Grrl Power #123 – It’s only trivia until you’re quizzed on it
So Leon evidently has his nerd chops in order. And don’t worry if you had trouble parsing “When does the narwhal bacon?” It is in no way a proper sentence, but to some of us, it makes sense. I will grant it is more of a Geek reference than a Nerd one though, according to my own private definition if the words.
Now something else to entertain you, Fred Perry of Gold Digger fame, which I’ve mentioned a few times before as being my favorite comic is finally doing a webcomic. As well as continuing a regular schedule with Gold Digger, cause Fred is a machine. You don’t even need to read its About section to tell that it’s heavily influenced by Adventure Time and My Little Pony. It’s called Action Time Buddies. It’s just getting started but still swing by and give it a look see.
Edit: A bit of an update, I’ve replaced Bochs with Puck, despite my memory, Bochs was a double amputee, and not actually a Dwarf. Also I’ve added Carrot – there’s a lot of dwarves I could have included but there’s only so much space and Carrot is one of the more notable ones.
Ha ha ha! Nerd/geek battles are always fun! And I have to remember some of those for future use.
I would have failed that quiz.
By far. But the questions are fun, especially the last one.
Wait, why didn’t he mention the 225 meter NX-01?
We do not talk about the Enterprise.
Pigeonholed into a stupid plot-line for the early seasons, and when it finally started showing promise, it was canceled.
Hahaha. I laughed/groaned/cried in an episode in which they excitedly stated they were stopping everything to go investigate “Stellar Inertia” because apparently its rare or something.
(And treating inertia as if it was an object rather than the property of an object at that.) (╥﹏╥)
I actually had written Sydney asking about it and Leon’s response was “Never happened”, but I had to cut it for space. It’s a valid response though, since they screwed up continuity so much in that series I think they eventually said it was an alternate timeline.
Really? Hm..
I do consider myself something something of a Trekkie (at least more than average, having seen all episodes at least once and knowing the First Contact dialog by heart). I didn’t think ENT was thát bad, though.
It still followed much of the ST formula of one-problem-per-episode, solved with sci-fi tech or humanity’s gift for diplomacy, with an overarching vague plotline spanning the series. Yes, the shift into the whole Xindi business was a little weird, and dragged on for a bit, but that was mostly due to panic over poor reception of the series.
I think if they’d just persevered and got into it a little more, the series would’ve turned out alright. I mean, look at the first (and perhaps second) season of TNG. The acting was horrendous and the episodes were essentially written for the TOS series, making then laughably unbelievable. TNG turned out alright in the end, didn’t it? ENT got off to a rather better start actually, I’d say. Thy just didn’t really get a change.
But you did forget about the original. As Scotty said in ST: TNG “Relics”: “N-C-C-1-7-0-1. No bloody A – B – C – or D! “
Just realized you got the memo on that… So sorry for giving you another person yelling at you as if you did something as stupid as forget the cover sheet on those TPS reports.
Mind you, the ‘memo’ doesn’t actually say it’s for the letter-less ‘original’. It says the ‘A’, which was always a Constitution Refit, thus the memo is still inaccurate.
I know I was pissed when the people who are supposed to know about Trek history ignored most of it. A merciful death just not fast enough. They even got the big Terra-Romulan war wrong for timing. No warp driven starships, it was atomic power and impulse power only ships. I has so wanted them to go forward in the history not back near the beginning. Botched from beginning to end.
Not 100% certain, but I don’t think TOS says at any time that the Romulan War was fought only using sublight ships with atomic power, etc.. I think this was more something asserted later in various books.and publications.
i so wouldn’t have used the Narwhal one; what would Sydney thing about things like violentacrez, or creepshots?
*think. >.<
The Narwhal Bacons at Midnight is a phrase created on Reddit.com used to distinguish redditors from people with actual lives.
The Narwhal Bacons at Midnight test:
Person 1-“When does the Narwhal bacon?”
Person 2-“At midnight!”
Person 3-“I wish you two had dignity…”
regardless, both are from Reddit.
