her whole speech flies in the face of this one…I think she’s merely trying to put to rest any remaining suspicions Amanda has, and for good reason given the very negative reaction Amanda expressed regarding anything out of the ordinary.
Well, Monica also said that if she can’t prove it, then she discounts it. How can she claim to be a real scientist if she’s not going to trust her observations? It IS the first step in the Scientific Method of Inquiry, after all: Observe, Theorize, Experiment for Evidence for the Truth. If she can’t trust what she observes, then she won’t be able to accept the truth.
see said if she can’t recreate it in a lab that means she held the possibility till the experiment phase and retroactively it was named illusion or delusion.
Thanks! 🙂 I think the key with feet, after lots of experimenting, is to include the wrinkles to help define the shape, rather than trying to outline them.
Unless, of course, she is deliberately prodding Amanda into saying “Now, wait a minute — !” and challenging her statement.
At which point Monica can start a Socratic discussion, which would be far more effective than just telling Amanda.
Hmmm … She can’t lie to Amanda, but she’s not of a mind to include her in all the mystical stuff. So, she’s recapitulating something she’s no doubt said to Amanda in the past.
Clark’s Law: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
Just because modern physics doesn’t have the frame of reference for describing ‘poiting’, doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist or work in a predictable manner. Radio, radar, lasers, the computer, the internet, cloning… all are technologies that were virtually unthinkable less then a century ago. Who knows what the next developments might bring?
Heck–give an early 1950s computer engineer a modern computer chip, and they wouldn’t be able to tell how it worked, much less try to duplicate it. They might be able to get a microscope picture to show some of the structures. What happens if they develop optical computers?
Clark’s Law: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
Fnord’s Corollary: Just because science can not currently explain an alleged event or experience, that does not mean that it is supernatural in origin by default.
Fatuncle’s Condensation of Fnord’s Corollary to Clarke’s Law: Current science’s inability to explain phenomena does not equate to a definition of supernatural.
Science does actually present several theories that could explain teleportation. It’s just that all of them would involve such staggering amounts of power that it literally boggles the mind.
That’s the problem with Star Trek’s transporters too. The energy required would make the ships photon torpedos look like bottle rockets in comparison.
That’s one frightening thing about this. The other? This implies that the Chimera was probably not just mindlessly destroying the world. It was probably controlled by someone. If it had truly been mindless rage directing it there would probably be a new asteroid belt in the earth’s orbit today.
How many of you are familiar with Terry Pratchett’s books? A point he often makes through the thoughts of a character, while stripping off “the charm” of witchcraft, is that “knowing how it’s done doesn’t make it less magical” 😉
(for example, utilizing placebo-effect and sharp social skills for the benefit of others)
M probably likes the reverse better, namely “not nowing how something is done doesn’t make it magical”. But at the moment, she’s not lying to Amanda, she’s merely misleading her to stay in the belief that M had some sort of “Feeling” instead of simple calculation of Tina+(Phix+comment to get girls out of the coffeeshop)=Danger??
(sorry for the wall of text)
I like PTerry’s remarks about the difference between Magrat and Granny Weatherwax:
If Magrat brewed a potion. it would work perfectly because she’d be careful to get exactly the right proportions of exactly the right herbs in exactly the right type of cauldron and to stir it precisely the right number of times in the correct direction with a wand made of the right kind of wood.
Granny, OTOH, would grab a handful of grass from the roadside, toss it in any old pot, stir it a couple of times any old way with whatever came to hand … and hers would likely work better than perfectly, because Granny understands that intention is at least a vital as precision.
However, he does say that because of that fact Granny makes a better witch then Magrat, Magrat is a better Doctor (IE. Healer) because she knows things like that matter. (In Lords and Ladies, in a foot note) it’s a trade off.
Once again, I love the texture of the chairs and the shading of the background. Paul is always showing us that the best drawing doesn’t need color to be wonderful.
Interesting body language–from sitting upright to moving away from Amanda and putting her feet between them…it seems to mirror the defensiveness of her words. Or is she trying to convey a sense of relaxation that she doesn’t feel? Or is Paul just showing off (his skill in drawing) Monica’s feet?
Maybe it’s that Amanda is on Monica’s turf, so Amanda should like a a polite guest and not question Monica’s judgment on the matter. She’s diminishing Amanda by being so informal with her.
