Thing One And Thing Two
Added 2025-04-17 01:03:16 +0000 UTCthings
Comments
I'm noting this for an upcoming trip to MA to see our daughter, son-in-law, and grandchild. At 1 1/2 he might be a little young for this still, but it'll happen eventually. (We are actually going to be visiting Northampton and nearby, and contemplating a move to somewhere near the Berkshires so we can be with said grandchild while he's growing up.)
Clifton Royston
2025-04-19 22:38:35 +0000 UTCI forgot to mention, but I must: In the Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden at 21 Edwards St. in Springfield, MA (and surrounded by museums) you will find bronze statues of Thing One and Thing Two, among many others. I strongly suspect that Jeph knows this. I find the sculpture garden a cheering place. It is worth a visit if you're in the area. [It is forbidden to climb on the statuary there. Children _always_ climb on the statuary there.]
Ursus Ridens
2025-04-19 02:46:12 +0000 UTCPardon?
Darnel D Cooper
2025-04-18 06:34:24 +0000 UTCOh, yes, pinching is much more the thing. Accompanied by what might be her second white hair!
ValdVin
2025-04-17 23:26:29 +0000 UTCActually it's an app that they start and turn off when they're done being drunk. I'm sure BookBeard has the link to an appropriate comic.
Opus the Poet
2025-04-17 18:51:04 +0000 UTCBut it's so delicious, especially with extra phytoplankton! https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=5006
BookBeard
2025-04-17 18:11:42 +0000 UTC@William Cole: This comic is entirely wholesome, it is too pure for this world. If you think otherwise, you have a different sense of wholesome.
Some Ed
2025-04-17 17:09:23 +0000 UTCUnfortunately, topology doesn't work like that. The sun's gravitational pull is vastly stronger than Earth's, so technically nothing in the solar system is under the sun. ... unless you have a bigger scope than just the solar system. If we include all of the Milky way, we're under the sun briefly once a year, more or less, as I believe our orbit is more or less within the galactic plane. ... unless you're paying attention to more than just the galaxy. If I'm not mistaken, Andromeda is not within the plane of Earth's orbit, so then we're once again never under the sun. I don't know where the center of mass of the part of the universe we're paying attention to goes after we expand it enough to include enough stuff for Andromeda to not be the biggest influence. But I would guess most of the time, that center of mass isn't ever in the plane of Earth's orbit. I mean, I understand the cop out answer that the Earth becomes the center of the known universe because it's the point from which we observe everything, but the matter in the universe isn't uniform as far as we can perceive. But I also understand that it becomes computationally infeasible to figure out where all the masses are, especially since a lot of the most massive bits are black holes which are kind of tricky to spot and maybe dark matter (as it's not clear if all the matter we have noticed but haven't specifically located is in the form of black holes that we've not specifically identified or if there is actual dark matter that isn't black holes.)
Some Ed
2025-04-17 17:05:28 +0000 UTCI know, right? Just read the material data safety sheet for that stuff- it's deadly!
Hugh Eckert
2025-04-17 16:44:54 +0000 UTCI'm Not Rappaport!
Hugh Eckert
2025-04-17 16:39:39 +0000 UTCNot unlike what the "raw water" human alternative health whackadoodles do to.themselves
Todd Ellner
2025-04-17 16:08:10 +0000 UTCNo no, the carefully filled out documentation by Moray of his interactions for the day, on behalf of The Librarian, proves the quality of his employment, as well as providing insight to the minds of AI.
Raymond Dannelly
2025-04-17 16:05:27 +0000 UTCWrapper
Todd Ellner
2025-04-17 15:36:11 +0000 UTCYou know what fish do in it
Todd Ellner
2025-04-17 15:34:51 +0000 UTCSalt water? And electronics? Could be... _problematic._
Halloween Jack
2025-04-17 15:31:40 +0000 UTCNo, he's a guitarist.
Aaron Burt
2025-04-17 14:43:04 +0000 UTCThe thing is, it's not distilled, it's not even tap, this is grade A artisanal unfiltered SEA WATER! You can't begin to imagine what that does to a robotic body and associated AI. :)
Summer
2025-04-17 14:33:13 +0000 UTCDo it like the Doofenschmirtz hot chocolate. First cup is free, second one is free the third one costs a million dollar
Krestus
2025-04-17 13:59:07 +0000 UTCMichael Rapaport
John Bensetler
2025-04-17 13:51:19 +0000 UTCHeavy soda water? Sounds to me like someone just wants many gallons of bubbles. ;) https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=4286
BookBeard
2025-04-17 13:09:59 +0000 UTCRapper.
