THESE FORUMS NOW CLOSED (read only)
Comic Discussion => QUESTIONABLE CONTENT => Topic started by: BenRG on 28 Jun 2020, 10:13
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It has long been a tradition for people to tell their own story in print. Trapped as you are by the Lockdown, which character's inspiration (or warning) life-story would you choose to read? I admit to being tempted by Pintsize's story just for the laughs or Yay for the view of society and our entire world from the outside.
However, in the end, I think I'd end up curling up with Hannelore's life-story. I think that her slightly disconnected impressions of the powerful people who moved through her life (mostly in her parents' orbit) would be very insightful. I also think that her life journey could be inspiring in places.
What do you think?
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Looks like I'm going to build another bookshelf.
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I think we're already reading Marten's Life Story.
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Oh, definitely Hannelore's story, with Claire's being the runner-up. Both of them are fighters and I find that very inspirational.
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I can't imagine Yay actually writing a autobiography, but if she did I'd read it.
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How many theremins has Emily assembled during her lifetime?
Either that, or she memorized the instructions beforehand.
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That was a awful pun, Boo. Hiss. :-D
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I chose "The Witch of Northhampton" by Dora, just because her entire little empire at Coffee of Doom is like a bizarre little universe of its own... :-D
And about today's strip:
BY ALL THAT'S HOLY, DON'T LET HER FINISH IT!!! My God, Emily's dangerous enough around technology when she's conscious - who knows what she's capable of when her subconscious has free rein!!
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Time to clear another shelf since there is no more room for more shelves and archive some more books in the bankers boxes of ... "What did I put in here?"
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And that is how you write a shaggy dog.
Awful pun. And by awful, I mean brilliant.
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Torn between Hanner's and Roko's.
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This is another one of those strips that convinces me that there is something unsaid and special about Emily. I'm not sure what it is but, frequently, you get these little hints that her brain is not only wired up differently from that of most people, it may literally be wired up!
That was a awful pun, Boo. Hiss. :-D
Yes, this is another one of those times when you know that Jeph wrote the strip backwards from the punchline!
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Very disappointed to see that "I'm no Mooch" by Sven hasn't been optioned yet...
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Sven is Not A Mooch = Epstein Didn't Kill Himself?
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That was a awful pun, Boo. Hiss. :-D
I must be REALLY thick. I have no idea what you are referring to.
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That was a awful pun, Boo. Hiss. :-D
I must be REALLY thick. I have no idea what you are referring to.
"Some assembly required" changed to "Somnassembly" (literally, 'built whilst sleeping') required".
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That was a awful pun, Boo. Hiss. :-D
For somebody who has repeatedly stated in his newposts and elsewhere to utterly despise puns Jeph's web comic is full of them.
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That was the best Theremin related pun I have ever seen.
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That was a awful pun, Boo. Hiss. :-D
I must be REALLY thick. I have no idea what you are referring to.
The somn- prefix refers to sleep, and gives us such delightful words as somnambulance (sleepwalking), somnial (relating to dreams), and somniloquy (talking in your sleep).
Jeph took the prefix and made his very own nonce word, punning on "some assembly required."
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I am getting very strong Azumanga Daioh vibes from this comic.
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Don't worry, they have Crocodile Dundee on the staff.
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Here we see Marten in his natural habitat. He senses an approaching conflict with his mate. His fierce loyalty battles with his sense of complacency.
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Australia! In which the difficulty level is "Ha ha FUCK no."
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This concludes the day, and at 61 comics for one day, I have to wonder if this is the longest it's taken to do a single day in QC history. Probably not, but I'd be impressed if people had info on hand.
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The population of Australia is over 25 million and in a given year less than 2 people will die from an incident with a crocodile. You have slightly better chances of getting killed by a dog, and the deadliest animals in Australia would be domestic ones - cows, horses, etc. (Not including the deadliest animal of all - humans.)
Australia, difficulty level: dogs
(unless you live on a cattle farm in which case the difficulty level is cows)
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I am getting very strong Azumanga Daioh vibes from this comic.
You mean, just now?
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It's the funnel-web spiders you've really gotta watch out for. They'll crawl into your underpants and lie in wait for your fleshy bits...
