Grrl Power #725 – Phenomenal cosmic knowledge…
It sucks to think about, but if aliens did come to Earth and went to the governments of Earth first, instead of landing in Times Square and being all “What up?” we might learn about aliens through the filter of government press secretaries. At least until general tourism opened up. But there would be the first few months where no one could be sure if they were getting a straight answer, and in fact, a lot of people would assume the worst.
I think the point is, if aliens came to Earth, invest in Panicky Survivalist Futures. Which I assume is a bundle of stocks that cover guns, forest camo print clothes, bottled water, spam, hand crank radios, and school buses that will be buried and welded together to make a claustrophobic and labyrinthine bunker. Also tampons. I mean, if you were the only guy with tampons after the apocalypse, you’d probably be set.
But before the apocalypse? That guy is just a lunatic with a buried school bus full of tampons.
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Since the possibility of extraterrestrials is now a proven fact, how will “the Veil” effect the residential E.T.s?
They will still probably use the heck out of it to stay hidden. Mankind has ………. issues. Some people will be cool with it, others will go get their guns and try and do stupid things.
“A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals, and you know it!”
K, Men In Black 1…
You might have missed it, but compared to Mankind’s “issues,” much of the rest of the Grrl Power universe is pretty nasty.
We might have some bad people on the local level, but they have some real doozies out there doing some damage…
I’d say it will continue covering them, don’t wanna let ALL the cats on the table. Or is it show all the cards in the bag? Still learning all these Human sayings…
Either way, you don’t want people suddenly learning that neighborhood they moved into was actually a purely Alien community for the 30 years before they got there…
According to Cora and her crew, it’s “don’t wanna let ALL the genitals become unveiled”.
Yeah, you can guess the ballchinians would not want to “take in the chin”, or get into boxing ;p)
Sorry, I didn’t realize that you knew that one and were looking with the human equivalent – stupid me. Either “lay ALL cards on the table” or “let ALL cats out of the sack”, I’d suggest the first one.
If you read bodice ripper romances, you sometimes find the archaic phrase ” No need to be coy after you’ve been flipping your skirt.”
That’s a pretty close equivalent.
GASP and dare show an well turned ankle? Simply scandalous!
You know, they way the men of Arc-swat frequently get their clothes torn off without becoming a bleeding mass of horrible bruises..
Confess Dave B.
We have found you out.
You’re moonlighting as a romance cover artist, aren’t you?
That’s just Super Hiro.
And Achilles. Don’t forget seek the lee of the damage magnet
You mean, “genitalia on the table.”, right?
No, it’s “Park your sphincter on the sofa.”
Rules, there’s always rules….
“Aliens are all about rules.”
Cobra Bubbles, Lilo & Stitch
Yeah this is going to be fun especially once people start to realize that deuce has Tech the Earth shouldn’t have for at least another ten Generations. Halos Tech assuming that stack in that magic hack maybe it’s magic that Halo is using but either way she has something that no one should have well got to say I love Arianna’s confidence. With my notes you should be able to dodge the questions skilfully even of the Smart Ones. Assuming we can keep Halos mouth shut during the Q&A interview.
Well, Sydney keeping her mouth shut isn’t something Sydney is all that good at.
Yes that’s what adds challenge to Arianna’s task. We already know that is Spin Masters go she’s rocking level expert but all that goes out the window when we try to add in Scoville. Sydney is that element of chaos that no amount of planning can cover for.
Add Sydney to any situation and record what happens. I would watch the heck out of that show. “The Scoville Factor”. Bonus points if there is capsaicin involved.
Actually, one can cover it.
1. Figure out what the worst case scenario is, PR wise, for Sydney’s behavior, assuming she’s not going to actually do something horrendously wrong. (That is, she’s going to break your press conference, but she’s not going to kill anybody or demolish any cities.)
2. Come up with a plan that depends on it.
3. Come up with a recovery plan in the unlikely event that doesn’t happen.
Plan to go with the plan from step 3, but be ready to go with the plan from step 2 if feasible.
At this point I’d lock her in a quarantine. Just for people around her to be safe.
We’re not sure Sydney has caught up on her deferred sleep.
She could pass out at any moment now that she’s home.
Easy solution: Get her on some form of assignment elsewhere. Maybe mid-atlantic? Or better: Speed tests on her flight orb, outside of the atmosphere. That ought to both hold her attention, and get her out of range of most pesky reporters. Maybe have her drop a few useful things in orbit. She is a bit of a bus.
actually, there is something she could do that might be fun for a while- what happens to a small object that impinges on her shield at fantastic level energies? there’s a pile of space junk up there that we desperately need to clean up. we might be able to get her to do it for fun for a few hours… and then it can be something Maxima can use to get her to think more than .05 seconds ahead.
This is a pretty fun idea, and would definitely be exciting to watch. Assuming the shield really is nigh-invulnerable (after the Calamarian showdown we know it’s not totally), she should be able to completely obliterate most small debris or at least bounce it into the atmosphere over the Pacific.
Super-accurate targeting by computer would be paramount though, and we don’t know whether an onboard navigation system could tune her position since the orbs are controlled telekineticly. Objects in orbit are going in excess of 7 km/s (~ 16K mph). Assuming she just flew straight up and hovered basically still, she wouldn’t even be able to see objects coming, she’d just get a countdown from mission control and a sudden fireworks display. Actually, she’d have way less than 0.05 seconds to react, let alone think about it – incoming targets would still be 1/3 km away.
