926: Time Vulture - Revision history

217.43.65.240: /* Explanation */

2025-11-13T12:36:30Z

‎Explanation

98.146.183.226: /* Explanation */

2025-10-13T20:58:49Z

‎Explanation

FaviFake: /* Explanation */

2025-04-29T20:06:30Z

‎Explanation

Elektrizikekswerk: /* Explanation */

2024-06-03T12:30:19Z

‎Explanation

Elektrizikekswerk: /* Explanation */ Removed some unnecessary stuff to explain the comic. We don't need to explain possible loop holes to evade such a creature... And examples of actually long lived organisms are equally irrelevant.

2024-06-03T12:29:46Z

‎Explanation: Removed some unnecessary stuff to explain the comic. We don't need to explain possible loop holes to evade such a creature... And examples of actually long lived organisms are equally irrelevant.

172.71.150.223: Added missing bracket to a Citation Needed tag

2024-03-19T17:31:13Z

Added missing bracket to a Citation Needed tag

42.book.addict at 18:03, 27 February 2024

2024-02-27T18:03:34Z

172.69.194.40: /* Explanation */ No need to repeat, for this kind of potential initial-case example

2024-02-22T23:50:32Z

‎Explanation: No need to repeat, for this kind of potential initial-case example

1234231587678 at 22:30, 22 February 2024

2024-02-22T22:30:07Z

172.70.85.218: /* Explanation */ (a) Millenium is 1000 years; (an unspecified number of) Millenia are (on the rough order of) thousands of years. Making the addition syntactically agree with the thing being added to.

2023-09-28T09:06:34Z

‎Explanation: (a) Millenium is 1000 years; (an unspecified number of) Millenia are (on the rough order of) thousands of years. Making the addition syntactically agree with the thing being added to.

@@ Line 10: / Line 10: @@
 This comic is about the ''time vulture'' (hence the title), a fictional creature made up by [[Randall]]. [[Cueball]] notices that his Cueball-like friend is followed by a time vulture, making the exclamation '' Dude, you've got a time vulture.''
-The primary food source for {{w|Vulture|vultures}} is carrion, or rotting meat. A time vulture, as explained by Cueball, is a type of vulture that can live for {{w|Millennium|millennia}} (i.e. thousands of years), spending very little energy and it can even slow down its internal clocks so time speeds past, a kind of forward time travel, to the point where its prey dies. In this way, it can thus always wait long enough for the prey to die of natural causes no matter how long it takes, as seen from the prey's point of view. So in principle they kill their prey by using aging, as Cueball explains, although in fact, like any vulture, they just find prey that has already (almost) died, as from their point of view every living thing is just about to die. But as with other vultures, they do not participate in the actual killing. Time vultures thus just need to locate and find any one living creature (of a reasonable size), which then becomes its prey as it then just waits until it dies, spending hardly any energy while it waits. Real {{w|List of soaring birds|soaring}} vultures can also stay afloat for considerable time spans without actually using any energy as they just {{w|Lift (soaring)|float}} on {{w|thermals}}.
+The primary food source for {{w|Vulture|vultures}} is carrion, or rotting meat. A time vulture, as explained by Cueball, is a type of vulture that can live for {{w|Millennium|millennia}} (i.e. thousands of years), spending very little energy and it can even slow down its internal clocks so time speeds past, a kind of forward time travel, to the point where its prey dies. In this way, it can thus always wait long enough for the prey to die of natural causes no matter how long it takes, as seen from the prey's point of view. So in principle they kill their prey by using aging, as Cueball explains, although in fact, like any vulture, they just find prey that has already (almost) died, as from their point of view every living thing is just about to die. But as with other vultures, they do not participate in the actual killing. Time vultures thus just need to locate and find any one living creature (of a reasonable size), which then becomes its prey as it then just waits until it dies, spending hardly any energy while it waits. This fits with Randall's illustration of the time vulture, which appears to be extremely lightweight and with wings splayed out like branches of a tree, thereby adapted to float on the wind, expending minimal energy. Real {{w|List of soaring birds|soaring}} vultures can also stay afloat for considerable time spans while using hardly any energy as they just {{w|Lift (soaring)|float}} on {{w|thermals}}.
 Thus the time vulture will now keep soaring over Cueball’s friends head for the rest of his life, and then when he dies (whenever and of whichever cause), it will descend and feast on his carcass. This should, in principle, not make any difference to the friend, since most people already live with the knowledge that they will eventually die, and that their body will end up being destroyed one way or another.
-And because the time vulture can slow down its internal clock, in its point of view, everyone who ever says "But, I'm not about to die" (or anything else, really), would say so right before they die. In humans' point of view, it could be many years after the statement was made, but for the time vulture, a human lifespan only lasts a mere moment.
+And because the time vulture can slow down its internal clock, in its point of view, everyone who ever says "But, I'm not about to die" (or anything else, really), would say so right before they die. In humans' point of view, it could be many years after the statement was made, but for the time vulture, a human lifespan only lasts a mere moment. This also has something of a precedent in the real animal kingdom, as {{w|Fly|flies}} process visual information much faster than humans, meaning that they essentially see in "slow motion" compared to us - hence them being so hard to swat.
 It is thus really more of a philosophical comic about the fact that we all have death waiting for us, you could say it soars above our head and just wait for it to happen. And in relation to the {{w|deep time}} of the geology of the Earth or the expansion of the universe, the time it takes for people to live their lives is hardly worth mentioning...

