Grrl Power #869 – Standard suck deviation
Times Square seems to be a somewhat fluid designation. I thought it was just one intersection with a bunch of light up billboards, but a lot of adjacent areas seem to count themselves as part of it, I guess for greater collective tourism appeal. The team landed a block from the spaceship while Maxima hands out assignments and lets Sydney have her little rant.
This is one of those pages that kept getting rewritten as I was drawing it. It started off as pure exposition, with Sydney asking what they were doing up there, then cutting Max off with her own assumptions before she could answer, but as lenient as Max is, there’s a finite amount that she’ll let subordinates run roughshod over her. Also, it wouldn’t make any sense that Max wouldn’t have told them by now, so Sydney is just venting. Yes, most commanders probably wouldn’t put up with that either, and while Max could be a hardass about it, she’s content to just let Sydney vent for like 50 seconds to get it out of her system.
Ultimately I changed it around a little bit because while sometimes exposition is unavoidable, it’s always bugged me when a character asks another one for some basic ass information that they both already know for the benefit of the audience. “Excuse me, fellow Navy SEAL, can you tell me again about this “gun” device and how it works?”
Hah, look, I remembered the patches on Sydney’s shoulders and her nametag and all that. Anyone want to bet how many pages I keep that up for?
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“Every Species Sucks” – sounds like good words for a motto.
Also – your art seems different today – did you change it?
I think Dabbler’s would be ‘Suck Every Species’
‘Different’ in what way?
The back ground looks more photographic than drawn. It has a bit of a fuzzy focus while some of the drawn items such as the team on the platform are still sharply focused despite being about the same distance away.
It does look different, now that you mention it. I think Sydneys eyes are not as big as they were were on previous pages (yes, the actual eyes).
I like it! Fits better with the more realisitc art style as of late. Or it’s just my imagination. :P
Is there anything Dabbler doesn’t know about “suction” ???
Well, her ideas of how to use a vacuum might not agree with the instruction manual.
Sydney the voice of reason? How many comics will this last? I predict… 1.
“Humanity sucks” is not an entirely reasonable estimation, especially when the vastly overwhelming majority of it is pretty decent. Generic blanket statements don’t make anyone sound reasonable.
To be fair, everything sucks to the extent it isn’t existentially necessary for it to not suck. That’s a reflection of living in a universe dominated by the laws of thermodynamics.
I used to think the overwhelming majority of it was pretty decent. But then I started paying more attention.
If you pay attention, you might notice that even you suck about half the time, and blow the other half. It takes a conscious effort to do neither.
It really does not take a lot of effort to be a decent human being. It takes a lot of effort to live up to the ever-changing and sometimes unreasonable standards of other human beings, but to be a decent human being in general? Little effort whatsoever, and it gets easier the more you do it.
As for sucking or blowing, I do neither half or more of the time, especially if you take my romantic life into account. XD
Not reasonable? Someone hasn’t heard of Sturgeon’s Law and Hanlon’s Razor.
I’m curious what you base your standards on. Because if you use average human behavior as the baseline, of course you’re going to come to the conclusion that on average, humanity meets that baseline. I don’t think it takes much imagination to expect better, however, and humanity on average falls far short of the standard it sets in its own fiction.
How is saying Humanity sucks the voice of reason? Seems more like the voice of negative self image.:). Thats ususlly not reasonable.
How on earth (pun inevitable) is it reasonable to claim otherwise, given the state of the world?
the state of the world is the most peaceful and healthy the world have ever seen. if we could do something about the greedy few driving climate change the world would be the best place its ever been.
the idea that the world is somehow falling into some kind of cesspool is propaganda used to keep you living in fear and easily controllable
It is not. The propaganda is all the peacefulness and prosperity. As someone who’s extensively studied history and economics, let me tell you, shit’s about to get real in a few years tops.
https://tinyurl.com/y6poanwo
https://tinyurl.com/y4anpowm
https://tinyurl.com/y3vdkuhu
The problem isn’t just with the greedy (we’ll leave ‘few’ out of it since that’s quite subjective), it also lies with the complacent masses who have so little foresight or discernment that they allow those greedy people to do what they are doing. If more people acted on the actual principle of “making the world a better place for their children and grandchildren” and didn’t just mouth those words while supporting people, companies, politicians, ideologies, which are actively working against that principal, then maybe the world would be the bast place it’s ever been.
Because humans are awesome, and it took Sydney 45 minutes to get mugged by aliens, and 2 minutes for her to be in a life and death struggle with aliens.
Sydney has also been mugged by a human, making the record even for humans vs. “all aliens.” But that’s not a fair comparison because there are a good many sentient species who have zero members who have mugged Sydney, putting the balance far and away in favor of aliens having a far lower mugger vs. non-mugger record.
Also consider that Sydney has been attacked by a solid couple dozen humans, some of whom seemed more than willing to use deadly force, and one which was practically drooling over the positive effect he thought it would have on his reputation for killing Sydney in cold blood.
And then please don’t forget the time Sydney had bank robbers pointing firearms at her. And please don’t try to excuse this because it was a staged event. None of the patrons of that bank were made aware of this, the firearms were real and loaded, and the whole scene was done for as lousy a reason as publicity. If this were a world setting with any realism the bank would have been sued into, well, not bankruptcy because that doesn’t happen to banks over endangering mere people, but they might have lost a days profits. Ariana would have been fired, and Archon would have a lot of ‘splaining to do.
