They sat within a copter clear,
Invisible paint controlled.
The activator proved its worth
To show their actions bold.
“The wait was worth a billion when
The Mile-High Club was our fling.”
But now we’ll see from far away.
When Nick and Ginny cling.
—from “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear,” Edmund Sears.
It’s kind of like jumping off a cliff with a rope tied around your ankle. It’s great until you get to the end, and then you’re just dangling there, as they let the rope out an inch each day.
You can climb back up and jump again as many times as you want (personally, I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve read through the archives, but it’s over 100), but there’s always that sudden stop when you reach the end.
Perhaps the paint only becomes active if exposed to some sort of Mad Science radiation? It would answer the questions about the non-invisible nature of the flask holding it a few pages back.
You intrigue me, BMunro. Painting a Mobius strip with adaptive camouflage! Let’s see…
Start with a normal strip of leather. Paint both sides and it becomes cloaked since the view from the opposite side is presented. Make a circle from it and put it around a candle: the strip is “invisible” so all you see is the candle.
Now give the strip a half-twist, creating a 2-dimensional object. And the difference between mere cloaking and true invisibility becomes apparent: there is none. See-around and see-through are equivalent.
But this implies Nick must have had his interior coated as well as his exterior hull, to enable the transparent effect inside.
Considering the “Fire up the activator” said in the first panel, yes, the paint requires something to activate it and make whatever it is on invisible. Thus the visible flask.
Often, seeming anomalies offer insight into technical details. Assuming this “invisibility paint” works by interleaving pickups with emitters so the view is projected 180°, then normally the englobed volume would be hidden. Unless the image is manipulated, superimposing desired images into the projection ala’ augmented reality. So Nick is manipulating the cloak to allow Ginny and himself to be seen! (I think he wants her to don that powered armor again for protection)
I get that this isn’t the most serious of comics, but BOY HOWDY is that some dumb cartoon logic.
Either the paint makes everything behind / underneath it invisible, or it doesn’t make ANYTHING except the actual object the paint is touching invisible.
Did they coat every inch of every part of the helicopter? Open every panel, paint it on both sides, paint the screws that hold it in place, paint the wires and actuators and components inside? Did they paint THE INTERNALS OF THE ENGINES?
No, of course not. That’d be crazy. So that means the paint works by making things BEHIND or UNDERNEATH it invisible. So that means the passengers should be just as invisible as the unpainted chairs, wires, etc.
Dr Walske did it this way out of spite, because he has no time for your feeble “logic”!
It’s adaptive camoflage, so it’s mimicking the background, plus or minus whatever’s programmed into it – though I dunno how the paint on the outside of the plane even knows what the inside of the plane looks like? Plus figuring out which bits of the inside are actually passengers seems a lot of image processing for little nanobots!
Not if you get passive nanobots inside of the copter to tag any living material inside, then generate “camera” bots to observe them. Whole thing should probably have a heat signature like whoa, but that’s the price you pay to mess with normies’ heads. A price that Dr. Walske is no doubt happy to pay. 😀
Correct. Ergo Nick is injecting “augmented reality” images of himself and Ginny from his onboard cameras into the data stream. Impossible? No. Just Mad…
I can see dr, Lee rocking a Wonder Woman outfit.
I’ll bet, when Nick gets a chance to parse that comment, that he’d like to see Dr Lee rocking a Wonder Woman outfit!
I want to see* an invisible jet in the next Wonder Woman movie.
And I want it to be an A-10 Warthog.
*You know what I mean.
I just want to see a Wonder Warthog movie.
…. just one… there doesn’t need to be a next one…..
The Hog of Steel…
A hero for our times…
The Hog of Transparisteel (sorry, wrong franchise)
Be careful what you wish for, because there was, and it was bad!
Doesn’t Nick have any other crap inside his helicopter?
Yes, but that all became invisible. Everything became invisible except the people in the plane and most of their clothing.
Frankly, I’m surprised (and just a little disappointed) that their clothing didn’t become invisible as well.
Probably didn’t spill any paint on them.
Called it.
Kudos!
I admit I was hoping for more Virginia in a star-spangled bathing suit.
They sat within a copter clear,
Invisible paint controlled.
The activator proved its worth
To show their actions bold.
“The wait was worth a billion when
The Mile-High Club was our fling.”
But now we’ll see from far away.
When Nick and Ginny cling.
—from “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear,” Edmund Sears.
