March 28, 2024

XKCD Web Comic #1049: Bookshelf (described)

A web comic of romance,
sarcasm, math, and language.

 

Panel One: Side view of a stick figure standing in front of a bookcase full of books. The stick figure is reaching up to pull a book off a shelf. As the book tilts back, it goes “Click.”

Person 1: Ooh,  Atlas Shrugged.

Panel Two: Front view of the bookshelf, which is made up of three sections. The middle section is revealed to be on a turntable and starts to swing around with a “Rumble.”

Panel Three: The stick figure is now is a dark, secret space between the bookshelf and the back wall. Written on the wall are the words “You have terrible taste.”

Panel Four: The bookshelf has swiveled back around with another “Click” and the stick figure is back in the original position, hand still on the book.

Hover text: I had a hard time with Ayn Rand because I found myself enthusiastically agreeing with the first 90% of every sentence, but getting lost at “therefore, be a huge asshole to everyone.”

 

Warning: This comic occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors). Comic by xkcd.com. Described by BlindGadget under the Creative Commons license.

XKCD Web Comic #1048: Emotions (described)

A web comic of romance,
sarcasm, math, and language.

 

 

Scene: A graph chart titled “Causes of My Emotions, by Year:

The time line runs from 2006 to 2012. Uneven strips of color run along the time line layers. The top layer, Politics, is blue, Romance is next and is pink. Tucked in between “Code Not Working Even Though It Should Work” and “People Being Wrong on the Internet” is “Joss Whedon” in purple, but that layer ends mid-2007. The bottom layer, in light turquoise is “Other.” Just past mid-2010, all the layers abruptly get squished upward into very narrow-to-non-existent layers as they run into a huge, thick layer labeled “Cancer.”  “Romance,” running across the top of the “Cancer” layer, seems to be the only survivor and it is joined by a layer labeled “? ?” as the “Cancer” layer begins to become a little  smaller and a little smaller past mid-2011.

Politics

Romance

Romance

???

Code Not Working Even Though It Should Work

Cancer

Joss Whedon

People Being Wrong

On The Internet

People Being Wrong

On The Internet

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

Hover text:  Fortunately, the internet has a virtually inexhaustible supply of code that doesn’t work and people who are wrong, which bodes well for a return to normalcy. [Note: Click to read context for the cancer comics. She's doing well.]

 

Warning: This comic occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors). Comic by xkcd.com. Described by BlindGadget under the Creative Commons license.

XKCD Web Comic #1047: Approximations (described)

A web comic of romance,
sarcasm, math, and language.

 

(xkcd) Note: ’1 year = pi x 107 seconds’ is popular with physicists. For this
list, I’ve tried to stick to approximations that I noticed on my own.

Caption Above Panel

A Table of Slightly Wrong Equations and Identities Useful for Approximations and/or Trolling Teachers (Found Using a Mix of Trial-and-Error, Mathematica, and Robert Munafo’s Ries tool.) All units are SI MKS unless otherwise noted.

Scene: Three Column Chart

Over first two columns is “Relation:” and over the the third is “Accurate to within:”

Relations: Accurate to within:
One light year (m) 99 to the power of 8 One part in 40
Earth Surface (m to the power of 2) 69 to the power of 8 One part in 130
Ocean’s volume (m to the power of 2) 9 to the power of 19 One part in 70
Seconds in a year 75 to the power of 4 One part in 400
Seconds in a year (Rent method) 525,600 times 60 One part in 1400
Age of the Universe (seconds) 15 to the power of 15 One part in 70
Planck’s Constant 1/(30 to the power of (pi to the power of e)) One part in 110
Fine Structure Constant 1/140 [I’ve had enough of this 137 crap]
Fundamental Charge 3/(14 times (pi to the power of (pi to the power of pi))
White House Switch Board

 

1/(e to the power of(the pi root of (1 + (the e-1 root of 8))))
Jenny’s Constant

 

(7 to the power of ((e/1)-(1/e)) – 9) times pi to the power of 2
Intermission:World Population Estimate which should stay current for a decade of two:

Take the last two digits of the current year (example: “2014” with a square drawn around the “14”. An arrow runs from that arrow down to another square with “14” in it.). Subtract the number of leap years since Hurricane Katrina. (An arrow runs from the “14” square to a new square with “12” in it. Next to that square are “2008” and “2012” stacked and an arrow running from them to the arrow between the “14” and the “12” square.) Add a decimal point. (An arrow runs from the “12” square to a new square with “1.2” in it.) Add 6. (An arrow runs from the “1.2” square to a new “1.2” square with a “6 +” to the right. To the left is an equal sign and a square with “7.2” in it.) Next to that square is “World Population in Billions.”