Wolfram Alpha provides a useful comparisons for even a tiny target; even a mere 0.25 kg (~0.5 lb) object at those speeds has the momentum of about 250 bullets. Given the sheer quantity of stuff in space, I can’t imagine the effort would be worth the risk of deflecting objects (or any resulting debris) onto new and unpredictable paths.
But I’d still love to watch it happen.
the difficulty there is the nature of destructive testing. underestimate the energies involved and its all “we’re gonna need another sydney!”
while they can probably estimate things based off what maxima was throwing at her in earlier tests, the fact is that the safety margins are just a little off. there is a reason maxima stuck sydney into bombsquad armor and behind a two foot thick slab of reinforced concrete when testing the shield earlier
Setting: International Space Station.
Houston CAPCOM: [You Raise Me Up by Josh Grobin plays ] Good morning and welcome to another new day!
ISS Commander: Good morning to you too.
Houston: This afternoon you will be receiving a payload so will need to free up the EVA airlock.
ISS Commander: I didn’t know about this before. I thought the next resupply launch was not for a another month or so.
Houston: This was approved somewhat at the last minute, well yesterday.
ISS Commander: Wait a minute, you said EVA airlock, not a docking port? What is coming up here anyway?
Houston: One of the Archon people is going to bring up a few cubic meters of air and a replenishment for the medical supplies you guys used last week. She was volunteering to bring up some burritos but that got nixed for some reason.
ISS Commander: How is Maxima going to bring up a few cubic meters of air?
Houston: Actually, it is not her; it’s somebody called “Halo”.
ISS Commander: Halo?! Are you nuts!? Did you not see the press conference last month?
Houston: I have been told that she have improved since then.
ISS Commander: Oh boy. Ok, Houston, we will make appropriate preparations. How long do we expect to keep our visitor?
Houston: She should be gone in just a few minutes.
Halo: This is Archon 4 to the ISS. Approaching you at (pulls out a law-enforcement laser speed gun in right hand; force field orb is duct taped to her left hand) 38 miles/hour at a distance of (checks display) 7.2 miles. (Releases the laser gun and picks up the flight orb.)
ISS Commander: Reduce relative speed to 5 m/s. That’s about 11 miles/hour.
Halo: Got it.
ISS Commander: And quit whistling the Blue Danube!
Halo: You’re right. I am nowhere close enough yet.
ISS Commander: Don’t even do it then.
Actually a pretty viable idea, if she can learn to control the throttle on her new speed upgrade and reach orbital speed. Float into an airlock with her own air, close the door and let the station equalize the pressure in the remaining space, drop the shield. Easy-peasy, although I imagine even an expedited docking/undocking protocol would take at least 5-10 minutes.
Not sure how ISS handles airlock (de)pressurization for EVAs actually, but she could even bring a tank of compressed air to replace any lost during her entrance/exit.
She has the air orb. no need to bring tanks.
Also probably no need to equalize pressure. I’m assuming the air orb also has the side effect of countering depressurization, after what we saw in the pool.
As a certified diver, I must insist on equalizing pressure. Yes, she can add some gas with the airb after she drops the shield, but even if Mr Bubble filled 50% the bay, the remainder would be hard vacuum. An instant drop of 1/2 atm would blow her eardrums and quite possibly give her the bends.*
Adding more air before dropping the shield to reach a normal final atmosphere would just make it worse.
* More extreme examples of uncontrolled decompression get really, really messy. Link is to safe Wikipedia overview, but some of the linked articles are not for the squeamish.
It’s a life support orb. I’m going to make the flying leap that it takes that into account to… yknow… support life.
Also, she doesn’t need to add gas after she drops the shield. She can do it before she drops the shield too.
She didn’t even know it was doing anything, if it even was, until she used it while underwater. Both she and the ‘air orb’ need a lot more testing before it should be allowed to do anything with the risk factor of introducing an unknown amount of an unknown mixture of gasses into the ISS.
Or, you know, use the green ball…..
Awwwwwwww, the aliens have a sort of technology prime directive! Curses!
They won’t say how FTL works but now we know it’s posible.
Earth might develop an FTL that doesn’t need Dilithium.
We already have FTL thanks to Deus. Stargates are an FTL workaround :)
God bless that brilliant man.
Sydney is also FTL capable, at least to any destination on the Atherium Gateway’s history tab.
Yes, but we can’t have other worlds knowing about how she’s FTL capable, since it could start interstellar wars if it’s found that she might possess Nth level tech. Deus can more easily hide the source of his Skyripper-fueled wormhole tech. And he’ll probably eventually be able to backwards generate it, or use some of that tech he just bought to create it with non-skyripper means.
Not to mention he can always say he got the idea for his FTL tech from the Alari refugees that Galytin helped while their ship was being repaired.
You think we deserve their tech when we haven’t properly used our own?