Oh, and sharks.
And snakes.
And....y'know what? Just assume EVERYTHING here wants to eat/kill you. My cat is living proof.
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Oblig Pratchett: "When Death requested a book about the dangerous creatures of XXXX from his library, he was subsequently hit by a large pile of books consisting of the various volumes of "Dangerous Mammals, Reptiles, Amphibians, Birds, Fish, Jellyfish, Insects, Spiders, Crustaceans, Grasses, Trees, Mosses and Lichens of Terror Incognita", the total books going up to Volume 29C Part 3, while a request for information about the harmless creatures merely produced a note saying "Some of the sheep"."
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Everyone likes to talk about the crocs and the spiders and the sharks. Oh, and the drop bears, obvs.
In practice, the ones I genuinely worry about are kangaroos and cows and jellyfish.
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I am getting very strong Azumanga Daioh vibes from this comic.
You mean, just now?
Stronger than usual.
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"...they're not allowed in libraries."
True - not that I'd try and stop 'em. :wink:
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My brother is currently a Floridian. Apparently walking one's dog (or other pet) can be a trecherous enough afair. I wouldn't want to deal with those crocodiles.
In regards to the margin text.
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Very disappointed to see that "I'm no Mooch" by Sven hasn't been optioned yet...
I know I've used it in at least two polls.
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Oblig Pratchett: ... a request for information about the harmless creatures merely produced a note saying "Some of the sheep"."
I've always found that punchline a bit weird considering just how many non-deadly native animals there are in Australia. So many of them need protecting from introduced species like foxes and cats.
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The population of Australia is over 25 million and in a given year less than 2 people will die from an incident with a crocodile. You have slightly better chances of getting killed by a dog, and the deadliest animals in Australia would be domestic ones - cows, horses, etc. (Not including the deadliest animal of all - humans.)
Australia, difficulty level: dogs
(unless you live on a cattle farm in which case the difficulty level is cows)
Welcome, new person!
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Oblig Pratchett: ... a request for information about the harmless creatures merely produced a note saying "Some of the sheep"."
I've always found that punchline a bit weird considering just how many non-deadly native animals there are in Australia. So many of them need protecting from introduced species like foxes and cats.
(https://savethebilbyfund.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Bilby-stbf-2.jpg)
bilbies (https://savethebilbyfund.com/about-bilbies/)
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(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/05/Numbat.jpg/800px-Numbat.jpg)
Also numbats (http://www.numbat.org.au/)
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Welcome, new person!
Hello!
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The real problem for Claire if she's serious about getting a job in Australia is the basically iron wall for immigrant labour of any kind. IIRC, you need to demonstrate that you can achieve a certain minimum income in the country starting immediately before they'll let you in. Oh, and to be brutally honest, her gender situation would not do her any favours with their governing culture either.
However, I do wonder if we're being given a hint here. A certain optical technology development firm has an Australian flightless bird as its mascot. Not all libraries are what we traditionally think of as 'libraries'. Sometimes they are more like technical archives but may still need skilled custodians. What I'm saying is that Claire may get a job with Invisible Emu to keep their technical archives and library in a better state than 'I think we left the box of awarded patents over there somewhere'.
Australia is a remarkably aggressive place in terms of its biosphere and even its geology to the point where TV Tropes. org has nominated it as the closest place on Earth one gets to a Death World. That said, the majority of problems in Australia seem to boil down to humans seeming to have no obvious common sense instinct when dealing with the habitats of large and dangerous territorial animals and a bizarre assumption that cute looking = safe. That's potentially lethal on any continent!
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"...they're not allowed in libraries."
True - not that I'd try and stop 'em. :wink:
Oh, they're allowed in. But they're too afraid to enter. It's Evolution, the ones that survive know better.
Have you ever met an angry, or even slightly miffed, Australian Librarian?
