Grrl Power #754 – And your race smells of elderberries
Cora is definitely not a diplomat. There are better ways of telling a world that no one is coming for them because their toys all suck, but I guess she’s just getting straight to the point.
I’ve talked about some of the stuff they’re touching on in this press conference in my comments for the comics where Sydney was visiting fracture station, but I thought I should formally introduce this stuff to the in-comic world. I mean, the actual discovery of life besides ours. And not just a fossil of bacteria on Mars or living plankton on Titan or something. Actual civilizations with technology beyond ours. It would change the world utterly. It would be the only thing on the news and late night talk shows and morning news programs for months and months. Some religions would just implode, some would be like “oh yeah, God made them too.” I can’t even imagine how hard the Fox fear mongering machine would ramp up. I tell you what, though, I’d buy stock in any publicly traded company that sold guns, that’s for sure. There would be people so afraid of what they think is about to happen (i.e. the plot of every alien invasion movie ever) violence and suicide rates would go up measurably.
For everyone who didn’t lose their minds though, seeing a hot blue, essentially human looking woman saying “No worries, mate,” I think would allay a lot of fears. Obviously some people will think Cora’s lying so we don’t prepare for invasion, but there’s nothing you can do about people like that. Other people might be thinking “So do you have a sister?” In any case, it would be an interesting time to live.
Actually, this event would be so historic I doubt it’d be at the foot of the Archon building. You can’t tell on this page, but that’s where they are. Really, it’d pretty much have to be at the White House, or better yet, in front of or inside the UN building. But this is technically an informal press conference and as it’s been said, Cora’s not a diplomat. She’s probably not even going to meet and greet with anyone politically important while she’s on Earth.
When I looked up references for the LMG sitting there on the table (that one is an M240 I think) I was disappointed to see that most LMGs are just ugly. I guess I was hoping for something slick looking, like a buff-ass Styer AUG, or an IWI Tavor x95. But no, the ones the US used all look like something the A-Team built out of scrap parts found in a barn. They’re probably made like that because you have to strip them down further to really clean them considering how much more ammo they can run through than an assault rifle, but still.
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Medieval europeans had no idea what a vacuum was. They did not know air was particulate matter. In fact, they had no concept of what matter was. The fledgeling atomic theory that a few Greek philosphers had come up with was lost with the library of Alexandria.
They couldn’t begin to grasp the concept of harnessing lightning, and would have died in the attempt, landing you on a pire along with the other heretics they could round up.
Glass was known but transparent glass, not so much.
Static electricity is not going to help you any with creating a functioning lightbulb. For that you need a generator and copper created at an industrial scale. And at least a steam turbine
And it is not just any wire that will do either. It needs to be far finer than medieval europe has the technology to produce and of a metal that they do not even know exists (not that they understand the concept of metals all that well, mind)
My argument, however, was that just knowing something is possible is not going to help us reverse engineer anything in the timeframe of a human life. Your counter example already requires the person knowing the higher technology actively trying to uplift the medieval european. That european is not going to be able to create a working lightbulb just after seeing one miraculously emit light. At least not within a couple of centuries They have to work through all the scientific and technological intermediate stages.
Point in case. Aliens in the andromeda galaxy have in fact created a FTL propulsion. How long before we have our own?
Your are right, simply knowing something is possible is not going to help you reverse engineer anything.
Having the scientific method, the accumulated knowledge in how to operate it, and what we could devise through it, no one hindering your research, billions in funding, literally millions of people able to help in this enterprise, might make the thing a bit more plausible.
I mean, I’m not sure who you are answering to, but medieval europe (or in fact any ancient society, including the more… Let’s say free and sophisticated ones, like ancient greece, rome, egypt, things like that) is so dissimilar to us in any way regarding science (not even talking about its advancement) that any comparison trying to equate the too would probably fail.