This year will mark the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. 50 years! In 50 years we could have built cities on the moon. We could have put men on Mars. Instead, America is reduced to hitching rides from the Russians to get into space…
‘Cept America is where the first commercial spaceflight is being developed, where the systems that will be used for probably all future ISS resupply missions are being developed and based, home to at LEAST 3 Spaceflight startups that have transatmospheric capability…
the stumbling block for a mars trip isn’t the drive systems, it is the life support. on a trip that will last 2+ years (one year each way, and anywhere between a week and a year at mars) you need systems that aren’t going to fail, and which provide high supply for minimal mass. the canned air and basic converters used in the moon program and on the ISS won’t cut it.
The reason we haven’t done anything interesting with the moon since the end of the Apollo program is because there’s nothing economically viable to do there at the moment. The cost of transportation is immense and the resources available there are available much cheaper on Earth, and we don’t have any pressing need to put a permanent population there.
The race to the moon was powered by an international d*ck-measuring contest, not economics. That’s why we haven’t gone back.
One word: Helium-3
Just like you don’t go to the moon for non-economic reasons absent a rival for dick-measuring, you also don’t go to the moon because it might be a good source of a substance needed for an untested technology which doesn’t even exist to utilize the substance yet. You’re just stacking the impractical upon the impractical, with a good helping on unknown in the mix as well.
Well another reason to go to the moon would be in the manufacture and or generation of items/power from technology that is a wee bit too dangerous to manufacture here.
Eg nuclear power plants generating power and beaming it to earth. Or just to use it for said manufacturing.
We always hear about NIMBY (not in my backyard)
There’s no shortage of places with insufficient regulations on Earth to do those things more economically here. There’s also nothing at present that would warrant that level of expense to create even if there were actually sufficient regulations that prevented them from making it here. Sending stuff to space is insanely expensive with our current technology, and reaching escape velocity with that stuff even moreso.
A power station on the moon that beamed that power to earth would be a weapon. Aim that beam at the wrong place and things would burn.
There’s also the fact the moon is going the wrong speed for that application. The moon orbits the planet much slower than the planet rotates. Earth spins under the moon something like 27 times every 28 days. If you didn’t have the weapon problem, you’d want to build your power plants in synchronous orbit. That’s cheaper to get to, and gives you the ‘stays over the same spot all the time’ advantage, so you don’t need to build your power receiver on a track that goes all the way around the planet.
Some things are more important than economics.
Cities on the moon are still more than 50 years off. There are NUMEROUS technical problems with that idea that have little or nothing to do with getting there, but even just getting there is horrendously expensive. Far too expensive for regular resupply runs, so all food will hove to be grown locally. Plus better radiation shields than we currently have, because otherwise everyone would be dead from cancer in under two years. Plus we don’t have any clue what long term exposure to low gravity does to the human body. Plus air (remember, too expensive for resupply runs). Plus some sort of meteor defense or the first rock that would have burned up in Earth’s atmosphere to come along will smash you gazillion dollar moon base. Which, of course, requires the nullification of parts of the Outer Space Treaty.
In short, there are far more reasons not to have people living on the moon than there are to build a colony there.
Frame 4 – what up?!?
You mean the armed guards? Possibly just some manequins to fool you.
Either posters or actual guards through a bullet proof screen with shooting slits.
Not sure which though.
Considering panel six has the ‘guards’ in the exact same position, butt looking back towards the entrance, posters is a good bet
Maybe a SPACESHIP just landed in the parking lot and the base is on full alert.
Guard posts. Fun fact some of the larger us banks in the late 20s to early 40s were built with armored boxes that held armed guards who on theory could look down on ustomers in the lobby and fire through the gun slits. You can thank people like Machine gun Kelly for inspiring that design.
Also your forgetting. Archon is literaly a military airbase sitting inside an a semi archeology.
So yes, the guards are armed.
Also see https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-75-at-least-sell-arcnuggets/
Wonder how often that “occasional strip-o-gram” occurs. And how much they charge ;P
First thing I thought of when I read that was are you stripping for me or are you stripping me down? Either way is bound to be an experience.
I’m guessing it’s your classic alien probe.
Well we don’t know how popular xenostrippers (yes I like inventing new words) are but Cora’s crew certainly have a exotic and beefy product.
I can see a calendar and some Center folds in there near future.
How much for an interstellar strip-o-gram?
Playing Diplomat 101; don’t mention being a strip-o-gram as well. Apparently you loose credibility doing that. Might make some…Beings interested tho…
Is Cora available?
Strippers may be highly respected as entertainers and sexual therapists in a technologically advanced society.
All arts and entertainment will be high employment areas. Technical jobs will likely be few and very highly skilled. Anyone not in the top ten percent of education and skill in that area will likely at most just do there own repairs if they can.
Hand crafted high end items will likely be a high value art form for example furniture.
Security check girl looks like the ticket booth girl at the movie theater.
“That’ll be three for, ‘They Come in Peace’, please.”
I think she looks like “That could be a surprise for my cousin’s birthday next week”.
Actually a local police Kobon used to prank there new recruits by warning them about me, you see Im MS Lutheran, and at the time I was also a Log Cabin Republican. they would explain this as me being some kind of extreme Moral Majority religious idiot. (Log cabin being interpreted as a Old school traditional conservative republican.
one of their patrol officers at the time was m-FM Transgender. now shes Fm.
the look on the checkpoints supervisors face reminds me of the first time I met her and asked if she could recommend a shop where my girlfriend at that the time could go shopping for womens clothes because she was also born male, and would not have a problem with that.
Photo ID, please.
