THESE FORUMS NOW CLOSED (read only)
Comic Discussion => QUESTIONABLE CONTENT => Topic started by: jwhouk on 05 Feb 2012, 06:10
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And it's week three of the storyline - what's in store for our intrepid trio?
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JW, you oughta have allowed multiple votes on this one ...
Also, <treknerd> Chekov's love interest was space-hippie Irina. (http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/File:Irina_Galliulin.jpg) There was also that Yeoman (http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/File:Martha_Landon.jpg) who really should have helped him focus him on his job.</treknerd>
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So apparently the comic's done! I hope it goes up early so we can see HOLO-PONY 2: THE WRATH OF THE HOLO-PONY.
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Just to remind you:
This space station arc is gonna go longer than I thought it would, it is a fire hose of ideas.
The reason it's going longer than I thought is I actually know where I'm going with it! There's just a lot of stuff I gotta set up. HEHEHEH
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I'm jumping on the "Marten falls for Lt. Potter and doesn't want to leave" bandwagon. Mostly because Marten has a history of making impulsive decisions that end badly in the long term when it comes to women.
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I'm going to have to put on my mod hat and tell you to be careful. That could be read the wrong way.
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I predict Hannerdad is really......a Star Trek fan. He's almost made a perfect example of Deep Space Nine.
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The best of the Star Treks.
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Hannerdad will wind up looking like Robert Beltrain. :evil:
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Hannerdad will wind up looking like Robert Beltrain. :evil:
With or without the tattoo?
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I'm jumping on the "Marten falls for Lt. Potter and doesn't want to leave" bandwagon. Mostly because Marten has a history of making impulsive decisions that end badly in the long term when it comes to women.
Moving across country to follow an established girlfriend is one thing.
Moving off planet for something that doesn't exist is quite another!
Besides, it's a space station - no room for personnel with no earthly use... :laugh:
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I'm sure the Lieutenant would find some use for him.
She's on duty on in outer space. No one for company except a snarky A.I. And it looks like she used to know how to have a good time. She would find an excuse to keep him there.
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I actually think that if Lt. Potter interacts with Marten in any meaningful way at all it'll probably be to teach him that sometimes you need to be able to let go and not get emotionally invested by default. He can't have a relationship with a woman serving on a space station. (please god, no let's not go there) -maybe he'll learn something - but then again maybe Marten's strictly along for the ride on this arc.
I personally voted for unhappy birthday party. Hanners and her dad have a slightly estranged situation going on and for Hanners not to have some major arc in this would make no sense.
It also makes sense for Marten and Marigold to be there, they've both brought out very different sides of Hanners in their own way (Marten brought her out her shell a lot, but Marigold made her realize how far she'd come and how she could help others) so it all seems set up for some kind of Hanners melt down to me. =(
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If I could select two options, I'd say that the party will be funny and a downer. :P
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Hannerdad will wind up looking like Robert Beltrain. :evil:
With or without the tattoo?
With
And a beard
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And still the pony keeps circling Marigold's head like an extremely cute halo. ;D
I must admit, if I were on a space station, I would be all "LASERS!!! AWESOOOMMMEE!!"
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"Dammit Jim, I'm a Laser Specialist, not a Doctor!"
Hmmmmm
Seems that USS Bronie has settled into Standard Orbit.
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... so, can you get sharks into space?
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... so, can you get sharks into space?
Only if the Dolphins approve.
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I think we've just met Hannelore's mother figure.
At least, she shows a modicum of caring about the girl.
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I think we've just met Hannelore's mother figure.
At least, she shows a modicum of caring about the girl.
Hmmmm, I think you're right - especially when you see the look on Hanners face.
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Dr. Case looks a bit liike Tai probably will 35 years or so down the road.
Hmmmm....
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That would not be a good story to tell Marten and Marigold at this point on the trip. :-o
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I don't think Marten is going to stay, but if he did his presence could be rationalized if Dr. Case prescribed him as a therapy animal for Hannelore.
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I think we've just met Hannelore's mother figure.
At least, she shows a modicum of caring about the girl.
Indeed--I was wondering about Hanners' body language upon first seeing Dr. Case.
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I think we've just met Hannelore's mother figure.
At least, she shows a modicum of caring about the girl.
She does. Let's hope it is not just a hobby for her.
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I think we've just met Hannelore's mother figure.
Yes... Yes, I think you are correct. And certainly she'd have no problem creating the background for Hanners' "high-school" portrait. With real lasers! I couldn't find the picture to link to...
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am i the only one who thought the science lady was a science dude in the first panel?
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I thought it would be simple to find the graduation photos but my search fu has failed me.
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High School laser photos from Jeph's LiveJournal (http://qcjeph.livejournal.com/104536.html)
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And others here (http://qcjeph.livejournal.com/104760.html).
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I found them, came back to post, and two people beat me to it.
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Do they have sharks in space? The only thing cooler than sharks with frickin' laserbeams on their heads is space sharks with frickin' laserbeams on their heads.
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am i the only one who thought the science lady was a science dude in the first panel?
When the comic first loafef on my phone for a brief second I thought she was hannerdad... Then I zoomed in.
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Incidentally, my first thought was 'How did Hannerdad get so tanned from living in space?' Seems it's not just you.
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Yeah.
When the comic started coming up I first had that bolt of excitement of finally seeing the man of the hour.
My second thought was that he was WAY more effeminate than I expected.
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Incidentally, my first thought was 'How did Hannerdad get so tanned from living in space?' Seems it's not just you.
The UV in space'll get ya every time!
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For a moment I was thinking "Hannersdad's got the beginnings of a Doc Brown look", yes.
(Emmet. Not the rapper.)
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The laser graduation photos are great. Just distilled greatness.
Also I think Mari might not want to leave. Look how awesome she finds everything.
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Is it just me or does Dr. Case look a lot like Tai? Is Tai her daughter? Is the space station actually a relativistic time portal that shows older versions of the cast members? IS MARTEN HANNELORE'S FATHER??
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I used to work in guidance for orthopedic surgery, and one of the surgeons told me that the only thing patients wanted to know when he explained he was going to use a computer guidance system to help during the operation was, "Does it use lasers?"
Since the only laser on the system was a ten cent one used to get the optical tracker pointed in vaguely the right direction he could truthfully tell 'em, "Why yes, it does!" which made the patient happy. It was kinda frustrating to the team working on the 99.99% of the system that a) did the actual work and b) wasn't lasers. Kinda like getting a hamster named after you, I guess.
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... Kinda like getting a hamster named after you, I guess.
Talk to Gary Larson, the creator of The Far Side. He got a species of lice named for him!
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I'm glad I wasn't the only one who thought that was Hannerdad at first.
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You know, Dr. Case says Hanners is looking healthier. Is this a reference to the likely improvement in physical health that Hanner's improved mental health may have resulted in? Or is it more to do that our natural habitat has a better impact on humans than any artificial biomes we create for ourselves?
Related: I forget this part of my Space Lessons, but regardless of centripetal gravity, is it still a requirement to work out extensively to avoid significant body mass decay?
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I don't think it's Tai's mom. If it was, she probably would have said something to Marten back when he was asking for time off.
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The best of the Star Treks.
Um, nope, not at all.
I mean, good effort, but the actors just cant compete.
And personally I prefer my Star Trek the way all other Star Trek series are : you can jump anywhere into them and enjoy them. With DS9, you have to watch first to last or you are in deep trouble in understanding what the hell is going on.
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Yeah. That side profile made me think it was HannerDad at first, as did Hanners' bashfully happy body language.
Marigold's :3 face with the holopony is adorable.
With all the little hints getting dropped, I wonder who's gonna get 'put on the bus'. Sheesh.
If Dr. E-C is indeed an uploaded ghost, what does that mean, really? I mean, does one get a chance to mourn? Can it be said that someone's even passed on, or does one effectively become immortal? Are AnthroPC's with an uploaded 'ghost' considered taboo? Is *that* what Jeph means when he's got a ton of ideas?
Hmm, hmm, hmm.
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I'm not too concerned about the character development for our regulars. They'll have fun and they'll all be back on Earth before you know it.
I'm more concerned with meeting as many of the crew of this space station as we possibly can before they leave.
I am curious as to the nature of the gears that make this watch tick. :-)
The best of the Star Treks.
Um, nope, not at all.
I mean, good effort, but the actors just cant compete.
:lol:
I'll grant you Patrick Stewart...but seriously, that was a good one.
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@ Black Sword
I think it might be a bit of both? Didn't Hanners spend some time growing up on the space station? The impact on growth in microgravity/induced 1g is relatively unknown (Although the anime Planetes covers it quite interestingly, as it falls under the genre of hard science fiction)
Regardless I'd imagine the human body develops more thoroughly and evenly on earth rather than in induced gravity while in orbit. Being on Earth may have been highly beneficial for Hanner's physical health.
People talk about Hanner's mental health plenty so I'm not gonna go over the same ground, it's all pretty well hashed out.
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Just being more at ease with yourself can contribute to physical health, and the appearance of physical health. I'd posit that comes from H. realizing she's had a positive effect on people around her, and they on her, vs. the isolation she felt on a space station full of people bent on their tasks.
Lasers? Doc Case probably runs the DVD player on movie night.
The Original Series for me. The Animated Series had its moments, too, if you can get past the Filmation animation.
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High School laser photos from Jeph's LiveJournal (http://qcjeph.livejournal.com/104536.html)
And others here (http://qcjeph.livejournal.com/104760.html).
Please don't post them again. Zits scare me, and I don't mean the comic strip.
Also, figured at least Marigold would use a laser meme. (http://knowyourmeme.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=laser)
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Related: I forget this part of my Space Lessons, but regardless of centripetal gravity, is it still a requirement to work out extensively to avoid significant body mass decay?
Well, that's true on Earth, so presumably it would be true under spin-simulated pseudogravity.
Hannelore is presumably getting a more varied diet planetside, but the one in space must have been as nutritious as science could make it.
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Hannelore is presumably getting a more varied diet planetside, but the one in space must have been as nutritious as science could make it.
So, when they have people that die on the space station, they make them into Soylent Green? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-m4k6S-rKY&feature=related)
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With DS9, you have to watch first to last or you are in deep trouble in understanding what the hell is going on.
See, that's where we differ, since I find that to be a good thing.
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Hannelore is presumably getting a more varied diet planetside, but the one in space must have been as nutritious as science could make it.
So, when they have people that die on the space station, they make them into Soylent Green? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-m4k6S-rKY&feature=related)
Science can do better than that.
But now all I can think of is Science Diet pet foods...
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Over on Tumblr, Jeph answered a question about AI therapists by saying "You'll see".
This should be good.
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I really like Dr. Case's design. She's got some jazzy hair.
Also interesting thing on Jeph's tumblr:
Hannelore said that the AIs in orbit couldn’t provide useful therapy. Why aren’t there AI therapists that Hannerdad could have installed? We know AIs can empathize with humans, care about them, and might feel safer to talk to than would another human (cf. Eliza). Therapists also need skills, but if those skills can be taught to a human, why not to an AI?
You’ll see.
Edit: On quick reflection, that could just be referring to Dr. Case.
Double edit: I didn't read this thread right at all. People referring to things before me. Bleh.
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Related: I forget this part of my Space Lessons, but regardless of centripetal gravity, is it still a requirement to work out extensively to avoid significant body mass decay?
Well, that's true on Earth, so presumably it would be true under spin-simulated pseudogravity.
Depends on your definition of 'extensively'. If you're lying on your bed in a vegetative state, your muscles will probably atrophy just as fast on earth as in space, but those aren't normal operating conditions. Real gravity and pseudogravity are both sufficient to provide the opposing force that's necessary to maintain muscle strength and bone density. That's the real problem of zero gravity; your muscles and supportive tissues no longer have any work to do, so they downscale themselves to compensate. That has no chance of happening on earth, even if you never leave your house. But on a spinning space station, your heart and other muscles still have to work against the centrifugal force, so their integrity is maintained.
I still find it interesting that our muscles did not adapt to always work most efficiently at 1g, but that they adapt to changing circumstances, even though these particular circumstances haven't changed since our ancestral lungfish crawled out of the sea. It probably has to do with the overarching mechanism of muscles and bones growing in response to stress, in the same way lifting weights makes your biceps bigger, but it's still hard to believe that a colony of humans would easily adapt to a planet with 2g or 0,5g.
