this post was submitted on 16 Jan 2025
792 points (99.9% liked)

Comic Strips

20688 readers
1868 users here now

Comic Strips is a community for those who love comic stories.

The rules are simple:

Web of links

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
top 37 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Telcontar@lemmy.today 229 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Oooh it's a bull's-eye! I was getting all sentimental with the twinkle in the eye and how even cows appreciate beauty... It's a freaking pun πŸ˜‚

[–] ZoopZeZoop@lemmy.world 52 points 11 months ago

I'm glad you said something! What a great conclusion to his comic.

[–] dmention7@lemm.ee 46 points 11 months ago

I totally missed that. Honestly, it's a solid comic without the pun, but that kicks it up another level! Love it

[–] gibmiser@lemmy.world 65 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Iv always loved the idea of animals enjoying beauty.

[–] disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world 60 points 11 months ago

Your comment is a great example of an animal enjoying beauty.

[–] drcobaltjedi@programming.dev 13 points 11 months ago

Studies have shown bears will stop and enjoy the scenery from time to time.

[–] superkret@feddit.org 5 points 11 months ago

There's absolutely no reason to believe otherwise.

[–] Karyoplasma@discuss.tchncs.de 57 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

It's 20 years for us, but for the photon, no time passes from being ejected from the photosphere to hitting the cow's retina.

[–] disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world 40 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] Karyoplasma@discuss.tchncs.de 21 points 11 months ago

Reminds me of a relatively funny joke:

Why do photons have insomnia? Because they have no rest frame.

[–] codexarcanum@lemmy.dbzer0.com 39 points 11 months ago (3 children)

The Two-headed Calf

By Laura Gilpin

Tomorrow when the farm boys find this freak of nature, they will wrap his body in newspaper and carry him to the museum.

But tonight he is alive and in the north field with his mother. It is a perfect summer evening: the moon rising over the orchard, the wind in the grass.

And as he stares into the sky, there are twice as many stars as usual.

[–] superkret@feddit.org 16 points 11 months ago (1 children)

That's what's so weird about us humans.
We can write beautiful poetry about cows, then eat them.

[–] dragonfucker@lemmy.nz 5 points 11 months ago

That's because humans can turn their empathy off when something is normalised by society.

[–] LucidNightmare@lemm.ee 7 points 11 months ago

This, and the image accompanied by it, were one of the things that broke me when I was younger.

I legit cried because it was so beautifully put together.

[–] Onionguy@lemm.ee 5 points 11 months ago

That is beautiful. Thank you.

[–] tias@discuss.tchncs.de 26 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

Fun fact: according to our models the photon doesn't exactly travel in a straight line and hit the eye of the cow. It's a probability wave that spreads out spherically across an astronomical range. It might as well "hit" Mars instead of the Earth. What actually happens is that the huge wave randomly interacts with the eye of the cow. At that time the probability collapses into a certainty (the photon), making it impossible for the wave to interact with anything elsewhere in the universe.

Edit: or if you subscribe to the many-worlds interpretation, the wave interacts with both Mars and the Earth. When the wave reaches the eye of the cow, a new series of waves ripple out. They contain the effects of a photon interaction, but the original (standing) wave before the interaction also remains. We can make a slice of the multiverse in which the cow's brain perceives the photon, and another slice in which there was no interaction and the cow didn't see it. Because of how consciousness is tied to a single chain of events, the cow as a matter of experience doesn't both see and not see the photon. Rather it's as if there are two separate experiences that exist independent of each other.

[–] YarHarSuperstar@lemmy.world 9 points 11 months ago

Wow, none of what you're saying is really new information to me but it's put together in a way that is really interesting to think about. Thank you

[–] prettybunnys@sh.itjust.works 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

… do some of us go on the journey with the cow who sees the light and others on the journey with the cow how doesn’t?

Or are we already on the path with the cow and our other is on the path with their cow?

[–] tias@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 11 months ago

It's more like we are on both paths at the same time.

[–] stupidcasey@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago

This is just the law of really big numbers.

Something literally astronomical relative to something subatomic is necessarily going to happen.

A Star is really really big but more importantly it produces a more than a lot of photon's

[–] ramble81@lemm.ee 4 points 11 months ago

I am so glad others have this thought. I look at stars and realize that particular particle hit my eye from that far away.

[–] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 11 months ago

Even better: traveling at light speed means that from their point of view it takes zero time to get there.

[–] Azzu@lemm.ee 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

It seems very sure that it's a light particle... I like those vibes.

[–] Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Bulls on farms rarely stick around for 20 years. Also, how did it account for 20yrs of movement of an unpredictable life form?

[–] NoSpotOfGround@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

You have a point, buuut: photons don't experience time or distance. Leaving the star and hitting the bull's eye happen in the same instant for them, no matter how many billions of light years apart they are. From the point of view of the photon, the bull's eye is touching that star in that other galaxy. For just that single instant in time.

[–] cows_are_underrated@feddit.org -1 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Its not light years, but approximately 8 light minutes.

[–] llii@discuss.tchncs.de 28 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The light is not from our sun, but another star. Its nighttime for the cow.

[–] cows_are_underrated@feddit.org 9 points 11 months ago

OK, youre right. Misinterpreted the comic.

[–] YarHarSuperstar@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago

C'mon you of all people should appreciate this.

[–] bricked@feddit.org 2 points 11 months ago

For the particle itsself it's even instantaneous!

[–] BoobaAwooga@lemmynsfw.com -2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

The math is wrong but the intent is beautiful

Edit: I misread oops but I do think the comic is very beautiful still

[–] officermike@lemmy.world 24 points 11 months ago (3 children)

It's not our Sun but a different star 20 light years away.

[–] FooBarrington@lemmy.world 21 points 11 months ago

As is evidenced by the fact it's night time

[–] DarkCloud@lemmy.world 16 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Technically it could be our Sun, and they're an alien species of cow-like beings on their own planet far away from Earth.

[–] BoobaAwooga@lemmynsfw.com 3 points 11 months ago

Oopsie I read it as the other photon said just a single light year away, my b

[–] can@sh.itjust.works 9 points 11 months ago (1 children)

We don't know what star they're on.

[–] BoobaAwooga@lemmynsfw.com 4 points 11 months ago

Oopsie I read it as the other photon said just a single light year away, my b