Grrl Power #376 – Let me show you the dance of my people
No Sydney, don’t get distracted by that guys dancing, you’re uncovering a mystery!
The way the orb works is kind of misrepresented on this page, cause it looks like the truesight gives her a myopic little pinhole to see through. If I had twice the space to draw this page I would have done a before and after panel to show the difference between the two. I could have made it a double, but I’d also need more time to draw it as well, so you guys get the “she’s releasing and grabbing the orb and seeing the Star Wars circle wipe of the truseight reasserting itself” effect. Also, unrelated, but that club is pretty bangin’ for a Wednesday night. Maybe a lot of people declared it “Superheroes are a thing” day and are throwing parties all over the place tonight.
I’m not yet ready to reveal what is going on yet obviously, but for the sake of discussion, let’s say you’re an alien and you come to Earth on vacation or for a semester abroad or something, and you have a watch that can disguise you as a human. How do you decide what to look like? Lets assume you’re from a species with binary gender and you can’t change that, but wouldn’t you want to look like the most privileged race in the area you’re visiting? That seems like that would be the default setting, but maybe you like standing out, so you’d disguise yourself as a black guy when visiting Japan. That would make you stand out for sure there. And would an alien know what constitutes an attractive or even a normal looking human? Probably the only way it would work was if there was some tourism bureau who assigned your human form hologram and you couldn’t make any changes while you were there, otherwise they might be tempted to tweak it as they learn what make humans attractive to each other. It also would mean you probably couldn’t get a tattoo while you were there unless your disguise was especially sophisticated. This is assuming that if you can eat the local food then tattoo ink probably isn’t going to dissolve your arm or anything. You’d probably have to get shots before you went so not only would you not have problems with local viruses, but also so you didn’t exhibit allergies to all pollen or so that rotten milk didn’t get you drunk.
Sydney jokes about black people being better dancers, (I’m a terrible dancer so I drag the average down for all white people) but really, beyond some pretty superficial cosmetic differences humans are really quite similar. In fact there is generally agreement among scientists that race is more of a sociological construct than a biological one, but imagine if you were going to a planet in disguise as a native, and among this species, one “race” was better at juggling and another had better memory and another could digest plant matter better. You’d probably have to disguise yourself according to your ability to pass as that subset of the species.
Humans are enormously good at identifying each other from our facial features, so much so that we absolutely take it for granted. I always wonder what would happen if we met an alien race that looked just different from us (or totally different) that we simply couldn’t differentiate them based on facial recognition. If they didn’t have some identifying thing about them that we could use, like one guy has a dimple in face chitin, or another has pale blotches above his eye array, that could make things really awkward. I’d love to see some sci-fi show deal with stuff like that, where there are aliens that are relatable sociologically (not weird cryptic aliens like the Vorlons), but they all have lobster faces and the humans can’t tell them apart and they can’t tell us apart. Heck, we probably couldn’t even differentiate genders, and they’d probably have the same problem unless facial hair was involved.
Crap I forgot Peggy’s tattoos. I’ll get that fixed.
Here’s the link to the new comments highlighter for chrome, and the GitHub link which you can use to install on FireFox via Greasemonkey.
Honestly, I will never understand anvil. She is HOT! Yeah she is very very tall, but come on, she is excellently proportioned for her height. I can imagine school probably sucked for her, like it does for anyone even marginally different, but after that the world tends to be a better place for incredibly hot women and acceptance.
actually…. it’s not. gotta remember she’s hot, but ALSO built like a tank. patriarchal society isn’t big on “woman that’s stronger than me”.
not that i have a problem with that, i love a woman that can break me in half.. mainly for the fact that i know she can take care of herself (that and I’d be the battle couple type ;) )
First, patriarchal society doesn’t exist, this is now a society were bullying boys is now socially acceptable for some reason. Second, there are a lot of people that would date someone physically stronger than them.
I for one, would date a woman much taller, and stronger then me. Though I’m 6’1 and those women are far and few in between.
Oh right, And I’m married.
Beautiful comes in all shapes, sizes, colors, and degrees of physical fitness.
I’ve told people for years that, whatever you got, there is someone out that is turned on by it.
Is that how you earnt your appellation? On a Saga holiday?
In your youth, were you known as EighteenToTwentyFourLofty?
“bullying boys is now socially acceptable”
No it isn’t.
And shouldn’t be either. Bullying *noone* should be the only acceptable thing.
patriarchal society doesn’t exist
I’m sure the women who live in fear under Islamic theocracies will be relieved to hear that. And in closer news, the U.S. senate recently voted to de-fund Planned Parenthood.
But none of this is about men trying to control women. Nope, no way.
/s
Planned Parenthood makes millions of dollars on its services. And if they take my dollars, I get to decide what they do with them… or take them away if I decide I don’t like people I found selling baby parts for profit.
Don’t like it? Fund ’em yourself.
No. That is not how governments or taxes have worked in the history of ever anywhere at all.
Also, the baby parts thing is a god damn lie, and has been PROVEN to be a lie from day 1 of that ridiculously stupid story.
Also, they don’t MAKE money. Their whole business is offering expensive services at affordable rates for people who DON’T have money.Where the hell is the profit margin in that?
Use some damn common sense.
selling what they take from people be it fetus and placenta or eggs on the market of course and the story is a twist of actual practices. the market I mention is for learning aids at medical schools and research labs that acknowledge the sale and purchase of said materials though are not required to give public access to the records allowing the unauthorized fetuses sale to slide through. not all fetuses taken by planned parent hood are required to be disposed, if the parents sign off it is no different than organ donation at a hospital.
Yes, to be clear, I knew they were actually donating materials (and only recouping shipping and handling costs). I didn’t think THAT part was a lie.
And I WANT them to do this, because it will advance medicine and save lives.
selling baby parts for profit
Okay, so you actually believe that bullshit story from a video that was carefully edited to give the wrong impression. Congratulations on falling for blatant propaganda. Well, blatant to any reasonable, thinking person.
Hey, if you’re that gullible, howzabout buying some ocean-front property in Saskatchewan? I can get you a really good deal!
Correction, they voted to take government money away from Planned Parenthood, which is not the same as defunding them. Government shouldn’t be funding planned parenthood, shouldn’t be funding oil companies, shouldn’t be funding art, shouldn’t be funding …
whatever.
I have no idea of the specifics of the debate around that, nor the operational details of the organisation. Such as whether it is cost-effective or the like. American politics has minimal interest to me, on its own.
As a part of the global scheme of things though, I would advise all countries to be responsible in not just limiting their own population growth, but also encouraging other countries to do likewise.
