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May the AnthroPC Activist

Dale, Magical Love Gentleman

The Battle of The Spiderzone

Marten the Big Brother

Sam, Veronica's Padawan

Hannelore discovers Yuri/Shojou-Ai

More Jim and Veronica hijinks

Late Night with Angus McPhee and Faye Whittaker

Yelling Bird humps the Shame Orb

Spathe Ham with Bacon Waffles

Purple Monkey Dishwasher

[Method of Madness]

I did miss that! Still fucked up though that a kid can be prosecuted for that, though.

[Kugai]

Lets hope she doesn't need The Holy Handgrenade of Antioch

[ThomasEll]

The strip is based in Massa......Massacult......Massachusetts, right? JJ might've wanted to do a little research first....

I'm not sure I see the issue, it's illegal to ask about arrests, but she's being asked about convictions. Unless I missed something.

cesariojpn is right, though his link has nothing to do with the actual Massachusetts law. In 2010, Massachusetts legislated a "ban the box" provision that prohibits employers from asking about criminal history on an initial job application. They may legally ask for criminal history later in the application process and run background checks, but they may not do so on your standard first paper application.

http://www.littler.com/publication-press/publication/massachusetts-becomes-second-state-ban-box-all-employment-applications

All of those applications May has picked up are definitely illegal.

I think what you guys are forgetting is that it likely isn't even 2010 yet in the QC universe.

Jeph said in 2012 that "at least a couple years in comic-time since the strip started.", and in 2006 said that no more than 6 months had passed.

With that, you can extrapolate that roughly six months passes for every 3 years of writing (assuming roughly even time flow). Lowest estimate would put the QC universe at about 2006, possibly around 2008 max (although this is just a guess).

Given that, the law that would make those check boxes illegal probably wouldn't have been passed.

[pwhodges]

I view QC time as paradoxical; the comic remains in the present (in an alternate universe, though), even while time passes at a different rate.

[Method of Madness]

We don't know what year it was when the comic started. It could all take place in the not too distant future.

[pwhodges]

The music references were current.

[Method of Madness]

I forgot about the music.

[cesariojpn]

I figured cash-heavy businesses would be less of a worry, since her theft was electronic-based.

Checks and Credit Cards. Considering how many people nowadays are paranoid some hacker can steal their identity, all it would take is for one asshole customer who got their CC full of false transactions to direct their misguided rage at May and get her into trouble, regardless if she wasn't even the cause.

In the UK, women (or more accurately, people with vaginas) cannot commit rape - the offence specifies that it involves penile penetration. The equivalent offence of non-consensual sex carries the same maximum penalties but not the same name.

So wait, if a Transwoman that hasn't undergone the operation rapes someone, are they tried under the sex they are officially registered as at the time of the crime, or does CPS have to chose? It's something that makes you think from a legal perspective.

[jwhouk]

It all depends on who's older and whether or not daddy has lawyers, sometimes.


(I know, by the way. I have a cottage full of SO's whose crime is because they boffed their GF, and they were both under age at the time.)

[DSL]

We don't know what year it was when the comic started. It could all take place in the not too distant future.

Next Sunday, A.D., to be precise.

[T]

I view QC time as paradoxical; the comic remains in the present (in an alternate universe, though), even while time passes at a different rate.

Probably like in shows like Phineas and Ferb and Yotsubato where the days pass but they are eternally stuck in a summer day.

[Jazzmaster]

I view QC time as paradoxical; the comic remains in the present (in an alternate universe, though), even while time passes at a different rate.

Probably like in shows like Phineas and Ferb and Yotsubato where the days pass but they are eternally stuck in a summer day.

Or Pokémon, where Ash is eternally ten years of age.

[Method of Madness]

Luckily this is the QCverse, where a convenience store job probably pays enough for your own apartment.

[Tova]

I think it's a bit fruitless trying to look too seriously at how much time has passed (not that this has ever stopped a discussion in here before, but hey). It would be like trying to work out how old characters are in Peanuts by the number of strips. That's not how it works. Everything is in webcomic time. Related to comic time (aka the sliding timescale).

Of course there's a TV tropes entry.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WebcomicTime

If you're going in, I wish you godspeed.

[cesariojpn]

Luckily this is the QCverse, where a convenience store job probably pays enough for your own apartment.

Dale had multiple jobs, right? The bigger question would be how does a barista like Faye even afford her half of the rent between her and Marten.