Their outfits don’t exactly leave much space to carry personal items.
(With the exception of Frix, who needs to carry tools)
I can imagine some race comes to Earth and are amazed that we have invented clothing that allows us to take things with us without having to carry them in our hands. In Third Rock From the Sun the team rated among the most astounding achievements of human technology the pop-up Kleenex dispenser.
“You don’t seem to be on the list, you’re not getting in without valid passes or character witness of at least 3 high-ranking members of ARC… Dabbler doesn’t count.”
Plus one parking validation ticket
You are indeed getting better at drawing butts, Dave. Rawr.
Some time ago there was an inquiry to the German government what they would do in case of an alien contact.
It was ridiculed by the press as wasting the time of government and all that, but there was more to it.
Question and answer were both several pages long. But the answer boils down to “We would hand it off to the scientific community. They are better equipped to handle these things than the government.”
The inquiring party commented that it was good to see no plans of any deception or secrecy in place.
I have no links at hand, but it was a public inquiry. Should be easy enough to find for anyone interested.
If you’re the only guy with menstrual products you can establish your harem come the apocalypse
…perhaps, but given the timing involved, I doubt that harem would exactly make you the envy of the common man
A valuable resource that attracts a harem will either result in a select few knowing and staying with you or you being in danger due to everyone wanting it.
Clothes and shoes might be better for bartering especially if families still exist with growing offspring.
Low cost, high value, nonperishable items list for the apocalypse would include tampons, toilet paper, clothing in many sizes including socks and shoes, combs and brushes for hair, toothbrushes, inner-tube patches, home made stills for drink and fuel, heavy blankets, cast iron pots and pans, solar panels, led lights, survival books, among hundreds of other things that someone would trade for. To many what you can not do without they have to have at any cost. If you buy shipping containers and bury as many as you need and build up the stock of consumables and have a fair amount of everything else you will get many people wanting to be with you. But as a paranoid person you will be as suspicious of the nice and friendly women as the aggressive and hostile people. The one with wealth of items is disposable in the eyes of those who want those items without giving anything for them. The best way to exist is to establish yourself far from anyone else and travel with samples to get the attention of people you want to join you. If you want a harem you have to make it worth it for them to be happy and stay loyal.
Congratulations. You have established a depot from which armed forces will forage.
I also like sticky fire trap bombs over alarms, dead falls with sharpened stakes, high power UV lasers that blind permanently in moments, as well as the fun and always surprising false catches with broken but good looking items. Poison food, clothing laced with highly reactive chemicals, and the best is pressurized containers with ricin powder bombs with barbed flechette rounds to say hello with. In otherwords I would rather die than let anyone take anything away from me but I will do my absolute damnedest to take out as many of them first no matter what. And of course I never tell where, and what all else I would be doing.
Well that could’ve gone better.
It also could’ve gone far, far worse.
There’s stories going round now where humans don’t want Alien refugees & immigrants coming to Earth, Dan Abnett’s Grey Area comes to mind, even though they can’t exactly stop it from happening.
Ariana’s hair is reflecting as a mustache on the glass in in front of that soldier’s face.
Male or female, that would be a GLORIOUS mustache.
Heh :) nice way to present thievery and bounty hunting from frix ;)
Wealth redistribution spécialists and freelance law enforcement ^^
Beats ‘murderhobos,’ which while usually accurate is still somewhat slanted and unkind. Adventuring is a complicated business.
It Does sound better than: Space Pirates.
“Wealth redistribution specialists”… I’m not sure the U.S. government would appreciate the competition in that field. ;-)
Not just the US Government, but ALL Governments…
Invest in toilet roll futures. You wouldn’t believe how many rolls you would need to fill your underground bunker with. Additionally shipping containers are cheaper and easier to deal with than school busses when burying underground.
School busses can be driven to your videout, and if you dug proper ramps, also parked directly where you want it. You only need a digger, not a trailer, a crane and the digger.
They also tend to be more heavily reinforced, in case of a rollover, something that could prove useful if you’re expecting large scale energy discharges nearby.
o Engines are expensive. And each buss has an engine. For the money you save on a shipping container where the engine needed to get it there is only rented you can probably buy a couple more shipping containers.
o Buses waste space in the undercarriage, while you can utilize 100% of the space inside a shipping container.
o Buses have at the very least a glass windshield and very probably several windows along each side. These are far more fragile than the walls of a shipping container and will require special care to bury without breaking them.
On the plus side, the sole plus side I believe, with a bus you have an engine which could have a lot of utility as long as you can find the fuel for it. You’d need to at least partially excavate your ‘bunker,’ destroying much of the purpose in burying it in the first place, but it is an option. However with a shipping container you could just park an engine in it and a decent amount of fuel as well. Probably taking up the same amount of space the bus loses to its undercarriage. And your bunker of 5 shipping containers only needs one engine, not the 3 you’d have with 3 buses.
Another point I forgot to mention is shipping containers are really durable. Given that some fall off container ships a lot have been found by salvagers even years later with them still intact at the bottom of the ocean, washed up on beaches etc. They have to be robust given they are picked up and carted around the world. Additionally because they all have a universal size, they all will fit together well and can be brought for between 500 and 1500 dollars.
