Grrl Power #416 – Meta analysis
It bothers me in science fiction when someone analyzes an object and says “It contains no known elements.” It sounds exotic, but that’s just not how chemistry works. The periodic table is pretty much set. There are probably a few elements left to discover at the extremes, but all the ones we’ve recently found in particle colliders with atomic masses nearing the 300’s are hilariously radioactive and only exist for nanoseconds. No one is making a spear tip or a phaser or body armor out of them. I’m not saying we’re done with chemistry, just that the elements are pretty nearly sorted at this point.
You could learn a lot about something by studying the egg it came out of, but if you’d never seen a bird before, could you tell what color feathers it had, or even what a feather was? Maybe if there was some sort of DNA left in the egg, but it’d be a lot of work.
Edit: Here’s a shot of Deus’s desk without all the word clutter.
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He played her real good. This goes as a triumph into his books.
I was worried about that…………….
He gave a little and got back MUCH more than he needed to know
Her questions revealed her inner thoughts about it and worst, she LEFT it there
I suspect that isn’t the last we’ve seen of that particular geode
She left it there, because obviously she trusts Deus, if not, she would have taken it and disposed of it personally
Not really. First she just trusts that any damage that can be caused by him having it has already been done (he wouldn’t reveal its existence unless he couldn’t learn anything else from it). And second she realizes that simply by taking it in order to protect it, she indicates that there is something to protect, endangering it more that it already is.. And third she’s basically saying to him that it’s not as important to her as he’d hoped, and it didn’t affect her as strongly as expected, and NO he didn’t win.
There’s also the possibility that he’s lying about not having the other half. If that’s the case, acknowledging that it’s something to protect as you mentioned raises further complications.
I think it’s reasonable to assume that both halves are reasonably similarly degraded at this point; information from one half is probably much like the other. UNLESS…
One half was recovered and preserved (the half found by the military) and Deus found the other half (which the military did… Not… Find?). Is it just me, or does that seem even more unlikely than neither piece being collected?
I think she trusts him to a certain degree. Not as far as she can throw him, but I think that while she doesn’t trust him not to try to use any knowledge gained for his own benefit, he’s far too selfish to sell that knowledge to someone else. He’s greedy, yes, but that’s also gotten him wealthy enough that something this interesting is simply worth so much to him that probably only the geokinetic with the vault of gold has a chance of buying even information about it from him.
For her to trust him as far as she can throw him would imply an absurdly immense amount of trust, since she could probably throw him to Pluto.
Keppler
Depends on how much runway you give her, buy yeah, she could throw him way past what she trusts him.
In some future page we need to have a fight with a super named Alice so Maxima can literally punch her to the moon.
How about a super named Alice that has the power to grow or shrink, and after finding out the hard way that a 50′ tall woman is a bad match for Anvil, shrinks and escapes from the team down a rabbit hole…? At least, she escapes until Dabbler’s tracking spell–shaped like a white rabbit–finds her and drags her back.
He/His company probably have a very lucrative contract with ARCHON. We can probably trust his greed enough to be sure he won’t risk that lightly.
Deus seems pretty much done with studying the thing, and he seems to care enough about being on Maxima’s good side that he won’t intentionally screw her over by giving the thing to an enemy or something. For now, it’s safer to leave it where it is, because while it could be assumed valuable, who would expect Deus to have something connected to Maxima just sitting on a shelf? It’s not like it’s gold plated or anything.
Zack Tilly
Who is Marsellus Wallace? o_O
Pulp Fiction.
From Pulp Fiction. The briefcase that the audience never got a look at the contents of, but which appeared to be of significant worth or rarity.
Thought the name was familiar (thought he was some baseketball player though), never seen that movie
You’ve got something to look forward to then.
Watch it with the whole family! KIDDING, DON’T!
! always figured it was the diamonds from reservoir dogs.
Dude, it was Marsellus’ soul in the case.
Actually, the producer has already answered this question. It was a battery pack and a handful of LED lights. :)
Why would he answer that question, first off, and why give such a stupid one?
Have you seen the movie? Remember the scene at the end?
Now imagine you’re the producer and you’ve been asked a few thousand times what the briefcase contained and you’re bound to come up with a smart ass reply. In this case it might even have been true, though I’m guessing that the prop in the movie was packed with much simpler mains driven halogen bulbs.
Back in 1994 it would be hard to create that much light using LED’s, and it would have been incredibly expensive. For a one time use prop like this briefcase I don’t think they’d care to invest the time and money to build it using LED’s when a few high power halogen bulbs could do the same and be built and ready in hours instead of weeks.
He was giving a Mathematician’s answer. That was the exact contents of the briefcase for filming sake. But in story and thus what everyone was asking, was not what was in the briefcase.
It contains a metaphor for the Holy Grail. There are a large number of similarities between the story and the quest by the Knights of the Round Table for the Holy Grail. There’s a youtube video on the theory. Ever wonder why Samuel L. Jackson’s character quotes the Bible so much?
…also why the contents glow.
Be… cause his character was a nutter? o_O
His character is an analogue–admittedly, a QT analogue, and therefore ridiculously violent–to King Arthur. Oh, you meant Samuel L. Jackson, not Wallace. No, one of the Knights of the Round Table was extremely religious and devout, and like Sammy’s character, is the one who (in some stories of the quest, most have the Knights never finding it) actually found the ‘Grail’.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Q2FIbGXPz4
Wallace is King Arthur,
Uma Thurman is Guinevere,
Travolta is Lancelot,
and Samuel L. Jackson is Galahad.
Doesn’t stop him from still being a nutter :p
And any story of ‘King Arthur’ that refers to ‘Camelot’ is not to be believed
I’ve never heard this comparison before. It seems accurate if viewed very narrowly.
Who would Willis’ character be? Mordred? As Wallace’s main antagonist this would seem the most fitting, and yet Willis did not cause Wallace’s death.
The two hick rapists? The black knight? Does not seem to fit.
The Gimp? ??
Willis’ girlfriend? Morgana? She was so peripheral that this does not seem likely or appropriate, and yet there was only one woman associated with Mordred and that was his mother, and Arthur’s half-sister, Morgana.
Pulp Fiction. The glowing suitcase that we never see inside. He is the one that doesn’t “look like a bitch”
From Pulp Fiction, the film that made everyone forget that Quentin Tarantino, whilst a genius, is also an insufferable ass
What does Marsellus Wallace look like?
Wasn’t he Samuel L. “Get the hell off my plane!!” Jackson?
Oops! That sounds like Harry Ford, should have added something about snakes :(
I’ve had it with these mother effing snakes on this mother effing plane.
https://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20121020113130/villains/images/8/84/Marcellus_Wallace_by_Manga890.jpg
Wait, what? o_O
Wallace was the boss, the guy that ordered Travolta’s and Jackson’s characters around.