[themacnut]

Webcomic economics, of course. Where jobs like barista, office bitch, college library assistant and the like actually pay enough for a halfway-decent apartment in a decent neighborhood. Even then, for Faye and Marten to afford an actual 2-bedroom apartment required them to pool their incomes.

In real life they'd both still be at home with their parents or living in a neighborhood with a high crime rate.

[Nepiophage]

What I was hoping the poll would be about is what kind of job the 4th application was for.

Now we know

[hedgie]

Webcomic economics, of course. Where jobs like barista, office bitch, college library assistant and the like actually pay enough for a halfway-decent apartment in a decent neighborhood. Even then, for Faye and Marten to afford an actual 2-bedroom apartment required them to pool their incomes.

In real life they'd both still be at home with their parents or living in a neighborhood with a high crime rate.

Depends.  With a gf, I was able to afford a rather large one bedroom flat in SF on barista wages.  Even after she left, since I was rent-controlled, my boss paid me enough to cover rent, and I could live entirely off tips… And I mean shopping for real food instead of ramen, and being able to drink and smoke.  'Course that was before the price for everything there essentially doubled 'cos of the mini tech boom which has driven most people I know over to Oakland.

[KOK]

Things are different in the QC-verse. How is it more difficult to accept that the box has not been banned than to accept AI civil rights?

[Barmymoo]

So wait, if a Transwoman that hasn't undergone the operation rapes someone, are they tried under the sex they are officially registered as at the time of the crime, or does CPS have to chose? It's something that makes you think from a legal perspective.

That's why saying "women can't commit rape" is misleading, because the legislation doesn't specify that you have to be male, it specifies that you have to have a penis. So women who have penises are able to commit rape, and would be prosecuted under that offence in the same way as men who have penises. Men and women who have vaginas would be prosecuted under a different offence.

[Thrillho]

May continues to annoy me.

Although in all seriousness, she just got out of jail for embezzling millions, what does she expect?

[hedgie]

In the not so distant future…  Cue the MST3K song.

[Mad Cat]

A marijuana store, whether medical marijuana or a "hemp" store that operates out of a van, I would think, would have a clientele that would want to buy from people who could give them personal recommendations from their own experience. Can May even smell in her present chassis? Surely human recreational chemicals cannot affect anthroPCs.

Customer: Which would you recommend? The California Cornucopia blend or the Massachusetts Marauder blend for a bitchin' weekend?
May: Which ever one gives me the largest commission.

[GarandMarine]

^ Spoken like someone who's never done real sales. It's not about personal experience. You can sell cars to people without even having a driver's license. So for example, let's say the Mass. Marauder blend does give me (as May) the better commission and it's being recommended by the store as a local blend. You can push all those points (without mentioning you get paid better for it) and get people thinking it's a brilliant idea to buy that item, whatever the hell it is, without making any outlandish claims, promises or vetting personal experience.

For example. "Well I'd suggest you try our Ganja of the Month the Massachusetts Marauder, it's 100% organic with no pesticides and it's grown in fresh local New England loam in controlled conditions year round, we like supporting our local growers, and the customers I have coming back for more certainly seem to agree."

Or if it's an individual more like the stoners I usually meet.

"Bro. The Marauder, hands down man. It's the bitchinist weekend you'll have this weekend"

[KOK]

So Dale no longer works at the convenience store. When applying to Dora, he only mentioned wanting to quit the pizza job. That was also the one job we have seen him quit, and the only one we have seen him tell anyone that he has quit.

[T]

Webcomic economics, of course. Where jobs like barista, office bitch, college library assistant and the like actually pay enough for a halfway-decent apartment in a decent neighborhood. Even then, for Faye and Marten to afford an actual 2-bedroom apartment required them to pool their incomes.

In real life they'd both still be at home with their parents or living in a neighborhood with a high crime rate.

Depends.  With a gf, I was able to afford a rather large one bedroom flat in SF on barista wages.  Even after she left, since I was rent-controlled, my boss paid me enough to cover rent, and I could live entirely off tips… And I mean shopping for real food instead of ramen, and being able to drink and smoke.  'Course that was before the price for everything there essentially doubled 'cos of the mini tech boom which has driven most people I know over to Oakland.

What if the massive automation caused a massive reduction in prices (forklift AIs, factory AIs, agriculture AIs) this way production is cheap and humans migrated to the third sector (not sure if this term exists in English) so at least in the developed countries you don't need a good job to have a good life standard. Undeveloped countries and developing countries that rely on cheap labour on the other hand should be in a bad situation (mentioned in the firsts comics).

[Is it cold in here?]

