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mel! @mel.bzky.team ⋅ 5m
David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 1d
David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 3d
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Six Degrees of Big Pharma
Big Pharma -> Pharmaceutical Industry -> Margaret Sanger -> Sally Ride -> Janelle Monáe
Big Pharma -> Pharmaceutical industry -> Meat Packing Industry -> Kansas City, Missouri -> Janelle Monáe
The whole rest of the conversation is like this.
Bryan: “Citizen Kane is a masterpiece of course, but that’s such a pedestrian answer. Everyone says that.”
Thad: “The Magnificent Ambersons, though? RKO took that one out of his hands, it differs highly from his vision. Kane is not only the better directed film, but shows his range as an actor.”
Bryan: “If we’re judging on acting, then Kane has nothing on The Third Man.”
Thad: “Agree to disagree. How about you, Ethan? What’s your favorite Orson Welles film?”
Ethan: sweats
Truly a … CATCH-22!
Hey, The Transformers: The Movie is a classic of 1980s western animation
I wouldn’t be surprised if he literally has no idea who he is aside from the voice of Unicron.
Just say ‘Touch of Evil was a masterpiece’ and change the subject.
And “F is For Fake”….
not to be confused with “F is for Fart” ….
I admit, ‘I didn’t say which way he would be bisected’ was an interesting move.
I love that scene. It’s terrible and sad, but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t make me snicker a bit. I may be slightly terrible.
As an added bonus, James Roberts has said that Pharma sounds like Mark Hamill playing the Joker.
…I can’t decide if I want context or just to let this beautifully supervillain-y line stand on its own in my memory
The process of getting context will probably make you feel bad for the deceased.
On the other hand, robot gore is less bloody! That’s how they get away with this shit.
Uh let’s see… Pharama is a villain who used to be friends with Ratchet. He turns evil and gets left for dead and his hands get taken by Ratchet to replace his own worn out hands in a previous incident. Another person shows up and saves Pharma gives him new hands that can turn into chainsaws (groovy) and eventually he comes back and kidnaps Ratchet and some others. Pharma wants his old hands back but he thinks Ratchet tampered with them to explode if he tries to take them. Ratchet goads him saying that it’s because he’s not a good enough surgeon. A competition is then proposed to see who can repair somebody the fastest where the winner gets the hands. Pharma suggests reattaching somebody who’s been cut in half and to use Ratchet’s fellow Autobots because a Decepticon isn’t worth it. Ratchet initially wants to back out but is forced to participate so he tells the Autobot who was selected -Ambulon- to reroute his pain receptors away from his waist and that it wouldn’t be a hard thing to repair before Pharma chainsaws Ambulon in half lengthwise and say he never mentioned which way he’d cut someone in half. Then he leaves and later gets his head blown off.
Not entirely related, but…my dog is named Ratchet because I love that transformer.
*plays “Love Is The Drug” on the hacked Muzak*
bet that’s not the only thing you’re ass-deep in, eh thad
…does that scan
My memory of Ethan’s relationships is fuzzy, was Thad the one who started dating the McAwesome’s employee who got hit by a lead box? (Or was it a car?)
Lead box.
That, or he runs solely on caffeine and student subscriptions to his database of choice.
Could be either, at this point. Mmm, research.
Now I’m curious what Thad studies, that he’d be ass-deep in research about Big Pharm- hm.
… I’m scared to consider what “ass-deep in research” looks like.
Premed? As I understand, premed is pretty ill-defined at the undergrad level…
It is usually called science.
let me take you on a maaaaaaagical journey
No thank you. I’m, um, scared of research.
His dorm room is filled with research papers. Anyone who wishes to enter has to wade into it like they’re fishing for clams.
Could just be for an english class, but it might be more interesting if not
Health Sciences? Ethics? Biology? Chemistry?
Economics? Pol. Sci.?
Sociology? English offering position papers?