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By the way - I think we might have a general idea as to when Hanners left the station - about seven to eight years prior to today's comic.
It was her birthday way back during the Sven/Faye arc, and we'd have to assume she'd be around the gang for at least six-eight months. She stopped calling her dad "Science Daddy" at age 17, assumably when she left the station to go to school. (We never did get a college background for her - think she might have gotten an honorary degree or two from some colleges in the NE just because of who her dad was?) That's a gap of about five and a half years; if we assume that it's been a couple of years (at most) since Faye and Sven broke it off, that would mean Hannelore's been on Terra Firma for about seven and a half years (or so).
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I figured this was the birthday immediately after her previous birthday. Time in this strip moves extremely slowly - I pretty much shat bricks when I realized this was Hannelore's second birthday in the strip.
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It's not. This is dad's birthday. We haven't seen her celebrate her own birthday since the Sven arc.
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Hannelore is presumably getting a more varied diet planetside, but the one in space must have been as nutritious as science could make it.
So, when they have people that die on the space station, they make them into Soylent Green? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-m4k6S-rKY&feature=related)
Science can do better than that.
But now all I can think of is Science Diet pet foods...
I think the next possible scenario is Resident Evil material in about 3 or 4 series of games.
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Hannelore started therapy at 11, and said she couldn't get good therapy in orbit, so that suggests (doesn't prove) that she came down when she was 11. She's 22 now.
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...Aaaaaaaad comic.
"Wanna see pictures?" CLASSIC Hannelore.
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What's in store for us THIS Week?
HannerDad is a Holographic Avatar! - 6 (11.5%)
Lt. Potter becomes Chekov's Love Interest! - 7 (13.5%)
Hannelore doesn't want to leave. - 1 (1.9%)
Marigold doesn't want to leave. - 5 (9.6%)
MARTEN doesn't want to leave. - 3 (5.8%)
All three return to Earth - to CHAOS! - 3 (5.8%)
The Birthday Party - which is really funny! - 9 (17.3%)
The Birthday Party - which is a real downer. - 2 (3.8%)
Waffles. - 1 (1.9%)
Something else. - 3 (5.8%)
MOAR SPACE STATION! - 12 (23.1%)
Total Voters: 52
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Aww, the holo-pony's gone :(
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Ruh-roh ... drama llama inc ?
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Regarding the poll, I think it'd be entirely too unfair to portray HannerDad as a hologram. For one thing, Hannelore or Beatrice would probably have mentioned this detail to Marten and Marigold, especially considering that Hannelore's met Marten's Dad (and Dad 2: Dad Harder), and would realize that having a holographic dad is not normal.
Also, it wouldn't make sense for a hologram to communicate by earpiece (http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1905).
Attention-Deficit techno-wizard who pays somewhat less attention to his daughter than he should, however, I can believe. I don't think I'd like it that much, but I'd believe it.
(and I say attention deficit because that's the impression I get from someone who went from developing the first true AI computer to inventing robot hamsters (http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1902).)
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That's not a room...that's an operant conditioning chamber (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operant_conditioning_chamber).
Given Hannelore's parents, it almost follows they might do something like that with their daughter -- all in the name of science / efficiency / convenience / what-have-you.
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Hmmmmmmm
Interesting
And by the end of next week, Marten and Marigold will discover that lower level on the Station where Dr. Chase and HannerDad keep the HannerClones in Cryonic Storage.
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And by the end of next week, Marten and Marigold will discover that lower level on the Station where Dr. Chase and HannerDad keep the HannerClones in Cryonic Storage.
For some reason, while I find the idea of one Hannelore adorable, the idea of her in multiples is... frightening.
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I'm not ashamed to say that I'm a Niner. I'll grant TOS special status as a historical artefact, but of the Star Trek series made since I was born, DS9 is definitely my favourite. Dense plot, shades of grey, interesting characters major and minor, very sexy Captain :-D, and the least amount of sexual objectification of women in all the ST TV series.
Hanners' old room is pretty grim.
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wouldn't someone with severe OCD know the difference between lay and lie? [/noonecares]
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Does OCD work that way?
Even Hannelore is scared by the idea she might have a clone. http://www.questionablecontent.net/1662
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I understand why the room is completely unadorned or decorated in anyway, but why does everything have to be white? A completely white room would make me on edge about everything too; it would make me hyper-aware of tiny details and changes which is kind of a part of OCD.
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Just for the record, my favorite Star Trek is TNG. Some of the worst but also some of the best actors on all Star Trek, and while the start of the series was rather weak, after that it took up speed.
TOS is kind of a mixed experience. Some episodes are very great, but others are extremely awful. There is not one weak actor and Spock is the best actor on all Star Trek.
TNG had a very extreme cast. Very good actors and very weak ones. And the series required two seasons before it actually really started.
DS9 was a weaker version of Babylon 5. Better sets and effects, but much weaker storyline. The only really good actor was Sisco, the rest was pretty meh, especially the doctor and that model. Also, unlike any other Star Trek, you cant jump in the middle of the show and just enjoy an episode on its own right. I dont really see why this is a big advantage and frankly I dont find the DS9 storylines that interesting.
VOY is the weakest of all Star Trek. Lots of weak acting and weak storylines. But Kes and Seven of Nine have been very fun, as has THE DOCTOR (no not that one), also B'Ellana Torres/Tom Paris and Naomi Wildman.
ENT was a bit mellow in the beginning. But the Cindi - arc in season 3 (mostly) is definitely the best piece of Star Trek, ever. Season 4 was also great. The end was very disappointing and abrupt. I cant help but feel that the casting could have been better. Not that any single actor was bad, just that the mix of actors was a bit onesided. Everyone was pretty super sensible, there was too much of that.
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Oh wait the bed and curtains are blue. Guess I should be more observant :-P
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TOS is kind of a mixed experience. Some episodes are very great, but others are extremely awful. There is not one weak actor and Spock is the best actor on all Star Trek.
TNG had a very extreme cast. Very good actors and very weak ones. And the series required two seasons before it actually really started.
DS9 was a weaker version of Babylon 5. Better sets and effects, but much weaker storyline. The only really good actor was Sisco, the rest was pretty meh, especially the doctor and that model. Also, unlike any other Star Trek, you cant jump in the middle of the show and just enjoy an episode on its own right. I dont really see why this is a big advantage and frankly I dont find the DS9 storylines that interesting.
VOY is the weakest of all Star Trek. Lots of weak acting and weak storylines. But Kes and Seven of Nine have been very fun, as has THE DOCTOR (no not that one), also B'Ellana Torres/Tom Paris and Naomi Wildman.
ENT was a bit mellow in the beginning. But the Cindi - arc in season 3 (mostly) is definitely the best piece of Star Trek, ever. Season 4 was also great. The end was very disappointing and abrupt. I cant help but feel that the casting could have been better. Not that any single actor was bad, just that the mix of actors was a bit onesided. Everyone was pretty super sensible, there was too much of that.
YOU.
I like you.
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Ha, Marigold said almost the same thing Marten said when he first entered Hannelore's flat. This story arc is so full of callbacks. :-D
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Heavy stuff. Her final transition from Station to Earth must've been a mess at first... I am thinking more drugs than could've been good for any one person...
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This brings up the question of who watched over Hannelore when she first moved to Earth. Perhaps we'll get to meet this person eventually.
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DS9 was a weaker version of Babylon 5. Better sets and effects, but much weaker storyline.
"Babylon 5's a big pile of shit."
Not really :)
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I can't recall if her move back to Earth has ever been mentioned. I mean, was it her own decision or someone else's?
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I can't recall if her move back to Earth has ever been mentioned. I mean, was it her own decision or someone else's?
This brings up the question of who watched over Hannelore when she first moved to Earth. Perhaps we'll get to meet this person eventually.
To - hopefully - be concluded.
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Hmmmmmmyeagh we are totally not going to see Hanner's dad this week either :lol:
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Hehe, Marigold's reaction was the same as Marten's (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=527).
That strip brings up two things - one, had Hannelore been thinking, she would have known Marten's name because Winslow would have told her who Pintsize's "owner" was. Two, BOY has Winslow changed in the ensuing years. He actually looks about the size of his Plushie in that strip.
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Heavy stuff. Her final transition from Station to Earth must've been a mess at first... I am thinking more drugs than could've been good for any one person...
Well, she was on some pretty heavy meds when she met Marten the first time...
This brings up the question of who watched over Hannelore when she first moved to Earth. Perhaps we'll get to meet this person eventually.
...I'm getting the feeling that was what Winslow was for.
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On shipping Hanners (http://www.treelobsters.com/2012/02/345-shipping-news.html) (linked from Jeph's Twitter).
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On shipping Hanners (http://www.treelobsters.com/2012/02/345-shipping-news.html) (linked from Jeph's Twitter).
That is WAY too funny.
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Hmmmmmmyeagh we are totally not going to see Hanner's dad this week either :lol:
Watching the ustream - I think you may be wrong. The family resemblence is pretty strong!
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The practical problems of running a space station ...
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Let's all be cryptic for the next twelve or so hours, eh?
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Hey, I'm just trying to deal with Dia-Nogas in the trash compactors before this whole thing blows up ...
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We will see if Jeph acknowledges the elephant in the room.
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Let's see him try to even get into the room with the elephant!
I'll be honest, I didn't watch the whole ustream, so I don't even know what DSL's talking about... cryptic enough?
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It's right over there, next to the 800-pound gorilla.
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When the picture comes, we'll know. Until then, guard the squirrel and hope for the best.
Hell, I didn't see the ustream either. I got no idea what y'all are talkin' about.
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Given my own history with mental illness, I really sympathize with Hanners here. I'd give her a hug if I didn't know it would make her feel worse. And, you know, if she was real.
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All we know about Hannelore coming planetside (http://questionablecontent.net//view.php?comic=665).
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All we know about Hannelore coming planetside (http://questionablecontent.net//view.php?comic=665).
Nothing against the current art, but I really liked the look of the comic back then. I think it was a time of leaps and bounds in Jeph's improvement, rather than the incrementalism we all live with now.
Not that incremental improvements are bad, mind you - but when there would be a suden, noticable improvement, it was really cool!
And Method, really? Do you know anyone who can resist clicking a spoiler tag?
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I really liked that art style too. I love Jeph's art now but I think around 1300 - 1600 was my favourite though, partially due to Dora's hair and I think it was around then I first discovered QC. A Hanners strip to keep it relevant-ish. (http://questionablecontent.net//view.php?comic=1315)
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That was about the time I discovered QC too - the whole "first appearance of Cosette" arc.
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This was my first comic (http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1387). Well, not really, I'd stopped by a few times over a period of over a year (linked from xkcd) and just couldn't get into it, because I kept on trying to start at the beginning. But this was the one that hooked me. I actually started reading the archives backwards from there...
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DS9 was a weaker version of Babylon 5. Better sets and effects, but much weaker storyline.
"Babylon 5's a big pile of shit."
Not really :)
Who are you?
What do you want?
Can't actually remember what my first Comic was. I think I was actually following the Comic for about a year before I joined up in the Forum though if memory serves.
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I started with Ctrl.Alt.Del.
Then I moved on to this one. Can't say where. First strip may have been the first art change.
Then, in January, I started at the beginning and blitzed thru all 2000+ strips in a week.
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This was my first comic: Library Job, (http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=691) I linked to it from the Unshelved comic. (http://www.unshelved.com/)
I read Unshelved since my wife and my daughter are both librarians.
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Oh. We have comic.
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You can tell Hannerdad is a mad scientist. He has a bow tie.
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Checklist:
1) Not a hologram.
2) Old but energetic-looking.
3) We're allowed to call him John Ellicott (which to me sounds much better than John Ellicott-Chatham for some reason)
4) Technology jokes.
5) Doesn't seem to be that distanced (at least emotionally) from his daughter.