BookBeard
2025-04-17 13:05:15 +0000 UTCRapport?
allanfranta
2025-04-17 12:19:36 +0000 UTC"Water ya doin'?" "Precisely."
Mad Marie
2025-04-17 12:05:06 +0000 UTCJust so! Nowhere near as much sex as one might shallowly expect with a sexbot protagonist.
Michael Steamweed
2025-04-17 11:50:42 +0000 UTCHe's not charging enough.
Opus the Poet
2025-04-17 11:08:02 +0000 UTCAnd meanwhile over in Grrl Power a succubus is making a play for my OC because she can't help herself, he's that hot.
Opus the Poet
2025-04-17 11:05:51 +0000 UTCDeionized and then carbonated.
legobil
2025-04-17 10:47:12 +0000 UTCWater? Really? No lapsang?
legobil
2025-04-17 10:45:34 +0000 UTCFriday at 9 on 20/20.
Melissa Wilson
2025-04-17 10:35:16 +0000 UTCBrilliant ideas almost always benefit from lubrication!
Melissa Wilson
2025-04-17 10:33:37 +0000 UTCI can’t wait to see!
Melissa Wilson
2025-04-17 10:32:23 +0000 UTCOMG I can’t wait!
Melissa Wilson
2025-04-17 10:25:16 +0000 UTCo/~ They can do anything anything anything under the sun ~\o
Am Queue
2025-04-17 09:34:43 +0000 UTCI just assumed people knew that, honestly. There is so much cultural literacy dying out due to the loss of free annual shows on TV that everyone saw.
Am Queue
2025-04-17 09:29:37 +0000 UTCMe holding on to my large glass of water suddenly feeling ... inhibited.
Constanze Carstanjen
2025-04-17 09:10:59 +0000 UTCCue the Andrew W.K.! (That was 24 years ago? Really?)
Clifton Royston
2025-04-17 08:50:39 +0000 UTCIt's more likely than you'd think!
enchantedsleeper
2025-04-17 07:29:07 +0000 UTCMicrofic are us
Clifton Royston
2025-04-17 07:17:15 +0000 UTCViolence and Regret can be told apart only because one always wears a top in a particular shade of red and the other wears a top in a particular shade of blue. Yet not even AIs with the most advanced sensory powers can tell which of the two is Violence and which is Regret. Is the red dress or blouse worn because it's symbolic of Violence? Is the blue symbolic of sad Regret? Is it the reverse, as some sort of trickery, or are they each just wearing their favorite color? And why do they wear shorts in the opposite color? We don't know and they'll never tell.
Clifton Royston
2025-04-17 07:16:29 +0000 UTCI love the report he has with the customers. He really is good at his job
Bagge
2025-04-17 06:38:48 +0000 UTCWholesome, in THIS comic?
William Cole
2025-04-17 05:38:57 +0000 UTCAnd Yay comes out of hiding with a smug look on their face.
William Cole
2025-04-17 05:37:55 +0000 UTCThey get fucked up, apparently!
William Cole
2025-04-17 05:29:44 +0000 UTCClair is the Logical one that Stresses them out via hard work, then Marten comes in with his calm and empathetic nature and hallucinogenic drinks for the AIs to then smell and get high to calm them down, its a perfect business model when you think about it lol.
Switchchris27
2025-04-17 04:31:52 +0000 UTCmmm Evan
Pejo
2025-04-17 04:30:58 +0000 UTCThere are definitely some similarities. Although Stross's version involves a lot more robo-sex.
Ross TenEyck-McDowell
2025-04-17 04:09:10 +0000 UTCI'm love them
Fart Captor
2025-04-17 04:02:54 +0000 UTCIn an entirely wholesome way, let me specify.
Clifton Royston
2025-04-17 03:43:10 +0000 UTCI love these goofy kids.
Clifton Royston
2025-04-17 03:42:53 +0000 UTCIt's Librarian Magic
djellafine
2025-04-17 03:38:26 +0000 UTCPossibly actually taking the glasses _off_, and pinching the bridge of her nose. :O
Michael Steamweed
2025-04-17 03:25:13 +0000 UTCAs in, carbonated heavy water? Man, what a waste of tritium. I'm quite certain someone in Cubetown has that. Maybe for their ice-cold-fusion reactor they're working on. (Liz mocks their attempts.)
Michael Steamweed
2025-04-17 03:24:26 +0000 UTCSounds not too different from Stross's Freyaverse novels.
Michael Steamweed
2025-04-17 03:22:46 +0000 UTCMarten becomes very surprised. Claire becomes very suspicious.
Michael Steamweed
2025-04-17 03:21:22 +0000 UTCComplete with pushing up her glasses and rubbing the bridge of her nose?