Coffee seems to have about the same price there as here, ditto guitars. A good restaurant meal is forty dollars. AI automation wouldn't help with rent prices, which are set by physical scarcity of land near employment.

This is fascinating to think about.

[CaptainFish]

May has Sonic spines for hair.

That is all.

(Sorry if this is old)

[hedgie]

I heartily approve of anything hedgehog related.

[Kugai]

Don't dis the Hemp Store van Dale

It's a chance for travel.

[T]

Coffee seems to have about the same price there as here, ditto guitars. A good restaurant meal is forty dollars. AI automation wouldn't help with rent prices, which are set by physical scarcity of land near employment.

This is fascinating to think about.

But maybe the money value is not the same.

I mean, like if everything is the same price but everyones salary is 10 times higher than if they had the same jobs in our world?

[Method of Madness]

Although in all seriousness, she just got out of jail for embezzling millions, what does she expect?

She paid her debt to society and expects that to mean something.

[CaptainFish]

I get that her crime is probably more for humour and establishing character than universe building, but it's still kinda weird to me that she felt she had to steal money to do/become what she wanted to be rather than just getting to do/be it. Surely she could've become a plane or aircraft AI somehow. Although maybe there's a lot of competition/screening for those tasks beyond appliance bots.

(Again, feel free to throw rocks at me if this is old ground)

[Method of Madness]

Well she probably wanted to just be a fighter jet and be able to fly around all day without any of the responsibilities a fighter jet usually has.

[Aziraphale]

Well she probably wanted to just be a fighter jet and be able to fly around all day without any of the responsibilities a fighter jet usually has.

Reality check: if they do a psych eval on police officers, you think they wouldn't do one on a sentient fighter drone? The only thing scarier than a heavily-armed sociopath or psychopath is a heavily-armed, winged sociopath or psychopath with jet engines.   

[Method of Madness]

Well yeah, that's why she tried to buy one on the black market.

[judemorrigan]

Mmmm, frog smoothies....

[Method of Madness]

I hope Froglord likes bananas.

[cesium133]

Does Emily look different now?

[Method of Madness]

It might be the clothes.

[jwhouk]

Her hair also appears to have grown back out a bit.

Could it be that (shock faint horror) time is actually passing in the QC-verse?

[Zebediah]

Yes, I also thought Emily looked a bit different. Something in the shape of her face, I think. I'm not sure I like it.

[Is it cold in here?]

Coffee seems to have about the same price there as here, ditto guitars. A good restaurant meal is forty dollars. AI automation wouldn't help with rent prices, which are set by physical scarcity of land near employment.

This is fascinating to think about.

But maybe the money value is not the same.

I mean, like if everything is the same price but everyones salary is 10 times higher than if they had the same jobs in our world?

Economics could definitely work that way. On the other hand, near the start of the comic Marten said he was making barely USD20K/yr.

[GarandMarine]

Silly Sam and Marten friend! You can't go innawoods like that! You need a Mosin-Nagant to go innawoods!

[T]

Coffee seems to have about the same price there as here, ditto guitars. A good restaurant meal is forty dollars. AI automation wouldn't help with rent prices, which are set by physical scarcity of land near employment.

This is fascinating to think about.

But maybe the money value is not the same.

I mean, like if everything is the same price but everyones salary is 10 times higher than if they had the same jobs in our world?

Economics could definitely work that way. On the other hand, near the start of the comic Marten said he was making barely USD20K/yr.

What was his job back them?

[Aziraphale]

Coffee seems to have about the same price there as here, ditto guitars. A good restaurant meal is forty dollars. AI automation wouldn't help with rent prices, which are set by physical scarcity of land near employment.

This is fascinating to think about.

But maybe the money value is not the same.

I mean, like if everything is the same price but everyones salary is 10 times higher than if they had the same jobs in our world?

Economics could definitely work that way. On the other hand, near the start of the comic Marten said he was making barely USD20K/yr.

What was his job back them?

Office drone.

[Aziraphale]

Yes, I also thought Emily looked a bit different. Something in the shape of her face, I think. I'm not sure I like it.

Everybody tends to come back looking different when they haven't been drawn in a while.

[Is it cold in here?]

It's the humidity.

[Pilchard123]

What's green but turns red at the touch of a button?

A frog in a blender.

[Shjade]

So Dale no longer works at the convenience store. When applying to Dora, he only mentioned wanting to quit the pizza job. That was also the one job we have seen him quit, and the only one we have seen him tell anyone that he has quit.

A previous convenience store job he held before his current set of jobs, maybe?