Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for December 28, 2019

And 30 years later still no flying cars — I’m tired of sitting in traffic!

To be fair, most of the stuff Calvin wants are really dangerous and impractical.

You think regular car crashes are bad? Imagine FLYING car crashes.

What did Calvin expect to happen in 1990 when it came to the weather?

Do people really think that flying cars will get rid of slow drivers and traffic jams?

This coming from the 6 year old kid who built a time machine.

They’re all hiding from you, Calvin. That’s where.

The only things I find good about new decades are updates to Mario’s design (compare him from new Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Odyssey and you’ll see a difference) and the new Pokemon Generations

You won’t like what’s coming, Calvin. No snow. No snowmen. No snowballs. No sledding.

It’s the end of December and we still haven’t had any snow to speak of. Weather became “global warming” which then became “climate change” which is now becoming “global roasting.” Look out, kid. It’s coming atcha, and us all…

Flying cars have been promised us since the 1950s at least. I’d sure like zero-G boots too.

Looks like anything will set him off!!

But we have microwave, Calvin.

Keep cool Calvin. The next decade will not start until January 1st 2021. It all may be invented next year.

Man, Roombas not impressive enough? grin

Sometimes it’s better for humans to let it so, how God has done and not intervene in everything!!

Think of car crashes in the sky, and pieces falling from a great height and killing innocent people walking by on the ground. That’s why.

I’m still asking that same question 3 decades later. At least we have internet.

Next week/month/year is 2020. Where are those sealabs we were promised on Saturday morning cartoons in 1973?

This strip could’ve been written yesterday.

But we have Alexa, Siri and other devices spying on us.

Hobbes is right, too many cannot handle what tech they have never mind the fancy stuff…

30 years, I’ve been waiting science the 1950’s.

30 years, I’ve been waiting since the 1950’s. Hover cars would be fine. Imagine roads and highways like golf fairways.

Technically, the new decade doesn’t start for another year. There was never a year zero.

Whether it’s cold

Whether it’s hot

Weather is weather

Whether or not

And when you live long enough to see all of that, you will still be disappointed because technology improved, Man didn’t.

Hobbes has a point there. After the invention of the “Smart Phone” it seems that the advancement of Civilization not only ground to a halt, it started sliding downhill.

In an immediate sense, Hobbes, you are incorrect: the new decade doesn’t begin for another year.

To the larger point … It merely demonstrates, once again, that the private sector chronically overpromises and underdelivers. It took two national governments to get us into space and on the moon. You’ll always fall short of the dream when your mind is focused on profit.

Watterson came out of retirement! Obviously a new comic

A new decade is not coming up. 2020 will be the last year of the 202nd decade; just like year 10 was the last year of the first decade. It will not be a new decade until 2021.

Give us a bit Calvin. We’re working hard on the “changing the weather” bit. Maybe not in the way you expected…

Man, he nailed the list – and I never even thought of weather.

First of all the new decade doesn’t start until January 1 2021 unless I missed a 9 year decade somewhere. Considering under the current calendar there was no year zero the fist decade was year 1 to year 10 so every decade ends wth a zero not a nine.

Idiots around here have a hard time on the ground. God knows what would happen if you put them in the air?

I’d trade technology to go back to civility and higher moral standards (this should bring out the trolls!)

Hobbes is so right

We already have flying cars, and we’ve had them for a long time. They’re called helicopters. You need extensive training and a pilot’s license to fly one.

According to Back to the Future II, most of those things were supposed to be available in 2015.

“I Thought the Future would be Cooler” – by Yacht – look it up on Spotify.

NO, we got Trump and the Republicans instead.

and there will always be YOU!!

The decade doesn’t end until next year. We started with year 1, not year zero!!

Yeah, why aren’t our flying cars already crashing into each other on lunar colonies?

Hey, no weather—no snowmen.

Flying cars: Nope, not yet, but there’s been a ton of media depicting them.

Moon colonies: The movie “Ad Astra” had an interesting depiction, but nope.

Personal robots: Yes, but not as advanced as Calvin’s expecting.

Zero gravity boots: No.

Rocket packs: They might be getting worked on…

Disintegration rays: There’s a reason why those don’t exist.

Floating cities: No, we’re all still on the ground.

Weather: There was a disaster movie called “Geostorm” that showed what could happen if we could control the weather.

Wait until you see what’s coming Calvin. I remember microwave ovens and cordless phones being mind blowing.

I hope we never control the weather because of its complexity and humanity’s stupidity. A local weather guy with a degree in the subject actually said that he wished we could get rid of hurricanes. I howled at that one. Hurricanes are one of the primary means the Earth has to keep the world’s temperature moderate because it churns both the hot air and the cold ocean water. Earth without hurricanes would make the worst case of global warning look like nothing. Not that most life would live that long.

Wisconsin and it’ll be 59° F tomorrow! I’m calling the Better Weather Bureau (BWB)!

Not getting hoverboards from Neon Night Riders (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles In Time).

If not for the Dark Ages we could be in starships.

To add to George carlin’s quote:

“Did you ever notice that the driver in front of you is always an idiot, and the guy behind you is always a maniac? And the guy above you is a setting hen, and the guy below you is a wannabe astronaut? Yeah.”

Truer than it ever was.

Even a very small thunderstorm has more energy than a nuclear weapon.

So, yes, Of COURSE we have weather.

In Blade Runner it was 2019 and we had flying cars, personal artificial servants, blasters and more — media is so optimistic.

You can look up and see plots of climate changes from way before humans were on the planet. Watch the plots of temperature change. There is presently a warming trend, but whether humans are causing it or whether it’s just normal variations, that’s still up for grabs. There were warm periods long before humans came into the picture. When I look at our newspaper weather report, I see that the low temperatures (early mornings) are higher than normal for the time of year. This is an indication that something is keeping the heat from escaping at night. But is that due to human activities? Hard to say. The scare tactics of the alarmists are just way out of bounds. Climates changes take eons, not decades.

We have self-driving vehicles now. We’ll need to accept those before we can have self-flying cars. And technology, may actually change the way we think (https://www.citylab.com/life/2014/09/smartphones-and-the-uncertain-future-of-spatial-thinking/379796/), so we might want to be careful what we wish for.

I’ve been asking these same questions since 2001!!!!

You improve the future by not repeating the past.

Speaking of Rocket Packs, how do Mandalorians keep their butts from being roasted by their Rocket Packs? I guess Beskar must have some amazing insulating properties.

The future has a way of sneaking up when you’re not looking…

I have a lengthy computation that took 17 hours to run on an original 1981 IBM PC. On my six-year-old iMac, it takes 30 milliseconds.

People always complain about the lack of flying cars. The way I see it, people already can’t drive in two dimensions, and you want to add a third while simultaneously taking away any semblance of generally-agreed-upon travel routes? That way lies madness, death, and destruction.

AI ATC, no thanks!

Calvin has been watching the Jetsons. Well, too bad, the show is set in the year 2062. Calvin will be old and I will be 103 or 104 (probably dead). Anyway, don’t expect it in that year but whatever they have by then might surprise you.