In case people (like me) have forgotten, that first panel refers to sydneys fists 3 comics back, I dare everyone not to go back and check
Eh, by my definition, Nerds are more acedemic, while geeks are more obsessive, though both overlap each other in many areas, (and there are also subtle differences between nationalities and genders). A nerd will be one of the smartest guys in class, obsessive over maths, science, or other school type subjects, while a geek is more likely to be lower on the grade ladder, because they have spent a larger amount of time playing computer games, watching movies, arguing about said movies on the net, reading up on knowledge about the above, etc… I define myself as a geek, becaus eI was nowhere near focused enough in school to get hight enough marks to earn the title of “nerd”
For more information on the distinctions between nerds and geeks, go to this website
https://xkcd.com/747/
Every time I’m pointed there, I think that needs to be made into a shirt.
Finally, someone who operates on the same definition I do. Gamer geek here.
Gamming Geek & Nerd here, preferring RPG’s Fighting Ganes and Mario Kart.
That’s the definition I follow!
No doubt I would have failed this test.
Geek (n.)- Someone who spends a lot of time and energy in a certain area, not necessarily computers or technology; An outwardly normal person who has taken the time to learn technical skills. They are generally not athletic and enjoy video games, comic books, being on the internet, etc.
Nerd (n.)- A socially awkward person who has learned technical skills due to the spare time they enjoy from being generally neglected; one whose IQ exceeds his weight.
Dork (n.)- Someone who has odd interests and is often silly at times. A dork is also someone who can be themselves and not care what anyone thinks. Dorks are typically more noted for their quirky personality.
In short:
Geek- Smart but not awkward
Nerd- Smart and awkward
Dork- Smart in less useful areas, awkward but proud regardless
And the first salvos been fired in what’s sure to many nerd-offs to come. LOL
What? No dwarfs from discworld were mentioned… not a proper nerd
Terry Pratchett’s Discworld?
ya no carrot
also Cheery Littlebottom, Glod Glodson and Cassanunda to name but a few
Also the Dwarf with no name, a.k.a. “Shorty”, from https://skullkickers.keenspot.com/ ^_^
O.K. for some reason my brain is singing “I’ve been the the desert with a dwarf with no name”
And now I see an irritated mercenary dwarf with an elf dancing around him singing ” La La La le-lah La”
You realize that a) That’s not an elf and B) they’re naked right?
Hey it’s my brain and if it looks like an elf and irritates a dwarf like an elf I’m calling it an elf!
HA! HA! HA!
Damm You! Now it’s stuck in my head too!!!!
Mission accomplished! :)
Naming too many there. She said to list only one per universe.
Darn… I only recognized five of those dwarves, and I would’ve failed the Enterprise question.
*wails*
I’m not a proper nerd!
I’d think that anyone who knows the length of the Enterprise A and D is nerd enough. Those were the ones on the shows. I had to look up B and C. Well, I had to look all of them up but I had quite a bit of trouble finding info about B and C.
I’m going to need your card, sir. The ones on the shows were the E-nil and E-D. E-A was in the fourth, fifth, and sixth films only, the one in TOS was just NCC-1701.
Ah geeze. Well at least Leon’s still correct in the comic.
Ah, but A and No-letter were both constitution class, therefore the same length. Also, A was not new but an older ship that was recommissioned and renamed. I think A’s previous name may have been Yorktown, but I’m not sure.
You’re right, the A was indeed renamed. However, TOS Enterprise (just 289m) was indeed shorter than the refit movie Enterprise due to the refit. I’ll take that all with a grain of salt knowing that Abram’s Enterprise is no shorter than 718m but has been quoted to be up o 1200m. I’d say 725m (as quoted by the Blue-Ray) is a safe bet until someone somewhere somehow makes it a solid number agreed upon by everyone. In the end? Star Trek suffocated itself with statistics and a too-familiar, too-documented universe. Abrams did everyone a favor by wiping the board.