Played by Ving Rhames, who also happened to play the titular role Kojack and voice agent Cobra Bubbles in ‘Lilo & Stitch’.
What? Did they reboot ‘Kojack’? o_O
a few years back now, was a pretty good job too…Ving Rhames is a great actor..or was, I’m not sure if he’s on the list of celebrities that isn’t around anymore or not.
Wikipedia says he’s still with us. He was recently in Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation.
He was also in the original Mission: Impossible movie, as the hacker. Well, the second hacker…
Oh, you mean the reboot “Mission: Cruise” movie
Mission: Impossible to deal with…
And later on got to experience some me time with Zed and his friends. The after party involving chainsaws and blow torches sounded like a blast! (Not for Zed of course)
Oh deus, you never stopped being an ass.
Looks like whatever vacated the geode was efficient enough not to leave any evidence behind, a smart trait if it was made. Or it might just have been unstable in an oxygen environment, since the bits vanished quickly.
I wonder if she will tell halo her origin or not. They can be power up buddies.
It’s unlikely, without some major catalyst. Like she said, classified. And things told to Sydney are much harder to keep classified – see her first encounter with Susie News.
But it’s possible. Sydney has already earned her trust on the ‘is a good guy’ front, and it’s possible that either a) if they think Sydney’s being cagey about details of her own devices they’ll decide an info-swap is worthwhile or b) Maxima will decide that having [person who can formulate a detailed plan as quickly as Sydney did] knowing all the actual facts about her own team is too important an asset to miss out on.
B) strikes me as unlikely. Sydney doesn’t need to know how Max’s powers work to formulate plans around them, she needs to know what they do for that purpose.
Not 100% true.
Dave B has said that power dampeners [as devices] will never exist (so just having a super-prison or a depower gun won’t exist) but there could be a super who can affect superpowers belonging to others through one of many means.
The nature of the powers of the people in the team could very well decide how that encounter goes.
E.g. someone who can negate “natural” pets may be useless against Sydney.
Psionic who can make people temporarily forget how to use their powers? Maybe Max’s symbiote or whatever is immune and so Max will actually retain her powers vs this guy.
Big difference.
No, DaveB said that generic allpurpose dampeners will never exist, but then again, they have the allpurpose sedation cuffs…
Actually, it can be pretty critical. For example during the Vehemence fight, there was a potentially deadly question of if it was actually a weakness of maxima’s to be “depowered” by lightning or not, for all that Sydney knew, turning the electricity off would Not allow maxima to make an instant recovery, she could have been left weakened for a minute or more ala superman and kryptonite, unlikely of course but if that had turned out to be the case, well, odds are she thought of Some contingency for that, rely on pure drowning to get the job done rather than drown + crushed throat to choke him out, but either way the point stands: not knowing what a teammate Cant do is just as harmful as not knowing what they Can do for the person making tactical plans on the spot.
he one hand, as Karishi said, classified. On the other hand, she has rapidly developed an extremely close relationship with Sydney. The only person we’ve seen to be closer to Max is Peggy, and a hint that Anvil is also that close when Anvil told her to “Walk it off, babe.” during the fight, and Dave commented that the only people who can call Max babe are Anvil and Peggy. Sydney is on an almost-as-short list of people who can call her Max, and she’s a recruit that Max has literally known for 3 days (by now, and she was that cool with Sydney on day 1). They really bonded at the bank.
Also, Sydney has a degree of security clearance FAR above her pay grade due to her True Sight, and has shown a remarkable restraint, especially for her, in not telling anyone about aliens or demons.
We have no idea how close they are by the time the comic actually started, but no matter how close they get, I doubt Max would tell her unless she 1. Felt the need to talk about her theories about it with someone (Sydney is a better theorist than Peggy or Anvil due to her comic book knowledge), 2. Got drunk with Sydney (who I bet has a very low alcohol tolerance, and would pass out before Max got that drunk), and Sydney asked about her origin story, or 3. Sydney unlocks a vision mode on the comm ball that reveals relevant details about Max; I doubt unlocking X-Ray Vision and asking why Max has X-Ray impenetrable skin would do it, but maybe if the stuff is a symbiote and Sydney unlocks a mode that lets her see that Max is actually two life forms…
That should start with “On one hand” not “he one hand”. Oh…no, it should start with “On the one hand”…I had to c/p because the page errored and I had to refresh to finish writing my post and I obviously didn’t quite get everything…
So, the big question. Are Sydney’s orbs and this thing from a similar source? Or do they have nothing in common beyond likely alien origins?
… Yes
Damn. Beat me to it but I will add…
OR…
Maybe not?
Both of them were bought at the same alien dollar store.
While we can’t be sure of that, Guesticus is probably still right.
In that the are both of extraterrestrial origin.Whether it’s the same extraterrestrial origin or not is yet to be determined. Also even if they came from the same source is on the prototype and the other the final product, were the different projects entirely, or were like that source’s Coke vs Pepsi/Windows vs Mac/Chevy vs Ford.
Was actually saying that both guesses were correct :P
Classic trolling!
Well played.
That’s not trolling, it’s just people being too stupid to see the obvious.
And that’s why it’s so fun when someone tries to make sense of the answer.
I found the meaning of the original comment by Guesticus very…obvious, Captain.
btw, wth is your Gravatar? Google Image Search says “a shoe”, but I can tell it’s a cardboard box with a face on it…source please? It looks funny. Google Image Search also told me that we both read Sandra & Woo.
It’s the Writers Block, which I’ve stolen from Dan Shive, more specifically from the Sketchbook page on the El Goonish Shive site.
I reworked it slightly, basically giving the Demonic Duck a vacation and adding some classic poetry taunting the Writers Block…
Cool. I wish I could see the full-size image when I clicked on it. I figured it was full-theft, and I could go to whatever webcomic you linked and see for myself. :(
I’ve searched but it appears I’ve deleted the work copy… Which doesn’t compute as I never delete anything like that. I’ve probably squirreled it away on a NAS or perhaps it’s on one of my old computers…
The poem that WB is glaring up at reads:
Turn, Fortune, turn thy wheel with smile or frown;
With that wild wheel we go not up or down;
Our hoard is little, but our hearts are great.
It’s a poem by Tennyson. Don’t remember it’s name though. That’s the best I can do right now.
Wow. We hit the Reply limit. Thank you for sharing the details of your avatar.
I have to say, DaveB did a great job on ONE thing about this page, more so than usual: with The Perfect Wife, the comment about Marcellus Wallace’ briefcase, and the geode itself–I’m really digging the “unknown element” talk–quite a few of us regulars are commenting like crazy.
I’m normally pretty quiet, and I don’t think I’ve seen you comment this much on one page before, either.
If it happened it was some time ago. I’ve been pretty quiet for a year or so.
Aliens don’t have dollar stores. They have quatloo stores.
