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Post by Freederick on Oct 29, 2012 20:49:06 GMT
These animals are most likely steppe wisents, ancient relative of bisons with much larger horns (but not directly ancestral to the two modern species), that were found in most of the northern hemisphere before being replaced by the antecessor of the modern species and going extinct ~13,000 years ago. Edit: an even more look-alike would be the extinct long-horned bison ( bison latifrons), but for this one there is a timing problem, as it lived only in North America and became extinct at the latest 20,000 years ago, much earlier that the generally accepted date for human settlement of the Americas (although if you go for less accepted dates but still with some credibility, it could work). Steppe wisent or Bison latifrons, the bottom line is, these beasts (and the Cro-magnons themselves) predate the human settlement of America. What this immediately means is that Jones is actually older than Coyote could possibly be. This strip merely confirms that Jones topless is enough to stop a bison in its tracks---as many of us have long suspected. :-P
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Post by djublonskopf on Oct 29, 2012 20:50:52 GMT
Try reading the whole chapter (so far) in reverse order.
It tells an interesting story.
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Post by Marnath on Oct 29, 2012 21:11:18 GMT
I bet that primitive mega-buffalo wasn't expecting that. So, this means that whatever Jones is, she does have to eat. Or she just enjoys laying the smackdown on some buffalo. You don't have to need food to help the people that do get some. you don't say... Interesting that the other cavies don't seem to care indeed. In the middle ages Jones would have more troube with being usefull for the collective I guess. stunning page, as always I'd imagine this is before the invention of discrimination. "You can stop a raging bison with your bare hands, take no injury, and never need food or rest? Great, we like helpful spirits! Welcome to the tribe!" Wow. I think Jones is absolutely beautiful here. Is that weird? That might be weird. Jones is always beautiful. Sometimes it's just hard to see it past her expressionless face.
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quoodle
Full Member
Just a man on a planet
Posts: 168
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Post by quoodle on Oct 29, 2012 22:00:26 GMT
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Post by Rhuarc on Oct 29, 2012 22:25:33 GMT
Two things. Firstly, this is a comic, wherein we have magic, which is an acceptable break from reality. So, I think we are over complicating the matter. Jones is during Cro-Magnon times, either in Europe with American Bison, or in America with mislabeled Homo Sapiens, either way, more of an acceptable break from reality than magic is. As such, this over analysis is not going to gain us anything, either Tom made a mistake (which he may have done in the past with MGS4, if we are correct about the timeline of the comic) or else this is just something else that the GKC-universe does not share with ours. Guessing is half the fun. That Jones is older than Coyote, we can assume. Was Jones around when coyote was first made?
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Post by goldenknots on Oct 29, 2012 22:59:14 GMT
This strip merely confirms that Jones topless is enough to stop a bison in its tracks---as many of us have long suspected. :-P It works for me. :)
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Post by Georgie L on Oct 29, 2012 23:28:52 GMT
Didn't coyotes theory say that once man creates a god from the ether the god retroactively always existed?
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Post by smjjames on Oct 29, 2012 23:38:51 GMT
If today's page is set around 40k-10k years ago, I wonder if the next page will be set during the last glacial period, which occurred 110k-10k years ago. Maybe we'll see Jones freezing her butt off and surrounded by ice and snow, very contrasting to the previous page in the Gobi Desert. (Or maybe Jones is unaffected by excessive heat or cold.) Also, since Jones encounters the Cro-Magnon on today's page, I wonder if Wednesday's page will show Jones encountering the Neanderthals, who lived from 200k-28k years ago. Funny idea: Jones teaches them how to make fire. 40k-10k years ago IS during the last glacial period, just the end of it.
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Post by legion on Oct 29, 2012 23:42:10 GMT
Steppe wisent or Bison latifrons, the bottom line is, these beasts (and the Cro-magnons themselves) predate the human settlement of America. What this immediately means is that Jones is actually older than Coyote could possibly be. That is not correct; steppe bisons only got extinct after the latest accepted date for human settlement in the Americas, and if we accept reasonable scenarios of early settlement (which could have started as early as 40,000 years ago), then latrifons too could have been hunted by humans.
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Post by imaginaryfriend on Oct 30, 2012 1:39:02 GMT
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Post by dawngazer on Oct 30, 2012 3:15:45 GMT
Should I come back in a couple of weeks and see if Gunnerkrigg's interesting again?
I mean, I found the chapter of girls getting their hair done more engaging than this.
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Post by Per on Oct 30, 2012 3:37:04 GMT
Should I come back in a couple of weeks and see if Gunnerkrigg's interesting again? I mean, I found the chapter of girls getting their hair done more engaging than this. That's because the chapter of girls getting their hair done is the best chapter. None is better than it. But also, think of this from the perspective of an archive reader. I don't think dropping engament levels will be a problem in that case.