Not necessarily. Ships of the same class will frequently have variations within that class. For example, the USS Constellation and the USS Kitty Hawk, both Kitty Hawk class aircraft carriers and 1 hull number apart (CV-64 and CV-63 respectively) have completely different dimensions. The S***ty Kitty is 1,068.9 ft (325.8 m) L with a 130 ft (40 m) beam at the waterline, while the Constipation is 1,088 ft (332 m) overall with the same beam. Granted this is a somewhat extreme example and most will be a difference of inches rather than feet, but still and all differences will exist.
Wow! One can learn interesting things reading the comments. So, both A and No-letter are shorter than Kitty Hawk before an after refit.
Enterprise C was in a TNG-episode, “Yesterdays Enterprise”
Was one of The Seven Dwarves ALSO a doctor?
Yes, the one they called ‘Doc’
I feel they will get along either swimmingly or explosively.
Sadly, there should be at least 4 more “Enterprises” listed: wet-navy, space shuttle, & original NCC-1701 (as opposed to NCC-1701-A & later), pre- & post-refit. All displayed in the gallery in the first movie. And I’m not even a Trekkie….
I’m glad I’m not the only one that caught the “original NCC-1701” mistake. The NCC-1701 was refitted just prior to the start of the first movie and exploded in the third. The NCC-1701-A was used in the fifth and sixth movies. The NCC-1701-B had it’s maiden voyage at the start of Generations. And the last three I believe are common knowledge.
Ah, so technically Leon’s right when he says the “A” is 305 meters since that’s the movie refit version, it’s my comment below the comic that’s off.
As a longtime Discworld fan, I totally approve of the replacement comment you put there.
if you want to be a complete anorak, you could look at this
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Enterprise
Also NX-01. And back into real life, VSS Enterprise.
It’s worse. There were at least 6 wet-navy vessels named Enterprise. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Enterprise
How many wet navy Enterprises though? There have been 9 American Enterprises with another planned and 15 British Enterprises. Also a couple of French ships and at least one Spanish. And don’t forget the one prototype space shuttle.
New favorite character!! Really hoping you plan to use him a lot in the future. :D
Doctor Who references made this for me. My day is so much better now. :D
Considering that I own Captain Jack Harkness’ coat , This one also made my day! And I am old enough to have seen the early ones on the BBC broadcasts when I was in Europe as a child. You all can envy me know.
No envy here :D I am old enough to remember the when they were on TV here in Australia. They ran through the black and white all the way to the end of the original series before it went on hiatus.
And I am in total agreement with Sydney and Leon, Tom Baker was my favourite too. *offers a jellybaby*
I’ve seen a few Tom Baker episodes courtesy of the internet, but David Tenant’s my favorite. The way he goes from screwing around to deadly serious is just awesome to me. But I will state here and now that Baker had the better fashion sense.
Why does no one seem to like Pertwee?
Pertwe (and Betsy/Bessie) were well cool :D
you may have the coat, but I have the scarf, it is nice and warm to have in the winter, and rolled up it makes a okay pillow.
I do like to watch the adventures of Purple Smart, Tree Kicker, Yellow Quiet, Squiggletail, Speedy Cloud and Pink Party. oh and Purple Smart’s assistant Fax Machine.
I guess I need to join the forum, and post some picks. Because I want to see that scarf.
Don’t forget Mr. Stronginthearm! Although Bjorn would have been acceptable too. “I believe in reincarnation you know.” DON’T WORRY, YOU WILL BE BJORN AGAIN.
Though I suppose Discworld may not count as she said dwarves, not dwarfs.
I don’t personally fall down in Doctor worship over the latest, so no fezzes for me. Bow ties are allowed in over something prior to this guy.
And no ponies.
Nerd quiz: Name those Dwarves! Though I must admit, I don’t recognize them all.
Sleepy’s from Disney, Thorin’s LotR (though which Thorin he’s naming might be interesting), Flint’s Dragonlance & Bruenor FR, Magni’s from Norse myth, Master from Mad Max, & Red Dwarf is a ship (cheat, but valid) from BBC. 7 of 12. Ugh. I think I failed.
