[2013-Feb-17] Zach says a science thing

[scudwuzzle]

WOO HEE HOO THAT SURE WAS A KNEE-SLAPPER!

ATOMS! DID YA HEAR, BOY? HE SAID ATOMS! DAMN NEAR PISSED MYSELF.

Aww, science. All them funny words. Boy, the mere mention of atoms makes even the most matter-of-fact statement into a hilarious joke.

[Surely you guest]

Not only would the 'comic' be horrifyingly stupid if it were basically true, the basic premise is wrong. The atoms are not indistinct; their electronic configurations are strongly dependent on local environment and bonding. I think he's just trolling us now. He wants to see how long people will keep coming as he continually lowers the quality of his output.

[GUTCHUCKER]

He's saying that atoms appear basically similar to eachother*, so the stupid fellow there has decided they are interchangeable.
I find the kid's initial comment to be a little too contrived.

*If you ignore uhm... everything

[Bah Ram Yue]

I think this comic sums up my feelings quite nicely.

Obviously science doesn't work like that, if it did we'd have replicators and be able to transmute frying pans into food using our wands.

[Peon]

Obviously science doesn't work like that, if it did we'd have replicators and be able to transmute frying pans into food using our wands.

All in time, ye of little faith.

[Peon]

Also, this is actually the topic for the 2/16/13 comic.

[Peon]

Why aren't more people angry about police officers/military men dressing like idiots, stopping muggers and gangsters, starting arms wars with criminals, and misusing money better spent elsewhere

[Yoo-jin]

Because we still need to have some way to curtail the symptoms of society which cause crime. If you're suffering from immense pain, you want to try to alleviate the symptoms while also attempting to deal with the source. The thing about Batman is that he's only one person who could have spent the billions of dollars that he spent to make the Batcave, Batmobile, and Batsuit to help educate children and try to deal with poverty which spawns crime. Also, policeofficers don't just deal with criminals. There are things like community outreach programs that they participate in (at least, some police districts attempt to do so).

[Lethal Interjection]

Batman isn't really to blame for the criminal arms race, is he? I mean the tech isn't solely springing from him and his wealth? His use of it may accelerate the criminal counter-use, but that's not exactly cause and effect.

And the scrutiny shouldn't be pointed at Batman anyways. He's a billionaire, and what he does with his personal wealth is his business. The fact that he, as one man, made the Gotham police department both redundant (or even virtually obsolete) should be the bigger point. I mean I'm sure Batman's budget/effectiveness ratio is probably way worse than even the ineffective (and corrupt) GPD, but still. The real outcry should be towards the Gotham police and the tax-payer dollars which are being thrown away!

Of course, what would really happen is that the mayor would hack and slash the GPD budget. And then when Batman would die/retire/whathaveyou, they'd really be way up shit's creek.

[ThePeople]

What I love about conversations with batman is the concept that we should consider whether batman is doing the best thing for batman. That is my favourite thing. Please, whenever anyone talks about Batman, let us mention this, but not before we mention some other things that I love JUST AS MUCH IF NOT MORE

1. Batman isn't a real superhero. Hahahaha what a great observation, I love this one, how poignant, a masterful piece of analysis. It's also highly amusing.

2. Batman's power is like, just being rich. What a novel idea! What a card you are! Let's please discuss this some more.

3. Batman could do more good if he spent the money on social programs. You're right of course, every issue of Detective Comics should be about the philanthropist Bruce Wayne, managing his foundation for inner city youth. That would be a much better comic book.

[Peon]

What I love about conversations with batman is

Psh, since when does Batman have conversations with ThePeople

[Lethal Interjection]

3. Batman could do more good if he spent the money on social programs. You're right of course, every issue of Detective Comics should be about the philanthropist Bruce Wayne, managing his foundation for inner city youth. That would be a much better comic book.

This is the type of hero ThePeople of Gotham need, but not the type they deserve.

[CS]

In the context of the movies, the villains already had a plan to kill the entire population of Gotham City with WMD before Bruce Wayne became Batman, which Batman averted, saving millions of lives. That would put the cost-effectiveness of his crime-fighting well ahead of malaria prevention, and involving stopping villains that Batman did not create. It would be utterly ludicrous to hope that after-school programs (which don't have that wonderful an evidence base) could prevent one murder for every few hundred dollars spent on them.

Even if we limit ourselves to his shutdown of the Mafia, setting aside averting the deaths of millions from League of Shadows WMD, that would pay off: the NYPD (Gotham is pseudo-NY) has an annual budget of some $4 billion, and Batman in a short period did the equivalent of years of policing.

So I would say Batman could easily justify his spending on Bat-copters, exotic body-armor, aerial extractions, and other superheroics as more cost-effective than after-school programs. But more than that, we don't see him spending billions of dollars on his equipment (most of his wealth remains tied up in Wayne Enterprises stock), and we do see his foundation making charitable donations to orphanages in the movies, suggesting that he probably did fund some of the better after-school programs or equivalent.

[GUTCHUCKER]

We all know who the real hero of Gotham is.

[Azujax]

You're right of course, every issue of Detective Comics should be about the philanthropist Bruce Wayne, managing his foundation for inner city youth. That would be a much better comic book.

It could be. Batman as it is bores me to tears because it's essentially one super rich white guy living out his personal revenge fantasies for his murdered parents instead of actually trying to prevent a similar fate happening to others.