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Post by zimmyzims on Oct 30, 2012 6:39:20 GMT
These animals are most likely steppe wisents, ancient relative of bisons with much larger horns (but not directly ancestral to the two modern species), that were found in most of the northern hemisphere before being replaced by the antecessor of the modern species and going extinct ~13,000 years ago. Edit: an even more look-alike would be the extinct long-horned bison ( bison latifrons), but for this one there is a timing problem, as it lived only in North America and became extinct at the latest 20,000 years ago, much earlier that the generally accepted date for human settlement of the Americas (although if you go for less accepted dates but still with some credibility, it could work). Steppe wisent or Bison latifrons, the bottom line is, these beasts (and the Cro-magnons themselves) predate the human settlement of America. What this immediately means is that Jones is actually older than Coyote could possibly be.This strip merely confirms that Jones topless is enough to stop a bison in its tracks---as many of us have long suspected. :-P Very good point.
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Post by zimmyzims on Oct 30, 2012 6:52:40 GMT
Didn't coyotes theory say that once man creates a god from the ether the god retroactively always existed? Did he? I guess he did. But I doubt it means that the god can retroactively be actually active in human life before its creation. That would be kind of circular, wouldn't it.
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Post by zimmyzims on Oct 30, 2012 9:50:19 GMT
"The animal in my current page is a Bison Latifrons." Mystery solved. Oh. Okay. Then the gunnerverse is incoherent with our current knowledge of pre-history in some sense (which it can well be, so never mind that). I give three options of how this is going: 1. there were Bison Latifrons in Europe (which by our current knowledge there were not) 2. The North America was habitet earlier than our current knowledge allows There are nice theories, somewhat proven, according to which the south America was actually inhabitet first (and the early inhabitants were later killed by the later that came from the North America). But these would have been dark skinned and there were no Bison Latifrons in South America. On time scale that could work, so: 3. The early imigrants in South America were light, not dark skinned, and there were also Bison Latifrons there. Anyway, that gives us three potential places for this scene: Europe, North America, and South America. I vote Europe because Jones came to China from west.
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Post by legion on Oct 30, 2012 10:29:50 GMT
We can barely see the other humans in this scene, it's safe to say Jones shouldn't be taken as representative of how they look, since she isn't human.
As I've already mentionned, there are plausible theories of early settlement of North America, as early as 40,000 years ago (in this model these early settlements are limited in importance, and the better part of the settlement still happened later, at the current consensus date).
So I'm going to assume this is indeed happening in North America, which seems to follow the trend of the previous pages (drifting east geographically as we go back in time).
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Rea
Junior Member
Posts: 53
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Post by Rea on Oct 30, 2012 13:05:57 GMT
I don't know if anyone has suggested this already, but currently I'm imagining the last page of this chapter having a "Many billions of years ago" label at the top and being otherwise identical to this page.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Oct 30, 2012 14:37:37 GMT
I don't know if anyone has suggested this already, but currently I'm imagining the last page of this chapter having a "Many billions of years ago" label at the top and being otherwise identical to this page. Why's that? Is the life of the Earth just some big loop, and Jones is the only one who's aware of it? Oh god, getting terrible Endless Eight flashbacks. I sure hope Jones isn't Nagato.
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Post by warrl on Oct 31, 2012 0:08:43 GMT
I think the Mother Earth theory sounds interesting, but surely that would mean she would be more on the forest's side rather than human's side? She seems far more interested in humans than nature, so maybe more of a mother-human than a mother earth? There is this strange assumption in some circles that humans are something apart from the earth and somewhat opposed to it. I do not understand it.
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Post by kingcritter on Oct 31, 2012 0:56:55 GMT
I am placing my bet on aliens.
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Post by Marnath on Oct 31, 2012 3:01:39 GMT
I think the Mother Earth theory sounds interesting, but surely that would mean she would be more on the forest's side rather than human's side? She seems far more interested in humans than nature, so maybe more of a mother-human than a mother earth? There is this strange assumption in some circles that humans are something apart from the earth and somewhat opposed to it. I do not understand it. Go check out a strip mine or a slash and burn lumber harvesting in a forest. You'll understand soon enough.
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Post by legion on Oct 31, 2012 6:26:44 GMT
How does this differ from beavers or ants (in nature, not in degree)?
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Post by GK Sierra on Oct 31, 2012 7:15:59 GMT
How does this differ from beavers or ants (in nature, not in degree)? It doesn't, really, you're right, BUT... The devil is in the degree. If you gave ants cognitive intelligence and an understanding of science, they would probably dismantle the earth just as fast if not faster. I don't really see the use in hitching the idea of our destruction of the ecosystem to anything that's "natural" or "unnatural". The fact is we have to live here, and we are destroying our home. It is a fact that every ecosystem -literally without exception- is in decline, and rapidly. In fifty years, less than a single human lifetime, we have more radically altered this planet than in all previous human history. Our technology is rapidly outpacing our attempts to control our own impulses, and this is coming from an optimistic trans-humanist. We are a long way from being able to flee to a new home in the stars. If biodiversity goes, it will truly be a soulless existence from there on out, and the resulting Malthusian catastrophe will prevent us from ever reaching our potential.
