Trunchbull seems, to me, the type who would use Theory and Hypothesis according to the textbook definitions.
Panel 6 in a nutshell: Error 404, culpability not found.
Trunchbull seems, to me, the type who would use Theory and Hypothesis according to the textbook definitions.
Ugg, snails pase writing, flows really well when you have all the pages but the wait makes me want to cry.
Trunchbull seems, to me, the type who would use Theory and Hypothesis according to the convenient definitions.
“Transcript
Panel 6 in a nutshell: Error 404, culpability not found.”
Yeah, I was about to say ‘his expression in panel 6 tells us everything.’
OTOH, I think Todd is being overly generous in panels 5&6. I don’t think the Prof gave the school principal the option of lying to him: He wanted the story to support his way of seeing it.
no real theory or hypothesis as we have seen yet. he dose seem to look at logical data in a very skewed perspective. he is one of the “scientists” that manipulate data and perspective to meet their their initial hypothesis or theory instead of using the scientific method properly and reproposing a new hypothesis that the data supports
So he’s a young earth creationist?
Sadly you don’t need to be a young earth creationist to have this fault. All it really takes is to have more ego than intellectual honesty.
A true hypothesis must be falsifiable.
One tests it by stating its opposite, and proving it wrong; thus supporting the original.
And theories are never “proven”, only supported by the available evidence.
as one of my professors said…”If your initial hypothesis proves true, you did not do enough testing.”
We need to see more of that. I’d love it if our political & religious leaders had that philosophy.
“The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.” – Bertrand Russell
What was Trunchbull a professor *of*? Can’t be the sciences…you have to test your theories against the facts and discard them when they don’t fit…
So true.
Sociology.
Maybe literature
Political Science. But at this rate, I wouldn’t want him to be a professor at Hamburger U.
No, he’s an associate professor of sociology. Look at strip #430, where Todd gets Trunchbull’s number from the University’s website. “Thomas Trunchbull, associate professor of sociology.”
Phrenology.
Maybe we need to get him a reverse phrenologist – the ones who change your character by bashing certain parts of your skull in.
I believe the industry term for those are “hired goons”. Or possibly “hitmen”. …”Hitperson”?
Hollywood Image Consultant works as well. “He’s not stupid enough for Survivor yet! Use the mini-sledgehammer!”
I should learn to somehow wait until Friday so I at least get 3 strips at once. This is nail biting. Good on ya, Todd! Now CALL AGENT BROWN.
Unfortunately, a scientific (statistical) hypothesis can be disproven, but not proven. That’s why the scrupulous scientists (and statisticians) will tell you that they are only tools for making decisions regarding well-formed theories tested under controlled conditions, and not guides to life, and GRRR TRUNCHBULL YOU ARE MAING ME SO ANGRY AAAGH
Ahem. I’m OK. I’m OK.
Now I need a t shirt that says “GRRR TRUNCHBULL YOU ARE MAING ME SO ANGRY AAAGH”
While my first thought would like to see Trunchbull get a visit from Agent Brown, my second thought was “God what a horrible fascist dystopia America would be if you could call up a Fed you know to hassle someone who pissed you off.” I mean, what’s next? Having the IRS intimidate your political opponents… oh… yeah…
Category error. You mean, “what a horrible fascist dystopia would it be if wealthy, well-connected people with a sense of entitlement who engage in perversion of justice to protect their interests and themselves had to face any consequences for it.” This is not simply “someone who pissed you off.”
I´d be more worried about the world where Tood CAN´T get Agent Brown to visit Trunchbull. “God what a horrible stinking hellhole America would be if pig-headed ignorant jackasses could enable their sons to threaten, bully, assault, possibly KILL, other children because they are better at throwing their weight around than other parents?”
Professor Trunchbull was latter found dead, his home was searched for evidence of a break-in, most likely suspect is currently his wife. and nothing of importance was lost that day…sorrry just get really pissed of at him
OF ALL THE IGNORANT, PIG-HEADED, OBLIVIOUS INANITY –
YOUR MIND IS AS CLOSED AS AN ARIZONA BORDER! CAN YOU NOT ADMIT THAT YOU MIGHT POSSIBLY BE WRONG?! THAT YOUR SON MIGHT POSSIBLY BE A BULLY?! HOW THE HELL DID THE SARNOTHI NOT GO FOR YOUR JUGULAR?!
