Grrl Power #1017 – Nants ingonyama!
I’m not pleased with how this page turned out, because it’s mostly backgrounds, and I’m disappointed with my results. Backgrounds take so much longer to draw than I ever allocate. The Alari ship is barely just past the draft stage. I needed to put another ten hours into making it look like a hive of activity and showing how it’s expanding. Actually, right now it looks like a Level 1 structure in a RTS game, and someone just hit the button to upgrade it to Level 2.
And the Galytn city… well, it’s pretty basic looking. I didn’t want to make it look like Wakanda, Galytn isn’t that far along, but I wanted to make it look like a city that’s had a ton of new infrastructure put into it. Honestly I wouldn’t have minded something closer to Gaia City from Appleseed, but really that’s far too advanced as well. Still, a few buildings with curved metal roofs that collect or reflect the sun or buildings with rooftop gardens would have been nice. I just sat down to draw the city and started putting in some basic looking buildings, and that took so long I had to start moving on to other stuff.
Clip Studio Paint (and a lot of other drawing programs these days) has perspective rulers you can set up to keep your background from looking like it’s been hit with an acid trip warp effect, but the limitation of those guides is that they don’t have anyway to handle things like arches or 45 degree architecture, like rooftops or rafters or flying buttresses. What that means is you have to turn the rulers on and off about 2,000 times while drawing the average background.
There are ways to do perspective correct curves and angles, but it honestly requires a fuckton of intermediate measurements and is not a terribly fast process. It makes me appreciate artists that do amazing backgrounds. Not landscapes. Those are easy. Relatively speaking. There’s still a ton of skill involved, just less fiddly measurements.
Update: My wife pointed out that chasing nyquil with a tumbler full of Goldschlager* might not be the best idea, so I ditched the booze plan but somehow wound up getting a pretty decent night’s sleep. I think all the previous insomnia caught up with me. Anyway, I woke up this morning feeling pretty good. I’m not 100%, but I think I’m over the hump. Took about 5 days to get there. Hopefully I’m on the mend and this isn’t just a temporary boost because I’m well rested, but we’ll see.
*Yeah, Goldschlager. I’m not a whiskey guy or scotch or whatever else, I like drinks that taste good. Actually, my favorite drink currently is Dr. McGillicuddy’s Apple Pie Liqueur, but Goldschlager has twice the booze which makes it better for getting knocked out.
So, I’ve got Covid (probably Omicron). Not because I’m some dumbass anti-vaxxer, but just because we have a high-schooler in the house who managed to go a whole year without bringing anything back with him, but there’s like 2,000 kids in the school, so it was basically inevitable. I got my shots, but never got around to the booster, and so far it’s like a pretty mild case of the flu, although one point on my side is starting to get awfully sore from all the coughing. Except, I seem to be having some fairly weapons grade insomnia, and my energy and attention is suffering for it so. Sometime it takes me 5 days to draw 2 comic pages, this week it took seven. Haven’t even started on the nudie pinup yet this month. Well, actually each time I sit down to do one, I spend half a day drawing and discarding ideas, so I probably have some half-finished pencils I can dredge up and polish. But I’ll probably start a new one, hopefully keep it to a single character this time.
I’m so tired.
Melatonin fucks up my blood pressure and also I basically can’t wake up until about noon the next day, so I’m going to try the time-proven method of drinking a bunch of booze. Wish me luck! Skål!
BTW, if you are a dumbass anti-vaxxer, DO NOT POST ABOUT IT HERE. I will ban you from commenting forever. On the plus side, you will have more time to go and Darwin yourself out of our gene pool, thereby reducing your drag factor on the rest of humanity.
Tamer: Enhancer 2 – Progress Update: Getting Proofed!
Two chapters left to proof. I’m going to work on it after I post this page, but I’m so tired. We’ll see how far I make it.
January’s vote incentive is titled “The Origin of The Might Halo.” Hopefully the reason is evident.
Nude versions available over at Patreon. Along with a bonus comic page.
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Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
That Alari (who’s name I forgot) is one of the reasons why adblockers exist…
Her name is Lorlara.
It says so right under the comic, as well as in the who’s who, come on.
No, Evil Smurf.
Evil Smurf forever!
I love Lorlara. Totally evil smurfette there
And she is cute too. Always a plus.
That smile could ignite nuns at a hundred places, though. Scary.
That smile….erk. No. Mercy. Please…
“This one understands! There will be no mercy!” – ‘Lorlara’
I love your comments, but also massively appreciate your stance on antivaxxers!
If you’re in Canada, the best sleep aid I’ve ever had is legal here. That plus just 1 gram of melatonin is plenty to coax my usual 3 hours trying to fall asleep (thank you insomnia) to one hour or less.
Obviously, if melatonin gives you problems, it’s a little harder to find an alternative, but maybe pop a gravol? I’ve used those as a sleep aid a few times in a pinch. Some night-time cold and flu pills also help, but I find I get weeeeird dreams on them.
Fairly sensitive to melatonin myself. I usually just need 1/4 of one of the off the shelf tablets. More than that and I am groggy until noon the next day. Until recently you could get Delta 8 thc products in Texas but then they got put on the LIST.
The original study of melatonin’s effect on sleep only used 0.5 grams. A more recent study (https://news.mit.edu/2005/melatonin) found only 0.3 grams was needed.
“The researchers also found, however, that commercially available melatonin pills contain 10 times the effective amount. And at that dose, “after a few days it stops working,” said Wurtman, director of MIT’s Clinical Research Center and the Cecil H. Green Distinguished Professor. When the melatonin receptors in the brain are exposed to too much of the hormone, they become unresponsive.”
I buy pills with the lowest amount, and then divide them, trying to get below 1 gram.
When dealing with substances as touchy as melatonin, it helps to be aware of the difference between grams and MILLIgrams.
And 0.3 mg is a standard size and pretty easy to find.
So long as they don’t get it mixed up with Mg, we’re all cool.
I prefer Olly which, instead of melatonin, has a blend of GABA, L-theanine, and lemon balm.
Have you considered using Sketchfab? It’s the free version of Sketchup. You can’t alter the models, but you can still grab them, swing them around for perspective and use them as foundations for stuff like complex cityscapes. Chaykin pushed me to learn it to assist him and I am grateful, because it’s an invaluable resource for complex crap like that.
https://sketchfab.com/
I am thrilled to see Giant Girl Adventures up and running again!
Big SketchUp fan, although I don’t think there’s any actual connection between the two products. Either one would be a great way to mock out shape and mass to get the right perspectives. With a little practice you can texture and shade scenes to a decent quality, and with a lot of practice you can get photorealistic results.
It feels like that ‘evil smurf’ is getting more and more unhinged…
I dunno; she was pretty over the top from the word go. She was even wackier during the dinner date.
She is a real go-getter, bless her heart.
She’s on track for the “henchman of the year” award and gunning for a promotion to trusted lieutenant
I think the only knee Max plans to bend belongs to either Lorlara or Deus, maybe via a high foot-sweep.
Depends on which way she wants to bend the knee (and where she wants to plant it… )
Get better Dave. I have small children myself so Omicron struck this week as well. Boosted, but when a croupy 2 year old (aside Omicron, as it impacts the upper respiratory more than previous waves, is MORE serious for very young as it can cause croup which is freaking terrifying to manage) spends the entire night laying on your chest coughing in your face while you try to keep them good? Well you’re going to catch whatever they have. Thats just parent life.
This one doesn’t mess around so get rest and get better.
Did that woman’s teeth and lips grow in the last panel? Is cartoonist like shape changing a power of Alari?
Not just Alari. Also a commonly seen feature of used car salesmen, motivational speakers and VPs in charge of branding.
That might be ‘under the weather artist’ syndrome.
It should clear up in 2 to 3 pages.
Dave, if you need a week off, we’ll understand.
Cartoony exaggeration has been a feature of the comic from the very beginning, yet still continues to catch some readers by surprise.
now we know where Jim Carrey’s ‘the Mask’ got to.
On the topic of better rest, look into magnesium. I take in once in a while and in helps regulate my sleep to a more normal bedtime and morning. Also the effects can be seen in about 2-3 days instead of weeks or months. And something hot to drink before bed can help with the coughing, preferably something with a good amount of honey. Feel better soon.
> BTW, if you are a dumbass anti-vaxxer, DO NOT POST ABOUT IT HERE. I will ban you from commenting forever. On the plus side, you will have more time to go and Darwin yourself out of our gene pool, thereby reducing your drag factor on the rest of humanity.
Bravo! Thank you Dave, reading this paragraph substantially improved my mood.
Something else I’d like to add for the dipshit antivaxxers: The fact that Dave respects science and therefore got his vaccines is why Omicron is like a mild flu for him. For dipshits such as yourselves it is much more serious and much likelier to kill you.
Yes I applaud his response (particularly while having to worry about my sister who’s contracted Covid again recently) as they totally deserve being called out on their ignorance. I wonder how many were stupid enough to try and spout something thinking he wouldn’t follow through on perma-banning them.