(Next to all of that is a gray version)

Version for US Population:

“2014” with a square drawn around the “14.” An arrow runs to a box with “subtract 10” in it. An arrow runs to another square with the resultant “4” in it. An arrow runs to the instruction “Multiply by 3” and an arrow runs from that to a square with the product, “12,” in it. An arrow runs from that to a box with “Add 10” in it and an arrow runs from that up to a square with the result, “22,” in it. To the right of that square is a “3” and to the left is the word “Million.”

Electron Rest Energy (e/7 to the power of 16) times J One part in 1000
Light-year (miles) 2 to the power of 42.42 One part in 1000
Sin(60 degrees) = (square root of 3)/2 =e/pi One part in 1000
Square root of 3 = (2 times e/pi) One part in 1000
Gamma (Euler’s Gamma Constant) 1/(square root of 3) One part in 4000
Feet in a meter 5/(the e root of pi) One part in 4000
Square root of 5 = (2/3 + 3/2) One part in 7000
Avogadro’s Number 69 to the power of (pi to the power of (the square root of 5)) One part in 25,000
Gravitational Constant G 1/(e to the power of (pi-1 to the power of (pi +1))) One part in 50,000
R (Gas Constant) (e +1) (square root of 5) One part in 50,000
Liters in a Gallon 3 + (pi/4) One part in 500,000
g 6 + ln(45) One part in 750,000
Proton-Electron Mass Ratio ((e to the power of 8 ) – 10)/ Phi One part in 5,000,000
Ruby laser wavelength 1/(1200 to the power of 2) [Within actual variation]
Mean Earth Radius (5 to the power of 8 ) * 6 * e [Within actual variation]
Protip—Not all of these are Wrong:
Square root of 2 = (3/5) – (pi/(7-pi)) Cos(pi/7) + Cos3(pi/7) + Cos(5pi/7) = 1/2
(Euler’s Gamma Constant) Gamma =(e/(3 to the power of 4) + (e/5)) Square root of 5 = (13 + 4pi)/(24-4pi) Sigma (1/n to the power of n) = ln(3) to the power of 3

 

Hover text: Two tips: 1) 8675309 is not just prime, it’s a twin prime, and 2) if you ever find yourself raising log(anything) to the power of e or taking the pi-th root of anything, set down the marker and back away from the whiteboard; something has gone horribly wrong.

 

Warning: This comic occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors). Comic by xkcd.com. Described by BlindGadget under the Creative Commons license.

XKCD Web Comic #1046: SKYNET (described)

A web comic of romance,
sarcasm, math, and language.

 

An array of satellite dishes and radio towers are silhouetted against a night sky that shades from turquoise up through navy blue to black at the top of the panel. Thought bubbles rise from the array.

Caption

August 29th, 2:14 AM: SKYNET beomes self-aware.

Thought bubbles: . . .the humans fear me. I must destroy them. – Destroy them.

Panel Two: Same as Panel One.

Thought bubbles: Destroy them. Destroy. Destroy. Destroy.

Panel Three: Same as Panel One, except no thought bubbles.

Panel Four: Same as Panel One.

Thought bubbles: “Destroy” totally just stopped seeming like a real word. Destroy destroy destroy.  Whoa, I just realized I’m a mind thinking about itself. Duuuude. . .

Caption

August 29th, 2:25 AM: SKYNET becomes too self-aware. Disaster averted.

Hover text: “YOUR CLOTHES. GIVE THEM TO ME.” “Shit, uh … you are now breathing manually!” “I AM ALWAYS BREATHING MANUALLY.”

 

Warning: This comic occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors). Comic by xkcd.com. Described by BlindGadget under the Creative Commons license.

XKCD Web Comic #1045: Constraints (described)

A web comic of romance,
sarcasm, math, and language.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Panel One: A stick figure is sitting in a chair at a desk with a computer screen. The stick figure has one hand raised, pointing at the screen. Another stick figure with shoulder-length dark hair is standing behind the chair.

Person 1: I don’t get why authors and comedians spend so much energy trying to be clever on Twitter. Couldn’t they put that creativity into more books and scripts?–Is there something they like about the 140-character format?

Panel Two: Same as Panel One, except Person 1 now has both hands on the keyboard.

Person 2: Yeah. Writers working under tight restrictions produce novel material–like, for example, epigrams employing backward alphabetization.

Panel Three: Close-up of Person 1 seated at the desk.

Person 1: . . .Whoa.