I think Jeph just created the perfect Hannerdad. ;D
Ok, now that that's done, deeper analysis time. :P
Marigold only appears in one panel of today's comic, and even then, only to show that she is there. This indicates that her sense of shyness in the presence of famous people hasn't got that much better since her nosebleed at the comics convention (http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1527). Marten, for example, is right next to Hannelore the whole time, and takes the time to wave and ask questions, whereas Marigold just stands there with her hands at her sides. I'm not even sure where she's supposed to be relative to the others in the last panel.
As for John Ellicott (and I will never get tired of calling him that), he seemed quite initially distracted and surprised to see Hannelore. I'm not quite sure what this means; he could just have been really distracted by rummaging to find his mp3 player, or it could mean Hannelore had a fairly wide window of opportunity to get to the space station (i.e they weren't expecting her at any particular time). Or perhaps he could have slightly forgotten that she was coming, since he was so wrapped up in his work. But probably not. He does seem quite close to Hannelore on first impressions; it's not like he was saying "Just a minute, I have to find my vitally important mp3 player before I can attend to my daughter".
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And Method, really? Do you know anyone who can resist clicking a spoiler tag?
Oh, hell no, but if they do that, then at least it's their choice, and those with insane amounts of restraint (NB: not me) will be spared. That being said, it's more of a courtesy than anything.
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For some reason I had a feeling he'd be little :-D
Also are his eyes green? I can't quite tell.
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Why not FLAC, indeed. I rip everything to FLAC, and everything I buy from Bandcamp, I download in FLAC.
That said, "Yay, Hannerdad!".
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Also are his eyes green? I can't quite tell.
They are indeed.
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Hannerdad looks strangely like someone else in the strip.
If only that other person couldn't grow a bear or mustache to save his life...
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Is it just me, or does he talk a lot like Mordin Solus?
Just realized I've been reading his lines with mordin's voice :psyduck:
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I love it in comics, tv and whatever else when there's a character you don't see for so long yet hear about them at times, and what you're led to believe they're like is one thing but then when they finally appear all preconceptions are shattered and the characters completely different from what you thought they would be like.
That happened here.
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If only that other person couldn't grow a bear or mustache to save his life...
Bears are difficult to grow!
Also I was a bit confused by Hannerdad since he didn't seem all too distant; in http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1904 (And the strip after that), they didn't seem all that close. :mrgreen:
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So why didn't he meet her at the docking hub?
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Hell, he even seemed a bit reluctant to abandon his MP3 player search. Though I'm sure he is happy to see Hanners.
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So why didn't he meet her at the docking hub?
Because there's work to be done! Also, that mp3 player's not going to find itself. From his appearance Hannerdad is appropriately spaced out, probably even a little ADHD. I imagine he's got a million little projects going on at once and may well have meant to go to the docking hub but got distracted by something.
And since we're remembering our first comics, I came in on 1369 (http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1369) from, I think, Dr. McNinja. About two weeks later I decided I liked the story and binged on the archive in about four days.
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I had something thought out, but now I forgot.
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So why didn't he meet her at the docking hub?
Because Jeph is a master of Delayed Gratification. :P
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'Cuz he was focused on finding his MP3 player.
Up to now, we've relied on Hannelore's description of her dad, which now seems to be imperfectly recalled or at least presented. That, amplified by hearing only one side of the conversation the two times she's talked to him on-panel, we can either have Distant Impersonal Dad or Affably Clueless (except for whatever he's focused on at the moment) Dad. I think it's safe to say we all assumed one and (seemingly, so far) got the other.
Not that it would make any difference to a child needing nurturing and having to fall back on 127 other busy people and whichever sentient KillSat was on orbit nearby and had time to talk.
Or, you know, Hannelore has more of Mom in her than she's willing to admit and we've all been suckers.
Now I imagine Jeph laughing evilly.
RED TEXT Dang you guys type fast. Anyway, I think I stumbled into QC a couple strips after Raven got hired at CoD, though it didn't catch on with me right away. I think I came back in during Faye's post-Angus panic attack (likely following a link from GWS) and didn't even realize it was the same strip.
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So, everyone else is hearing Professor Farnsworth, right?
(If not, you will in a moment...)
"Good NEWS, everyone!"
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I actually imagined him with a rather high voice, like Hanners.
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Hanners got her hair color from her mom...but the style was clearly handed down by dear old dad. :-P
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Ah... the classical Einstein-ian absentminded genius archetype. Was NOT expecting that. How retro. :-D
I am actually hearing a very normal, collected voice in contrast to his absentmindedness. For a Farnsworth-ian voice he's not old or confused enough.
edit:
Ooooooh... Marten won't get along with Hannerdad so well... Hannerdad's a tea drinker. (teacup in panel 4) °O
Also I wonder what kind of junk that might be. Can there even be such a thing as "junk" on a space station?
edit2:
Is that a Kolto-Tank behind Hannerdad?
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Why not FLAC, indeed.
I found myself thinking, after watching the end of the Ustream in which I made out the term "mp3 player", that I find it hard to know what to call my device, which is full of ogg/vorbis files. Then this morning I saw the title of the strip, and smiled.
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Hannerdad- "The AI already runs station orbital trajectory, atmosphere, power, maintenance, comms, sensors, and data processing. Can't rely on it for EVERYTHING."
Seems to me like you already do (http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1506). :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :-P :evil: :evil: :evil:
My first strip was this one (http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1206). Hard to believe it's been almost 3 years since this comic became a staple of my daily routine.
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Ahh, Science and MP3 players wait for no man - or woman. :-D
Hmmmm, seems your typical absent minded professor type.
Chris Lloyd in a calmer version of Doc Browns voice?
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We should all know the dangers involved in relying on your AI for music selection (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=43).
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And either Beatrice dyed and botox'd like crazy, or there's a huge age gap there :psyduck:
I imagine her as the Elizabeth Bathory (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Báthory_in_popular_culture) of the 21st century, except she bathes in cloned-bone-marrow synthetic virgin's blood. She calls it... "decaf".
I found myself thinking, after watching the end of the Ustream in which I made out the term "mp3 player", that I find it hard to know what to call my device, which is full of ogg/vorbis files.
I call mine an iPod. :-D
As for JE-C or JE (doesn't the matrilineal surname normally come first in double-barrelled married names? But that would have made his initials JC, which would be awkward), I confess I'm a little disappointed. I suppose there is nothing wrong with the classic tousled-white-hair-and-lab-coat scientist style, but it's not very creative.
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I call mine an iPod. :-D
Mine's actually an iriver H340, originally 40GB, whose original firmware was unusual in that it supported ogg/vorbis. It now has a 240GB disk and Rockbox firmware (the original firmware can't handle the disk size at all, and I had to do a custom compile for Rockbox to handle it). Mainly I just call it "my player".
doesn't the matrilineal surname normally come first in double-barrelled married names?
It's extraordinarily unusual in most Western societies that a man would have taken his wife's name at all!
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Mine's actually an iriver H340, originally 40GB, whose original firmware was unusual in that it supported ogg/vorbis. It now has a 240GB disk and Rockbox firmware (the original firmware can't handle the disk size at all, and I had to do a custom compile for Rockbox to handle it). Mainly I just call it "my player".
Zow! I think I'd call it Awesome!
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Hmmmmmmyeagh we are totally not going to see Hanner's dad this week either :lol:
I have no problems in eating my own worlds because they taste delicious.
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Loving Hannerdad's hair.
Hanner's commented on the ship being lonely but I don't think she's ever really resented her dad for being so into his work. I got the impression he does care about her a lot, since he took and wanted custody of her, but gets sucked into work and has the resources that she didn't get left unsupervised when she was younger. Plus this strip seems absent-minded at first but you can say, "At least he asked." (http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1905) :laugh:
Can't say a lot about a character from one appearance, especially when we've heard so many other things, but I got the impression that he's genuinely happy to see her, but was surprised in the moment since he was focused on something else. He probably gives that same focus to a lot of things and if was something more important/intensive than a search for an MP3 player (Mine's a Zen by the way but I just call it an MP3player) he might have said hello but not felt he had time to do more than that.
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And either Beatrice dyed and botox'd like crazy, or there's a huge age gap there :psyduck:
I imagine her as the Elizabeth Bathory (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Báthory_in_popular_culture) of the 21st century, except she bathes in cloned-bone-marrow synthetic virgin's blood. She calls it... "decaf".
I found myself thinking, after watching the end of the Ustream in which I made out the term "mp3 player", that I find it hard to know what to call my device, which is full of ogg/vorbis files.
I call mine an iPod. :-D
As for JE-C or JE (doesn't the matrilineal surname normally come first in double-barrelled married names? But that would have made his initials JC, which would be awkward), I confess I'm a little disappointed. I suppose there is nothing wrong with the classic tousled-white-hair-and-lab-coat scientist style, but it's not very creative.
Thanks for the flashback to "Countess Dracula" Akima - mmmm, Ingrid Pitt....
Sorry, this was about the comic right?
Why would you wear a tie in space?
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Why would you wear a tie in space?
Being a mad scientist means you get to be your own boss, but there is still a strict dress code.
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Hannerdad looks strangely like someone else in the strip.
If only that other person couldn't grow a bear[d] or mustache to save his life...
I noticed the resemblance right away. That might have something to do with Hannelore's attraction to Marten.
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I suspect it was purely accidental. ;)
So let me get this straight - Mom's surname is Chatham, Dad's is Ellicott. That means Ellicott-Chatham Industries is technically owned by both of them?
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Hmm...well, he is wearing a plaid shirt. They even have a similar style of dressing :-o
[/silly speculation]
I like HannerDad, he's cute! And it cracks me up that he has a soul patch :-P
I had a feeling that we were going to meet him on Friday and I'm glad I was proven wrong.
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So on the topic of MP3 players, what modern player would a scientist like John Ellicott use? An iriver H340 customized with 240 giga and Rockbox firmware like hodges? Or something completely different?
What would be on his MP3 player beyond Also Sprach Zarathustra?
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I suspect it was purely accidental. ;)
So let me get this straight - Mom's surname is Chatham, Dad's is Ellicott. That means Ellicott-Chatham Industries is technically owned by both of them?
Getting hints of MOM Corp. from Futurama…maybe they created it together and hannermom bought out all or most of hannerdad's stock at some point?
Heck, the guy might be absent-minded or inattentive enough to have outstanding stock options that hannermom would really prefer he remained ignorant of.
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Hannerdad looks strangely like someone else in the strip.
If only that other person couldn't grow a bear[d] or mustache to save his life...
I noticed the resemblance right away. That might have something to do with Hannelore's attraction to Marten.
HENRY: "Veronica, you got some 'splainin' to do ... or would have, if I hadn't met Maurice."
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Pshtah! Yeah, Marten. Have a little PERSPECTIVE, will ya?
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call mine an iPod. :-D
I call mine an iPod when I'm using it to listen to music, and an iPhone when I'm using it for phone or internet. It's always an iPhone, technically, but I guess what I'm using it for at the moment changes that. Also, I can't shake the feeling that saying "I'm listening to music on my iPhone" sounds douchey for some reason.
And iPod is basically the adhesive strip or facial tissue of digital music players.
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I have never once used "iPod" to refer to any music player that wasn't actually an iPod. Then again, I don't really use any other brand names as synonyms for generic products. I am starting think I am weird for that.
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I'm thinking of the Doctor Who episode where someone displays a jukebox and says it was known as an "iPod".
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That's better than the couple episodes of the Glen Larson version of "Buck Rogers" in which Buck or Wilma visited the "Archives." The Jerry can on the side of the stagecoach, the hair dryer that was called an "early hand laser" ...
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I have never once used "iPod" to refer to any music player that wasn't actually an iPod. Then again, I don't really use any other brand names as synonyms for generic products. I am starting think I am weird for that.
Not even Band-Aids? Because I have never once met somebody who actually calls them adhesive bandages.
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That's better than the couple episodes of the Glen Larson version of "Buck Rogers" in which Buck or Wilma visited the "Archives." The Jerry can on the side of the stagecoach, the hair dryer that was called an "early hand laser" ...
Or for that matter, Futurama. "We're whalers on the moon, we carry a harpoon! But there ain't no whales so we tell tall tales and sing our whaling tune!"
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Question: When does the UStream generally go live? Never watched it before.
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Depends on when Jeph is drawing the comic.