Granted Blizzard could’ve been dipping into Norse mythology when they grabbed the name, but my first thought on seeing ‘Magni’ was that Leon was referring to King Magni Bronzebeard, leader of the Dwarves in the MMORPG “World of Warcraft”.
See, now that’s another one I missed. Now I know I failed. Darn computer games section. Outside my specialty!
Tyrion is from game of thrones, Randall is from time bandits, and the rest you mentioned are spot on, thought I caught magni as a wow reference as well. Thorgrim bugged me because it felt recognizable, but I had to google it I admit, hes from warhammer online, I still think theres another reference in there for that name though at the tip of my mind. No clue about Bochs though.
My first though was Thorgrim the Strong from Realms of Arkania 3: Shadows over Riva…
Of course if we include games then Ohgren from Dragon Age Origins deserve a mention.
…and Binwin Bronzebottom is from the PVP webcomic, unless there is another Binwin out there somewhere that I don’t know about.
ALSO from the Penny Arcade’s D&D adventure group: Acquistion’s Incorporated … where he is PURE COMEDIC GOLD!
Just to complete the list, Puck is a superhero from Alpha Flight, a Marvel comic book superhero team.
Why did Leon not mention Pascals instead of N/in.^2 .? Go all metric or go home!
He missed Urist Mc Dwarf
Looked in the comments for this comment. Srsly, how one can be both nerd and geek and while sitting in front of a pc do not mention good old Urist?
If he’s both a geek and a nerd, does that make Leon a Gerd, or a Neek?
Was thinking that as well
But newtons are fruit and cake!
I’m glad I’m not the only one who first thought of cake before measurements.
He forgot Peter Cushing and Richard Hungren from the Five Doctors… then there’s the audio adventures…
Did he remember the dwarf from Yet Another Fantasy Web Comic or Goblins or aren’t those included?
Oh and does he know how and why dragons can fly?
(See Flight of Dragons for that answer)
the film’s not as good as the book
Richard Hurndall was playing Bill Hartnell’s Doctor, though.
Richard E. Grant played the Doctor in Scream of the Shalka (easy to miss).
I think there was at least one stage version before the one with Pertwee in 1989, but that’s even easier to miss. (And then there are the unproduced animated series, and the fan version with 2.5, but I don’t think those count.)
Now I must rewatch that!
Not that I needa reason mind you!
Wasn’t he one of those playing the doctor in the curse of the fatal death?
Does the youtube series count?
Oh what about Farscape but technically they didn’t identify any dwarves but there was plenty of nerdage displayed during the series!
I meant dwarves in Farscape, sorry my grammar failed along time ago in a galaxy far, far away!
any one else going to make a guess on how many pages of coments there going to be these week i say three at least any one else.
lets see, Dr Who, Star Trek & Red Dwarf
this could get a bit messy
Time for the nerds to get their geek-on :D
Probably four, A lot of single comments, and not as many conversation comments.
Sort of like the gun page.
What prompts the first comments from Leon, “Newtons actually.”?
It’s a reference to #121 https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/716 when Sydney was talking with Maxima and claimed her smaller first gave her more joules per square inch.
now we know who put the my little pony poster up in the break room
I ship them so hard
Anyone forgot to mention Maxi’s face in panel 5? And she called Leon the ‘resident geek’ because she considers herself the ‘resident nerd’
No one rememberd Urkko, Slaine’s annoying dwarf footstool from 2000AD?
Correction. To use Max’s own words in a pervious strip. “I ….uh…. used to be a nerd.”
She may not have let her nerdy credentials slip, but I doubt if she advertises that she has them.
More missing dwarves: Trick (Lost Girl), Hornswaggle (WWE).
There were 2 holographic doctors on “Star Trek: Voyager”, played by Robert Picardo (Voyager: Mark I) and Andy Dick (“Message in a Bottle,” Prometheus: Mark 2). Okay, I did not know the lengths of the various editions of the Enterprise.
There were two Emergency Medical Holograms, but only the one played by Robert Picardo was referred to as “The Doctor.”
