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Problems Harold: Aaron, for some reason I'm struggling to think of something that has affected me that will help inspire my art. / Aaron: Well, what problems have you faced recently? / Harold: Starbucks made my Mocha too hot this morning. / Harold: The air conditioning is making the air dry, and my nose is getting itchy. / Harold: And the frozen yogurt shop was all out of Mochi mix-ins. / Aaron: You know what your problem is?-- You only have first world problems. / {{alt: Sometimes it can be a struggle to find inspiration for art. }} / {{title: On the other hand, when you're dodging bullets it's pretty hard to draw webcomics. }}
Alert Device [[ Harold and Alp in a flat landscape, mountains in the distance. ]] / Alp: My new invention is a special alerting device, wanna see how it works? / [[ Alp is hold a small oblong box with a button, dial and antenna. ]] / Harold: Sure! / [[ Alp presses the button, and... ]] / Alp: Okay, it seems to be picking up something... / [[ Box: Beep! Beep! Beep! ]] / [[ Box: BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! ]] / Alp: Oh no! It's overloading!!--- ]] / [[ a huge BOOM! divides this panel from the next... ]] / [[ Harold and Alp are now soot-covered and slightly smoking. Alp's box is broken, the antenna blasted away. ]] / Harold: Jeez, what does it alert for anyway? / Alp: The presence of Child Predators. / [[ The view has shifted slightly so we now see in the background nearby, building labeled "Catholic Church" and "Boy Scouts of America". ]] / {{alt: Alp shows off his newest invention, some sort of alert device. }} / {{title: Maybe the Catholic Church and the Boy Scouts can team up together and make the ultimate child predator! }}
Direct Access [[Harold is standing next to Aaron, who is sitting in front of a computer]] / Harold: One of the big problems in this world is that we only have direct access to our own thoughts and feelings. / [[Only Harold is in panel]] / Harold: If only there was a way to get an unfiltered look into what others are thinking, we would be able to relate and empathize with each other better. / [[View shifts to show both Harold and Aaron]] / Aaron: Just so you know, the current trending topics on Twitter are #slapurself, #thingsfathoessay, #youdumbashell, and #ihatefemales. / {{alt-text: And the worst part of all this is that "hoes" should instead be spelled "hos." C'mon people!
Gifts Ferdinand: For Einstein's 70th birthday, his good friend Kurt G?del presented him with an amazing gift.. / Ferdinand: G?del used Einstein's General Theory of Relativity to construct a universe in which time travel was possible. Einstein was so blown away that he had second thoughts about his own theory. / [[Camera pans back to show Alp and Harold standing in front of Ferdinand, holding out a cake with birthday candles on it.]] / Ferdinand: And what do MY friends get me? A boring chocolate cake! / Alp: It has bacon in it. / Ferd: I'll take it! / {{alt-text: From the emails I get from readers these days, I'm starting to get the feeling that if I ever attend a comic convention I might be completely inundated with bacon products. I'm excited to find out!}}
Calculus Controversy [[Text panel: Legendary rap battles in science presents... Newton vs. Leibniz]] / Isaac Newton: There'll never be another fucking genius like me. I invented optics, mechanics and the theory of gravity. You peeked at my manuscripts, don't try to lie. I'll drop apples on your calculus-stealin' ass from the sky! / Gottfried Leibniz: If you didn't publish first, then you can't be pissed. With my superior notation, fluxions won't be missed. I'm glad you'll be a virgin when you die at last. So your inferior genes won't ever be passed! / [[Text panel: Yup, nothing says gangsta like a big, stylish wig!]] / {{Alt-text: When I made the last rap battle comic I was just / joking when I wrote "Next up: Newton vs Leibniz!" But / I've received so many emails from people who couldn't / wait for this comic that I had no choice but to make it!}} / {{Bonus-text: The calculus controversy was an argument between 17th-century mathematicians Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz over who had first invented calculus.}}
 