Jeph has a bit of a weird sleep schedule and usually draws the comic late in the evening, after 11pm Eastern, posting it as soon as it's done.
This week he has been doing the Ustream in the morning and posting the comic around 9-10pm.
Jeph's sleeping pattern is something he struggles with constantly, and I sympathize with him because it is something that I have problems with myself
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Thanks. So did I miss it today already?
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Yeah, he did it this morning.
The best way to keep up with the Ustream is to follow Jeph on Twitter (https://twitter.com/#!/jephjacques).
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Again, thanks.
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Wow. I guess I'm a bit surprised that I've been reading QC a bit longer than many of the regulars here. I don't remember exactly the first strip I read, but I do remember that the banner ad I clicked on to bring me here (from Something Positive?) featured art from this strip: http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=272 (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=272), (specifically, the second panel) so I guess I've been reading since sometime in the early 300s.
And I still look forward to it every weekday morning. Great work, Jeph, including this arc. WHEEEE! :lol:
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I've been reading since the 800s or so, but I remember the exact comic that was my first exposure. I just have to find it.
(one brief archive peek later)
I'm pretty sure it's this one, http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=726, which means I've been reading a bit longer than I thought! That was the newest comic when I first looked at the site, and I immediately read the archive over the next day or two. I joined this forum in December of 2010, I guess I started posting regularly a few months later, and I became a mod in January 2012, also known as "a few weeks ago".
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This was my first comic: http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2002
That puts me, what, sometime back in October? Anyway, I caught up fast; I Archive Binged through all 2000+ comics in (I kid you not) two VERY unproductive days. Just now getting into the forums.
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Wait what? Station has stocks?
Why would an AI need stocks?
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Wait what? Station has stocks?
Why would an AI need stocks?
Sound investment strategy.
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Station has about six hundred million in stocks. I'm assuming that's a negligible amount, I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Hannerdad's personal wealth was in the trillions. Also, I like that she was so surprised that her hair undid itself.
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Wait what? Station has stocks?
Why would an AI need stocks?
I first read that as "socks." Confusion ensued.
It may be a result of the entire company's progressive stance toward AI rights, though I as well am not sure what a space-locked AI would do with approximately $605 million.
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I have never once used "iPod" to refer to any music player that wasn't actually an iPod. Then again, I don't really use any other brand names as synonyms for generic products. I am starting think I am weird for that.
Not even Band-Aids? Because I have never once met somebody who actually calls them adhesive bandages.
That might be the exception, but I can't recall the last time I actually used it in a conversation. I generally think of them as "bandages."
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Oooh! Offend me next!
Wait. That makes the total stock value equal to roughly 605 million dollars. I would have thought it would be worth more than that.
EDIT
Okay, that is in his PERSONAL stock holdings. That makes much more sense, or at least as much sense as can be made when an AI owns stock in the company that designed it. That is what I get for reading so late. I am somewhat amused by the idea of an AI being rich but having no real concept of the value of money, but then there are people who are the same way and they are much less amusing.
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It may be that Station only has stock as a symbolic, AI-rights sort of thing. As previous posters have said, Station's personal(?) wealth probably doesn't get used for much.
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It may be that Station only has stock as a symbolic, AI-rights sort of thing. As previous posters have said, Station's personal(?) wealth probably doesn't get used for much.
That's a lot of money for a token gesture, even for a big company.
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For Hannerdad? This is just speculation, but it's probably not. Hell, Mark Zuckerberg's token gesture was a sixth of that. Sure, he's rich, but he's probably not Hannerdad rich.
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That's a good point. I mean, what *would* an AI like Station spend money on? He's in a weird pseudo-state of being both an employee and part of a valuable piece of corporate property AND the only thing keeping a hundred or so important people alive. He probably gets all the upgrades he wants free of charge, and I'm sure he can already plug himself into any hardware he likes on, er, himself, so he'd never have Momo's situation of wanting a new/better chassis.
I will assume that he uses his money to run a number of charitable organizations on Earth until evidence to the contrary arises.
Upgrading business class seats to first class. 8-)
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If A.I. have the same rights then it makes sense that they're entitled to all the ways humans make money, including the right to own stock. He gets treated like any human would. Just because he doesn't need basic necessities doesn't mean he doesn't have anything to pay for; what if he wanted to form his own company for whatever reason? He'd definitely need money then.
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I think we should talk about that MAGIC UNFOLDING HAIR BUN.
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I like Jeph saying "Have you ever surprised a lady so hard her hair exploded?" on Twitter. ;D
Well, I haven't personally, but I think Jim came fairly close (http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1934)...
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I like the shuttle poster in her room.
"Aim HIGH... or ELSE"
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... what if he wanted to form his own company for whatever reason? He'd definitely need money then.
And there's the mental image of a giant spaceship with its giant velvet chair holding a business meeting. :D
Then again, what are the capacities for Station's holograms? Can they only be projected inside the station, or...?
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Assuming Ellicott-Chatham Technologies is worth roughly the same as Apple was last summer (approximately 301 Billion USD), that would put Station's ownership at 0.2%...seems reasonable for the "person" running the whole Space Station.
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Assuming Ellicott-Chatham Technologies is worth roughly the same as Apple was last summer (approximately 301 Billion USD), that would put Station's ownership at 0.2%...seems reasonable for the "person" running the whole Space Station.
He stated that the 4.6 million he transferred to her was .76% of his shares. That means Station alone owns shares totaling more than $500 million.
So either he owns a sizable portion of the company (maybe he designed the station before transferring himself into it?), or the ECT is much, much bigger than Apple.
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We've already established his shares as about $600 million, which would be about .2% of $300 billion. We don't know that he owns .2% of ECT, and we don't know its total market cap. I do agree though that it's most likely in the trillions, though.
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Now that's what I call "please-don't-hold-a-grudge"-bribery. :-D
Also, Lt. Uninhibited is cute with open hair and an expression of bafflement.
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Maybe Station is trying to head off a sexual harassment lawsuit. If so, the amount implies that laws are stricter in the QC universe.
AIs have free will, so you have to do something to secure their loyalty. Or their discretion.
Asking what an AI would do with $600 million invites the question of what a human would do with it.
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I'm very glad that Jeph is planning to keep things in space for a while. I like all these new characters already!
For a while...
... or permanently? *doooooooooooooooooooom*
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In space, no one can hear you *doooooooooooooooooooom*
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Also, I like that she was so surprised that her hair undid itself.
At least it didn't spontaneously turn into a cockatoo pompadour (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2066). :-D
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She is definitely going to get in trouble for that. She is military and now just received a money from someone who she supposed to monitor. even 1000 extra dollars on her account would be hard to explain.
this
will not only end her military career but can result in USA taking all those shares back from her resulting in her being a)completely broke with debts b)without job c)no pension of any kind d) a possibility of a jail time in military prison
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I wondered about that too. Ellicott-Chatham lawyers might help.
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She is military and now just received a money from someone who she supposed to monitor. even 1000 extra dollars on her account would be hard to explain.
That has not been stated as being any part of her duties...in fact, panel 2 of #2114 states that Station and Lt. Potter are essentially coworkers.
Besides, even if the USAF had anything to say about it, I'd guess a word from The Doc would clear everything right up. It helps to have friends in high places (no pun intended), especially when they have access to a bottomless pit of money.
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She should just run for Congress. She'll be fine.
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@Delator @Andy147
You are concentrating on a wrong thing. It is not important what is exactly her job on the station (although she was supposed to monitor incoming guests to the station)
she, as a military person, who just received millions of dollars while on duty as a member of american military force. That is definitely not going to be seen as innocent gesture by her superiors as you seem to believe.
Was it a bribe?
Why she even accepted it?
Did she betray any military secrets?
Does she do her duties correctly or was she supposed to not see something because of that money?
Military can probably take all that money away from her probably while at the same time kicking her out (or worse) from the service.
Of course it all depends how much power the doc has over usa government.
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"Official" first comick: http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1313
Followed by a period of apathy, until...
Second comick: http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1334
At least, as far as I remember.
Also, boob mole!
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What does an AI do with stocks?
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I dont get todays Comic.
Why does an AI hold money ?
Why does an AI give THAT much money away ?
It all doesnt make sense.
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It doesn't make sense in our world. We are learning a bit more about the QC world.
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It's already been established that AIs can hold money during the "Momo Gets a Job" arc.
If they can have money, there's no reason they can't have a shitload of money!
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I dont get todays Comic.
Why does an AI hold money ?
Why does an AI give THAT much money away ?
It all doesnt make sense.
In a world where AIs have been granted a majority of the rights of humans, the two are pretty much interchangable on most counts, don't you think? Including "reasons to have money".
An AI holds money because a human does. It might've been given that money for working on a space station much like a regular person (and over time converted it into shares by buying them) ...
It probably sees the "giving" as an act of good will and doesn't/can't comprehend the implications of such an amount because as an AI it has no sense of worth in the way of "how much does living cost"?
btw...
If 0.76% => 4.600.000 US-$ ("4.6 million dollars")
then 1% = 4.600.000 x ( 1 / 0.76 ) = 6.052.631,579 US-$
ergo 100% = 605.263.157,9 US-$
Now... is my math faulty or do I just not see the "billion"? °O
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Maybe Station is trying to head off a sexual harassment lawsuit. If so, the amount implies that laws are stricter in the QC universe.
AIs have free will, so you have to do something to secure their loyalty. Or their discretion.
Asking what an AI would do with $600 million invites the question of what a human would do with it.
But what would a computer do with a lifetime supply of chocolate?
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@Delator @Andy147
You are concentrating on a wrong thing. It is not important what is exactly her job on the station (although she was supposed to monitor incoming guests to the station)
she, as a military person, who just received millions of dollars while on duty as a member of american military force. That is definitely not going to be seen as innocent gesture by her superiors as you seem to believe.
If she had been given that money by a human while Earthside, you'd have a point.
She was given the money by an AI while in orbit...and off duty, i might add, unless being half dressed in your own quarters counts as on-duty these days.
I'm pretty sure her CO is not so daft as to assume that the AI upon which all their lives depend is for some reason going to subvert station operations via bribery to a low ranking officer. Considering their physical autonomy, it probably never gets farther up the chain than that.
Hell, for all we know, Station already told him about it and received approval.
Military can probably take all that money away from her probably while at the same time kicking her out (or worse) from the service.
My guess is Station himself has probably set things up in such a way as for that to be impossible. They might kick her out of the service (not bloody likely...pretty sure Jeph doesn't give two shits about this notion), but the money's probably untouchable in a legal sense.
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LOVE the hairsplosion.
Art speculation: That little photo to the right of Lt. Potter's calendar -- a younger Sam? If so, perhaps she's the Lieutenant's favorite niece or something. The situation doesn't fit Potter being Sam's mother.
We all know how small details can come back to be plot points later...
D
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btw...
If 0.76% => 4.600.000 US-$ ("4.6 million dollars")
then 1% = 4.600.000 x ( 1 / 0.76 ) = 6.052.631,579 US-$
ergo 100% = 605.263.157,9 US-$
Now... is my math faulty or do I just not see the "billion"? °O
That 605 million dollars would be the value of Station's share of E-C technologies. Those who have commented on HannerDad's net worth first attempt to guesstimate the percentage of the stock owned by Station. 0.1 per cent might be in the ballpark. In that case Station offered Ltn Potter 0.76% of 0.1% of HannerDad's company making the company worth 605 billion. Of course, that 0.1% figure could be too high or (less likely IMHO) too low. We have no way of knowing.
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If she had been given that money by a human while Earthside, you'd have a point.
She was given the money by an AI while in orbit...and off duty, i might add, unless being half dressed in your own quarters counts as on-duty these days.
I'm pretty sure her CO is not so daft as to assume that the AI upon which all their lives depend is for some reason going to subvert station operations via bribery to a low ranking officer. Considering their physical autonomy, it probably never gets farther up the chain than that.
Hell, for all we know, Station already told him about it and received approval.
She is on duty. She is always on duty when being stationed. That's being part of military. She gets time to relax, free time but she is never off-duty when being stationed. Just like soldiers ain't off-duty when playing pool in Iraqi base.
so
she is off-duty as in having free time for herself during that particular part of the day
but she is on-duty by being part of military on assignment. Two different on-duty concepts.
not sure how being on orbit changes anything tough?