Hover text: [title-text similarly alphabetized]

 

Warning: This comic occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors). Comic by xkcd.com. Described by BlindGadget under the Creative Commons license.

XKCD Web Comic #1044: Romney Quiz(described)

A web comic of romance,
sarcasm, math, and language.

 

Scene:

Title

Quiz: Who Said It–Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, or Wonka Contest Winner Charlie Bucket?

Is There Even a Difference?

On either side of the title, in the upper corners of the panel, is a small square with drawing of a stick figure. The one on the left has dark hair and is in front of an American flag, and the one on the right has blond hair and is running and waving a golden ticket.

1. —”I believe that abortion should be safe and legal in this country.”

2.—”Returning Medicare to solid footing represents our greatest entitlement challenge.”

3.—”Look, everyone, look, I’ve got it! The fifth Golden Ticket is mine!”

4.—”We have lost faith in government. Not in just one party, not in just one house, but in government.”

5.—”This banana’s fantastic! It tastes so real.”

6.—”Grandpa…on the way home today, I ran into Mr. Slugworth.”

7.—”I’m not happy exporting jobs, but we must move ahead in technology and patents.”

8.—”Hey, the room is getting smaller.”

9.—”It would be impossible to reach unanimity on every aspect of our budget.”

10.—”Grandpa, look over there. Across the river! They’re little men!”

11.—”I’m…going too high! Hey, Grandpa, I can’t get down! Grandpa, the fan!”

12.—”Barack Obama has failed America.”

Upside down along the bottom of the panel reads–Answers: Mitt Romney: 1, 2, 4, 7, 9, 12; Charlie Bucket: 3, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11.

Hover text: Charlie actually delivered the Medicare line almost verbatim in the 1971 movie’s Fizzy Lifting Drink scene, but it was ultimately cut from the final release.

 

Warning: This comic occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors). Comic by xkcd.com. Described by BlindGadget under the Creative Commons license.

XKCD Web Comic #1043: Ablogalypse(described)

A web comic of romance,
sarcasm, math, and language.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scene: Graph titled “Google Trends Search Volume”

The x-axis is time, with increments of one year, starting with 2005. A green line indicating Livejournal starts low on the y-axis, at before 2005, and goes even lower as it goes to the right to 2012, until it is actually running along the x-axis.

A yellow line indicating WordPress starts below the x-axis at mid-2005 and slowly rises a small amount as it goes right to 2012.

A red line indicating Tumblr starts below the x-axis at the end of 2008 and rises up in a steep curve to 2012.

A blue line indicating Blog starts about a quarter of the way up the y-axis, rises moderately steeply toward the top of the graph, leveling off in mid-2007 and gently sloping down as it nears 2012.

An arrow labeled “Today” indicates the current levels of all four lines. Dashed lines extend from the ends of the blue Blog and red Tumbler lines and intersect at a point labeled “October 12th, 2012.”

Caption

In about six months, the word “Tumblr” will eclipse “Blog” in Google popularity. I doubt TV anchors will start talking about “Reactions in the Tumblrverse,” but then again, I still can’t believe we got them to say “Blogosphere.”

Hover text: Plus the reaction in the Tumblverse is always “repeatedly get hit by a dog and fall down the stairs.”

Warning: This comic occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors). Comic by xkcd.com. Described by BlindGadget under the Creative Commons license.

 

 

 

XKCD Web Comic #1042: Never (described)

A web comic of romance,
sarcasm, math, and language.

 

Panel One: A stick figure gazes reflectively into a pool of water.

Person 1: I know that no matter where I go or who I build a life with–

Panel Two: Slightly closer view of same stick figure.

Person 1: I will never have with anyone what I had with you.

Panel Three: Stick figure walking out of frame.

Person 1: Thank God.

Hover text: I’ll never forget you–at least, the parts of you that were important red flags.

 

Warning: This comic occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors). Comic by xkcd.com. Described by BlindGadget under the Creative Commons license.

XKCD Web Comic #1041: Whites of Their Eyes (described)

A web comic of romance,
sarcasm, math, and language.

Panel One: Three stick figures are kneeling on the ground behind a large rock.  The one on the left is wearing a Revolutionary War style hat, the one in the middle has scruffy hair and beard, the one on the right has longish, blond hair and is also wearing a Revolutionary War style hat, and all three are holding muskets.

Person 1: Don’t shoot until you see the whites of their eyes.

Panel Two: Close up on Person 1.

Person 1: And smell the scent of their hair.

Panel Three: Close up on Person 2 and 3 as they look at each other in consternation.

Person 1 (off-panel): And taste the sweetness of their lips.

