The Old Hack

Well, the problem with the above vampire horror stories is that they sometimes follow the same rules as zombie apocalypses. If it is some sort of virus triggering the transformation and said virus develops an airborne vector, it might be all over bar the shouting. Of course this leaves the problem of what to feed on once it is over. Though as Satireknight pointed out, even ordinary badly written vampire stories can screw this up. The vampires of the execrable Twilight series need to feed some four times a month. According to the often self-contradictory rules Meyer made for them, whenever they fed on humans they either kill the victims or turn them into vampires. Take even a small population of vampires like the one in Forks. A dozen or so. This means either fifty corpses that need to be disposed of every month or fifty new vampires. Sure, they claim they can use animals instead and these don't turn into vampires, but presumably they would need large animals at least the size of dogs or better and that would be noticeable too -- not to mention impossible in the long run. Leaving only humans. And the world is full of covens of vampires like the Cullens, not all of them willing to settle for animal blood. Let's say there is one in Spoons, Missourippi. Spoons has ten thousand inhabitants. After just one year there has been more than half a thousand vampire-related deaths. How long do you think that can go on without people starting to wonder? Oh yes, and let's say that they screw up so just one in ten victims become a new vampire. That means the vampire population doubles every two months, if not faster. All of a sudden Spoons seems a lot less desirable place to live in. The Vampire: the Masquerade roleplaying game used a bit more care than that. It still screwed up but the basic mechanics were workable. A vampire did not need to kill its victims and could sustain itself for one night on each pint of stolen blood. What is more, accidental creation of vampires was impossible. Only deliberate complete exsanguination of a victim and then feeding them vampire blood would cause the transformation. And the older vampires brutally enforced population control to keep the whole situation manageable. And yeah, it could have been a sci fi writer, though Star Wars is arguably science fantasy

Depends on the writer. In Star Wars: the Old Republic, a rather deranged ex-Jedi at one point took a look at the Sith Empire and decided that actual Sith blood (from the Sith race, as opposed to those who merely followed Sith teachings) was the problem. He then created a bunch of doomsday robots with the purpose of killing all who had detectable Sith genes in their DNA. After some six to eight centuries of intermingling, this worked out to 98% of the population of the Sith Empire.

That is dealt with during the initial physical examination. If an M.D. -- or anyone, for that matter -- is judged incapable of completing Basic due to health reasons, they are exempted from military service. I believe it is called the 4-F classification in the US. Otherwise they go in. In borderline cases the recruit is usually cut some slack due to the essential nature of medical personnel. I do know that my own father was given a discharge after a training accident that caused a hairline fracture of his spine and almost cost him the use of his legs.

There is. A portion of all healthy males of age 18 must serve in our armed forces. This portion is filled by volunteers if possible but in the case of shortfall draftees are selected by lot. I was a volunteer. In case of conscientious objectors, they may choose to serve either in the Civil Defence (our version of FEMA, basically) or fill positions in civilian organisations deemed to be important to the state. There is an important exception to the above, however. Any male who completes either a medical degree or a degree in dentistry must serve for two years in armed forces clinics with an automatic commission as second lieutenants after having completed Basic. (This used to include veterinarians as well, but they were let off the hook after the Army discontinued the use of horses and pack animals. We have one regiment of mounted Hussars left but they employ either volunteers or civilian veterinarians.)

The Moderator: I cannot speak for others here but personally I have followed politics, voted in every election I could, fulfilled my societal duties and served in the armed forces of my homeland. People fondly imagine freedom of speech as a divinely granted gift. It is not. It was purchased by our ancestors at a high cost in blood, toil, sweat and tears, and maintained by the efforts of their descendants -- now including me. I am well aware of the debt I owe to not only my ancestors but also to those who will follow me and thus I gladly pay that price. There is no right to bear arms in my homeland. I do not wish to argue the merits of something born from a culture considerably different from mine. Nonetheless, I feel comfortable saying that it is necessary to make an effort to sustain any rights, even those enshrined in law, as they may all too easily wither and die if they are not fought for. Thus, one does indeed earn one's rights -- by guarding the freedoms we have inherited and working to better the injustices that still haunt us.

She came from a line of powerful mages and wizards. That would perhaps fit with the descendants of an elf.

Eep! I hope not.