Why would CO agree? Where is the gain for him/for military in that? I can only see drawbacks.
My guess is Station himself has probably set things up in such a way as for that to be impossible. They might kick her out of the service (not bloody likely...pretty sure Jeph doesn't give two shits about this notion), but the money's probably untouchable in a legal sense.
probably true if he is 'smart' enough to do that. he does act a bit reckless so we can't be sure he did all proper paperwork (she is going to have to pay tax on that and IRS will check everything very carefully. You can't just give 4 million dollars worth of stocks to someone)
but it is possible.
There is also another problem.
Most lotto winners lose the money fairly quickly. Some even kill themselves because they can't handle so much wealth. It depends on how rich she/her family was before and how well she can handle this situation but the odds are against her.
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Have you considered that we don't know if she has accepted the apology or if she even gets anything. Station could easily trick her.
Station: "Blink once for 'go fuck yourself', twice for 'apology accepted'."
.
.
.
Station: "Alright, so you want me to 'fuck myself' twice."
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The concept of someone, AI or meatware, who is both rich enough and devious enough to destroy someone simply by giving them a lot of money ... it boggles.
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Without reading other responses, here's my take:
- I suspect Station has the big $ because the "Big Cheese" on the station (namely, John Ellicott) trademarked/patented the iDoru humanoid APC's that are now for sale - and, like a certain other computer company's stock went through the roof when it introduced a certain product that started the "iEverything" revolution.
- I love the "AIM HIGH OR ELSE" poster. She's definitely NOT the serious AF lifer. I like that.
- It appears our Lieutenant was wearing a flight-suit, not a full-fledged uniform. If memory serves, I believe they are pretty devoid of rank markings or anything of that kind. The beret was just a little off, but that's minor in the scheme of things.
- Hopefully I'm not the first to notice this: the Lieutenant looks a lot like a Georgia Peach we all know and love. And given what we know about how Jeph draws people (Faye is his template), if he's intentionally drawing her to look like Faye... well, I'll leave it with the famous quote, "Fasten your seat belts. It's going to be a bumpy night."
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I'm reminded of a scene in Bicentennial Man where it's revealed that Andrew actually has an income and/or net worth higher than the CEO of the company that built him.
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LOVE the hairsplosion.
Art speculation: That little photo to the right of Lt. Potter's calendar -- a younger Sam? If so, perhaps she's the Lieutenant's favorite niece or something. The situation doesn't fit Potter being Sam's mother.
We all know how small details can come back to be plot points later...
D
More likely to be another appearance of redhead everyone thinks is Sweet Tits.
As for why Station would want money don't forget that AIs have been shown to be able to change careers, and bodies. So he might find being a multi millionaire quite handy if he decides to retire and get a body on the ground.
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@dreed: Hodgson's Law and Bellisario's Maxim, ok? :wink:
Seriously: I suspect that the party pictures that she put up on FB probably torpedoed her AF career. However, since she is required (as are all service academy graduates) to serve her country for several years, they probably put her up on SS-ECT as a "dregs" assignment.
And if it came down to it, I think I would be less worried about John Ellicott's lawyers and more fearful of Beatrice Chatham's legal squad. And her pool of whale sharks wearing friggin' LASERS.
EDIT: I just noticed something, and this seems to cement it - he is Doctor John Ellicott-Chatham.
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She is definitely going to get in trouble for that. She is military and now just received a money from someone who she supposed to monitor. even 1000 extra dollars on her account would be hard to explain.
this
will not only end her military career but can result in USA taking all those shares back from her resulting in her being a)completely broke with debts b)without job c)no pension of any kind d) a possibility of a jail time in military prison
at the very least she will lose her security clearance (gotta be pretty high to be even just be in space, let alone assigned to an important defense contractor's security).
even if there are no legal charges, she'll never advance past the rank of captain. the investigation alone is a big black mark on her record now... kinda like how if an officer's wife is caught having an affair while he's on deployment, his career will suffer as a result.
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Have you considered that we don't know if she has accepted the apology or if she even gets anything. Station could easily trick her.
Station: "Blink once for 'go fuck yourself', twice for 'apology accepted'."
.
.
.
Station: "Alright, so you want me to 'fuck myself' twice."
Lt Potter blinks thrice
Station : "..."
.
.
.
Lt Potter " I wanna have your virtual baby"
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@Delator @Andy147
You are concentrating on a wrong thing. It is not important what is exactly her job on the station (although she was supposed to monitor incoming guests to the station)
she, as a military person, who just received millions of dollars while on duty as a member of american military force. That is definitely not going to be seen as innocent gesture by her superiors as you seem to believe.
If she had been given that money by a human while Earthside, you'd have a point.
She was given the money by an AI while in orbit...and off duty, i might add, unless being half dressed in your own quarters counts as on-duty these days.
I'm pretty sure her CO is not so daft as to assume that the AI upon which all their lives depend is for some reason going to subvert station operations via bribery to a low ranking officer. Considering their physical autonomy, it probably never gets farther up the chain than that.
Hell, for all we know, Station already told him about it and received approval.
Military can probably take all that money away from her probably while at the same time kicking her out (or worse) from the service.
My guess is Station himself has probably set things up in such a way as for that to be impossible. They might kick her out of the service (not bloody likely...pretty sure Jeph doesn't give two shits about this notion), but the money's probably untouchable in a legal sense.
the military, at least the US military looks at things completely differently.
first, you are never "off-duty".
you may not be actively standing watch, or in uniform at a certain moment... but you're still on duty. that's why there no such thing as double jeopardy for service members. you can be in a barfight on a staurday night, while on leave, and not only have to deal with the legal ramifications in civilian court, but you also face charges for violating the ucmj... no matter what the outcome of your civilian trial is.
2nd, anytime you hold a security clearance, money becomes a very particular subject of concern. also, its not just the military watching, the FBI gets involved and approves and monitors people with clearances as well.
when i was in, i knew a guy who lost his clearance just for winning big at a casino. why? because it, and i quote his letter of reprimand here, which went in his service record, "showed a predilection for a potentially destructive behavior that in the future could place him a position where he may compromise national security through the disclosure of classified information." in other words he lost his clearance, which also meant he lost his job, which he'd had guaranteed in his initial enlistment contract, because it required a clearance... just because he might, someday, be tempted to sell national security secrets.
3rd, as an officer, you are held to an even higher standard than enlisted folks. you can be prevented from ever reaching flag rank, never being allowed past the rank of captain in the navy, or colonel in the other branches, even if you yourself aren't at fault for something, but someone you are intimately acquainted with does something wrong.
your wife cheats on you while you're deployed? your kid goes to court for a felony? military politics reads that as "you can't control your own family... how can we trust you to command men in battle if you can't even control your own flesh and blood?"
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I'd like to point out that Station didn't dump cash into the Lieutenent's account. He shifted control of some of his stock to her, probably had to set up an account o do it. Could have made it a blind trust, for all we know. I'm sure all the paperwork's fine and legal - you don't apologize to someone by torpedoing their carreer!
Also, jwhouk, Doctor John? With a soul patch?
I wonder if he plays piano?
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While your points are all very valid in our world, in the QC universe it all comes down to what Jeph decides to do with his arcs. Unless he likes Lt. Potter so much that he wants to write her in as an earth-side character, I doubt the monetary gift is going to be an issue causing her to get kicked off the station, it'd distract from the key plot lines of our dynamic trio too much to write in if he has no intention of showing us her ever again...
Also, the politics and informatics involved in space banking (which we know nothing of in the QC universe) make this all pretty moot, if the money is in an offshore tax haven then how would Lt. Potter's employers have any idea what had happened, never mind track the money down?
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we are just harmlessly nitpicking stuff... this is the thread for that isn't it? :psyduck:
I would like for Pintsize to be present in this storyline. How he would react to the Doctor and vice versa... He might be too dangerous tough to be allowed on a space station.
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Also, boob mole!
For some reason, I really appreciated that little detail.
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Where was a boob mole? I didn't see one in either of those comics...
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Top-left area of the right breast.
Exactly where Faye's scar is! Cue inane conspiracy mode!
You mean the scar Jeph constantly forgets to draw? :laugh:
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I like the offshore account idea. Also, that could legally be positioned as a settlement for a potential sexual harassment claim.
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Preemptive settlement = payoff.
Not that I have any problem with that...
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Top-left area of the right breast.
Exactly where Faye's scar is! Cue inane conspiracy mode!
That's not a mole, it's the barely-visible outline of Sven's index finger, most of which is obscured by his middle finger.
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Yeesh, there's nitpicking speculation and then there's the QC forums.
Lt. Potter related / connected somehow to Samantha, the daughter of the owner of Secret Bakery, based on a barely-visible detail? Well, the other picture in that room looks like a picture of Samara from the Ring cycle, the japanese horror movies = OMG, the AI's are going to download the Ring virus and take over teh world!
And as for "why does an AI need money" -- well, how the heck else does one recompense a sentient being with arguably no physical needs?
//thinking about it even a little bit is going down a rabbit hole of philsophical questions, ain't gonna go there.
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I won't speak for anyone else on here, but I don't take everything I post seriously.
Hmmm. Ring virus, ring-shaped space station ... COULD IT BE?
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I'm wondering if we'll get to see some fun roommate interactions. After all, the comic does show a second bunk with what appears to be folded clothing on its shelf, and considering the limited art angles there could be more on the other side of the room that we're not seeing.
As for the picture next to the calendar that some people have mentioned, I interpreted it as most likely being a parent or grandparent, maybe because the hair looks gray to me (not that it's easy to tell, considering the size.)
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kinda like how if an officer's wife is caught having an affair while he's on deployment, his career will suffer as a result.
Being punished because your wife cheats on you? If that's actually happened, how the hell has it not created a huge scandal? That is all sorts of horrible.
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Top-left area of the right breast.
Exactly where Faye's scar is! Cue inane conspiracy mode!
That's not a mole, it's the barely-visible outline of Sven's index finger, most of which is obscured by his middle finger.
Oh god, just realized my giant HERP A DERP moment. I thought they were referring to the comics they linked, not today's. Boy do I feel dumb.
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I'm liking Station a lot for the last panel's line. :laugh: The hairsplosion is pretty nice.
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It occurred to me, and I had to look it up to confirm it, bit Station nearly screwed Lt Potter over by giving her that much money (unintentionally, sure...maybe...). This is because of 'monetary influence', where if you have that kind of money, you will be discharged for the protection of yourself, fellow soldiers and the military, since it might cause people (including foreign nationals) to try take advantage of you. Then there's also the danger of bribes (happens in the military) or distraction from duty because of your wealth. So a discharge is in the best interests of all parties.
Think that about covers it. If she was discharged for this, though, she could still transfer to the Reserves and serve a career there. From personal experience and seeing her party photo, though, she'd fit right in XD
Edit: ok it seems the content of my post has been hashed to death already. Carry on, chaps! :P
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Good to know my fellow mil-bros jumped on Lt. Potter getting that large sum of money before I did. :)
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This whole thing about "wife cheats on AF spouse" is news to me. Of course, my step-brother wasn't exactly Mr. Angel himself when he was working on F-111's, but...
Long story short - unfortunately, I have pretty empirical evidence that if there's a case of spousal adultery in the service, it doesn't result in the service member being kicked out the door. They might find a nice, quiet, out of the way place for said service member to be stationed for a while until their date of discharge. But you don't get court-martialed and dishonorably discharged because your spouse nailed the civilian housing repairman and ran off with your three kids in tow.*
I suspect that the USAF assigned her to the Station for the express purpose of having her finish her five-year commitment after her Academy graduation. What would be interesting is how long she is into said five-year stint.
EDIT: Oh, and one other little thing for our ex-Military types - remember that this is an AI who's giving her the stocks. An AI that operates a very large space station. One that has LASERS.
* - In real life, it didn't actually happen that way, and I never really did ask (or want to know) how it happened.
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There are two simple explanations for the "damage" the station may have done to the fair lieutenant:
1) Jeph had no idea what the mil-types are talking about and was just going for the laugh: nothing will come of it
2) Jeph had an idea what the mil-types are talking about and the complications are part of a "space won't just be ponies and puppies" story line.