IIRC, LBJ once put a Cabinet member (or other high-ranking official) in his place by using the Oval Office bathroom, while keeping the conversation going with them.
For portraits I am going to say its a 110mm on a 500CM. Looks like a crystal mirror hood too, nice! Almost looks like a non-shuttered lens which means she has a 2000FC series camera but those are rather hard to find for very good reasons… Why I bought one I will never know.
I think Amanda’s trying to open up to Monica about something weird on her end. Notice the … thought bubble and the uncertainty as she attempts to push the subject even knowing M wants nothing to do with it.
And, now that we’re past the honesty issues and art appreciation, how about the Wonderful Annex seems to be the corner of a warehouse decorated with electric meters and cabinets?
Well, Phix did say they were decorated in a style appropriate to the era and situation — so I guess while the room is drek, but the cabinets and furniture are polished mahogany!
Not knowing something’s Magickal don’t make it Science, then?
Or, if a cat has kittens in your oven, does that make them biscuits?
Ah, well. A rose by any other name would still be appreciated for the beauty of its entirety, including thorns, the same as individual components of the Creation. There is no Challenge in having all answers beforehand.
“If I can’t replicate something in a lab, it didn’t happen”… so says the person whose professional field is “…often faced with crucial samples of size less than one.” (Slice, D.E. 2007. Geometric Morphometrics. Annu. Rev. Anthropol., 36:261-281). Sorry dear, sometimes replication isn’t an option and you have to make do with speculation.
Amanda seems to have a different camera every time we see her at work. Funny how some photographers customize their equipment for each individual project, and others stick to just one set for everything.
I knew a well-respected pro photographer who had a lens (105mm?) that he used for portrait work with a 35mm camera, and treated more carefully than almost any other piece of gear he had.
He’d dropped it once, and the impact had knocked something in it just a bit out of line, producing exactly type of slightly-soft image he liked…
As far as Amanda knows, it didn’t happen. I think Monica is lying and wouldn’t be surprised if we see some angst from Monica because of that. The irony of her saying “thanks for believing in me” seems like it would set that up.
I’m thinking that Monica would like to have at least one person left in her life who can honestly treat her like a normal person, without a big supernatural elephant in the room.
She’s reeeeeeeeally trying hard to avoid inviting Amanda into the loop…
Wait a minute – does that mean that whole thing in the pyramid (which she could certainly never replicate in a lab) didn’t happen?
Oooo…fair point…
her whole speech flies in the face of this one…I think she’s merely trying to put to rest any remaining suspicions Amanda has, and for good reason given the very negative reaction Amanda expressed regarding anything out of the ordinary.
Well, Monica also said that if she can’t prove it, then she discounts it. How can she claim to be a real scientist if she’s not going to trust her observations? It IS the first step in the Scientific Method of Inquiry, after all: Observe, Theorize, Experiment for Evidence for the Truth. If she can’t trust what she observes, then she won’t be able to accept the truth.
see said if she can’t recreate it in a lab that means she held the possibility till the experiment phase and retroactively it was named illusion or delusion.
I’m thinking more like txmystic: she wants to keep Amanda out of the loop, as a friend who is for the “ordinary,” mundane life.
There seems to be some Villarreal in the Nile.
Also, nice feet there Pablo! Feet have to be the hardest thing to draw in my opinion.
Thanks! 🙂 I think the key with feet, after lots of experimenting, is to include the wrinkles to help define the shape, rather than trying to outline them.
Am I the only one who thinks Monica look * sexy with her bare feet on the desk that way? O_o
I don’t like where this is going …
Unless, of course, she is deliberately prodding Amanda into saying “Now, wait a minute — !” and challenging her statement.
At which point Monica can start a Socratic discussion, which would be far more effective than just telling Amanda.
And on third thought, she can replicate that sort of thing in a lab, so she is pulling Amanda’s chain.
She’s talking bull paddies.
Hmmm … She can’t lie to Amanda, but she’s not of a mind to include her in all the mystical stuff. So, she’s recapitulating something she’s no doubt said to Amanda in the past.
However, Amanda isn’t buying it..
Film at eleven!
Or recapitulating something that Amanda has said to her.
And here’s proof she’s talking bull paddies.
Try this, which is much more explicit in Monica’s acceptance of the paranormal.