WHat did people do before such things as tampons and toilet paper we invented? Investing in those would be a waste of time. They are a convenience, not required. Before tampons there was Fleming moss, cloth, and other things women did. Same for toilet paper. SO why waste space in your stores for excessive amounts. Use it for things needed to stay alive I would think.
Dried moss, sponges, rags…
Spoken by a man, tampons are not luxuries.
Now they are not. But before them? Once they are gone you go back to the old ways. Not saying not to store any just keep your priorities right for long term survival. If you are married that means they are needed for your long term survival. As for toilet paper why do you think Bedouins consider the left hand unclean?
You need good hygiene in your survival bunker at least as much as food, water, and medication if you don’t want to die of infections or illness (e.g. UTIs leading to kidney infection, sepsis, and eventually organ failure). Going back to primitive hygiene methods also means primitive health and mortality rates.
I think a bidet would be the only practical way to go in a survival shelter, assuming you already have the plumbing for a toilet and treatment – disposable paper products do take up tons of space. Feminine hygiene products would still be critical to long-term health though, with or without multi-generational scenarios, and as such are well worth the space required.
I would probably go with menstruation cups rather than tampons as well. Reusability sure beats finite!
This one gets it. It’s not about use-vs-non-use, it’s about consumability vs. reusability. Rags are re-usable, tissue paper is not (unless you have a rather sizeable, energy-intensive recycling and waste-processing system in your bunker). Leaves and moss are renewable, water can be relatively easily cleaned… Plastic and cloth sponges rather less-so.
When building an Apocalypse Bunker it’s best to think more like “Generation Ship” and less like “Weekend Retreat”. Odds are you’re gonna be using that bunker for decades, even after you’ve opened it up again.
Just because you’re out of tampons doesn’t mean that you forget everything you’ve ever learned about germ theory! Just digging a proper latrine away from your water supply and boiling all medical instruments would allow any fallen-from-technology culture, or one without access to tampons and toilet paper, perfectly capable of cutting disease and infant mortality by a very significant amount from what the ignorant cultures of our past endured because they simply had no idea what was causing all the deaths.
Same product, different name!
If you had a loyal clan, seize and hold the nearest Costco/Sam’s Club/equivalent.
Cue Dues “Discovering” FTL.
Wouldn’t surprise me if he purchased a complete “My first FTL” kit, plus a copy of “FTL for dummies” at the Hub. Having the Alari ship in dock in a country he “helps” doesn’t hurt either.
Law enforcement on his planet is capable of casually opening Aetherium Gateways via hand-held devices.
He wishes to study your quaint and primitive “FTL drives” purely for purposes of historical curiosity.
If the aliens get here first, they will probably go to the most powerful person on earth first. See https://www.amazon.com/Xenotech-First-Contact-Day-Association-ebook/dp/B01ICO6PRM/ref=sr_1_12?crid=N8QI5L6RAB41&keywords=dave+schroeder&qid=1554721253&s=gateway&sprefix=dave+schroder%2Caps%2C162&sr=8-12 (I am not advertising this; I have read it and find it a short and enjoyable read, and think it a good fit with most of the people who follow Sydney’s exploits)
Oprah?
Thanks so much for the recommendation!
— Dave Schroeder, author of the Xenotech Support series
“Wealth redistribution specialists”? Is that the Robin Woof style?
One of the things that really gets me in this is the last panel. If they can read English I’m going to have some serious questions on how invasive translation tech is. I’ll give them the oral portion of that since one could chock that up to a glorified ear piece, but the visual and then comprehension aspect of a written language that could possibly have different dialects is a bit more reaching.
Nah, we have the ability to rapidly translate text even today. You probably have a device capable of such a feat in your pocket. Google translate plus a simple augmented reality eye piece would do the job just fine. The alien tech is probably just a contact lens. Just wirelessly pair it to a nearby computer for all the heavy lifting and you’re all set.
Given we have the tech with brain scans to view through a persons eyes or hear with their ears, couple that with translation tech and feed the new version back. (We can’t do the last part yet) We could easily produce a flickering image of the real view and the augmented translated version. The requirement to receive before the translation can happen would cause the flickering otherwise you would get feedback with the translator receiving what it’s sending. We are very close to this being possible.
Expect weird tech hats in the future.
IN a tech article and kickstarter, I saw a headset designed for real-time audio translations. Was designed to help when speaking to people when you don’t know thier language. On the surface it basically looks lie a large bluetooth headset. But inside, its packs with features you don’t find in your average headset, and costs like 200 I think. Think it used a connected smartphone for the heavy lifting with its own app, and could do like 2-4 language sonboard, connected to the internet and its capabilities are expanded.
That can be done now with any set of google assistant enabled set of Bluetooth headphones or earbuds. It’s pretty cool, actually.
As far as we know they spent half a year on Earth doing some annonymous sex.
Arianna is going to have a huge job on her hands preparing notes on Cora and crew….!
she has a staff. some of which are underpaid interns begging mom and dad for bill money every month.
I noted that Arianna seemed pretty unphased by all this. Not only did she know they were coming, she’s worked with Dabbler and presumably is in the know about the Twilight Council, and thus at a clearance level to know about the Earth’s actual level of alien interaction.
All in all, this seems like just another day at the office for her.
Was hoping for a Dark Destroyer clip (he’s the bald guy from the real “The Chase” show) :(
One minor nit to pick… the soldier on security desk detail… US chevrons are point up; hers are point down in the English/Commonwealth style.