The fuck they would. The whole point was that NO ONE outside of Archon knew that it was staged and they never will. That’s why Arianna is in charge of publicity.
Not true. Whichever bank executives decided to “test their security” in such a reckless and criminally negligent manner also know. And their staff know, since those kinds of people just issue orders and other people do the real work. A “secret” held between more than two people isn’t going to remain a secret for long.
I am not everyone around me.
I can note my flaws and try to improve. I don’t perceive most people doing that.
You can substitute any particular individual for the pronouns in the above two paragraphs, and it’s usually still true. I’m not sure that it would be true if the second sentence were changed to a more active state, such as, “I note many of my flaws and I do try to improve.” But I’m also not sure that it wouldn’t be. This game is stuck in first person spectator mode, and there really isn’t an option to change to a different perspective. I can simulate, but that’s not the same thing.
Many people try to improve, but what they typically improve is how effectively they lie/cheat/steal. Even many who I term “good people” will take most advantages if it benefits them.
For example, there’s a whole class of individuals I term the “respectful user.” The tip-off for a bad one is when they tell you how “respectful” you are the first time they meet you – run for the hills. Here’s why: They command respect at all times. If you’re of use to them, they return your respect. If you’re not of enough use to them, they treat you like dirt and increasingly attempt to extract your uses (for free) and expect you to respect them as payment for their “attention.” The baseline increases as your relationship becomes closer. In effect, your care and affection is their measure of how much they can use you.
It’s basic abuse. Yet the 55+ demographic is saturated with these folks. I have only met a single person between the age of 55-80 who does not act this way.
It is a negative view of humanity, not of herself. Sydney does not constitute the entire human race.
Oh, I don’t know… Maybe the fact that we’ve been breaking the “you don’t shit where you eat” rule for so long that there is a significant chance that we’ll add our species to the long list of species which we have driven to extinction bears some consideration in this whole “reason” thing you’ve brought up?
Is that guy in the back trying to have a conversation with the horse?
Probably. And with some of the humans I know that is possibly the most intelligent conversation he/she/it/other will have in Times Square.
IF the horse deigns to talk to bipeds at all.
It might have … EXPERIENCES.
Mr. Hands never got that far east.
“Good evening, Mr. Quadrine. Please take me to your apples.”
DaveB knew what he was doing well in advance.
With the universal translator, they may very well be.
And her name is Susan and she wants you to respect her life choices
Bless you and your Doctor Who references!
Meanwhile, there is Susan who is riding on Binky and wants you to respect her death choices.
Susan and her godfather are some of my favorite characters in that universe, in part due to things like Binky’s name.
Ok, so I like Dr Who but it’s not something I’ve seen a lot of. So I googled “And her name is Susan and she wants you to respect her life choices” and found this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdKAxu79FdA
Aside from being a funny little bit of the typical Dr Who snark in whatever story was being told, I’m curious who the horse’s owner is, because that guy has some awesome pipes!
Except… Doctor Smugdick calls Susan a ‘he’, and then proceeds to gallop away while kicking his heels into their sides, so much for respecting their life choices
I am the keymaster. Are you the gatekeeper?
“Neigh!” – Mr. Ed
Am I the only one who remembers the original Ghostbusters?
Wait for the sign, then all prisoners will be released.
He is probably telling the horse to rise up against his oppressors. “You have nothing to lose but your reins!”
I’m pretty sure the horse would also like to lose the bit, the bridle, etc.
Sydney seems to suffer from overthinking every possible negative scenario.
She wouldn’t be alone in that haha.
They’re probably there to tell the tourists they can’t park their rocket ship in the middle of the road. They have to land at the airport and suffer through TSA, just like the rest of us.
Add it to the uncollected UN parking tickets bill.
How the hell do you boot a starship?
NYC cops will find a way!
As I just mentioned in response to a similar comment on the next page, there are undoubtedly lots of cite-able violations being committed, and a diligent officer will no doubt be tracking them down shortly.
[Tightens laces on size-12 toecapped boots…]
Might not have much effect, but if I can get to it I can boot it!
They’re in New York, not Boston. Saying “You can’t park here” doesn’t come off quite the same.
Also, I don’t think Varia came along.
Well, doesn’t that just suck! Humans suck, the aliens suck, the vampires want to suck your blood………
Sidney looks really quite commanding with her bangs properly tied back.
I see one of the species from the Grakz episode has made a re-appearance. :) (Posssibly two, but the Leia slave-girl outfit woman from there doesnt have the same eyes as the tour-guide-requesting one from a few days ago.)
Wonder if firehead girl is going to get another role?
This seem a bit unrealistic. It’s one thing that Aliens are known to humans, but countries still have borders and want to be able to regulate them.
A tourist has to apply for a visa to visit a country unless that country already have some kind of deal with whatever state you are a citizen of.
Ignoring the big unknown for an earth country weather people from the snake federation, Alari planet or 6handland are a security risk. Getting through the application for a visa would still take longer than…
How long has it been exactly?
Yeah, it’s funny knowing that the space station Sydney was on clearly had all sorts of import and export rules, but these aliens just all flew to earth without a care in the world. “Oh, well, there’s nothing here shooting me out of the sky, I’ll just let myself in.” Usually, a new visitor asks first. XD
We weren’t privy to the landing process, which happened offscreen.