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Australia is a remarkably aggressive place in terms of its biosphere and even its geology to the point where TV Tropes. org has nominated it as the closest place on Earth one gets to a Death World. That said, the majority of problems in Australia seem to boil down to humans seeming to have no obvious common sense instinct when dealing with the habitats of large and dangerous territorial animals and a bizarre assumption that cute looking = safe. That's potentially lethal on any continent!
point taken but i dunno... Caracas, San Pedro Sula, Cape Town, Juarez, South Chicago; those places look like Death World to me. talk about dangerous territorial animals.
that would be fun to see Claire at Invisible Emu. it could also bring Millefeuille and the Secret Bakery gang closer to Martin's inner circle.
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I can say that, living and working in the south of Australia, crocodiles are not a major concern for me.
In my previous job I was working on an island where there were two protected species, a wallaby and a snake. It was mostly a matter of being careful not to hit anything on the way home (I wasn't in early enough to catch the morning wildlife peak), though I did hear of an occasion when one of the snakes got into the building next to ours and had to be gently persuaded to go out again, which I believe took some time to do. I don't recall now whether the snakes were venomous.
In suburbia you don't really encounter most of the dangerous animals. You just have to watch out for whatever spiders live in your area, and sharks and jellyfish at the beach. If you live in the country you do have more things to watch out for.
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When I saw Jeph's "Whatta beauty" comment below the comic, I thought it was referring to Claire in the first panel. It took me a moment to realize it was a Crocodile Hunter reference. :P
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Since when does time of day prevent an online application or job search?
(Hang on... is it CLAIR that's getting it wrong here? Martin means "it's late at night - go to sleep" Clair is taking it in the "working hours" sense... and is still a wee bit stoned...)
??
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So, speaking of endangered animals...
Koalas will be driven to extinction before 2050 in NSW, major inquiry finds (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/30/koalas-will-be-driven-to-extinction-by-2050-in-nsw-major-inquiry-finds)
Unsurprisingly, habitat loss is their biggest threat.
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Since when does time of day prevent an online application or job search?
(Hang on... is it CLAIR that's getting it wrong here? Martin means "it's late at night - go to sleep" Clair is taking it in the "working hours" sense... and is still a wee bit stoned...)
??
Marten is questioning whether there would have been any new job listings created since the last time Claire checked. Which, if it was at some point during the previous evening, would seem unlikely at 1 am. Claire points out it's afternoon in Australia, meaning that new job postings may have been created there since the last search.
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Since when does time of day prevent an online application or job search?
(Hang on... is it CLAIR that's getting it wrong here? Martin means "it's late at night - go to sleep" Clair is taking it in the "working hours" sense... and is still a wee bit stoned...)
??
Marten is questioning whether there would have been any new job listings created since the last time Claire checked. Which, if it was at some point during the previous evening, would seem unlikely at 1 am. Claire points out it's afternoon in Australia, meaning that new job postings may have been created there since the last search.
Yep - another possible explanation...
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Wellll I'm a fan of the explanation that means that what we saw made some kind of sense, YMMV 8-)
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Or maybe they each mean what you both said they could mean but because the two statements so far are ambiguous enough to plausibly follow from the other, regardless, no actual communication has taken place and they will have a silly argument over who meant what later?
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Everyone likes to talk about the crocs and the spiders and the sharks. Oh, and the drop bears, obvs.
In practice, the ones I genuinely worry about are kangaroos and cows and jellyfish.
Tbh, I find the fact that there are humans who choose to live with Australian fauna voluntarily a lot scarier than the crocs and the dropbears ...
*cautiously edges towards the exit*
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And some of the sheep.
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Marten is questioning whether there would have been any new job listings created since the last time Claire checked. Which, if it was at some point during the previous evening, would seem unlikely at 1 am. Claire points out it's afternoon in Australia, meaning that new job postings may have been created there since the last search.
Not that unlikely actually: A lot of ads are created in advance and go online at a specific time&date, which usually is midnight simply because the people entering the ad into the computer doesn't bother to change the default.
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That was a awful pun, Boo. Hiss. :-D
I must be REALLY thick. I have no idea what you are referring to.
"Some assembly required" changed to "Somnassembly" (literally, 'built whilst sleeping') required".
Oh, that? I thot shanejayell meant something in this thread. "Somnassembly" is FUCKING AWESOME.
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Tbh, I find the fact that there are humans who choose to live with Australian fauna voluntarily a lot scarier than the crocs and the dropbears ...
