January 15
After yesterday's ice storm, this morning was quite uneventful. It was above freezing by sunup, and the air was full of the sounds of meltwater rushing off roofs. I'm a bit confused about the human calendar; winter is supposed to last until March 20. I know humans don't control it as well as we do, but to miss by over sixty days? That's a sixth of their year.
I asked the professor about it, and he said that it was typical for Kalamazoo to have thawing cycles like this. Humans, it turns out, define their seasons simply by the length of the day, switching on the equinoxes and solstices. That would be like having summer start on the day of the Summer Sun Celebration, and was kind of silly. The climate lagged a bit behind.
We continued our conversation from before after class today. I think the two of us sort of got off on the wrong hoof right from the get-go. He assumed that I was taking the class because I wanted to know the facts, when the truth was I wanted to know how humans named their weather. A good foundation is necessary to understand anything. It would be like a writer who doesn't know the most basic parts of speech.
He thought that we didn't have a rigorous understanding of the climate and of weather. He said that he had been reflecting on what we talked about before, and he thought he understood where the misunderstanding had come from: back in the old days, humans thought of anything that they didn't really understand as witchcraft or magic, and only later did they really understand what was going on. He'd assumed that our weather control was like that—that we just pushed around clouds not really knowing why it worked.
Really, it was just different approaches. We pegasuses started off with experimentation, and eventually that became a rigid science. We'd try something and see what happened. It must have been an exciting and dangerous time to be alive! So much of it is lost to history; by the time the Sisters became stewards of the unicorn throne, we were already pretty good at it, and have spent centuries since refining our art.
Humans took the opposite tack: they observed what had happened, and then figured out how to explain it. That's why they name their clouds for their appearance and their function was tacked on later, rather than the way we do it. The intent of the cloud is known before it's put into the sky; what form it takes is the logical result of what it does.
Incidentally, that's why we were the first to develop complex math—there's a lot of energy involved in the atmosphere, and a lot of calculations required to get things right. Even now, pegasus-founded universities have the best mathematicians. (Unicorns like to pretend that they're unicorn universities, 'cause they're on the ground, but how else were we going to attract other ponies?)
He still doesn't believe that we can actually work with clouds. I'll have to bring one in to show him. It's really difficult to wrangle them after they've fully-formed, though. They're big and diaphanous.
We wrapped up Plato today. A lot of what he said in The Republic could be applied to pony culture. The division of labor is an important point: while unicorns can manipulate the weather, earth ponies can cast with potions, and pegasuses can grow crops, it's not in our nature. Our society is better when everypony sets herself to the tasks which she is best equipped for.
A boy in class asked the professor if Plato's Republic could be said to justify the caste system, and the professor said that she didn't think so. She rejected the idea that a person is born into a role, and I had to agree with that. Despite the expected roles, there are occasionally pegasuses who are good with plants or animals, and it's that unexpected cross of talents which makes our society function so well. Everypony knows that earth ponies make the best leaders (not counting alicorns, of course), but if there weren't pegasi who were also good at it, our cloud cities would be leaderless.
It's very important to let ponies use their skills properly. Some parents desperately want their daughters to follow in their hoofsteps, even to the point of denying what a pony's cutie mark really means.
I thought about bringing up sports in Equestrian class, especially since I now know about a few humans sports like golf and water skiing and hockey (there are very many hockey teams in Michigan), but decided to focus the first part of the class on how the unified Equestrian alphabet came to be, and why the unicorns are stubborn and don't use it all the time. And that wasn't as good a topic as I'd thought, because people kind of got confused by it and I guess I didn't know enough about the unicorn alphabet to really teach it.
There is a little mail hut near the dining hall. I checked it on the way from dinner, and discovered that I got a return letter from Aquamarine. This left me with a bit of a dilemma—I had already promised that I would go over to Christine's room and watch the last Star Wars movie, and I'd also then had to reschedule that a bit so that I could watch an important human event on the television (which is a small flat screen that can show movies or current events, sometimes right when they're happening).
In America, they have a political system which they call democracy where every four years they all get together and decide on who's going to be their leader for the next four years. Earth ponies do this, too, although rather than have it take place at a set time, they wait until they have lost confidence in their current leaders and then decide if somepony is more qualified. We pegasuses like to see deeds first, rather than a lot of hot air, and that's how we choose. Unicorns—who are sometimes the most backwards tribe—think bloodlines are important, and take great pains to keep track of who birthed who and use that to determine who sits on the Nobles' Council.
It’s kind of a mash-up between our system and the earth pony system. Each candidate will not only talk about his or her deeds, but also what they intend to do if they are elected.
They have a very clever process to winnow down the candidates; there are two major tribes (Democratic and Republican), and each tribe puts up a number of candidates, which are winnowed down in a series of debates until the very best pair remain. Their debates are shown on television, so that all voters can make an educated choice.