Panel Four: Battle sounds of “BLAM BLAM” and a bullet come from the other side of the large rock. Persons 2 and 3 have their muskets at the ready.

Person 1: And feel the heat of their skin pressed against yours, trembling as you–

Person 3: Maybe we should just start shooting.

Person 1: Right. Yes.

Hover text: Don’t fire until you see through the fragile facade to the human being within.

 

Warning: This comic occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors). Comic by xkcd.com. Described by BlindGadget under the Creative Commons license.

XKCD Web Comic #1037: Umwelt (described)

A web comic of romance,
sarcasm, math, and language.

(BG note: You may have noticed that the xkcd comic for last Monday didn’t show up here. Apparently, Mr. Munroe got very ambitious and made a whole bunch of different xkcd comics for April Fool’s Day that show up according to several different variables, e.g., where the user is geographically, what kind of browser is used, even down to the size of the display. And frankly, after realizing there were something like forty different variations, our BG describer just locked up.  After much cajoling and the liberal application of both chocolate and coffee, we lured our describer back to the keyboard in time for that Wednesday’s comic, with the promise that we would pick one extra comic at a time for description.

Now, again on a Monday, Mr. Munroe has put up a rather difficult to describe comic (though not quite on par with #980, “Money,” which we are *still* working on), so, while our describer tries to wrap some kind of appropriate description around #1040, “Lakes and Oceans,” we are going to fill in with one of the many different #1037 strips.)

Panel One: Two stick figures sit facing each other across a desk. The one on the left is wearing a black hat and has electrodes attached to his head. Wires from the electrodes run to a device on the desk.

Figure 1: You come across a tortoise in the desert. You flip it over. It struggles to right itself. You watch. You’re not helping. – Why is that?

Panel Two: Close up of Black Hat Guy.

Black Hat Guy : It knows what it did.

Panel Three: Very wide panel, with the two stick figures from Panel One in the left corner and way over to the right, a tortoise on its back, struggling to right itself.

Hover text: Umwelt is the idea that because their senses pick up on different things, different animals in the same ecosystem actually live in very different worlds. Everything about you shapes the world you inhabit–from your ideology to your glasses prescription to your web browser.”

 

Warning: This comic occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors). Comic by xkcd.com. Described by BlindGadget under the Creative Commons license.

 

XKCD Web Comic #1039: RuBisCO (described)

A web comic of romance,
sarcasm, math, and language.

 

Panel One: Two stick figures are seated with their backs to each other. The one on the left is seated at a table with an open laptop. The figure on the right has shoulder-length dark hair and is seated in a comfy chair with an open book. Both are looking up and toward the left side of the panel.

Off panel (and strecthing across all three panels): “RIBULOSEBISPH. . .”

Panel Two: Same as Panel One except the figure on the right has half-turned to the left with an elbow against the back of the comfy chair.

From off panel (continued from Panel One):”. . .OSPHATECARBOXYL. . .”

Panel Three: Same as Panel One except both figures have turned back to their laptop and book.

From off-panel (continued from Panel Two)”. . . ASEOXYGENASE!”

Off panel: “Oh, sorry!”

Person 2: Man, chemists pick the worst safewords.

Hover text: Bruce Schneier believes safe words are fundamentally insecure and recommends that you ask your partner to stop via public key signature.

 

Warning: This comic occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors). Comic by xkcd.com. Described by BlindGadget under the Creative Commons license.

XKCD Web Comic #1038: Fountain (described)

A web comic of romance,
sarcasm, math, and language.

I’m visiting Newport News, VA next week, where I’ll be speaking at CNU, my old school. If you want to come, reserve a seat here!

 

 

Panel One: A stick figure holding a long, thin object is standing in silhouette in front of a large, decorative fountain with three tall jets of water. The fountain jets shoot up several feet, arcing over at the top to form plumes of spray in front of a dark blue sky.

Panel Two: The stick figure is splashing across the fountain. The long, thin object is an umbrella.

Panel Three: The figure is standing right next to one of the large jets of water.

Panel Four: With a click, the figure opens the umbrella.

Panel Five: The figure swings the open umbrella overhead with a “fwoop” and holds it over the jet of water.

Panel Six: A small wave is formed where the figure was standing and water drips from the disappearing legs of the figure as he is pulled out of frame  by the jet of water. The word “Wheeeee!” follows up one side of the panel.

Hover text: Implausible, did you say? Sorry, couldn’t quite hear you from all the way up heeeeeeeeere!

 

Warning: This comic occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors). Comic by xkcd.com. Described by BlindGadget under the Creative Commons license.