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

Caption above Panel One: The Fermi Paradox: Planets are so common that life should be, too. So where is it?

Panel One:  Drawing of a stick figure running, with a small puff of smoke behind to indicate speed. The stick figure’s arms and legs have extra flaps of fabric.

Panel Two: Same stick figure, still running.

Caption: Well, now we know. It’s not that life inevitably destroys itself with war.

Caption above Panel Three: It’s just that it takes longer to develop space colonization

Panel Three: The stick figure leaps off a high cliff.

Caption below Panel Three: Than it does to invent an activity more fun than survival.

Panel Four: A Youtube-like video shows the stick figure from before hurtling downwards, screaming “Wheeeee!” with arms and legs widespread. The fabric flaps are revealed to be bat-like wings. Unseen observers are saying “Holy crap!” and “I don’t care how dangerous it is. I have to try it!”

Hover text: And no avian society ever develops space travel because it’s impossible to focus on calculus when you could be outside flying.

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.

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

Scene: Black and white pastoral scene. Across the bottom of the scene is a brick path. Two stick figures, one sitting, one standing, are at the edge of the path. They are looking at a small memorial at the end of a short path made by round stepping stones. The stones lead up to and make a ring around the monument, which is reminiscent of the John F. Kennedy Eternal Flame, except that instead of a flame, there is a full-color spinning rainbow beachball.

Hover text: There’s always the hope that if you sit and watch for long enough, the beachball will vanish and the thing it interrupted will return.

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.

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

Panel One: Drawing of a stick figure seated before a desk with a computer monitor. A stick figure with dark hair is standing behind the seated figure, resting a hand on the chair back.

Person One: “What hidden arrow?”

Person Two: “I thought everyone knew about it. Pull up the FedEx logo.”

Second Panel: A closer view of the same scene.

Person One: “Where is it?”

Person Two: “Right there. Look at the white space.”

Person One: “I don’t see it.”

Third Panel: A distorted view of the purple and orange FedEx logo. The white space between the capital F and the lower case d and above the e forms a tank, the white space from the interiors of the e and d form a ball player with a 24 on the back of his uniform reaching out to catch a ball. A smiling, mustached man’s face wearing a brimmed hat and facing left is formed by the white space between the capital E and the lower case X.

Person One: “All I see is Guy Fawkes watching Willie Mays catch a fly ball while an armored assault vehicle rolls by.”

Person Two: “…You either need more medication or less. Not sure which.”

Hover text: Once you see it, you can’t help seeing it every time. Until your body finishes metabolizing the mushrooms.

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.

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

Panel One: Drawing of three stick figures caroling. They are wearing knit caps with tassels and holding sheet music. The one on the left is smaller than the other two.

“Good King Wenceslas looked out on the—”

Panel Two: Drawing of a stick figure wearing a black hat, leaning out of an upper story window.

“King Wenceslas massacred my people.”

Panel Three: The three stick figures have stopped caroling. The smallest one looks up at the other two.

Hover text: For a thousand generations we vowed never to forget how his soldiers feasted on our brother Stephen.

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.

A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.

Scene: Drawing of a stick figure seated behind a news desk, in front of a weather screen.

“Fear turned to confusion today as Hurricane Rina developed to Piaget Stage 5, with sustained interests in objects and their properties.”

Hover text: Funding was quickly restored to the NHC and the APA was taken back off hurricane forecast duty.

Comic by xkcd.com. Described by BlindGadget.

A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.

Panel One: Drawing of two stick figures next to a tree. One stick figure sits on the ground in front of the tree and the other is standing and touching the tree.

“Whoa. What’s this?”

“What’s what?”

“This tree has a USB port.”

Panel Two: Drawing of both stick figures standing next to the tree. One stick figure is holding a laptop with a USB cable connected to the tree.

“Try connecting to it, I guess.”

“It’s offering up a drive with one file on it.”

Panel Three: Close-up of stick figure holding the laptop.

“What’s the file?”

“An e-book. “Shel_Silverstein_-_The_Giving_Tree.azw”

“Never heard of it. Let’s take a look!”

Panel Four: Close up of stick figure holding the laptop. The laptop displays an error message.

“DRM error.-You have not purchased rights to view this title.-Lending is not enabled.”

Panel Five: The two stick figures are silhouetted next to the tree. One holds the laptop with dangling USB cable under her arm.

“Huh. Oh well.”

“Let’s go see what Mike is up to.”

Panel Six: The tree stands silhouetted all alone.

Hover text: In the new edition of The Giving Tree, the tree uses social tools to share with its friends all the best places to buy things.

Comic by xkcd.com. Described by BlindGadget.

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

Panel One: Drawing of two stick figures, talking. The one on the left has long hair.

“Did you see the neutrino speed of light thing?”

“Yup! Good news; I need the cash.”

“Huh? Cash?”

Panel Two:

“Yeah, when there’s a news story about a study overturning all of physics, I used to urge caution, remind people that experts aren’t all stupid, and end up in pointless arguments about Galileo.

Flashback: Drawing of stickfigure typing on a laptop.

“No, this isn’t about whether relativity exists. If it didn’t, your GPS wouldn’t work.–What do you mean “science thought police”? Have you seen our budget? We couldn’t begin to afford our own thought police.”

Panel Three: Drawing of same two stick figures talking.

“That sounds miserable and unfulfilling.”

“Yup. So I gave it up, and now I just find excited believers and bet them $200 each that the new result won’t pan out.”

Panel Four: Drawing of same two stick figures talking.

“That’s mean.”