There was an Invader Zim episode about this once…
(I was totally gonna post about that.)
“It’s got chicken legs!”
“Yesss, chicken legs.”
Also, I am officially caught back up.
Crapbaskets.
It’s kind of like jumping off a cliff with a rope tied around your ankle. It’s great until you get to the end, and then you’re just dangling there, as they let the rope out an inch each day.
You can climb back up and jump again as many times as you want (personally, I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve read through the archives, but it’s over 100), but there’s always that sudden stop when you reach the end.
You’re not wrong.
I don’t understand why Nick would have to *do* anything to “keep it going”?
Perhaps the paint only becomes active if exposed to some sort of Mad Science radiation? It would answer the questions about the non-invisible nature of the flask holding it a few pages back.
Once again, I don’t understand the confusion about the flask. The flask was outside the paint, so the paint wouldn’t make it invisible.
What happens when you paint a mobius strip?
Not sure how that’s relevant to the flask, but you’d start painting at any point on the strip, and stop when you reached the point where you started.
I keep my invisibility paint in a Klein bottle.
You intrigue me, BMunro. Painting a Mobius strip with adaptive camouflage! Let’s see…
Start with a normal strip of leather. Paint both sides and it becomes cloaked since the view from the opposite side is presented. Make a circle from it and put it around a candle: the strip is “invisible” so all you see is the candle.
Now give the strip a half-twist, creating a 2-dimensional object. And the difference between mere cloaking and true invisibility becomes apparent: there is none. See-around and see-through are equivalent.
But this implies Nick must have had his interior coated as well as his exterior hull, to enable the transparent effect inside.
Considering the “Fire up the activator” said in the first panel, yes, the paint requires something to activate it and make whatever it is on invisible. Thus the visible flask.
And running the activator is giving Nick a headache, too.
Often, seeming anomalies offer insight into technical details. Assuming this “invisibility paint” works by interleaving pickups with emitters so the view is projected 180°, then normally the englobed volume would be hidden. Unless the image is manipulated, superimposing desired images into the projection ala’ augmented reality. So Nick is manipulating the cloak to allow Ginny and himself to be seen! (I think he wants her to don that powered armor again for protection)
I believe Nick was talking about the discussion, not the paint. I’m which case, I can sympathize with him.
Upon reflection, I believe you’re right.
Well, Sweetheart, obviously you need to coat the people in paint too for it to work
Dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum, Doctor Leeee,
Dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum, Doctor Leeee,
All the world is waiting for you,
And the science you possess,
Scooping out folk’s brains,
Sticking them in planes,
Creating nano-zombie goo!
(Yes, I know, but “planes” rhymed)
“Stuck in a helicopter / Then in his meat so he bopped her…”
I get that this isn’t the most serious of comics, but BOY HOWDY is that some dumb cartoon logic.
Either the paint makes everything behind / underneath it invisible, or it doesn’t make ANYTHING except the actual object the paint is touching invisible.
Did they coat every inch of every part of the helicopter? Open every panel, paint it on both sides, paint the screws that hold it in place, paint the wires and actuators and components inside? Did they paint THE INTERNALS OF THE ENGINES?
No, of course not. That’d be crazy. So that means the paint works by making things BEHIND or UNDERNEATH it invisible. So that means the passengers should be just as invisible as the unpainted chairs, wires, etc.
You’re forgetting the all-important “because funny” clause of cartoon logic. It overrides pretty much anything else in most cases.
Dr Walske did it this way out of spite, because he has no time for your feeble “logic”!
It’s adaptive camoflage, so it’s mimicking the background, plus or minus whatever’s programmed into it – though I dunno how the paint on the outside of the plane even knows what the inside of the plane looks like? Plus figuring out which bits of the inside are actually passengers seems a lot of image processing for little nanobots!
Not if you get passive nanobots inside of the copter to tag any living material inside, then generate “camera” bots to observe them. Whole thing should probably have a heat signature like whoa, but that’s the price you pay to mess with normies’ heads. A price that Dr. Walske is no doubt happy to pay. 😀
Correct. Ergo Nick is injecting “augmented reality” images of himself and Ginny from his onboard cameras into the data stream. Impossible? No. Just Mad…
If Nick’s systems are part of the circuit, couldn’t he just adjust his interior sensors to “hide” Virginia and himself?
You, sir, fail to grasp the basic principles of Mad Science.
Love how pumped Dr. Lee is about this.