*cautiously edges towards the exit*
I live with two cats, personally. :-D
Not that unlikely actually: A lot of ads are created in advance and go online at a specific time&date, which usually is midnight simply because the people entering the ad into the computer doesn't bother to change the default.
Good point!
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New comic!
Morning, Beeps!
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She can't really gargle mouthwash, so she plays a stock sound effect and just kinda shakes her head around.
Also, it's actually Windex.
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Ha, the first thing I checked in that comic was: "is that REALLY mouthwash, or something else?" :D
Also: morning Beepatrice! I wish I could wake up as happy and motivated as you. My morning exercise consists of ignoring my alarm clock for 30 mins.
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So, Beepatrice joins the large group of QC synthetics who either 'want to be human' on some subconscious level or do human things in human ways, possibly because their environment have taught them to consider it as 'the normal way to do it'. However, for Beeps, I think that the key here is that Roko is very, very anthropomimetic in all of her appearance and behaviour. Remember that Beeps has imprinted on her as a paragon of strength, so maybe she's concluded: "I must act like Roko to be strong; Roko acts very human so I must act very human, no matter how ridiculous it seems!"
Also - T-shirt confirms that Beepatrice is a cat lover. Welcome to the pride, sister!
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I don't know what Roko's going on about, those are all clearly standard diagnostic and care exercises for robot frames. Check to ensure joints continue to operate properly, test watertight integrity, and of course clean out those nooks and crannies where dirt can accumulate.
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It's the funnel-web spiders you've really gotta watch out for. They'll crawl into your underpants and lie in wait for your fleshy bits...
Oh, and sharks.
And snakes.
And....y'know what? Just assume EVERYTHING here wants to eat/kill you. My cat is living proof.
To be fair, there aren't that many things in Australia that want to kill you. I've lived here my whole life, and I haven't had more than - what, about half a dozen encounters with lethal venomous wildlife? - And only a couple of them were likely to actually kill me if they'd bitten me - and I've only been bitten once on the hand by a spider which wasn't that bad as it only left me numb to the shoulder for an hour or so - and stingers at the beach are something you learn to live with - and the inch-ants are quite docile (misnamed really, as they're more like two inches) - and angry bee-swarms can happen anywhere...
So, yeah, it's not that bad here:
:evil:
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Ha, the first thing I checked in that comic was: "is that REALLY mouthwash, or something else?" :D
Also: morning Beepatrice! I wish I could wake up as happy and motivated as you. My morning exercise consists of ignoring my alarm clock for 30 mins.
My morning routine consists mostly of ill-tempered guttural grunts and poorly coordinated fumbling in the general direction of the coffee machine.
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- Wake up to meows and claws of hungry cats
- Stumble downstairs, try not to fall down stairs*
- Switch on coffee machine (priorities)
- Feed hungry cats - this involves putting some of the food into a cat puzzle to slow down the dominant cat so he doesn't finish his and then steal the other cat's breakfast
- Make coffee for partner
- Play with cats for a bit, give them a final treat
- Make coffee and breakfast for myself, try not to let cats eat it
- Glance at news and forums, try not to lose too much hope in humanity**
- Shower and shave, try not to cut myself***
* If I had to bet on how I'm likely to go, falling down the stairs first thing in the morning would have to be a short-priced favourite.
** I really need to make this step optional
*** Incidentally, typing is hard with a band-aid on your finger****
*** Don't ask
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It's the funnel-web spiders you've really gotta watch out for. They'll crawl into your underpants and lie in wait for your fleshy bits...
Oh, and sharks.
And snakes.
And....y'know what? Just assume EVERYTHING here wants to eat/kill you. My cat is living proof.
To be fair, there aren't that many things in Australia that want to kill you. I've lived here my whole life, and I haven't had more than - what, about half a dozen encounters with lethal venomous wildlife? - And only a couple of them were likely to actually kill me if they'd bitten me - and I've only been bitten once on the hand by a spider which wasn't that bad as it only left me numb to the shoulder for an hour or so - and stingers at the beach are something you learn to live with - and the inch-ants are quite docile (misnamed really, as they're more like two inches) - and angry bee-swarms can happen anywhere...
