Freefall 3: Death Ray Byproducts

[Rockphed]

I occasionally see a meme that Earth is a death-world. Frankly, I would like to see it get more traction in media.

The only one I can think of is a book by Allen Dean Foster (I think) about warring space alliances where humans are essentially supermen. We are stronger, faster, and better at the whole "fight people" thing. Pretty much every other book either has Earth as a fairly typical world, or has Earth as a garden world.

[Rogar Demonblud]

In other words, the old line about how we nailed our god to a tree, so don't screw with us?

[geoduck]

Saberhagen's Berserker novels sort of go this route; we humans get turned.. or maybe 'nudged'.. into being Berserker-killers by another alien species, because we're really good at it.

There's also a bit in one of Harrison's Bil the Galactic Hero novels where the eponymous fellow ends up on a robot-inhabited planet where water is considered a deadly poison.

[halfeye]

I occasionally see a meme that Earth is a death-world. Frankly, I would like to see it get more traction in media.

The only one I can think of is a book by Allen Dean Foster (I think) about warring space alliances where humans are essentially supermen. We are stronger, faster, and better at the whole "fight people" thing. Pretty much every other book either has Earth as a fairly typical world, or has Earth as a garden world.

There are a whole bunch online under the heading Humanity F*** Yeah.

The Deathworlders is the main one, currently 51 plus (there is at least one multi-page chapter, I don't remember whether there are more) pages, each page about 2-3 hours of reading. I have the current page bookmarked but there's no obvious way from there to the first page.

There are these two in the same setting by different authors, currently on hiatus for at least six months, I don't remember the last time either posted, but they are a decent length per page, but nothing like as long per page as the main one:

https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/wiki/series/salvage

https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/wiki/se...make_good_pets

[hajo]

There are a whole bunch online under the heading Humanity F*** Yeah.

The Deathworlders is the main one, currently 51 plus ..
there's no obvious way from there to the first page.

See jenkinsverse - essential_reading_order.

It's a nice scenario, but all the aliens seem to not use robots and automation right, considering that they already have good computers, sensors and software.

I.e. why use weak soldiers, when you could use robots and/or automated stationary guns (eg. repelling boarders/pirates) ?

Also, most military types come across as fairly boneheaded

[halfeye]

See jenkinsverse - essential_reading_order.

Thanks for that. It probably means some sleepless nights getting through at a minimum the ones I don't recognise on (re)reading.

[Rogar Demonblud]

It's a nice scenario, but all the aliens seem to not use robots and automation right, considering that they already have good computers, sensors and software.

I.e. why use weak soldiers, when you could use robots and/or automated stationary guns (eg. repelling boarders/pirates) ?

Also, most military types come across as fairly boneheaded

Those two thoughts may be related.

[Rogar Demonblud]

And now Niomi reminds us that economics still exists in a world bordering on post-scarcity. And that there are certain drawbacks to being a canoid.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Some tried and true parenting advice for you today.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Return of the Fluffy Space Piranha!

[Rockphed]

I thought they were trying to avoid a race of fluffy space piranha by leaving the animated dust-mop with Niomi's children.

[Jasdoif]

I thought they were trying to avoid a race of fluffy space piranha by leaving the animated dust-mop with Niomi's children.

Apparently Sam doesn't know that.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Yup. He just knows that every time the fuzzball gets within lunging distance of him, he's a chew toy.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

I'm loving the montage.

Relatedly*, is this the fastest the comic has ever moved? Or rather, I suppose what I'm after is what is the highest number of strips it has taken Freefall to cover 24 hours?

Grey Wolf

*The browser dictionary keeps putting a squiggly red line under "Relatedly". Is it not a word?

[halfeye]

*The browser dictionary keeps putting a squiggly red line under "Relatedly". Is it not a word?

Dictionaries are limited. Some miss some words entirely, some miss sufficiently compounded words. The Oxford English Dictionary is some large (double digit?) number of volumes, I have a copy of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, it's two chunky volumes and it's been steadily going out of date since I bought it many, many years ago.

Someday every dictionary will be unified, and all out of date at once.

"Relatedly" looks like a word to me, and that's about as good as it gets (I know that's pretty bad, I don't think it gets any better if you dig deeper).

[Rogar Demonblud]

I'm loving the montage.