I wonder what’s Monica’s opinion of “Noetic Science.”
From what I’ve seen, the term noetic science is an oxymoron.
Dammit fatuncle! we’re posting duplicate links again!
GET OUT OF MY BRAAAAAAAAIN!
snerk snerk snerk — !
And a very slow brain it is, too, since it took you better than eight hours to notice!
I wonder about that too Fairportfan. That’s like saying that the whole thing was a coincidence.
Clark’s Law: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
Just because modern physics doesn’t have the frame of reference for describing ‘poiting’, doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist or work in a predictable manner. Radio, radar, lasers, the computer, the internet, cloning… all are technologies that were virtually unthinkable less then a century ago. Who knows what the next developments might bring?
The way it seems to work, Just call it “Kilner Tech” and be done with it.
These three quotes let me not worry about the whole magic thing.
Now that is funny. Basically, if you don’t understand it, it’s magic. So computers and the inter net are apparently magic to me. 🙂
If that’s all it takes, then light switches and plants are magic! %)
Heck–give an early 1950s computer engineer a modern computer chip, and they wouldn’t be able to tell how it worked, much less try to duplicate it. They might be able to get a microscope picture to show some of the structures. What happens if they develop optical computers?
Clark’s Law: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
Fnord’s Corollary: Just because science can not currently explain an alleged event or experience, that does not mean that it is supernatural in origin by default.
Fatuncle’s Condensation of Fnord’s Corollary to Clarke’s Law: Current science’s inability to explain phenomena does not equate to a definition of supernatural.
Fnord’s Summation of Fatuncle’s Condensation of Fnord’s Corollary to Clarke’s Law: Boy, Howdy!
Fatuncle’s reduction of Fnord’s Summation of Fatuncle’s Condensation of Fnord’s Corollary to Clarke’s Law: Yup.
Science does actually present several theories that could explain teleportation. It’s just that all of them would involve such staggering amounts of power that it literally boggles the mind.
That’s the problem with Star Trek’s transporters too. The energy required would make the ships photon torpedos look like bottle rockets in comparison.
That’s one frightening thing about this. The other? This implies that the Chimera was probably not just mindlessly destroying the world. It was probably controlled by someone. If it had truly been mindless rage directing it there would probably be a new asteroid belt in the earth’s orbit today.
Just let her into the loop already! 🙂
I think my sarcasm meter has busted twice over…
How many of you are familiar with Terry Pratchett’s books? A point he often makes through the thoughts of a character, while stripping off “the charm” of witchcraft, is that “knowing how it’s done doesn’t make it less magical” 😉
(for example, utilizing placebo-effect and sharp social skills for the benefit of others)
M probably likes the reverse better, namely “not nowing how something is done doesn’t make it magical”. But at the moment, she’s not lying to Amanda, she’s merely misleading her to stay in the belief that M had some sort of “Feeling” instead of simple calculation of Tina+(Phix+comment to get girls out of the coffeeshop)=Danger??
(sorry for the wall of text)
I like PTerry’s remarks about the difference between Magrat and Granny Weatherwax:
If Magrat brewed a potion. it would work perfectly because she’d be careful to get exactly the right proportions of exactly the right herbs in exactly the right type of cauldron and to stir it precisely the right number of times in the correct direction with a wand made of the right kind of wood.
Granny, OTOH, would grab a handful of grass from the roadside, toss it in any old pot, stir it a couple of times any old way with whatever came to hand … and hers would likely work better than perfectly, because Granny understands that intention is at least a vital as precision.
However, he does say that because of that fact Granny makes a better witch then Magrat, Magrat is a better Doctor (IE. Healer) because she knows things like that matter. (In Lords and Ladies, in a foot note) it’s a trade off.
I’m lovin’ the way Monica’s feet are drawn .
So has Monica decided to keep Amanda out of the magical loop , for Amanda’s benefit or her own ?
To answer your question, yes.
Once again, I love the texture of the chairs and the shading of the background. Paul is always showing us that the best drawing doesn’t need color to be wonderful.
Interesting body language–from sitting upright to moving away from Amanda and putting her feet between them…it seems to mirror the defensiveness of her words. Or is she trying to convey a sense of relaxation that she doesn’t feel? Or is Paul just showing off (his skill in drawing) Monica’s feet?