@@ Line 10: / Line 10: @@
 This comic is about the ''time vulture'' (hence the title), a fictional creature made up by [[Randall]]. [[Cueball]] notices that his Cueball-like friend is followed by a time vulture, making the exclamation '' Dude, you've got a time vulture.''
-The primary food source for {{w|Vulture|vultures}} is carrion, or rotting meat. A time vulture, as explained by Cueball, is a type of vulture that can live for {{w|Millennium|millennia}} (i.e. thousands of years), spending very little energy and it can even slow down its internal clocks so time speeds past, a kind of forward time travel, to the point where its prey dies. In this way, it can thus always wait long enough for the prey to die of natural causes no matter how long it takes, as seen from the prey's point of view. So in principle they kill their prey by using aging, as Cueball explains, although in fact, like any vulture, they just find prey that has already (almost) died, as from their point of view every living thing is just about to die. But as with other vultures, they do not participate in the actual killing. Time vultures thus just need to locate and find any one living creature (of a reasonable size), then it becomes it’s prey as it then just waits until it dies, spending hardly any energy while it waits. Real {{w|List of soaring birds|soaring}} vultures can also stay afloat for considerable time spans without actually using any energy as they just {{w|Lift (soaring)|float}} on {{w|thermals}}.
+The primary food source for {{w|Vulture|vultures}} is carrion, or rotting meat. A time vulture, as explained by Cueball, is a type of vulture that can live for {{w|Millennium|millennia}} (i.e. thousands of years), spending very little energy and it can even slow down its internal clocks so time speeds past, a kind of forward time travel, to the point where its prey dies. In this way, it can thus always wait long enough for the prey to die of natural causes no matter how long it takes, as seen from the prey's point of view. So in principle they kill their prey by using aging, as Cueball explains, although in fact, like any vulture, they just find prey that has already (almost) died, as from their point of view every living thing is just about to die. But as with other vultures, they do not participate in the actual killing. Time vultures thus just need to locate and find any one living creature (of a reasonable size), which then becomes its prey as it then just waits until it dies, spending hardly any energy while it waits. Real {{w|List of soaring birds|soaring}} vultures can also stay afloat for considerable time spans without actually using any energy as they just {{w|Lift (soaring)|float}} on {{w|thermals}}.
 Thus the time vulture will now keep soaring over Cueball’s friends head for the rest of his life, and then when he dies (whenever and of whichever cause), it will descend and feast on his carcass. This should, in principle, not make any difference to the friend, since most people already live with the knowledge that they will eventually die, and that their body will end up being destroyed one way or another.