If it was like when I was in college, a good term paper could be repurposed several times. Mine on Indian Reservations as concentration camps went in English, Sociology, and with a little work, Poly Sci.
Pile’em High and Deep!
God, ME. This is my internal monologue like 80% of the time, except with my fixations and not transformers
“Oh jeez what am I gonna say, how am I gonna contribute, I- oh, oh, I got it, I can s- shit, that’s not relevant any more, oh jeez what am I gonna say-”
And then they inevitably ask me why I’ve been quiet for so long.
And when you do have something to say there’s no way to actually say it without talking over someone else, and by the time the one person who noticed you trying to speak asks what you were going to say it’s no longer relevant
This is me in most conversations. I’ve gotten used to being thought of as the quiet one.
either that or the moment you open your mouth, someone else starts talking, so now if you try to talk you’ll be interrupting.
I much prefer asynchronous communication.
although, my highschool friends solved this problem by everyone just interrupting everyone all the time.
it’s chaotic, but it worked pretty well.
I feel personally called out here, except replace transformers with an obscure history reference or whatever else goes on in my weird brain.
Can we be friends? I fucking love weird historical anecdotes but I’m not motivated enough to seek them out on my own
Let’s have an in-depth discussion on the important historical speculation that Pythagoras, who may or may not have existed as an actual human, despised beans with all of his being, and may have been killed simply to avoid crossing a bean field.*
*Disclaimer, probably considered bunkum by anyone with a proper knowledge of Greek history.
It might be a very one-sided discussion but I would listen to the fuck outta that story
“Aristotle in On the Pythagoreans says that he [Pythagoras] enjoins them to stay away from beans either because they are like the genitals, or because they are like the gates of Hades (for this plant alone has no joints), or because they are harmful, or because they are like the nature of totality; or because they are oligarchical, for they are used to choose by lot.”
(Diogenes Laertius, translated Daniel W. Graham in “The Texts of Early Greek Philosophy, Part 2” p.921)
And while we’re on the topic:
“And once when he [Pythagoras] was passing a puppy being beaten
they say he took pity and said this word:
Cease beating him; for surely it is the soul of a friend
which I recognized when I heard it howling!”
(Xenophanes, quoted by Diogenes Laertius, same book p.915)
It’s always funny to me how weird ancient people can be (in relation to us), and then in turn how weird we’ll seem to people far in the future.
These people use strange squiggly lines to communicate. How did they ever manage before we switched to a fully meme-centric worldview?
Or, in future speak:
Keyboard Cat Scumbag Steve Ceiling Cat. Pickle Riiiiiiiick 2019 Nuclear Missile Exchange waifu OTP?
Darmok, at Tanagra.
Beans and milk. The combo is a notorious producer of flatulence. Screw mysticism. Pythagoras just didn’t like his disciples farting while he was trying to teach them.
haha mostly I just have a couple history books, a really good memory, and the internet (I 100% recommend Anne Theirault’s Queens of Infamy series – among the best and funniest history essays I have ever read)
“Hows the research going” “What have you discovered” “What made you want to do that”
Geez Ethan people generally like talking about themselves or their interests, its not that hard to fake it
“it’s not hard for me, therefore it’s not hard” :/
Yeah. But I think the point is that it’s a pattern that can be learned and used without needing any deeper understanding.
Yes it can be learned but if the anxiety to speak is strong enough you’ll still stand there silent and afraid to speak. Like now i dont have that much trouble talking to people in person about themselves and yet i can’t ask for contact info because my brain convinces me it’s inconvenient to them. And my biggest struggle of late is that i can’t tell my brain not to worry about writing something down online. Because there’s a deep fear that I’m speaking jnto a void and no one cares what i have to say.
Sometimes what you know works isnt what your mind lets you do without some kind of internal struggle first.
*into
By the way, tell your brain that we said that what you have to say is interesting and we enjoy hearing your take on things.
Seconding this! And I think it’s a safe bet that a lot of people here would also second this. Partly because it’s super relatable, partly because you are making interesting conversation. Feed us more of your insights! Further the discourse!