Damn illegal aliens are slobs…All of ’em. Can’t even pick up their own trash when they visit other worlds…
(mumble, grumble)
HA!… Like we’re any better… go ask your friendly neighborhood Martian, or Venusian what they think about OUR space junk!
It seems unlikely. Sydney’s alien devices are hand-held equipment. Maxima’s alien device appears to be either a symbiote or a body-altering chemical. I suppose the same aliens could have designed them and intended them to be used as a set; Max got the super-soldier serum, and Sydney got the weapons…but the PPO and Max’s ‘pwee-bomb’ seem redundant. Ditto the flight. Those could be part of Max’s own powers, or alien super-soldier serum could affect humans differently, or a combination of the two, but I suspect two different alien cultures.
Someone posted a few pages ago a theory that the orbs are basically civilian protective equipment type deals (like a chl or something). Which made me think of something. What if they were made by to separate alien species that were going to war. One group makes genetically enhanced super-soldiers, and the other decks their soldiers with mad-crazy gear. Probably wrong but it’s something to consider.
It’s possible the ‘Pwee-bomb’ is that species’ equivalent of a sidearm. We don’t know the relative capabilities of the PewPewOrb and the Pwee-bomb, after all, though we do know that the Pwee-bomb cannot penetrate the Shield. If the PewPewOrb’s ‘splodeybeam can damage mostly-armoured Maxima…
But yeah, I do think that Syd’s Orbs are utility devices, rather than weapons. Utility devices for construction on a continental scale, but still. I’m also betting that the species they come from probably has 7 manipulator limbs for them- possibly/probably tentacles, considering the LIghthook’s form- were they a handed or pincer’d species, the manipulator construct would probably look like, well, hands or pincers.
That’s a very interesting thought. The shield would normally be argued as making it at least defensive gear, but it’s necessary for flight and protection from PPO backlash (I’m hip). Gotta wear welding goggles–which explains why it blocks harmful light. However, construction gear? Why does the comm orb have true sight and magic sight (or whatever new vision mode she unlocked that saw Vehemence’s magic aura)? Utility equipment, maybe, but I think more general gear than construction. The lighthook is for turning on light switches without getting up, same reason everyone wants to be able to use The Force. The PPO is a knife. Obviously the makers ate food that was very hard. The PPO cuts it up into bite-sized pieces and the lighthook doubles as chopsticks. The Comm Ball and the Lighthook lets you make food in the kitchen around the corner without getting up. True Sight is the only way to tell certain condiments apart. Some of which are magical. Flight? Transportation. Shield? Fast flight.
Seriously, if you’re going to argue that they’re for utility purposes, argue that they’re either a custom job for an absurdly lazy person, or someone with a horrible nervous disorder like ALS.
Actually, aside from the PPO, a 7-armed squid person with alien ALS makes perfect sense, and the PPO is really just a matter of scale. Why make a CUTTING explodey beam? Knife and toaster combined, that’s why.
I kind of like the idea that the orbs are designed so that a nearly paralyzed alien can lead a normal life.
Okay, Deus’ desk is curved, thought it was
Hope we can eventually get a proper good look at it one day, specially the front panel with the naked gymnastics
I totally need that desk.
The picture on the wall to his left is interesting too… And is that a climbing tree for cats the other side of the file cabinet?
The picture on the wall under the word bubbles is probably also interesting. ^_^
And once again DeaveB has obscured the view of the lower left shelf so he doesn’t have to think up an item to put there.
I can’t recall anyone named Cat in this comic, but that contraption might be a good fit for Vale…
NSFW https://img.rarebdsm.com/galleries/charlotte/perfect_wife/pic/pic_6.jpg
(Link to picture stolen from post by AndyB)
That looks decidedly uncomfortable.
That is disturbingly hot.
That is also definitely what Deus has. I wonder where Dave got THAT idea…
Well he can’t very well play supervillain without a fat cat that he can pet in his lap while brainstorming evil schemes and saying things like “everything is going exactly as planned, my kitty,” or “excellent.”
Also required? A pack of chihuahuas for those times he needs to “release the hounds.”
I think the left picture was posted earlier as this:
https://web.mit.edu/rocketteam/www/2010_www/usli/sleipnir.png
The both have a Norse theme going for them.
That pic is the same as the cover on the AD&D source book Legends & Lore. That brings back some good memories.
Truly, I hope to have a better view of the desk.A clear desk is a demonstration of corporate power. I once had a desk that large but I rarely ever saw the top of it.
Egg? Doesn’t everyone come from an egg? *chirp*
For the most part (with the exception of single cell organisms and a few things that do a kind of “budding”) Technically speaking yes actually, everyone comes from an egg.
But sometimes the egg is called a seed, or a spore, and sometimes it’s incubated internally without a shell.
;)
Plus Duck billed platypus, Crocs, lizards, turtles etc
It’s nice to see the difference between professional and just banter with these 2
That’s because they have ‘history’ :D
Certainly makes it sound like it goes back to before the Machina and Archon liaison
We have no idea how far back the relationship between Machina and Archon goes. Archon is really well equipped, and the security system in the armory is a custom job. Deus probably helped build the building, or at least parts of it (I wonder if he owns Cupps?). Archon has been around unofficially for a while, as evidenced by the flashback to Anvil as super SWAT during Zeph’s briefing on that Russian mobster and by Achilles comment during lunch on day 2 that he once ate a vial of super-Ebola and saved the world.
There is also the hinted-at-by-Dave close relationship between Max and Anvil, which is apparently in the same league as Max’s relationship with Peggy. Peggy was in the Air Force with Max. There has been no suggestion that Anvil was in the Air Force. Achilles and Mr. Amorphous are also good friends, but that could have started before they joined Archon.
Archon only recently went public .
In fact, we know from the press conference that Archon is older than Max or Deus, dating back to WWII as ARC.
Achilles (along with Amorphous and Heatwave) used to be vigilante super heroes, before joining Archon.
And he’s pretty old, had his powers back in the 80s. So that Super Ebola was probably before Archon
I like Deus’s desk. It’s large, but not obscenely, and it’s got etchings of naked ladies on it, but in a way that looks artistic not pornographic. The only thing I’d add to it is a flip screen and hidden keyboard drawer.
Note that the etchings are placed on the visitors’ side. Probably placed there to make them uncomfortable and thus to gain some leverage before even saying first words in an interview.
The desktop is basically a huge smartphone touchscreen. It can display a ‘screen’, and a ‘keyboard’ anywhere on its surface he wants.
The notes on the DeviantArt page say that the curve on the desktop is three retractable monitors.
Surprised Mage Mumbo didn’t say “Sim Sala Bimbo!” :P
Wait, is Maxi’s ringtone for Sydney, Nelson Munz? o_O
no, it’s this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Fn36l_z3WY
You ninja’d me!!
odd thing, it’s fun explaining to Japanese people that “ninja” is becoming an English verb.