@@ Line 8: / Line 8: @@
 ==Explanation==
-This comic is about the ''time vulture'' (hence the title), a fictional creature{{Citation needed}} made up by [[Randall]]. [[Cueball]] notices that his Cueball-like friend is followed by a time vulture, making the exclamation '' Dude, you've got a time vulture.''
+This comic is about the ''time vulture'' (hence the title), a fictional creature made up by [[Randall]]. [[Cueball]] notices that his Cueball-like friend is followed by a time vulture, making the exclamation '' Dude, you've got a time vulture.''
 The primary food source for {{w|Vulture|vultures}} is carrion, or rotting meat. A time vulture, as explained by Cueball, is a type of vulture that can live for {{w|Millennium|millennia}} (i.e. thousands of years), spending very little energy and it can even slow down its internal clocks so time speeds past, a kind of forward time travel, to the point where its prey dies. In this way, it can thus always wait long enough for the prey to die of natural causes no matter how long it takes, as seen from the prey's point of view. So in principle they kill their prey by using aging, as Cueball explains, although in fact, like any vulture, they just find prey that has already (almost) died, as from their point of view every living thing is just about to die. But as with other vultures, they do not participate in the actual killing. Time vultures thus just need to locate and find any one living creature (of a reasonable size), then it becomes it’s prey as it then just waits until it dies, spending hardly any energy while it waits. Real {{w|List of soaring birds|soaring}} vultures can also stay afloat for considerable time spans without actually using any energy as they just {{w|Lift (soaring)|float}} on {{w|thermals}}.

@@ Line 12: / Line 12: @@
 The primary food source for {{w|Vulture|vultures}} is carrion, or rotting meat. A time vulture, as explained by Cueball, is a type of vulture that can live for {{w|Millennium|millennia}} (i.e. thousands of years), spending very little energy and it can even slow down its internal clocks so time speeds past, a kind of forward time travel, to the point where its prey dies. In this way, it can thus always wait long enough for the prey to die of natural causes no matter how long it takes, as seen from the prey's point of view. So in principle they kill their prey by using aging, as Cueball explains, although in fact, like any vulture, they just find prey that has already (almost) died, as from their point of view every living thing is just about to die. But as with other vultures, they do not participate in the actual killing. Time vultures thus just need to locate and find any one living creature (of a reasonable size), then it becomes it’s prey as it then just waits until it dies, spending hardly any energy while it waits. Real {{w|List of soaring birds|soaring}} vultures can also stay afloat for considerable time spans without actually using any energy as they just {{w|Lift (soaring)|float}} on {{w|thermals}}.
-Thus the time vulture will now keep soaring over Cueball’s friends head for the rest of his life, and then when he dies (whenever and of whichever cause), it will descend and feast on his carcass. This should, in principle, not make any difference to the friend, since most people already live with the knowledge that they will eventually die,{{Citation needed}} and that their body will end up being destroyed one way or another.
+Thus the time vulture will now keep soaring over Cueball’s friends head for the rest of his life, and then when he dies (whenever and of whichever cause), it will descend and feast on his carcass. This should, in principle, not make any difference to the friend, since most people already live with the knowledge that they will eventually die, and that their body will end up being destroyed one way or another.
 And because the time vulture can slow down its internal clock, in its point of view, everyone who ever says "But, I'm not about to die" (or anything else, really), would say so right before they die. In humans' point of view, it could be many years after the statement was made, but for the time vulture, a human lifespan only lasts a mere moment.