Lil' Calamities and the Math Quiz {{As part of the "Lil' Calamites" sub-series, the characters are presented when they were kids.}} / [[An elementary school classroom]] / Teacher: Put your books away, it's time for a math quiz. / [[Lil' Ferdinand reads the quiz.]] / {{Question 1: 1+1=?}} / [[Lil' Ferdinand writes his answer.]] / {{It took Whitehead and Russell 755 pages to derive the answer to this question in "Principia Mathematica" and you expect us to fit the answer onto a single piece of paper? Have you lost your mind?}} / Lil' Ferd: And people wonder why math scores are so low in the U.S. / {{Alt-Text: Well, after all that work at least we know that Whitehead and Russell were successful in constructing a perfect mathematical edifice that was both complete and logically consistent...}}
Information Access Ferdinand: [[ Sitting in a chair ]] The way in which we access information has changed a lot over the years. Long ago you had to know the info yourself or know who to ask. / Ferdinand: With the invention of writing and books, you no longer had to know the specific information, you just needed to know where to find the correct reference. / Ferdinand: This step has now been replaced by Google, which we use to search all the books and databases for us. / [[ The view pulls back to reveal Harold sitting at a keyboard in front of his computer, while behind him Ferd relaxes, leaning back in his chair. ]] / Harold: I'm still _not_ going to do all of your Google searches for you just because you're too lazy! / Ferdinand: But it's the natural next step in the progress of our access to information! / {{alt: The way in which we access information has changed a lot over the years. }} / {{title: On the other hand, maybe the next step is Siri... }}
Unified Gravity Force Theory [[A person in the distance calls out to Harold and Aaron who are standing in the foreground.]] / Crackpot: Hey, have you seen Stephen Hawking, Kip Thorne, or Steven Weinberg around here?! / Harold: Uh, no...why? / Crackpot: There's a physics conference going on, and I need to share my amazing Unified Gravity Force Theory. / Crackpot: I've proven that matter is condensed from magnetized aether. This shows that the fine structure constant is exactly 43.619913 times Pi, and naturally explains the elastic dark energy of infinite space-time! I'd explain more, but I gotta spread my ideas before the Soviets figure it out! / [[The person walks away.]] / Aaron: Rock stars have groupies, theoretical physicists have crackpots. / Harold: That doesn't seem like a fair deal. / {{alt-text: Being approached by a crackpot should be viewed as an important rite of passage for a theoretical physicist.}}
Unified Gravity Force Theory [[A person in the distance calls out to Harold and Aaron who are standing in the foreground.]] / Crackpot: Hey, have you seen Stephen Hawking, Kip Thorne, or Steven Weinberg around here?! / Harold: Uh, no...why? / Crackpot: There's a physics conference going on, and I need to share my amazing Unified Gravity Force Theory. / Crackpot: I've proven that matter is condensed from magnetized aether. This shows that the fine structure constant is exactly 43.619913 times Pi, and naturally explains the elastic dark energy of infinite space-time! I'd explain more, but I gotta spread my ideas before the Soviets figure it out! / [[The person walks away.]] / Aaron: Rock stars have groupies, theoretical physicists have crackpots. / Harold: That doesn't seem like a fair deal. / {{alte-text: Being approached by a crackpot should be viewed as an important rite of passage for a theoretical physicist.}}