Oh right, remember that, just seemed odd that it only played that part (kinda makes more sense that the text tone would be something short, like Nelson’s laugh)
Is Maxima’s SMS tone ‘ha ha’?
Forgot that some phones don’t have personalised ringtones even for text messages
Probably part of the tune Max assigned to Sydney. https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1859
They’re Coming To Take Me Away
“Sim Sala Bim”? Has someone been playing Rune Factory 2? (For those who don’t know, that’s the first phrase of the fortune teller Alicia’s “what’s tomorrow’s weather?” spell)
Fairly sure it goes back a lot further than that
I was thinking Johnny Quest.
Thinking something like “Mandrake the Magician”, the original series
Mumbo Jumbo before he turned blue maybe? :)
Exactly this.
Its what Hadji would say before doing his Indian magic. Personally I think it mean “Stupid white kid in trouble again.” :)
no, it’s been seen as a magical phrase since the middle ages when Arabian/Muslims were quite advanced (relative to Europeans) scientifically and the phrase and were seen as magical, the phrase may stem from “Bismi’llah ir-Rahman ir-Rahiem” which means “In the name of God , Most Gracious, Most Merciful” sounded like sim sala bim to the people. (taken mostly from the dutch wikipedia as I couldn’t find mention of the origin of the phrase on the english one)
Yep. Same applies to “hocus pocus” – this comes from “hoc es corpus” (This is the body) said by the priest while handing out the consecrated bread during a Latin mass. Most people would not know Latin then, and thought it to be a magical formula.
Abra Cadabra was taken (by Hudini I believe) from the name of a famous stage magician from India (who was a big inspiration to him).
Avra K’dabra is Hebrew or Aramaic for “it came to pass as it was spoken”
Oh, sure. That is the MUGGLE explanation. :)
*copies info from this comment thread for later use*
I have a love affair for useless info.
Don’t you mean a love affair with useless info, like my occasional flings with Grammar Nazi-ism?
What is that to the left of the filing cabinet?
Looks like a fancy adjustable display stand, if it wasn’t for the double pair of hoops on this side of it, it could have been a fancy bondage rack (unless the ‘victim’ is placed facing the central bar, that way their arms and hands could go through them, but then their face would be smooshed against the bar)
I thought something for cats….?
actually, um, if the right age, look up charlottefetish and perfect wife.
It’s a bondage tower. The arms are held behind the person’s back.
Thought that, but the placement for the ‘arm’ restraints would make more of a torture tower (too high up to restrain the arms from behind comfortably)
Thinking that much would depend on who or what it was designed to hold.
This isn’t actually in debate. It is exactly a real-world bondage tower. Someone linked the photo upthread.
What’s “extra K.P.” I don’t get it, and it ruined the page for me.
K.P. is basically kitchen duty, one of the least desirable tasks to be assigned to regular military.
Peeling potatoes, serving up food, etc… mundane, mind numbing tasks.
Sometimes used a punishment for minor matters that do not warrant actual marks on your record.
‘K.P.’ stands for ‘Kitchen Police’, basically it’s military punishment where the offender has to ‘serve time’ in the kitchen, usually peeling potatoes with a dull rock (huge piles of the ugliest deformed potatoes you can imagine)
Better that than BP. Nobody wants Bathroom Patrol.
I did my share in Basic and A.I.T., and got stuck washing giant pots on mac&cheese day, which sucks because you don’t get the pots until the cheese has become one with the pot. The Mess Sgt. got mad when I filled a pot with water and put it on to boil to get the cheese to give it up, until I explained that I had worked in my parents’ restaurant as a kid, and that this was the faster way to deal with the mess. Then we became best buddies. I had lots of tricks for dealing with cleaning a restaurant’s kitchen. Ah, misspent youth.
As a college student cooking for myself, thanks for the tip!
Here’s a better tip: Unlike restaurants or military messes, don’t let dishes sit before cleaning. Clean them right after you eat, or even as you cook, and they clean very easily. Clean them the next day and you are screwed.
I don’t think learning how to clean in any way qualifies as time misspent. Especially cleaning dirty dishes. That’s a life skill. Your life-mate will probably be thrilled that you can wash dishes, and even more so if you don’t hate doing them.
Misspent youth is, depending on your point of view, either things like playing video games and not becoming a professional video gamer (you wasted your youth!) or things like having an actual job like I did (you had no childhood!). Or, you know, bullying and/or committing crimes, although the latter is arguable. It’s quite handy to be able to pick a lock with a pair of paperclips.
Well, I currently get paid to sleep. When I look back on my youth, and regret all of those hours that I could have been practicing this skill set…
Curiosity nerve…HIT!
What do you do for a living?
It’s fairly obvious that Deus doesn’t particularly know what it is either or how it works since it would be Maxima giving KP to Sydney rather than the reverse. Or, and more likely, he’s just being an ass.
^^^
it has that extra flavor of “go back to the kitchen” ontop of her military standing.
Is that a Vallejo painting on the wall behind Deux? :o
It looks ‘shiny’ enough, either him or Julie Bell
It’s “Valkyrie” by Boris Vallejo.
Yeah, like said, ‘shiny’ enough (have a book of their work, and at least one of them likes painting shiny material, like silver or gold)
We still don’t get to see what that ninth item in the display is >:(
It’s very nice to get the double resolution pages on Patreon, but I wish we could get it without word balloons sometimes. Although, once we actually saw the drawing process, we saw that a character whose face was obscured by a balloon on the finished page didn’t actually have a face at all. :)
I still can’t believe that they named the damn stuff Unobtainium. I mean, sure, corporations are definitely that unimaginative when it comes to names, but scientists are the ones who name elements.
Even scientists can get bored and come up with silly names
Like MacGuffinite
Refer various and sundry astronomical objects. AND some sub-atomic particles. And various things in between.
I’m particularly fond of the names of quarks. However, those are arguably VERY imaginative…and silly.
Elements 113, 115, 117, and 118 are excellent examples of boring element names. The things around them are all named after people or places, but those four are just Latin.
However, Unobtainium is not Latin, and when scientists run out of creativity, they usually use Latin or alphanumeric strings.
The ‘number’ names were just temporary, to cover the time from the first claims of synthesis, through experimental confirmation, to the ‘proper’ names being officially allocated. The elements formerly known as ununtrium (113), ununpentium (115), ununseptium (117), and ununoctium (118) are now and forever Nihonium, Moscovium, Tennessine, and Oganneson – three named after places, one after a person.
Someone found a way to generate carbon nanotubes in steel, similar to Wootz steel. He called it after his wife, Rhonda.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhondite
Awesome, but tragically short, article. However, it’s not creating carbon nanotubes, as in Wootz steel (yay for someone getting the name right, most people who even know of it call it Damascene). It’s actually creating chains of bucky-balls. Still cool, and I’m not pointing out the difference to be an ass, but rather to ask this: I wonder what the differences between Wootz steel and Rhondite are?
