Housepets!

Look Bino, it not that nobody wants to listen to you but ... it is exactly that

The arm of the force batters bad Bino,
crushing his vain attempt at vanity;
keeping him off the top podium here
so Fox can tell of the current calamity.
They think with their stomachs, these guys
and they’re questioning the full food table;
They’re going to hit the table right now
Let Bino and Duchess stop them – if they’re able.
Now Bino’s narked and picking a big fight
as it’s clear the twerp’s lost all control;
educated by the cuddliest lunk
and ignored by the boys at the food bowl.

Having food is a very important question.

TwoManyTwos wrote:I feel that it is safe to say that the only reason the current GODC members attend meetings is because of free food. Well, that, and the hunky physical threat of Boris.

And they get to imagine Duchess is their girlfriend. And nicer.

I just want to know, who besides Bino himself would ever vote for him in the first place? Even Sasha would probably be a better leader!

Mistacheeeez wrote:I just want to know, who besides Bino himself would ever vote for him in the first place? Even Sasha would probably be a better leader!

Duchess. Boris also - she'd tell him to - and everyone else who didn't want to be hit by Boris.

I think the only one, who cares about the position of the leader, is Bino and the others just let him.

Oh Mungo, you don't have to explain the meaning to Bino. He would ignore it anyway

How many dogs are there in Babylon Gardens anyway? I feel like there's way more at this meeting than Rick actually has characters just by that first panel

Backlash wrote:How many dogs are there in Babylon Gardens anyway? I feel like there's way more at this meeting than Rick actually has characters just by that first panel

Babylon Gardens is a TOWN. There's probably hundreds we've not met.

By "depreciated" I assume he means that zoologists figured out that a single alpha ruling by force was not the natural state.

Foooooooood.... owo
(Also, anyone notice the little splotch near the word "yes" in panel 2?) I mean what? >_>

Bino, Bino, Bino...it's pronounced 'Al -po' not 'Al-pha'. You are the Alpo Dog.

Welsh Halfwit wrote:

Backlash wrote:How many dogs are there in Babylon Gardens anyway? I feel like there's way more at this meeting than Rick actually has characters just by that first panel

Babylon Gardens is a TOWN. There's probably hundreds we've not met.

I thought Babylon Gardens was the suburbs of a city

And then Grape comes screaming for food :3

Well, Bino sure has his priorities straight ~ Sasha is missing, but he needs his powaaaaaaaa!

TlaiLaxu wrote:

Welsh Halfwit wrote:

Backlash wrote:How many dogs are there in Babylon Gardens anyway? I feel like there's way more at this meeting than Rick actually has characters just by that first panel

Babylon Gardens is a TOWN. There's probably hundreds we've not met.

I thought Babylon Gardens was the suburbs of a city

Well Babylon Gardens was built up as a major suburbia by an animal loving billionaire, I think every house is owned by pet owners.

Don't let your dreams be dreams Bino, one day you will be the alpha dog.

GameCobra wrote:Well, Bino sure has his priorities straight ~ Sasha is missing, but he needs his powaaaaaaaa!

Of course. Bino is only out for Bino.

The only thing I'm missing are a few munching sounds in the 3th Panel, then it would be perfect.

I feel kinda bad for Bino. I think he is only such an ... because he always stood in the shadow of his big brother Fido. And even now, after Fido outed himself as a Catlover, he stands in the shadow of Fox who isn't even in the Club anymore.

Unrelated to everything that's been posted about this strip today, but anyone else think that Bino is a lot more cuddly in Rick''s "new" style? I just wanna snuggle up to him and get him to chill out with belly rubs and treats, reassure him he's a good dog.

Anyone else?

Anyone?

*crickets*

rourkie wrote:Unrelated to everything that's been posted about this strip today, but anyone else think that Bino is a lot more cuddly in Rick''s "new" style? I just wanna snuggle up to him and get him to chill out with belly rubs and treats, reassure him he's a good dog.

Anyone else?

Anyone?

*crickets*

Well, I'm Bino in Housepets! Fanimated!...

...

...I wouldn't be opposed...

Oh, finally Fox got to talk with everybody about Sasha missing. Boy, that fat Bino is so hard to beat. Well, if that's a question... I guess come here has been useless. You're the alpha dog? But, didn't you become a "wolf", Bino? You're none of both, really... Finally Mungo showed himself out, and with few words he demolished what the silly Bino said. Great move once again, big dog. Everybody takes the food!

I made an account to post this. Can someone let Rick know that he made a spelling mistake on this page? Depreciated means "decreased in value." The word he's looking for is deprecated, which means "discontinued." It's an understandable mistake.

AyeBB wrote:I made an account to post this. Can someone let Rick know that he made a spelling mistake on this page? Depreciated means "decreased in value." The word he's looking for is deprecated, which means "discontinued." It's an understandable mistake.

Actually I think either can be used. After my intensive research on the subject (googling the definitions) I found that depricate and depreciate can basically be used interchangeably, while one means to lower the value of, the other means to express disproval of. These definitions are basically the same thing...

Mistacheeeez wrote:

AyeBB wrote:I made an account to post this. Can someone let Rick know that he made a spelling mistake on this page? Depreciated means "decreased in value." The word he's looking for is deprecated, which means "discontinued." It's an understandable mistake.

Actually I think either can be used. After my intensive research on the subject (googling the definitions) I found that depricate and depreciate can basically be used interchangeably, while one means to lower the value of, the other means to express disproval of. These definitions are basically the same thing...