The larger the human population becomes, the more strain we put on the environment and the greater the demand on scarce resources. It is in their own best interests therefore for nations to take a lead in this. Poor people are the ones most in need of help, and are the ones who will become the greatest burden upon the state, in the event of unplanned pregnancies.
Even impoverished countries recognise the need for public information and health programs to support this. The fact that it helps improve lives, of the women involved, is a nice moral bonus, to the above arguments. Only complicated by religious dictates, which can cause problems, in coming to a just solution.
Uhm, how is voting to stop giving them government money different from defunding them which, according to the Merriam Webster dictionary is the definition of defunding.
Also, I fully support making it easier for women to get healthcare and access to family planning to prevent unwanted pregnancies. I also don’t understand why the government shouldn’t provide funding to organisations that help people be healthy.
Personally I like living in a society which has things in place to make life better for people, if that means that taxes need to be paid, than so be it.
planned parenthood is an agency that both educates people on getting or ending pregnantcy including proccesses for increasing the chances of conception and offers medical resources to either aid getting pregnant and ending a no longer desired pregnancy (often with a pile of paper work that allows PP to harvest materials from the parents for PPs use or sale) thus allowing PP to offer artificial insemination to an abused woman and when months later the “boyfriend” dumps her for a virgin she aborts letting PP collect the body and related materials for it’s own use including sale to stem cell research companies.
From what you say, there is either a core business model of creating unwanted pregnancies, purely for the purpose of making a profit, by selling the material, or there is propaganda aimed at giving that impression (either unsubstantiated or based on abuses within the system).
Judging by the way your reply avoids stating the former as fact, but relies on implying it, and supporting it with with something that sounds like an abuse of a system, as opposed to its purpose, it very much sounds like the latter is the truth.
Giving me the impression that you are buying into the propaganda, because it is in line with your political ideals. Which is a fairly normal human condition. I likewise do not fact-check things as carefully, if the information received falls in line with my beliefs.
However basing important political decisions on propaganda, that is only supported by half-truths, or even proven lies (as stated earlier, in this thread),* does not seem to be very sound policy. It certainly has not convinced me.
Filtering through it, the meat of your argument is that there may be abuses of the system. Or there may not. But this is apparently more important than the known and substantial problems, which do occur, without access to health care?
* Your rebuttal of which, despite its disapproving tone, made it sound like their procedures fall in line with general medical practices. Perhaps not your intent, but that is how it came across.
The only issue of substance you raised was the lack of public information, on specific cases. Yet, as that would go counter to historic laws, which ensure patient privacy, I could not see how that would be workable? Or would you want all your most private medical information made freely available for anybody to scrutinize?
sorry if I sounded like that was the business plan but offering a worst case scenario based on faults and corruption present in the system was the intent of the post. the most common practice is indeed a healthy and valuable supply of important medical help to people who need it for a healthy and happy family. each part of the example as an individual is however a sad reality for the program due to unethical or misinformed workers doing what appears right to them (be it failing to spot and report abuse or wanting the bribe offered to aid the “father” have a kid in that one part of the scenario) but the occurrence rate is low relative to the number of people helped. the paperwork part is the unfortunate strong abuse because of the doctors not knowing it’s there and it’s meaning themselves to brief people or assuming they agreed aware of what it meant.
I’d like to know where you’re getting this information, because to me it reads like a paranoid fantasy.
PP gets only part of their funding from the government .
So cutting off goverment money does not totally defunct the organization.
That being said the problem with the whole abortion discussion is that the pro-choice side does not want to have it.
They want total and unrestricted access and a majority want at least some regulation concerning it.
Doesn’t help that there are antichoicers who will seek to emplace restrictions that don’t make any sense from a medical or other practical point of view. Women are perfectly capable of deciding what to do with their own bodies, and any woman who is incapable of deciding if she’s ready to carry a pregnancy to term isn’t ready to be a parent either.
Agreed.
Though the anti-choice extremists are rightly ignored most of the time.
But the pro-choice extremists are the main voice of that side.
What logical restrictions or regulations would be needed? If anything, it’s the anti-choice side that is causing the biggest gap in common sense regulation: keeping abortions out of hospitals. Because that is pretty much the ONLY gap that’s been seen: shady ass places using sub standard medical safety. (And yes, some pro-choicers have balked at any increases in oversight on this, but partially because anti-choicers have used them to basically make raids on clinics as just another form of terrorism on the doctors.)
Beyond that… what other aspect needs to be regulated?
3rd trimester abortions for medical emergency, rape or incest only.
Ban on on partial birth abortions.
Umm… literally thousands of studies that show empirical evidence would say otherwise.
Seriously, the meninist crap is getting old.
Am I the only one that wishes Anvil’s abs were a bit more defined?
6 pack or riot! :P
I’m all for bonkers lady abs, but I generally try and tone it down because its easy to drift into a weird muscle chick fetish area if I don’t.
I will admit that my Tumblr feed tends to look like this:
https://sosexyandfit.tumblr.com/image/134452516616
https://buffyshot.tumblr.com/image/134467221869
https://buffyshot.tumblr.com/image/134464524910
https://fit-body-01.tumblr.com/image/134281933900
Props on the tumblr feed. Love the fit ladies.
Being 6’6.5″, with a wife who is 6′ tall (though Kenya is taller than both of us, I know) I can tell you that Kenya would get plenty of male attention. Perspective being what it is, lots of guys would be headed her way long before they had an appreciation for how tall she actually is and only the very lucky/unlucky would discover how strong she was.
On an aside… are we assuming that Syd has not previously done much playing around with her truesight in the city, or in crowds? Otherwise, I can’t imagine that this is the first time that she’s seeing through a glamour/illusion to something *odd* beneath. (Based on her cool response, maybe she *has* seen some odd things, but is only putting it all together today post-dabbler/super reveal.)
It’s been established that Syd hasn’t really used her powers in public, for fear of government vivisectionists. I’ll bet this is the first time she’s really looked at a crowd of people with it.
Actually, I’m guessing that she probably kept the orbs in the tube or otherwise hidden most of the time. Given that the orbs would kind of need to be visible in order to use them, she probably kept them hidden whenever anyone else was around.
The only exceptions I can think of would be if she decided to hide it under the counter in the comic store when she was the only employee there (probably rare) or if she decided to go up on a rooftop and look down – and any truly safe distance away would diminish the ability to see whatever was being hidden.
My bet is that her lizard brain was saying “NO! FEAR! WE WILL GET CAUGHT!!!” and it drowned out any real testing possibilities.
Given that she only discovered the truesight ability when it enabled her to see through Dabbler’s glamour I think it’s safe to say that she hasn’t. If she’d known about it I’m sure she’d have sought ways of playing with it without being noticed.
hoodie handspocket comes to mind. people store all kinds of crap there
The model in that first link looks remarkably like Kendra. Is she your inspiration, Dave?