@DaveB
Re: Unknown elements
There are a bunch of hypothetical periodic table elements that may be stable in the second island of stability( atomic mass ~328), but we lack the equipment to try synthesizing them.
See Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_of_stability
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-04/acs-nse031108.php
Even from that very same article, “stable” is a relative term. The original predictions talk about half-lives of minutes or days. So you’re still not going to be making spearheads or armour out of them, or you would be considered fairly crazy if you did.
While that is the most likely case, some theoretical models do suggest that some of the elements could have half lives in the millions of years range. But even then, they’d be mildly radioactive, so their materials properties would have to be truly special in some way for them to be used as material or components in something, especially in bulk.
And that is pretty much the final nail in the coffin of unkown elements. The most likely stable candidates would be superactinides, which would be congeners around plutonium +/- couple elements. So their physical properties should be quite similar to uranium, plutonium, neptunium, etc. and, well, other than their fissionability, those aren’t that impressive metals.
There are few interesting enough quirks in those elements that you might be able to hang a scifi technobabble handwave on, but in real life it’s likely that if any such stable elements exists the most remarkable thing about them would be that they exist.
Mildly radioactive is a imprecise term. Bananas are mildly radioactive. A watch-dial can be mildly radioactive. The real question is what type of radiation.
There’d be one big difference with island-of-stability elements, yeah? Materials made of them would likely be very *dense*. (Right? Or maybe the increased size of the electron shells could make them *less* dense, but that’s not what my gut says. Anyone know?)
Lathanide contraction says they should be stupidly dense. But I’m uncertain if that applies to all elements beyond a certain point in the periodic table or just lathanides.
As a general rule, the higher up the periodic table you go, the denser materials get. This is not to say that every element is denser than all those with a lower number of neutrons, but it works when you compare the average density of elements in a a given row with the average density of elements in another given row. This gets screwy after Lead though.
One of my favorite elements is Californium. A microgram of -252, half life of 2.6 years, produces 170 million neutrons per minute, and has only 1.2x the density of lead. Uranium 235 is 1.6x the density of lead, just a tiny bit less dense than Tungsten (which is why they use it in certain tank rounds; Tungsten is very useful and very expensive, but we have lots of depleted uranium).
Tungsten is in the same row as Lead and Gold. Tungsten, in turn, is just a bit less dense than Gold, which is just a bit less dense than Plutonium 244, which is the heaviest and most stable Plutonium isotope. These are two adjacent rows of Translanthanides, and of the examples, Lead, the least dense, is in the middle, towards the far right of the first row. As for interesting properties, Mercury is right between Gold and Lead on the periodic table.
WC (Tungsten Carbide) is an obscenely useful metal; it’s extremely strong, tough, and hard, with only twice the stiffness of steel. However, it has a density 1.378x the density of lead and almost exactly 2x the density of 440c stainless steel (it’s so much stronger than steel that it’s feasible as an armor material even on vehicles, though, whereas steel is too heavy). Tungsten is strong, but the carbon lattice makes a huge difference in both density and strength. It’s not an element, but it’s a good example of how, say, Unbihexium Carbide (Unbihexium 310 is a predicted island of stability element) might be potentially useful.
The first point is that high-neutron elements are sometimes less dense than they logically should be (Californium, the element with the highest atomic weight I’ve listed and the second-lowest density, has electron shells of 2, 8, 18, 32, 28, 8, 2). The second point is that high-density materials can be strong enough to be feasible weapon, armor, and construction materials–especially if they’re carbides–but that’s because they’re strong enough to use less material to offset the increased density.
The Golden Geode is pretty thick, but it could use a microscopic honeycomb structure to be mostly empty space while still appearing to be a big chunk of solid, making a dense, strong material a possibility for it’s construction. Actually, the honeycomb would have to be nanoscopic or Deus would have noticed and, since he commented on it’s layered structure, he would have mentioned if he was aware of a honeycomb structure to the layers.
That and the tend to be radioactive because of the way we create them.
Don’t know enough about partial physics to know if there could be any theoretical stable super heavy element isotopes under the second island of stability.
And all of this presupposes that it is impossible for elements having different cosmological constants to generate within a single brane. Which is a reasonable assumption to make until we actually see such a thing (and I, for one, do not intend to hold my breath on this happening anytime soon).
However, IF such an element COULD exist, it would, in fact, be an unknown element (at least, initally) since the differences in cosmological constants would probably produce very odd testing results.
Or maybe not. I don’t really understand the math involved, so the practical effects could be far less than I am imagining. :D
But here’s the question then- since we use those properties to determine which element it is, how would we differentiate a version of, say, Uranium, that has the properties of Iron- from Iron itself?
From an element point of view, it would be for all practical purposes iron. Until someone did the exhaustive testing required to find the one dimensional difference (let’s say the spin is reversed) then it wouldn’t be iron nor uranium anymore. Because the properties would not match either perfectly and thus would not match those definitions. Then the experimental physicists and materials engineers get to have fun.
And the theoretical physicists would have to think seriously about if that dimension is actually a cosmological constant AND exactly what the hell “cosmological constant” actually means.
How about something a mass spectrometer says is Uranium, but which is hard, ferrous, and not radioactive? I’m into quantum physics, but my chemistry isn’t well-versed enough to know what you mean about cosmological constants. I’m familiar withe electron spin, so I THINK I get the idea.
Still, the mass spectrometer has made a gargantuan difference in the analysis of elements. It has also made the identification of an unknown element as unknown really easy. If the mass spectrometer says one thing and basic testing says NOT that thing…unknown element. The issue, as you point out, is how such a thing would exist in the first place. Would you care to expand on the “cosmological constant that turns out to not be a constant” theory?
There’s a theoretical physicist who has speculated that mass consists of 16 data points (or maybe 23 or 26, or something) that are consistent for all mass. For example, there is a relationship between the amount of mass and the force of gravity that mass exerts – that relationship number is a cosmological constant.
Using this same constant (gravity), if we found an object that matches iron in every respect but that falls at 4.1 meters per second squared (as an average over multiple locations and testing in a sufficient large near-vaccuum to allow accurate measurement), we have a problem. Gravitic attraction for all known mass on earth is (roughly) 9 meters per second squared. This material is either an unknown element or the cosmological constant we call gravity is not apparently a cosmological constant – which is to say, it can change. Both seem exceedingly unlikely options, but since quantum physics suggests everything that is possible, regardless of how unlikely, has been a result in some brane someplace. But things from one brane should not be able to exist in another brane without some form of translation from one frame of recerence to the other.
Part of me wishes I had better training in physics so I can be sure I’m both understanding and explaining the concept correctly. At some level of detail, I’m certain I’m making a hash of it.
I still root for the off chance that there are not-yet-constructed heavy and stable atoms: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_of_stability
There’s no reason to believe the super heavy elements will have super powers like super conductivity, diamond hardness or 6000* melting points.