She is probably on an exchange tour of duty from 1 RAR.
(snerk) you forget the marines and navy ratings. Don’t get me started on the wonky stuff airfarce rank gets up to. p.s. yer old If you work on the 106.
Truth! 49th Fighter Interceptor Squadron (FIS) Griffiss AFB 1980-83, Comm Nav shop. The best preserved Dart is in the Air Force Museum at Dayton OH. Most of the F-106’s were turned in to target drones in the 90’s. Sadly the majority of them are in blowed up pieces in the Gulf of Mexico.
teeeechnically, USAF has their chevrons pointing down, simulating wings. Archon is a specialized branch of the military, and may have opted for a more discernible Chevron to distinguish itself from the other branches. Or it may have been artist error xD
Well, firstly, British rank insignia was moved from the collar to the epaulettes in 1880, so it’s unlikely that any English/Commonwealth uniform would have it.
Secondly, no British other ranks has ever worn collar/epaulette insignia, except Warrant Officers, whose insignia is an embellished crown and not chevrons.
And thirdly, there are many countries outside of the Commonwealth who have downward-pointing chevrons on their NCO insignia.
So how long before we get told how long Sydney was away for from an earth perspective? And what has Archon/Max been telling her parents? I foresee another “I have to make a call!” moment. :-)
Second panel: FINALLY!
The thing about buried school buses is great. I read that click bait about that nut just three days ago !!!
Question is, is she really home or not? Remember Harem’s comment about ‘too many of her’. Is this actually a parallel dimension or her original one? As is, from what we’ve seen of the Archeon crew, they seem to be a bit—crankier than usual if not outside of possible behavior. When has Arianna publicly said anything bad about the press, for example? Have a slightly bad feeling about the ‘welcome home’ party. :)
Aha….the entry way is NEARLY identical to Halo’s first visit (including the stances of the 2 guards up top) BUT the star is rotated slightly between the two strips. Here’s the old strip for reference: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-75-at-least-sell-arcnuggets/
Don’t think we’re in Kansas, people. ;)
Interesting. The star has gone from five pointed, point up, to six pointed, on vertical orientation.
The 5 point star that is so prevalent in U.S. patriotic imagery has been replaced with the 6 point Star of David? Sydney has accidently slipped into the Kosherverse.
No, i don’t think this is another universe. the “too many Harems” can also be explained by time travel. If you went into the future (or past) and back to when you came from, for that period in the future(or past) there would be 2 of you.
It’ looks like the “unstable” portal was linked to not only a different point in space but also time. but was in temporal sync with both points. So that if the portal opened at 19:00 on Friday at point A and 12:00 20 days later at point B, 10 minutes after it opened, as experienced on side A it would be 19:00 on side A and 12:10 on side B. So, everyone traveled forward X amount of time. and everyone but Sydney traveled back in time the same amount.
it even works if the 2 ends were slightly out of sync. as in 10 minutes on side A is 20 on side B, since we don’t know how long Achilles was debating weather or not to follow.
Regarding the new star.
This new orientation can be seen as early as page 307(on Harem’s shoulder patch), way before the portal trip. Like the next day after the installation they’re already rocking new patches. lol
And yes, in the bank, max’s shoulder patches are 5 pointed.
It seems as though Dave decided to go with a more symmetrical star halfway through.
The original star i half blue and half gold, with a gold pentagon in the middle. So it looks like it’s 2/3rds gold. The new design has 2 “triangles” blue under gold with a blue hexagon in the middle surrounded by gold on 3 sides. just looks more symmetrical IMO, cleaner too. I’m guessing this is why Dave switched.
Or each point of the star represents a branch of Archon, and after Archon went public something new was added. Maybe we will see Archon mechs, or maybe there has been an inventor skill super working on (as yet unrevealed) FTL ships for some time.
I suppose this could have happened. But it’s not that likely that all uniforms (including peggy’s) would be modified in less than 24 hours(press conference in the evening, first view of new patch at noon the next day.) In fact that afternoon, (less than 24 hours before new patch design) we see them installing the old symbol on the Archon building.
and yes, i’m aware that Peggy is wearing a whole different uniform the next day, but if the AFDs were in production with the new patch design, (that must have been in production the day before at least) why wer they just then installing the old symbol on the side of the building, if it was what you’re saying they would have been changing the star to the new one that day more than likely, not putting up the old design.
It’s just too much of a change, in too short a time frame to be logistically feasible(not impossible even without superpowers, but not even remotely easy to do, even with them)
If it was an abrupt change, you’d see old and new side by side for a short while. yet everything changed overnight.
How do we know they weren’t taking off the five-pointer? o_O
It’s there in the press conference(#144) which happens presumably a couple hours after the scene where we see them putting it on.(chapter 2, 74.5?)
I recall DaveB mentioning at one point, although I can’t remember when that was, that he preferred the six-point star over the five-point, and that he’d have to go back and edit the previous strips to change it. Evidently that opportunity hasn’t arisen, in the years since!
more likely time travel then denominational jump in my view.