I’m torn…on the one hand I want to say “Hopefully many, since being stupid about vaccines is highly correlated with being stupid about other things and now we won’t have to listen to them on those other things.” On the other hand, having to read and ban a bunch of idiots must be spoon-draining for Dave which makes me hope that there weren’t that many of them.
Check page 1 of comments. There’s a pile of them.
And they don’t just deserve being called out on their ignorance and permabanned from the internet, they deserve to be last in line at the hospital when they inevitably catch it. *AFTER* the old ladies who come in with papercuts and the mothers who’s 6-year-old has the sniffles.
And possibly locked up in solitary to protect the rest of the population from their pro-plague behaviour.
On the plus side, that last one would put so many domestic terrorists behind bars.
I went and checked the numbers.
COVID deaths are now at a similar scale to The Holocaust (5mil and change).
Andrew Wakefield (and the lawyer who hired him) are now up there with sodding Hitler in the “how many deaths are you responsible for” chart.
Trying very hard to not talk sbout covid because of how toxic and flame warrish this is getting among people on here. Trying to keep to the comic discussion. But….
Please do not compare covid to the systematic execution of six million jews and 5 million others.
It makes it really difficult to convince other people to not get into arguments about covid and mandates and whatnot spiralling out of control, and its in bad taste which I am assuming is not your intent.
Pander thanks once again for injecting some politeness and reason into the forum. Generally this is a quite civil group and I appreciate those who try to keep it that way.
I too have avoided talking about covid here, partly because the major stances have already been covered and partly because I’m just too exhausted on the subject to discuss it calmly with people on the internet.
“I’m just too exhausted on the subject to discuss it calmly with people on the internet.”
Okay I really liked that xkcd comic.
You might have a point, if it weren’t for the fact that the vast majority of antivaxers are neo-Nazis.
Illy, you really do need to stop calling anyone who you don’t agree with neo-nazis or nazi sympathizers. It only serves to make flame wars bigger. I’m again trying to make sure not to argue about vaccines since I can’t from a logical standpoint (since I’m vaxxed and have a decent understanding of how the mRNA vaccine works). But you shouldn’t vilify people in the way you’re doing. It’s not persuasive, it’s not nice, it’s not helpful.
And minimizing the Holocaust is NEVER a good tactic. Invoking Godwin’s Law should generally be the last argument to make, not the first.
It’s not fun to read on the forum. It’s toxic behavior where it REALLY does not need to exist. And it makes even people who might otherwise agree with your overall stance about vaccination or vaccination mandates want to distance themselves from you when you say things that make you seem hateful or extreme.
Just try to take a breather from this okay?
THANK YOU. Speaking as a Jew who lost family in the holocaust, THANK YOU. My mother never had any cousins, aunts, or uncles, because of what happened. And I really, really, REALLY despise the way everyone’s hurling the “nazi” title at each other.
Especially since they don’t even know WHAT a nazi is. They just know, “Nazi = bad person,” and “person I disagree with = bad person,” ergo “person I disagree with = Nazi.” They know nothing of the Brownshirts, or the socioeconomic conditions that lead to fascism. They don’t know about fascist ideology, what it actually IS. They don’t understand the policies enacted in Germany and Italy after WW2 to prevent a recurrence. They just know “anyone I disagree with is literally Hitler,” and they don’t even know anything about Hitler aside from “he was pure evil incarnate, just like whichever politician I don’t like.”
So again, THANK YOU. I’m so sick of it.
I will admit that I use “Nazi” and “neo-Nazi” interchangably, when there is a technical difference between the two. I do not, however, think this causes people to misinterpret what I’m saying.
> They just know, “Nazi = bad person,” and “person I disagree with = bad person,” ergo “person I disagree with = Nazi.”
Way to go with the Nazi apologea there.
And just for the IDPol points (because you seem to care about that), I will point out that not only was my grandfather an Austrian Jew, my other grandfather was of Gypsie decent (and fought in the war, btw), and I’m a Trans, Bi, Socialist (athiest) Quaker. The only thing I can think of that would make them hate me more is if I had black ancestry *as well*. Now, *I* don’t think this gives my arguments any additional weight, but since you brought it up…
—
Nazi = Fascist, white supremacist, Jews-controlling-the-world-conspiracy believing antisemite.
So, given that most anti-vaxxers these days self-identify as “Alt-right”, I think it reasonable to conclude that if the “Alt-Right” are Nazis, then most anti-vaxxers are Nazis.
Here is a clip from inside the “Unite the Right” rally in Charelottesville, a well-known “Alt-right” rally, to show how they really feel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcoYKuoiUrY&t=2538s
As you can see, they don’t believe Hitler did anything wrong, are making white-supremacist chants, and are calling for the extermination of the Jews and for a “Race war”. And then they start yelling “Sieg Hiel” with the hand gesture. Oh, and they’re also flying literal swastika flags, black sun flags, odal rune flags, and so on…
How can you watch that and not think that the “Alt-right” are a pack of fucking Nazis?
qAnon is an “Alt-right” (Read: Nazi) conspiracy theory (and movement) that is driving the overwhelming majority of modern antivax sentiment.
—
> And minimizing the Holocaust is NEVER a good tactic.
I’m not minimising the holocaust. I’m pointing out that what we’re facing right now is on a similar scale. I’m using the immenseness of the holocaust as a way to demonstrate the sheer SCALE of death that antivaxxers are deliberately causing.
—
> it’s not nice
And here is what I think about that:
“Nice people made the best Nazis. My mom grew up next to them. They got along, refused to make waves, looked the other way when things got ugly and focused on happier things than “politics.” They were lovely people who turned their heads as their neighbors were dragged away. You know who weren’t nice people? Resisters.”
— Niomi Shulman
Fuck civility politics.
They literally ***WANT ME DEAD***
I’m sure there are many other places on the internet you can talk about this sort of thing that are more conducive to your political mindset and attitude about being nice to other people, other than a webcomic about superheroes and tropes.
1: Your claims of having an ethnic “bingo” remind me of when Dean Browning claimed to be a gay black man. Something you made up to downplay my statements of “please stop denigrating my dead ancestors just so you can scream how much you hate people you disagree with.”
2: Pointing out that you sound more like a Brownshirt (who pretty much embodied the concept of “fuck civility politics”) than a lot of the folks on the right is not “Nazi apologea.” It’s pointing out that it has become standard to scream “anyone I disagree with is a Nazi.” Nor is it “Nazi apologea” to point out that both sides are accusing the other side of being fascists – and not entirely without reason. “Fuck civility politics” is pretty much the slogan of the Night of Broken Glass.
3: PLEASE STOP MINIMIZING THE HOLOCAUST. Which is EXACTLY what you are doing, so please stop doing it. The current pandemic is comparable to the Spanish Flu, in terms of both body count, and the number of idiotic decisions made by both governments and individuals that prolong the nightmare and increase the number of dead. You want to compare something to the Holocaust, look at what China’s doing.
4: What Pander said. You want to scream about how everyone on the other side of the political spectrum is a Nazi who needs to be violently dealt with, please go find a suitable echo chamber. We’re here to discuss the comic we enjoy.
> Something you made up
If you’re not going to belive other people about their IDPol then why bring up your own? Are you Ben Shapiro?
> Nor is it “Nazi apologea” to point out that both sides are accusing the other side of being fascists
So the actual truth of the matter doesn’t matter to you? And you claim you’re not making Nazi arguments…
What definition of fascism are you working from?
> The current pandemic is comparable to the Spanish Flu
And to the holocaust.
5 Mil dead from COVID and climbing.
6 Mil dead in the holocaust.
> You want to scream about how everyone on the other side of the political spectrum is a Nazi who needs to be violently dealt with,
You really need to stop strawmanning me. I provided a reasonable definition of Nazi, and provided evidence that the “Alt-right” fit it to a T.
But yes, ACTUAL NAZIS need to be violently dealt with, or they win. And I don’t want the Nazis to win, because then I end up dead.
“You cannot decide if violence happens, all you can decide is, when it happens, who it happens to”
You’re a little high-strung, Illy. Not that you don’t have reason to be, but just realize that most people are not as intensely aware of the situation or as concerned about the potential consequences. That, admittedly, is part of the problem. People want to look the other way, hope nothing happens, that they won’t have to get involved, right up until it’s too late to do anything. And yes, that’s worse, in a way, than the people instigating the evil. Some of them, if not many, probably really believe that they’re in the right. The people looking the other way know that it’s wrong, but they’re just too cowardly to stand up and fight it. They’re knowingly doing evil, while trying not to think about it, trying to ward off the guilt, while others do evil proudly, with no guilt, because they believe it to be good.
They each need to be fought in different ways, but I doubt screaming at people is going to be effective against any of them. The internet has rendered social pressure largely ineffective: it’s impossible to isolate people and make them believe they’re the outlier, because they can always find a sufficiently large group online to make them feel like they’re not a minority.