For example, although I agree that a medieval european would likely not be able to replicate, or even come close to replicate, a lightbub even if he saw one in action (and could accept the idea that it’s not magic, which is already quite the headstart for someone of its time), a society with no repressive institution like the inquisition or the church (or a monarch) could probably make huge advances in its knowledge and toward the creation of a lightbulb if it knew such a thing was possible and if it had as much people, institutions and capital dedicated to science and engineering as we do.
That’s even truer if you consider that, apparently (at least for the moment) scientific knowledge is gained exponentially, which would mean it’s easier to bridge a gap going forward since you’ll make far bigger leaps in this direction than a medieval society could’ve ever hoped to achieve, even if it had the right philosophical and institutional tools.
Re: Nathan
I was trying to reply to a discussion on page 2 of the comments, where somebody brought up the notion that seeing Cora’s ship would mean humanity would develop FTL technology in a generation.
Obviously I think otherwise :)
Thanks, I don’t know why I couldn’t find this damned discussion ^^
And eh… Yeah, I agree, that ain’t happening.
I mean… A hundred years would be the bare minimum (with a strong concerted international effort). Although, considering the circumstances, I don’t think humanity would do it. She said it, they are uninteresting in part because they don’t have FTL, so developing FTL would mean join the big pool, so you can bet your house there would be some strong push against that, at least until humans have big enough guns/powerful enough allies to be comfortable with the idea.
true, but if you can see that something is possible, you can focus more resources and effort on figuring out how to do it.
Course, the flaw with that is the fact you might not HAVE the correct resources to ever do so.
First step in building something: know what is required to build it, worry about obtaining the resources once you know which resources you need
“Oh that stuff? Yeah, we got half a tonne of it in the backyard. We always wondered what it would be good for. Mama wouldn’t let us throw it out, said it would be useful, ‘one day’.”
actualy the first step is to ever know or believe that said stuff is posible, for a real life example check the reusable rockets spacex is building, before spacex managed to pull that stunt everyone in the aerospace sector believed that it either was imposible or that the money you would blow creating one would make it impractical but once spacex managed to crack that nut out and the falcon 9 had its first successful land fall then you have every aerospace company and space capable goverment on earth pouring resources to build their own reusable rocket
right now the invesgation towards posible FTL engines is reduced to “is it even posible” because we geniunly dont know if its even posible to travel at faster than light speeds for all we know its a real physical limit that we cant simply overcome with more advnced technology, or the technology you require to accomplish something like that is to literaly be able to alter the laws of physics at a universal scale to accomplish it, but knowing without a shadow of a doub that ftl is not only posible but that there is a thriving galactic comunity that regularly uses it… yeah that would push us a lot towards its future use even if we still dont have the required technologies yet
if something now that theoretical physicists have proof that it can be done they can stop trying to answer the “is it even posible” question and start asking “alright… then how the fuck do we build our own ftl engine… ideas”
The correct answer to that is merely “I have discovered another way that the desired outcome does not function.”
Not to mention; th right ^kinds^/s of (social‹?›, economic‹?› [and]) industrial infrastructure/s.
All one would need do, is introduce the concept before the church destroyed knowledge and free-thinking, and then there never would have been a Dark Ages
If you’re serious, you show a gross misunderstanding of how the dark age came to be, what it was, what it took the place of, and what role the church played in it.
I’m not a big fan of said church, but still.
There never *was* a “dark ages”. It’s a myth. And the Church is the reason the scientific method as we know it even exists. They preserved knowledge that would’ve been lost, and they expanded upon it. Some of the greatest scientists in history were priests, monks, or otherwise devoutly religious men.
Your idea “get rid of religion in the past and by now we’d be like unto gods!!” is cribbed from a poorly written and utterly unresearched episode of Stargate. Or really any show that discusses the medieval period in any similar context.
It’s nonsense. Again, the Dark Ages didn’t actually happen, and certainly not in the way you implied. Indeed the plagues and such that led people to dream up that bit of ahistorical bullcrap probably helped *advance* humanity, all things considered.