Nothing weird here – just artist’s reference materiel.
ah cool peggy is the only one who went to Club Wub
Oooh, I hope Sydney’s wearing her ear protection. She is currently leaning on speakers that are measured less in dBm and more on the Richter scale.
Also, that’s pretty good glamour. Dabbler has two arms on the guy behind her (one on his leg, one threaded behind his back), and he should be able to see another hand grasping the hair of the guy in front of her. She did say succubus glamour was impenetrable, but recall that earlier in Sydney’s briefing, Maxima felt those hands on her rear.
She’s also standing on the side of the speakers where the sound is not directed towards. That makes quite big a difference, actually!
Agreed.
Assuming those speakers are strapped/chained down, they shouldn’t be giving off to much sound considering where they are even if they were not strapped/chained. If the sound coming from them was as loud as I am assuming that you are assuming, those poles holding up the upped part of the bar and speaker would come crashing down given some time.
Also, do you really think those two guys really care???
You assume those dudes are paying enough attention to where her hands are to take a count? :p
She’s also gone public on the whole “powers-that-seem-like-magic” thing. A bit of “telekinetic” groping wouldn’t shock anyone — well, it’s not like anyone’s complained anyway.
I’m just waiting for a fanboy to appear right next to her.
Well, at least he would be gymnastic, and have subtle flair, to pull it off as described.
before diving to catch her as she spazzes, poses in always expect ninja, and tumbles off the platform.
Actually, I think you might be a little wrong on that “humans are great at distinguishing individuals from facial features” thingie, there’s actually a learning curve involved, from what I read. You know that old trope about all [fill in the blank] look alike to me? Apparently studies show that that actually happens when your exposure to a subset of the range of human appearances is low, for example Asian folk who normally only see other Asian folk have more trouble telling apart Caucasian folk than Caucasian folk do, or Asians who live in a majority Caucasian country lol.
I dropped this link on page one. Here it is again.
https://lawcomic.net/guide/?p=3268
Sure, that ability is a spectrum, just like everything else. I’m quite bad at it, my wife is “win some sort of contest” good. Like she can see an old movie and recognize 40+ year old actors from when they were kids.
And we can apply that learning curve to other species. Zebra researchers have no trouble telling individual zebras apart, penguin researchers can tell individual penguins apart, etc. We are in general hard-wired to be fairly good with faces, but we can adapt if needed.
It’s also worth noting that we arer good a differentiating other people according to how they stand and walk. Admitedly, that ability is only really useful for identifying people we know from a distance, but it is very effective in letting us spot people we know in a crowd of strangers.
At one job I had, we got a new employee, a high school girl. I had never seen her before she started working there, but there was just something very … familiar about her. Finally, after about two weeks, I asked her, “Are you [another coworker]’s sister?”
Yup.
The thing was, they looked absolutely *nothing* alike. One was very slender and petite, the other was curvy (not fat, just well-proportioned). One had thin, brown hair, the other had thick blond hair. One wore plenty of makeup, the other almost none. Facially, they were very different. So how did I figure out they were sisters? It must have been something subliminal that I picked up on. I finally figured it out:
They *moved* the same way.
At one job I had, we got a new employee, a high school girl. I had never seen her before she started working there, but there was just something very … familiar about her. Finally, after about two weeks, I asked her, “Are you [another coworker]’s sister?”
Yup.
The thing was, they looked absolutely *nothing* alike. One was very slender and petite, the other was curvy (not fat, just well-proportioned). One had thin, brown hair, the other had thick blond hair. One wore plenty of makeup, the other almost none. Facially, they were very different. So how did I figure out they were sisters? It must have been something subliminal that I picked up on. I finally figured it out:
They *moved* the same way.
Why did that double-post?
did you double click?
That is indeed the occasional cause. Usually if there is a bit of lag, and it does not appear to have registered the initial click.
Is it just me or is Dabbler’s glamour a bit darker skinned than she normally is? Like I get that it is not a well lit venue but nobody else’s color seems to have been changed much.
Well she turned into a green skinned woman not to long ago
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/660
oh I don’t debate that she can change her color, just that she has an established alter ego with lighter skin.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1004
Didn’t Dabbler imply that the blonde alter ego was pulled out of Sydney’s subconscious (much like the green-skin was pulled from the General)? Maybe the darker-skinned disguise came from one of the guys she’s dancing with…
except that they want the whole world to thing she is a human who happens to transform into a battle form that “looks suspiciously like a purple 4-armed succubus” which means her “base human” form must stay constant.
Who’s saying she introduced herself as Dabbler from Arc-Swat?
She’s just some super hot chick going to the club.
If she wanted her $5,000, she would have to be appearing in her public capacity.
I doubt she cares about earth money tbh
True. Although Dabbler’s high tech construction hobbies will require raw materials and parts. If she relied on the US government to supply them, she would be increasing the risk of them reverse-engineering her technology. Something that we know Dabbler does not want happening.
Therefore an easy way of making money would offer even Dabbler some tangible benefits. Unless her resources are such that she can simply create all the materials she needs, on demand (or has sufficient stockpiles, or other means, to cater for her needs).
Don’t forget being part of Archon already nets a hefty sum. And as an intergalactic adventurer, she probably has some ways of getting whatever raw materials she needs herself.
Though there’s no harm in using the established industries of whatever planet you are on to get more processed components
Which to me would have her appearing in her “battle form” so she could be recognized. Very hard to say she wasn’t when she has visible purple skin with green stripes.
Dabbler appeared at the press-conference in her human persona, so can be recognised, without having to become purple. She is already pushing the boundaries beyond what her host nation is happy with, so she is probably wise in keeping her civilian public appearances low key.
Although if fans, at the venue, request Dabbler to demonstrate her ‘battle-form’ then that is another matter.
Actually that makes me wonder. What if there’s a Super that has the Com-orb’s power naturally? Either you’re a conspiracy “Nut” or you accept that there’s a whole lotta things hiding in plain sight. Hell until Supers came out into the open the thought of illusion spells or holo-masks might not enter their mind. If you never “see” an illusion/cloak, is there such a thing?
I should clarify my comment further down, where I refer to your initial comment as being ambiguous. By having the word ‘glamour’ there, and applying a process of elimination, it is possible to correctly deduce your intent.
However people are used to individuals only having the one skin colour (generally speaking). So whichever they first think you are referring to (be it purple or white/pink/tanned beach babe) is likely to be the one they run with. Only those who realise there might be misunderstandings will start the deductive process.
I kept out of the discussion, previously, as my eye is not good enough to pick out the discrepancy (especially when factoring in the possibility of an optical illusion). But otherwise agree with all your points, in the thread, to date.