So, yeah, it's not that bad here:
:evil:
See, when someone in my country has an encounter with deadly venomous wildlife… it’s usually something Australian that hitched a ride here in a cargo container.
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Compare to my experience living in North America my entire life. I’ve had precisely one encounter with potentially deadly wildlife of the nonhuman variety, and the rattlesnake had the courtesy to warn me before I stepped on it. It didn’t want to bite me and I didn’t want to step on it, so there was room for mutual understanding and accommodation.
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Roko, no! Stop channeling Emperor Palpatine! It'll age you prematurely.
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From a writing standpoint, if you had the robots be inhuman/eldrich/etc etc, they'd be unrelatable.
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This may spark some debate, but you don't need to make every character in your writing relatable to every reader.
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So, speaking of endangered animals...
Koalas will be driven to extinction before 2050 in NSW, major inquiry finds (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/30/koalas-will-be-driven-to-extinction-by-2050-in-nsw-major-inquiry-finds)
Unsurprisingly, habitat loss is their biggest threat.
Don't most koalas die because they literally can't chew their own food anymore after their teeth naturally wear down?
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Roko's sinking a lot of invective into words/insults used against humans. Methinks she might have some bias, if not bigotry, to work through.
Dealing unfeeling bureaucrats and prejudiced humans might have a hand in those feelings forming.
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I just came here to express my appreciation for "sudokufucker." That's not an insult you hear every day.
Also, I rather like Roku expressing her rage at obstructive, useless bureaucrats.
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This may spark some debate, but you don't need to make every character in your writing relatable to every reader.
GASP. Blasphemy! :D
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Yeah, bureaucracy sucks. I just applied for citizenship (in New Zealand), and they'll get back to me in 3 months or so. Honestly, what are they doing in the meantime? Shredding my application and then putting it back together as a team building exercise or something? Or just doing unmentionable things to Sudokus...
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Hey, we don't approve of kink shaming around here. 8-)
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So, speaking of endangered animals...
Koalas will be driven to extinction before 2050 in NSW, major inquiry finds (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/30/koalas-will-be-driven-to-extinction-by-2050-in-nsw-major-inquiry-finds)
Unsurprisingly, habitat loss is their biggest threat.
Don't most koalas die because they literally can't chew their own food anymore after their teeth naturally wear down?
From what I can find out, the major causes of koala death are the following, more or less in order (sources don't always agree about the order):
- Habitat loss
- Hit by cars
- Disease, particularly a range of conditions caused by chlamydia
- Dog attacks
"Other trauma", "Senescence", "Other disease", and "Undetermined" seem to form the next tier down according to this source (https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/data/UQ_096124a/s43444281_phd_finalthesis.pdf) at around 2-2.5% each, which was the only one I saw that actually went into the minor causes. (The best other sources I found were QLD Dept. of Environment & Science (https://environment.des.qld.gov.au/wildlife/animals/living-with/koalas/threats) and Australian Koala Foundation (https://www.savethekoala.com/about-koalas/threats-koala).)
I did find a source that supported your claims at koalainfo.com (https://koalainfo.com/most-koalas-die-of-starvation). However, the quality of writing on this site is poor and there don't appear to be any references on any of their articles, so I'm dubious as to this site's accuracy. I saw one or two other sites that mentioned starvation, but they attributed it to several causes, including disease, habitat loss, climate change (which makes the leaves they eat poorer in nutrients), and koala stress syndrome. This was the only site I saw that claimed starvation was mainly due to old age, so I think this is unlikely to be true.
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Fair enough :)
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I emigrated to Australia in 1968.
We did our bit capturing funnelwebs (Atrax Robustus) from our Sydney garden to be milked for venom.
"Oh, it still has all its legs!" I remember one biologist saying. Many who contributed were none too careful about what condition the arachnid was in when they were turned in.
The antivenom was finally completed in 1981, and since then, no deaths have been recorded from funnelweb bites.
