08/01/22 – A Misunderstanding

Spacetrawler, audio version For the blind or visually impaired, August 1, 2022.

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2022-08-01-spacetrawler3

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Oh goodness, when did it get to be August already?

14 Comments

  1. Jude

    See just a misunderstanding! How can blame them. I don’t know a single person who likes changing diapers. How to resolve this? There are two different ways

    Enslave the Flethers since their mentality is ideally suited to changing cute Strib babies. Or, a mass market for potty-bots! I can just see some enterprising person raking it in.

  2. Coyoty

    .
    “Flecknar, if you like the Stribs so much, why don’t YOUR people take our people’s place?”
    “Not if it means I have to change a single diaper.”
    “I think we understand each other after all.”

  3. Muzhik

    Looking over the last two strips, I was suddenly struck by an observation from a web series on YouTube I’m watching that covers WW2 week by week. Specifically, in discussing both German and Japanese plans for conquering a world empire, someone made the observation that it’s one thing to conquer a nation; it’s another thing to hold it.

    Japan conquered a large portion of China as well as a large area of the South Pacific. The goal was to exploit the natural resources of these places (specifically, rice, oil, natural rubber, and tin), all needed for Japan’s war economy. What they found is that when the natives realize that being under you is worse than being under the British (which the more I read, the more I think is REALLY saying something) (apologies to any Brits around here), you don’t get NEARLY as much of these materials as you thought you would, given prewar levels of production. That, and given the local population’s opposition (usually shown in small acts of sabotage — nothing big like blowing anything up — although that happened; more like not doing required maintenance so more and more things break down) and you have to devote more and more resources to keep this opposition suppressed. This means the cash flow from this “resource-rich new acquisition” starts to dip frighteningly from being a revenue stream to a negative cash flow.

    My point is that the Stribs, having stolen/borrowed without permission this fleet of new ships, all designed, built, AND MAINTAINED by the Fletharians, are now cut off from all reasonable sources for maintaining these ships. I mean, suppose the only source for that broken knicky-knacky in the ship’s superfast-speed engine is from the factory in Fletharia? (That’s assuming you were also able to steal/borrow without permission all the technical manuals, diagrams, lists of required maintenance, etc. of all these ships.)

    So now the Stribs are running into technical issues they can’t fix easily, like the unexplained disappearances of crew members and the sudden increase in organically-based dust clogging the air filters. I’m sure the Fletharians, out of the kindness of their hearts (or heart-analogs), will be more than happy to sign the Stribs to a long-term maintenance contract, specifying all the items needed to maintain/repair the ships are to be sourced ONLY from Fletheria. Oh, and all the maintenance MUST be done ONLY by properly-certified Fletherian technicians. And did I mention the costs of patent violations if the Stribs try to build their own versions of these ships? I assure you, the Stribs will be bound to the Fletharians for the life of the Strib species.

    (HA! That time I spent at IBM really DID teach me something!)

      1. Muzhik

        While you’re there, check out their hour-by-hour coverage of the Attack on Pearl Harbor! Fascinating coverage, with first-hand accounts by the Japanese pilots, the American service men and women, and the Hawaiian civilians!

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