Month: September 2024

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I like to think hard about science fiction tropes and how accurate they are to the real world. Today, let’s look at my favorite mecha anime metaseries, Mobile Suit Gundam! Just how hard would it be to fight in space using a giant robot? From Reddit’s r/Gundam:

Theoretically, how hard would it be to pilot an MS (Without any space magic) and in which universe would it be the easiest to pilot an MS?

Let’s assume we’re in the Universal Century, Gundam’s main timeline. In it, “Minovsky particle interference” forces a return to visual-range combat and unguided weapons. That, combined with a multi-limbed robot’s ability to balance, maneuver, aim, and grapple are supposed to justify the use of giant mecha as the mainstay weapons in space warfare.

Combat in space relies on knowing an enemy’s relative position in three dimensions, heading, and relative speed.

Heat signatures would show up, but that would only provide two dimensions of position, so you need more information. Compounding difficulty is the lack of landmarks able to be used to establish relative positions. There’s nothing out there to establish scale, You can fudge a guess at distance if you know the exact size of the ship and its apparent size, but again, heading and speed would be extremely difficult to calculate without instruments. Dazzle camouflage would make it extremely difficult to line up a successful shot. And if you’re heading towards each other instead of trying to get your orbits to intersect, your relative speeds will be so fast you’ll have milliseconds to aim and fire.

It would be so hard to calculate a shot on the fly that combat in space is impractical at best without the aid of guided weapons and sensors, that it’s not worth attempting unless there’s no other choice.

Now, throwing mass at targets large enough (say, a city or a space colony) with a known position and heading (say, a LaGrange point or the bottom of a gravity well), at high enough relative speed, and you can make that F = ma accurate enough to matter. Colony drops or ballistic strikes on space colonies would work, so there’d have to be some kind of detente or peace agreement in place to avoid mutual catastrophe.

This is a close up photograph of a customized model kit, specifically the 1/144 Guncannon Mass Production Type from Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket. The model is painted in German gray, gunmetal, and purple for that slightly weird toyetic ’80s flavor.
If you made it this far, you deserve a cool mecha for your trouble. This is my customized 1/144 RX-77D Guncannon Mass Production Type from Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket.

That went a bit astray of the initial question and relies heavily on Robert A. Heinlein’s The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress and Citizen of the Galaxy, but hopefully it makes sense. Enjoy the rest of your day, and suit up!

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Sat myself down to draw and a few hours later, this little hedgehog Shadow was glaring at me, as if to say, “It’s not like I like you or anything…” If you’re seeing this on socials, click through to see the process video! Who’s your latest cartoon crush?

Shadow the Hedgehog stares disdainfully at you.

Watch my other art process videos here!

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Babyfur artists are getting banned en masse from FurAffinity, the largest furry art website on the internet. Nobody seems to know why or who’s responsible. I think this is concerning.

What a babyfur is

For the uninitiated, babyfur is a genre of furry art that either depicts characters as babies or young children, or depicts adults who are adult baby diaper lovers (ABDLs).

There is nothing inherently sexual or inappropriate about babyfur art. There are two different camps in the community: SFW artists whose characters are minors, and NSFW and borderline-NSFW artists whose characters are adults who engage in ageplay or costume play. As long as the two don’t overlap, there’s not anything morally objectionable about it. It’s even allowed under FurAffinity’s rules! FurAffinity’s Upload Policy 2.7 reads:

2.7 Content Involving Minors Content featuring minors is not allowed when the minor is in the presence of sexual activity, sexual objects, or nudity, though exceptions may be made for non-sexual depictions of birth and breastfeeding. Presence is defined as being in the same scene, such as sharing a comic panel, contiguous image, reference sheet, or specific section of a story where characters are engaging each other. Minors may not have detailed bulges or outlines of normal or hyper genitalia, clothed or otherwise. Minors may not be fetishized. Minors may not be depicted as pregnant. Minors are defined as real or fictional humanoids with a childlike body or younger than 18 years old, and any adolescent animals or fantasy creatures. Upload Policy — Fur Affinity [dot] net

Why you should care

SFW artists and artists who work depicts adults only are getting caught up in the wake of these bans. They aren’t breaking the rules, so why the bans?

I agree that FurAffinity shouldn’t allow NSFW art featuring children.

By FurAffinity’s own rules, art of children that’s safe and age-appropriate shouldn’t be banned.

By FurAffinity’s own rules, art of consenting adults engaged in adult activity shouldn’t be banned.

Strange things are being done to FurAffinity’s users, and we have no idea why. We don’t know when or if the content restrictions will stop. Will other genres of art be banned later? And we certainly don’t know if FurAffinity will restore the accounts of artists wrongfully banned, or how and if they plan to rebuild trust.

The current site lead, Sciggles, is recovering from personal health issues—so, meanwhile, who’s in charge? Is anyone? How do we even find out?

You saved FurAffinity. You raised over $200,000 to do it. I wrote previously about my misgivings with the lack of transparency or accountability FurAffinity was showing. Things haven’t gotten clearer or more responsive in the last month. You deserve answers. Ash Coyote put it well: “The platform owes it to the people who helped save it to be open about its direction.” Then you can decide for yourself whether you want to continue to put your money, time, and effort into it.

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I don’t really do fanart much! But I’ve been noodling with drawing Sonic characters—they’re fast, expressive, and deceptively simple. But then I think, nah, let’s not draw a bunch of these, shouldn’t I draw something original that’s not beholden to a capitalistic corporate entity? But then, nah, I couldn’t even do OCs in a similar style, because it would still be in dialogue with the existing Sonic works, and mine wouldn’t have an independent raison d’etre, so would even acknowledging Sonic as an influence be okay? …anyway, here are some ground-up redesigns of Sonic the Hedgehog I did back when the first movie’s Nightmare Sonic trailer dropped. Have fun! Don’t think so much you freeze yourself in place!

Chad the Bird films at Green Mill Cocktail Lounge! That’s closer to me than my grocery store, I could have been walking there instead of watching his standup a week later on TikTok! Humans! Humans of Chicago! Join me this Saturday at 3pm at Green Mill Cocktail Lounge in Uptown!