Since they weren’t shot down, SOME negotiation took place, or (more likely) they came down under cloak and then decloaked.
Given a fait accompli of Aliens in NYC, ARC SWAT became the rapid response force.
The US does not apparently have regular relations with the xevoarchy, so all those niceties don’t have a pre-packaged system yet.
Rules of Acquisition #(??): In Chaos, there is profit.
“in confusion, there is profit.” Movie-Petticoat Junction
https://youtu.be/OR7kuJ9VpSo
Wrong movie :P
‘Petticoat Junction’ was an old TV show, believe connected to ‘Green Acres’?
You’re right that they didn’t go through customs, as will be addressed shortly. :)
Egad! Does this mean they’re illegal aliens?
Money can fix that. How much gold do they require?
Well, there are always those sapients who just have to be able to say “You know, I visited Earth before it was open. They didn’t even have a proper space port or accommodations for off planet travelers. It had a primitive charm back then but it has become such a tourist trap.”
Yes, but most of them are lying when they said that.
I mean, to be fair, there’s been an awful lot of aliens that have come through for the alien sex tourism. Far more than ever make the claim they visited Earth before we had a proper space port. Most of *them* DID visit before there was a proper space port. But they’re not making the claim. They’re just quietly visiting and getting in as much alien sex tourism as they can before it really does become such a tourist trap.
Meanwhile, these yahoos just blazed in, completely ignoring the proper space port down in Galytn to visit the Big Apple. They also ignored all the airports, and instead opted to land in possibly the most densely packed areas in the US in terms of average people per cubic foot.
It’s my impression that Times Square is used to refer to so much space outside of what is technically Times Square because to do otherwise would require either not allowing people to satisfy their urge to visit Times Square, or generating people puree. I’ve only been to Times Square once, but it was supposedly the off season, and it *still* had a crowd dense enough to crowd surf on (though I doubt they had the right attitude for it.) I’ve seen mosh pits with more respect for personal space. (Admittedly, I’ve seen a mosh pit with only one person in it, so…)
Keep in mind, the idea of visa’s are only from the 1930’s and were because of the persecution of the jews in germany with other countries going “we dont want them coming here”. Which all fits into the xenophobia that is currently barring earth from being in contact with aliens, suggesting that the aliens don’t have that.
No…
Far enough back in time and anyone from outside of your kingdom or empire or tribe were automatically placed in the lowest section of society in whatever form of social hierarchy they had. Vagabonds were not seen positively, people were very bound by wherever they came from. If you were a trader, you were welcome, but you had to pay fees and taxes and follow the local rules for trade.
In most places if you were not a citizen you had no rights, and people had no reason to be somewhere they did not belong unless they were banished or something.
Tourism is very new, It didn’t start happening until the industrial revolution when the middle class came to exist(around 1800), and the reason countries want tourists is because tourists bring money.
Visas became a thing when traveling across the globe became so cheap people from anywhere could get anywhere. And after all these places had just fought a world war. Countries actually had to find out why someone is coming into the country because the scale became difficult to manage.
Trying to find a source for what I recall, but am still suspicious of the circumstances of all major countries suddenly requiring travel visas just as a historically oppressed and hated group suddenly wanted to be in a different country.
Technically, it’s possible for a country to just accept everyone, without any visas or deals. In practice, there are quite a few examples of more complicated deals, where the country A would not just accept citizens from the country B, but also those who are allowed to visit the country B (e.g., those having a visa from B). EU is one big example: you can get a visa from Norway, and then Portugal would happily accept you, even if there is no deal between Portugal and your country. EAU is another, smaller one: get a visa to Kazakhstan, and you can easily go to Russia (although I won’t recommend it).
Sydney reminds me of why I love the machiavellian goofballs. Political correctness sucks. Give me the Sam Pucketts and Patrick Janes anyday.
And yes, Xenophobia would cause major violence. We have that here now with people who merely believe in different fairy tales. We still cry racist and kill people over skin color. Of course having a vastly different anatomy and superior power would turn tourists into targets. People hate people just for being smarter. Envy, fear, inadequate anatomy regarding Dabbler, ape brains and razorblades. It’s all there.
Maybe not in a world made for entertainment. Just in our world. So, keeping realism at bay is a good idea. If I want tragedy and death and horror and call it entertainment, I watch the news. Hm, I rarely watch the news…
“political correctness” is just another name for kindness and equal treatment. honestly the people that act like its some monster destroying the world just make me laugh.
Political correctness is the bludgeon of tyrants.
http://blogoscoped.com/files/china-police-icons.png
https://pic.chinesefontdesign.com/uploads/2017/03/chinesefontdesign.com_2017-03-20_16-29-31.jpg
https://globalbizpassport.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/2006-11-10-netcops.jpg
https://n7.alamy.com/zooms/c7698ab6d7fb44eb958f7d950827fe63/beijing-china-cute-anime-style-police-sign-outside-of-the-meridian-h8m5jh.jpg
Did you notice the trend? Yes, they’re cute. Because real police are “scary.” Now recall what we’re dealing with in the United States.
Do you get it now? Political correctness isn’t just a monster; it’s pure evil masquerading as good and holy.
“Political correctness is the bludgeon of tyrants.
…
Do you get it now? Political correctness isn’t just a monster; it’s pure evil masquerading as good and holy.”
I had to get off FB and most other social media sites because of this level of inane statements, can we please keep comment section regarding a webcomic below a certain level of ignorance?