Plato [[Harold and Aaron are walking through the woods.]] / Harold: In Plato's writings he discussed such issues as the fundamentals of knowledge, the nature of reality, language, thought, the senses, the role of government, and the meaning of virtue. / Harold: It's amazing to think that Plato basically anticipated almost every major question that is still debated by today's philosophers. / Harold: Unfortunately, he never came to any conclusions that everyone could agree upon-- / Aaron: Also like today's philosophers. / {{alt-text: Just kidding, I really love philosophers. Well, that is unless they're discussing a field I'm well-acquainted with. Then they drive me crazy!}}
Tea Baggers [[Aaron approaches a person dressed in patriotic garb and holding a protest sign.]] / Aaron: What's your deal? / Tea Bagger: I'm protesting in support of the Tea Party! Our government needs to show more fiscal responsibility and lower taxes! / Tea Bagger: Furthermore, Government power needs to be limited and should never interfere with the constitutional rights of the people! / Aaron: So you must be upset about the violations our Government is committing against the "Occupy" protesters. / Tea Bagger: Those liberal hippies deserve it!! Pepper spray them in the face!! / [[The tea bagger is holding a protest sign that reads "Obama read the Constitution"]] / {{alt-text: Apparently the only right the Tea Party supports is the Second Amendment.}}
 
The Role of Consciousness [[Alp and Harold sit on a hill looking out upon a star-filled sky.]] / Harold: Research on brain activity shows that our brains make decisions before we are conscious of them. This suggests that we are merely passive witnesses of our mind's deliberations, and free will is an illusion. / Harold: But why would we have evolved the ability to be aware of our decision making process -- an ability that expends substantial energy -- if it didn't influence the deliberations in a way that provides a survival advantage? If consciousness didn't matter, wouldn't it be more efficient if we were just mindless robots? / Alp: Well, the attributes of an organism depend on the particular random history of how it evolved. It doesn't always have to be the most efficient route. / Harold: So what, is consciousness then useless, like tonsils or an appendix? / Alp: I was thinking more like male nipples. / {{Alt text: And really, we ALL enjoy stimulating our consciousness every now and then...}}
When Will It End? [[Aaron and Harold are walking side by side through a forest]] / Harold: The abuse of women continues to be a problem around the world. / Harold: A frightening aspect is that often this abuse comes at the hands of those that they should be able to trust -- their boyfriends and husbands. / [[Aaron and Harold come to the end of a cliff]] / Harold: Even in the US, it's been reported that a woman is beaten within her own house every somewhere every fifteen seconds. / Aaron: It's a wonder why women don't just all become lesbians. / {{alt: It's pretty sad to think about how 50% of society has been subjugated for thousands of years...}}
Space Launch System [[Aaron and Harold are outside, walking side by side]] / Harold: Now that the shuttle program is over, NASA is looking at developing the "Space Launch System" or SLS, but is this really the right next step? / Harold: It's supposed to carry 130 tons, but these specifications and the technology it'll use are largely being decided by lawmakers. Shouldn't SLS be more than just a political instrument to create jobs for constituents? / Harold: I mean, tell me one good reason why we need a rocket with these capabilities. / Aaron: We'll be able to launch all the politicians into deep space. / {{alt: Okay, I'll admit I'm exaggerating a little. You can't send ALL the politicians, but you can at least send all of Congress...}}
Lil' Calamities and Explanations [[Lil' Ferdinand stands next to a broken lamp on the floor with a baseball bat in his hands]] / Lil' Ferdinand's Mom: What are you doing?!? / Lil' Ferdinand: It's not my fault mom! I've been conditioned by evolution to be bad. That way you won't want any more kids, and I won't have competing siblings. / Lil' Ferdinand's Mom: Well, you better have evolved to be good, otherwise you parents would have fed you to the lions! / [[Lil' Ferdinand sits in a corner, apparently in time out]] / Lil' Ferdinand: Evolutionary psychology would be a lot better if it could only be used to support *my* explanations. / {{alt text: I think that at the end of the day, evolutionary psychology has to be correct. But it would be a lot more useful as a science if it did more predicting and less postdicting.}}