I think I may have picked the next darker shade by accident, but there is a half saturated purple multiplied at 75% across much of this page so it’s hard to say for sure.
Could it be she’s wearing illusionary panty-hose as part of the glamour?
He he. This thread had me confused initially. Y’all are speaking at cross-purposes! Ashley started it, by being ambiguous, in failing to state whether talking about the purple-skinned version of Dabbler, or the bit of illusionary leg we are seeing.
DaveB has taken it to be the former, and has replied on that basis (by stipulating “purple”). Whereas you have not noticed that, and have presumably taken it to be referring to the latter?
However, I shall hedge my bets and reply for both, separately:
• No, illusionary panty-hose would not make Dabbler’s purple skin appear darker. The glamour would be seen through as readily as the rest of the illusion.
• Yes, illusionary panty-hose would make Dabbler’s glamoured Caucasian skin appear darker.
Since Dabbler is getting mentioned: Wouldn’t it be more practical if she didn’t disguise her extra arms? It’s not like anyone would question a four-armed human at this point, and it just seems a unneccesary risk someone will detect it under her glamour.
Come to think of it, does Dabbler really need a disguise at all? Can’t she explain away the arms, the purple, the fur and the horns with “durr, superpowas!”. Next to Maxima, marble maiden and Jiggawat she wouldn’t really be all that out of place.
There was a statement at one point that she preferred her “battle form” because it had 4 arms. I assumed from that that when she’s in disguise, the two extra arms are not particularly present. Which doesn’t mean that Sydney wouldn’t see them where Dabbler would put them if they were physical, given that Dabbler is clearly used to controlling them.
Except that it is shown here that they are present and usable just invisible.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1062
Go back to when Dabbler was introduced, and notice the too-few-fingers imprints in Maxima’s backside when she decided to rile her.
My theory is that she doesn’t get to customize her glamor’s “human form” beyond hotness level, all she does is pick someone and get glamoured up to look like that person’s ideal. Whoever she used to come up with her “base human form” didn’t seem to be particularly taken with the idea of extra arms, so she doesn’t have them in that form.
Yay for the Alien Nation reference in your last line. Saw the movie in theater, loved the show and met the tv actor who played Sykes!
It’s too bad it’s in some sort of licensing limbo now, cause it’s not on Netflix or Hulu. I’d like to watch the TV series. I think I saw only 2-3 of them back when they aired.
Not EXACTLY limbo, just hasn’t landed anywhere. Netflix had some of it (the T.V. movies) but didn’t renew it.
It’s on Amazon Video, but you have to pay.
or you can buy the DVD’s of them and watch them whenever you want, like i did…
Alien Nation – Season 1 UPC: 024543221692 all 22 episodes plus pilot
Alien Nation Ultimate Movie Collection UPC: 024543458463 all 5 movies
The TV series, while worth a watch, wasn’t wonderful–many of the episodes felt like heavy-handed After-School Specials (no, I’m not being redundant) and they kept violating the continuity of the film world. (“…and still it fits?” vs. elbow sex…immediately comes to mind). Also, Eric Pierpoint was no Mandy Patinkin.
You might see if your local library can get it through interlibrary loan, so you you’re not out as much for the viewing experience.
You can also catch the movies on the Encore Movie channels ((if you get them). They seem to be showing them an awful lot the last year or so.
This isn’t “big group for a wensday” …
This is “harem bamphed over, told them, and they went hog wild on twitter and facebook “WE GOT SUPERS TONIGHT” and boom, flash mob.”
Dave, you don’t have to imagine weird-looking aliens to get examples of hard-to-distinguish individuals. Just ask the animal behaviourists. They enjoy the wonderful opportunity of learning to identify individual animals that don’t use sight to recognise each other, but use scent or voice instead – so they all look pretty much the same to us.
Swans, for instance, have almost identical patches on their “faces”, and researchers have to use pictures to identify individuals based on small differences in the proportions of those patches. Hyenas are slightly easier because their coat markings are random and the spots can give clues to tell one from another. Prairie dogs are damn near identical to the human eye, and researchers have to look at ear-damage, odd tufts of fur, general build and even which burrow they came out of! Zebra stripes are, apparently unique – but imagine using that as an aid to recognise which animal is which in a hurry.
I always wonder what would happen if we met an alien race that looked just different from us (or totally different) that we simply couldn’t differentiate them based on facial recognition. If they didn’t have some identifying thing about them that we could use, like one guy has a dimple in face chitin, or another has pale blotches above his eye array, that could make things really awkward. I’d love to see some sci-fi show deal with stuff like that,
That brings to mind one of the first sci/fi shows I ever watched. It was a Doctor Who episode in black & white, with the first doctor if memory serves. The whole plot was based off this idea. The Doctor & company have to find a murderer amongst a race of aliens that all look the same to them. I think it was in “The Keys of Marinus” serial.
I’ll have to check that out, sounds great.
I think you may be thinking of Sentence of Death, Episode 4 of the keys of Marinus, but that’s more a straight forward murder mystery. I think you’re thinking of The Sensorites which is the next SciFi episode which has a race who are psionically active but have very poor eyesight in general and facial recognition in general
Actually, the story was the Sensorites.
There’s a plot point how the humans can’t tell the aliens apart and vise versa.
Ah yes, you’re both quite right: It was The Sensorites I was thinking of.
Not trying to sound racist or anything, but there are some genetic differences between races. Certain genetic diseases are more common amongst certain racial groups, for example. Skin color’s a pretty crappy phenotype to try to use to differentiate races, though, since it adapts to environment quite a bit more quickly than most, IIRC. Before anyone gets on my case, no, I don’t think this means any race is superior to the others. My dad’s parents were Jewish, lived in Germany, and moved to the US sometime around the 30’s-40’s, so you can guess what I think about that crap. Genetics tend to be trade-offs, rather than flat ‘superiority’, anyway.
The genetic differences that exist are 1. equivalent to specific ancestry, NOT the so-called “racial groups,” and 2. not significant enough to constitute an actual division within the species. What you are actually describing is “genetic drift,” which is the tendency of a specific population to have higher or lower incidences of given traits than the general human population. Since genetic drift changes drastically over time and social conventions and local adaptation play a huge roll in defining the specifics of genetic drift, it really is no basis for something called “race,” since “race” is supposedly a static quality.
Extensive genetic testing has shown that the genetic variation within most races (“Asians,” “Blacks,” “Whites,” etc) is actually greater than genetic variation between them. Meaning that from a scientific standpoint, there are no distinct races. They only exist politically and socially (because there are differences between people who were raised ethnically Jewish and people who were raised ethnically Navajo, for example).
