Fanboys and the arguments they make

I was thinking about doing a Star Wars vs. Star Trek post, but then I realized just how crazy that would be.

The battle between the two has been the basis for nerd fan-boys to fight for years. Being part of the silent majority who enjoys both I find such debates to be entertaining until they get to the awkward phase when you realize just home much the other person has invested in their franchise being "the best." When you think about the energy that they could have put into other things that they instead poured into proving that the USS Enterprise could take out the SSD Executor, it gets kind of scary. It reminds me of a conversation with a friend. I had just finished the campaign mode of a video game and mentioned it to him. He proceeded to tell me that he had all of the in game extras. "I have the characters, the music, the artwork..." My first thought was, "I have a house. I have a wife. I have a kid. I have a career. I have a life." There are some truly passionate people out there. I reminds me of my own obsession (albeit a known obsession that I am striving to moderate - see last week's post). When somebody disagrees with us on something that we feel passionate about it feels "like someone ripped out your heart and put it in a blender." When it comes to popular media I try to keep an open mind. I know what I like and what I don't, and I'm generally open to criticisms against it. I'm sure Angel will let me know how wrong my assessment of myself is.

Many have heard the term "fanboy" in relation to someone who feels very strongly about something and doesn't appear to be capable of considering ideas, opinions, jokes, or anything else contrary to their passion. A perfect example of this from the news - "Angry Justin Bieber fans vandalize Esperanza Spalding's Wikipedia page." Not to mention any number of links from the Google search page linked to in the first sentence. It isn't enough for a fanboy's obsession to be good, it must be the Best Thing Ever(!!) and anyone who says otherwise doesn't know anything, isn't a true beliber (sorry) believer), or isn't cool. While I wouldn't say that hipsters are inherently fanboys (of non-mainstream products) they can look like them sometimes. While technology (Apple, iPhone vs. Android, Play Station vs. Xbox vs. Nintendo), popular media (aforementioned Beliebers and Star Wars vs. Star Trek), and even original source (ex books) vs. new version (ex movies) tend to be the big players, there is another area that breeds fanboys. (wait for it......)

Politics. (Boom! did he just go there?! Yes he did!)

I am not going anywhere into politics. I will not discuss my political views in this post - just that people tend to have strong opinions about politics that can turn them into fanboys. In any event, I've found an interesting checklist that can help you understand the way that most fanboys tend to argue and debate. The originator is Larry Correia, a particular favorite author of mine, who has very (very, very, very) strong political views. And has gotten tired of the way that many debate against him - or rather the way they don't debate but just talk smack. I am not claiming that Larry is a fanboy for two reasons: I've found there to be logic behind his statements and second he points out, "If your tactics are to shut down debate, you are an idiot. It should never be to shut down or scare off, but to WIN." Notice, that I did not say that all fanboys argue this way, or that fanboys argue this way all the time. I also did not say that not being a fanboy makes you nice. Larry is very blunt, not soft spoken, and can be very insulting when he puts his mind to it. His language can be extreme - you've been warned. I will say that his checklist has proven quite accurate for fanatics of all kinds. Check it out and the next time you find yourself talking to someone and you notice the person has just checked off one of Larry's boxes - know that you're dealing with a fanboy.

And make sure you don't check off any boxes yourself.

What do frogs and Schlock have in common?

While listening to the NPR podcast How To Do Everything (episode 91) on my way to work I learned something very interesting. I learned that frogs and carbosilicate amorphs have something in common. First, what is a carbosilicate amorph I hear you ask?

This is.

Meet Sargent Schlock of Tagon's Toughs from www.schlockmercenary.com. Schlock was my first descent into webcomics and I'm glad I started with him because Howard Tayler, the creator of this wonderful "pile of poo" started on June 12 / 2000 and hasn't missed a day yet, which means that the archive is very large. Never fear, dear reader. If you want to read Schlock Mercenary you can start any of the storylines easily through the archive link, or simply purchase the physical books. I highly endorse this comic if you are looking for daily comedic epic science fiction.

If you don't know what a frog is, here is one of my favorite ones: Dendrobates azureus a.k.a. the Blue Poison Tree Frog 

These guys are about the size of a paper clip and are deadly poisonous (not venomous - venom needs to be injected, poison is ingested). They live in the Amazon and over the course of many years have had themselves removed the the inner workings of the food chain by the simple fact that anything that eats them dies. While many animals are not very bright, most have learned to steer clear of these little guys. They are often called poison dart frogs because aboriginal tribes apparently use their poison for hunting and warfare.

Anyway on to my musing. According to Albert Lebedev of Moscow State University frogs can secrete different solutions through their skin. Since frogs do not have other defensive measures (teeth, spines, claws, etc) they had to develop something to protect themselves. This is the reason Poison Tree Frogs have the name they do. Apparently frogs can secrete many other kinds of cocktails that are used in killing everything from microbes to viruses and in the podcast he even mentions tumors. Something else he mentions is a vomit inducing mixture that makes it hard to swallow the given frog. There is an article here that give an overview of his research if you want more.

Here is where the connection lies - Schlock also is a chemical plant looking for place to spill over. As seen here (strip from July 5 / 2003) Schlock's chemicals cause the carnivorousness plant to spit him out. Or here (strip from Aug 18 / 2007) Schlock's immune system (visualized by his plasma cannon) expels blood nanies (nanorobots designed to function, interact with, and in this case try to take over physical and mental capacities) from his system. This sounds a lot like what Albert Lebedev was discussing on the podcast. The biggest difference is the Schlock is not from around here and is a lot bigger than any frog on earth.

So the question I have: is this Science fiction mimicking reality or a mad genius just coming up with something cool that happens to be true in reality?

Now isn't that interesting?