History.
– 1907 financial crash. Exactly the same as 2007 except with different names and copper backed securities instead of mortgages.
– 1917 marked the first Russian takeover of Crimea; the fall of the last Tsar and the rise of the Soviet Empire. The whole of Ukraine was under Russian control within a decade. Though, the Russian revolution is often said by historians to find its roots in the instability of the 1890s.
– 1918 Spanish Flu
– 1910s trade wars
– 1900s increasing tariffs until massive 70%+ tariffs in the 1920s
– 1921-1923 corrupt president who was elected by congress instead of the people.
– 1880s-1920s women’s rights movement
– 1920-1933 prohibition (weed?)
– mid 1800s China revolution, 1900s Chinese nationalism, 1911 china overthrows its ruling dynasty and becomes expansionist
– 1890s Congo war; 1990, multiple Congo wars
– Heck, Black Lives Matter uses the Roter Frontkämpferbund logo and Antifa uses the Antifaschistische Aktion logo, like it wasn’t already historically accurate enough.
History doesn’t repeat itself. However, causality defines the future. If a cause exists then the future must conform to the available outcomes. If you write a check for $1,000 with 10 cents in your account, the check will surely bounce. Unless you deposit funds. That’s how reality works.
I look back to history and see all these similar events, do you think I say “hey that’s neat” and write it off? Or do you think I should look to the future by understanding the past?
I predicted the rise of Trump, nationalism globally, the infiltration of China, and currency wars based only on this. I was correct every time. I missed the pandemic because I was uneducated about the Spanish flu.
You call me ignorant without questioning my basis. Perhaps I am crazy in drawing connections to the past. But that still makes you the ignorant one.
I keep trying to post a historical retrospective but it keeps being censored. I’m being censored for posting history. I think that pretty much sums up the problem.
That’s just some algorithm looking for… I’m not sure actually. Dollar amounts? Lists? No idea, but it’s definitely not ironic censorship.
Oh, thanks Dave. It usually says “In Moderation” when I swear or something, but this time it was just vanishing my posts. That happened last time my posts vanished into the ether (had to change my username because it started happening on every post) so I assumed it was deleted.
The comments system is widely known to intermittently not display new comments, sometimes for minutes or even hours. Between that and the initial auto-censor (which seems to target external links primarily), it’s pretty common to have to wait a bit to be sure.
Yeah, I know. I’ve been here quite a while and got used to it. Recently on my previous username they started not showing up after several days of me patiently waiting and checking back. So I figured that’s what was happening again. I was wrong though. Perhaps my other account was either shadowbanned by this mystery algorithm or it somehow bugged out the system.
Asking of somebody else to treat every conversation like a mine field where every sentence is screened and judged and the field is left to the most easily offended is not kind. So no, kindness and political correctness are not synonyms. Never will be.
Agreed.
You are wrong. It is being used to disassemble society and I have scientific proof.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grievance_studies_affair
Naysayers contend that the system would self-correct via replication studies, but the system itself is designed to dissuade replication studies. Hence, much like what AstraZenica(1) discovered, the scientific community is now awash in “politically acceptable” bunk science.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replication_crisis
Where are your sources, hmm?
Yes, that Replication Crisis article does highlight a number of serious issues.
IM(NS)HO, one major issue is the misuse of the words “science” and “scientist”. In my youth, when teachers were encouraged to use fascist methodology, the definitions of both words were imprinted deeply in my noggin. “Science” is not a thing, it’s a method. “Scientists” don’t do things the way politicians do anything, but they follow the method of science. The method of science is a simple 7-step system:
1. Look and observe.
2. Record what you have observed.
3. Make a hypothesis, and write it down.
4. Test the hypothesis, and record exactly every single thing you did, no matter how small or insignificant.
5. If necessary, adjust your hypothesis, but keep the original.
6. Repeat 4 and 5 until the curent hypothesis stands up.
7. Publish and Peer review.
The scientific method guarantees that a person/team repeating your work exactly will get your results exactly.
I wrote out all of the above, because I noticed that much of the replication crisis affects social work. I say “social work” because there’s no way it can be called a “science”. Social studies and work deal with humans, and no two humans are sufficiently alike to give repeatable results. The closest one can get is to use statistical methods, which can be subject to misinterpretation. We should also note that most nations on Earth prohibit experimentation on humans, and the ones that don’t still take a dim view of such things happening outside the political prisons. This alone forbids us to use the words “social” and “science” in close proximity.
On a less serious note, nobody has ever done a large-cohort (greater than 2000 individuals) double-blind peer-reviewed study of dental fluoride. We cannot do one now because there is no town on earth with a large enough population that has not been exposed to dental fluoride for the last 50 years, and — even more important — which can be locked away from this product for 20 or 30 years into the future. This is the real “Replication Crisis”.
There’s no question dental fluoride helps teeth. I agree it should be studied, but not for that reason. A 2000s study found that children exposed to fluoride in drinking water as an infant had appox a standard deviation lower I.Q. on average. That’s a monstrous difference. Yet I was not able to find a single other study exploring the topic.
Another study found that while vaccines do not consistently cause autism (the study suggested it may be linked to a specific vaccine), the study also found that some other mental illnesses were up to 3x higher than baseline in the Thimerosal group vs. control. It startled me when I read numerous other studies and not one of them had a vaccine w/ no Thimerosal group. Every other study compared vaccinated to unvaccinated. That is not a proper control. Ever.