But also no reason NOT to believe it, either.
Well, there’s been a lot of work on how we expect elements in the island of stability to behave, and in that sense there is. The models strongly suggest that they will act like slightly more chemically active actinides.
If one wants things with extreme melting points or room temperature superconductivity, one can plausibly get those without any exotic elements. For example, only last year, new work suggested that an alloy of hafnium, nitrogen and carbon would have a melting point of around 7400 F. See https://news.brown.edu/articles/2015/07/melting although note that no one has actually managed to actually make the alloy yet. Of course, part of the real difficulty is getting substances that have not one extreme property but have multiple (for example really high melting point isn’t that helpful by itself it is very brittle).
See my reply to Blue’s comment above.
Everyone knows that element 115 is stable if you can pack enough neutrons into the nucleus, specifically 184. We just haven’t been able to produce that in the accelerators yet.
And this element is the key to gravity manipulation and warp drive, of course.
https://www.gravitywarpdrive.com/Element_115.htm
I did not know that. :p
Why not just say Ununpentiun?
What? Elerium-115 ? https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php/Elerium-115
New theory: a planet populated by super-power-granting symbiote orbs explodinates, scattering its “people” throughout the galaxy. Max swallowed an anchient/mostly-dead one. Sydney’s are from the same family and like to stick together.
Oooor Sydney’s orbs are all one organism and the “unknown” orbs are its genitals….
Sure, why not?
Is it me or does it seem odd that his desk, even the one behind him has no papers/random stuff on it?
Not really: he tidied up before having guests
Either that, or this is not the office he ‘works’ in
If it’s a “smart desktop” (think smartphone the size of a desk) then the papers would all be digital and easy to “put away” and any random stuff would get in the way of the work area.
In Eric Flint’s book In the Country of the Blind there’s a corporate boss who leaves his desk completely bare at the end of every workday – that is, aside from a little sign, precisely centered, which reads “A clean desk is a sign of a sick mind”.
Correction: Not Eric Flint. Michael Flynn.
Considering the decorations on the front and the bondage gear in the corner I don’t think this is his work office, more likely it’s his flirting office.
yup, this makes sense :P
No, no, he talks to his male business partners in this room too! Really!
And… how does that stop it from being his flirting office? o_O
About the chemistry: My first thought was “Isotopes”. Like heavy hydrogen which is a component of heavy water. Which I vaguely remember to be not processable by the human body.
How would the nucleus of a hydrogen atom alter the chemical reactions of the electon shell?
*alter*
By having additional neutrons (Protium = 1p, Deuterium = 1p1n, Tritium = 1p2n), the gravitational and weak nuclear fields are altered, which alter the electron shells’ radii and therefore their ‘willingness’ to bond and unbond with other atoms. Electrons are unaffected by the strong nuclear force and the overall electric charge of the nucleus is unchanged.
So it would make covalent bonds happen less often but wouldn’t affect ionic bonds?
Deuterium and Tritium are also radioactive and have some very interesting properties. The most fun, I think, is that Tritium is the key to making a fusion bomb. You take a fission bomb, and use Tritium “straws” to connect it to heavy water, so that when the fission bomb explodes and releases a bunch of neutrons, the Tritium straws “conduct” the neutrons into the heavy water in a sort of “Newton’s Cradle” reaction, where a neutron hits a Tritium atom with enough force to bond, but whatever Tritium +1 neutron is called falls apart immediately, releasing one of the original neutrons so it settles down into Tritium again, so you get a bunch of neutrons playing relay along the Tritium straws until they hit the heavy water and cause Hydrogen into Helium fusion. ^_^
Has no-one else noticed the very kinky item in the corner room?!?!? Does Vale get put in it when Deus is feeling frisky? We so need a Grrl Power After Dark side comic! Nice desk btw.
It kinda reminds me of a contraption we have at home used to help people get upside down without others help (to stretch and deal with back pain and few other problems). The lower half at least does. The upper part… yes, you are probably right, this seems like GP After dark stuff.
And also yes, I missed it, until I read that that comment.
It has been discussed further up the page, twice
Long dead microbes? Potental theory: The microbes were what was in the fluid. They’re living in Max’s body, and caused her transformation into a very well defended host. The other half could still have had some of the microbes living in it, leading to somebody else getting Max’s powers later.
I believe they worked like a virus, modifying her on a cellular level (viruses infiltrate your cells and modify your DNA to get them to make more viruses)
Interesting theory that could be discounted based on how quickly the liquid evaporated once exposed to the air. Most likely the other half is in a similar state to this one.
Not to mention, unless they have a very strange or very long ‘gestation’ period or life cycle, they’d be spreading like crazy through the population- especially since the hosts seem like they’d probably be quite willing to get ‘infected’.
Then again, it could be a case of improper host organism disrupting the life cycle while still benefitting from the side effects.
DaveB has mentioned Max as having a ‘symbiote’, the exact nature of which is unclear. Rather than simply forming an organelle inside of her, it seems to have distributed itself throughout her body, suggesting that it’s a colony of microbe-sized organisms, rather than a single one.
After so long (15-20 years), it may have integrated itself so thoroughly, it’s hard to tell where Max ends and the symbiote cells begin.
Are they ‘alien’? ‘Alien’ is a difficult term – it’s one of those ‘othering’ words that’s meant to say “Not Like Us”, which basically depends on your definition of ‘us’. On an Earth that seems to have lots of ‘alien’ species living on it, and possibly has had for years, that’s a fuzzy question, and one that deserves some analysis.
If you’re asking, “Is it from Earth?”, the answer is “probably not”, although, if you’re a panspermist, you may question whether ANY life is from Earth. Maybe it was created on Earth, but predates human civilization, or perhaps even the fossil record. Maybe it originated in space, and fell here in the same asteroids that germinated life here. Maybe it’s more recent, but created by an isolationist supertechnology enclave, like Atlantis or Themiscrya or some such. Labeling any of these as ‘alien’ could be tricky.
DaveB has mentioned that Max might have a ‘symbiote’, the exact nature of which is probably impossible to determine at this point.
The relevant part of Daves comment from page #415:
There’s a weak version of panspermia that is almost certainly true. It says that biological material from here has gotten pretty much everywhere within about 30 light-years, by entirely natural means.
(This is in no way evidence against any other version of panspermia. After all, some aliens deliberately spreading biological materials wouldn’t stop the natural spread…)
Ordinary people can now order their own genetic screening through the mail. In a logical world Archon has run a DNA scan on every super in their organization and any DNA sample they have taken from crime scenes with known supers. (The restaurant parking lot must have been swarming with ARC-CSI after the fight)
Comparisons of ‘super’ DNA to ‘normal’ DNA may show if there is a specific set of genes common to powered people. ARC needs to test Max to see if there is something in her DNA other than ‘people’.
This of course presumes powers are a result of biology rather that psychology.