Most people will never be swayed by logic, but infighting reduces the kind of social power necessary to impose norms. Unless you’re planning on fighting the fence-straddlers as well as the evil instigators, you’ve got to be able to attract people to your side. The evil people, ironically, are far more proficient at offering friendship, on the basis of fighting a common enemy. All they demand is loyalty, not principles.
Yeah, I know I’m very aware of this stuff, and I occilate between furious and terrified.
I am absolutely willing to fight “fence straddlers” who choose to not change their position when the situation is pointed out to them, because at that point they cease to be fence-straddlers. Because, as has been said already, they’re actively supporting the people who want me dead at that point.
If someone actually comes over and stops that, then I don’t hold a grudge. But they have to show, through their actions, that they have done that.
What percentage of the population do you think falls into each category?
We have to ask ourselves what percentage of the universe we’re willing to face, or even write off, in the pursuit of creating a principled one. It’s probably a higher cost than most people are willing to accept.
that’s why i made a simple meme i use on twitter and face book it says
DON’T BE A SERIAL KILLER.
GET VACCINATED!
GET VACCINATED!
GET VACCINATED!
reason i made it is anti-vaxxers remind me of back when HIV was first starting out, and they caught people who found out they had it, then went out and got others infected on purpose. this was at a time when HIV had no treatment and was a death sentence.
some states even prosecuted some of those people for attempted murder. to me anyone who cares more about themselves and don’t care if they get others infected and possibly kill them, might as well be a serial killer
me, i got the 3 shots for pfizer vaccine, i still wear a mask in public, cuz of my health, and plan on it for at least another year, cuz it will prolly mutate at least a couple more times (heard news tonight they may have found a different version of omicron in usa). i read that the spanish flu was active for about 4 years, and they didn’t have to worry about idiots who are sick and can go almost anywhere in the world in less than a day
sorry this rant got so long, folks
If you have a weakened immune system, I am sorry to hear that.
But know that anything short of a properly-fitting (& fitted) N95 is not that great for keep someone FROM being infected. The real value of a mask is to trap the water micro-droplets that you exhale (with various nasties, including COVID-19/x) whether you have symptoms or not.
I don’t mask to avoid COVID. I mask to avoid giving COVID to others. Not because I have COVID, but because I cannot know that I don’t…
I agree, thank you Dave.
Ugh, I live in a homeless shelter and despite being vaccinated ive caught it and am in quarantine.
Nothing like a group home for “sharing” my wife and I had to live in one for a time about 10 years ago when I became disabled it wasn’t fun I feel ya.
You might want to watch your interpunction. I can’t tell if you meant that you were sharing your wife or your home.
Well I’ll be a pie-eyed emu! It’s a real thing! I learned a new word! :)
I’ve never heard of the word interpunction until now either. And I have a pretty good handle on vocabulary. :)
been homeless myself a couple times and know how some of those shelters are. bad enough with colds and flu, glad i don’t have to deal with it for covid
hope you have a speedy recovery and your situation improves like mine eventually did
Another concern is that the Alari may have made a powerful enemy and their presence alone could invite that trouble to Earth. Heck they likely made many enemies including ones that could justify conquering/annexing the Earth in the name of “protecting” humanity both from the Alari themselves and the less… ecologically friendly shall we saw enemies of the Alari.
It feels like the squidwards may have been looking for something when they attacked Alari rather than it being a random attack so you very well may have a point :)
eh, not so sure, they left behind some scout drones, but those could have been another case of overkill *scan for life, detect life or unusual energy signatures, call to eradicate them…none shall repopulate that which I have scorched, death dragon approach. Thar said with Halo their reaction felt like panic mode set in like they recognized (but if they were looking for or had anything to do with the previous owner why go to Alari and not the last known battleground?),
two unrelated vendettas.
but yeah that would be the less ecologically friendly enemy the Alari made.
So another species shows up, or the Xevoarchy, declares ownership of the Earth to evict the Alari and declare they did it because if they hadn’t Earth may have been regarded in whole *because so many aliens have one world governments* as an ally of or colony of the Alari and just blasted by these *others*. AKA the Mafia approach (we protect you from us, and from the other syndicates).
I doubt the Xevoarchy would do that, from how Dabbler’s described the Xevoarchy. They seem to take a very United Federation of Planets hands off method to pre-warp societies, and seem to only do anything significant AFTER they get FTL travel as a species (instead of, say, one or two individuals).
If anything, the Xevoarchy is only even looking at Earth because they managed to defeat a Fel invasion with no casualties, using just a handful of human soldiers and a single alien shield (Cora’s ship’s shield).
who are stated to bomb problematic civilizations back to a pre-industrial age.
considering if they only target FTL species, and unless they are also allowing for refugees and isolating colony worlds from their home worlds and other worlds…and even then…
you are looking at a scenario where they can’t just be targeting military targets; they would have to target infrastructure and enough of the civilian population to effectively erase all advanced technology from being quickly recovered. Likely also genocide *maybe they exterminate colonies, or exterminate the home world and isolate a colony of that species given only basic tools for survival and insuring none of them have any knowledge of advanced sciences; and thus pat themselves on the back for being so benign to spare the species despite the fact they just committed mass murder of civilians and total cultural genocide.
“who are stated to bomb problematic civilizations back to a pre-industrial age.”
But only FTL civilizations. Not pre-FTL ones. There was a chart and everything.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-690-gotterdammermcguffins/
(panel 1)
A few things on that, the first that is actually kind of worse. The more advanced a civilization is the more…thorough…and destructive you’d have to be to insure they were pre-industrial.
for instance if you wanted to return an iron age civilization back to stone age, you could do it with minimal deaths depending on what tech you used, but an Atomic age civilization (or electromagnetic solid state circuit tech) to be pre-industrial you are talking a massive death toll not just from direct attacks but from methods to disable and erase their technological knowledge. reducing an FTL civilization to pre-industrial is basically going to require what I said before with the genocide and absolute destruction of all major technological centers.
however note I didn’t say they’d bomb the Earth in this scenario, this was an equivalency and level of extremism example.
as in, first off the Alari and likely the Infernals count as FTL, so them being on Earth could be used as an excuse *especially with the potential for Earth’s supers and whatever else the Xevoarchy may suspect Earth has given recent encounters *Aethereum causeway detected leading back to Earth and it has repeatedly appeared at Fracture Station*, so them brainstorming how and what Earth may be hiding that could upset some power balances with whomever gets Earth and can utilize its “resources” on a interstellar scale…so allowing known invader civilizations *Alari, Infernals* well…
-for your protection we have chased them off and established a military outpost…oh to insure no one else tries anything we have stablished multiple outposts around the planet.
then a little later, *for your protection we will bring you into the Xevoarchy officially, that way no one else tries to invade you, just agree to some legal terms and government oversights and what not, and there..you are officially under our protection…for political reasons you understand that out there we have to refer to you as our colony and to make it believable better have a few..*cough* token supers in our military
-play this out a generation or two and its just a given Earth is part of their society.
Just knowing a few basics about what’s possible will let even a decimated civilization recover most of their tech pretty quickly. Keeping Terra at pre-industrial tech level would require not only the destruction of all tech centers, but all educational ones as well, every science textbook you can find in every household around the world, and every copy of this t-shirt.
In other words kill everyone and destroy everything except the bare minimum to avoid extinction, in short only leave a few deep desert, deep jungle, and isolated island tribes alive while reducing and then collecting all remnants for removal from the rest of the planet. Add this to an FTL civilization and see the multi planet scale mass genocide and total destruction. Heck alternative is to collect and use dream pods on enough specimens (educate in basic survival skills but no culture) to restribute around the planet after the “removal” efforts for all things technological.
You sound more like you’re describing the Wraith from Stargate Atlantis rather than the Xevoarchy.
@pander
No just working out the logistics for them to actually do what Dabbler said they do to problematic FTL civilizations, and expanding if they have this mind set what else they could be capable of especially if they are a tier 2 or so civilization that wants to pat themselves on the back as the “good guys” while also enforcing their views and laws on other civilizations , every major power wants to stay in power and hates possible up and coming rivals, and this disassociate PR junk that is just them making themselves feel better while being no better actually than those they went after.
I think the Alari were just victims of a race that appeared to be searching for something or someone, notice they were
fast to scan the group and had high enough tech to detect Sydney’s orbs and their connection to her so maybe they were the ones that killed the previous owner?
still banking that given the Alari expansionist approach and targeting pre FTL civilizations they ended up harassing a civilization that was a garden world, wild life reserve, or otherwise connected to some very advanced aliens that qualify as Fel gods, eldritch beings, ect…who decided the best way to get the invaders to leave their little project or whatever alone was to eradicate “the problem”, but could be on the same level or just below given the reaction felt like a panic response to whatever species made the orbs…like know them, and fear them or just hate them so them.
