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There is *always* math. Psych is biology. Biology is chemistry. Chemistry is physics. Physics is math.

Some topics combine the two, like people who use physics (and very large, very expensive equipment) to try to collect that one last rare particle that they think will complete their collection....

For a less serious scene, Elliot could find out that he can still reach his "Male Human" form, but it now fits into his "decoy identity" spell instead of being his default form...

And I was trying to point out that BEFORE they had the technology, such an expansion would simply not be practical. Examples: It was not actually Cristopher Columbus who 'discovered' the New World. It is known for certain that a Viking expedition made it to the Americas but that its attempt at colonisation failed due to attrition and logistics. It is also believed (and has been proven possible) that an Irish monk named Brendan went to America 500 years before that. But in both cases, sea travel remained too dangerous and impractical for a firm logistical line to be established, and so colonisation remained impossible. It is not a question of 'waiting for the right technology.' It is more along the lines of heavier-than-air flight not really being widely undertaken until around the time of the Wright brothers. Greedy, expansionist rulers existed LONG before colonisation became technologically practical. Once the technology was there, it was really only a matter of time before the kings and rulers of Europe would figure out that there was LOOT out there -- and sent people to go get it for them. Why 1492 specifically? It required two conditions. One, a man with the vision and technology to go out and look for loot. Two, financial backing from wealthy expansionist nobles -- and it turned out that Spain had the resources to spare, having just finished the Reconquista and having cleaned house inside her own borders (robbing and expelling all the Muslims and Jews). And so Cristoforo Colombo managed to cross the Atlantic and discover new lands to loot, plunder, subjugate and exploit. An interesting little fact: A lot of people back then already knew or suspected that the Earth was round. They thought Columbus was an idiot, not because it would be impossible to reach India through circumnavigation of the Earth but because they had done the math and worked out that it would be a LONGER way to sail to India from Spain if you went west, not shorter. They were right, but Columbus happened to bump into another continent on the way and so his idea ended up making a profit anyway.

So, the US department of Justice has announced that they're suing North Carolina over the whole anti-trans bathroom law. That's not what makes me mad. Reading some of the reactions makes me mad, like how many feel that doing this will allow perverts and pedophiles to be able to sneak into women's bathrooms to spy and rape. someone even commented saying "they're making the .04% trans comfortable by putting the 50% female population at risk." WTF? As far as I'm concerned trans people go to the bathroom for the same reason most of us do, to have a piss or crap, not to peek under bathroom stalls, it's more like the law NC put out would "criminalize the .04% trans so that they could keep out the .00000005% sex offenders" (all percentages based on the tweet I saw and I highly doubt they are accurate anyway). If people are worried about sex offenders posing as members of the opposite sex to sneak into public bathrooms, then the laws for sexual offenses needed to be beefed up more. Also a lot of the reactions focus on those that are born male but identify as female using female bathrooms, I hadn't seen any mention of those born female identifying as male and I wonder if it because those same people that are complaining about this would be like "well that that's their risk if they want go into a bathroom with real men and it's their fault if anything happens". It does seem like the majority of those complaining about this are males while a lot that are defending this action and debating against the complaints are female. But still it was really aggravating to see the stupidity in all that.

You guys do realize something is going to go down in the next page, right? I mean, an entire page focusing on the Cheerleadra landing and getting ready to transform into Elliot? I have a feeling we're going to find out what his spell does earlier than expected :3

Or there is also Pratchett's Theory of L-Space. Knowledge equals power. Power equals energy. Energy equals matter. Matter equals mass. This means that a well stocked library will actually distort time and space around it, i.e. a good library is really a rather genteel black hole that knows how to read.

You're assuming that everyone who is trans can pass 100% above suspicion as being the gender they identify as. That's about as big an assumption as the people who assume all women have hourglass figures. The people these laws are aimed at are the trans women with Adam's apples, who are tall and muscular and have big hands, whose voices are deep or sound like a falsetto no matter how much they work to modulate them, and so on. Not everyone who's trans can afford several dozen surgeries and thousands of dollars every month in hormones and other medications. Some who can afford them are afraid to have them, or don't feel like they should have to have them just to make a few other people better able to pretend people like them don't exist. And some are so masculine in body structure that nothing will ever allow them to pass. Of course, there are also plenty of cis-women who have a masculine build, or have PCOS-given facial hair, or otherwise will wind up accused of being men trying to use the women's room by these jerks. If all else fails, maybe a few lawsuits from them will help damp down this nonsense?

It was ducky, in the ballroom, with the lead pipe.

Speaking as someone who has played more hours of Fallout New Vegas than would be considered healthy, I can assure you that this is absolutely the correct response to that faction. Of course, I also have a tendency to farm their assassination teams for high-level loot which I will keep selling until I can buy the top-level gear from the Gun Runners and the couple of other places that have it... But dude. The Legion's just plain hardcore evil. They all have it coming.

Okay, i like that term for eliot, can we keep it?

He's stated before that he can either got from Cheerleadra to normal, or one of the secret ID's, if he wanted to use a standard female morph, he'd have to go normal first. So what? It will STILL be safer than not transforming at all. Also, why don't he go to secret ID - the goth or party one - then go inside, then immediately before something can happen transform to normal? Ashley would love Goth Elliot, but I think he's right in thinking he shouldn't be in a mind altered state. While amusing for us, could be disastrous for Elliot. Agree ... too many people around who have limited understanding of how secret identities works, which in this case is more dangerous than not knowing it's Elliot at all. ... either that or he will be spotted by someone unexpected. BTW, regarding the lego combinations Dan talks about on twitter ... exponential might be optimistic estimate. I wouldn't rule out factorial (which is even bigger than exponential). Although proving it would be hard.

All plot aside, panel 2 of Mophergirl crouching is possibly the coolest panel that Dan's drawn, and certainly my favorite in that action/noir style. Story not aside, I am disappointed in lack of the alternate forms. I can understand Heidi not being called up, and Mild Mannered might not be appropriate, but frankly wandering around a dark apartment complex talking about hunting vampires would be maybe the best possible scenario to introduce Goth form. I can't wait for Wednesday!

I kinda realised immediately that with this setup, something was bound to happen.

It's also possible that Elliot still identifies as male, but can enjoy being female. To Elliot, this may actually be less of a gender identity issue and more of "I'm not going to be a stick in the mud about this and just acknowledge the fact that this is soo freaking amazing".

... Oh, dear. Suddenly, I can't think of this as anything but ominous foreshadowing... thank you.

Elliot is forgetting he can break character if he wants.