Grrl Power #422 – Out-patience
I’ve talked about Harem’s powers in my post under some of the comics and in the comments, but only a few times actually in the comic. Plus I just liked this scene with Harem having to, as she suggests, knowingly do something that would hurt as much as breaking her own hand. Something Sydney almost gets to experience anyway since when there’s only 4 Harems, they’re each twice as strong as a fit but otherwise normal 5′ 8″ girl. Or 1.72 meters if you live in a part of the world that doesn’t use a completely arbitrary measurement system. (I was going to bag on how old the Imperial system is as well, but turns out metric has been around for nearly as long.) It’s embarrassing to me that Americans are too belligerent to change over, even though 1.72 meters is an almost meaningless value to me. I mean, I’m 6 feet tall, and 2 meters is like 6′ 6″ so I can kind of work from backwards from there, but geeze, just put kilometers on all the roadsigns in a different color for a generation, then in another generation remove the mile numbers. Have all the characters all the pop culture make fun of the old fogies that say how much they weight in pounds and how tall they are in feet. Oh and guys can start bragging about how many cm their cranks are. Weight? You’re 140? How would you like to weigh 63 overnight? Done. Easy.
Sorry, that was a hell of a tangent.
In the second to last panel Sydney’s really trying to say “I’m distracting you from your pain with different pain.” I considered changing it, but between extra strong Harem smushing her hand and all the flailing, I thought it was ok that she wasn’t belting out Sorkin-esque perfect dialog. People sometimes flub their lines in real life.
Edit: So I thought I’d explain what’s going on in this page as some people are a little confused. Strawberry blonde Harem’s wrist got broken during the big battle, so she immediately de-teleported that one which puts her in a timeless storage of sorts. Effectively she ceases to exist until that copy of her is recalled. In other words, she doesn’t feel the pain of the broken wrist. When she finally ports back in, she feels the freshly broken wrist which is why she wanted to do it right in front of the doc, who can start healing it right away, thus minimizing the amount of time she’s in pain.
Edit 2: Ok I did some art edits tonight to make some things clearer. Panel 6 is zoomed out a little so it’s clear Harem is grabbing Sydney’s hand, and panel 8 is zoomed way out to show Sydney flopping on the table. Apparently people thought she was doing a poorly executed flying arm bar on Harem which come to think of it is actually funnier, but was definitely confusing people. Hopefully that clears it up for everyone anyway. Here’s the old version if you’re curious.
Patreon supporters can view this page at twice the size! (as soon as I wake up and post it then immediately go back to sleep since Patreon doesn’t have a way to schedule posts yet.) $1 and up, but feel free to contribute as much as you like :)
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.
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
I just use 65 inches and 165 centimeters for conversion purposes. It’s a lot easier to remember.
There’s a very, very good reason why we don’t convert to metric, Dave, and that’s just with mile markers alone.
Miles are marked on our highways with green signs, yeah? And every exit on the interstate is marked with a number. So if we were to convert to metric, we’d have to change thousands upon thousands of signs. The money that would be poured into this could be better spent on medical research, welfare, scholarships, etc.
Also, not everything in nature is measured in 10’s. Sometimes the system we have set in place just works plain better than the metric system.
I for one can go either way ;-)
Those signs need maintenance anyway
While true that they need maintenance, one odd quirk of the US highway system is that all exits are numbered for the mile marker closest to them… All exits would either have to be re-numbered, or they’d now be someone nonsensical over time (why is this one exit 12 and this one’s exit 14 and there’s no exit 13, I can hear the future generation ask…)
But re-numbering every exit would also be a huge logistical nightmare. You could stymie congress for years on that debate alone.
Oh no, something old not making sense anymore?
Clearly we shouldn’t use flash drives, since they make using the floppy disc image not make sense any more. We also shouldn’t call them floppy discs, since once they were made firm the name didn’t make sense any more.
This is a little bit late, but when it comes to Disc Vs. Disk for data storage, the subject’s been settled for like 25-30 years: Optical media is Disc (CD, DVD, BRD, Optical (Disc) Drive/ODD). Magnetic media is Disk (Hard Disk/HDD, Floppy Disk/FDD).
SSD’s are Flash Memory media, so they do NOT count in the Disc/Disk discussion.