@@ Line 8: / Line 8: @@
 ==Explanation==
-This comic is about the ''time vulture'' (hence the title), a fictional creature made up by [[Randall]]. [[Cueball]] notices that his Cueball-like friend is followed by a time vulture, making the exclamation '' Dude, you've got a time vulture.''
+This comic is about the ''time vulture'' (hence the title), a fictional creature{{Citation needed}} made up by [[Randall]]. [[Cueball]] notices that his Cueball-like friend is followed by a time vulture, making the exclamation '' Dude, you've got a time vulture.''
-The primary food source for {{w|Vulture|vultures}} is carrion, or rotting meat. A time vulture, as explained by Cueball, is a type of vulture that can live for {{w|Millennium|millennia}} (1000s of years), spending very little energy and it can even slow down its internal clocks so time speeds past, a kind of forward time travel, to the point where its prey dies. In this way, it can thus always wait long enough for the prey to die of natural causes no matter how long it takes, as seen from the prey's point of view. So in principle they kill their prey by using aging, as Cueball explains, although in fact, like any vulture, they just find prey that has already (almost) died, as from their point of view every living thing is just about to die. But as with other vultures, they do not participate in the actual killing. Time vultures thus just need to locate and find any one living creature (of a reasonable size), then it becomes it’s prey as it then just waits until it dies, spending hardly any energy while it waits. Real {{w|List of soaring birds|soaring}} vultures can also stay afloat for considerable time spans without actually using any energy as they just {{w|Lift (soaring)|float}} on {{w|thermals}}.
+The primary food source for {{w|Vulture|vultures}} is carrion, or rotting meat. A time vulture, as explained by Cueball, is a type of vulture that can live for {{w|Millennium|millennia}} (i.e. thousands of years), spending very little energy and it can even slow down its internal clocks so time speeds past, a kind of forward time travel, to the point where its prey dies. In this way, it can thus always wait long enough for the prey to die of natural causes no matter how long it takes, as seen from the prey's point of view. So in principle they kill their prey by using aging, as Cueball explains, although in fact, like any vulture, they just find prey that has already (almost) died, as from their point of view every living thing is just about to die. But as with other vultures, they do not participate in the actual killing. Time vultures thus just need to locate and find any one living creature (of a reasonable size), then it becomes it’s prey as it then just waits until it dies, spending hardly any energy while it waits. Real {{w|List of soaring birds|soaring}} vultures can also stay afloat for considerable time spans without actually using any energy as they just {{w|Lift (soaring)|float}} on {{w|thermals}}.
-Thus the time vulture will now keep soaring over Cueball’s friends head for the rest of his life, or until they travel on an airplane (airplanes typically cruise at an altitude too high for a vulture to fly over them, although it is of course possible that the vulture could board the plane as well), and then when he dies (whenever and of whichever cause), it will descend and feast on his carcass. This should, in principle, not make any difference to the friend, since most people already live with the knowledge that they will eventually die,{{Citation needed}} and that their body will end up being destroyed one way or another. Typically it will not be caused by vultures, but for instance by the fire of a {{w|crematory}} or by the {{w|decomposition}} caused by small animals and germs in the earth we are buried in.
+Thus the time vulture will now keep soaring over Cueball’s friends head for the rest of his life, and then when he dies (whenever and of whichever cause), it will descend and feast on his carcass. This should, in principle, not make any difference to the friend, since most people already live with the knowledge that they will eventually die,{{Citation needed}} and that their body will end up being destroyed one way or another.
-However, it is not very nice to be reminded of this every living second of the rest of your life thus the consternation of the friend and his question and statement; ''But what if the prey doesn't die?'' and ''I'm not about to die...''
+And because the time vulture can slow down its internal clock, in its point of view, everyone who ever says "But, I'm not about to die" (or anything else, really), would say so right before they die. In humans' point of view, it could be many years after the statement was made, but for the time vulture, a human lifespan only lasts a mere moment.
 It is thus really more of a philosophical comic about the fact that we all have death waiting for us, you could say it soars above our head and just wait for it to happen. And in relation to the {{w|deep time}} of the geology of the Earth or the expansion of the universe, the time it takes for people to live their lives is hardly worth mentioning...
-In the title text it is stated that all real life vultures are actually a kind of time vultures, as real life vultures also sometimes spot a dying animal, not quite dead yet, and then wait for this prey to die. But time vultures are able to wait for millennia for their prey to die, whereas regular vultures do not have that kind of time, before they need to feed or land, thus the comment that some vultures have more patience than others.
+In the title text it is stated that all real life vultures are actually a kind of time vultures, as real life vultures also sometimes spot a dying animal, not quite dead yet, and then wait for this prey to die. But time vultures are able to wait for many years for their prey to die, whereas regular vultures do not have that kind of time, before they need to feed or land, thus the comment that some vultures have more patience than others.
 Real vultures and their preying habits were referenced in [[1746: Making Friends]], directly in the title text.
 ==Transcript==