Homeopathy [[At a supermarket]] / Man: Excuse me... / Aaron: Yeah? / Man: Would you happen to know where the homeopathic remedies area is? / Aaron: Sure, I'll take you to it. / [[Aaron leads Man to shelf with bottled and packaged water, including Evian, Arrowhead, Perrier, Fiji, Dasani, Aquafina, and spring water]] / Aaron: Here you go...be careful not to overdose. / {{alt text: Wow, medicine for only 99 cents per gallon? What a deal!}}
 
Coffee Units [[ Text panel: Given the increasingly important role coffee plays in modern society, perhaps it's time to make it a standard unit of measurement in some respect... ]] / [[ Caption: A cup of coffee metabolizes in about 3 hours, so it can be a unit of time. ]] / Harold: How long until your invention is finished? / [[ Alp is working on a spiky helmet sort of thing. ]] / Alp: Four more cups of coffee. / [[ Caption: Conversely, it could be used to measure productivity. / [[ Raymond at a job interview... ]] / Interviewer: Why are you right for this job? / Raymond: I can do 5 hours fo work per cup of coffee. / Interviewer: Good Lord, you're hired! / [[ Caption: Or it could simply be a unit of currency. ]] / Hooker: Where's my money?! / [[ We see Ferdinand Laying back in bed, partially under the covers. The hooker stands beside the bed. ]] / Ferdinand: There are 2 bags of coffee in the dresser. / Hooker: Only 2? Don't make me call my pimp! / Ferdinand: Okay, there's one more in the closet. / [[ Sub-caption: Although this would mean Starbucks basically gets to print money-- Oh wait, they already do! ]] / [[ alt title: But in all seriousness, what was the world like before coffee? ]]
IQ Versus Religiosity [[Graph juxtaposing IQ and religiosity, with religiosity on the x-axis and IQ on the y-axis]] / Average Intelligence Quotient: IQs for countries from Lynn, Harvey, and Nyborg (2009) Intelligence, volume 37, pages 11-15. IQs for states from McDaniel (2006) Intelligence, volume 34, pages 607-619 / Religiosity: Percentage of public that answered "yes" to the question "Is religion an important part of your daily life?" from Diener, Tay, and Meyers (2011 August 1) Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Polling conducted by the Gallup Organization. / [[Graph is concave down, as IQ decreases as religiosity increases. The left side of the graph at 15-20% religiosity includes Sweden, Estonia, and Denmark, at IQs of about 100. The right side of the graph has many African countries, between 90-100% religiosity, IQs ranging between 60 and 90. The US is located at (65%, 97), France at (26%, 97), India at (85%, 84), Canada (43%, 102), and UK at (32%, 100). There are several dozen more countries on the graph, in addition to unlabeled points for the various US states.]] / {{title-text: Before it's written a hundred times in the comments, please note that I realize correlation does not imply causation! Correlation does not imply causation!! Correlation does not imply causation!!!}}
Touchscreens [[ Harold and Alp outdoors, wearing scarves. Snow blankets the background. Harold's wearing gloves and trying to use a cell phone.]] / Harold: Ugh! This darn cold weather! It's impossible to use my phone's touchscreen with gloves on. / [[ Alp looks thoughtful.]] / Alp: Try my newest invention: Touchscreen friendly gloves! / [[ Alp hands Harold some new gloves. ]] / Harold: Wow, thanks! / Harold: These work great! Do the fingertips use conductive thread so that the touchscreen can still sense the capacitance of my fingers? / Alp: No, I just sewed on some severed fingertips from cadavers. / Harold: GAH!!! [[ Looking at the glove's little pink finger tips in horror! ]] / [[ Alt title: And of course Apple soon comes out with its own brand name cadaver fingertip touchscreen gloves, which cost three times as much as everyone else's.]]