Also:
Alviss (from norse mythology, or American Gods – take your pick)
Verne Troyer (from the real world)
Radac Stungnthumz (from the Elder Scrolls series)
Thurgrim Ironheart (from Warhammer 40k)
I don’t think Leon’s launching off point is particularly valid. Sure, Newtons or Pounds work if we’re just talking about straight punching power. But Joules captures all the energy in the punch, not just the physical force.
I mean, what if Sydney set her hands on fire? Joules/square inch would capture this radiant heat energy, and whilst there might be some conversion back to Newtons it wouldn’t be as natural as a straight energy cumulative.
Of course, this sort of assumes that heat/electrical/other energy would be equal in a small and large fist, when in reality the temperature/voltage/whatever would likely be constant between the two fists and over the surface area, leading to both fists having the same J/square inch for this effect.
Heat would be a release of energy over time though, so it’s probably a poor example as J would need to take into account interaction time. Electricity on the other hand is a much better example. It would be a straight nigh instantaneous release of all the energy in the voltage difference (as opposed to not all the energy released by burning both hands), and so J would work well.
well as it was a question about pressure, it has to be force per area. and if we ware just talking about energy delivered then the surface area of Sydney hands strike zone don’t make any difference.
Speaking as an engineer AND a nerd (though I probably shouldn’t repeat myself) . . . .
Sydney’s force (Newton’s/in^2) is going to be extremely small no matter how you look at it, since she doesn’t have a lot of mass to throw around (Force = mass X acceleration).
When dealing with moving bodies, what we call the “force” of impact isn’t actually “force” – it’s momentum (force times velocity), which has units of energy (Joules). Rifles, for instance, are rated based on energy and muzzle velocity. The heavier the bullet, the lower the muzzle velocity would be for the same energy. Similarly, since Sydney’s fist is pretty small, it must move really, really fast :)
While it’s not common (in my experience, anyway) to rate anything in energy per surface area (Joules per square inch), it is perfectly valid; concentrating the same energy over a smaller surface area will do more damage. So Sydney is 100% correct, although unorthodox, while Leon is just plain wrong!
Heh, well there’s been a lot of disagreement about it in the comments. Maybe they’ll have to consult Dabbler about it.
Well speaking as an engineer AND a geek (though I for one think it is just two words for the same thing)
I would say that the point is that she it going to have a better chance breaking through stuff and delivering damage with a small area, whether it is kg / s^2 for the energy delivered by the impact or the kg/(m·s^2) for the pressure between her fist and what ever she is attacking at the time.
Just being silly, but if it is force per square meter then:
F=ma breaks down into (kg*m)/(s^2)
Then if you do per square meter it is:
((kg*m)/(s^2))/m^2
and that ends up with
(kg*(m^3))/(s^2)
Too lazy to search if there is a unit for kilogram meters cubed per second squared though.
Yeah, Syd is talking about pressure, force/area, which should (In SI) be in units of Pascals (Newtons per square meter).
Pa = N/(m^2) = Kg / (m * s^2)
\[\tfrac{\text{N}}{\text{m}^2}} = \tfrac{\text{Kg}}{\text{m} \text{s}^2} \]
In US units, PSI (Pounds per square inch)
What about Carrot, Carrot’s a dwarf, mind you he’s tall for a dwarf but he’s still a dwarf
He’s adopted. I’m not sure if that counts. Although he does have a dwarves state of mind, if not their weapon carrying attatude. He only carries one sword and a trunchen. That’s practicly unarmed as far as they are concerned.
Also the fact that Carrot just can’t grow a proper dwarf beard.
Carrot, aka Kzad-bhat (translation: Head banger), was raised as a dwarf and lives as a dwarf and believes what dwarfs believe. Even eats dwarf food some. It’s why he sends money back to his family and it’s why he doesn’t like the Discworld version of condoms. Also possibly why that happened like it did with the gonne.
To all but the most conservative of dwarfs (Drudak’ak), he is a dwarf. The fact that he’s a human over 6 feet tall has nothing to do with it, just helped him with his dwarfish name.
Poor Carrot forgotten in the excitement of competition. May he have adorable werewolf children.