Sucks that you have Covid, had it myself last year but was ironically in poor enough overall health to get an antibody infusion that cleared it out of me pretty quick. Take it easy and rest as much as you can, and if you have to miss any comic postings we’ll understand.
DaveB, if you need to pause a week or two in order to let yourself actually recover (and rebuild something of a buffer), then DO IT. Other big webcomic creators take time off! Wapsi Square, Girl Genius, Something*Positive… everyone needs breaks, and everyone needs to take them at regular intervals.
A question…if melatonin does that to do you, do you take Vitamin D? And if so, do you take it as soon as you get up, or later in the day? I have problems with melatonin, too, and if I take Vitamin D at any time other than first thing when I get up (glasses of milk do not count, thankfully), it keeps me awake for hours.
Also, looks like we’re covid prison cellmates, hi, you can have the top bunk, but get your own humidifier, this one’s mine!
Sorry that the plaque got you, hopefully it will remain mild. (And thanks for the stance)
On Goldschlager, my grandfather used to get a version shipped over from Germany and would often share with a friend across the way. I think I learned more about my family from Henry than my own, but he used to gift me a bottle every year and I didn’t have the heart to tell him I had developed an allergy to cinnamon. At least my friends liked the regift.
If we’re to believe that Galytn was just another one of the rural perma-civil war states in Africa, then just showing what you did Dave, is already a super massive improvement over the course of around two years(?). I’m sure our *ahem* enthusiastic guide will tell us all about how much Deus improved the country.
Page 386 says that he’s been in charge of Galytn for a decade.
I’m willing to imagine most of the growth was rather explosive near the latter half of that decade. Still relatively impressive. That’s generic western city levels of development right there!
What I find interesting is that on page 386, Deus claims to have improved Galytn’s GDP from 168th to 109th, whereas the newscast on page 1015 says it went from 209th to 120th. Even if they’re discussing slightly different periods of time, that’s a significant difference, and it’s odd that the news puts Deus as influencing Galytn from an earlier period than he claims to.
It couldnt have been 168th if galytn did not even rank with the world bank, since the world bank goes down to 190.
Where is the world bank mentioned?
General-turned-Bloodthirsty-murderous-warlord Indinge mentioned it to Deus during Deus’s proposal to the Warlord-who-tortures-and-kills-men-women-and-children-while-their-loved-ones-watch Indinge.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-387-a-noble-investment-embiggens-the-smallest-wallet/
(panel 4)
Monstrous-Evil-Warlord-Better-Off-Dead Indinge: “And how do we afford this infrastructure? OUR GDP DOES NOT EVEN RANK WITH THE WORLD BANK? HMM? We’re not even recognized as a country!”
In order for Galytn to not rank with the world bank, back when Obama was President, it would have had to have been below 190 (today, in 2022, the World Bank rankings go all the way to 211, but in 2016, which was the latest it could possibly by, and the comic and Deus’s first meeting with Indinge probably was before 2016),the world bank rankings could not have listed (at least officially) beyond 190 (back then, the 190th was Burundi btw). So it would actually make sense for Galytn to be 209th, but it would not make sense for Galytn to be 168, which would put Galytn above Belize, which I find unlikely since I doubt Galytn’s GDP was even above $1 billion at the time, especially with how small and new it was at the time.
What could have happened is that after Deus’s initial influx of money into Galytn, it brought it up from 209 to 168, and in the time since then, as he developed more infrastructure into the nation, it went even further up in the rankings, although the news might not recognize that yet if they are using out-of-date data. Which happens with the news often.
I bet in this arc, Sydney gets injured, Max goes apeshit on Deus, only for the final orb to be revealed as a healing factor.
Bonus points if it heals her in some weird alien way that freaks her out
It didn’t heal her when she was hurt on the Alari planet though.
IIRC from that arc Sydney never made a grab for the heal-ball, so we don’t know, still. Then she met Frix and went a little ga-ga over him and his abilities to patch her up.
i doubt that as Sydney is the main character of this story not max.
i see this story going quite the opposite in fact, the first page of the story was a flash forward of 4 to 5 months. in that time Syd was bumped up a few ranks and anvil was calling her the “big guns”. seeing as we are just about to caught up to that first chapter Syd has to do something big to pull off the rank increase and accolades.
my thoughts are something goes wrong (good chance the max’s geode and toms ability to pull mana form dabs will take them out of the fight.) and Syd will take down Deus whole army more or less by herself. because lets be honest none here even equals the squids Syd already faced
Well, I will very carefully not mention my stance on vaccination either way. Why on earth would you decide to restrict one side of an argument only, no matter how much sense or not anyone thinks it makes? I would totally understand if you put a ban on general arguing from any side about a topic if it’s becoming too polarizing or clogging up the chat, but blocking only one side is, quite frankly, absolutely idiotic. If you decide to ban me despite not mentioning any personal stance whatsoever, I do not care. At this point I do not plan to comment here any longer.
-LuckyCheshire
Look, it’s pretty simple, I will use a metaphor. One side, the pro-vaccination-site, is arguing this way: 1+1=2. Antivaxxers argue that no, 1+1=21321321432423213213. There is no argument because Antivaxxers don’t have any facts on their sides. It’s not a thing about opinion… but facts. 1+1 equals 2, there is no denying that. And vaccines have an overwhelmingly positive effect.
:thumbsup: More people need to call out antivax stupidity this straightforwardly.
Your analysis of the facts behind the two sides being true or false is irrelevant to the point of restricting sides of the argument, when the argument in question is not whether medication is effective but what the rights of people to refuse should be or what fate should await those who decline to take it.
Welcoming the deaths and calling for the imprisonment of those you disagree with is a hate-filled stance (which I will attribute to the mental impact of illness and insomnia for the author, and hope it will fade once he recovers), -however- wrong they are. And welcoming comments from those who agree with these stances while banning everyone who says that “even people who make foolish decisions have rights” is taking a side.
And for the record, I am both vaxxed and boosted. That shouldn’t matter, but apparently some people have trouble separating the argument and reasoning from the personal life and details of the person giving it.
What are you talking about here? Who has done that, where, and when?
DaveB in the author’s note said: “On the plus side, you will have more time to go and Darwin yourself out of our gene pool, thereby reducing your drag factor on the rest of humanity.”
In an earlier comment, Illy said: “And possibly locked up in solitary to protect the rest of the population from their pro-plague behaviour. [paragraph break] On the plus side, that last one would put so many domestic terrorists behind bars.”
Velarys is claiming that DaveB is “welcoming the death” of those “he disagrees with” and that Illy is calling for their imprisonment. What Velarys is missing is that neither of these is the case. Calling for the imprisonment of antivaxxers is more properly known as quarantining them so that they can’t kill other people with what is effectively bioterrorism. DaveB is simply acknowledging reality: antivax beliefs are correlated with death of the believer and the voluntary manslaughter of other people, rendering them a drag on society. Also, “disagrees with” is a pejorative term in this context since it implies that what is happening is a debate about facts. The advocacy of antivax position is like the advocacy of 2+2=5 or that water boils at 10C. Neither of these things are opinions and there is no agreement or disagreement. One side is wrong and that’s the end of it.
Firstly, I do thank you for accepting that it is possible that I have misinterpreted statements. I acknowledge this is true, and hope that you are right in that matter.
You seem to be missing that the object of the term “disagree” is a debate about -policies,- not facts.
Quarantine is a temporary condition done while either A) a patient is infected, or B) for the duration required to determine whether they are infected. As has been widely discussed and admitted, vaccination does not prevent infection, so if you want to quarantine to prevent the infection’s spread, it has to A) be universal, or B) for only the infected and those who have been in close contact regardless of vaccination status until tested. Otherwise the only logical conclusion of the proposed policy that I can see is to imprison (apparently for life) one group of people for a medical decision they are making about their bodies, while others who made the other decision are still capable of contracting and spreading the disease in question.
Yes, those who refuse to vaccinate are more at risk of serious illness. Thus, they are putting -themselves- at risk, as those who have vaccinated protect themselves. Thus it is illogical to accuse them of “what is effectively bioterrorism” and committing “voluntary manslaughter.” Do you make these same accusations of those who do not vaccinate solely because they are allergic to the vaccine?
I wish you well.
Hi there stupid antivaxxer!
Dou you consider that in an argument over whether the sun rises in the east or the west both sides have a valid point?
@Illy — please be very careful who you call an “anti-vaxxer”. I went up the tree and checked: Velarys explicitly stated he has been vaxxed AND boosted.
NOW. I can be convinced you have actually replied to a different person, but — Alas! — the branch of the comment tree says otherwise.
—————–
Does the Sun rise in the East or the West? Depends on your PoV. IF the person was born PRIOR to the last Magnetic Field Reversal, then he or she could validly claim the Sun still rises in the West… Old habits, yes?
You can be an anti-vaxxer and still be vaxxinated. I present the entire Conservative grift sphere as proof. (And Velarys even points this out themself)
Velarys was repeating an anti-vax talking point by “both sides”-ing getting vaxxinated against a global plague.