Granted, these findings may also be bunk, but we need to study them more closely. Both have far-reaching consequences for humanity’s future a la Roman lead in drinking water.
So what you are saying is that you are concerned about the sexuality of frogs and the effects that additives to the drinking water supply may be having upon the aforementioned frog sexuality?
It’s really sad that people are laser-focused on one of the few things Alex got right.
https://www.livescience.com/10957-pesticide-turns-male-frogs-females.html
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/303821/
I’ve never watched Infowars but I have heard a lot about it. The man is obviously a bit unstable… But to claim instability = invalidity is the absolute pinnacle of ignorance. I hope that’s not what you’re trying to imply here.
And no, it isn’t an intentional additive. Don’t be “that guy.”
“As of 2001, atrazine was the most commonly detected pesticide contaminating drinking water in the United States.”
https://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/2005/1291/pdf/circ1291_chapter4.pdf
Taking “some pesticides unintentionally contaminated the drinking water, this coincidentally caused some frogs to switch gender” to mean “they are (intentionally as part of a conspiracy) putting chemicals (referring to flouride) in the water that are turning the freaking frogs gay” is a stretch to the extent that it is an outright falsehood. Even by a literal definition, those two things are not equatable, and factoring in what he was actually intending, it is at most a coincidence of things that look similar if you squint at them enough.
Oh and tidbit, the Romans knew that lead piping was a bad idea, but somehow it didn’t occur to them that lead cooking pots were just as bad.
I’m not sure how that’s relevant. The Romans definitely used lead pipes whether or not they drank it; we know today that even bathing in the stuff is bad. Notably boiling water containing neurotoxic heavy metals will concentrate the heavy metals, which is why it’s said to never boil non-pathogenic contaminated water.
By the way, it seems more studies have been made available since I last researched fluoride toxicity. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3491930/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21237562/
“Each increase in 1 mg/L of urine fluoride associated with 0.59-point decrease in IQ (P=0.0226).”
So, not quite 15 I.Q. points, but dramatic nonetheless. Remember that urine concentrates chemicals so the actual intake should be much lower.
Not sure if Sydney’s attitude is just from inexperience or from something else. Obviously the GOVERNMENT would want to monitor the aliens that are popping in the middle of their cities. And having Archon their serves a triple role of safety, observation, and publicity. Everyone has literally zero idea what they’re doing here, so measures should be taken.
ech, hate it when I make long winded comments and there’s spelling errors.
Sydney reads lots of scifi. She has quite a bit of hypothetical expertise when it comes to first contact wprst-case scenarios.
But what are we taking the measument of?
Sydney’s gripe seems to mainly be that they are making such a public show of being IN CONTROL OF THE SITUATION with pretty much the entire arc-swat being deployed to watch over some tourists. tbh, a slight increased police presence with 2-3 members of arc-swat +dabbler serving in an advisory role would be plenty already
Yes, they’re “just tourists”, but they’re also the first public extraterrestrials to mingle openly with the commoners, which makes this a potentially volatile situation. All it takes is one whack-job to ruin our introduction to the galaxy.
All it takes is one whack-job to ruin our introduction to the galaxy….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AacV4peitF0
Is heatwave flipping someone the bird in pannel 1?
I think she is waving. Trying to work out the other ArcSwat members that isn’t Heatwave, Maxima, Halo, Cora or Dabbler
Looks like she’s waving at the couple behind the horsed carriage.
I’m guessing Achilles, Mister Amorphous, and either goth or army Harem.
I thought the guy with the blond hair below her (and behind the carriage) might be Math.
Seems like there are two people there waving back to her.
Oops, you were talking about the people up top. Yeah Achilles is the guy striking the pose for sure.
From left to right I believe it is Heatwave, Seneca, Achilles, Maxima, Harem, Halo, Dabbler and Cora.
Absolutely.
Wasn’t Halo the one that called out how much of a threat the super that was farming gold from the Earth’s core could be, due to destabilizing the economy if threatened/blackmailed? She now doesn’t see Aliens giving large amounts of gold to random citizens on the same, or even greater, threat anymore?
I wouldn’t be surprised if the governments of the world, if this becomes a regular occurrence, would try someway to control where Aliens could land so they didn’t cause as much disruption. America in this world has a better reach in that they have Dabbler as an advisor that could get the message across to future tourist Aliens easier than most [we don’t know about other countries apart from Deus’s African country].
Dude you’re thinking of had a literal warehouse full of gold. A couple fistfulls here and there aren’t going to be that much of a threat, and even then, it’d likely only be to the gold market (which is inflated anyway). One of the benefits of using a fiat currency is that it’s more stable than something backed by something like gold, as flooding a market with a resource has an effect, but suddenly doubling the number of resource tokens out there is much more destabilizing.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-370-rrrko/
Found the page I was talking about, but looks like I didn’t remember correctly. Sydney was quiet on this conversation (apart from the gold-powered death ray, which isn’t my point here).
My point was I thought Sydney had made a big change in relation to the gold destabilization of the economy. Even with the “small” amount tourists are handing out, a hundred thousand tourists giving out a small brick of gold could have a big effect on destabilizing the economy. It wasn’t on the actual affect, but on the character’s perception of said effect, that I was questioning.
As I have pointed out in this comment, my main query over this isn’t warranted as I didn’t remember the scene correctly in the first place.