Maybe it’s that Amanda is on Monica’s turf, so Amanda should like a a polite guest and not question Monica’s judgment on the matter. She’s diminishing Amanda by being so informal with her.
IIRC, LBJ once put a Cabinet member (or other high-ranking official) in his place by using the Oval Office bathroom, while keeping the conversation going with them.
It occurred to me that Monica may be letting Phix’s endorsement go to her head a little. Phix gently chided her for something similar before. Also, there was time she got drunk after the Christmas party.
The title for today’s strip didn’t quite come from the dialog this time. 🙂
I liked the one the day after Phix reassured Dietzel.
Now for the important stuff:
What lens is on Amanda’s Hasselblad?
For portraits I am going to say its a 110mm on a 500CM. Looks like a crystal mirror hood too, nice! Almost looks like a non-shuttered lens which means she has a 2000FC series camera but those are rather hard to find for very good reasons… Why I bought one I will never know.
I think Amanda’s trying to open up to Monica about something weird on her end. Notice the … thought bubble and the uncertainty as she attempts to push the subject even knowing M wants nothing to do with it.
Also, jumping on the nice feet bandwagon.
And, now that we’re past the honesty issues and art appreciation, how about the Wonderful Annex seems to be the corner of a warehouse decorated with electric meters and cabinets?
Well, Phix did say they were decorated in a style appropriate to the era and situation — so I guess while the room is drek, but the cabinets and furniture are polished mahogany!
I thought we were going back to Monica’s office.
That is a corner of M’s office. They haven’t gone to the library yet. 🙂
So M got stuck in an “office” with random electrical gadgets mounted on one wall? That’s…all too realistic, actually. Museums are not well funded.
She seems to have a spacious office, but we’ve seen industrial looking electrical devices on the wall before.
So, by that logic. Phix and Bud don’t exist because they can’t be recreated under laboratory conditions. What a shame. I liked them.
Why can’t they be recreated – by someone trained in the glyph language and how to create a golem? Seems scientific enough to me. . . .
Not knowing something’s Magickal don’t make it Science, then?
Or, if a cat has kittens in your oven, does that make them biscuits?
Ah, well. A rose by any other name would still be appreciated for the beauty of its entirety, including thorns, the same as individual components of the Creation. There is no Challenge in having all answers beforehand.
“If I can’t replicate something in a lab, it didn’t happen”… so says the person whose professional field is “…often faced with crucial samples of size less than one.” (Slice, D.E. 2007. Geometric Morphometrics. Annu. Rev. Anthropol., 36:261-281). Sorry dear, sometimes replication isn’t an option and you have to make do with speculation.
“Are you going to believe me or your lying eyes?”
That’s either a Star Wars quote or country song lyrics.
Close! Groucho Marx: “Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?”. 😀
You might be confusing the Eagle’s Lyin’ Eyes with it.
SW/ANH: “Your eyes can deceive you. Don’t trust them.”
Amanda seems to have a different camera every time we see her at work. Funny how some photographers customize their equipment for each individual project, and others stick to just one set for everything.
I knew a well-respected pro photographer who had a lens (105mm?) that he used for portrait work with a 35mm camera, and treated more carefully than almost any other piece of gear he had.
He’d dropped it once, and the impact had knocked something in it just a bit out of line, producing exactly type of slightly-soft image he liked…
Oh, so the whole calendar machine thing “didn’t happen”, just because M can’t replicate that adventure in a lab? Hm. Hm. Hm. Ok, I get it. Not.
As far as Amanda knows, it didn’t happen. I think Monica is lying and wouldn’t be surprised if we see some angst from Monica because of that. The irony of her saying “thanks for believing in me” seems like it would set that up.
You just keep on chanting that little mantra, Monica, and the GGGs and Tina will keep proving you wrong.
Ok, Monica….LALALALALALALALALALA….It didn’t happen…LALALALALALALALALALA….just bloody tell Amanda already.
And Monica does have cute feet for a cartoon character.
I’m thinking that Monica would like to have at least one person left in her life who can honestly treat her like a normal person, without a big supernatural elephant in the room.
Dem feet!
Now, what if Amanda has these kind of feelings?
i like her mouth … it’s like an uppercase D in uncial
Is Amanda shooting with a Hasselblad?
“If I can’t replicated it in a lab, it didn’t happen”?
This level of reality denial seems… extremely unscientific!