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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72" style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b>From:</b> extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org> <b>On Behalf Of </b>Ben Zaiboc via extropy-chat<br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [ExI] Superheroes without superpowers<o:p></o:p></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal>On 07/10/2021 08:23, spike wrote:<o:p></o:p></p></div><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal>Batman was the only known superhero who didn’t have any actual superpowers<o:p></o:p></p></blockquote><p>I beg to differ:<o:p></o:p></p><p>(musical clue):<o:p></o:p></p><p><img width=444 height=174 style='width:4.625in;height:1.8125in' id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image001.png@01D7BB84.24E0ABE0"><o:p></o:p></p><p>Ben<o:p></o:p></p><p><o:p> </o:p></p><p>Ben if this musical clue postdates about 1968, I am outta luck. I never saw any of the Batman movies and this musical phrase doesn’t stir even a trace of memory.<o:p></o:p></p><p>Back in those days, Batman and Robin together could take three thugs, but not four. You always knew if they were going to get their asses whooped if the bad guy had four henchpeople or if she had three. Catwoman always had four. I don’t recall the dynamic duo ever defeating Catwoman’s four henchpeople. Not all the bad guys figured out her secret, fortunately for the duo.<o:p></o:p></p><p>Batman really brought a lotta stuff to his crimefighting career: a 55 Lincoln Futura, which was never a production model, so it didn’t take a lot to make it into the Batmobile for instance.<o:p></o:p></p><p>After I wrote the previous post, a fun thought occurred to me. My lighthearted premise was that if a radioactive spider bit Peter Parker and gave him spider strength, then perhaps being injected with something that came from bats would give us Batman mojo.<o:p></o:p></p><p>It didn’t, but a fun thought occurred to me: in a sense we all have Batman mojo now.<o:p></o:p></p><p>Well think about it: compare your car to the 55 Linc concept car. There are a few of them around, if we count replicas:<o:p></o:p></p><p><a href="https://www.undiscoveredclassics.com/forgotten-fiberglass/chris-woodsides-1955-futura/">https://www.undiscoveredclassics.com/forgotten-fiberglass/chris-woodsides-1955-futura/</a><o:p></o:p></p><p>It is a stylized Lincoln Continental Mark 2.<o:p></o:p></p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_Mark_II">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_Mark_II</a><o:p></o:p></p><p>It had that 368 CI Y-block V8, which is big but not huge even by the standards of the day, and it is an enormous car with little or no plastic, so it was a heavy tank.<o:p></o:p></p><p>My point: most of us here have an ordinary car which performs better than the batmobile! Think about that: if Batman and Robin chased us, we could outrun their caped asses in our cheapy whatever we drive probably, while burning a third of the fuel. Their car looked cooler, but for all that weight, it was only a two-seater and was a slow tank.<o:p></o:p></p><p>OK then. The duo had computers! But we have computers too, and ours are waaaay better that theirs.<o:p></o:p></p><p>The duo had… capes! We can have those if we want them. Down at the Halloween costume store, popular items they are because they are one of the few left that no one has figured out a way to label them politically incorrect.<o:p></o:p></p><p>They had… gentlemanly ways! Even when some fiend was about to kill them in the most painful (and least reliable) means, they still had those impeccable manners. Consider that time Catwoman was about to drop the duo into a vat of boiling acid. Robin commented, “You are not a very nice person, Catwoman!” Ah, OK, well sure, perfect Edwardian gentlemen, but that is a choice. You and I could act that way if we chose. For a while anyway.<o:p></o:p></p><p>They had… Wayne Manor! Well, OK, they got me there. Not many of us have such nice digs, and none of us have a bat cave down there. Other than perhaps BillK, none of us have a butler, probably none of us have Bruce’s money. But when you really think about it, our lifestyle is pretty much at least equal to, or perhaps better than (in some important ways) Batman’s. For instance… we live in times where we get to learn that neutrinos have mass! We live in times where we get to learn that detectable gravitation events are a ten thousand times more common than our standard theory predicted. How cool is that? Cooler than the batmobile!<o:p></o:p></p><p>In that sense, even though the vaccines didn’t give us Batman mojo, most of us already had it in a way. Oh life is goooood.<o:p></o:p></p><p>spike<o:p></o:p></p><p><o:p> </o:p></p><p><o:p> </o:p></p><p><o:p> </o:p></p><p><o:p> </o:p></p><p><o:p> </o:p></p><p><o:p> </o:p></p><p><o:p> </o:p></p><p><o:p> </o:p></p><p><o:p> </o:p></p><p><o:p> </o:p></p><p><o:p> </o:p></p><p><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>