…
This reminds me of city street signs
I’m driving straight down a street
Light a is 53
Light b is 54
Light c is 65
Light d is 89
Light e is 43
This is a straight bit of road that’s not even 2 miles
This is America
When the hell have we made sense?
I thought the real reason we don’t use the metric system is that it is unreliable since the original kilogram keeps changing its mass and the definition is based on that original object?
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112003322
That doesn’t explain why the rest of the world does. That argument sounds like someone with an emotional investment in Imperial trying to come up with any possible reason not to convert.
uh… dude? that’s something the Imperial system’s been known for doing since.. well… it was invented?
mean, seriously, a Foot was “the length of the current King’s foot.”
The kilogram was originally based on that prototype mass, but it’s since been redefined in more precise and permanent terms. Technically the new definitions still need to be approved (at a conference later this year), but that’s likely to be a mere formality.
Of course, for any practical purpose, variation on the order of micrograms in a kilogram is negligible – parts per billion. It’s certainly no greater than the variation/uncertainty in Imperial measures, even long after the “king’s foot” age. The only reason the variation is noticed is because the definitions are written so precisely, in ways deliberately set up to be verified to such precision.
The Imperial pound, by the way, is officially defined in terms of that same kilogram – if you consider the one to be unreliable, then the other is equally so.
Most expenses of governance are recurring. Converting to the metric system is a one-time expense that ends up saving money in the long run (because you don’t waste time calculating how many pints go in a cubic yard or how many calories you need to heat a tonne of water 200°F anymore), though the conversion does get more expensive for every year you wait to do it. It’s like, let’s say, you have a house with holes in the wall instead of glass windows, and it’s a house with 350 million inhabitants who’re constantly making babies so you’re always building additions, and the bigger the house gets the more you have to spend on heating, and you’re putting off even beginning to put in windows because it’s expensive, it’s a lot of work, you’re used to the drafts and many other reasons that are becoming less and less relevant the more time passes.
While true that the imperial system is arbitrary. SO IS THE METRIC SYSTEM. Of course it is! Why should we decide that a meter is one millionth of a quadrant of the earths meridian–particularly when at the time they did not have an accurate measurement on what the distance of the meridian was!!
Still arbitrary–all I’m saying.
God Bless the inch, foot, yard, chain, mile, furlong, and link & rod. I love them all.
It is embarrassing. And what’s worse is that there are a large number of people, some of whom are elected officials, who would actually express pride about using the idiot system as opposed to the metric system. Just because they grew up with it. Or they’d make fun of it because the French use it, all the while conveniently ignoring the part about how even the English whose asses we kicked in a war a while back (which we’d have lost if not the the French, but try telling that to a redneck or a Republican and see how far you get) managed to get over their own idiot system. They’d go around calling inches and miles “Freedom measurements” and drooling about how important it is to retain an idiot system because of stupid reasons like “George Washington used it.” And then they’d forget that George Washington had a tooth pulled just about every year as an adult because dentistry was primitive and how easy their lives are because of so many modern systems.
Yes. And there are a lot easier ways to get people to learn it as well. I was taught it in second grade, but since it was never used in real life after that it wasn’t until I was an adult that I really learned the metric system.
I cook a lot, and I’m left handed. Which means that when I hold up a measuring cup I’m always looking at the metric measurements, the Imperial ones are on the other side where right handed people will see them first. So I learned liquid measures in metric units first. This demonstrates both that simply exposing people to a system of measurements can teach it to them, and that exposing people to a system of measurements is simple.
It’s not a matter of arbitrary. If you think that then you have missed the point entirely. And you’re not even correct. The metric system is based on an arbitrary measurement, because all systems must be. But then it applies logic to the remaining measures by defining them in decimal relationship to the base measure.
The Imperial system is made up of a great many different arbitrary measures, which are them all defined in relation to each other. This is how we get stupid measurements like a 5,280 foot mile. Because a mile isn’t defined in relation to a foot. It is instead defined in relation to a furlong, which is defined in relation to a foot as being 660 of them long. 8 furlongs in a mile makes a 5,280 foot mile.
So it is not a matter of arbitrary. It’s a matter of logic, ease, and accuracy. We as a species have 10 fingers. Decimal systems come naturally to us.