Congratulations, Professor, for bringing about the first time I’ve cursed on the Internet.
hmm… now that you’ve entered the internet cursing waters – may I point you towards the more interesting ones?
You may have fun using words like Spudgenugget, Candle-sniffer and Wafflechucker in everyday speech 😀
also wheeee Gunnerkrigg court fan! I love that comic.
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As for prof trunchbull, people like him never change no matter how much evidence is presented. Best to call agent brown and never speak to him again.
For an academic, this guy sure is research-averse.
he seems to be an all too common academic bully. he probably has certain pet ideas and spends much time trying to destroy the careers of his rivals and anyone who disagrees with him. may crom help his grads and postdocs.
I notice that, in this conversation, Todd calls Professor Trunchbull “Professor Trunchbull,” but Professor Trunchbull isn’t calling him “Mister Smith,” but “Todd.” One could take it as Trunchbull viewing Todd as an inferior not worthy of respect…
Does slip in a “Tom” right at the top of this page…
Man, Dr. Strange sure is a jerk.
I can’t be the only one who thinks that chin strap of his looks like Strange’s beard.
Now if he was my opponent, this little mini-rant of his would only make me happier. It shows more weakness and with just a little bit more pressure, he will crack. Trunchy apparently cannot handle the stress of a mature conversation where he’s not getting kissed up to. That kind of weakness is exploitable.
Give him a little more rope to hang himself and then if Truck does anything dangerous, in court the conversation is simple.
Judge: “Mister Todd informs us there were witnesses and that you were informed. Is this true Professor Trunchbull?”
Trunchbowl: “I was informed yes Alex.”
Judge: “It’s Judge Alex or Sir. And did you ask the witnesses what they saw?”
Toiletbull: “No Alex, I did not. And be told my son attacked his daughter? I think not.”
Judge: “All right, I find in favor of Mr Todd, and you will also face charges of contempt. You may think being a professor makes you special. It does not.”
I like how it goes to TrunchBOWL and TOILETbull. XD
Trunchbowl was an accident that I decided to leave in for laughs. Toiletbull was all intentional. 😀
So, it seems to me to boil down to this; The bully’s father is being a bully. What a shock.
Ahahaha! He’s actually acknowledging that he’s too stubborn to try! Todd may not have persuaded Trunchbull of the error of his ways, but the fact is Trenchbull just lost the argument.
Also, my dear Mister Trunchbull, you need to learn the difference between a conspiracy hypothesis and an incompetence hypothesis.
What we really have here is a man who is a good sperm donor, and a lousy father. He believes that exerting extreme pressure on his son at home will translate into a well-groomed member of society. Unfortunately, all humans resent control, so, all Professor Trunchbull is doing is causing his son to transfer his resentment of home-life into his school-life. So, at home, father sees compliant, obedient boy who never talks back, does exactly what father wants… and so, cannot believe anything otherwise. As a teacher, I see this sad situation far too often. Fortunately, I’m a big guy, who used to teach in a maximum-security prison. So, parents who try to browbeat ME tend to get a shock when I fail to cave in to their amateurish tactics…
Hmph. Trunchbull, apparently, is a tenured piece of paper, incapable of actual thought. “Why would I investigate something that might challenge my pet weltanschauung?”
Because, proffie, that’s *all* that one does in science! Anything less isn’t research; it’s rote. What the heck is this guy’s doctorate for? Dead, mildly historical basket-weaving techniques?
Not to play devil’s advocate here but the Professor must be fairly good at his job otherwise he wouldn’t have been contacted for the integration program (unless this is an example of an underfunded department trying to maintain their security clearance by keeping it local (I’m assuming the “Sarnothi Diaspora” is limited to Wisconsin, Minnesota and Oregon for now?) Professor Trunchbull strikes me as someone who’s knowledge and professionalism is highly compartmentalized. That is to say very good in his field but stupid and close minded in everything else. Having family in academia I’ve known a disturbing number of that particular type. Perhaps since there is no such thing as xeno – sociology, the department had to find the next best thing. And based on Trunchbull’s blatant specism that wasn’t close enough.
Just to change the subject just a little bit but You’ve gone into great detail about sarnothi biology just what is the state of the “Sarnothi Dyaspora?” Based on Sai Fan’s surprise, I might assume that the De’Medieas and Selkie are the only sarnothi in the unnamed city in Wisconsin perhaps the whole state (of course since Mr. Brown’s department is so opaque it won’t provide basic health information I don’t think it would tell Sarnothi refugee’s about the local population. For the sake of argument I’ll assume that the “land dwelling refugee population can’t be more than 100. As for the Colonies… is this in Michigan and Huron? I’d wonder why the other great lakes weren’t colonized before but based on the “maintain the status quo” conservatism It would probably take something as drastic as a civil war for the population to expand outward.