Thirded!
Yeah, I hate days like that. I have most of the skills now, I just don’t always have *access* to them. It seemed really weird how I could be super charismatic one day and barely able to make words the next – until I learned about dissociation from Cerberus
It’s also a pattern that can be horribly misapplied, so, like, further training is necessary.
One time I ran away from a guy at a club because he was wielding questions like an interrogation tool. It was so intimidating I wasn’t able to actually think until after I’d escaped.
The point is Ethan literally can’t think of anything to say that isn’t just “wow how fascinating, here’s MY interest that’s ACTUALLY important”.
It’s not hard to think of questions, it’s harder to realize that people want to hear questions rather than any deep insightful addition to the conversation.
Very true. I got caught up in suggesting questions and didn’t think about that. That’s a good point.
Heck, some people bring up their own stuff as a way to relate to things. Like ‘Oh, yeah, I’ve been there, that sucks. What’s it about?”
The tag is clearly evidence that Janelle Monae will become a recurring character from this point on.
Why would you call me out like this? That’s just cruel.
Ethan, this is a secret from adulthood. Have you tried LISTENING?
Wow, I’m really interested in seeing whether this introversion/introspection is a result of Amber rubbing off on him in high school or has it always been there, and he’s just better than Amber (occasionally) at managing to fake it when he’s around similarly awkward people? (We’ve seen him interact a lot with Dan and Joyce, two people who are not the most socially…..astute.)
I think it’s more Ethan speaks about nothing but Transformers and Batman but Amber rolls with it.
We say at least once in the flashbacks Ethan trying to engage her on something else – the band trip they’d been on IIRC, her responding in monosyllables then him giving up and mentioning transformers and her starting to ramble away.
It may be their roles have reversed somewhat since then, but back when she was severely withdrawn, she wasn’t just rolling with it. He was doing it for her.
Just ask stuff, then. You don’t always have to add, especially if you can’t, ask.
Hey man, I feel you Ethan. When I hear the word, “Pharma”, the first thing I think about is the Transformer.
Not that I share this viewpoint, but I feel like he’d have gotten so much better mileage talking shit about how Broly’s apparently going to be in the Dragon Ball Super movie.
Dragon Ball’s just so much more relatable I feel like.
Who’s Janelle Monae?? *looks her up* Seems the only thing I’ve seen her in is an ep of Stargate Universe. Otherwise I don’t listen to rap…or whatever else she sings.
Um . . . not rap. More of an R&B variant with an often retro vibe to it. I mean, she might be able to rap, too, for all I know; but it’s not what she’s known for.
Hidden figures is on Netflix and worth a watch! She’s pretty great in it
Moonlight was on Netflix a while ago. Not sure if it still is but if it is, it’s supposed to be outstanding.
If you like futuristic sci fi films that are about 90% music videos which also stand alone, with strong queer and political vibes, check out Broken Computer… I would elevator pitch it as “high tech Handmaid’s Tale resistance cell story, with catchy songs” but that doesn’t capture half of it! It’s beautiful, dark, painful and uplifting, and really clever and very well executed.
I need to check out more stuff by her.
Her first 3 albums are based on the concept of being an android that overcomes slavery and overthrows her oppressors. She also plays a robot in an episode of the Phillip K. Dick-based show “Electric Dreams” on Amazon. Sci-fi seems to be in her core.
that…….
sounds amazing.
Why would you assume rap?
This is painfully exactly how my brain works when trying to make conversation and also why people probably dont like me
I see a lot of comments trying to divine how Ethan might bring this back to transformers. It’s pretty direct actually, Janelle Monae mentions autobots and decepticons in Django Jane:
You want the world? Well, what’s it worth?
Emoticons, Decepticons, and Autobots
Who twist the plot?