Now, maybe they’re only as much of an anti-vaxer as Sargon is a NeoNazi, or Matt Gaetz is a pedophile, but I don’t particularly care to split those hairs.
—
> Does the Sun rise in the East or the West? Depends on your PoV. IF the person was born PRIOR to the last Magnetic Field Reversal, then he or she could validly claim the Sun still rises in the West… Old habits, yes?
Ahh yes, sophisry. That’s like saying that there aren’t modern Nazis because the NSDAP hasn’t existed since the end of WW2. (To which the obvious counterpoint is to link the Blues Brothers bridge scene, or just a random bit of Charelottesville footage)
“Welcoming the deaths and calling for the imprisonment of those you disagree with is a hate-filled stance”
I get where you are coming from and on most topics, i would agree. But what you treat as just an opinion here is a decision that gets other people killed. Anti-vaxxers are not just people with some different opinion, they are a genuine threat to the survival of those who can’t get vaccinated for actual medical reasons.
one of problems of convincing some people is that they have “BELIEF” on their side and the only facts they accept are ones supporting their “BELIEFS” and ignore the rest as either fake or as unimportant.
i learned in my 20’s you can never convince anyone a “BELIEF” is wrong (not impossible but very unlikely you will succeed). in my lifetime i have known some flat earther’s, a few disbelievers in the moon landing, a few who don’t believe history books, and one guy who didn’t believe in gravity.
to many people their “BELIEF” is all that matters
“It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into.” — Jonathan Swift
Except it’s REALLY not. If you check my posts, you see that I’ve been consistently & relentlessly pro-mask & pro-vax & in the early days, even pro-isolation.
I was also freaking out in Jan & Feb of 2020, because Fauci’s pronouncements were obviously going to trigger every conspiracy theorist out there.
The only way to end this nightmare is to convince these people that the benefits far exceed the risks. Calling these people stupid, or turning them into martyrs, only hardens their sense that they are right.
The anti-vaxers might be wrong on the science of vaccines. But the anti-anti-vaxers are even more wrong on sociology.
@LuckyCheshire: The fact that you very publicly state you are not stating your stance and then go on to question why there’s a restriction makes it pretty clear what your stance is.
Here’s why the restriction: Antivaxxers are science deniers whose dipshit beliefs and refusal to cooperate with sensible people has helped to kill hundreds of thousands of people during this pandemic. Giving idiots a platform only contributes to the problem.
Please ease up on the insulting people? It’s not like you’re going to be persuasive that way to anyone who disagrees with you, and it’s just making the comic forum less inviting when people are engaging in what is basically a flame war. I’m not sure the point of these posts other than to label certain people as ‘the other.’ That’s never really been helpful in societies and just leads to spiraling toxicity.
its not about persuading the the idiots, thats impossible because facts reason means nothing to them, its about showing anyone that reads these posts how pathetic and out right stupid those people are so others don’t become like them.
what you seem to misunderstand is this is not a “two sides”argument
its a case where one group is made up of countless groups with differing views but they can all come together behind facts and reason and another made up of narcissistic sociopaths that know nothing.
“what you seem to misunderstand is this is not a “two sides”argument”
All I’m seeing is name-calling and either attempting to bait people, or responding to other people baiting you to get into a flame war (which you are falling for). Flame wars are not particularly fun to read and this forum is usually good about avoiding them. People are not even usually giving their reasoned arguments – they’re just hurling insults. Or the few times people are giving reasoned arguments, they’re usually ruining it by topping it off with an insult.
I just don’t think there’s any ‘upside’ to this sort of fighting except it might make you (not you in particular, but a general ‘you’) feel personally good (not quite schadenfreude, but whatever german word means ‘being happy about being able to safely direct anger at someone else’ – I’m sure there is one, that language has a word for everything). Flame wars just feel immature to me.
The mature thing to do is just send DaveB our well-wishes and hope for his speedy recovery and focus on the comic, since there are several things in today’s comic worth nerd-arguing about. Mostly dealing with Lorlana or Tom/Dabbler.
> People are not even usually giving their reasoned arguments – they’re just hurling insults.
Because the reasoned arguments are so well-known and accepted at this point that we can’t be bothered re-typing them for the millionth time.
Anti-vaxxers are dumbfucks who actively want to watch the world burn as long as they get to be the last on the fire.
Fuck em.
Everything you’re writing is not helpful unless you find it helpful to have someone to be angry at. As far as I’m seeing, it only serves to create a lot of mean-spirited fighting, instead of what I generally prefer – intelligent and civilized arguments. I don’t think there’s any way for this to become an intelligent argument when people are being so extreme.
This forum is usually such a good one – I really don’t want to see it devolve into what is on the rest of the internet just because people are looking for reasons to be angry at each other.
Try having an intelligent argument with a flat earther sometime.
Because that’s what antivaxers are, intellectually.
Now imagine that the flat earthers are actively trying to kill everyone on the planet.
Because that’s what antivaxxers are doing.
“Try having an intelligent argument with a flat earther sometime.”
Never met one, actually. I doubt there are actually a lot of them. The internet tends to magnify otherwise small numbers.
“Because that’s what antivaxers are, intellectually.”
I doubt that based on how you defined certain other people here as being antivaxxers when they said they were vaccinated, and other people who otherwise agree with your stance think you are going too far with the rhetoric.
You really should calm down and take a break.
“Because that’s what antivaxxers are doing.”
I tend to not assume that people who think differently than I do want to murder everyone. Feels straw-manning. Might be part of being an attorney or having a history in formal debate in that I don’t go to that extreme, and like you’re making them ‘the other’ in order to justify hating them instead of just disagreeing with them and leaving it at that.
> being antivaxxers when they said they were vaccinated
You can be vaxxinated and still be an antivaxer.
There are so many examples of this I can’t believe I need to say it.
Having met a few flat earthers, I pointed out to them that the existence of cats proves their belief to be false, for it the earth were flat, cats would have pushed everything off long ago. The expressions were priceless.
I’ll have to remember that one :D
I’ve heard that joke before. :)
Virtue signaling, basically. It’s about marking out what positions are socially acceptable, and which ones aren’t, in an attempt to manipulate people through social pressure, rather than convince them by logical argument.
Which, logically, makes sense as a strategy, because humans are social, rather than logical, beings.
When accurately describing someone’s viewpoint to them is enough to get them upset, it might be time to consider that they’re batshit insane.
I tend to find those moments alternately frustrating and amusing. I suppose it depends on how important the issue is. But it’s odd that some people are so set on disagreeing with everyone that they’ll disagree with their own arguments when repeated back to them.
Or it may be that many people are not proficient communicators. Again, humans are social, emotional, vague sort of creatures, not logical, precise, or consistent ones. What someone may be intending to communicate may not come across in the words they use, if taken literally. They’re just signals, to be recognized by others with the same viewpoints, and not logical constructs that can be examined and have rules applied to them.
That would be fair, *if they changed what they said* when someone points out to them what the words they are saying actually mean.
But they don’t.
So they know exactly what they’re saying, and mean it.
That would require them to understand what’s being said to them. Which, if they’re insane, they really might not understand. Many of my interactions with human beings have left me convinced that they weren’t actually people, but rather something like a parrot, just mimicking speech. They do not operate on logic, just emotion, and so logic is utterly ineffective on them. They treat entire categories of words as being identical, and so it’s impossible to discuss the distinctions between those words with them, because their brain doesn’t even hear it. For example, trying to discuss the difference between “theft” and “infringement of intellectual property”, but the person hears “theft” and “theft”. There’s no way to make any progress on a conversation if a person won’t even consider nuance, that different words exist for a reason, to make subtle distinctions between complex ideas. Many words, for many people, are just synonyms for “good” and “bad”, which amusingly enough, is what you’re often accused of.
That is depressingly accurate :(
I’m sorry. But I do think the first step to solving a problem is to understand it, and the theory does have a great deal of explanatory power. Many confusing, seemingly-inconsistent things that people say and do suddenly make sense and are consistent when viewed through that lens.
If you want to change society, change how people think and act, you have to be able to look past the illusion, and see how they really work. Then you can devise an efficient strategy. This is what the big tech companies are already doing, particularly with machine learning. By ignoring their preconceptions about human behavior, and simply looking at the data, they get a clearer picture of what people are really like, and how they really make their decisions. They can then use this information to manipulate those people without them ever realizing it, because they don’t need to use overt, coercive force. They just manipulate the environment so that those people “freely” make the decisions the company wants them to make.
Fight people directly, and they’ll fight back. Manipulate them covertly, and they’ll fight for you.
Again, do you want to waste your energy on a losing battle, fighting the whole world? Or do you want to win? It feels good to fight, but is the fight the point, or victory?
The upset might just well be from them feeling you’ve misrepresented their viewpoint through your “accurately describing”. I know how that works, I have had my viewpoints subjected to that and, truth be told, have done it often enough to others’ viewpoints. It can be a good trick to show Unfortunate Implications in that stance. It can also be a mean and even dishonest way of trying to pull the rug from under someone’s stance.