Tonight it is the Republicans' turn, and then in a few days, the Democrats will have their turn.
spacing error on the comma
Nice to see her make peace with her Climate Science teacher.
Another interestin' chapter.
Alas, Babylon
What would such creatures make of us
She needs to bring in a cloud. Just so everyone can finally say they toughed a cloud.
Oh Christ she's going to wonder what the hell are these idiots are doing running for POTUS. Never mind what the Elephant in the room is spewing out.
unicorns twice.
7022355 Disgusting things that need to be eliminated no doubt.
7022379 or broken things that could use a friend. We think so often of destruction and perhaps that too is our disease.
7022392 Too true.
7022377 Hrmm... I recognize your tag image....
7022397 What....pay no attention to that handsome devil and his cute dog.
7022377
The problem that I see with the two-party system is that you're always picking the lesser of the two evils.
Both candidates suck, so let's elect the one that sucks less. Variety is the spice of life.
Or at least, that's my opinion.
Huh. I wonder what her reasoning is.
And Silver's continuing swipes at unicorns crack me up.
The racism is kinda real in this. Subtle, but it's certainly there.
7019415
Lake Michigan is weaksauce. Spend a couple years in Sturgeon Bay or Duluth.
Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings
In the rooms of her ice-water mansion
Old Michigan steams like a young man's dreams
The islands and bays are for sportsmen
And farther below Lake Ontario
Takes in what Lake Erie can send her
And the iron boats go as the mariners all know
With the gales of November remembered
7020474
Tell me about this? Where I live we have no lakes, we have the rain shadow so everything is dry, and we get termination winds instead.
7022508 For those that don't know where those lines are from
Silver's reaction to politics is something I look forward to seeing.
Ah. So that's how it is. It will be amusing to see her find out that we don't control the seasons at all.
...Actually, it occurs to me that she may even be unfamiliar with even the idea of heliocentric orbits. That'll be amusing as well.
There's always that one teacher...
7022436
Honesty that has been the key downside to US politics from day one. Both parties are so large and all encompassing that each try to juggle ally's than have no business being in the same party. I mean the NRA and Pro-life? The non nuke greens and clean energy crowds? The only reason half the people are in their chosen political parties isn't because they support all that that party does but because they're against what the other one does. The current set up is more "divide and rule" than anything else and as one side gains the majority they push through ideology crap that has no bases in reality were as places with 5+ strong parties have to compromise just to run the government as the strongest on has ~30% of the seats.
I assume you mean 'ice hockey'?
Also, what's so great about the US's political system? In a two-party state you're constantly picking between the better of two evils, and if a cock-eyed loon like Donald 'the Donald' Trump can even have a chance of getting into power, you're in serious trouble. Hitler started off by following purely democratic methods, and look where that ended up.
EDIT: Though, having said that, I suppose it's the collective stupidity of the American psyche, rather than any particular fault of the system itself, which in this instance has allowed the Trump the opportunity for power.
But, y'know, no offence.
7022577 As Silver discussed last time, the Great Lakes have a significant downwind moisture and energy shadow, and the winds tend to be pretty consistently out of the west and northwest, especially in winter. This produces significant snow events and accumulations to the east southeast, modulated by how long the various lakes stay open, when and how they freeze over. But this is why Buffalo is ground zero for some of the worst flatland snow averages on the continent. But lake effect snow is highly defined. Where I live, it cuts off pretty rigorously along I-80, like a curtain.
I like that the Pegasus sees American political parties in explicitly Roman terms, as if they were the bodies used to elect tribunes. PegasI as Greco-Roman culture is one of the most eccentric choices Faust made in her world building; I like it.
So, according to Glow, the unicorn subculture is like wizards' in Harry Potter?
7022739
This post sums what is wrong with the current bipartidism system
i.imgflip.com/6in4b.jpg
Silver might find it interesting that the Irish calendar still keeps equinoxes and solstices near the mid-point of the season. Summer starts on May 1st, Autumn on August 1st, etc.
I think I'd kind of like to see what creative misunderstanding she'd have of that...
Couldn't she just go outside and show the professor what she can do with clouds? Or maybe even better, make some small clouds indoors to demonstrate for the class. Maybe a fog machine is good enough? Or dry ice? Fog from a freezer? Steam from a kettle?
7022620
Dude.
really hope the author doesn't undersell the blast she's about to sustain
I don't remember if Trump bragged about torturing and killing terrorist's families in this particular debate, but this was the one where Ted went in with his "New York values" line of attack and Trump countered by playing the 9/11 card. Watching this debate means she's learning about the existence of things like 9/11, Islam, ISIS, Israel................