Pet peeve of mine.
You really lost me here.
Medieval Europeans were well versed in the sources of various metals and how to make harder metals using a mix of those they had available.
Any ductile metal, such as copper, silver, or gold, can be drawn into wire more than fine enough to use in whatever electrical contraption your experimenter might choose to make. These metals were commonly drawn into wire for use in jewelry and other ornamental purposes in the time periods you are discussing, so getting your hands on some decent copper wire doesn’t even require teaching the primitive natives how to draw wire…
Yeah but most techniques necessary to the creation of a lightbulb, the original item taken as an example.
I would say that it’s possible to create a generator with medieval technology (or a battery, probably the lowest tech that gives you electricity), but certainly not a lightbulb. Especially if they are left to their own device (though someone with proper training would probably be able to teach them how to do lightbulb in only a matter of years).
But the original commentator was right in saying that they didn’t have a proper understanding of metals. They had an empirical understanding that was fine enough for the time, but certainly not enough to be said to “understand metals correctly”.
I mean, it seems to me it would be hard to understand metals correctly when you know next to nothing about chemistry, or mechanic (maybe that’s not the correct word in english ? I’m referring to the properties of materials under different stress).
I think the most difficult part of creating a light bulb in the middle ages would be creating the vacuum in the bulb (or replacing the air with some noble gas). Without that, even a tungsten filament will oxidize in an instant at the temperature it needs to be in order to glow.
Medieval cultures were rather good at metallurgy within the constraints of what they had available, but that range was limited by what they could extract and process. No aluminium, for example: its oxides had been used for various purposes for millennia, but the metal itself wasn’t isolated until 1824 and it took until 1886 to get an (energy-intensive even with subsequent developments) industrial-scale process. Light bulb filaments are generally made of (extremely fine) tungsten; I don’t think it’s quite as hard to isolate as aluminium, but the fact it wasn’t discovered until the 1780s is probably indicative.
Medieval Europeans had more of a “They have some nice things. Lets go take it” mentality.
the huge diference between medieval europe (or past more medieval times in general) and our modern world is very simple and its the existance of the concept of science and its institutions, we believe that it doesnt matter what we encounter it can be explained away by science and thanks to that that we have such advanced technology (because our tech is insanely aadvanced once you start thinking about it, how many transistors do you believe your computer has for example, how many do you think we can cram inside it and how do you believe we can carve paths that small on a silicon wafer, just think how complex all that is)
medieval europeans and in fact the vast mayority of the world at the time were still operating in the “if you dont understand something invent a new story to explain it away” phase of human history that sparked things like mythology and religion, before science the best tool we had to try and explain the real world was either phylosophy (which is the mother of all sciences after all) and religion, people used to either try to think logically how stuff happened which is a good path because that eventually created the scientific method and stuff like or create a story tell it to others and let that fucker to propagate, religion was kind of popular because it gives the illution of control “oh yeah you want it to rain well if you make a sacrifice to our god we can discuss about that rain thing” and we humans always want to get thing to be in our advantage so even just the illution that if you sacrifice a goat in a altar it could rain so that the crops grow better already made it extremly popular with early humans that if you dont remember their life was pretty tough, now science is a better tool to accomplish your objectives because it actually gives results but people have kind of gotten attached to religion
we used to have some world shattering change every 10 or 20 generations and right now those happen every 10 years, jut thing on how much diferent the 70s were to the 80s and then to the 90s, the early 2000s and then to the 2010s, just as a beggining the internet didnt even existed yet in the 70s (or it did but it was the late arpanet that existed and and it still was on its “a system designed to allow the goverment to comunicate after a nuclear war” stage and the super computer that you have in your pocket probably has more processing power than the entirety of the US had at the time, hell even in the early 200s the internet was still slowly crawling its way forward, it existed and people knew it existed but it was far from the beast that it is now and television series still refered to it in a mysterios and kind of mysthical way, cellphones also used to only be able to recieve calls