My supers RPG that I occasionally run has a very odd premise: much like the way that the obervation of an experiment or experience influences the result, so too does Mind affect Reality. How, exactly, does the decision to raise your arm affect the brain cells that propagate that result? Is Mind an artifact of Brain, or does Brain moderate and mediate the effect of Mind on the Body (a limited subset of Reality)? If the latter, then a wider scope of influence should be possible.
People are Supers because they *really* believe they’re Supers (and yeah, trauma / near death / actual death is a very typical origin of powers). And how they believe inherently limits their powers.
This also means that certain degree of sapience is required for powers. No, you may not play Krypto or a Super-Monkey in my game… But you can play a human who BELIEVES he’s Krypto so much that he’s transformed himself into Krypto if you have your heart set on that.
Another fun one (a subset of the Whateley powers scale) suggests that all superpowers are just variations on Magic or Psychic abilities, explaining the wide variety and the apparent matchups that many superpowers take with their users- hotheads having fire powers, flyers being airheads, that sort of thing.
Let’s see, that would mean the following diagnosis of:
Max – Megalomania
Harem – Multiple personality
Heatwave – Anger management
Amorphous – Body disphoria
Achilles – Narcissism
Hiro – Hero complex (duh)
Math – Hypersexual disorder
Stalwart – OCPD, unable to compromise that anything can move him
Jiggawatt – Possibly a form of epilepsy that creates excess electrical activity in the brain
Sydney – take your pick.
She bleeds blue. A DNA test is NOT going to show her as being “human”. The list of things that are blue when exposed to air and can be forcefully oxidized to red is very short and exotic. I posted on it way back when Max had her nosebleed (one of those pages, anyway). Her blood isn’t iron based. That alone is going to make her DNA have less in common with humans than ANY mammal. The most likely culprits for her red/blue blood are aluminum and cobalt. She’s not sharing 99% of her DNA with humanity. Not having iron-based blood means dramatic changes in a lot of internal organs.
We saw that even her skeleton was altered.
Here’s the problem with a DNA test on Max: you get a sample, and you can easily identify Max from her DNA in the future, as opposed to wondering what you’re looking at. However, she is going to be so far from anything else on Earth that how are you supposed to identify where Max ends and another entity begins?
The Gold Stuff rewrote her DNA. If it’s now a colony of microbes, it should be impossible to tell which are “natural” for her and which are “alien”. Humans have tons of guest germs they need to live. If it’s more like a virus, and the way it rewrote her DNA is suggestive of a retrovirus, then it’s infected every cell in her body and integrated itself into her DNA. Without a baseline that is just Max, you cannot recognize what is Max+.
Totally off topic, but your comment made me think of what Rayovac did with their battery line a few years ago. Some genius in marketing decided to name it ‘Maximum’. Later, they decided to one-up themselves and renamed it ‘Maximum Plus’. At which point there was a disturbance as if millions of grammarians suddenly cried out in indignation. No. Just No. You can’t go past maximum any more than you can make something ‘more’ perfect. Somebody get Thomas Jefferson on the time phone. I want to have a word with him.
https://maritant.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/product_photo/image/327430/PIC_813-2.jpg
Sorry, I think Lewis Black may have been in my head pushing a few buttons there for a moment.
I wish I could start a discussion on the element(s) her blood uses to carry oxygen, rather than elicit a comment on batteries, but…thanks?
Oh, and there is a simple solution to the Rayovac problem. You CAN add to “Maximum”, as long as it’s either unrelated or negative. Maybe they’re “Maximum Plus Suck”, and Rayovac wisely decided to shorten the name. ^_^
“Maximum Lifespan Plus Maximum Unreliability”
“Maximum Cost Plus Worst Lifespan of Any Major Brand”
“Maximum Lifespan Plus Decrease in Lifespan”
While this may be true, it was established way back that super powers in Grrl Power have ‘no known cause’. I dobut very much there is an X-Gene to find.
“No known cause” doesn’t rule out an X-gene being responsible, it just means they need to keep looking
Wooooooow…. now that we get to see the front of that desk, I’m really surprised that Max didn’t reduce it to toothpicks.
What’s the dark stuff on Sydney’s face in panel 2? Black drool? A wad of chewin’ baccy?
That… is the inside of her mouth
A wad of Chewbacca . . . ?
Oh, I get it now. Sorry.
*Whose* fantasy is panel 2, exactly? I could only see Sydney as that whimsical, but she isn’t there. It doesn’t seem right that it’s Deus, since he’s talking, but I can’t see Maxima going that way at all.
So, the other half of the geode.
Chekhov’s gun, or red herring?
Research showed it was later purchased from the museum by a Mr MacGuffin.
Check out the page. Deus owns at least two of the items in the photo. I guess the item in the lower left of his shelf we haven’t seen yet is Indy’s Grail. And the item in today’s page rates as an Egg MacGuffin.
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MacGuffin
Egg McGuffin.
+2 internets good sir
You know, it wouldn’t suprise me if Deus realy used a Dr Jekyl potion for situations like these. I any case he probably have the formula hidden in some safe place.
NO NO NO
Tile 2 should have Cosmic Hitler (https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/533), not Evil Mandrake.
Villain or not (and I am leaning towards villain), I like Deus – he has style.
he may be an anti-villain
What’s KP?
Kitchen Patrol duty – having to help out in the kitchen as a punishment. Classic trope of people peeling potatoes.
Thanks for the explanation! :-)
Any guesses as to whether the Valkyrie painting on the wall (top right of top panel) is a real painting or something that Dave put together?
I believe it’s a Boris Vallejo print.
https://www.wallcoo.net/paint/boris_vallejo/html/image16.html
Print?? This is Deus – he most likely shelled out for the original.
Regarding unknown elements: there are some hypotheses that there might be another section of stable elements in the periodic table in regions we haven’t touched with particle accelerators yet.
So it’s the 2nd panel foreshadowing perhaps? Also to all the kids who never saw Pulp Fiction, thanks for making me feel old.
How about the borderline-fogeys who never saw it?
Those we’re envious of. They’re lucky as they can have the pleasure of experiencing it for the first time!
Or those old enough to have seen it’s original theatrical release, but wasn’t interested
Shame on them. QT is a genius. Well, okay, his films are always ridiculously high on the violence scale, and there are people who don’t like that no matter how well a story is told. Pulp Fiction is also even worse than Kill Bill for his signature “non-linear time”. The beginning is literally the first half of the last scene. Still…it took me a long time to see Jackie Brown, and after his contribution to Grindhouse, I thought he’d lost his magic ala Lucas, but Django Unchained proved me (quite happily) wrong. The man makes excellent movies. He also has really good taste in picking movies to work with that he didn’t write (I love From Dusk Till Dawn).