And now I'm imagining unicorns with "Make Equestria great again!" badges.
I'm not touching the politics. I'll just enjoy Silver's commiseration with her climate science teacher. I can't really blame him for his skepticism. Pegasi represent a massive deviation from everything he's ever known. They don't just control the weather, they've industrialized it.
7022485
It's very interesting to see the subtle biases at work, both for and against some groups.
7022991
One of these things is not like the others...
One of these things just doesn't belong...
7023002
I would agree, but the character that's making them is being portrayed as extremely innocent, almost child-like in fact. I can understand a certain level of this, as what we've seen of Equestria is very "Rainbow Sunshiney", but it's creating a very disjointed feel for me. There doesn't seem to be any kind of real adult thinking in this journal, but the character is supposedly at a college level. It's reading more like a child's diary.
"until the very best pair remain."
My innocent and naive little pony. Once you study political science, maybe you'll figure it out.
7022865 Yep, last year we had a very cold spring in North-East America beacause the great lake had iced more then usual and kept big mass of cold air around.
7023024 As mentioned a couple of time, a big cultural difference create that kind of child-like feel. Silver is using very different referent then what we are used to.
As for the small racism, human are also doing a lot of these subtle (and often not-so-subtle) discriminations. Even after doing a lot of studies.
7022448
Yeah, the (steadily less and less subtle) pegasus supremacy is hilarious. I wonder if all her human classmates will pick it up from her.
At least, it's hilarious until Donald Trump teams up with a Pegasus leader.
7023024 From what I remember of college, child-like thinking is the norm, especially early on.
I still think that having only two parties presenting candidates is very oppresing, it reduces the choices of the people, other countries can choose from a lot of candidates from different parties; the last elections in my country had 10 candiadtes, of wich of course, only two got elected (by the people in national elections) for a rematch, and then of those two come our actual president.
She's gonna bring in a cloud, huh? That's gonna be a little tricky, seeing as how clouds on Earth are usually one to five miles from ground level. (Whereas in Equestria they seem to come low enough to let lazy pegasi lay on them while having a conversation with ponies on the ground.)
{ Hey, I resemble that remark!
Admiral Biscuit, I'm not going to stop reading. I respect you too much. But I am very disappointed you brought American politics into this. You've all but invited your readers to have a debate in the comments, and that makes me sad.
I know that Equestrian society is matriarchal, but why she always and only use "she", "her" while talking about ponies at home, but not once "they" "them"?
Also, democracy is biggest turd there is. Meritocracy over all!
7023166
From what I remember, that's all college is until you graduate and get your first real job.
American "Democracy" : please choose which of these two bourgeois people you'll be oppressed by
7023511
Probably will conclude that being ruled by an immortal benevolent despot really is the way to go.
7022677
It seems especially odd since with the exchange program, there had to have been humans who could testify to watching pegasi move around clouds and create weather phenomena.
7023120
I already mentioned the cultural differences aspect of the argument, but there's a difference between cultural norms and acting like an 8 year old.
The comments on that chapter are gonna be fun.
Damn... I think some unicorns down the line are going to be pretty damned upset at having to deal with the fallout of the blatant bias going on here. Wouldn't be surprised if some one came along to have a few stern words with Silver Glow considering part of the point of the journal is to help them integrate.
Poor thing, she'll be so confused until she realizes that the two parties couldn't have more thoroughly different worldviews than if they were all battling imaginary enemies while wearing virtual-reality goggles playing different games.
7023343
Except that "pegasus" is no more Greek than Hercules[1], Venus or Cupid. In Greek it has an -os ending which pluralizes -oi.
[1] A rare case, like Pegasus, where the use of the Roman name being the norm continued in post-Victorian times[2]. The Greek version of his name is Heracles.
[2] Something that made digging up a free translation of the Iliad really annoying. It was a choice of a decent readable translation or one where I wasn't constantly going 'OK, who is this again?'
I came into this chapter's comments looking for the common dig against Celestia as a tyrant, and how Murka Democracy is so much better. I'm admittedly surprised to find the opposite. I guess The Donald's antics are really helping to take the blinders off of people, regarding the American political system.
7023017
Ha, I bet quite a few ppl will get the answer wrong.
So true. This is my most major gripe with the story at the outset.
7022319
7022377
Oops. corrections made; thank you!
7022370
Fear not; she will. Eventually.
7022377
Luckily for her, her ignorance of the issues (right now) is masking their idiocy. Since she's on a college campus, though, as soon as she starts to ask questions about politics, she's going to get answers, whether she wants them or not.
7022436
That's a fair complaint. I'm not sure what system would be better; perhaps eliminating the delegates and parties entirely, and just having a popular vote runoff? We could probably stand to get rid of the Electoral College, too.