now a days of course 60% of all of humanity has access to the internet and cellphones are a part of everyday life in most countries, even poor countries already have cellphones and their use is spreading world wide
for a reference of how quickly shit changes and how fast science is changing things just look at this image
https://xtratexia.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/elmundocambia.jpg
or this one
https://imgur.com/oYL8UT7
or this one
https://loonylabs.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/memory-storage.jpg
technology advances exponentially
Not that you’ll want to redraw the page, and you’d have to also add an explanation about Peggy having a “private collection” of firearms. But you could widen the field of machine guns. Granted, I kinda like the M240. Everything is subjective, but you can go this route (Mental list of odd LMG’s loading) Bren LMG (UK) RPD(USSR) Browning 1918 BAR(USA) MG42 or MG43(DEU) And uh…. Vickers (UK) for that cool top drum. Japan has a modern(?) Version of that, but I don’t know the designation. They had a cool ray gun looking one in WW2 called a type 92, but that was a HMG, not LMG. And I think China has a Steyer look-a-like S.A.W. Part of my list is based on if they have wooden grips. Cause, well, I think it makes any gun classier.
I’d have stayed away from mentioning a specific show. Currently event references almost always end up looking dated in hindsight.
It’s likely to age poorly unless you happen to pick some culture defining work like Lord of the Rings.
Avoid real events and real people.
Agatha Christie’s book The Secret Adversary looks really lame since examination of the wreck has confirmed that the hold of the Lusitania was transporting a cargo of ammunition. The things that you think are true may be irrefutably proven not to be.
I have no TV, and would not be aware of US shows, in any event. So the name meant nothing to me. But the context was clear, so I got what they were talking about (if not any specific program content which may have a bearing, such as being able to guess why Cora likes it).
As for it becoming dated, to avoid that Dave would need to avoid showing motor vehicles, shop checkouts, computer monitors, national leaders and a whole bunch of other stuff, which instantly reveals something getting a bit long in the tooth. But that is not a problem, as the comic is set in a specific year, and that is the pertinent date. If someone is reading this comic 20 year from now, they need to be aware that it was set 28 years ago, and that contemporary (2039) politics and technology would not be relevant at that time.
If you were not a Furry before, you are now!:)
Zack Tilly! This whole ‘avoid current events to prevent looking dated’ is a load of bullshit; the only way to do that, is to set it in an empty room and have the characters say and do nothing
But that would look dated too because why would people sit in a room when they can instead be doing magic VR on Mars?
Sitting in a room and doing nothing is *so* last century.
SOL (Snort Out Loud)
*tosses Yarp a Yorpie-snack just because she hasn’t in a long time!*
Yummy!
*catch, munch, burp*
>As for it becoming dated, to avoid that Dave would need to avoid showing motor vehicles, shop checkouts, computer monitors, national leaders and a whole bunch of other stuff,
You’re just deliberately missing the point.
None of that stuff is remotely the same as pop culture references, and you know it.
You do realise that some popular computer monitors are now ‘dated’ because they are no longer being produced, right? Same with shop checkouts with hyu-mon cashiers or even ‘baggers’, a lot of places are moving to self-service (not only do you scan the items yourself, you also bag the groceries with no store-personnel involvement at all… unless you screw something up)
What about Model-T cars? Or Oldsmobile’s? How many of those do you see around now? Outside of Cuba anyway
Funnily enough, I rode in an original 1912 Model T just 2 days ago – friends with the owner, who brings it out for a local event every summer. Have ridden in 2 others in the past, similar situations.
But yeah, working artifacts of even the past few decades are vanishingly rare except among collectors and hobbyists, and planned obsolescence is speeding that up exponentially. How many of you are still using your original iPhone after a single decade? How many Western millennials have any idea that high-speed internet wasn’t (and still isn’t) ubiquitous even in their short lifetimes?