It’ll only destabilize te economy in coutries where their monetary unit is tied directly to the value of gold.
Gold mining industries might suffer a bit, also, but remember; some ‘smalltime’ miners in Alaska dig out 1 – 4000 ounces in a season. And they’re smallfry compared to what’s happening in Africa or South America.
The big issue is if people panics and goes ‘The Aliens have lots of GOLD! All our Gold is worthless!!!’
A few who have put their pension into Gold will suffer that if they panic sell.
Maybe a few metal traders take a running leap off of the 20th floor because they have millions tied into Gold Futures or something, but honestly, we can do without most of those leeches.
The big difference will be that gold will be used for better things than hoarding wealth. Halo’s world is about to enter a gilded age, litterarily.
I think I read once that a third of the world’s gold output was used in electronics. All that extra gold won’t affect economies, but will allow every electrical contact to be coated with non-corrosive gold. And everything else.
… everything else? Including supermodels? … wait, that WAS already done. Bond girl Shirley Eaton for example.
The Dad from the two previous installments may get a talking to by Arc-Swat.
Not a taxi, a Lyft or an Uber and accepting money to provide livery service?
He’ll get a warning this time, be told to keep all his receipts and to claim that gold on his income tax.
His passengers will be told to be more careful because Earth is sort of backward civilization-wise.
Also…Eat at your own risk. No bio-compatibility scanners here.
Nah, Pander could get him off the hook easily. He’s not soliciting business, displays no livery, and is definitely not doing this regularly. They approached him and gave him some gas money in return for a lift, at best that gold bar is a present. Might still be taxable to the IRS, but not at the self-employment rate and certainly not competing with lcal unions.
The next 10K people to try being on the scene for this though…
Times Square is really the space out before the Times Building…The area has gotten the name because real estate agents get creative when trying to sell or rent a place because it is all about location, location, location…
I’m sure somebody will link the TVTropes page, but there’s a general term for the trope you’re thinking of. I personally suspect it’s one of the reasons that the strange group of misfits from wildly differing backgrounds became so popular. It’s much easier to understand when the ships doctor doesn’t know the ships engines work and needs a refresher course. The other popular method of having a newby that doesn’t know anything is less viable, but still works okay for Sidney.
I’m also glad to see that the fact that a few fist fulls of gold won’t alter the market too much, and even if it did, would probably only have a moderate effect on the global economy. I’d suspect that simply the knowledge that aliens exist and are willing to trade processed raw materials for giggles probably set the raw materials market on fire if the materials aren’t needed by the shipping container full. Of course, a bucket of tame nanobots or fist full of fulrened antimatter is a completely different story, but I’d expect that sort of thing is pretty heavily restricted.
I’d be more surprised about diamonds or other gemstones, but their value is pretty heavily artificially inflated, and I’m pretty sure a quick wikipedia search will reveal that humans can manufacture them. So purified elements seem like the way to go, they can’t be duplicated except by some rather expensive processes for humans, so that’d be a pretty safe bet. It also would have almost no value for the alien civilization, so without any alien accepted currency, humans can’t buy anything dangerous. And I can assume that ARCSwat is there in case somebody decides that they’re going to hold a few aliens hostage for such things.
I’m also curious what the intergalactic trade rules on raw materials are (forgive me if it’s been explained or I’ve forgotten). Could whatever government happens to accept the aliens exchange whatever currency they gain for just a few container ships full of purified lithium or something? It would be interesting if somebody showed up with the space equivalent to a shipping container full of semi-processed uranium or something. “Yes, we are being here for tours, have decided don’t be needing the climate kerfluffle package. Here is tip for keeping lights steady.”
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AsYouKnow
Well, if they paid with tons of refined Lithium, that would definitely have an impact on the Chinese economy, since they have a virtual monopoly of it.
Most of the lithium going into Lithium-ion batteries is actually coming from Australia and Chile. Most of the batteries are assembled in China however, just because the labour rates are lower and the environmental regulations are more lax. The Chinese are like the fifth most productive as far as lithium goes.
Yeah, I’m thinking that countries or areas that focus on mining rare purified materials, or make their money by purifying something and dumping the nasty byproducts in a ditch, will be the ones most affected by allowing raw resource trading.
Without the bucket of tame nanobots I mentioned earlier, all the raw materials would do is be inserted into the supply chain. Everything that depends on the ‘before’ of that would probably be crippled by sudden competition, but the ability to process lithium into batteries would still either have to be scaled up or otherwise still have everything else handled.
Nuclear fuel would likely have some good effects, but would still take a while to be implemented. Presumably, it comes in a shipping clamshell that’s radiation proof, but suddenly having half the worlds energy needs be meetable by just building the plants would probably get them express laned, assuming the coal lobby could be held off.
I like the human tourists who are taking pictures of Arc-SWAT, with Anvil waving at them and someone (Achilles?) striking a pose.
Sydney should be less judgemental about human muggers, since she and Cora had to thrash some muggers up on the space station. So, you know, hardly just humans.
Yeah, that’s definitely Achilles. I had my own guesses but your explanation seems the most likely here :).
10 years…
Would you believe it? Yesterday was the Grrlpower #1 release in 2010!
I really like Cora’s corset. For some reason it takes me back to the ’50s, maybe it’s the workmanship in the floral pattern?
It’s the perfect color to compliment her skin tone.
She seems to be a much more fully saturated blue in this strip; could just be the lighting.