Actually that doesn’t mean there are no distinct races, just that they aren’t “Asian”, “Black”, “White”, ect.
That said? You’re technically correct, there aren’t any clear dividing lines between people groups on a genetic level any more than there are clear distinctions between colors, a smooth transition takes place. However, for practical purposes distinguishing between blue and red can be useful. Especially if there isn’t much purple around.
Similarly, “African American”, “Chinese-American” and “Cherokee” can be useful categories for medical purposes.
The question of whether there are any genetically caused MENTAL (ie. dancing skill) differences between distinguishable ethnic groups is still an open question scientifically.
There are distinct populations of humans and distinct cultures of humans, but the only way to get a distinct race of humans that’s valid as a scientific classification is by actively redefining the word to mean something different than its commonly used definition.
“African American,” Chinese-American,” and “Native American” (since Cherokee is really a much more focused definition than Chinese-American or African American) are less useful medically than you might think because of how diverse, genetically, those groups actually are. Take President Obama, for example. Unquestioningly he’s an African American. But his African ancestry is from Kenya, while most African Americans in the US have ancestry from West Africa. East and West Africans are so genetically distinct from each other that they’re both genetically closer to Caucasians than they are to each other.
The greatest human genetic diversity,* on Earth, exists within a single tribe. The one that Bishop Desmond Tutu is a member of. There is as much variety, between individuals of that tribe, as is usually found when comparing members of different ‘races’.
* That we know about to-date, obviously.
I remember a survey done for a documentation. They gathered a group of people, some twohundred or so it was I think, with different ancestry and looks. Some asian-looking people, caucasians, latinos, some with a look of african origin and so on. Then they took a look at their genetics and looked who was genetically close to each other.
Turned out that the different “races” were completely mixed together, when looked at from that perspective. There were some trends visible, yes. But being seemingly black, chinese, white caucasian or anything else on the outside did not automatically put you into one particular race genetically speaking.
That’s food for thought for all those wannabe racial supremacists.
You’re right, black people for instance are more prone to sickle cell anemia. Well, that may only extend to African Americans as opposed to a native African, since some African Americans descended from a slightly smaller breeding pool. I don’t know how that breaks down, but things like 95% of Asians are lactose intolerant whereas it’s only between 5-20% for Caucasians is entirely down to diet. We drink a lot of milk and eat a lot of cheese in North America and Europe, so our bodies keep producing lactase well past infancy. Dairy is not a big part of the Asian diet (goat milk and cheese doesn’t contain lactose) so they grow out of it.
So yeah, there are some differences obviously but the point is “race” among humans still comes down mostly to cosmetics and culture.
Sickle cell anemia is caused because many of those of African decent have a cell mutation that helps to prevent them from getting Malaria. People still in Africa aren’t affected as much because it’s working and preventing Malaria. but those that emigrate aren’t getting the malaria virus which in turn leaves them open to Sickle Cell Anemia.
Actually, the gene that causes Sickle Cell Anemia is recessive. Having one copy provides a person with resistance to malaria but does not cause Sickle Cell Anemia to develop. Having two copies of the gene causes Sickle Cell Anemia, which prior to the 20th Century was typically fatal. Because of the dangers of malaria, the gene stayed prevalent in the population, as people with one copy of the gene had a much higher chance of surviving to adulthood and reproducing than people with no copies (who tended to die in childhood from malaria) and people with two copies (who tended to die in childhood of Sickle Cell Anemia).
It’s an interesting case of a bad gene surviving because it prevents something worse.
It’s basically the chemo therapy of genes.
“Yes, this gene is bad for your survival chances. But it prevents malaria, which is even worse for your survival chances. So on average, your chance went up”
And just this week we have had the announcement of an improved technique, for getting rid of such genes.
On the plus side, when we eventually find, probably a few generations from now, that one of them is particularly important (say something that gives protection versus a deadly radiation, emitted from a very rare version of super nova), it will be the rich populations, which could afford the gene-therapy, which will suffer the worst fatalities. The meek shall inherit the Earth.
Only if the rich lines stay the rich lines. Since the rich lines will include a few who “fell from grace”, losing the family fortune some generations or so before, and also a few bastards running around, you’d likely see a fair die-off of the “poor”, too.
I’m more worried about the “poor” getting subsidized gene-therapy to make them happy worker bees. No more genetic-lottery geniuses cropping up.
In the event of deadly radiation from a supernova, cockroaches shall inherit the Earth. Sorry, but if it’s at deadly levels, humans ain’t going to survive regardless of whether they have one gene or not.
Deadly can come in many forms, when talking about evolutionary selection. The hypothetical radiation, for instance, can just be one that kills off ovum (or sperm producing capability) for individuals who lack the gene in question. Or, more poetically, kills specific cells vital to higher brain function. Rendering individuals incapable of fending for themselves.
It would be a cosmic irony if only those societies which cared for disabled individuals,* thereby keeping those genes widespread, were the ones who pulled through. Because those with previously well bellow average survival skills, suddenly become the greatest ones in society. Allowing them to be the ones who help their former carers to survive as well.
Either example would give a significant advantage to any population, which had sufficient numbers who were naturally immune. Although I am sure that a biologist could come up with a particular radiation which humans, in particular, would be especially at risk of direct death from.
The following is easily treatable, and known, so is just pointing in the right direction, as opposed to being a specific solution. But one of the reasons why a recent nuclear disaster was so deadly (probably Chernobyl) was because children were not quickly given a particular chemical which they (specifically) were at extreme risk of getting cancer, without.
If the difference between living, long enough to reproduce, is the presence, or absence, of a particular chemical in the body, when affected by high levels of a particular radiation, then my point is proven, in principle. Genes can regulate the production of such things.
And note that it need not be 100% deadly without and 100% survivable with. Even modest differences in long-term survival rates can result in species extinctions. If lacking some means of intervention. So the above brain-damage example might only need to impair function, rather than render individuals totally incapable of caring for themselves.
The Day of the Triffids explored a similar scenario to this. Choosing loss of eye-sight as being the mechanism, in that case. Personally I am not particularly fussed about the specific means. I just consider that evolution (or God, if you prefer) has invested a lot of time to keeping us alive. Yet we are happy to decide we know better.
* Rather than treating their condition as a disease to be cured. Or letting them die off through indifference or outright abuse.
Deadly can come in many forms, when talking about evolutionary selection. The hypothetical radiation, for instance, can just be one that kills off ovum (or sperm producing capability) for individuals who lack the gene in question. Or, more poetically, kills specific cells vital to higher brain function. Rendering individuals incapable of fending for themselves.