It’s very good to see Ethan being awkward. I feel like this is a prelude to a storyline that gives on Ethan’s awkwardness, and so establishing that actually he IS Bad At People will be relevant – cos I don’t really recall seeing him being other than competent, compared with and in the company of Joyce, Danny, Amber, etc.
That’s why this is a little weird to me. We really haven’t seen Ethan be this awkward before.
Ethan’s never been the most confident/suave guy either. But yeah in this scene he feels off to me, too. Maybe it’s to emphasize of just how much of a Transformers nerd he is? Dunno.
Highly relatable content.
If I was in Ethan’s shoes, I’d scream out “I FOUND MY PEOPLE!” and embrace these guys.
Janelle Monae is a solid choice of topic. I could hang with these people.
Ethan is pretty much living my life, in social terms, right now!
Ha, I wanted to see if there was actually a direct link between Janelle Monae and Big Pharma, so I googled “janelle Monae Big Pharma,” and this comic was the first result.
Oh, Ethan. I.
I’m so guilty of this, too.
Wait.
“Ass deep” in research? Janelle Monae?
Pssssst Ethan I think they are trying to get your digits
Ethan, this wuold be you if you could, You know. Breath.
Handle social situations.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulteZYyWAA8
I wonder what point Ethan ceased to be the relatively socially ept one in his friendship with Amber… We know she really helped him when he came out… Was that what did it, or was it a side effect of stabbing Sal?
Not actually listening to the conversation probably isn’t helping your ability to contribute to it dude.
Definitely, but it’s ok live and learn.
this is such a familiar autistic inner dialogue.
Wow, relatable Ethan is relatable.
This would be kinda adorable but this is a Mike day so disaster is coming.
Ah awesome, just went to Janelle Monae’s show in Indy on Saturday! I could definitely hang with Brian and Thad. And even Ethan can be included, her song “Django Jane” references Transformers.
“Ass-deep in pharma research”
=
“You wouldn’t BELIEVE how many drugs I’m on, right now”
Sheesh, this happens to often to me. I’m listening to a conversation about something and then I switch off for one millisecond and suddenly the convo has moved miles away.
Oh, Ethan. Good thing you’re hot.
Janelle Monae yesssssssssss. I just saw her in concert. I love her
Usually big pharma is used as conservative slang against modern medicine. If I were in that conversation I would criticize the anti vaxxers with a huge rant and some insults.
I’ve much more often heard it in the context of a critique of the wealth and alleged predatory practices (e.g. patented medicines, Shkreli, etc) of the pharmaceutical industry.
Same.
There’s lots of reasons to criticize large Pharma companies. One by one, they are giving up on research for new antibiotics against multi-resistant strains because they rather make lots of money with placebo fatburning bullshit than do a lot of expensive and difficult research on a topic that won’t make much money.
And that’s where regulations are needed to stop those practices.
Is it a conservative thing?
I’ve mostly heard it in the contexts of anti-vaxxers and anti-gmo people, which isn’t really a conservative/liberal issue.
Conversations are hard :/
The unenlightened masses
They cannot make the judgement call
Give up free will forever
their voices won’t be heard at all
Display obedience
While never stepping out of line
And blindly swear allegiance
Let your country control your mind
(Let your country control your soul)
Live in ignorance
And purchase your happiness
When blood and sweat is the real cost
Thinking ceases, the truth is lost
Don’t you worry
You’ll be told exactly what to do
I give my people the lives they need
The righteous will succeed
The fires of greed will burn the weak
So we’ll make freedom obsolete
Making whole the fabric of society
Collective consciousness
controlled as you will see
Makes me wonder how dina would have answered. Can she truly find a dinosaur fact to fit any topic?
“Big Pharma is not as big as brachiosaurus”
UGH. Ethan. I question your life choices.
…not about being awkward, but Pharma is such an ASS, dude.
good thing he’s so pretty
Like. I understand that he’s a geek but I wonder if this is where he realizes how one note he really is.
Janelle Monae!!! <3<3<3
Great punchline made even better by the mention of Queen Janelle.