A cell phone, or a TV series is not the same thing as a SPECIFIC one of same.
Dave can draw somebody holding a little brick up to their face and we’ll all recognize ‘cell phone’ and that wont be dated the same way talking your specific iphone 6s will be. The concept of a cell phone is fluid, that specific model of one is fixed in history.
Likewise, television series exiting as a concept is something as old as TV it self, but any specific one is something fixed.
There’s a difference between having Cora say “Your television is hilarious, export that shit” and saying “~Specific TV show~ is hilarious, export that shit.”
I think the entire issue of dating oneself is less important than we seem to be giving it credit for. We write and draw and make art for today’s audience – not the audience 20 years down the line. The only thing to worry about then is that our past doesn’t haunt us. Beyond that, focus on making a good line for a modern culture.
Yeah, make todays art and culture worth remembering in two years’ time (let alone twenty), unlike so much crap we get now (‘rap’ withacapitalC, ‘street-art’ aka public defacing of private property)
were you trying to put “With great power comes great responsibility” on the Archon emblem? cause what I’m getting from translation is:
Cum Amplus potentia venit amplus onus – Was lying when he came there any more the power of the burden of
cum potestate magna venit magnus responsabilitate – with great power comes great responsibility
Considering near everyone understands what the faux-Latin is saying, seems to me he did it right
Whats surprises me (and slightly disappoints), is that with four pages of comments, many pointing out the latin is low latin at best I haven’t seen ONE link to the “Life of Brian: latin lesson scene.
So: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lczHvB3Y9s because some things need to be done! :-)
Classic, good, comedy, not like the crap we get today
Hmm, is it just me, or was Cleese playing both the Grammar Centurion and the chasing soldier? o_O
X-DD : snerk :
“Heil Grammer!!” ;-þ
I know this is not a lmg or anything like it, but check out the p90 for a gun she could use, little handy and a mag of 50 bullets.
It may look a bit weird at first glance, but it is pretty cool.
Look at videos of people actually trying one out, most do not have access to a full auto one, but i doubt she could not get one.
Oh and if you want fun, look into the anime with P-Chan.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sword_Art_Online_Alternative_Gun_Gale_Online
It is issued to various US SWAT teams, so there are probably some in the Arc SWAT armoury. Love some of the innovations in the P90, which I had not seen before.
Yeah, see, I think people would be more concerned with the fact that, or at least question, whether other alien species have Supers.
Unless it’s been stated otherwise, Earth is the only known planet that randomly has its population gain power over the laws of physics, that doesn’t need to be trained like Magic.
Hell, Sciona literally just stumbled upon a Super corpse and now has a power. Before that, she used Super blood in conjunction with magic to giver herself other Superpowers as well.
So I expect that one Reporter who asked legitimate questions the day before to raise these legitimate concerns (not about Sciona, since I hope he wouldn’t know about that…) in light of Cora simply going “Oh sure, Earth has nothing of value to us! We don’t even care!”
And of course, this is ignoring the political and economic minefield that revealing “We’ve visited your planet for a super long time and have profited off of your unawareness for entertainment” (see: the Club), will be once that ever comes to light.
Trust in the government and political officials for protection by the average citizen would be at an all time low, unless a bizarre series of events or a giant conspiracy machine messes with the average persons mind (*cough* the Council *cough*).
TL;DR: The governments of Earth will rapidly lose trust from its citizens and having Cora up there is probably a terrible idea unless they do some super shady shit to handle the masses
See, that’s the thing: there is nothing any governing body can do, ever where the sweaty, smelly, masses won’t kick up a stink about losing trust (and other bullshit) over something that doesn’t really impact them on a personal level
Well problem is, anything a super can do (most of the time, with a few exceptions) can be done with technology, and on a massive scale if you wanted too, as it is tech of one sort or another, way more flexible.
What does that even mean? How much do you really think the average citizen sits around thinking “Wow, I trust the government so much to protect me?”