Informed Democracies [[Harold and Aaron are walking on a hillside]] / Harold: One of the most important aspects of a successful democracy is that people make informed decisions. / Harold: And since in this day and age science and technology rule our lives like never before, it is crucial that people have adequate background in these fields. / Aaron: Good thing that our country is run by a bunch of lawyers. / {{alt-text: The politicians may be science and technology illiterate, but they're still beholden to their constituents (somewhat). Be sure to tell your representatives NO on SOPA!}}
Tragic Condition [[Harold and Aaron sit, overlooking a sunset.]] / Harold: Either we live in a world that follows deterministic rules, or things occur at random. But either way, our condition seems rather tragic. / Harold: Each implies that at a fundamental level we don't have control over our hopes, or our dreams, or our relationships with others--even though we put so much emotional investment into them. / Aaron: Emotional investment? Do you mean those chemical reactions happening inside you? / {{alt text: On the other hand, it is nice to do a little "chemistry" every now and then... }}
 
Police and Protests [[ Harold in an easy chair watching TV as Alp looks on. ]] / Harold: Whenever I see protesters having their rights violated by the police, I always wonder what the police officers are thinking. / Harold: Police are people too, with their own feelings and values, and with families that they go home to at the end of the day. / Harold: Do they think they're providing some sort of Justice? Maybe they're saddened by the situation, but feel resigned to doing their Job? Or do they feel guilty and ashamed? / Alp: Well... / [[ A scene from the TV- showing 2 police in riot gear: helmets, face guards, shield. One officer is hitting a protester with a baton, the other is using a spray can. ]] / Alp: ... I guess it's hard to know unless you're in the same position... / [[ In the TV scene, the officer with the baton is thinking: ]] / officer: This is so cool! It's like I'm a StormTrooper! / {{alt tittle: Or maybe they're humming to themselves "Dum Dum Dum, Dum Da-dum, Dum Da-dum..." }}
'Tis the Season [[Aaron and Harold are walking in a place with Christmas trees and flowerpots]] / Harold: Everywhere you look, from October to December, it's Christmas decorations, and trees, and music. That's a quarter of the year that you can't avoid this stuff! / Harold: Not to mention tax dollars spent on holiday decorations in every city, and even a Christmas tree in the White house. / Aaron: If the godless liberals are waging a war on Christmas like the conservative media keeps telling us, they're not doing a very good job. / {{alt-text: Nothing gets ratings like faux rage about a media fabricated war on Christmas!}}
Responsibility [[Aaron and Harold are walking in a forest]] / Harold: Neurological research increasingly shows that many of the actions we think we're consciously choosing to take are actually caused subconsciously. / Harold: This raises the question of responsibility--should we be punished for doing something bad if it may be due to our brain making decisions outside our control? / Aaron: Nobody seems to mind taking credit for all the good things their brain does. / {{alt-text: ... and the Nobel Prize in physics goes to a physicist's brain. Not the physicist, just his brain!}}
Advice from Santa [[Ferdinand is dressed as Santa Claus and a boy is sitting on his lap.]] / Ferdinand: What would you like for Christmas, little boy? / Boy: A train, but mommy and daddy say I have to be good or you won't bring presents. / Ferdinand: Listen, kid, you totally have the psychological advantage here. Your parents can't risk the everlasting guilt they'll feel if you're scarred for life from being the only kid on the block that didn't get presents. / Ferdinand: I say call their bluff and be as rotten as possible! Show your parents that they can't mess with your head. / [[Ferdinand turns to speak to Harold, who is dressed like an elf.]] / Ferdinand: I love giving back to the children. / {{alt-text: I think my kids may be on to this...}}
Chemistry Ferdinand: How an element acts is largely determined by the filling of its outer electron shell... / [[ Caption, Ferdinand continues: "Halogens are just one electron away from having a filled outer shell, so they readily bond with alkalies which have one electron too many..." ]] / [[ Panel shows some common 2-atom chemical compounds: Na-Br, K-Cl, Na-F, Na-Cl, Li-F, K-F, K-I ]] / [[ Caption, Ferdinand continues: "... Carbon has exactly half of its outer electron shell filled, so it freely bonds with lots of other elements, often all at the same time. ]] / [[ Panel shows structure diagrams for some common carbon compounds. Diagrams showing carbon with multiple bonds to multiple other elements and other carbon atoms as well. ]] / Babe: Why are you telling me this? / Ferdinand: You and me baby, we should be like carbon! / Babe: How about you be a Nobel gas and be satisfied all by your self. / [[ Alt title: Carbon is both the most promiscuous element and also key for life... coincidence? ]]
 