Darn you! And I've held that title all but unchallenged in a streak every year since 2009, except for 2014 of course. But just you wait! I'LL BE BACK!

The Moderator: While it is of course permissible to present a data point to refute an opposing claim, please attempt to do so without either undertones of sarcasm or irritation.

I have read most of the Dresden Files and I hold some liking for Doctor Who. I do not expect my entertainment to be perfect in all regards. I do expect it to pay attention when it goofs and to not make the most egregious kind of mistakes where someone gets violated physically or mentally just for a bit of a laugh. As far as I am concerned that is a deal breaker and will cause me to abandon the 'entertainment' in question.

http://www.egscomics.com/?id=2408 And so it begins.

Susan used to be a straw feminist -- that is to say, a contrived example full of bad attitudes to show how 'bad' feminists are to those on the outside looking in. Later on, as Dan's knowledge grew and his writing improved, she gradually outgrew the straw feminist phase and turned into someone with a far more balanced attitude. Dan is an honest enough writer that he had the transformation be gradual and occurring through character development rather than some sort of writer's asspull. I am not saying this to in any way condemn or judge Dan. In fact, I've been through a similar learning experience myself. My initial ideas of feminism were unfortunately very much shaped by mainstream media sources that either had only the most superficial understanding of what it was about, no understanding whatsoever except prejudices or even actively seeking to discredit and misinform. Suffice it to say that when I was in my teens, my idea of what a feminist was closely resembled what Dan initially had Susan be.

http://www.egscomics.com/?id=2407 Poor Susan. That is just not an easy thing to deal with.

I agree. The only thing that saved that particular set of strips for me was that it turned out to be someone's bad-fic. I have some issues with mind control being used as a story device. At a minimum I would expect it to be treated as a serious issue with lasting consequences. This may be due to having seen it used while playing it for laughs, which I feel is horrendous.

I just got the following thank you note from Amazon Gifting. I am now quite happy.

Good Lord. Talk about a deluge of updates. :/ I have often been hit with updates at inconvenient times but this takes the cake.

It looks like a not quite finished Iron Raccoon suit. Also I hope he finds a power outlet he can use soon. That used to be a plot device in older Iron Man comics, that he was running low on power and then somehow managed a full recharge from a car battery or a 110 volt wall outlet.

I find the new storyline in The Whiteboard a bit mystifying but quite entertaining. @mlooney, it looks like your spirit animal has gotten in over his head. Not that this is in any way new for him.

Just don't expect too much. I wouldn't be lining up for an L5 implant for him just yet. As said, I myself have eaten a ton of probiotics and have never shown even the slightest sign of biotic ability. ... ...okay, so maybe that is only in the Mass Effect game. I am still disappointed. Muttermuttergrumble.

I suddenly had a worrying thought. Given that at least some aberrations can sense potential Slayers and that Sirleck has a whole horde of them running around, it occurred to me that two of them together might set off the suspicions of at least one of Sirleck's pet murder engines. I am not sure what would happen from there on but I suspect it would get messy. Eh well, at least that would make Colonel Sanders happy. He is actively planning for a complicated mess.

At least they have a purpose. Unlike the bollocking Gyrspike.

http://www.egscomics.com/egsnp.php?id=676 We could be immortal...

Me too, for that matter!

Hm. I can see the problem. My own iPhone is a 5S and is kind of lagging behind as far as top of the line goes, but it is still darn good and so far has no trouble running any of the apps I rely the most on. Even then I am still sure I am not using even remotely near its full capacity. But it is still a wonderful toy and I carry it with me everywhere. The Kindle app alone makes it worth it for me, I already have a ridiculous amount of books stored on it so whenever I have to sit and wait I just pull out something like Churchill's History of World War II (all six volumes), a popcorn sci fi or fantasy book (dozens of these) or some of the stuff that is supposed to make me a more Learned and Cultured person (a double handful of these.) On the same phone that is smaller than my first pocket calculator. To my fifteen year old self, this would have been magic. And so many people today are already taking the darn things for granted. They make my head reel at times.

Sometimes the iPhone makes me shake my head in wonder. I am trying to remember the distant days of my youth when there wasn't even an Internet and they barely make sense anymore when I look at this electronic miracle device. My brother got a pocket calculator on his 12th birthday and the silly thing couldn't even do as much as the calculator app on my phone.