I want, nay, NEED Dabbler’s octopus dress. :3
Didn’t even notice it at first, thanks for calling it out. It appears to have have teeth, as it she’s being eaten by it?
Earth has been a sex-tourism destination for years (centuries?) but on the QT. As for why Earth has been a sex-tourism destination See ST:TNG and William Riker. This is just regular tourists, but out in the open since the Alari refugees have let the cat out of the bag about aliens on Earth. Still not sure why they would have picked Times Square as a landing point when there are literally 3 major airports within 15 miles of it that could handle space ships without the problems if squishing a pedestrian who can’t look up. I mean I can see it from a narrative point (hi Dave), but from a logistical point it just screams unnecessary danger and complications.
try millennia
But if you land your spaceship at JFK, then you have to find your way into the city, which probably isn’t a fast process. Whereas if you land downtown, you’re already in the area you want to visit. If you have the ‘sufficiently advanced technology’ to land there in the first place without torching the area (reactionless VTOL drives, very good lateral guidance and control, etc.), then the additional problems of careless civilians are presumably minimal.
The modern-day-Human comparison arguably isn’t to flying, but to trains. If you were visiting London, would you rather stay on all the way to Waterloo Station in the centre, or get off at Gatwick (where one of the airports is) and make your own way in from there?
Today’s comic has Sidney surpassing all of her teammates in physical attractiveness. She gained a huge amount of exp, and she’s bought power increases, a bit onto her strength stat and tossed a few points into her comeliness stat.
ARC-SWAT is there to…
… purge the Xenos!!!
:D
Or make them pay a tourist tax. That would be in the interest of a tax funded organisation. Purge their wallets!
Sydney you *just* got done thwarting an alien that tried to enslave all humanity.
Just because most of the tourists here are cool doesn’t mean they all are. Earth didn’t exactly get to vet them after all, so someone needs to be around who’s strong enough to stop any trouble that might arise.
Venting by the grunts about the mission and orders behind the brass’ back is a time honored military tradition.
Except… she’s venting to the brass (or at least, the Gold)
Looks like two of the tourists from last page are here
And Flame head looks familiar… why do they look familiar?
Flame Head is either the same person, or same species as seen in the Great Grax Gathering.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-686-interstellarnet-famous/
One of that species (probably not this particular individual) was the one sitting next to Sydney when she ate the spicy food – sorta live-tweeting it which helped Cora find her.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-687-a-friendly-tongue/
Thank you both, knew they looked familiar, couldn’t remember why :(
In panel 2, “specist” should be “speciesist.”
I don’t blame Sydney. Many less formal dictionaries accept “specist.” Anyway, people talk of the concept rarely enough that “speciesist” also gets a red squiggle in my browser.
No no ‘specist’ is correct, she’s saying they’re fueling people who want specie – metal coinage. :D
Once upon a time, handing out gold would have been an enormous benefit to the economy (USA 1845-1855) or caused odd outcomes. Under modern conditions, other than heartburn for a few investors and foaming at the mouth for a few economic cults, it wouldn’t do much for a large country. (For some small countries, mineral wealth leads to economic poverty.)
In moderation, yes. One alien handing a chunk of gold this size to one “tour guide” like this, yeah, sure.
But if *every* alien group handed out a chunk of gold this size to every “tour guide” they thought to hire, I’d think it’d be much more destabilizing than you’d expect.
One quibble about ‘the gang’ just BEING here. It leaves hanging the questions of HOW they got there, how FAST they got there, and what major FAA guidelines were broken in the process.
But, then this would be “basic ass information that they already know”. So I guess we will never find out.
A bunch of fliers met on the roof in civilian clothes – pretty sure they flew themselves, which we’ve already seen before, so no reason to take up time showing it again.
I can’t be the only one to have taken “sucky member” into the gutter.
I laughed at your line “Excuse me, fellow Navy SEAL, can you tell me again about this “gun” device and how it works?”
This is a (probably unintended) call back to comments made by Gene Roddenberry when he was originally pitching Star Trek.
He said a main problem with TV science fiction at the time was they EXPLAINED EVERYTHING. Roddenberry wrote both Westerns and Police shows, and he commented something along the lines that when a police officer shot at a crook, he didn’t say ‘I’ll now use my handgun in which a hammer hits the firing pin, activating a percussion cap, causing a vigorous exothermic reaction and a rapid generation of gas that will push a copper covered lead bullet down a tube, commonly referred to as a ‘barrel’, and strike the criminal’
He thought if the audience could recognize what the device did, just shut up and pull the bloody trigger. 8)
I think I’ve mentioned it before but Sydney is *devastatingly* cute in a french braid.
I just want to know how long those bobby pins will hold back Sydney’s bangs. Whatever happened to the hair thing that Decollete gave to Sydney?
The hair thing that Decollete gave Sydney did not survive the grakz. It could’ve survived a lot of stuff, but it just was not prepared for that particular encounter.
I wonder how many flights have been delayed/moved to other airports due to the large amount of space ships just landing in New York City. Air Traffic Control must having multiple heart attacks with the amount of air space violations are going on.
correct, but that doesn’t seem like a job for Archon, but the airforce.
Well … most likely, the spaceships can safely make circles around any airplane. I think that’s actually something UFOs are known to be doing …
Yes, but did anybody warn the pilots?
