipping Star”. But Ross Rocklynne also wrote about them in 1940, “nto the Darkness” published in “Astonishing Stories”.
Then we might visit with Linda Nagata in “Vast”, chapter 29, 1998, where true stellar-space life is common, formed form the stellar dust clouds. (Of course, the obligatory humans are also found there, with differences…)
And do we dare consider non-baryonic life? We know that Howard Tayler did…
And how on Earth could I forget Fred Hoyle, “The Black Cloud” 1957…
Well yeah sci-fi and fantasy will beat them too it every time. Like I said, my own high energy and interdimensional beings were inspired by anime, sci-fi, fantasy, and mythology; you just move the terms around and “primordial gods” become “higher dimension advanced aliens” and such (heck I have an outline where two characters are going to argue about this distinction if it even is one and not just different ways to reference themselves so other species can comprehend them a little better with different frams of reference).
Not unlike when sci-fi takes adventure exploration stories and samurai/westerns and transforms them into things like Star Trek and Star Wars respectively.
its just nice to get these validations/real world reference points when writing sci-fi like now you could have a character mention this or that theory or scientific study and have another go *well, yes, but not entirely accurate, advance a few centuries or millennia and you may get closer to the truth” not unlike Dabbler talking about the quantum field but adding aspects of it to her diagram that Earth science (just can’t detect yet).
heck surprised we haven’t had some UFO types yet bring back up the star fish idea *species born in stars that can use sub-space travel naturally to move between stars have this energy/angel/insectoid look about them, and out of curiosity fly over to the small rocky bodies orbiting their homes after detecting odd radio waves and other higher energy activity than should be occurring naturally and become responsible for sightings of blowing beings, strange lights, and alien encounters that despite a benign encounter still resulted in radiation poisoning, burns, and electromagnetism disrupting machinery because of the nature of such beings and possibly the nature of how they communicate with one another. *when your version of yellow is a gamma burst and three x-ray bursts..*
Geeze, is Laura Scoville just the typical stick in the mud mom trope or what? I know ‘opposites attract’, but there’s gotta be some level at which that dynamic can’t possibly work long enough to have kids, let alone a long term marriage. I swear, there’s some people you meet that it only takes a second to figure out they’ve probably never smiled willingly in their life. XD
No, Laura is just the “mom trope”, nothing more. Just young enough that she can’t accept that her only is actually legally and socially an adult equal with her mom. Many other mothers have 2 or 5 kids, so the eldest slipping away is somewhat veiled over by the replacements, and may well be a bit of a relief, being one less mouth to feed and clothe.
And I’ve met many parents just like myself, who have trouble accepting the grown kids are no longer school age and don’t need any more home schooling: if they can’t change a wheel on their chariot it’s on them, not Mum and Dad.
I agree Laura should get pregnant again, but that’s just Old Fart Thinking, not bigotry.
Wait, Sydney is an only? Thought she had siblings…
They haven’t said in the comic that she has any siblings so far. Maxima has a younger brother though.
Yeah, musta cross-streamed the two