A first contact book I liked a lot was First Contract by Greg Costikyan. The aliens show up and treat Earth as a backwater where the native humans are easily fooled and exploited for raw materials, starting with buying the rights to stripmine the solar system from the U.N. Then there’s the alien tech they dump on Earth for a quick profit, like dirt-cheap flying cars, that instantly devalues Earth manufacturing… causing a worldwide economic crash and 50% unemployment. Fortunately there’s a down-and-out businessman with an idea for a cheap plastic thingie to manufacture and sell to the galactic market – a drinks bulb that will stick to the wall in zero-G! Now all he needs is capital, in a currency the aliens will recognize, and a contract for future delivery. If only he could get to the alien trade show, but first there’s the minor problem of raising the equivalent of millions of dollars for the booth fee, travel expenses and breathable atmosphere. Complications follow, of course. I found it very funny in a tables-are-turned kind of a way. The economics and business talk are done with a light touch and it’s full of irony.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/842493.First_Contract
I always liked “Pandora’s Planet” – A lionlike alien race conquers Earth, only to discover that humans are about 10 times smarter than they are (Their civilization is much MUCH older than Earth’s, and they won only due to their tech advantage, and then only barely) Afraid that humans would eventually take over their empire if let loose without controls, they slice off a small section of their Empire (about 1/10th the size of the real one) and let the humans emigrate at will, hoping that they will assimilate into their culture without too much trouble.
The humans, of course, form factions within the alien empire, some good, some..shall we say…not so good. The good factions help the aliens defeat the bad ones, and a delegation of humans, feeling pretty cocky and impressed with themselves for saving the aliens’ empire, are brought to a meeting, and told about the plan the aliens had used to weed out the bad parts of human culture while promoting the good parts, and finally, that they’ve found an alien race that is as much more intelligent than humans as humans are more intelligent than they are, and the aliens ask “OK, we know you’re smarter than us, and our plan barely worked on humans. What do YOU suggest we do with these guys?”
Elfguy – You just published a spoiler on the punch line of the entire satirical novel. Not cool. (I loved the book, though, and I’m glad that you didn’t outline any of the other hilarious parts, or the mystery of the alien vampire/zombie/whatevertheywerecalleds.)
Ironically, I was thinking of this book as I read this page.
Corsairs, freebooters, pirates, space highwaymen … what’s in a name? However Cora and crew make a living, it must be lucrative since I’d imagine the maintenance costs on that flying skyscraper of theirs must be astronomical (pun intended).
Used shipping containers would be a better solution that buses. They’re larger, much more sturdy, are designed to stack together, have no glass to break and are already used to make houses, apartments, and even hospitals in some countries.
Not really a good idea. It’s been tried and there are problems; https://graywolfsurvival.com/2625/why-you-shouldnt-bury-a-shipping-container-for-a-shtf-bunker/
So, is Security Check Girl a super? Some sort of enhanced perception would probably be handy.
The book I’d recommend for first contact fun is “Calculating God,” by Robert J Sawyer. The first alien to appear looks like a giant spider, she lands in Canada, and her request is “take me to see a paleontologist.” The protagonist (a paleontologist suffering from cancer and working at a museum) is rather nonplussed to be confronted by this alien – who informs him that she’s part of an interspecies joint venture to… find G-d. As in, calculate the location of the Creator of the universe (or at least a suitable communication point) and ask some questions.
This leads to the first humorous scene, where two Men in Black show up and firmly instruct the alien to come with them. Her response: “No.” They insist. Her response: “You literally cannot make me go anywhere. I’m a holographic projection.”
They stare at her for a bit, then they begin to pout. “…This isn’t how it’s supposed to work. You’re supposed to WANT to come with us. You’re supposed to want to meet our leader.”
“I don’t. I want to speak with this person.”
(meanwhile other people around the world are befriending other members of the expedition. Including a silverback gorilla, whom one of the aliens – of a different species than the giant spider lady – is able to have some scintillating conversations with, apparently)
Sounds good. Does it touch the comedy genre? Satire?
When it comes to first contacts with drama, I would recommend Solaris. Written by Stanislaw Lem. Awesome piece of sience fiction.
And from a more scientific point of view, I would recommed Master´s Voice. Written by the same author than Solaris.
And now I’m picturing Frix wearing the outfit from Blazing Saddles saying “Stripogram! Stripogram for Halo!Stripogram for Halo!”
“Halo like furries”
I’m not sure if you can call it stripping when the person doing it is covered with fur.
In the Two Kinds comic, one of the furry races doesn’t care much about clothing or not, but consider it scandalous if one of their kind is seen in public with bare feet. It is all pretty much cultural.
“I’m not sure if you can call it stripping when the person doing it is covered with fur.”
The average human has just as much hair, it’s just much finer.
The Basitin.
King Adelaide…le sigh…
So, the white guy asks about sexiness and the black guy asks the competent questions. Was that a jab at american presidents? :-)
Also, do they really have to keep the answers to all of these questions a secret? I thought FTL was only about technology. I don’t see why the questions couldn’t be answered e.g. like this:
Very many, but concentration is low, because space is big.
Define intelligent and then ask Halo how she made spaceships crash.
Our racial traits are a secret, but I can give you the names for what it’s worth.
We have translation devices.
Literally every non-regenerative resource earth has can easily be gathered from uninhabited planets. So the answer is: No, unless you keep up the pollution.
No trade with pre-FTL races. We can trade massages though.
Races have their own ambassadors, but you’re not eligible to meet them yet.
