Some middle-aged guy on the Internet. Seen a lot of it, occasionally regurgitating it, trying to be amusing and informative.

Lurked Digg until v4. Commented on Reddit (same username) until it went full Musk.

Was on kbin.social (dying/dead) and kbin.run (mysteriously vanished). Now here on fedia.io.

Really hoping he hasn’t brought the jinx with him.

Other Adjectives: Neurodivergent; Nerd; Broken; British; Ally; Leftish

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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: August 13th, 2024

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  • “On two occasions I have been asked, ‘Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?’ I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.” – Charles Babbage, discovering what Technical Support would be dealing with a century or more later.





  • palordrolap@fedia.iotoComic Strips@lemmy.worldquesting
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    11 days ago

    The universes where each and every would-be hero is terminally stomped for merely thinking about going on a quest are uncountable.

    There are countable subsets where something other than that happens, and one of those subsets is where the universe rules provide enough wiggle room for a hero to win.

    It is all but certain we live in one of the former. Stories about the latter give us hope that we might not be.

    Compare: Why do the Power Rangers not simply create the Megazord in the first place and stomp the bad guy before its inevitable enlargement?


  • Is there a name for the trope of something topical but not strictly necessary happening incidental to a punchline like the microwave in the last panel?

    I know I’ve seen it in other places, but the only other instance I can think of is the people saying “I am a consumer whore!” “And how!” in the Rejected cartoon, and I’m not even sure that qualifies.

    Maybe a few things that happen in the asdfmovies too, but they often introduce a recurring gag or a different joke entirely.





  • So, there was this TV experiment where they served soup to a well-known scientist*, but, with his agreement, they stirred it first with an unused - and I stress unused - toilet brush.

    He couldn’t bring himself to eat it.

    Metaphorically speaking, our world is full of amazing things but they’re all stirred by clean toilet brushes. Sometimes, it’s worse than that and they’re used.

    Do not want.

    * Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, he was later cancelled for being old and out of touch on women’s issues among other things, which is kind of an example of this same trope when you think about it. His opinions and reactions on soup and food disgust aren’t linked to any of that but you might be tempted to ignore the result because of it.

    But then, that puts him in the same category as Louis CK and that’s what I’m responding to. Food for thought.




  • palordrolap@fedia.iotoComic Strips@lemmy.worldNet Fix
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    20 days ago

    The Internet seems to have learned from the real world that there must always be suffering somewhere, just as long is it’s not (obviously) wherever “here” is.

    And then there’s the question of who gets to decide what “nice to each other” means.


  • The reason, or at least a significant part of the reason, if not the complete reason, that Arthur derives that question in particular is because he’s a result of the corruption of the calculation caused by the arrival of the B Ark of Golgafrinchams on Earth.

    If Arthur had actually been a six foot tall Earth-ape descendant as described by the guide, his brain would have contained the actual answer rather than something almost but not quite totally unlike the true question.