Not sure if have seen any of his films (was he the one who did the Mariachi movies with Banderos?), or at least not one in its entirety (planning on watching “Lady Snowblood” before “Kill Bill”)
The “Mariachi” movies, El Mariachi and Desperado, was written and directed by Robert Rodriguez, but Quentin Tarantino did play the “Pick-up Guy” in Desperado.
QT’s movies are: My Best Friends Birtday, Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, a segment of Four Rooms, Jackie Brown, Kill Bill (Volumes 1 & 2), Grindhouse: Death Proof, Inglorious Basterds, Django Unchained, The Hateful Eight
Writer: True Romance, Natural Born Killers, From Dusk till Dawn
Uncredited screen writer for: Crimson Tide, The Rock
Acted in: Pulp Fiction, Destiny Turns on the Radio, Desperado, From Dusk till Dawn, Alias (TV series 2002–2004)
So there is a good chance you’ve seen something he’s been involved in…
Yes, have seen some movies he has been in (most of “Desperado”, some of “Kill Bill’ {not sure which part(s)}, “From Dusk ’till Dawn” & “Alias”), but apart from “The Rock” (that’s the biopic about Dwayne Johnson, wasn’t it?) none of the others
Never heard of a biopic about Dwayne, so I assumed it was this one: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117500/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
Keep in mind that on IMDB he isn’t listed as having had anything to do with that movie, but then it was said to be uncredited work. Why that would be I have no idea. From what I’ve found he rewrote some parts of the script, most probably it had to do with jazzing up the dialogue.
With that over,Maxima gets Sydney and they return to the base in time for Sydney to undergo Arianna’s media prep course(unless it already occurred when we wasn’t looking???)
Somehow I have the feeling that “events conspiring to make Sydney miss that course” will become a running gag for awhile.
Glad to hear I’m not the only one who gets annoyed at unknown elements, I’d much rather believe in exotic compounds than significant parts of the periodic table that scientists have somehow missed. In a kinda related way I also hate when Star Trek mentions “unreplicatable materials”. It just seems to me that once you can create any atom and snap them together like LEGOs, you can create EVERY atom and nothing is “off the table”. I’d sooner believe in a replicator that can copy an entire galaxy than in a single molecule that can’t be duplicated.
Also, is that Nelsons “Ha Ha” as Maxima’s ringtone for Sydney?
Also, we have been over the ringtone. It’s this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnzHtm1jhL4
Ah, now I remember, thanks
Problem with that, is the ‘Ha ha’ is part of the chorus, and unless Max was ignoring the first 24 seconds it makes more sense that she used Nelson for the text tone (nice and short)
She probably just uses the chorus from the ringtone for Sydney Text alerts.
Well, we don’t know how exactly the replicators work. There may be specific high stress molecular bonds for example that they have trouble with, or they may have trouble with very complicated molecules.
I equally hate it when the writers Did Not Do The Research, and use elements from the periodic table in ways that you would never, ever, not even in ten million years, want to use them.
For example, there was a game back in the late 1990s by the name of “Crusader: No Remorse”. Now, I really enjoyed the game, but according to the backstory, your character (a special forces soldier that is called a “Silencer”) is wearing armor made primarily of Polonium. I think our resident nuclear physicist, or anyone with even a passing knowledge of chemistry, can tell you the problem with that idea.
For the unfamiliar, I’ll give you some hints:
(1) Polonium has 33 known isotopes. ALL of them are radioactive.
(2) A single gram of Po-210 will spontaneously heat to a temperature of over 900 degrees.
(3) Po-210 is 250,000 times more toxic than hydrogen cyanide.
(4) It is so toxic, in fact, that one gram of Po-210 could (theoretically) poison 20 million people. Half of those would die.
And he’s wearing a suit of armor made of this stuff? To be fair, they might not have used Po-210, but some other isotope. And they might have meant it’s powered by Polonium, not made of it. One of the common uses of Polonium is in radiothermal generators, so that would be reasonable, with adequate temperature and radiation shielding. But what the backstory says (as opposed to what they probably meant) is that the armor is made of Polonium.
An inadvertent word swap that occurred during the editing of the user manual, or a genuine case of Did Not Do The Research? You decide.
Anyway, this kind of mistake… assuming it was a mistake… just bugs me. If it wasn’t a mistake, that bugs me even more.
on the plus side, it was a kickass game. You could blow up locked doors using your explosives and rpg-rounds! :D Screw the keycards! (Doing so of course set the alarms off biiiig time, which usually isnt a great idea, but you sure as hell could do it). It and the sequel, “Crusader: No Regret”, had some some pretty crazy level design too, tons of secret doors, switches, keypads and explosive barrels or other bits that could provide tactical options beyond the basic “run in and shoot everthing”. Granted, most of those variations tended to resolve into: “make something kill some goons, then run in and mop up the survivors”.
Ah, nostalgia…
Yeah, I really loved those two games and you can still play them with the help of DOSBox. There were plans for one more sequel, but the game’s director, Tony Zurovec, has said he’s thought about doing one, but it would take time away from his current passion, working with neglected animals. It still has a fan following who wants an HD remake and/or a reboot, but you know how Electronic Farts is… they’d probably try to turn it into a crappy first-person shooter with micro-transactions and always-online copy protection.
I’ll say this for WEC… safety is job one (hundred and eighty-six). They ran on Nonsensoleum and No OSHA Compliance. You could slip and fall into a pit of toxic waste, blown by a high-speed ventilation fan over a rail-less walkway into the aforementioned pit of toxic waste, steamed to death, set on fire, electrocuted, crushed under an elevator… and that was before the Silencer showed up.
For those that haven’t played the game, the WEC is the World Economic Consortium, the defacto government in the game. It’s implied that there are still national governments, but they have almost no real authority. Under their rule, the tax rate is 97%, the people probably eat recycled food (it’s good for the environment and okay for you), and as I pointed out, you’re more likely to die on the job than to live to old age… oh, and they’re building an orbital cannon so that if they think your city is aiding rebels, they’ll just blow up your entire city from orbit.
My biggest question now is… how will the other half become significant.
Deus is getting to be my favorite character. He’s a jerk, sure, but also a well-intentioned well-informed busy-body.
Likable villains/rivals seems to be a theme of the comic, considering that Vehemence was somewhat popular with many too, with a lot of people rooting for the possibility that he’d somehow wind up joining archon and making a buddy-team with Sydney and crew.
And again the left most item on the bottom shelf is obscured. Have we seen what’s there, or is Dave holding out on us?
If anything our host has proven that he plays his cards close.
Wait. Wait wait wait. DaveB, is that the PERFECT WIFE hidden over there by the file cabinet?
Oh, that’s what it’s called. I kept calling it a ‘bondage tower’.
I think they should market an alternative model, the Perfect Girlfriend, for those couples where marriage isn’t in their future. You wouldn’t want your partner to misinterpret your intentions would you?
Everyone has hobbies.
and the fact that i know the specific name of it shows my own proclivities >.>