We'll probably know tomorrow since Friday is generally shocker day.
EDIT: Oh, and my first strip was about a month ago. And it took me about 5 semi-sleepless days to archive binge the 2100+ prior comics.
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kinda like how if an officer's wife is caught having an affair while he's on deployment, his career will suffer as a result.
Being punished because your wife cheats on you? If that's actually happened, how the hell has it not created a huge scandal? That is all sorts of horrible.
Oh, I'm sure the unfortunate officer would not be punished in the sense of being thrown into the stockade, but they might find promotion hard to find. This is far from being restricted to the military, incidentally, particularly at the "pointy end" of corporate hierarchies (which is what flag/field rank would be in the military, yes?). Typically there are many, highly-qualified, bums and only a few seats. Promotion decisions are often made on the basis of very subjective judgements of people's "soundness". Having a kid with a drug conviction? Having a marriage partner who is not "people like us"? Having a child with special needs who might "distract" you? Any of these can derail a career. There is no scandal, because it is normal and routine.
The "never off duty" thing applies to civilians too in practice. Civilans do not face the UCMJ (or its equivalent in other countries) but they do face "double jeopardy" in that they can certainly find their careers affected by things that happen outside the office. As is well known, embarrassing photos and opinions posted on Facebook, Youtube etc. can come back to bite you. Recruitment firms routinely trawl that stuff nowadays. Getting drunk at the company Christmas party was a Career Limiting Move for decades before the internet.
As the old sergeant in the cop-show said: "Be careful out there!"
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Blink twice girl, blink twice. :-D
Of course, such a thing would depend on how the Military would see it, and whether se would want to keep it, and that also depends on how seriously she takes her career in the Air Force.
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Jeph seems interested in exploring AI vs human ethics here... not The Consequences of the UCMJ For Potter
Station may or may not be trying to bribe her. My sense is that it's just an inappropriately-sized token of apology. Like flowers, only much more so (though the "blink once or twice" panel might show he's more clued in to the real size of the token than I'm describing).
I find it a little ironic that he was goaded into an attempt to correct a human-context social faux pas by Hannelore who's just come back to the station having learned how to do things like that from our buddies in Northhampton.
Consequences for Potter are still TBD because her reaction is as important as the fact of the situation in terms of how she'd be judged. We haven't seen the Lt's actual reaction yet, either, other than the exploding hair. Jeph may or may not go there depending on what he wants to say.
If she takes a "come clean immediately" approach then it'd be hard to justify making her responsible for what someone else did.
If she covers it up or somehow goes all conspiratorial, then yeah, game on for whatever consequences the qcverse has in store--the coverup is usually worse than the crime.
I think the more interesting question for the comic (and I hope Jeph explores this) is the ethical dynamic between Station and Potter... does it change their relationship? how will that affect the way either of them perform their duties, and if so what are the consequences there?
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What's in store for us THIS Week?
HannerDad is a Holographic Avatar! - 11 (12.5%)
Lt. Potter becomes Chekov's Love Interest! - 10 (11.4%)
Hannelore doesn't want to leave. - 2 (2.3%)
Marigold doesn't want to leave. - 10 (11.4%)
MARTEN doesn't want to leave. - 4 (4.5%)
All three return to Earth - to CHAOS! - 6 (6.8%)
The Birthday Party - which is really funny! - 13 (14.8%)
The Birthday Party - which is a real downer. - 6 (6.8%)
Waffles. - 1 (1.1%)
Something else. - 3 (3.4%)
MOAR SPACE STATION! - 22 (25%)
Total Voters: 88
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I am really enjoying this story arc a lot.
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Oh gosh what an easy decision on the poll...I moved last year from a place where there were more Waffle Houses than I can count on my fingers in as many miles from me to a place where the nearest one is 160 miles away. When I realized this there was a Moment of Silence.
As for Potter, I feel like it's probably not going to be a problem. Whatever happens I'm sure she'll land on her feet. And let's be honest - worst comes to worst and she accepts the money and promptly gets kicked off of Station. She's still a MULTIMILLIONAIRE.
Going back to the My First Comic discussion, I'm not entirely sure. It's been...at least four years now and I do know that it took place in the coffee shop but that's hardly very helpful. As a person that always has to start from the very beginning, though, my most distinct memory is the shock of going back to the first one and seeing how much the art had evolved.
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I dont get todays Comic.
Why does an AI hold money ?
Why does an AI give THAT much money away ?
It all doesnt make sense.
Hannerdad suddenly dies. Having an AI holding the reins is a good idea till all the shit get's sorted out in probate.
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Holy hell, double comic night. Was browsing random strips, wanted to check to see if it got updated, hit latest instead of the home site and it went straight to 2121. I then clicked on the home page in confusion and it went to 2120.
Now, onto the actual comic(s) :
//REDACTED BECAUSE THE SECOND COMIC GOT TAKEN DOWN//
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Ten bucks says the head of security is Dale.
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Hm. The second comic got taken down. Now I don't know whether to take a screenshot of it and post it so we can discuss it or if that would anger the mighty Jeph. Advice?
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Don't.
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Dang. Now I have to sit on the second comic all weekend with nobody to talk about it with. Damn you curiosity and/or chance! /shakes fist
...anyway, to discuss this as if I haven't seen the second comic, who is Dale?
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...anyway, to discuss this as if I haven't seen the second comic, who is Dale?
A better question would be whose appearance in the next comic you just heavily hinted at. :P
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...anyway, to discuss this as if I haven't seen the second comic, who is Dale?
A better question would be whose appearance in the next comic you just heavily hinted at. :P
No, I'm asking because somebody on the last page bet the security chief is Dale, and because I don't know who Dale is. No hinting intended, my apologies.
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Willy Wonkott-Chatham is going to send Marigold home for eating the prototype space pocky.
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Dale is a pizza delivery guy and Marigold's World of Warcraft nemesis. Hanners is of the opinion Dale flirts with Marigold when he taunts her in face-to-face meetings, and more than a few forumites would like to see Dale and Marigold "level-up" their relationship.
Dale's mentioned having three jobs at once; being head of security on the station would involve one hell of a commute to deliver pies. Perhaps he is allowed to use EC-101.
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Dale is a pizza delivery guy and Marigold's World of Warcraft nemesis. Hanners is of the opinion Dale flirts with Marigold when he taunts her in face-to-face meetings, and more than a few forumites would like to see Dale and Marigold "level-up" their relationship.
Oh, the "This one has potential" guy...
Yeah, it's not him. I won't confirm any speculations, but I can definitely shoot down some of the crazier ones.
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kinda like how if an officer's wife is caught having an affair while he's on deployment, his career will suffer as a result.
Being punished because your wife cheats on you? If that's actually happened, how the hell has it not created a huge scandal? That is all sorts of horrible.
Oh, I'm sure the unfortunate officer would not be punished in the sense of being thrown into the stockade, but they might find promotion hard to find. This is far from being restricted to the military, incidentally, particularly at the "pointy end" of corporate hierarchies (which is what flag/field rank would be in the military, yes?). Typically there are many, highly-qualified, bums and only a few seats. Promotion decisions are often made on the basis of very subjective judgements of people's "soundness". Having a kid with a drug conviction? Having a marriage partner who is not "people like us"? Having a child with special needs who might "distract" you? Any of these can derail a career. There is no scandal, because it is normal and routine.
The "never off duty" thing applies to civilians too in practice. Civilans do not face the UCMJ (or its equivalent in other countries) but they do face "double jeopardy" in that they can certainly find their careers affected by things that happen outside the office. As is well known, embarrassing photos and opinions posted on Facebook, Youtube etc. can come back to bite you. Recruitment firms routinely trawl that stuff nowadays. Getting drunk at the company Christmas party was a Career Limiting Move for decades before the internet.
As the old sergeant in the cop-show said: "Be careful out there!"
yep, pretty much this. fortunately for civies, there's the option of fighting back with legal action. the whole chain of command (they take it really seriously and have it, and the consequences of bucking it, written down in incredibly boring and annoying detail) thing in the service makes just raising the issue almost as big a black mark against you as whatever it was that got you black balled in the first place.
i actually expected today's comic to be Potter repeating her graduation mistake in celebration... now im wondering whats up with Marigold. hmmm, could her creepy-glasses gaming arch nemesis be involved somehow?
meh, doubt it, but good for a chuckle to think about.
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Maybe the head of security is just a major anime nerd and wants another fan to talk to?
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It looks like military police (or whatever they're called in the USAF) have the same lack of a sense of humour everywhere. I wonder what the problem is? Biologically hazardous vintage pocky?
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... Golly, I actually don't have a theory for this. :shocked:
Seems like we're going to meet the aforementioned Major.
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My call... Her WoW Guild turned out to be mostly al-Qaeda sleeper agents and now they're all being busted by Homeland Security.
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Interesting that they escorted away a guest of the station's owner without even acknowledging him. Puts the military/ECT relationship in a new light.
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<Low, single instrument dramatic music>
<Fade to black>
TO BE CONTINUED........
The Major: "Hello Marigold, it's been a while."
Marigold (shocked): "D .. Dad??!"
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Wait, isn't she her dad's webmaster? I figure she's in regular contact with him. Her mom on the other hand...
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<Low, single instrument dramatic music>
<Fade to black>
TO BE CONTINUED........
The Major: "Hello Marigold, it's been a while."
Marigold (shocked): "D .. Dad??!"
Ninja'd
I was going to say it's one of her parents.
Either that, or it's nobody we know...just some XKCD fan who wants someone out of uniform to have a real conversation with. :-P
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Point well taken. Not only are they disregarding "the doc", they seem to take for granted that Station isn't going to intervene.
It does not do to leave an AI out of your calculations, if you live inside one.
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Marigold: Dad?!
Head of Security: Not really. I just thought this form might be more pleasing to you.
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The head of security is a fan of her fanfiction. *whooshes away*
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Marigold: Dad?!
Head of Security: Not really. I just thought this form might be more pleasing to you.
ooh yay a reference I get!
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The head of security is a fan of her fanfiction. *whooshes away*
It's Hagrid.
"You are a wizard, Marigold."
But seriously, I think it's Daledad. Or Dalemom.
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Someone recently posted the idea that she'd coincidentally meet some of her World of Warcraft buddies on the station... I can't find the post anymore but anyway thats the idea I immediately jumped to. °O
My best bet is this is about the vomiting incident on the Ship. Poor Marigold will have to identify its scattered remains and break up into tears crying "Please, please, cover it up! I can't look at it!".
(Well... that ruined my breakfast.)
edit:
@poll: Money like that would go half into financing my dreams. (studying art, becoming someone usefull in the design business) and half into helping my family members finance THEIR dreams. I don't much care for giving to big charities that keep most of the money to finance their advertisement anyway.
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Marigold gets bullied ! :x
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The head of security is a fan of her fanfiction. *whooshes away*
Oh my. That got the first LLOL of the day.
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Hmm. Either a stowaway bandicoot in Marigold's luggage or ten members of the Alliance USAFWoW-guild wanting to PvP.
Or may be a few questions about the spacefootwear MariDad sold them?
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Point well taken. Not only are they disregarding "the doc", they seem to take for granted that Station isn't going to intervene.
It does not do to leave an AI out of your calculations, if you live inside one.
I'm sorry, Major, I'm afraid I can't let you do that...
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I don't much care for giving to big charities that keep most of the money to finance their advertisement anyway.
It bears saying that this is usually a dreadful misrepresentation which people simply don't bother to check up on or think about. Oxfam, for instance, spends 80% of its income directly on its charitable work - and the advertising and admin that the rest goes on is necessary to make that work effective. Concerning advertising, I see nothing wrong in spending on advertising that increases their income by more than the amount spent on it - that represents an actual increase in money available for their work.
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Omigosh Marigold's effin' getting' GANGBANGED!
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I don't much care for giving to big charities that keep most of the money to finance their advertisement anyway.
It bears saying that this is usually a dreadful misrepresentation which people simply don't bother to check up on or think about. Oxfam, for instance, spends 80% of its income directly on its charitable work - and the advertising and admin that the rest goes on is necessary to make that work effective. Concerning advertising, I see nothing wrong in spending on advertising that increases their income by more than the amount spent on it - that represents an actual increase in money available for their work.
