for example, take the fuel prices as of today, 20 July 2026. with the price from the state of New York (source) converted to litres, and the prices from Europe (source) and South Africa (source) converted to US Dollars at today's exchange rates of $1=€0.88 and $1=R16.51 (per Google)

United States (N.Y.): US$ 4.15 /gallon = US$ 1.09 /ℓ

Germany (average): EUR 2.10 /ℓ = US$ 2.40 /ℓ

Spain (average): EUR 1.54 /ℓ = US$ 1.76 /ℓ

South Africa (coastal): ZAR 25.23 /ℓ = US$ 1.53 /ℓ

and that's where people usually stop. but it doesn't account for the relative cost of living in each country. like yeah, $2.40/ℓ in Germany is objectively higher than $1.53/ℓ in S. Africa, but the average salary (even in low-paying jobs) is much higher in Germany than in S. Africa, so this doesn't really reflect how much of a burden that is, relatively, to the average person

so we need to adjust the rates for PPP (purchasing power parity) of each currency. this takes into account the average cost of groceries, good and services, average salaries and wages and other market factors, etc. I'm using the latest IMF Rates from April 2026 (source)

United States: 1:1 PPP rate = Intl$ 1.09 /ℓ

Germany: 1:0.72 PPP rate = Intl$ 2.92 /ℓ

Spain: 1:0.60 PPP rate = Intl$ 2.56 /ℓ

South Africa: 1:7.49 PPP rate = Intl$ 3.37 /ℓ

notice how Germany and Spain have different PPP rates, despite both using the Euro, because it's based on local cost of living. and how South Africa, like many countries in the global south, has a drastically undervalued currency. which makes things cheap for tourists here, but is Not Great for locals.

But unlike the adult in this strip, Calvin’s dad actually APOLOGIZED for yelling at him when he saw how guilty his kid was:

simultaneously already being familiar with arknights is both a huge boon and a huge demerit because on one hand you can clearly see where theyre echoing concepts from arknights

(ex. endmin, foundation and the Lady as oracle, priestess and the twins: in matters of acceptable sacrifice, forcing ones own ideals upon the other, how to look upon a fledgling civilisation; the clear but extremely messy line between ursus-as-embodied-by-kashchey's underlying concept of a kind of freedom of violence and nefarith's desire to seize her own victory outside of that conflict of ideals by means of violence foremost)

the most interesting we got is terrans having come from originium which was a precursor creation and alleikhreos being a precursor construct putting them at a similar level from a precursors standpoint (ex kaltsit) and alleikhreos therefore being an example of a model minority/part of the ingroup vs the outgroup of terrans refusing the precursors' so-called rightful dominion.

ig part of this is that we have got to start thinking of the precursors as just as human. how do all their fantastical inventions and starfaring measure up when terrans have found the ability to do much the same if given time? what right do they actually have to call themselves gods, simply for being the people who came before? why should we?

seaborn too are an allegory for imperialism, consuming, destroying, assimilating. how much of the eldritch is the manmade gone out of control?