I’m no where near knowledgeable enough to get most of those questions right. I just happen to like Discworld.
YES! Captain Carrot Ironfoundersson really deserved to be included. As others stated, the other dwarfs accept him, and feel that he can be human too if he wants, but he is certainly a dwarf. Even the deep-downers were just… uncomfortable… with his status as a dwarf, and didn’t contradict it.
Then again, if we are going to be all judgmental and human about it, and not let him be both a human and a dwarf, then Cherry Littlebottom should have been included instead.
That’s CHEERY Littlebottom, and don’t you forget it.
It was a typo! I swear! Put the ax down! I would have fixed it if there were an edit function! :-p
Next I’d like to see her go up against Sheldon.
I’m surprised nobody’s shouted “NOW KISS.” yet.
He missed one, but I wonder if “Loveless” would count as a doctor or a dwarf?
Not only does actor Michael Dunn bridge the gap between “ST:TOS” and “The Wild, Wild West”, but he also played the evil mastermind “Mr. Big” in the debut episode of “Get Smart”!
Bochs…. I am pretty damn sure I know the name… Now I’m going to go nuts trying to figure out from where. Help!
Also:
Ahlviss (from norse myth), pops up in Gaiman’s American Gods
Bes (egyptian dwarf-god, so maybe that’s pulling it a little too much)
I hope I didn’t miss something, but who’s HR?
Also I want to know his coment on the “carnival night barrel”.
Usually, HR stands for Human Resources.
Human Resources.
Blasted posting delay.
And they will be so happy to know they hired the right person for the job….:-D
BTW nice hexagonal display
(hey that rhymes)
Yup. Would have failed that totally. And I don’t feel particularly bad about that.
what about mini-me?
Yeah at some point I had to stop adding names to the list, there were quite a few others I could have used but I thought it’d be fun to have some more obscure ones on there.
never underestimate the power of a group of nerd’s armed with the internet
I love the fact that Leon can get away with having Steam open at work.
He’s probably too competent to fire
Also, he appears to be reading grrl power.
I just want to say this strip made me acutally laugh out loud.
And, yes, I would’ve failed most of the questions as well.
I lost all respect for Leon when his response to “Rainbow Dash” was not “Die in a fire.”
I wouldn’t go quite that far but I also dislike overly cute and nauseatingly sweet cartoons.
Like Sydney, Leon is a broad spectrum nerd.
Hey not being judgmental at all! I remember watching “Gilligan’s Island” and still laugh at Larry. Curly and Moe. MLP is just not my cup of tea and the fans sometimes feel a little “Culty”.
I’m with ya brother on that overly cute stuff. But for me MLP is only the third horseman.
The second one was The Care Bears and the first was The Smurfs.
At least MLP makes for some funny porn;
https://tmi-comic.com/comic/rule-34m/
Hey – no picking on my SMURFs or as they were properly called “Schtroumpfs”.
Mind you I am not talking about the highly Americanized crap [ie sexualized] and then mass marketed braincell killers that they became BUT the awesomely funnyv innocent little golems made of blue clay learning about the world around them.
If I had meant Les Schtroumpfs I would have said “Schtroumpfs.” Smurfs by definition is “the highly Americanized crap.”
Leave the Smurfs but I will let you have the Snorks.
what these guys?
https://video.adultswim.com/robot-chicken/not-so-smurfy.html
Yeah, I actually like MLP:FIM (Watch it with my young daughter)… But I hesitate to call myself a fan because of the culty vibe “Bronies” seem to give off. Rainbow Dash is the fav of both my daughter and I though, so that part of Sydney and Leon’s conversation made me smile.
Yeah, MLP itself is just something that I have no interest in. It has the most annoying fanboys I’ve had to deal with in many a year, though.
Used to watch the original MLP in the 80’s, along with the Glow Friends, have not seen a full episode of the abomination that is MLP:FIM and have no intention EVER!!!!
O////O I’m in love with leon…..
just remember to wash your hands afterwards, you never know what he’s been up to
I’d say about 5’9″ or 5’10”.