Category: cartoon

Misconceptions about determinism, illustrated

July 31, 2016 • 1:30 pm

Over at the website Evolving Perspectives, reader Pliny the in between has a new cartoon called “Nuts and bolts of crime and punishment“. It illustrates one of the many misconceptions people have about science-based determinism and its rejection of libertarian free will: that under determinism is useless to try to change anything since everything is preordained by the laws of nature. Well, the last part of that is pretty much correct—save for fundamental indeterminacy due to quantum mechanics—but within that paradigm lies the fact that people’s arguments constitute environmental factors that affect how others behave.

My own example is that you can alter the behavior of a dog by kicking it when it does something you don’t like. (I am NOT recommending this!). After a while the dog, whose onboard computer gets reprogrammed to anticipate pain, will no longer engage in the unwanted behavior.

Well, Pliny also used the kicking example, but on humans rather than dogs (click to enlarge). I thought the guy was a real person, but Pliny told me this:

It’s generic henchman # 7 (first used here).  Some might think that he is based on a Fox News hack, but that can’t possibly be true. I only used him here because that expression worked so well for the aftermath of Venn’s aversion therapy 😉

The cartoon, as usual, encapsulates what I try to say, but in many fewer words, and in graphic (and painful) imagery:

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Saturday: Hili dialogue

June 25, 2016 • 6:30 am

Good morning; the weekend is here, albeit the end of a very tough week for Britain. It’s Saturday, June 25 in the U.S. where it’s also National Catfish Day! Readers who nom catfish today should weigh in below. On this day in history the Battle of Little Bighorn took place (1876), and Stravinsky’s The Firebird was premiered in Paris (1910). In 1940, France officially surrendered to Germany, and the very last strip of Krazy Kat, one of my all-time favorite comics, was published in 1944.

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Krazy Kat, Ignatz the mouse, and Offisa Bull Pupp. Krazy always interpreted Ignatz’s hurled bricks as signs of love.

On this day in 1978, the rainbow “gay pride” flag was flown for the first time, during a Gay Freedom Day Parade in San Francisco, and in 1984 Prince released the album Purple Rain. 

Notables born on this day include George Orwell (1903), Carly Simon (1945), Sonia Sotomayor (1954), and Ricky Gervais (1961). Those who died on this day include George Custer (1876; see above), Thomas Eakins (1916), and Michel Foucault (1984). Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is inspecting the cherries, which, I’m told, are coming along nicely.

Hili: A farmer’s life is not an easy one.
A: Oy, you are right.

P1040457 In Polish:

Hili: Życie rolnika nie jest łatwe.
Ja: Oj, masz rację.

Reader Anne-Marie Cournoyer in Montreal made herself some toasted coconut as a snack, and wanted to see if the squirrels would nom the leftovers. What do you think?

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He’s a chubby one!

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Finally, two cat-related cartoons sent by reader Diane G. First, a strip from the wonderful Ten Cats series by Graham Harrop:

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And the always hilarious Adventures of Business Cat by Tom Fonder:

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Theistic evolution

June 24, 2016 • 7:20 am

Here’s a cartoon by reader Pliny the in Between inspired by yesterday’s post on theistic evolution. It’s called “Seems like a lot of work.” And indeed it is: God not only has to watch the sparrows fall, but make sure that every nucleotide in every individual either doesn’t mutate (after all, He’s “sustaining creation”) or mutates in the right direction.

If you can’t read the text, it says “Micromanaging the diversity/earth/one set of hydrogen bonds at a time.”

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Burka Avenger!

June 19, 2016 • 1:00 pm

This is a pretty cool cartoon with an admirable goal: to advance the education of women in Pakistan, a country where there’s considerable opposition to that goal. Reader Geoffrey sent me this link and a note (indented below), and I watched one episode of the cartoon. That video is below, and I like it. (You can find other episodes on YouTube.)

I just found out about this recently, and with the site’s repeated use of that Pew poll (a very useful and powerful instrument in my opinion) I felt it might be nice to have some good news about the countries represented in that poll.

The show Burka Avenger is apparently very popular in Pakistan, with its message to give girls an education—what Captain Planet is to caring for the environment. It’s not all that good [JAC: I disagree], but hey, if one of the most popular shows in Pakistan is preaching girls’ right to an education, then that is a good sign. Further, while the superheroine does wear a burka, it’s mostly as a disguise, going for a sort of half-ninja / half-superhero look. When outside of her disguise, she doesn’t even wear a hijab.

This show started airing around the time of that poll (2013), which incidentally shows that 88% of Pakistani Muslims believe women should always or mostly submit to their husbands. So, it’s got an uphill battle. But it is nice to see that there are good people winning that kind of battle in Pakistan. I hope it’s a sign of things to come.

Here’s the first episode of Burka Avenger:  “Girls’ school is shut”. The YouTube notes say this:
The first episode of the Burka Avenger, Season 01. In this episode, the crooked politician Vadero Pajero and evil Baba Bandook conspire to shut down the girls’ school. Burka Avenger must come to the rescue and help save the day. The series was made using a combination of 3D animation and 2D art. The characters are 3D but all the backgrounds are painstakingly painted in 2D by our talented artists.

I wonder if the hurling of stones at beginning means is saying something about stoning of women. There’s really very little religion in the cartoon—only one Invocation of God, and I love that the hero uses a book and a pen as weapons.

The show has not been without criticism, mostly involving the superhero’s attire.

Two new episodes of Simon’s Cat

June 13, 2016 • 1:32 pm

I have a stack of stuff that I could write about today, but for once I don’t feel like writing about anything. It’s a big mess out there, there’s precious little any of us can do to fix things, or so I think, and it’s dispiriting. Politicians are making big noises about how we will not stand for terrorism, but offer no solutions. And everybody is using this episode to promote their favorite ideas, and I sometimes feel I’m among them.  That all pales in the face of the 50 young people whose lives will never be fulfilled.

I’ll try to leaven my mood by posting two new-ish episodes of Simon’s Cat.

 

“Fast track”

“Muddy paws”

Cartoons and cars

May 31, 2016 • 7:15 am


There are a few miscellaneous items that I didn’t know where to put.  First, readers George, jsp, and many others (first one below) sent cartoons:

Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller:

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From Facebook (I’m wondering whether this will satisfy Diana MacPherson, or whether she’d go into the bathroom on the right and reverse the toilet roll):

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From reader Barry:

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From Off the Mark by Mark Parisi—a wonderful idea!

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Finally a car I saw on a walk yesterday: a gorgeous 1941 Buick Super 8 coupe: 75 years old! Why don’t they make cars that look like this any more? There’s a YouTube scan of a very similar model (missing the amber front lights) here.

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