It would be a cosmic irony if only those societies which cared for individuals with disabilities,* thereby keeping those genes widespread, were the ones who pulled through. Because those with previously well bellow average survival skills, suddenly become the greatest ones in society. Allowing them to be the ones who help their former carers to survive as well.
Either example above would give a significant advantage to any population, which had sufficient numbers who were naturally immune. Although I am sure that a biologist could come up with a particular radiation which humans, in particular, would be especially at risk of direct death from.
The following is easily treatable, and known, so is just pointing in the right direction, as opposed to being a specific solution. But one of the reasons why a recent nuclear disaster was so deadly (probably Chernobyl) was because children were not quickly given a particular chemical which they (specifically) were at extreme risk of getting cancer, without.
If the difference between living, long enough to reproduce, is the presence, or absence, of a particular chemical in the body, when affected by high levels of a particular radiation, then my point is proven, in principle. Genes can regulate the production of such things.
And note that it need not be 100% deadly without and 100% survivable with. Even modest differences in long-term survival rates can result in species extinctions. If lacking some means of intervention. So the above brain-damage example might only need to impair function, rather than render individuals totally incapable of caring for themselves.
The Day of the Triffids explored a similar scenario to this. Choosing loss of eye-sight as being the mechanism, in that case. Personally I am not particularly fussed about the specific means. I just consider that evolution (or God, if you prefer) has invested a lot of time to keeping us alive. Yet we are happy to decide we know better.
* Rather than (in this instance) treating their condition as a disease to be cured. Or (more generally) letting them die off through indifference or outright abuse.
Grr, typical that my inadvertent double-post happens on a wall of text. Sorry about that.
@Mechwarrior
‘Mythbusters’ are one of several groups to prove that cockroaches are actually downright wimpy when it comes to radiation tolerance. There are several groups of insect that do far better. For example, in the selection that the Mythbusters tested, the Boll Weevil proved to be the Undisputed Bad-@$$ of the bunch.
It’s this little thing that a guy named Darwin discovered called natural selection. Whenever an inheritable trait confers a survival advantage, it will tend to be retained in the gene pool. What constitutes an advantage is largely situational, though: in a population that lacks malaria-carrying insects and modern medicine, the Sickle Cell Gene would quickly become a liability as it decreased the chances of a child surviving to adulthood.
The way it was explained to me is, carriers of the gene for Sickle Cell Anemia are naturally resistant to Malaria, and it is in regions where Malaria was common that the ancestors of those people came from. Sort of an aspected bonus/penalty.
Similar might be certain neurological conditions that leaves the person unstable/insane/crippled, but seem to correlate strongly to certain desirable mental traits. Like how a lot of very creative people tend to be manic depressive, or one of our planets greatest minds is confined to a motorized wheelchair and a speech synthesizer. Or, as yet another example; Thomas Nash, literally crazy-smart.
Don’t forget alcohol. Asians have a mutation that makes it harder for them to break down alcohol, meaning they get drunk faster
The specifics is that Asians have less ADH (alcohol dehydrogenase, the enzyme that breaks down ethanol). This means it takes longer to break down alcohol, and thus they reach high levels of blood alcohol faster (and stay there longer)
You got a citation for that? I’ve heard it about Native Americans (which has actually recently been debunked- NAs are no more genetically susceptible to alcohol than any other people, the issues with alcoholism tend to be related to poverty), but not Asians.
Didn’t Caucasians just develop more of this? We’ve been drunkards since the ancient times.
Obiously alcohol is good for preserving liquid food. See wine in Rome, beer as liquid bread and so on.
Originally I heard it from my teachers at University (and I’m sure it’s in my books somewhere).
However, fresh of a study session I was in the mood to search, so I actually did find a study that talks about exactly this. Apparently they don’t have less ADH, just a different form (different allele) that is less efficient (or something)
I even managed to find a free article that other people can also read
The article: Liver alcohol dehydrogenase in Japanese: high population frequency of atypical form and its possible role in alcohol sensitivity.
You get the full article if you google that
No, “race” among humans comes down to getting as +2 bonus to any ability score and an extra feat, skill proficiency, and language other than Common.
So long as one of those aliens doesn’t look at Sydney, hold the watch to her mouth, and say “We’ve got one that can SEE!” Unless we’re gonna get an alley fight scene like Rowdy Roddy Piper fought.
Didn’t they make a similar thing with mass effect with the elephant guys (I’m horrible at learning people names let alone alien names) they look the same and they use pheromones to communicate, we’ll really everything. Their voice sounds like old school history channel
*well
always wished you coulda had an Elcor teammate. in ME3 you hear about their marines. they carry heavy weapons like Rocket Launchers and Chainguns mounted on their backs with VI-assisted targeting packages.
The team at Bioware said they wanted to do it, but animating the elcor model proved too difficult.
Huh. After the Geth make peace with the Quarians, if you can manage that, Elcor could get an upgrade with Geth assisted aiming and such.
We already have an intelligent race on earth where we can’t tell individuals apart. Unfortunately, we can’t talk to them either. But they can tell us apart and the hold a helluva grudge. Ravens!
Be nice to all corbids, because they will remember you and tell their buddies and they will all extract revenge for a really long time.
You find misidentifying aliens by lack of facial features more in science fiction books and short stories. Most movie and TV show Sci-Fi generally don’t get around to it.
The example that comes to my mind are the Ark Royal series by Christopher Nuttall. Where an alien race of deep sea amphibions attacks Earth and her colonies after an incident on a rogue human one. The aliens look something like bipedal hippopotami, with heavy layers of fat/blubber and speak in a English (they learned from human teaching machines) in a monotone. As they also don’t wear cloths, the humans interacting with them have virtually no way of telling them apart.
For humans, we are super good at pattern recognition. So good to the point of generating false positives based on past experiences (why people see the Virgin Mary in toast). Although if a pattern is new to us it can take close association to figure one out. Talk to people who own multiple birds, lizards, or tarantulas as pets and are enthusiastic about it. They’ll give you chapter and verse about all the little details that make their pet unique. However if we don’t have a pattern we can differentiate (sometimes sound and our limited range of smell works), we’re hosed.
On the ‘Popplers’ episode of Futurama Leela is convicted of eating the larval form of an alien species and the aliens sentence her to be eaten by them. The joke arises when the humans present an orangutan in a wig and the aliens can’t tell the difference.
https://www.top-ten.tv/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/problem-with-popplers-ape.jpg
Note: no orangutans were harmed in the making of this episode.
If Sydney tried to leave early would one of the Harems try to stop her???
Possibly. But Harem is self-centred enough, that I have my doubts. She cared about having company to go to the club. Now that she is here, she will probably be more interested in partying.
That said, she does have five pairs of eyes. So if anyone is going to spot Sydney sneaking off, it could well be Harem. And she might have a body spare to do something about it. Hence Harem has more means, than most, to overcome her indifference.