Probably the most danger I was ever in was when snorkelling off the heads between Newport and Bungan beach, came up after a 1.5 minute stay at 5 metres, and heard sirens. Shark alarm. Then put my head underwater and saw a school of bull sharks heading my way. A lifesaver inflateable boat chased them off while I slowly swam back to shore, trying very hard not to splash around like an injured fish, and ready to punch one in the sensitive nose if it got too close.
The last encounter I had was about 3 weeks ago, cleaning a table from outside. A nest of redbacks. Chemical weapons were employed.
Since 1968, I've had maybe one encounter per year on average. One nasty spider bite (a bird eater, bled a lot), one experience sharing my trousers with a scorpion (not dangerous, just as painful as hornet stings) on an exercise. Numerous bullant stings when clearing out nests, no worse than bee stings. Front end bites and draws blood, rear end stings like a wasp - which they are ancestral to.
The US has bears, gila monsters, mountain lions, alligators, porcupines, rattlesnakes etc too remember?
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Yeah, bureaucracy sucks. I just applied for citizenship (in New Zealand), and they'll get back to me in 3 months or so. Honestly, what are they doing in the meantime? Shredding my application and then putting it back together as a team building exercise or something? Or just doing unmentionable things to Sudokus...
Only three months? That's half the time you wait here. And I have it from good sources that it only takes a week or so to handle the actual paperwork. Rest of the time, it's just sitting on a desk somewhere.
Then again, I heard stories about people retiring, only for their successor to find a full ten years worth of untreated dossiers.
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My brother is currently a Floridian. Apparently walking one's dog (or other pet) can be a trecherous enough afair. I wouldn't want to deal with those crocodiles.
Our crocodiles are pretty harmless (they very much try to avoid people). The alligators - not nearly as much (and there are *way* more of them). (Though even they rarely are dangerous if you don’t do stupid things.)
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I think that Yay showing Roko how to access her manual was probably a bad idea. She's now got access to all her user-defined cosmetic functions and has apparently linked them to her emotions. I mean, as much as the glowing red eyes are cool, I'm pretty sure that Beepatrice isn't the only one who finds it unnerving. It also may somewhat undermine Roko's desire to come across as a 'good guy'.
I'm thinking that, whoever Munroe Robotics turn out to be, there is a reason why we haven't heard of them before!
Roko's sinking a lot of invective into words/insults used against humans. Methinks she might have some bias, if not bigotry, to work through.
Nah, she just hates the guy in the probation office who essentially called her a time-waster and an idiot.
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So, speaking of endangered animals...
Koalas will be driven to extinction before 2050 in NSW, major inquiry finds (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/30/koalas-will-be-driven-to-extinction-by-2050-in-nsw-major-inquiry-finds)
Unsurprisingly, habitat loss is their biggest threat.
Don't most koalas die because they literally can't chew their own food anymore after their teeth naturally wear down?
From what I can find out, the major causes of koala death are the following, more or less in order (sources don't always agree about the order):
- Habitat loss
- Hit by cars
- Disease, particularly a range of conditions caused by chlamydia
- Dog attacks
"Other trauma", "Senescence", "Other disease", and "Undetermined" seem to form the next tier down according to this source (https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/data/UQ_096124a/s43444281_phd_finalthesis.pdf) at around 2-2.5% each, which was the only one I saw that actually went into the minor causes. (The best other sources I found were QLD Dept. of Environment & Science (https://environment.des.qld.gov.au/wildlife/animals/living-with/koalas/threats) and Australian Koala Foundation (https://www.savethekoala.com/about-koalas/threats-koala).)
I did find a source that supported your claims at koalainfo.com (https://koalainfo.com/most-koalas-die-of-starvation). However, the quality of writing on this site is poor and there don't appear to be any references on any of their articles, so I'm dubious as to this site's accuracy. I saw one or two other sites that mentioned starvation, but they attributed it to several causes, including disease, habitat loss, climate change (which makes the leaves they eat poorer in nutrients), and koala stress syndrome. This was the only site I saw that claimed starvation was mainly due to old age, so I think this is unlikely to be true.
I just vaguely remembered the thing about koala teeth grinding down. I honestly couldn't tell you where I read/heard it.
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Roko's sinking a lot of invective into words/insults used against humans. Methinks she might have some bias, if not bigotry, to work through.
