Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for March 04, 2021

And the claws — don’t forget about the claws!

Hobbes is the world’s smartest tiger.

Losing an argument with your toy pet, Calvin? What will happen when you get married?!?

At that age, I thought that a nuclear war was winnable. You just need more nukes than the other side.

Way to destroy your own argument, Calvin!

Cheetahs can run fast, but only in short sprints. A cheetah might win a 100 yard dash, but a human will win a mile run or a 10k. In fact, humans are more than capable of hunting down and killing cheetahs by outrunning them until they become exhausted. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-24953910

As Garfield said: Dogs are dumb

Also, A cheetah can run 100 mph!

As Gramps used to say, “Humans have just enough smarts to get themselves in trouble.”

In some things animals are superior!!

Young people won’t know about this, but when we put Tony the Tiger in our tank it means higher octane and more power. When we put a human in a dunk tank it means humiliation and laughter.

Animals – 1, Humans – 0.

But, us humans have the best opposable thumbs in Creation

The downfall of man is what Calvin just illustrated. Were so stupid, we think we are smart.

douglas adams wrote that humans thought they were more intelligent than dolphins because they had invented war, nuclear power and digital watches while dolphins spent all their time swimming around and having a good time, interestingly dolphins cited the exact same reasons as proof of their superior intellect.

Humans cannot outrun either prey nor predator so we had to be smart.

Actually, humans can outrun many mammals. Most mammals (except for sloths) are sprinters while humans are marathon runners. We can literally beat them in the long run.

There is evidence of gangs of men running down prey animals. Initially, the animal sprints away, but as the men approach it again, it sprints again, for a slightly shorter distance. The men keep coming and the animal keeps sprinting until it drops from overheating and the men can walk up to it and bash it in the head.

As for predators, the objective is to spot them outside their normal sprinting distance and stay away. A cheetah knows it can’t sprint much more than about 300 meters. It won’t even try to attack something too far away.

Humans have a much better cooling system than most animals, so we could stay in the hunt.

But can tigers make a pizza?

Guns.

Tyger Tyger, burning bright,In the forests of the night;What immortal hand or eye,Could frame thy fearful symmetry?William Blake, published in 1794

Calvin: “We keep tigers in zoos!” Hobbes: “You keep even more humans in zoos called jails. I sense a destructive pattern here.”

Usain Bolt at almost 28mph might like a word with you Hobbes…..

We are victims of our own successes.

Watterson hating on his own species. Again.

I watched a lot of cheetahs chasing Thompson’s gazelles on the Serengeti. Almost never saw a gazelle taken down. Even in an ambush situation, the gazelle could usually get away, and the cheetah would give up the chase after 100 yards or so. I did see a lot of cheetahs eating rabbits, but not many gazelles!

If I want my nice walk spoiled, I’ll go golfing, Hobbes…

I love how Calvin and Hobbes does not have spammers like Big Nate.

They also kill humans

Cheetahs can run that fast but only briefly because they literally overheat. Humans can run for hours because of an extremely efficient evaporative cooling system.

Possibly the most profound strip ever inked.

The secret to our evolutionary success was our ability to cooperate more effectively than any other species.

No, seriously, it used to be a thing humans could do.

Yep, my family and I were always well aware of how our old cat could run faster than us, and how he could see at night much better than us, and his hearing was better than us as well. Same with our current dog, who can run faster than us, hear better than us, and of course has a better sense of smell than us.

But, “cheetahs never win”!

Stuffed cats don’t have to worry about any of that

Watterson implies that cars and nuclear reactors should be thought of as bad, which is extremely debatable. And he conveniently omitted medicine, clean water, and many other benefits of industrialization.

Calvin thanks to that humans could end the world thanks to that give in buddy

Indeed, lynxes can actually see to the interior of opaque objects. Or so Aristotle taught. Hence “lynx-eyed”, now used to mean “keen-eyed”, but the original score on lynxes wasn’t visual acuity but x-ray vision.

I think they’ve lost the knack.

I would rather be a human than a cat.

As a cooperative group species, our ability to band together and coordinate our attacks and our defenses, our divisions of labor allowing some to fight, some to produce, some to supply, some to invent, some to sell, some to organize, etc. makes us formidable opponents and useful friends.

We tell stories, all day, every day, to ourselves and others, because we are readily manipulated by stories. It is a cooperation mechanism, capable of making us stronger, acting as a unified group.

Kings rule by physical power, priests rule by telling stories. A priest-king is a formidable combination.

We form groups, which compete and fight with other groups over resources such as food, territory, status and mates. We even fight over whose stories are true or best. Very few of us examine the ‘reality’ of the stories to which we adhere. It is just our nature.

Still, it is always good to have a rational discussion of issues and outcomes. The media and politicians don’t seem to do much of this, so we have to look for reason and understanding between those of us who are not professional manipulators.

Thank you for reading this comment. :)

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How the frick does mister Watterson make ya LAUGH?!

But we do run the world. (Badly).

cats have better night vision, but we have better day vision. Not only are cats color blind, but the system that gathers extra light to allow them to see in the dark also makes their vision blurry under normal light conditions.

That stuffed tiger is more than what appears to the eyes.

Opposable thumbs, FTW.

Actually, artist Michael Sieve came up with the best ‘Night Vision’ sample I’ve ever seen.

Calvin forgot to mention that we have guns that can hit a cheetah, no matter HOW fast he is!