Unfortunately that's not the case. Depreciated is a financial term; for example, when you buy a boat and it loses value it has depreciated. Deprecated, on the other hand, is very frequently used in the software development field (my field) to refer to features that are no longer supported and are being phased out (Rick's meaning). The people using the word interchangeably aren't correct, and probably got confused by their similar spellings. The meanings are technical and very well-defined in their respective fields.

rourkie wrote:Unrelated to everything that's been posted about this strip today, but anyone else think that Bino is a lot more cuddly in Rick''s "new" style? I just wanna snuggle up to him and get him to chill out with belly rubs and treats, reassure him he's a good dog.

Anyone else?

Anyone?

*crickets*

That's why Bino doesn't want to the other dogs to eat the food.

Because that's HIS food

So, what is "alpha" supposed to really mean, then? Or is Mongo just pointing out Bino's archaic hierarchical ways?
Still I'm curious.

Sansash wrote:So, what is "alpha" supposed to really mean, then? Or is Mongo just pointing out Bino's archaic hierarchical ways?
Still I'm curious.

They're animals and even though we don't know about this universe it could be assumed that they do have similar hierarchies and social structures. So not archaic unless there's a new social change there.

The idea of a wolf pack run by an alpha wolf who rules on the basis of power and may be overthrown by a new, more powerful wolf is an old idea that arose from watching wolf behavior in captivity. Observing wolves in the wild shows that this is usually not how things work. Instead "packs" are usually smaller family units "run" by the parents for the same reason that parents "run" any family. Rick has talked about this before (a few years back, I believe), so that is probably what he's referring to.

Much as i hate to side with Bino on anything....Alpha still means exactly that. Just because a few people in the scientific or linguistic community try to change a word doesn't really affect its use or meaning in practice. A good example of this is the Hinrich maneuver. Officially they "changed the name" but since no one uses the new term or even acknowledges the change the attempt basically died off. The same with Leprosy, the medical community officially changed its name but even doctors don't generally use the new term because no one would have any idea what they were talking about and even if they explained it no one would bother to change what they said.


Yeah >.>

Sorry to be blunt on that but name change PC stuff is one of my biggest pet peeves. It doesn't benefit the field and only causes confusion and hinders progress on things that actually matter. That being said i am not complaining about Ricks choice of comic relief. Just commenting on the subject it pertains to.

Adoring Fan wrote:Alpha still means exactly that. Just because a few people in the scientific or linguistic community try to change a word doesn't really affect its use or meaning in practice.

It's not 'just' that they're trying to change a word, though; The thing it referred to does not exist.
There is no 'Alpha Wolf' the way it was used, at least not outside captivity.
Part of the point of 'Alpha' being used like that was that it had some basis in reality; We could point to the wolves and go 'hey, if they can work like that, there's at least a chance this other mammal - even humans - can too'
Now that they don't work like that, we might as well compare situations to dragons, elves, or students of Hogwarts; It no longer has a real world example to back it up.

Of course, 'Alpha man' versus 'Beta man' was always nonsense; A Beta in the old system was still pretty decently ranked, you'd want an 'Omega man' to signify the 'unmanly wimps' the self-proclaimed Alphas actually meant by 'Beta'
But allowing nuance like that would ruin the whole 'you're either a macho man who chugs beer and burps loudly, or you're some kind of girly-man' angle the alpha/beta split was meant to support there.

Leprosy is a bad example; The underlying disease still exists.
A better example would be 'Split Personality', which quite a lot of people (perhaps not all, but that's likely more because the layperson still stumbles across older media) have accepted is actually 'Disassociation Identity Disorder'; As with the 'Alpha Wolf', it turns out that the fundamental understanding was based on a few flawed studies.
So when new information came out, the name was changed to better reflect the actual issue; It's not some whole personality, it's more episodes of disassociation and a defense mechanism.

^This

It's not that they're trying to rename some position for any reasons political or otherwise, it's just that the position which was named alpha is not a naturally occurring position. If you're talking about actual alpha wolves in the wild, you're not referring to an alpha wolf in the sense of a wolf who rules by force over the pack because such a position does not tend to actually arise. Instead the alpha wolf is usually the father of the pack. So if you say "alpha" which do you mean, the original position of power or the actually occurring position of fatherhood? Using this term creates a natural ambiguity, and it must be addressed. The way biologists have chosen to address it is to deprecate the meaning of "ruler by force over the pack" (which doesn't actually tend to happen) in favor of "patriarch of the pack" (which does). It's adaptation to the reality of the situation rather than a PC name change.
We are, of course, still allowed to use the word for its original meaning. However, Bino is stating that because he is in the position of alpha, they should bow to his will. He is using the original definition of the word to support his argument, but the original definition does not actually happen. Alpha wolves don't actually rule by force. Thus even though he is using the original definition, it doesn't actually support his argument, and Mungo is simply pointing this out.

Obbl wrote:^This

It's not that they're trying to rename some position for any reasons political or otherwise, it's just that the position which was named alpha is not a naturally occurring position. If you're talking about actual alpha wolves in the wild, you're not referring to an alpha wolf in the sense of a wolf who rules by force over the pack because such a position does not tend to actually arise. Instead the alpha wolf is usually the father of the pack. So if you say "alpha" which do you mean, the original position of power or the actually occurring position of fatherhood? Using this term creates a natural ambiguity, and it must be addressed. The way biologists have chosen to address it is to deprecate the meaning of "ruler by force over the pack" (which doesn't actually tend to happen) in favor of "patriarch of the pack" (which does). It's adaptation to the reality of the situation rather than a PC name change.
We are, of course, still allowed to use the word for its original meaning. However, Bino is stating that because he is in the position of alpha, they should bow to his will. He is using the original definition of the word to support his argument, but the original definition does not actually happen. Alpha wolves don't actually rule by force. Thus even though he is using the original definition, it doesn't actually support his argument, and Mungo is simply pointing this out.

Noted.