ValdVin
2025-04-17 03:17:24 +0000 UTCHappy duo
Sparky
2025-04-17 03:09:57 +0000 UTCCute girls who get drunk on water? Santa got my letter!
Yelling Bird
2025-04-17 02:52:53 +0000 UTCBookBeard is truly a mystery to us all.
SilverbackRon
2025-04-17 02:50:57 +0000 UTCwait, what happens if they're right?
Brendan Luster
2025-04-17 02:50:28 +0000 UTCI don't know if this is the reference, but... there is a wonderfully awful 1996 Rutger Hauer movie called _Omega Doom._ Robots, having wiped out humans, form a society mimicking the American Old West, because why not. Robots go to saloons and drink water because it short-circuits their electronics, which is just like being drunk.
Ross TenEyck-McDowell
2025-04-17 02:45:23 +0000 UTCyeah, but after you don't die, he charged you rent on the environment suit and air you used... gotta love how only the aliens in Heinlein were actual socialists
Brendan Luster
2025-04-17 02:44:28 +0000 UTCReally, *really* mess them up with heavy soda water (I'm sure Cubetown has that)
Carin Maja Brooks
2025-04-17 02:41:36 +0000 UTCOriginally decried as against rules and laws, anarchists.
Opus the Poet
2025-04-17 02:41:04 +0000 UTCi'm assuming it's similar to Pintsize with cake
LH
2025-04-17 02:35:36 +0000 UTCBig waterrrr, there were four of us but now we are two We're sorta AI apocalyptic kazoo Oh we're jumping on each others shoulders Snark-infested Cubetown waters Oo what to do what a smutty to do
SpookyPenguin
2025-04-17 02:28:26 +0000 UTCYou monster!
Andrew Mitchell
2025-04-17 02:16:48 +0000 UTC_Really_ mess 'em up -- give 'em soda water!
Ursus Ridens
2025-04-17 02:07:54 +0000 UTCAmazing how fast Marten has become the official AI emotional wrangler for Cubetown Usually this is reserved for the bartender. I hope Mr Tender is not unhappy about someone cutting his grass.
MikeT
2025-04-17 02:05:55 +0000 UTCEnough salt to make a molten reactor look like a fun afternoon project to de-stress with while trying to show those mainlanders some flaws about electricity generating devices from the last millennium.
Carrie
2025-04-17 02:03:10 +0000 UTCHow the Feynman do you do this? Have you keyworded every installment for a database?
Maurice Kessler
2025-04-17 01:57:49 +0000 UTCThat's Violence and Regret! Yesterday's comments had several links to their previous appearances.
jonesnori
2025-04-17 01:57:38 +0000 UTCI only get that reaction from drinking Polish Spring water. Didn’t know Maine had that kind of nasty bottled water.
Miyaa
2025-04-17 01:54:39 +0000 UTCMaybe it's the smell of chlorine. We'll know soon enough.
Call me Ishmael.
2025-04-17 01:52:30 +0000 UTCIt's best not to ask.
Michael Steamweed
2025-04-17 01:48:15 +0000 UTCAs the great prophet Michael Valentine Smith (from SiaSL) did say, we must share water with our brothers and sisters, so that we may grok each other.
Michael Steamweed
2025-04-17 01:47:57 +0000 UTCHanging out at Mood Cafe is a social experience.
Call me Ishmael.
2025-04-17 01:45:25 +0000 UTCIndeed they are.
Michael Steamweed
2025-04-17 01:40:06 +0000 UTCI'm thinking their sobriety, or lack thereof, is entirely within their minds.
Michael Steamweed
2025-04-17 01:39:39 +0000 UTCIt's Cubetown. I'm guessing it's everything, everywhere, all at once. Cubetown being a 5D spacetime tesseract.
Michael Steamweed
2025-04-17 01:38:33 +0000 UTC"Are you thinking what I'm thinking, Regret?" "Yeah, Violence - let's get wet!"
Sean Kinlin
2025-04-17 01:37:38 +0000 UTCWe had forgotten that episode. But you reminded us about that episode. We must...thank you...at some appropriate time. :P
Michael Steamweed
2025-04-17 01:37:17 +0000 UTCTook me until the chorus to figure out what that tune should be. :)
Michael Steamweed
2025-04-17 01:35:39 +0000 UTCOh no! Extra large waters?! For BOTH of them??? Claire's gonna get that expression on her face! (you know the one)
Michael Steamweed
2025-04-17 01:34:52 +0000 UTCFuck us up, caffeine cleric!