Does Sydney not remember that aliens attempted to mug her on Fracture? Does that affect Sydneys space yelp score for Fracture? She seems to have liked it enough to go back for more Grakz. Mugging is not uniquely human apparently :). Its the criminal equivalency of “Hello there.” :)
Yes, but she and Cora murdered them back so she’s not carrying a grudge. 0_o
She also discovered grakz and met a bunch of people doing it, got rescued from interstellar space, and picked up the holo-wings (which haven’t been seen again), so overall I think she’s still a fan of Fracture.
lol, yes but my point is so far… aliens mugging humans = 1, humans mugging aliens = 0. Her blame is misplaced based on her own experiences with alien/human interactions. :)
It tends to be a thing in a lot of fiction where humans are ‘not the special ones’ and aliens are all special. When humans ARE special, it’s usually because of something ephemeral like ‘we’re kind of heart’ (Star Trek Voyager) or ‘we form communities far easier than other groups’ (Babylon 5). It’s usually not because we’re stronger or have more abilities or are better technologically, etc. Plus we’re usually more backwards than other species for some reason, socially – the general idea tending to be that other species have formed world governments and live in peace and harmony on their own planet.
Sometimes it gets particularly weird – ie, Darkseid admiring Batman because humans will kill their own kind to win battles “An admirable quality.” he says. He compares humans to Kryptonians and Amazons and how humans are better in that respec. Ignoring that amazons are humans as well for the moment, Darkseid also doesnt seem to recall that before the science council took over on Krypton and became absolutely xenophobic about other alien species, they were conquerors and ruled over 80 different planets (and a few colonies, including Daxam). And Amazons are INCREDIBLY warlike and have also killed their own kind (ie, other humans) to win battles as well.
Okay, tangential rant over :) Back to main topic.
It’s just sometimes odd that humans are always seen as being ‘lesser’ than others, whether morally, physically, socially, etc. In this case, Sydney seems to find humans to be morally inferior, despite her having seen with her own eyes that there are aliens that are quite morally deficient as well (and in fact moreso than humans if we’re talking SOLELY about alien-human interactions). She’s biased against her own species being good, it seems. And that’s a shame because Humanity (in general as a species, not just specific superpowered humans) is Awesome is a great trope for stories which is highly underutilized. :)
TO BE FAIR…. Sydney’s ability to eat spicy food, btw, is a power that most humans have that most other species even on our own planet do NOT have. Capsacin tastes spicy to us because it’s meant to hurt pain receptors in animals. It’s supposed to be poisonous – aside from tree shrews, humans are the only species who seek it out to eat it, and there’s only a handful that can even survive eating extremely spicy foods due to capsacin levels in general. But Sydney’s ability to do so surpasses most humans (and superhumans) :).
Sydney is a huge fan of the super and sci-fi genres, both of which tend to feature themes around what people might chose to do if given the opportunity, and use humanity’s failings to highlight the great good a few individuals could rise to. Which makes the stereotypical human cast look not-so-great, so I can see where Sydney’s genre-savvyness would lead her to be skeptical of real-world humans.
Speaking of fiction, you mentioned above that you’re a fan of Deathworlders, so I presume you’re aware of the other r/HFY classics as well (I think Chrysalis was the first I came across and got me hooked on the forum?). Aside from DW, my current favorite (ongoing) story there is this story about explaining the human experience to an alien entity. Outside HFY, Ray Bradbury is one of my all-time favorite authors for the way his plot twists blend futuristic science and human morality.
Bottom middle panel. Take out the speech bubbles, maybe edit the reflections in Sydney’s glasses (like to computer code or something), blow it up into a splash page. That would make for an awesome view :)
Waiting for the first one to consult their guidebook and confidently say “my hovercraft is full of eels” ;)
You definitely captured the “all of New York is constantly under construction” vibe well ;)
I’ve visited New York. When I was there, there was a fairly significant portion of Central Square Park that was not under construction. I also saw something like 2% of the Met, and that 2% was not under construction. (My friend who was at the time living in New York who served as my Met tour guide claimed I saw 10%, but I’m pretty sure I only saw at most 20% of what they tried to show me.)
I will admit, I could probably list pages worth of stuff that was under construction. I could get behind “almost all of” or maybe “is almost constantly”. But I definitely saw bits that weren’t under construction for at least a day or so.
I’ve worked in Times Square quite a bit for a few law firms (usually on discovery cases where they hire a few hundred attorneys to do a lot of e-discovery work for class action lawsuits or M&A lawsuits, etc) – there’s basically about 4 or 5 blocks which are considered Times Square in the movies and TV. Usually between 42nd to 47th street and Broadway to 7th ave , but the main spot tends to be the area around One Times Square at Broadway and 42-43rd street (I’ve worked in that building before, there are several law firms and legal agencies in it). That’s where you get most of the iconic shots, like at the end of Captain America, etc, the biggest crowds form there, Dick Clark’s New Years Rockin Eve stuff happens there with the ball dropping, etc.
I’m curious – how often does Times Square get attacked by aliens or villains? I know it’s not as often as Tokyo gets monster attacks, but it’s got to be annoying to commute through the constant construction required to keep it all put together.
Eh. Tokyo doesn’t even count.
I mean, what the hell did they EXPECT when they built their capitol city right in the middle of a giant monster migration route?
Dabbler, the tentacled races of the galaxy take affront at your words. All species do not have ‘sucky members’. That’s one of the things that makes tentacles special. You’re hurting Trent’s feelings!