But if you really think your description of their viewpoint is God’s Own Truth, then you have a problem of intelectual arrogance. Notice that no matter your viewpoint, that arrogance is problematic.
Communication requires effort on the part of both people. If the listener doesn’t understand the speaker, then it is possible that either or both people have failed at their part. If someone honestly repeats back to you what they understood your words to mean, and they differ from what you intended, then you need to alter what you say if you want them to understand what you intend.
If they’re not being honest, and instead attempting to manipulate you, well, I’m not sure it’s possible to have a productive conversation with them. You have to choose your words very carefully, or engage in similar manipulation.
“its about showing anyone that reads these posts how pathetic and out right stupid those people are so others don’t become like them.”
I have never once, EVER, seen a “fence sitter” change their mind to agree with the person hurling insults and mockery at anyone who disagreed with them. If anything, I’ve seen the opposite – plenty of people who said, “gee, this person is so mean and nasty, I’m inclined to tune out anything they have to say.” In other words: you’re not helping.
“its a case where one group is made up of countless groups with differing views but they can all come together behind facts and reason and another made up of narcissistic sociopaths that know nothing.”
I’ve heard people on the right dismiss anyone on the left as “sociopaths,” so that’s another word that’s starting to lose all meaning.
And this is why as soon as I saw DaveB post that insanity, I decided it was time to leave this comic. Because anyone who doesn’t is going to be people like Illy. People who see someone with a differing viewpoint, or often times, the same viewpoint, just expressed differently, and decide that makes it ok to attack those people.
Honestly, it’s a damn shame that Dave decided he wants to side with people like that, but considering the last page alone was filled with unironic racists, and they were the ones the moderators were protecting, it looks like this comic has gone the way of DC.
Get out while you still can, Pander. This site is no longer welcoming of logic.
“And this is why as soon as I saw DaveB post that insanity, I decided it was time to leave this comic.”
Eh, I like the comic, I like DaveB as a creator (both his artwork and his very well thought-out storyline ideas and original characters, plus he seems like a generally decent person on the forum), and I like almost all the people on the forum. Everyone can slip up now and then when writing stuff, especially when sick and not wanting to deal with ideological arguments that one simply does not agree with.
From what I’ve seen, DaveB generally takes a hands-off approach and I feel like him saying that stuff is heavily influenced by him being sick and not wanting to have to read about antivaxxers, something which he is ideologically against for understandable reasons, despite having gotten vaccinated (like a large percentage of people have been). Like I said elsewhere, my patience might be short if I was sick as well. Benefit of the doubt given when this is the one time he’s actually said he doesnt want to see a particular thing on the forum.
It would help if other people did not start lambasting those people though because it just feels like baiting, or it feels like an invitation for trolls to try to bait people who want to anger pro-vaccination/mandate people.
“Because anyone who doesn’t is going to be people like Illy.”
Illy has admittedly been going waaay overboard, but even Illy also been able to be sociable in the recent past. And that’s coming from someone who Illy initially was saying was antisemitic despite my being jewish because I didn’t agree with their statement about something dealing with Harry Potter books or some poem or something from hundreds of years ago that I never even heard of before a few weeks ago. I noticed that afterwards, when there were not politics involved, Illy was able to respond to posts without wishing ill on me. Some people just can’t talk about things without getting mean though – it’s going to hurt their stances in the future because people are going to see them as being unstable. I tend to take things in a ‘treat others in kind ot how I’m treated’ mentality, which is why I think Illy’s posts are particularly problematic. It can very easily lead to other people posting back in kind, or other people who don’t like all the vitriol like you getting fed up and leaving. I already see that the majority of people are not posting like Illy though. Even Illy doesnt always post like Illy is posting now.
“People who see someone with a differing viewpoint, or often times, the same viewpoint, just expressed differently, and decide that makes it ok to attack those people.”
Yes unfortunately people tend to do that on the internet. It’s why I generally like this comic forum. What Illy is doing is usually not typical of this place, despite little to no actual moderation. It’s usually moderated more by people just posting that they don’t appreciate hearing something, or do appreciate hearing something else, from what I’ve seen. Mostly civil stuff.
“Honestly, it’s a damn shame that Dave decided he wants to side with people like that,”
Again, he’s feeling sick. Probably doesn’t want to have to deal with this when COVID is making him exhausted and feeling sort of crappy, not to mention it’s getting in the way of his ability to produce his comic. I don’t think he’s necessarily siding with people being uncivil to one another.
“but considering the last page alone was filled with unironic racists,”
Eh, it’s sort of expected that some people will see ‘white guy in an African nation’ and say things that are overtly racist towards the aforementioned white guy, or conflate criticism of Mozambique with criticism of black people just because Mozambique is located in Africa, but I think most people did not see it that way. Plus I don’t think DaveB sees it that way either – he’s portrayed Deus as actually a rather good person with a flair for villainous tropes, and I don’t think he’d do things like find the most corrupt state in Africa, with residents privately begging Deus to come in with his infrastructure and jobs, as the one Galytn is at war with (in order to make Galytn look good instead of like an invader). I think he’s made it pretty obvious that Deus does not care about skin color – just competence and loyalty (plus he gives loyalty in return).
“Get out while you still can, Pander.”
It’s fine, I’ll stick around. :) I like the overwhelming percentage of people here and I like the minimal amount of moderation DaveB does, and I like that he is at least engaged with the fanbase here in a positive way (which is rare to find). I think you should as well – you seem like a very decent sort of person as well.
“This site is no longer welcoming of logic.”
Eh, it’s been pretty good on listening to logic in the past. I wouldnt post so much if it wasn’t.
Don’t let a couple of louder voices make you think that it’s not. Even some of the people who are more on the extreme on this are not being as extreme as Illy is being (and have in the past been very logical and coherent in past arguments/discussions). Like eaglejarl, who has been pretty great overall in the past despite doing some name-calling in the current strip’s posts (not directed at me btw, he’s always been very civil to me). And people like Torabi, who I have a lot of arguments with, but tends to be extremely civil and the arguments tend to be enjoyable.
TL;DR – you shouldn’t leave the comic just because of one sub-par blurb by the author who’s ill, or a couple of posters who said something unnecessarily antagonistic and/or vitriolic. It’s the internet and it’s amazing it doesn’t happen a lot more often. I’m just pointing it out to try to appeal to people’s better natures.
“With reasonable men, I will reason; with humane men I will plead; but to tyrants I will give no quarter, nor waste arguments where they will certainly be lost.”
-William Lloyd Garrison
That quote isnt really indicative of much of your past posts, though. It doesnt make you look good and doesnt persuade people when you get so extreme and vitriolic. It just makes you seem hate-filled. You dont know any of the people who you are calling names and your posts dont seem to have a point other than being mean (or irritating people with inappropriately invoking godwins law). Its something you are clearly capable of NOT doing because you havent called ME a rude name in a while now. Just practice that self restraint with others as well.
Yeah, I gave up on you because you were incapable of seeing how insane your viewpoint is.
I can continue if you really want?
“It would help if other people did not start lambasting those people though because it just feels like baiting, or it feels like an invitation for trolls to try to bait people who want to anger pro-vaccination/mandate people.”
I read (a certain select few of) Illy’s and eaglejarl’s posts as “we now have permission to signal^Wstrut our virtue and tell off people who we assume aren’t up to Dave’s Word Of God!” Especially the “thank you” posts reminded me of “I was the mob until the mob came for me”. Meaningless in discussion but important for setting the mob’s mood. Like they were fishing for recognition as high priests of “anti-anti-vax”.
By excluding insanity, he’s embraced insanity? By excluding those uninterested in logic, he’s no longer welcoming of logic? I’m having trouble following you here.
He’s sick. He doesn’t feel like tolerating people who may:
1) Insist that the disease he’s suffering from isn’t real.
2) That nothing should be done about it,
3) And that they’re not responsible for its spread.
He’s not in the mood to listen to people who he feels have contributed to what he’s suffering from. I am not unsympathetic to his position. It may have been wiser to prohibit all discussion of Covid, or vaccines, because it has resulted in a certain amount of dogpiling in the comments, but again, I can understand where his sympathies lie at the moment. When my best friend caught covid, I was pretty upset with a lot of people too.
Because one “side” is not based in reality, and that “side”‘s misinformation is actively harmful. What Dave really means is banning misinformation, except that one “side” does not know what that means, so this is an easier way to put it.
Bye Bye stupid antivaxxer.
You won’t be missed.
There’s a reason why propaganda is effective. Misinformation is a very powerful tool against the average person. Allowing it is foolhardy. And anyone who speaks up in spite of the warning deserves the consequences of their arrogance anyways.
There’s a saying or two about how rumor can get halfway around the world before truth even has its boots on. The assumption that truth will win in a head-on battle between truth and falsehood depends on people having some inherent preference for truth, when it doesn’t take much examination to realize that people definitely have a preference for self-serving fictions.