Relatedly*, is this the fastest the comic has ever moved? Or rather, I suppose what I'm after is what is the highest number of strips it has taken Freefall to cover 24 hours?

Grey Wolf

*The browser dictionary keeps putting a squiggly red line under "Relatedly". Is it not a word?

Yes, relatedly is a word. Most spellcheckers only hold 30-35% of the words in the English language, so they're pretty useless if you actually have a high school level vocabulary.

As for what's the longest day, we don't know. First, time is often not properly sign posted in comic. Second, most people can't count that high. I think the whole trial day arc was about 400, though.

[SZbNAhL]

Most spellcheckers only hold 30-35% of the words in the English language, so they're pretty useless if you actually have a high school level vocabulary.

Nobody's a prefect typist; it helps to have something that can catch typos.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Yes, relatedly is a word. Most spellcheckers only hold 30-35% of the words in the English language, so they're pretty useless if you actually have a high school level vocabulary.

I have a ESL vocabulary instead, and I find them to be exceedingly useful.

Nobody's a prefect typist; it helps to have something that can catch typos.

Indeed. Also, I'm guessing you did that on purpose?

Grey Wolf

[Jasdoif]

Or rather, I suppose what I'm after is what is the highest number of strips it has taken Freefall to cover 24 hours?

According to the author's posted timeline...day 24 spanned 2282 to 2676; making a total of 395 strips.

[SZbNAhL]

Indeed. Also, I'm guessing you did that on purpose?

Grey Wolf

It was origninally a real typo, but I noticed and intentionally didn't correct it because it was too good a chance to pass up.

[halfeye]

Yes, relatedly is a word. Most spellcheckers only hold 30-35% of the words in the English language, so they're pretty useless if you actually have a high school level vocabulary.

Most of the words in the English language aren't used by most English speakers. I remember hearing that there were a million words in English a long time ago. It must have been twenty years or more, it could be fourty, by now that could easily have doubled. The vocabulary of the average native English speaker is something like 20,000 words, really clever people more than double that, but it's almost nothing to a million words.

[TaRix]

Wow, something Terran that Sam doesn't (yet) find scary.

[Willie the Duck]

Wow, something Terran that Sam doesn't (yet) find scary.

It actually makes sense. The very reason that capsaicin exists is so that most animals will not eat peppers, but birds (who have no receptors for it, and btw also distribute seeds more distantly, given that they fly) will eat them. It makes sense that a non-terran would not either.

[halfeye]

It actually makes sense. The very reason that capsaicin exists is so that most animals will not eat peppers, but birds (who have no receptors for it, and btw also distribute seeds more distantly, given that they fly) will eat them. It makes sense that a non-terran would not either.

There are several "Hot" tastes that don't involve capsaicin at all (Horse radish, radish, mustard, black/white pepper, ginger (for all I know there may be hundreds)). I'd like to see the hottest possible scoville zero sauce, I would bet (and I generally don't bet) that it's pretty freaking hot.

[Radar]

There are several "Hot" tastes that don't involve capsaicin at all (Horse radish, radish, mustard, black/white pepper, ginger (for all I know there may be hundreds)). I'd like to see the hottest possible scoville zero sauce, I would bet (and I generally don't bet) that it's pretty freaking hot.

I could not find exact numebers for the food products, but at least for the capsaicinoids family of substances there is a nice table on Wikipedia. Anything above capsaicine is a neurotoxine. Frankly so is the capsaicine

The way the Scoville scale is defined, it could easily be used for any hot food product as long as the extraction process has the same efficiency, which might be an issue. The best I found is this article which has a nice list of different spicy substances, but there was no universal test done to compare them unfortunately.

Quick browsing of scientific papers on pungency scales reveals that there are various tests and scales developed but one would need to dig deeper to find some comparative studies of different substances.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Sam learns an important lesson in delayed gratification, but misapplies it. Also, notice nobody is sitting close enough to allow him to steal test answers.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Aww, the dust mop has a Sam Starfall squeeky toy. I'm guessing those are popular, Sam being Sam. Too bad he didn't license his likeness.

[Rockphed]

You know, I didn't notice the Sam Starfall squeaky toy. That is a cool detail.

[Rogar Demonblud]

About the only good thing to having read Erfworld for a while is that I look for visual jokes now.

[Rogar Demonblud]

And speaking of visual jokes and in-references, the April Fools Day strip is up.