What's your favorite xkcd comic?

ideasrule · Dec 15, 2009

What's your favorite xkcd?

Inspired by Galteeth's thread, "What's the email for the president of physics?"

You can find xkcd here[/color]

BobG · Dec 15, 2009

Angular momentum:

Comic strip: a figure on a bed asks 'WHAT ARE YOU DOING?' and a stick figure spinning counterclockwise replies 'EACH TURN ROBS THE PLANET OF ANGULAR MOMENTUM, SLOWING ITS SPIN THE TINIEST BIT, LENGTHENING THE NIGHT, PUSHING BACK THE DAWN, GIVING ME A LITTLE MORE TIME HERE WITH YOU'.

Varying this makes a great pick up line, as well. I have a 100% success rate with it. (1 for 1 is 100%)

sylas · Dec 15, 2009

ideasrule said:

What's your favorite xkcd?

The Difference

Four-panel cartoon: a stick figure pulls a lever on a box, then a bolt zaps the figure, then the figure is dazed with hair standing up, then two branches labelled NORMAL PERSON and SCIENTIST. Normal person thinks I guess I shouldn't do that; scientist thinks I wonder if that happens every time.

I have this on my door. PS. Galeeth and I had same idea. His thread: [thread=363561]What's the email for the president of physics?[/thread]. My thread: [thread=363183]xkcd provides some visual PF guidelines[/thread].

PPS. We should send Randall Munroe a bonus membership in PF. Searching for xkcd turns up 263 PF posts.

mollymae · Dec 15, 2009

Cat proximity:

Line graph of Intelligence falling and Inanity of Statements rising against Human Proximity to Cat from FAR to NEAR, with two stick figures and a cat, one figure saying You're a kitty!

Hurkyl · Dec 15, 2009

I've added a link to the main xkcd page into the opening post, for maximal compliance with the license.

Danger · Dec 16, 2009

What the hell is xkcd?

NeoDevin · Dec 16, 2009

Danger said:

What the hell is xkcd?

Do you live under a rock?

Borek · Dec 16, 2009

BobG said:

Angular momentum:

Question is - how to stop not making Earth spinning faster again.

Danger · Dec 16, 2009

NeoDevin said:

Do you live under a rock?

Apparently.
So what the **** is it?

Borek · Dec 16, 2009

Follow link from the first post.

Or check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xkcd

Danger · Dec 16, 2009

Thanks, Borek. I notice that Hurkyl added a link in the OP that wasn't there when I first read it. Now I know what it is, but the humour eludes me. Must be some kind of tech stuff that I haven't been exposed to before.

Borek · Dec 16, 2009

Depends. I am far from getting it every time. But some I like:

http://xkcd.com/675/

http://xkcd.com/657/

http://xkcd.com/655/

http://xkcd.com/646/ - I must admit I have bought new laptop recently, now I can post on PF from everywhere...

And so on.

Danger · Dec 16, 2009

Borek said:

now I can post on PF from everywhere...

Oh, great... another green-haired Pole looking to take over the world...

Sorry! · Dec 16, 2009

Some of those are pretty funny actually. I must admit however I was in the same 'wtf boat' as Danger before when there was no link... guess I live under a rock too huh? :cry:

Danger · Dec 16, 2009

Now, now... no need to cry.

Chi Meson · Dec 16, 2009

When viewed from the original site, each comic has a second hidden joke or punchline that is exposed with a mouse-over.

I want to get the T-shirt of this one and wear it at school.

Hand-drawn xkcd-style graph of energy density against frequency in GHz, a bell-shaped curve peaking near 160.4, with the formula I(f) = (2hf^3/c^2)(1/(e^(hf/kT) - 1)) and the handwritten caption "SCIENCE. IT WORKS, BITCHES."

...but I could get in a bit of trouble.

hamster143 · Dec 16, 2009

http://xkcd.com/386/

Borek · Dec 16, 2009

I can't find very geeky one that Junior showed me some time ago. This one fits PF:

http://xkcd.com/356/

Sorry! · Dec 16, 2009

http://xkcd.com/85/

it's funny to me because I actually do do this. Anyone else do this or am I an oddball

Borek · Dec 16, 2009

I am worse, I am trying to find path that is both fast and requires me to hurt minimum number of plants :bugeye:

Jonathan Scott · Dec 16, 2009

hamster143 said:

http://xkcd.com/386/

I have a copy of that one stuck on the wall right above my computer, as a reminder both to myself and to my wife!

BobG · Dec 16, 2009

Borek said:

I can't find very geeky one that Junior showed me some time ago. This one fits PF:

http://xkcd.com/356/

How could I have forgotten that one. Nerd sniping actually works!

https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=206096

Saladsamurai · Dec 16, 2009

Hahahah...

Five-panel comic titled Hats: stick figures in hats, one walks past another, then a figure in a hat stands alone at the right with wavy lines beside the other.

hamster143 · Dec 16, 2009

I don't get it.

Saladsamurai · Dec 16, 2009

hamster143 said:

I don't get it.

A man with one hat stumbles across a man with 2 hats. They stare at each other...They stare some more. The man with 1 hat slowly backs away.Brilliant!

PS: Do you own a hamster? And moreover, do you love it? (trying to decipher your screen name

)

kote · Dec 16, 2009

http://xkcd.com/664/ definitely demonstrates how I've felt at work

. What's with the philosophy hate though? Philosophers would slap that guy too

.

BobG · Dec 16, 2009

kote said:

http://xkcd.com/664/ definitely demonstrates how I've felt at work .

The business may just heap more work on you, but they also give bigger raises to the folks that are harder to replace.

Does academia give raises?

kote · Dec 16, 2009

BobG said:

The business may just heap more work on you, but they also give bigger raises to the folks that are harder to replace.

Does academia give raises?

I'm not complaining, just remembering trying to explain how some code works to my boss and being told no one cares, which does make sense

. Thankfully it ended up actually being useful and not just a neat CS trick.

Math Jeans · Dec 16, 2009

I have a lot of favorites, but I always thought these three were hilarious (there are better ones, but none that I can think of off the top of my head):

Cartoon comic panel with a caption above reading 'Trivia: it's possible to create events which Wikipedia cannot cover neutrally.' A stick figure in a top hat on a ledge announces a $1,000,000 donation based on the word count of the Wikipedia article, going to pro-choice activists if even and pro-life if odd.

Alt text -- 'Hey, everyone, you can totally trust that I didn't do a word count on MY edit!'
http://xkcd.com/545/

Seven-panel xkcd comic: a stick figure locked out of their house asks for help, tries calling a cell phone, IRC, and a window, then SSHes into a Mac Mini to make its speech synthesizer yell to the roommate inside.

Alt text -- Sadly, this is a true story. At least I learned about the OS X 'say' command.
http://xkcd.com/530/

Hand-drawn comic panel: a stick figure holding a phone says "Hi, Dr. Elizabeth? Yeah, uh... I accidentally took the Fourier transform of my cat..." Beside it, a spiky frequency spectrum with a label reading "Meow!"

Alt text -- That cat has some serious periodic components
http://xkcd.com/26/

Borek · Dec 16, 2009

http://xkcd.com/527/

http://xkcd.com/528/

What's your favorite xkcd comic?

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