As long as the society isn’t violent or crime ridden, I would wager that most people even outside of first and second world nations don’t give ‘government protection’ a second thought. And if you aren’t thinking about it at all, there’s not much place for thoughts of it to go, either up or down.
I do know that the appearance of an alien space craft or two would not have me suddenly thinking “Gee, I wonder if the government can protect me?” I mean, if you are a Fox viewer, I guess you’ll be afraid. But we all know that those people are afraid of so many things already that adding aliens to the mix isn’t really going to be increasing their total fears by much if at all.
Thought: would there be any market for space captains who need cheap as dirt laborers and it doesn’t matter their tech level? I’m imagining something along the lines of old school sea voyages where certain jobs were just about “show up on time, and you’ve got the job”.
I’m just wondering how many Terrans would would jump at the CHANCE to go off world, even with the shittiest job in the galaxy?
They would need to put a limit on how many can go, or there would be no one left :P
Automation replaces all jobs of those types.
So, basically, no sentient organics ever work again, ever, except for one guy who simply pushes the [Resupply] button (until he gets replaced by a bot)
You have any idea how much those things (yes, they are ‘things’) cost to manufacture, programme, and keep operational? o_O
Far cheaper just to breed workers
An extremely small fraction of the cost to maintain organic life in space.
Of course I knew, that’s why I pointed it out.
Depends on if you plan on staying in space, or an environment not conducive to organic, breathing, life
“Sydney said that would be funny.”
And she was right!
It makes me wonder what Deus was trading for his shopping spree? Perhaps it was data namely tv shows and porn?
Data on supers.
Only if that data points to supers being ET’s manipulating Dirt Monkey DNA
Oh, you meant what he was giving in trade
Still, Supers are relatively new, there ain’t that much data to be had
I hate to come off as a back seat editor but you really missed out on some potentially funny stuff by not having a news ticker under the Cora/Arianna panals.
Lmg’s look so ugly because they are heavy and produce a lot of heat so the designs are extremely minimalist to minimize weight and maximize cooling
While she’s raising a good point (pretty down to earth funny enough) I can’t help but remember that panel from Poker night https://i.imgur.com/ttlnFOr.jpg – what I mean is – Considering the Dabblers… nature – I find it hard to believe that no other alien race produces pornography… Then again maybe the reason ours is so abundant is due to outside alien influence…
Cora didn’t say that no other alien race produces pornography.
I was thinking how shows with aliens ineteracting with humans would play to actual aliens? Alf, Mork & Mindy, 3rd Rock from the sun, Superman? Or villainous aliens? Aliens (Xenomorphs), Predators? Could Sydney open up a comic book shop on Fracture Station?
Heh heh, 240. Nice. :-)
Bravo or Lima?
First panel is really nice, good work!
I’m a bit confused about Cora praising Earth porn, though. Wouldn’t someone like Cora or Dabbler find Earth porn boring and unimaginative? Or is the really freaky stuff freaky enough to entertain even them?
I have a Steyr AUG, out of all my guns I gotta admit it’s my favorite! It’s well balanced, very easy to handle, intuitive controls. My biggest complaints are the heavy and sloppy trigger, and the gun is very heavy. It is a very sexy looking gun.
They do make an LMG version, it’s a 24 inch thick barrel with a bipod instead of the fore-grip, and it operates off an open-bolt action, with the 42 round magazine. Also the reason the Steyr’s designed with quick-change barrels, so when you overheat one you can swap in a new barrel in about 5 seconds.
And it was used in the USA for at least some time, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement used it, I don’t know the exact years, but it’s been replaced by the M4. I guess my point is, it wouldn’t be totally unreasonable to see a beautiful Steyr sitting on the table there, instead of the ugly M240
I can’t stop laughing, now I’m picturing alien grays landing and their universal translator spouts, “Show us your porn!”
Aliens are invading to steal my beanie baby collection – I KNEW it!