Having systems of measurement which use a decimal system is more easy to learn, and reduces errors. Anyone can move a decimal point left or right in their head, it comes naturally. But having a liquid measure which uses an octal system (16 ounces in a pound) is not as intuitive. Having that same octal system for liquid measures next to a hexadecimal system for linear measures (12 inches in a foot) starts to seem foolish. And then when you learn that these systems aren’t even consistently octal or hexadecimal (2000 pounds in a ton, 660 feet in a furlong, 8 furlongs in a mile, 5280 feet in a mile) it becomes something best poked fun by comedians at rather than actually using.
Imagine the reverse: Imagine a people who use the metric system, and then imagine the task of trying to persuade them to use cups, inches, miles, and tons. You’d be laughed at at lot, don’t you think?
One of them might even suggest that such an idiotic system might crash a terribly expensive Mars lander. Another might point out that using a more simple and natural system of measurements actually saves money for the entire culture simply by reducing conversion errors.
The first example is hexadecimal, base-16, and the second is duodecimal, base-12. Octal is base-8, and you presumably did not mean to mention it at all.
It’s certainly more difficult to remember the USC unit progressions, and conversion is a hassle until you get the hang of it, I guess, but I think you could make those points without insulting people’s intelligence in the same breath you use to incorrectly name every base numbering system to which you refer.
I don’t think your overall message is wrong, but you might work a little harder to be convivial if you can’t be bothered to know the basic definitions of all the words in your argument.
Nah, I’d prefer that someone on the internet rush to correct me over a trivial error which did nothing to discredit my point. Sure, I got hexadecimal and duodecimal confused. And probably other errors as well. But then I make greater errors of more import every day of my life! But did that error in any way change the point I was making? Nope. So, suck it! Your didactic subterfuge bears no weight here.
Your error was so spectacularly fundamental, and your argument in such sweetly ironic contrast to it, that I felt a strong compulsion to help you. As you must have missed it before, I will reiterate that I agree completely with what you’re saying, but the way in which you express it damages its legitimacy. To wit: stop making us look bad.
What an embarrassing thing to believe about oneself! It’s a supremely important difference to people who actually know a damn thing about several topics you’ve been browbeating others over. I suspect a similar attitude resulted in the Mars rover landing you mentioned recently.
Just take your medicine and improve, you big baby.
The Imperial measurement system isn’t arbitrary. It’s approximate. Huge difference.
The metric system absolutely is arbitrary, but Imperial measurements anthropocentric. An inch is approximately the length of the average human thumb from the first joint to the tip. The foot is, appropriately, the approximate length of an average human foot (or from the inside of the elbow joint to the wrist). A yard is approximately the length measured from the tip of the middle finger to the shoulder joint (again, on average). The mile comes from Rome and represented 1,000 paces, very useful for the marching Legions. Of course all these measurements started out slightly different than they are now, but they weren’t called Imperial measurements either, not until they were standardized by the British Empire.
This is why Imperial measurements are inherently more intuitive than the supreme mathematical abstractions of the metric system, and why clothing and furniture made using the Imperial system is often regarded as subtly more comfortable than those designed under metric measurements.
Not for me it isn’t.
*scratches at collar with hind paw*
I have found a curry that even Sydney could not eat!
I had to read this page several times to understand. I can see from the comments that I’m not the only one. There are a few simple things you can do here to fix this.
Panels 1-3: judging from the doc’s reaction on the previous page, the reader expects her to be sending Harem away. This is compounded by Harem using the word “going”. Make it clear that the *other* Harem is *coming*.
Panel 5: Harem uses the word “second” which can be confusing because she’s obviously talking about a *second* Harem. Make it clear that you mean *time* not *number* by using the less ambiguous word “instant” in place of “second”.
Same for me. My assumption reading the first 3 panels was that Harem was somehow unable to Vorp away. It wasn’t until panel 5 that I began to figure out what was going on and started reading the page over again.
When I was in grade school, in the seventies, there was a presentation about the metric system. I still remember the guy on stilts: the three meter man. After that I quit trying to learn the stupid system, as I call it. Honestly, a system where the ounce weight is equal to the volume ounce of butter? I love butter, but still. How many people know how many feet in a mile? Who cares? It’s a crappy system.
“just put kilometers on all the roadsigns in a different color for a generation, then in another generation remove the mile numbers.”
Canadian here. That’s pretty much what we did, and it has taken about that long to change over. You still see pounds in some odd places like gym weights (probably the American influence).