Tannerbot
2025-04-17 01:31:18 +0000 UTCHow is this so ridiculously adorable can’t even 🤩
Ailadi
2025-04-17 01:29:27 +0000 UTC🎵We visit Marten, huh, we can afford it Get a big water - and we just quaffed it Say Mr. Reed, sir, here comes the glass so nice Coffee and tea here, it's such a paradise. Maybe these luxuries are, too much for Cubetown He must be getting rich now, He's got it down (so tell us) Tell us, tell us, how to be (how to be) a millionaaaaiiiiire Tell us, tell us, how to be (how to be) a millionaaaaiiiiire 🎵 [Original song by ABC]
Sean Kinlin
2025-04-17 01:28:02 +0000 UTCWell I certainly wouldn't wish to make any unfounded insinuations about what they may or may not be doing with that water. I'll just leave this completely unrelated link here for no particular reason. *whistles nonchalantly* https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=5260
BookBeard
2025-04-17 01:27:09 +0000 UTCClassic SF: "The Lifeboat Mutiny" by Robert Sheckley - Some space explorers try to save money by getting a secondhand lifeboat from an alien race. Which almost leads to them dying of thirst as the lifeboat AI of course must protect them from the most deadly poison known to its alien builders - water.
Captain Button
2025-04-17 01:25:52 +0000 UTCthe only beings to be overwhelmed by LaCroix strawberry.
Sleepy John
2025-04-17 01:24:53 +0000 UTC"Wow. They'd have enough salt to last forever!"
ValdVin
2025-04-17 01:24:37 +0000 UTCSo is it one thing after another, or every thing all at once?
Sleepy John
2025-04-17 01:24:26 +0000 UTCA man's flesh is his own, but his water belongs to the tribe.
Captain Button
2025-04-17 01:19:03 +0000 UTCDasani?🤢
kupo
2025-04-17 01:17:05 +0000 UTCThey're so cute
Nicholas Lopez
2025-04-17 01:17:04 +0000 UTCWow. Thank you for that.
YoPaulie!
2025-04-17 01:15:03 +0000 UTCOne day he serves them carbonated water with hints of citrus.
Thisguy
2025-04-17 01:14:19 +0000 UTCNot that we have seen so far... They have software for that.
SilverbackRon
2025-04-17 01:13:12 +0000 UTCDoes water short-circuit AI so it's basically heroin or something?
Lev Vaesinis
2025-04-17 01:12:46 +0000 UTCCubetown would be surrounded by salt water though, no? Though I guess someone on crazy-AI-Island has probably invented a good desalinator by now.
Darius Jenai
2025-04-17 01:11:26 +0000 UTCOoh, good branding. He should jump on that!
ValdVin
2025-04-17 01:10:06 +0000 UTCThat's a valid question and it's probably not alot
Egos
2025-04-17 01:09:50 +0000 UTCEvan was upset because Marten doesn’t use Evian or Perrier brand water; just that “awful” Liquid Death brand water.
Miyaa
2025-04-17 01:09:05 +0000 UTC"Thing one and thing two" are Dr. Seuss characters from "The Cat in the Hat."
Michael Voorhis
2025-04-17 01:08:54 +0000 UTCI can't wait to see what this does. And why they pay for it (or if they pay for it), they are at Cubetown which is surrounded by water.
SilverbackRon
2025-04-17 01:08:11 +0000 UTCDoes water cause AI to get high?
Andrea Andrew
2025-04-17 01:08:07 +0000 UTCI love that those are their "indulgence/fuck us up" orders and he /knows/ them.
Katrina Urmson
2025-04-17 01:07:33 +0000 UTCHere's it's a Marten-i
Alcaria Swain
2025-04-17 01:07:15 +0000 UTCWho are they and why do I love them
Joel Bateman
2025-04-17 01:06:32 +0000 UTCwater is life
Brendan Luster
2025-04-17 01:06:31 +0000 UTCEXTRA-LARGE glasses of water?? Jesus Marten, why don't you just give them some crack while you are at it?!
Shawn K. Younkin
2025-04-17 01:06:27 +0000 UTCdo they just. pour the water on their circuit boards? how do they enjoy those glasses of water?
Silver-OPs
2025-04-17 01:06:09 +0000 UTCIsn't "fuck me up" half the phrase that led to the invention of the espresso martini? What few hurdles does Marten have to clear to open a bar in Cubetown?
ValdVin
2025-04-17 01:06:06 +0000 UTCAIs on Dihydrogen Monoxide poisoning ... a recipe for trouble.
Captain Button
2025-04-17 01:05:53 +0000 UTCwhat do they even do with those
Tamara Macadam
2025-04-17 01:04:46 +0000 UTC