I might have oversimplified, truly.
Still, my plans for the money remain rather selfish.
Omigosh Marigold's effin' getting' GANGBANGED!
There's no need for the third apostrophe. ...
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The dot in Marigold's speech bubble made me try to clean my screen. Am I getting OCD too to get unnerved by it?
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Why's Hanners so blase about Marigold's disappearance? And how did they not notice? Didn't she shout for help?
Being on a space station limits the number of places she could just wander off to.
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Interesting that they escorted away a guest of the station's owner without even acknowledging him.
Well yes, how else can she help them get his birthday surprise ready?
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New theory...
The station's website needs a new webmaster, and they like what they've seen of Marigold's work. Given that Station is horrible at tailoring a site to human tastes, they want to offer Marigold the position.
It's a job offer...IN SPAAACE.
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"Just come along quietly" with the grasping of the upper arm doesn't come over as being as friendly as most of these theories.
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Our security friend needs his nose broken.
That is entirely bullying. He needs to learn what it feels like to be on the receiving end.
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It looks like military police (or whatever they're called in the USAF) have the same lack of a sense of humour everywhere. I wonder what the problem is? Biologically hazardous vintage pocky?
There are a number of names for members of the Provosts:
a. Meatheads;
b. Boneheads (when budget cuts are rampant and the military can no longer afford meat); and
c. Thunderchickens (only applicable to the Canadian Forces where the MP's cap badge displays the Thunderbird).
I'm just wondering why none of these people can form a beret to save their souls, and why their working uniform displays the ribbon bars - at least in the CF we restrict that to our dress uniforms)
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Yeah, that upper arm grab / come along quietly seems unusually and needlessly bullying and intimidating. Being a butt seems to be an occupational hazard for security / MP types. :|
From Hanners' cheerful dismissal of Marigold's disappearance, it almost seems like she knows what's going on and can just shrug it off. I hope that's the case...
Helluva Friday cliffhanger, though. No idea where this could go.
JAAAAAAACQUES
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Another possibility is that one or more AnthroPCs somehow managed to smuggle themselves on board.
Wacky hijinks ensue. :psyduck:
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my favorite slang for military police is one I learned in the RAF: Mod Plod
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Wow, I feel like a moron now. I just got it. Dale the pizza guy. Marigold Farmer. HI HO THE MERRY-O, THE FARMER AND THE DELL.
JAAAAAAACQUES!
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
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The head of security will turn out to be Tony Verdeschi.
(Semi obscure pop culture reference is semi obscure.)
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Another possibility is that one or more AnthroPCs somehow managed to smuggle themselves on board.
Wacky hijinks ensue. :psyduck:
Only one needs to have smuggled himself on board, and it ain't the one that's sitting on my desk right now.
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If I were in Lt. Potter's position, I would probably try and make a deal with Station- I'd ask him to remove all traces of that photograph from everywhere then I'd draw up some sort of agreement where if I ever ended up in a bind, Station would help me out.
Of course, if all went off without a hitch and the transaction was just done in cash...I'd buy a house, pay off all of my/my fiance's/my family's debt, pay for our wedding, put a nice chunk aside for my future kid's college fund and use a few million to buy and donate books, supplies and new technology to schools around here that are in need. No need to worry about where funds are going if you take care of specific expenses rather that just cutting a check.
As for Mari- I noticed that the bags they all came on board with are now missing. Obviously, they probably didn't feel like walking around with them so theoretically they could be in Hanner's room. But- there is the possibility that their bags are being "checked" while they tour the facilities. Perhaps Marigold brought something questionable with her. It could have been accidental/mostly harmless, but Security didn't want to take any chances? But I have to admit that I'm with Jabberwocky- I really want it to be Pintsize :-P
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Why's Hanners so blase about Marigold's disappearance? And how did they not notice? Didn't she shout for help?
Wouldn't doing something that assertive be out of character?
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Another possibility is that one or more AnthroPCs somehow managed to smuggle themselves on board.
Wacky hijinks ensue. :psyduck:
and he is hidding inside Marigold if you know what i mean
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Anyone think maybe this strip has relevance?
http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2104
Marten's already got a full all clear apparently, Marigold may not. Maybe they're just gonna do a 10 minute examination to ensure she's not a secret robot and the security guard is a muscle head with no manners?
Dale being head of security would make my week though, that sinister Gendo Ikari glasses thing and his apparent self belief in his own superiority would be considerably more justified if he was indeed head of security on the station.
:psyduck:
Edit: Having said that, if you were concerned that someone was a secret robot, waiting until they were on the station before checking them would be pretty stupid. But although Station is pretty well organized, the military on the station seem to be slightly out the loop... who knows?
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Maybe they're just gonna do a 10 minute examination
Station has already examined them down to molecular level; but perhaps the military don't fully trust the AI that their lives actually depend on?
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Maybe the head of security is just a major anime nerd and wants another fan to talk to?
"Colonel Sosuke wants to have a word with you about this... 'Magical Love Gentleman'."
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Stoopid poll (not to be taken seriously)
- Dale was an intelligence agent all along, sent by the government to spy on the Ellicot-Chatham clan; they need someone to 'get close' to Hanners as part of a long campaign to get inside the company.
- Pintsize stowed away, and the military is suspicious of a high-grade military chassis (surplus, but classified) in civilian hands.
- Momo is a fugitive AI from Ellicot-Chatham industries.
- The government detected Raven's quantum teleportation espresso maker, and they've mistaken Mari for Faye and want her to give up the technology.
- Vintage pocky as a new bioweapon.
- The head of security...wants his own holo-pony dammit
- Butts disease, IN SPACE. Mean security guard is a butt.
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I'm starting to align with pwhodges here... we've seen that there's tension between the mil presence and Station... Doublechecking him would be par for the course, but perhaps they'll nvite her to a plot of intrigue based on seeing her badassery her in-game, only to be hilariously wrong about Marigold IRL.
As hijinks go, are these too wacky?
Edit: just noticed the title... Probably a TSA joke will ensue.
Edit2: security guy's name looks to be "Oglaf" lending further support to the gangbanging theory
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I'm surprised none in the group saw Mari dissapear all of a sudden if they walk so near each other... Or at least how they didn't notice the tall dude walking and talking to Mari.
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This is probably a total misunderstanding; we're dealing with the US military here, after all. Like some "military intelligence" dude (probably a stuffy colonel that failed upwards into a desk job on a GIGO assignment and still thinks he's important) got wind of all these "gold farmers" in red china and wants to know what Mari knows.
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Or the Major isn't the hardass the Lieutenant or this new fellow thinks he/she is and the subordinates follow the orders by the book. I've had to deal with folks like that and it's amazing how often things are a "misunderstanding" when you finally get to whomever issued the order/made the request/wanted to say hi.
I'm thinking of the joke about the general who, not recognized in the dark by a Pfc., says "That's OK, son. You're just lucky I'm not a second lieutenant."
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Looking at the comic again, I kinda feel like "Oglaf" looks more like he's marginally impatient or exasperated. There's no scary face going on, if anything he looks like a man doing a chore he'd rather get over and done with quickly.
Maybe the head of security wants to see Marigold for something unofficial and poor Oglaf has been sent to reel in Marigold? I sure as hell know if a security agent tried to peel me away from my group and I thought I was in serious trouble I'd make enough of a squawk to make sure my friends knew what was happening!
Edit: My avatar compelled me to vote "Go see Spamalot for Something Completely Different."
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For comic #2120...
1. Weekend cliffhanger! Will Marigold be tagged as a security risk due to her heavily online status (blogs, MMOs, websites, etc)? Is it another plot by "GenDale Ikari" to recruit her to NERV's Space Division (or the WoW Alliance)? Does the head of security want to have zero-G make-outs with our well-endowed tauren raid-tank? ...dunh Dunh DUNH!
2. Really though... I doubt any of this has anything to do with Dale, at least directly. I suppose an indirect method would be that the station's head of security would be one of Dale's guild-mates in WoW Alliance, among the ones he was talking to via voice-chat in #1693 (http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1693). (Because in most MMO voice chat, it is rarely ever just two people.)
3. As to why Station would need 600-ish million US-Dollars. A "reasonable" (for QC) explanation could be that Station's physical form (a long-term orbital space station) likely requires a lot of funding and maintenance, and it is probably good to have "personal" (for the cyber-sentient rights' world of QC) assets to draw upon rather than rely too heavily upon administration-by-administration government funding (see: RL NASA :cry: ).
4. If a very large military-looking goon tells you to, "Just come along quietly" without even the most basic explanation to "why?" Be damn sure to let as many people as possible know you have been taken away as such.
5. Also, is said large military goon not wearing any shirt under his jumpsuit? His jumpsuit zipper is pretty low, and I am seeing nothing but flesh-colors.
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So what would YOU do with those stock options?
Keep 'em and have the baby from eTrade watch them like a hawk. - 5 (11.1%)
Refuse the gift. I love my Air Force position too much. - 1 (2.2%)
(Yeah, right.) - 2 (4.4%)
Sell them and buy shares in Facebook. - 1 (2.2%)
Cash some of it in and buy a little coffee shop in the Pioneer Valley of Western Mass. - 4 (8.9%)
Take the money and RUN (preferably to Jamaica). - 9 (20%)
Buy waffles. - 1 (2.2%)
Buy a Waffle House franchise. - 5 (11.1%)
Go see Spamalot for Something Completely Different. - 5 (11.1%)
Get a Fender Stratocaster. - 1 (2.2%)
It's just a show, I should probably just relax... - 2 (4.4%)
Don't look at this too closely. - 5 (11.1%)
Something different (specify!) - 4 (8.9%)
Total Voters: 45
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Indeed. There's plenty of drama to be had simply by Hannelore and her father recalling what her childhood was like.
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3. As to why Station would need 600-ish million US-Dollars. A "reasonable" (for QC) explanation could be that Station's physical form (a long-term orbital space station) likely requires a lot of funding and maintenance, and it is probably good to have "personal" (for the cyber-sentient rights' world of QC) assets to draw upon rather than rely too heavily upon administration-by-administration government funding (see: RL NASA :cry: ).
Bah, the simple answer is AIs are paid to do work. Station is on the job 24/7/365.25, arguably does the work of 20-30 humans, and is responsible for the lives 100+ humans and the maintenance of the station itself. How much would pay him for that service? He would easily accumulate millions of dollars a year and with good investments could easily have $600 million.
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OK, finally decided to get in after a long time following...
(A) If you are a big mil/ind contractor and in one of your research facilities there's such activity going on that there is required a security presence, if you are allowed to bring in visitors under your personal responsibility you comply with a specific procedure, you don't just dismissively blow off the people trying to do their job. In that Jeph is being consistent and Hanners, who has been adapting to dealing with the imperfect, uncontrolled environment, is right in standing up for the Lieutenant.
(B) In between the first encounter with Lt. Potter and Hanners telling Station to go apologize, Potter's no longer there so there was a lapse of time. So it's possible that during this lapse of time it was arranged to have the overlooked screenings/searches conducted and then it would be plausible for one of the AnthroPCs to smuggle hirself into their luggage or for something to be found amiss.
(C) However, grab/"come quietly" would NOT be a likely way of pulling Marigold aside under any normal procedure for dealing with civilian visitors at such a facility. Jeph's using artist's license to skip over the normal niceties of escalation to get to where Marigold is taken somewhere. As to how come they did not notice it, by now she may have been straggling back trying to see some LASERS!!!1!!11 so often they were expecting her to fall behind. Heck, they may be even using a ruse to take her to see the LASERS!!, to show no hard feelings as part of the Potter/Station settlement. (man, MG really loves LASERS!! doesn't she?)
(D) Of all the AIs so far, Station is the first one that I perceive as being actually dickish to someone*, and picking and choosing who he feels deserves or not respect or consideration. "I'm having difficulty hearing you", rolling his eyes at having to apologize, etc. (*PintSize can be rude and crude but he is not cruel; Station deliberately sought to humiliate Lt. Potter)
(E) OK, so IRL it would be hard to graduate USAF Academy if you have the kind of bad judgement to pull a Cadets Gone Wild and put it on facebook. Academy people, whatever the branch, are very career-minded. That line kind of took me out of it for a moment. It would make more sense if the picture had been shared among fellow cadets/graduates and Station had come into possession of it because of a breach of proper file security. "I should have asked Zyrkowski to wipe that memory card" or something like that.