Child Leashes [[ Alp and Ferdinand, outdoors. The view shows only their heads. ]] / Alp: I don't know if I like the backpack leashes that some parents put on kids. It's like they're dogs. / Ferdinand: Hey, the leashes can be useful depending on the circumstance. / [[ The view pulls back- We see Alp and Ferdinand are standing on a skateboard following a child. The child is wearing a backpack that looks like a happy monkey with a long tail. Ferdinand is holding the monkey's tail. The child trudges along, pulling Alp and Ferdinand along behind. ]] / Alp: Should we feel guilty about using other people's kids like this? / Ferdinand: I just hope this one lasts longer than the previous two. / [[ Alt title: Although if you think this is a low emission method of travel, clearly you haven't been around kids very much... ]]
Dangerous to Handle [[ Harold and Ferdinand out for a walk. ]] / Harold: Did you know that Marie Curie's notebooks are so radioactive that they're dangerous to handle? / Ferdinand: Come to think of it, many of my books and magazines glow. / Harold: You really think they could be radioactive? / Ferdinand: I don't know, let's check it out. / [[ Scene shifts to indoors, in a dark room. Ferdinand's collection of books and magazines are items such as Playboy, Hustler, Penthouse... ]] / Ferdinand: See? When I hold the black light up to them they glow! / [[ Alt title: Sometimes I write a comic and half of my brain looks at the other half of my brain and asks, "What the heck is the matter with you?!" This may be one of those cases... ]]
Making Generalizations [[ Harold and Ferdinand out for a walk. ]] / Harold: The Social Sciences have the difficult problem of trying to make generalizations about human nature from small sample sizes. / Harold: These studies can be especially biased because the test subjects are often university undergraduates, which are definitely not representative of most people. / Ferdinand: [[ Hands raised over his head in surprise... ]] Well, I wish you would have mentioned this before I publicized my latest study!! / Harold: What was that? / [[ Panel shows a copy of a newspaper: "The Daily News" ]] / [[ Headline: "Study finds that 90% of people regularly do Keg stands". ]] / [[ There's an accompanying picture. ]] / [[ Text continues: United Nations developing strategy to fight global epidemic! ]] / [[ Smaller text, becoming illegible and cut off at the edge of the panel: A recent study pu... ]] / [[ in the journal of A.... ]] / [[ Sociology found that... ]] / [[ Everyone is doing... ]] / [[ it. The p????? university study ov... ]] / [[ Alt title: This comic was actually inspired by the journal article "The weirdest people in the world?" by Joseph Henrich, Steven J. Heines, and Ara Norenzayan. ]]
The Truth About Physicists [[Ferdinand and Raymond are walking along together.]] / Ferdinand: You know why physics is great? Everything can be constructed as a euphemism. / Raymond: What do you mean? / Ferdinand: For example, you could say "He sure enjoys splitting the atom, if you know what I mean!" / Raymond: Okay, but c'mon, that's just one example / Ferdinand: She likes releasing the latent heat! He's warming up the large hadron collider! She's fast at pumping the dewar! She knows how to produce the superfluid! She's quick at identifying the Poynting vector! He's an expert at renormalizing the bare mass! / Raymond: Wow, do physicists just giggle with each other all day? / Ferdinand: Yup, all physicists are perverts. / {{alt-text: Dewar?... I hardly knew her! }}
Original Ideas Harold: Sometimes I think our brains are nothing more than computers. They take data from the outside via our senses, process that input, and output accordingly. / Harold: But if the output is always just a function of the input, how is it ever possible for people to have fundamentally new ideas? / Aaron: You think people have fundamentally new ideas? You've seen the internet, right? / Ferdinand: OMG! Check out this video of Chuck Norris in a lightsaber battle with kittens! / {{ alt-text: ...and they're conducting the lightsaber battle wrapped in bacon!... wait, bacon's okay, right?! }}
 

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