But, be it through genuine concern or feigned out of self-interest, Harem probably would be wise not to be too pushy. Sydney clearly did not want to come. If it were not for this brain-teaser, she would still be hating it here.
Now though, I think Sydney is more interested in this, than raiding.
DAVE! There are some scifi novels where humans and aliens alike have difficulties of distinguishing one from the other. One alien has been kept as prisoner for several years, learned english, and it was unclear to him whether human protagonist questioning him is a male or a female. Antares Dawn & sequels Antares Passage and Antares Victory. Very hard scifi written by NASA engineer.
Sounds interesting, though I’d think distinguishing male from female humans would be easy enough unless you’re in maybe a military setting and makeup, long haircuts and facial hair is disallowed.
Unless you’re new to the planet and don’t realize that hair length and location is generally different between the sexes.
Always assuming that they even understand the concept of sex. Let alone caring about gender, even if they do.
Hopefully snapper-guy didn’t skimp too much on his research and choose what he thought was a nicely inconspicuous name.
Yeah, besides Ford Prefect has already been taken.
I also wonder why aliens would find us attractive at all? Dr. Solus Mordin in Mass Effect 2 made an excellent (and hilarious) point that different species relieve stress. But you should be extremely careful with sex. ( and also *cough-cough*, don’t swallow)
He also thought the idea of himself with another specie to be absolutely disgusting, but htat might have been a science-based opinion. He was intrigued by the Asari though.
Well, if you’re already going to have humanoid, mammalian aliens (which are absurdly unrealistic due to how evolutionary biology works), the idea that you might have a decent number of them who find humans sexually appealing doesn’t get any less realistic. I mean, plenty of humans are attracted to the idea, so why shouldn’t it work both ways?
Also, Mordin wasn’t disgusted by the idea, he just wasn’t interested in a cross-species relationship due to salarians having a much lower reproductive drive than most other sapient species in the ME universe.
No, he didn’t. He explicitly stated that Salarian sex drive is simply not hormone-based, so they have no “sex drive” as such. “If wanted to try human, Shepard, would try you.”
*Everybody* was intrigued by the Asari, even the racist reporter Khalisah Al-Jilani. (One of the video clips that the Shadow Broker has is of her making out with an Asari.) They have traits considered desirable to many other species (body shape for humans, skin color for salarians, head crest for turians, etc.)
Oh, and for the record, BioWare seriously overplayed the differences between levo- and dextro-DNA. (Humans have levo-DNA. In Mass Effect, only the turians and quarians have dextro-DNA.) You probably would not die from eating dextro foods; in fact, the worst case scenario is you might get a bellyache from eating too much of it. (You don’t have the enzymes to process most of it, so you wouldn’t get much nutrition from it, and would end up pooping most of it out.)
Reverse-chirality foods are not registered as foreign foods, no matter what some writer who looked it up online and said, “let’s put this in the game!” wants you to believe. Allergy is a stimulation of the IgE on the surface of Mast Cells, that essentially pop open and release histamines all over the body, causing the inflammatory response. Chirality doesn’t register on the active binding sites on antibodies, because it’s the same molecular structure, but reversed. Or, in other words, the key doesn’t fit. It’s like trying to put the key in the lock upside-down.
This reversal simply makes it harder for our bodies to break down. So, you might not get much nutrition from reverse-chirality food (unless the amino acids and sugars are in very simple monomer form), but you wouldn’t have an allergic reaction. Like tomato seeds, though, most of it would pass through your system undigested.
In sexual terms, if Shepard hooked up with Garrus and *ahem* “ingested”, not only would she not have an allergic reaction, but it’d actually taste kind of sweet, like honey or sugar.
You might not want to appear as the most privileged type in a region. Maybe the alien university class you are taking requires a lower perspective: “How Shitty Humans Are to Other Humans Who Look Different 101.” Or whatever aliens would call it… :P
Appearing as the local dominant group would be problematic unless you had extensive knowledge of how to imitate them. My choice would be a small obscure culture from the other side of the planet, so any errors in behavior could be passed off as cultural differences or failure to understand local technology/ items (why is he licking that candle? Oh he’s from Kenya). i.e. Korean, Australian, Mongolian, Ecuadorian, or any underdeveloped African nation.
It took me an embarrassing amount of time to realize “snapper” meant that he was snapping his fingers, as opposed to being a snapping turtle. lol
Someone has probably asked this before, but what happens when one of the Harems get drunk. Do the others get drunk too or will they feel it at all.
I believe she gets 1/5th as drunk (the effects are spread to all her bodies equally)
Probably not, given what happens when Maxima plays with Harem’s panties, and all 5 seriously feel it. Of course Maxima would presumably know whether she needed to jerk or JERK, but this and other incidents suggest one hurt is all hurt.
We don’t know yet
Agreed. There are powerfully convincing arguments to be made, either way.
Flavour wise though, I suspect there will be feed-back, to bodies who are not physically drunk. It is funnier that way.
Yes it has been asked before. Being drunk involves both physical and mental impairments. I think that only the body/ies that actually consumed alcohol would suffer the physical impairments. But the mental impairments could go any of several ways – including the drinking body being affected *worse* than one would expect, while the others are unaffected.
Personally, I think another species with dissimilar facial features to humans would be like how we can tell dogs and cats of the same species apart. We’d probably get used to it and be able to tell but there would be other who would say, “You all look alike to me.”
… And if you asked those people HOW they could tell them apart, they would probably not have a useful answer.
Race in it’s classic “white” “black” “asian” sense is bollocks, but race as a more sophisticated concept (some sensible choices lead to over 500 “races”, half of them what the uninitiated would think of as “black”) has some minor use in the sciences.
Did the true site cause Peggy’s tattoos to be hidden from view?
No, DaveB forgot them.
Though that would be an interesting twist.
I suppose the Aliens are here for the same reasons people travel on this planet. Vacation, restlessness, seeing something new, experiencing a different culture, war, famine, environmental destruction, just to have fun and relax and having sex with a different species. The glamor cloaks are provided by the Intergalactic Travel Agency whose motto is “A planet far away keeps boredom at bay.”
What happens on Earth stays on Earth.
Except for the videos, which get posted on U(niverse) Tube.
Clever avatar, and name.
Well, it WAS. When I saw this the first time, there was a silhouette of something vaguely horselike. Now? 19th century schoolteacher with mortarboard. I do not remember if the “name” was “Professor Fate” the first time, but I’m doubting it.
Would you be thinking of Evilbob, as seen on the previous page of comments? If so, it seems very unlikely that they are connected. Given that we can see both simultaneously. Therefore they are almost certainly separate individuals, who each deserve credit for their own cunning.