Nah, she just hates the guy in the probation office who essentially called her a time-waster and an idiot.
to be fair to Roko, it seems to only be directly at that particular guy, who is a total asshat
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Funny thing is, if she did go back and say that to him, he'd probably just smile smugly and say, "Great, it's about time you found a market-based solution. Now, if you've finished wasting my time again, I've got a Sudoku puzzle to be getting on with."
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Munroe Robotics: My guess is this is a reference to Randall Munroe's XKCD (another favorite comic strip). Even if not, I approve!
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I just came here to express my appreciation for "sudokufucker." That's not an insult you hear every day.
Also, I rather like Roku expressing her rage at obstructive, useless bureaucrats.
Leave my sudoku alone!
And we must remember Roko is an ex-cop and has dealt with humanity at its worst.
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Munroe Robotics: My guess is this is a reference to Randall Munroe's XKCD (another favorite comic strip). Even if not, I approve!
If the robots all turn out to be faceless stick figures, we’ll know for sure.
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I've always been impressed by how expressive Randall Munroe manages to make those stick figures.
Hell, he managed to imbue one of the Mars rovers with pathos.
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I just came here to express my appreciation for "sudokufucker." That's not an insult you hear every day.
Also, I rather like Roku expressing her rage at obstructive, useless bureaucrats.
Leave my sudoku alone!
And we must remember Roko is an ex-cop and has dealt with humanity at its worst.
... other cops?
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The system that produces them.
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One hazard to police attitudes is that going from one 911 call to another gives a sample-biased view of society.
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Roko should talk to Celia, she seems to be the power behind the throne.
Did anyone else do a double-take once they saw Landon? For a second I thought it was Marten with a different hair color.
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Actually Landon looks like he could have been the physical model for Winslow’s current body.
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Is Femto's body a chassis, a VR avatar, or something else?
EDIT: I wanted a possessive apostrophe, not the letter 'c'. Stupid touchscreen keyboard.
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I get the feeling I'm missing a joke here.
Oh well.
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When all you have is a really BIG hammer.....well, you want to hit something with it.
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Is Femto's body a chassis, a VR avatar, or something else?
I get the feeling they're in a VR space, given the blank blue setting.
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Actually Landon looks like he could have been the physical model for Winslow’s current body.
that's what i was going to say! he looks like a human Winslow
I get the feeling I'm missing a joke here.
Oh well.
it occurs to me like a very appropriate commentary on the current US social situation.
the national discussion is dominated by red herrings, non-sequiturs, and ridiculous "solutions" to problems that few understand.
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Yeah, Celia is definitely the thinking brain amongst this trio. Landon clearly has not yet got over the Star Wars delusion that it is possible to fix intractable social problems by shooting it with a sufficiently large directed energy weapon whilst Femto... clearly has opted out of traditional aesthetics and possibly traditional forms of communication. If their favourite superhero can say anything just by saying "I am Groot", why can't they do the same? Basically, Femto is only slightly more eccentric than many synthetics we've met so far.
I think that Roko can definitely talk Munroe Robotics into offering a 'release suit' model to the authorities. In the end, the question remains from whence comes the money. Oh, I also think that Landon can get her the arsenal she needs to become the QCverse's answer to The Punisher too.
Is Femto's body a chassis, a VR avatar, or something else?
I get the feeling they're in a VR space, given the blank blue setting.
Yeah, definitely a virtual meeting. This raises the question of whether that's Femto's real chassis or if they just use that form for virtual meetings (it's based on their Second Life avatar) and normally look quite remarkably unremarkable!
I would like to know of what they are 10-15 though...
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I keep trying to map them to stick figures.
I think I've figured out which one is Cueball and which is Megan, but I'm drawing a blank with Femto.
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Harkening back to earlier this week...
Today’s good news: they found a new prehistoric wombat! Can’t have too many (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jul/03/todays-good-news-they-found-a-new-prehistoric-wombat-cant-have-too-many)
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Hi Femto!
... and Celia is not named after a fruit.
Wonder if Munroe Robotics is hiring? Looks like Emily would fit right in.
(edits)
I think the poster yesterday says 'Uncanine Robotic Companion'. Have we seen it before?