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Post by rafk on Oct 31, 2012 7:28:47 GMT
Should I come back in a couple of weeks and see if Gunnerkrigg's interesting again? I mean, I found the chapter of girls getting their hair done more engaging than this. That chapter was entirely worth it for "IT GOES UP AGAIN!" / "IN YOUR FACES!" / "Thankyou for reading this chapter about girls getting their hair cut". I sense this chapter going the same way. It is a slow buildup (reading it 3 strips a week, anyway) but necessary to reach... whatever point this is building to.
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Post by legion on Oct 31, 2012 8:58:22 GMT
I think the real problem of humanity is that nothing has evolved to ballance us.
A long time ago, all organisms were consuming CO2, and rejected O2. For a long time this was fine, until the concentration of O2 in the atmosphere reached such levels that it became poisonous, and a massive extinction of early life occured, and in fact, all life *would* have disappared... if for the appearance of oragnisms that did the opposite, consume O2 and reject CO2.
Both types of organisms are extremely destructive, modfiying the very organic structure of the atmosphere, and if they were to exist separetedly on different worlds, these should quickly become death worlds.
But because they exist together, an equilibrium is reached.
Man lacks a counterpart, another organism that would consume all of man's waste to a sufficient degree (including say, hydrocarbures; to this day there exists no organism that consumes platic or synthetic rubber, but they might evolve in the future) and have its own waste be useful to us.
If this counterpart doesn't evolve, well, life will end.
A little sooner, that is.
(Reminder: even with optimal conditions and/or if man was absent, in at most 900 million years increased solar activity will raise Earth's surface temperature to a level that will actually *reduce* the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere, to a degree where 97% of all plants will die (the remaining 3% will survive for an extra billion year or so)).
I'm not a pessimist though: I think humanity will die peacefully in its sleep.
(cue transhumanist missionaries)
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notacat
Full Member
That's not me, that's my late cat Mimi: I'm not nearly so cute
Posts: 188
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Post by notacat on Oct 31, 2012 9:02:44 GMT
Having now watched Avengers Assemble (my first MCU movie) all I could think of when returning to this page was:
JONES SMASH!
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Post by GK Sierra on Oct 31, 2012 9:42:16 GMT
I think the real problem of humanity is that nothing has evolved to ballance us. A long time ago, all organisms were consuming CO2, and rejected O2. For a long time this was fine, until the concentration of O2 in the atmosphere reached such levels that it became poisonous, and a massive extinction of early life occured, and in fact, all life *would* have disappared... if for the appearance of oragnisms that did the opposite, consume O2 and reject CO2. Both types of organisms are extremely destructive, modfiying the very organic structure of the atmosphere, and if they were to exist separetedly on different worlds, these should quickly become death worlds. But because they exist together, an equilibrium is reached. Man lacks a counterpart, another organism that would consume all of man's waste to a sufficient degree (including say, hydrocarbures; to this day there exists no organism that consumes platic or synthetic rubber, but they might evolve in the future) and have its own waste be useful to us. If this counterpart doesn't evolve, well, life will end. A little sooner, that is. (Reminder: even with optimal conditions and/or if man was absent, in at most 900 million years increased solar activity will raise Earth's surface temperature to a level that will actually *reduce* the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere, to a degree where 97% of all plants will die (the remaining 3% will survive for an extra billion year or so)). I'm not a pessimist though: I think humanity will die peacefully in its sleep. (cue transhumanist missionaries) That is a fascinating comparison. I've never quite looked at it that way. I think if we devoted significant resources to it we could probably find a way to reverse the trend. Long before we have to worry about passing out from CO2, though, we will have to worry about it's effects on the climate, which I don't know if we can reverse. There are massive deposits of methane frozen in the Siberian wastes, and if the warming effect were to proceed and those reserves to be freed, it could cause a runaway reaction from which there is no escape. In either scenario I think humanity could continue, but conditions would be miserable if not downright impossible. Oooor we could replace our bodies with machines and flip nature the bird... (a missionaries' work is never done)
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Post by peppypangolin on Nov 1, 2012 7:16:25 GMT
You know, being this ancient, jones is a real repository of long dead languages all the way back to the root ancestors of modern languages. For the location, the long horned bison lived in Eruasia and North America, so we could be almost anywhere, if she was in North America at this time, she probably knew Coyote when he was almost literally a puppy (despite being ageless). Nope. Bison Latifrons is from North America. There was a steppe wisent, but that didn't have the straight horns. Clearly, Jones led some Cro-Magnon into North America, or imported B. Latifrons into Europe for some involved reasons which will be explained later. I refuse to accept that Tom can make a mistake. Edit: OK OK, I suppose that it's conceivable that during some period when the sea level was low a population of B. latifrons wandered over the Bering Straight to Eurasia, and Jones killed them all and thus they were never fossilized. I still refuse to accept that Tom can make a mistake.
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Post by legion on Nov 1, 2012 9:43:20 GMT
If we follow plausible theories of early settlement of the Americas, then humans (frankly I was always taught that "cro magnon" was synonymous with "homo sapiens sapiens") could have realistically interacted with latifrons, without there being any need for a huge historical stretch to make this comic works.
(it's only the third time I wrote this in this thread)
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