Because he doesn’t want to read it? Does he need a better reason? It’s his website, his comic that people are presumably commenting on, and he doesn’t have to allow any particular people, topics, words, or anything. I’m guessing he generally doesn’t moderate the comments much, considering what people have said in the past, and overall people are generally pretty well-behaved, but I don’t think at any point he’s made some kind of public commitment to allowing people to argue whatever they want, however they want, on his dime.
If you have ever seen the Zimbabwe ruins which appear almost alien to the whole of southern Africa, they are quite reminiscent of this structure. Also they aren’t too far from the Mozambique border.
OMG!!!!!!!!! The Alari have returned! The Alari have returned!
If I recall correctly, Smurfette was originally evil, created by Gargamel to sow dissent among the Smurfs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOUNVJ6tuTU
Dave, don’t worry about making too many flashy changes to the city design. You got the most important one in there already. Anyone coming to the city will say “Hey, look. This city has a monorail! They MUST be advanced!”
Cities with monorails are advanced! It put Brockway, Ogdenville and North Haverbrook on the map!
Just don’t mention the one we had in Sydney, ok?
It’s as quiet as a cloud!
I like this call back to the original smurf story, where there was an infection that turned smurfs dark-skinned and made them violent and bitey, the original zombie plague story.
Also there are a lot of things that you can take that are reputed to reduce the severity of C-19 infections, that are not cures, they just make it feel less bad and are available OTC. Basically they are cold and flu meds that treat the symptoms. Get well soon and take a break if you think you need to.
“… are reputed to reduce the severity of C-19 infections, that are not cures, they just make it feel less bad and are available OTC.”
I am trying to recall the details of an engine-driver and his bottle of “cough mixture”. ‘Twas in the late 1800s, and it seems the standard “cough mixture” was high-ly likely to contain significant amounts of (hopefully) ethanol and THC. Upshot was, his fireman had to relieve him of command, stop at the nearest and have another driver sent out. However, the “errant” driver reputedly felt absolutely no chest-related discomforts…
I question if he was feeling much of anything at all…
I believe that was the purpose of many of those old-time medications :>
I do know that you should not take ibuprofin.
I did hear something about that, but didn’t bother with details because my fave NSAID is and always will be the good old Aspirin. Yum!
It has something to do with ibuprofin causing an increased expression of the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE)-2 receptor, which is the target for cell penetration of SARS-CoV-2 by upregulating ACE-2, which increases the entrance of COVID-19 into the cells. But this is something the studies only really showed in the original Alpha version of the virus. I haven’t seen anything about it with Gamma (which did not have enough of an outbreak to test), Beta (same as Gamma), Delta, or Omicron.
But in general – better safe than sorry when talking about treating the symptoms. Tylenol or aspirin is fine, but ibuprofin -may- have some negative effects.
Aspirin is a blood thinner, that’s why mum had to stop taking it
She prefers panadol
Maximum sympathy and I hope you pull out of the virus soon. We have an ongoing outbreak at work and the stress of worryig about catching it again is about as debilitating to me as the disease itself was. (I got it back in Dec ’21, before anyone in my age bracket had the chance to get a vaccine. Guess I was lucky because all I had was a hacking cough, like you describe.)
Hope you feel better soon.
Correction, back in December 2020. It’s been going on for so long now that I can’t do the mental math anymore on what year things happened.
I support your stance on Darwin.
Sometimes, I feel like we should just allow nature to take it’s course and let people eliminate themselves from the gene pool. But then I remember that there is usually collateral damage so we need to keep the reasonable regulations.
I am pro-Science, pro-vaccine.
the only problem darwinian evolution is there are many traits that allow a “species” to survive. normally the stupid would eliminate themselves out of the genepool, except for the fact that they also have trait to breed faster than they kill themselves off. kind of like how rabbits and mice breed fast to replace their numbers despite being the prey that many other animals eat
Oof. Any time I get sick I have a hard time sleeping. I’m starting to think Insomnia when you’re sick as an adult is par for the course.
Her hair, smile, and in your face (among other things) attitude somehow made me think of Franky from One Piece.
Except… you know… female and mostly clothed.
Don’t go drink yourself into a coma when you’ve got healing to do. Clear your head, marshal your energy, and focus on getting better, resting if you can’t sleep.
Wide-perspective backgrounds are why every artist should learn the basics of Blender. Use it to make a general city layout, you instantly have blocking-in for literally any perspective. It’s one of those things that has a high buy-in but pays for itself in time savings later down the line.
“… chasing nyquil with a tumbler full of Goldschlager …”
NO DaveB, NO. WE drink your health, YOU take your meds and rest. I’m having another Peroni after breakfast, cos “the beer I had for dinner wasn’t bad, so I’ll have one more, for breakfast”.
Do youse have black ales down there in Texas? That’s what you should try AFTER you recover, they have a ton of carbs for energy and a really cool mouth-filling taste. Given it’s winter in your neck of the woods, black ales are far better than any lagers. (I can’t… quite… spruik the Guinness — that IS an acquired taste.)
I have never evrn heard of that apple pie liquer he mentioned but I am wondering if it tastes like Bailey’s Irish Creme?
Bailey’s doesn’t taste like apples though
Yeah. I just don’t have many other references to try to make a comparison. The only alcoholic beverages I know of that taste like baked goods at all are Pinnacle Cinnabon-flavored vodka and Bailey’s Irish Creme Liquor (which admittedly tastes more like chocolate milk than baked goods, but when i think ‘liquor’ I think of Baileys).
There are a variety of oatmeal cookie flavored ales. They are slightly confusing, but delightful.
What’s it called? I’m picky when it comes to alcohol but a liqueur that tastes like oatmeal cookies is something I’d be interested in trying.
Umm. Education sense tingles… Hokay!
Ales are the “first” beers, top-fermented (which just means the yeast would naturally… gravitate… to the top of the barrel) in a warmish liquor over the maltings.
Later — closer to our age — the Germans found a new yeast which would gravitate to the bottom of the liquor and camp (Lager) on top of the maltings, usually in a much colder liquor.
During WWII many Yanks went to England, and complained that the Brits’ beer was always drunk warm. Ales are usually drunk 5 – 10°C warmer than lagers which can be drunk *and tasted* from about 5°C. But ales generally have a much richer taste as well as a higher carb loading. They don’t like lager temperatures and the taste gets buried, so if you’re not used to them… Thus the derogatory “Horse Piss”.
Some people have tried making “oatmeal ale”, but oats don’t play well in a malting and need constant attention like a spoilt brat. However, they do taste FABULOUS apparently.
Okay. Thanks for the education but I’m just wanting to know of alcoholic beverages that taste like baked goods or desserts or breakfasts. :)
Take your pick:
https://duckduckgo.com/?t=palemoon&q=liqueur+that+tastes+like+oatmeal+cookies&ia=web
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=liqueur+that+tastes+like+baked+goods&t=palemoon&ia=web
just stick your fave delish fter the “like” :)
I’m going off on a tangent (sorry!) but this thread reminds me…. have you ever tried skittles vodka?
It sort of tastes like a jello shot, but still liquid. Especially good when mixed with some ginger ale or sprite.
This is what I had, but that might be a little out of your way. Google brings up a couple interesting results for “Oatmeal Cookie Ale”, some of which might be closer to home. Looks like there’s a few options on Drizly as well, though I haven’t tried any of them.
I just found Dr. McGillicuddy’s Apple Pie Liqueur on drizly.com and I’m now so interested that I ordered a 750ml bottle and one of those mini 50ml bottles too. I figured I’ll try the 50ml one and if I like it, woo I have a new drink I like. If I don’t like it then woo! My brother is getting a new present for his home bar.
Yeah, when we go to the local liquor store (can’t buy alcohol in stores because of a stranglehold on the sale of booze by the local Licensing Trust), we usually look through the itty-bitty bottles for cool looking ones, like a crystal skull (with vodka)
We only tend to go about once every couple years now, use to go about two or three times, but after the cancellation of the only wine we liked (been having it as a special drink for birthdays since was a kid) we don’t really have a reason to go, and with the lock downs… even less chance to go
Have you considered trying one of those online alcohol/wine services like winc? Or try the site I mentioned – drizly. They have a really good selection.
Lorlara’s massive smile in that last panel just makes me chuckle. She’s just so excited!
Also evil. That is a Joker grin if ever there was one.
Back in college for a chemistry/biology collab I had to do, I calculated out exactly how much Goldschlager one would have to drink to shit a gold brick.
…Turns out there are other even less cost-effective endeavors one could embark on but this ranked up there in the top percentile.
The Alari had TOURISTS! From where? The Sith Empire, the Romulan Star Empire, the Thrintun (Larry Niven’s Slavers)?
I’d put my money on it being Alari touring other Alari houses’ sites, most likely with the intent of committing some type of espionage.
Evil Smurf…LOL!
Do… do you think people who get COVID are mostly anti-vaxxers?