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I get the feeling I'm missing a joke here.
Oh well.
Abolishing the carceral state (if it ever happened) would be a helluva joke, not a very funny joke mind you
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Incarceration is like democracy. It’s a pretty bad solution to the problem, but better than all the other solutions we’ve tried.
In some SF backgrounds, committing a crime gets you therapied until you stop wanting to do that again in the future. The specifics of how they go about modifying your behavior depends on how dystopian the story is. More utopian stories have mostly-painless solutions, nastier ones have serious mind control solutions like brain implants.
It’s pretty clear in the QC universe, they haven’t figured out an answer, so they’re still taking the deterrent approach. That is, crime gets you punished, which discourages crime, and since they aren’t barbarians the punishment isn’t flogging or losing body parts.
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Munroe Robotics: My guess is this is a reference to Randall Munroe's XKCD (another favorite comic strip). Even if not, I approve!
Glad I'm not the only one who immediately saw this.
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Perhaps Munroe Robotics is a startup. That would be one explanation for why we haven't heard of them yet.
In terms of the XKCD coincidence, Femto is Beret Guy.
Yeah, bureaucracy sucks. I just applied for citizenship (in New Zealand), and they'll get back to me in 3 months or so. Honestly, what are they doing in the meantime? Shredding my application and then putting it back together as a team building exercise or something?
I take exception to that attitude. Bureaucracy is serious business. How would you feel if you got wrongfully denied? In order to ensure all applications are properly processed, every task must be requested---signed in triplicate---sent in, sent back, queried (lost, found, subjected to public inquiry, lost again, finally buried in soft peat and recycled as firelighters.) Without our forefathers practicing such proper processing, where would our society stand today?
The specifics of how they go about modifying your behavior depends on how dystopian the story is. More utopian stories have mostly-painless solutions, nastier ones have serious mind control solutions like brain implants.
In my experience as an avid reader of sciencey fantasies, overt utopias are the most dystopic, compounded by the fact that their characters, readers, don't recognize to what they're complicit.
Incarceration is like democracy. It’s a pretty bad solution to the problem, but better than all the other solutions we’ve tried.
Aren't you glad we haven't looked at what others do?
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Landon looks sorta like Randall Munroe, and "Landon" is a biiiiit like "Randall" to hear. Or maybe I'm grasping at straws.
(https://elroy.twit.tv/sites/default/files/images/episodes/798831/hero/tri412.jpg)
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(https://d3gqasl9vmjfd8.cloudfront.net/80eed524-50ec-4c4c-b90f-1dce63269ba5.png)
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Oh my, how could we now have noticed that. Seriously guys, we've had cameos by a dozen sci-fi novelists and webcomic authors, as well as regular characters based on print comic characters (a notable one by Neil Gaiman that is still ongoing), as well as famous DJs. This is one of the most blatant ones; seriously, I started reading Jeph and Randall at about the same time in the early '00s and I kept i touch with both of them for a time until 10-ish years ago.
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I think Femto is an inversion of phetmo, as in, she might might be actually running on a phetmosecond substrate; She might be too quick for nano-based neurons and she's just bored.
EDIT: knowing Jeph, it's probably an anime reference.
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Who knows?
Though, I'm not seeing a neck-seam.
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Who knows?
Though, I'm not seeing a neck-seam.
good point. maybe she is not embodied and spends her time in VR to communicate with Landon more easily.
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I take exception to that attitude. Bureaucracy is serious business. How would you feel if you got wrongfully denied? In order to ensure all applications are properly processed, every task must be requested---signed in triplicate---sent in, sent back, queried (lost, found, subjected to public inquiry, lost again, finally buried in soft peat and recycled as firelighters.) Without our forefathers practicing such proper processing, where would our society stand today?
On the day that my grandmother needs to be saved from the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal, I will give bureaucracy its chance :)
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Someone going to do a new WCDT?
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Does it have to include a poll?
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Bumping this just because I have an answer to the poll for once - definitely May. God I would empathise with May's book way too much.
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Bumping this just because I have an answer to the poll for once - definitely May. God I would empathise with May's book way too much.
I... am honestly sorry to hear that. Really.