One word: Obamacare
Sydney has already traded massages with Frix.
No compressed air tank needed. She has the life support orb.
Actually there would be circumstances where it was very helpful, simply because Sydney can only use any two orbs at one time. So if she is rescuing a hostage (held by the tentacle) and wishes to keep her shield up, then Halo has no hand spare to hold the life support orb.
Similarly if flying in a corrosive atmosphere (or any other dangerous situation), Sydney would need to keep both the fly ball and shield orb activated throughout the journey. Sometimes she may be able to go into a parabolic flight, in order to swap out the fly ball long enough to refresh the air. But not if travelling in tunnels, or somewhere that has a low flight ceiling or if she is too close to the ground to perform such a maneuver.
Finally Sydney might suffer from frostbite or some other injury to one or both hands. In which case she would have access to just one orb (or none in the latter example), thus making the compressed air tank even more vital!
In the next press conference the Earth will receive a cease and desist order for the use of the phrase “Miss Universe Pageant” from the corporation holding a contest that actually lives up to the name.
Yeah, just like the ‘World Series’ in baseball doesn’t even include Canada…
Well, the original sponsor of the trophy was a newspaper called the New York World Telegram.
That was the point
Heh.
Likewise for “Universal Pictures”.
However I bet it turns out that “Mars Bars” are actually manufactured on Mars, under a galactic region of origin trademark.
The man in the second panel is asking intelligent but rather open-ended questions and he’s asking them all at once, so that anybody could simply pick one question, answer that and ignore the rest (not a smart way to conduct an interview). Question #1: is he asking how many alien races are in the universe or how many are on Earth? They couldn’t be expected to know how many are in the universe and, if they’re not ambassadors, how would they know how many aliens are currently on this planet? It wouldn’t be their job to know that, would it? Question #2 is a decidedly loaded query. How do humans measure intelligence? What if aliens use a different yardstick? As to what races these three are, what difference would the answer make? Even if they told this guy, what possible interpretation would he make of it? If someone told me they spoke Farsi and then rattled off something in that tongue, I’d have no clue as to what they said or its intention. Question #4 is easily answered. Question #5 is ridiculous. If aliens already exist on the planet, is that an invasion or merely settlement? If Earth is going to be invaded, WHY WOULD THEY TELL THIS GUY? Who would ever announce such a plan in advance except some cartoon villain? As for trade, that would be something discussed between relevant governments. If this man isn’t a government official, why would they tell him? As for the last question, ho boy. Does Earth have a single ambassador? Of course not. So why would any alien civilization have merely one?
Mmm, maybe it is considered polite to only allow the owners of a planet to speak to their pets living on it? So whilst many embassies might deal with the white mice, only they would choose whether to open an embassy with the humans. And then only if they consider that it will not interfere with their experiments on or involving humans.
Intelligent Questions reporter might now be my favorite character in the comic.
You … prefer him to … GASP! … Suzie News?
*cries*
Heck, even more than Pinkie
Yes. I prefer him to Suzie News, because Suzie News couldn’t even get her name right :)
Now don’t get me wrong, I like Suzie News too, for her fangirling, but I like Intelligent Questions reporter because he actually asks intelligent questions, which is a rarity among many reporters.
It’s only possible at all because this is fiction.
Next installment:
“A day in the life of Corporal … Trada”
also known as:
“You’ll never believe what I saw at work today!”
She either just discovered a new fetish, or a new face for a current one :D
Either way, her bed is going to get wet tonight ;)
The name tag might read “ESTRADA”. I’m wondering if she is the same security guard as the one on Page #75. Hard to tell with the evolution of DaveB’s art style, but it looks like she could possibly be the same person.
I wonder if she is a super herself. Might be a good post to assign to a low power telepath or empath. Someone not powerful enough to be of much use against the worst super powered threats, but good at picking up on people who aren’t honest about who they are or what their intentions might be. She might be eyeballing Frix so intently because she is already aware that Frix and Sydney got intimate.
We’ve never seen her outside that booth. She might be mechanical.
Yes, same guard
In fact, she has never left that booth ever, not even when issued with the new Archon uniform (Math was restricted to the upper floors that day :P)
Yorp, it’s actually either Strada or Estrada, not Trada. You can see part of the S that’s being otherwise blocked by the speaker circle embedded in the plexiglass. So it might be Strada, but is more likely Estrada since that’s a much more common last name.
Maybe her uncle is a former CHiP :P (just… go with it)
I’d be fine with anything that involves more Erik Estrada. Or Bruce Campbell. Either of those guys, really.
Yups! Pity they never teamed up together :(
The “…” was a placeholder used to represent the missing characters. I considered capitalising the whole name, but that has the negative internet connotation of ‘shouting’. So just went with capitalising the first letter, as it looked odd (being a name, albeit probably only partial) when I tried it all lower case.
And it may be Tradia (e.g. S.Tradia or E.S.Tradia), so I was happy using that until we know for sure.
Would have worked betterer if you left the ‘t’ lower case :)
Is it just me or did Frix grow up? Way up.
Nah, he’s been that tall consistently. And still not nearly as tall as Altus, who seems to be taller than him even when he’s at 5 steps down (with one of his feet) and leaning a bit to the left, and Frix is at the top of the stairs. Altus is frickin’ huge.