People who die from it certainly are mostly unvaccinated.
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/deathsinvolvingcovid19byvaccinationstatusengland/deathsoccurringbetween1januaryand31october2021
And at this point, being unvaxxinated means you either cannot take the vaccine due to immune system issues, or you’re an anti-vaxxer.
I think that’s a bit… shall we say, enthousiastically judgemental. Plenty places where vaccines simply aren’t to be had, for one. There might well be other issues. Treating everyone who isn’t vaccinated for any non-medical reason, which might not even be their own fault or in their own power to fix, as an “anti-vaxxer” will sooner cause more people to turn to that pernicious bullshit than get more people vaccinated.
Just saying (I’m boostered):
A co-worker of mine had their uncle die about 3 days after the first vaccination, from a blood clot, which is a known (rare) side effect. And now they don’t dare to get vaccinated.
@PL – from what I believe to know by now: For getting it, vaccinated or not doesn’t make much difference. The difference comes when the question is about surviving it, having it hard or mild, getting long term effects. And the sooner your body gets rid of it, the shorter is the time while you are infectious.
You can still get it but your chances of surviving it are a lot higher when you’re vaccinated.
Getting vaccinated does in fact substantially reduce your risk of catching covid. Breakthrough cases happen but they are rare; the reason that they seem prevalent is because rare events are interesting so they get a lot of play whereas the common case isn’t mentioned. It’s like people being hit by lightning — you’ll hear about the ones that are and not about the vastly higher number of people that aren’t.
Sadly, that was only true for alpha, beta & gamma. “Break throughs” with delta are a big part of why delta took off, and as for omicron… Yeah. No real effect as to the spread. Even with all three shots. (Which I got as soon as I could.)
There is a hypothesis out there that what we now know as the annual flu is descended from the Spanish flu. And they have to generate new vaccines every year. Anyone who expected the the original vaccine to maintain effectiveness when the inevitable mutations occurred wasn’t aware about how flus or vaccines work.
Right now, it is seriously questionable whether or not it makes sense to aggressively pursue a vaccine vs omicron. We WILL have a major mutation within six months. And, even with the more aggressive (and risky) schedule that was (wisely) used with the original vaccine, it still took ~ten months to even start to supply it to first responders (at ~sixteen months for general availability).
All of which is the sort of thing that the anti-vaxxers like to point to and say, “See! See!”. Sorry. This stuff is _hard_. And the childish “if only everyone had gotten the shot when it first came out, we would be fine” of some anti-anti-vaxxers is JUST as stupid.
>And at this point, being unvaxxinated means you either cannot take the vaccine due to immune system issues, or you’re an anti-vaxxer.
That applies to countries that supply sufficient dosages, or are victims of corruption by substitution, or are one of the rare isolated people out of contact at all in the last few years(That might be a good, thing as isolation likely also means low exposure risk)
I do not fault antivaccination individuals who are willing to go into more extreme isolation than Lockdown China policies would impose.
Plague Lords, COVID19 Sympathizers, Willing supporters of Mass Homo sapiens killers are enemies of the Homo sapiens species in an interkingdom war. Can you turn an enemy into an ally, or just metaphorically walk away from those who will provide easy shelter and comfort to the Enemy, and provide an opportunity for it to train more, multiply and mutate upgrade it’s capabilities to do more harm?
For some those Enemy sympathizers who are of a Bible derived Anti-mask bent.
Argument: God gave us faces like this, so shouldn’t be covered.
Counter 1: Then why aren’t you naked, hiding in your own private little garden?
Counter 2: Leviticus 13:45-46 “The leprous person who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose, and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean.’ He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease. He is unclean. He shall live alone. His dwelling shall be outside the camp.
Argument citation of pro Pandemic spread Misinformation.
Counter 3: 2 Peter 2:1
But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.
Practical futility
Argument: Masks barely do any protections
Counter 4: Masks are like armor, that can stop some. If you get shot 10 times, and you are wearing cheap armor and only 3 of them are stopped, you have a better chance than surviving all 10. Also wear a better mask than your see though weave t-shirt. N-95s are like quality battle armor compared to a bandana leather armor. Full filter cartridge masks are Excellent, but like walking around in a Heavy Bomb squad suit. Best protection is one you actually wear.
Best block no be there. Social Distancing statistically makes sense, but if you’re in a closed box together for hours eventually even some long shots will probably eventually hit.
Argument: Omicron is not so bad, why not just get it and get it over with?
Counter: You know what’s even less bad? Getting vaccinated, and then if you get exposed, doing so in tiny amounts at a time, so your immune system can handle it,
rather than being overwhelmed by having a party of dozens of infected spreading enough to overwhelm your body slowly gearing up for a response without your body being able to identify and have practice what it’s fighting.
Argument: The Vaccinations make you sick.
Counter: The Vaccinations train your immune system to practice triggering your immune response so your body knows exactly how to fight the enemy, even if you’re made a little uncomfortable doing emergency drills.
It does not have any active reproducing Viral pathogens to reproduce and multiply in your system. Chances of actually getting killed by the FDA approved Vaccine is paranoid stupidity, mixed with Disinformation by rivals, snake oil salesmen and actual supporters of spreading pestilence.
Argument: The Vaccine is experimental.
Counter: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/different-vaccines/Pfizer-BioNTech.html
Pfizer-BioNTech (COMIRNATY) received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval on August 23, 2021, for individuals 16 years of age and older.
Yes. FULL APPROVAL. The Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine received full approval by the FDA on Aug. 23, 2021.
Argument: Vaccines take longer to make, this can’t be real.
Counter: Welcome to the 21st century. Among different possible gene editing techniques CRISPR(-Cas9 method) gene editing found in the 1987 from a mouth bacteria was refined and selected from others and became popular, new techniques also discovered later for editing RNA in living Cells, 2020 saw development of CRISPR genetic scisor methods scientist earn a Nobel Prize for their 2011 and 2012 work. 2020 Nations invested a lot of money into deploying application derived from that work for a pandemic fighting large scale.
Side note HIV is will likely also, however with less funding base.
Other relevant facts: masks are to protect *other people* more than to protect yourself. Yes, wearing a good mask will moderately reduce your risk of catching the disease but it will drastically reduce the risk of spreading it.
THANK YOU both, for having the patience to type that out *yet again*.
Vaccinations are like Death Stars. The more of them you face, the better you get at blowing them up.
Also, there is simple math. You might hear the daily news report something like “Yesterday 2000 people died from Covid”. 90% percent of the people dying from Covid are not vaccinated. If all of those 2000 had been vaccinated *, then the number would have been closer to 200.
(among all who are eligible and otherwise not immunocompromised)
Nothing solidifies an opinion like experiencing the consequences yourself, or seeing friends and family experience them. My tolerance for covid-related stupidity dropped dramatically after my best friend got sick. Still, interesting to see that this is where you draw the line, after some of the things people have posted in the comments before. But maybe some of the stupid will get caught in the net, and the community will be a little cleaner in the future.
Hey Dave, sorry to hear you have “the coof.” Hopefully it’ll pass quickly and with no severe side-effects. If it comes to that, I can only speak for myself, but if you need to miss an update, I’m happy to wait until you feel better.
Speaking as a licensed server in my state, please don’t lean too hard on the alcohol. My own experience tells me that it’s tough to adjust back once you’ve become used to a certain level of intake as a medication, and as a server I see too many people fall into that pretty quickly. Plus it’s kind of a poison that may possibly lengthen your actual recovery time. Moderation is key!
Anyhoo, sending good vibes!
Sydney meets Lorlara…!
Also,can you imagine what Maxima is gonna do to Thothogoth for violating their agreement?!?
Um…. he did not violate any agreement. What are you talking about? Maxima only has any say about US territory.
The agreement (forced by the way), was that he would not set foot on US soil (really don’t have to point out the multiple loopholes in that, right?)
Start pumping the vitamin D pretty hard. it helps to boost your immune system. The sleep thing is tough. the only thing Melatonin does is tell your body “it’s dark outside time to sleep” it does not in itself help you sleep. Drinking alcohol may help you get to sleep, but it screws up some stuff and basically makes for poor unrestful sleep.
I do a meditative technique when I have trouble sleeping, it works about 75% of the time. I imagine that there is a hole behind my eyes and I try and stare into it as hard as I can.
Please no comments about how the hole behind my eyes is my lack of brain. I’ve heard it all before. Har Dee Har Har.
Yes, I have heard that Vitamin D3 helps (but honestly it’s good to take D3, COVID or no COVID, especially if you don’t get out much), as does Zinc.
Vitamin D3 and Zinc both help to support normal immune function and strengthens the immune system in general. Zinc’s also good for problems that affect the senses of taste and smell, as long as you keep the intake below around 40 mg daily.
Dave, you’re probably not reading but… go sleep. Take one or two weeks off. Read some r/antiwork and give yourself a well deserved break. We can survive. Someone could even do some guest comics.