The city is named Calumet City. There are more sarnothi living in the city and other areas, but not many choose to live outside of the colony (which will be adressed later have no worries). The ones that do live in the city are somewhat disasociated, not by intent by just distance and social circles.
Thanks I’m not sure if you said before or I just missed the textev. Look forward to hearing all of the little details. (oh and rereading this I see I wrote Oregon when I meant Ontario. (talk about embarrassing typos!) Is Agent Brown’s Department a joint international affair or is this something that makes the red tape simply fascinating?)
I can answer why Sarnothi would have trouble expanding beyond Lake Superior. Politics. As someone who is from Michigan I’ve seen many politics surrounding what can go in in the Lakes. There have been companies attempting to get oil drills into Lake Michigan and there is already damage the Lakes by invasive species. The people here are very protective of the Lakes since they mean so much to the Great Lakes state. If a rule about Lake Superior not allowing fishing any more really was ever installed people here would go bonkers over just that one Lake being messed with. Outdoor hobbies is what fuels the majority of our tourism outside Detroit. I highly doubt if such an act was put in place that Michigan and Canada would be excluded from the happenings concerning the Lakes and the Sarnothi. Canadians and the Upper Peninsula don’t always see eye to eye about what can go on in Lake Superior.
There’s this thing called the Peter Principle, where you take someone incompetent but you can’t fire them. Then you promote them to a position where they can do the least damage. He might be a beneficiary of it and someone outside of the university turned around, thought he was actually good at his field which is why he got promoted, and bang, he’s an incompetent boob in a project he has not the skill, inclination, or mentality to do well.
Not sure what Todd was trying to accomplish with this call to be honest. He should be going after the school first of all, especially now that he knows Truck didn’t even get punished and the Trunchbulls were given a censored version of the events by the hobbit guy.
Basically Trunchbull’s an ass, just call a lawyer.
Yeah, I think the principal’s risk assessment is probably off because he didn’t think through the following week. He was worried about how angry the Trunchbulls were immediately and thinking about how comparatively easy it’d be to appease Todd immediately…
But I’ll be honestly surprised if this doesn’t hit him way worse than leaving Truck suspended would have. Agent Brown probably has better contacts than Mister Trunchbull, and he is clearly pissed. Todd’s probably coming back to the principal for a second round, twice as angry and armed with the knowledge that this guy ignored the facts in favor of immediate appeasement.
Confronting Trunchy was a brilliant move here. For all his ego, he let slip some very important details and weakened himself at the same time. This call can be used against both Trunchy and the Principal. Todd more than likely didn’t record the call, but one can’t be perfect. At the same time, Trunchy is easily persuaded and can be manipulated in court so no matter. A man too invested within doesn’t see the predators without.
“No, you don’t have to ask them to condemn your son. Just ask them what happened, and they’ll do that on their own.”
SO, is kicking his smug face not an option
I sense that Todd may have made a mistake by saying who the witnesses were. Perhaps there was a reason that the Principal didn’t introduce them.
More like when they’re convenient for him. Hope you give a flash forward when his son’s in jail and he’s wondering why.
Professor Trunbull is sadly one of those perfect examples of a type of “bully” that’s infinitely more dangerous than any traditional schoolyard variety. His is a kind that when in positions of power tend to start wars.
They come in all shapes and sizes: some being straightforward and physical, others being indirect and tactful (often misusing a truly gifted mind to stockpile armaments for this purpose). But in the end it all amounts to one thing: power.
These kinds of people crave power: the ability to wield it, to lord it over those they consider beneath them, and to be able to prevent ANYONE from being able to do the same to them, no matter WHO they are. And if anything or anyone dares to throw that idyllic scenario out of allignment, then they aren’t a person with a different opinion, they are an enemy who needs to be cowed and taught to learn their place; violently if necessary.
Trunbull believes his son can do no wrong, that whatever variation of the truth is presented to him is THE truth and all other accounts are lies, and that Selkie’s race are violent predators unfit to exist alongside humans.
God HELP the people who challenge/manage to unseat those views if he possesses the ability/power to hurt them, because a man like that WILL. The only question is how creative his methods will be.