If you change an avatar image it propagates that change retroactively throughout all previous uses. So, at the least, it would require to separate email addresses to be set up and used. Whilst one person might choose to do that, for nefarious purposes, such is frowned upon in the wider internet community.
Mind you folks would have little reason to do such here. Those who like changing their avatars regularly, to showcase different ideas, or art, can do so freely. And receive some praise for bringing variety to the community.* Whilst those who want to mess around with avatar name-play, can do so even easier. Something I do for the odd laugh, myself.
* Although it can make it harder for those of us with problems remembering names, to keep track of who is who, if such visual aids change.
AH. Yes. I conflated the two comments, yours and Lukkais, and thought they were one. Remembering the one was in response to a silhouette, I thought the avatar had been changed after the comment.
“If you change an avatar image it propagates that change retroactively”
Wrong
When you put an avatar image on a site, you’re actually just giving the site the location the image is is currently stored at. Each time the page is displayed, it re-loads the image from the storage just for that download and does not store it. Since the image is only stored once, changing that image will change ALL occurrences immediately.
Propagation indicates that it’s stored in multiple locations, and that the ‘offspring’ locations periodically check the original to update changes. Propagation usually refers to sites (like MMORPG’s) stored on multiple servers (frequently across the country) that only update every few days, unless force updated (‘we’ve uploaded a fix for that bug, but it might take a few days to propagate to your site’).
So, to recap, your first paragraph block confirms what I said, and my intention.
As for your concluding paragraph, I was using the common English meaning of ‘propagate’. I had noticed that when I changed my picture, it changed it on every site that used the avatar. Even ones that I had not used for years.
It was the fact that it changed, which was important to me. Not how quickly it occurred. Although, clearly, from the context of my reply, I was not under the impression that it took days to update. Otherwise one might expect to see two different pictures for the same avatar.
I may or may not remember the jargon usage. But thanks for mentioning that it has a specific meaning for online games and the ilk. Not that it changes the meaning of my earlier comment, either way,
Actually Marvel comics has done some work, especially in recent years with different skrulls; and the fact that humans can’t tell skrulls apart. (and that’s before we get into the fact that as a shapeshifting species, skrull can be whatever gender they choose.)
The saying is “Once is an accident. Twice is co-incidence. Three times is enemy action.” Given we know of the 2 new unknowns, and the heroes could easily count as the third [not to mention the high chance Sidney is missing somebody], there looks to be something to explain here.
Of course, Sidney could end up trying to keep a secret rather than exposing one, but it’s an easy bet that there is one.
Visual identification skills are not just for recognizing particular humans. People who spend a lot of time in the woods can identify dozens of different type of trees and plants easily at a glance, while a person raised in the city when asked what type of plant they were looking at would say “Uh, green?”
I know people who can recognize tons of specific cars by model, make, and year from numerous manufacturers. I am not an avid car fan, so if someone asked me what type of car I was looking at my response might well be “Uh, green?”
Hell, people that live in the woods can tell individual trees apart and use that to find their way around. Just like someone in the city can tell those different street layouts and store-fronts apart and know exactly where they are.
But switch the 2 out of their respective environment and they’ll be lost.
But it’s different for faces. We actually have an entire brain section devoted to recognizing human faces. That’s why it’s so easy for humans to tell humans apart, but so hard to teach a computer to do the same
I think somebody already touched on this, but there are at least two species in the new doctor who series that look very similar and have trouble with our genders. The first is the silurians, who display trouble differentiating genders due to our similarity. Then there are the sontarans, who are actually singular in gender, being all clones, which makes them very hard to tell apart, as most of us tend to identify even other humans by gender first. I guarantee we’ve all run into the problem where you can’t quite tell if the person is male or female, and how much that throws us off. Sontarans have the same problem.
Half-expected Syd’s hair to curl around her eyes as she paraphrased Liono.
Nice to see that the alien Sydney did not notice in “I would fly 500 miles” was really an alien after all and not my imagination.
Kudos to DaveB. You have a brilliant scene going on here.
I have to wonder if that guy is biologically compatible with Anvil. He looks reptilian.
That all depends on his motives. Even assuming that he is after more than just fun dancing. If he is just looking for sexual pleasure, there is a lot more scope for compatibility. The ability to reproduce does not impinge on that.
Of course, if he is hoping for a nice clutch of eggs, he may need help from Succubus Fertility Clinic Intergalactic.®
Yup. One of the fun things about Rishathra is the compatibility of pleasuring without reproductive compatibility.
Only if the rich lines stay the rich lines. Since the rich lines will include a few who “fell from grace”, losing the family fortune some generations or so before, and also a few bastards running around, you’d likely see a fair die-off of the “poor”, too.
I’m more worried about the “poor” getting subsidized gene-therapy to make them happy worker bees. No more genetic-lottery geniuses cropping up.
Whoops. I forgot to whitelist grrlpowercomic.com in the script blocker, again. Thus, hitting the reply button, above, resulted in a standard comment.
Sorry, again.
Orb of Omens must stick.
MUST.
I think the “Comball” has a new name. Mr DaveB, is she gonna keep calling it “Orb Ob Omens”? Iknow you know them far better than us, but it would probably be in character, wouldn’t it…?
Sorry, someone linked to this, had to pass it along… :P
That is useful actually, thanks. I had heard of Thundercats, but have not seen it.
so thats that new blade cat and friends show everyone seems to be talking about when someone mentions the 80’s cartoon thundercats.
Yeah, haven’t found the old-school version yet…
Butt pregnancy… she’s a horrible alien monster hybrid, so that’s actually not out of the realm of possibilities.
Yeah. She’s horrible, all right. Clearly horrible at being monstrous.
Now, if you said she was a horrible alien lech hybrid, I’d have to disagree. She pulls off lech very well indeed.
She’s gross. Full stop.
She’s socially iffy, but I don’t know that I agree about her being absolutely gross. When she’s not getting sexual, she seems to be quite pleasant company. Friendly, even.
I KNEW IT THE LIZARDPEOPLE ARE AMONG US!
What do you do when a purported human fails a Turing test?
I DON’T KNOW, WHAT DO YOU THINK?
I am a perfectly normal person. With a mother and a father. Isn’t it nice weather we are having?
Put them in management.
I like your answer best.
Yorp’s is a close runner up.
COP: Sir, are you classified as a human?
Taxicab Driver: Negative, I am a meat popsicle…
GENERAL: (Looking at a severed hand, in a gauntlet) You call that a survivor?
Multipass?
Who wants to negotiate?
big badda boom (from fireball spell if this quote line goes to long)
The old tricks are still the best tricks.
Super green.