Tuesday, October 17th, 2023 |
10:11 am |
Irregular Webcomic! #5077 https://www.irregularwebcomic.net/5077.html Three things:
1. I suspect like most people, I had thought it was "Moh's scale", named after some person named Moh. But no, it's "the Mohs scale" named after the German geologist Friedrich Mohs. If you learn nothing else today, at least remember this from now on.
2. I was writing this annotation immediately after the previous one on the price of mercury. I was commenting to my friends in our Discord chat about both topics, not revealing that they had come up independently while researching Irregular Webcomic! annotations, and they were desperately trying to figure out the connection between the Mohs scale and the price of mercury. What they came up with was the name coincidence between Friedrich Mohs and Freddie Mercury.
3. I couldn't remember if in the past I preferred "elven" or "elvish" as an adjective. So I searched. And of course found that I've used both. "Elven" wins slightly, with 24 usages in 17 strips (prior to the publication of this strip), while "elvish" has 11 usages in 11 strips. Even Alvissa herself is inconsistent in which one she prefers. |
Wednesday, October 18th, 2023 |
10:11 am |
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Monday, October 16th, 2023 |
10:11 am |
Irregular Webcomic! #5076 https://www.irregularwebcomic.net/5076.html When being liquid is not the same thing as being a liquid.
I tried finding any real world liquid assets.
Crude oil costs a bit over US$80 a barrel at the moment, which is 159 litres. So pretty close to US$0.50 a litre.
Mercury... well... I had serious trouble finding the market price of mercury. Firstly, apparently there's a company named "Liquid Mercury", and 90% of the hits I got trying to find the price of mercury ended up giving me that company's share price. Then I found this page on a site dedicated to metal prices, which looks very useful for historical mercury prices, until you realise it quotes the price "per flask" of mercury, and nowhere does it give any indication how much mercury is in a "flask". Wikipedia tells me a "flask" is an ancient unit of measure, used for mercury and nothing else, corresponding to 76 pounds, or a little over 2.5 litres at room temperature. But it looks like the price of mercury has gone up and down unpredictably by large amounts in recent years and that metals page only lists prices up to 2018, so who knows what price it would be today?
Google searching for "How much does a flask of mercury cost" gives a whole slew of pages that seem consistent at about $135-$150... until you look closely and realise these are all homework problems for school mathematics lessons on calculating volumes. And not actual prices in any sense.
Remember when you used to be able to look stuff up on the Internet??
I found another source that gives mercury prices in Australia, recent indications being about US$30,000 per ton. Now, again it doesn't say what sort of ton, but let's assume a metric ton, which converts to about 74 litres of mercury. This gives a price of US$400 a litre. But again, the price fluctuates wildly, depending on which countries are importing/exporting the substance.
Anyway, after half an hour I gave up. My best guess is that mercury, while a liquid asset in the scientific sense, is a volatile one in the economic sense. |
Sunday, October 15th, 2023 |
10:11 am |
Irregular Webcomic! #2493 Rerun https://www.irregularwebcomic.net/2493.html There was almost a continuity error in this strip. I wrote it forgetting that in the previous instalment
Jane had run off away from the house. Thankfully I recovered gracefully by modifying Terry's opening line.
I could have gone back and reshot photos and reconfigured the storyline, but then I wouldn't be the laziest webcomic artist ever, would I?
2023-10-15 Rerun commentary: Tasmanian devils are indeed nasty pieces of work. I'd be tempted to bet on a Tasmanian devil up against a Balrog. |
Saturday, October 14th, 2023 |
10:11 am |
Irregular Webcomic! #2492 Rerun https://www.irregularwebcomic.net/2492.html Hey, it's a big revelation to the characters. I'm guessing none of you were terribly surprised by this discovery though.
2023-10-14 Rerun commentary: Unfortunately stopping the Nazis from conquering Europe isn't quite as easy as it might seem. Especially when you're sitting standing in a cell in Berlin. |
Friday, October 13th, 2023 |
10:11 am |
Irregular Webcomic! #5075 https://www.irregularwebcomic.net/5075.html I was seriously wondering if perhaps the real William Shakespeare had invented the phrase "best of both worlds". But cross-referencing a bunch of website hits, it seems the idiom only appeared in the 19th century. |
Thursday, October 12th, 2023 |
10:11 am |
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Wednesday, October 4th, 2023 |
10:11 am |
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Thursday, October 5th, 2023 |
10:11 am |
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Friday, October 6th, 2023 |
10:11 am |
Irregular Webcomic! #5070 https://www.irregularwebcomic.net/5070.html Vampires and werewolves seem to have this natural affinity for one another in stories. Where there's one, you may as well have the other. Who can go past two monsters for the price of one? |
Saturday, October 7th, 2023 |
10:11 am |
Irregular Webcomic! #2490 Rerun https://www.irregularwebcomic.net/2490.html I wonder why it's mostly just flame that comes in gouts.
Apparently a "gout" is supposed to be just a drop or a splash, but it sounds like a lot more. I suspect the meaning is in the process of
shifting, since most people seem to use it these days to mean a huge burst, not a small spurt.
2023-10-07 Rerun commentary: Apparently blood comes in gouts too. Where it probably makes more sense that it's relatively small splashes or spurts, rather than huge, vast plumes of fluid.
At least hopefully. Eww. |
Sunday, October 8th, 2023 |
10:11 am |
Irregular Webcomic! #2491 Rerun https://www.irregularwebcomic.net/2491.html It seems to be a universal fascination when meeting foreigners to want to hear them saying something in their own language.
Which is weird, because in most cases where this happens by request, the listener doesn't understand a word of what was said.
I guess human beings must have a liking for being completely in the dark.
2023-10-08 Rerun commentary: |
Monday, October 9th, 2023 |
10:11 am |
Irregular Webcomic! #5071 https://www.irregularwebcomic.net/5071.html Hitler was[1] a bit of a frustrated artist. He enjoyed painting, mostly in watercolours, and produced hundreds of works. Early in his life he tried to sell these to make a living, but never had much success. Art critics describe his work as technically somewhat talented when it came to representing architecture, but severely lacking in other elements, particularly natural ones such as landscapes, trees, and people.
Imagine if Hitler had been a more talented artist, had achieved success in this field, and dedicated his life to art.
[1] Among other things. |
Tuesday, October 10th, 2023 |
10:11 am |
Irregular Webcomic! #5072 https://www.irregularwebcomic.net/5072.html As someone who studied astronomy for my doctorate, I'm generally happy when people show some interest in astronomical phenomena. But honestly, I am so over this ridiculous "supermoon" media hype that we now get several times a year. It doesn't have any great significance and the moon barely looks any different to any other full moon. It'd be nicer if people just appreciated seeing the moon any time it's visible in the sky. |