(F) What with AIs having been declared persons with rights at some point in the recent past of the QCverse, it would make perfect sense if companies were to do a share-option compensation package for someone like Station, who's been and continues to be a vital part of ECC, just as are a lot of the people IRL in the tech and financial sectors. And it would be reasonable that Station's stock is worth hundreds of millions.
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Welcome, new person! That's a good post.
We can speculate that the picture was only supposed to be visible to friends, and that either Lt. Potter got caught by one of Facebook's changes to privacy settings, or that Facebook's servers are run by an AI which is willing to extend professional courtesy to Station.
AnthroPCs have humiliated their owners before: http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=639 .
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Perhaps the Lt. merely made the mistake of accepting Station's friend request...
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Maybe the head of security is just a major anime nerd and wants another fan to talk to?
"Colonel Sosuke wants to have a word with you about this... 'Magical Love Gentleman'."
Bookmark this quote. :-D
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I'll bet it's an updated TOS issue. :laugh:
Let's see - what could Marigold have inadvertently brought aboard SS EC-Tech that would be "against the rules"?
- Sharp Objects - Box cutters? Scissors? I don't see her carrying anything like this on her person or in her luggage. However, Hanners did say she thought Marigold had a katana...
- Sporting Goods - I doubt she has a cricket bat like Hannelore does.
- Guns & Firearms - Uh, no.
- Tools - This area I could see an issue. She is a computer techie, and she might have her emergency computer repair kit on hand at all times - like her screwdriver set or six-in-one tool. Such an item would probably not be larger than seven inches in length (which is the TSA requirement), so that might not be an issue. Maybe it's something else in her repair kit?
- Martial Arts & Self-Defense Items - Would she actually carry a can of mace, or a taser with her? or Nunchakus, Throwing Stars? Or could she have something on her that could be mistaken for such?
- Explosive & Flammable Materials - Practically anything in this category would be "very bad" to bring onto a space station, as the atmosphere inside is probably a lot closer to pure oxygen than the mixture we have on Earth. Maybe a can of Cheez-Whiz that she forgot was in her luggage? Maybe some sort of soldering gun or other type of torch/lighter?
- Chemicals and Other Dangerous Items - Some sort of heavy-duty tear gas, but then her luggage would have been a LOT larger than it appears.
- Other Items - The only thing I could think of would be her Netbook - with the attached webcam. Maybe Hannelore forgot to tell her that she couldn't bring that with to the station?
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Momo sent a resume to ECTech for a station job requiring security clearance. (You didn't think she wanted to work in the Smif library all her life, didja?) ... anyway, she listed Marigold as a reference ...
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It has been established that APC "personalities" (which, I believe, is the Politcally Correct term for "AI's without a physical form or avatar") can be "uploaded" into a computer (or, theoretically, into a computer with an internet connection). The AI could simply "switch" via a cable or Wi-Fi connection from one robot body to the next; it might be that USB/Firewire connections are easier because of the huge amount of data required to transfer.
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Series starting here: Pintsize Virus (http://questionablecontent.net./view.php?comic=267) discusses this.
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I'll bet it's an updated TOS issue. :laugh:
Let's see - what could Marigold have inadvertently brought aboard SS EC-Tech that would be "against the rules"?
- Sharp Objects - Box cutters? Scissors? I don't see her carrying anything like this on her person or in her luggage. However, Hanners did say she thought Marigold had a katana...
- Sporting Goods - I doubt she has a cricket bat like Hannelore does.
- Guns & Firearms - Uh, no.
- Tools - This area I could see an issue. She is a computer techie, and she might have her emergency computer repair kit on hand at all times - like her screwdriver set or six-in-one tool. Such an item would probably not be larger than seven inches in length (which is the TSA requirement), so that might not be an issue. Maybe it's something else in her repair kit?
- Martial Arts & Self-Defense Items - Would she actually carry a can of mace, or a taser with her? or Nunchakus, Throwing Stars? Or could she have something on her that could be mistaken for such?
- Explosive & Flammable Materials - Practically anything in this category would be "very bad" to bring onto a space station, as the atmosphere inside is probably a lot closer to pure oxygen than the mixture we have on Earth. Maybe a can of Cheez-Whiz that she forgot was in her luggage? Maybe some sort of soldering gun or other type of torch/lighter?
- Chemicals and Other Dangerous Items - Some sort of heavy-duty tear gas, but then her luggage would have been a LOT larger than it appears.
- Other Items - The only thing I could think of would be her Netbook - with the attached webcam. Maybe Hannelore forgot to tell her that she couldn't bring that with to the station?
Having seen the next comic already, I can tell you it's Other. Although it does have to do with what she brought with her. ;-)
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"........ As is usual Miss Farmer, should you or any of your team be caught of killed, The Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions ....."
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Since we know AnthroPCs can be backed up and restored, I think the question on the table was about what happens when you restore twice and get two simultaneously operating copies of the AnthroPC personality. Imagine, for example, Pintsize being replicated through BitTorrent.
What if Marigirl brought with her something really awful, not a mere chemical or biohazard, but instead some of her fanfiction?
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I'll bet it's an updated TOS issue. :laugh:
Let's see - what could Marigold have inadvertently brought aboard SS EC-Tech that would be "against the rules"?
- Sharp Objects - Box cutters? Scissors? I don't see her carrying anything like this on her person or in her luggage. However, Hanners did say she thought Marigold had a katana...
- Sporting Goods - I doubt she has a cricket bat like Hannelore does.
- Guns & Firearms - Uh, no.
- Tools - This area I could see an issue. She is a computer techie, and she might have her emergency computer repair kit on hand at all times - like her screwdriver set or six-in-one tool. Such an item would probably not be larger than seven inches in length (which is the TSA requirement), so that might not be an issue. Maybe it's something else in her repair kit?
- Martial Arts & Self-Defense Items - Would she actually carry a can of mace, or a taser with her? or Nunchakus, Throwing Stars? Or could she have something on her that could be mistaken for such?
- Explosive & Flammable Materials - Practically anything in this category would be "very bad" to bring onto a space station, as the atmosphere inside is probably a lot closer to pure oxygen than the mixture we have on Earth. Maybe a can of Cheez-Whiz that she forgot was in her luggage? Maybe some sort of soldering gun or other type of torch/lighter?
- Chemicals and Other Dangerous Items - Some sort of heavy-duty tear gas, but then her luggage would have been a LOT larger than it appears.
- Other Items - The only thing I could think of would be her Netbook - with the attached webcam. Maybe Hannelore forgot to tell her that she couldn't bring that with to the station?
If TSA was going to be involved (would they be for a private aircraft?), I'm sure they would have been before they reached the space station. Once there, it would probably be rules based on what you can bring onto the premises of a military contractor, which I assume are looser.
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Since we know AnthroPCs can be backed up and restored, I think the question on the table was about what happens when you restore twice and get two simultaneously operating copies of the AnthroPC personality. Imagine, for example, Pintsize being replicated through BitTorrent.
What if Marigirl brought with her something really awful, not a mere chemical or biohazard, but instead some of her fanfiction?
I presume personality of robots is not only based on software but hardware too. so if you upload another Anthro into new hardware then that will be another person even tough they will have same memories.
Changing chassis is not an issue as it is just chassis not brain of AI but just a body.
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Members disappearing one by one, Hanners being completely inconspicuous about it...
IN SPACE NO ONE CAN HEAR YOU *DOOOOOOOOOOM*
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The government detected Raven's quantum teleportation espresso maker, and they've mistaken Mari for Faye and want her to give up the technology.[/li][/list]
They did call her "Ms. Farmer", not "Ms. Whitaker".
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I utilized the TSA list out of convenience, not because it exactly fit the situation.
From what I've gathered from Jeph's newsposts, AI's without an APC body and/or a physical form (i.e., intelligent toaster, forklift, submarine, space station, etc.) reside in a central AI "mind" located at some undisclosed central location. It's entirely possible that said location does get "backed up", but it's more likely that the AI's residing therein simply move elsewhere if there's a power issue or other problem.
There's a whole unexplored possibility for hacker/Anonymous terror issues with something like that. Imagine a cyber-terrorist who cuts the links to the outside world from an AI "holding tank" and then cuts the power to the tank... it'd have the same effect as blowing up a building or a suicide bomber. Could you imagine a whole AI/terrorist Cyberwar - and not a single human knows about it?
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May be not entirely unexplored. The Starways Congress tried to kill Jane in Ender's saga in a similar way in Xenocide. I have not read "Children of the Mind" yet, so no spoilers, please.
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Neither have I. In fact, I could never finish Xenocide, it was such a disappointment compared to the first two.
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I personally found the Ender's Shadow series far more interesting than the Ender's game continuations, although that could have been because I read Children of the Mind/Xenocide/the others around age 13/14.
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Ian M Banks' book Excession deals with the very interesting idea of AI Minds (Caps intentional, it's the term the book uses) being backed up due to the destruction of the original, only for the original to survive. It's well worth a read if you like the idea of a Spaaace Opeeraaa with conspiracy themes.
:psyduck:
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I personally found the Ender's Shadow series far more interesting than the Ender's game continuations, although that could have been because I read Children of the Mind/Xenocide/the others around age 13/14.
Oh, easily, I read all four Shadow book after giving up on Xenocide. Good stuff.
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OMG What's going to happen to MARIGOLD???
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(Looks around...) Er, we don't know...
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If Hannelore finds out, she calls Beatrice, and in the worst case the people who renditioned Marigirl to Syria along with the entire Syrian government go into the shark tank.
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OMG What's going to happen to MARIGOLD???
That should totally be the poll question or the entire first post for the next WCDT. ;D
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The tricky part's gonna be coming up with answer options...
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...and I didn't see what actually happened, since I didn't log on when it was "accidentally" posted.
So your guess is good as mine.
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What was... THE MOMENT... OF... THE WEEK?
Compared to LASERS? No Contest. - 1 (2.9%)
Wanna see pictures? I have a photo album! - 1 (2.9%)
Doctor John Ellicott-Chatham - 7 (20%)
Not sure since the divorce. - 1 (2.9%)
Can't rely on the AI for everything - 1 (2.9%)
Lt. Potter's room - 1 (2.9%)
"Friggin' A-hole AI..." - 1 (2.9%)
AIM HIGH or ELSE - 1 (2.9%)
.76% of Ellicott-Chatham Technologies. - 1 (2.9%)
Holdings worth US$4.6 million. - 4 (11.4%)
Blink once/blink twice... - 10 (28.6%)
Ms. Farmer? Our head of security would like to have a word with you. - 3 (8.6%)
Just come along quietly, Ms. Farmer. - 1 (2.9%)
Looking for the ladies' room. - 2 (5.7%)
Total Voters: 35
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Let's see - what could Marigold have inadvertently brought aboard SS EC-Tech that would be "against the rules"?
Momo's old body....with Pintsize's "ghost" downloaded into it. Pintsize managed to download himself into Momo's old body, and snuck into Marigold's bag.
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The government detected Raven's quantum teleportation espresso maker, and they've mistaken Mari for Faye and want her to give up the technology.[/li][/list]
They did call her "Ms. Farmer", not "Ms. Whitaker".
Point.
Imagine, for example, Pintsize being replicated through BitTorrent.
What if Marigirl brought with her something really awful, not a mere chemical or biohazard, but instead some of her fanfiction?
Ye gods, how terrifying! A generation of AI's, still in development, read Mari's fanfiction, thought the prose style was hilarious, and are now talking like the narrator in "Ginny and Hermione v. the Space Wizards" (or whatever it was called.)
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Let's see - what could Marigold have inadvertently brought aboard SS EC-Tech that would be "against the rules"?
Momo's old body....with Pintsize's "ghost" downloaded into it. Pintsize managed to download himself into Momo's old body, and snuck into Marigold's bag.
Ahhh, that explains The Majors interest
:-D