“It provides a good income and if I’m ever wrong, I’ll be too excited about the new physics to notice the loss.”

Hover text: I can’t speak to the paper’s scientific merits, but it’s really cool how on page 10, you can see how their reference GPS beacon is sensitive enough to pick up continental drift under the detector (interrupted halfway through by an earthquake).

Comic by xkcd.com. Described by BlindGadget.

A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.

Panel One: Drawing of six stick figures riding up an escalator.

Panel Two: Close up of two of the stick figures. One is wearing a hat and carrying a chin-up bar over his shoulder.

“This is a long escalator.”

“70 meters. Longest in the country.”

Panel Three: Close up of the same two stick figures riding up the escalator.

Panel Four: Close up of the same two stick figures.

“Why are you carrying a chin-up bar?”

“Why aren’t you wearing a hat?”

Panel Five: Drawing of original six stick figures riding up the escalator. The same two stick figures are speaking.

“I’m not really a hat person.”

“And I’m not really a not-carrying-a-chin-up-bar person.”

Panel Six: Close up of the stick figure not wearing a hat.

Panel Seven: Drawing of five of the original six stick figures riding up the escalator.  The one in front has reached the top of the escalator. The same two stick figures are speaking.

“Seriously, why did you bring it?”

“How should I know? I’m not a psychologist.”

Panel Eight: View of the same two stick figures stepping off the escalator.  The stick figure wearing a hat turns and, with a “twist, click, click,” snaps the chin-up bar across the opening of the up escalator.

Panel Nine: Drawing of the up and down escalators as seen from the top. The chin-up bar is blocking the exit of the up escalator as other stick figures approach. The stick figure wearing a hat and the stick figure not wearing a hat are riding the down escalator.

Panel Ten: Side view of the escalators. The stick figure wearing a hat and the stick figure not wearing a hat have nearly reached the bottom of the down escalator. Stick figures riding the up escalator raise their arms in alarm as many other stick figures come tumbling down toward them.

Hover text: The few who escaped found the emergency cutoff box disabled. The stampede lasted two hours and reached the bottom three times.

Comic by xkcd.com. Described by BlindGadget.

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

Scene: Drawing of two stick figures talking.

“On a scale of 1 to 10, how likely is it that this question is using binary?”

“…4?”

“What’s a 4?”

Hover text: If you get an 11/100 on a CS test, but you claim it should be counted as a ‘C’, they’ll probably decide you deserve the upgrade.

Comic by xkcd.com. Described by BlindGadget.

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

Scene: A drawing of a stick figure holding a painting under one arm and a screwdriver in the other hand. Another stick figure wearing a black pork pie hat sits in a club chair, reading.

“Have you seen my stud finder? I’ve looked everywhere.”

“It sounds like you may be interested in my new product, a–”

“Shut up.”

Hover text: According to every stud finder I’ve tried to use, my walls contain a rapidly shifting network of hundreds and hundreds of studs.

Comic by xkcd.com. Described by BlindGadget.

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

Scene: Drawing of a stick figure next to a gas pump, filling up the gas tank of a car. Another stick figure with a ponytail is standing on the other side of the gas pump, pointing away.

“Why are you going here?–Gas is ten cents a gallon cheaper at the station five minutes that way.

“Because a penny saved is a penny earned.”

Caption: If you spend nine minutes of your time to save a dollar, you’re working for less than minimum wage.

Hover text: And if you drive a typical car more than a mile out of your way for each penny you save on the per-gallon price, it doesn’t matter how worthless your time is to you–the gas to get you there and back costs more than you save.

Comic by xkcd.com. Described by BlindGadget.

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

Panel One: Drawing of a twin prop airplane flying overhead.

“What’s that airplane?”

Panel Two: Drawing of a stick figure wearing an old-style aviator helmet with goggles pushed up, standing in front of the now parked twin prop airplane.

“Holy crap! Is that Amelia Earhart?”

Panel Three: Close up drawing of Amelia Earhart stick figure waving.

“Hello everyone! My flight was a success!”

“But… where were you!?”

Panel Four: Drawing of Amelia Earhart stick figure with her arms at her sides.

“I flew around the world!”

“But you disappeared in 1937!”

Panel Five: Close up drawing of Amelia Earhart stick figure.

“Right, to fly around the world!”

“It’s 2011!”

“The world is big. It’s a long flight.”

Panel Six: Drawing of Amelia Earhart stick figure with her arms at her sides.

“But you… – It’s not… – I–”

“Can I talk to someone smarter?”

Hover text: The Roanoke Lost Colonists founded Roanoke, the Franklin Expedition reached the Pacific in 2009 when the Northwest Passage opened, and Jimmy Hoffa currently heads the Teamsters Union–he just started going by ‘James’.

Comic by xkcd.com. Described by BlindGadget.

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

Scene:  A drawing of a stick figure standing in front of a desk with a computer screen and a chair, speaking into a phone.

“You want your cousin to send you a file? Easy. He can email it to-…oh, it’s 25 MB? Hmm…–Do either of you have an FTP server? No, right.–If you had web hosting, you could upload it…– Hmm. We could try one of the megashare upload sites, but they’re flaky and full of delays and porn popouts.–How about AIM Direct Connect? Anyone still use that?–Oh, wait, Dropbox! It’s this recent startup from a few years back that syncs folders between computers. You just need to make an account, install the–Oh, he just drove over to your house with a USB drive?–Uh, cool, that works, too.”

Caption:  I like how we’ve had the internet for decades, yet “sending files” is something early adopters are still figuring out how to do.

Hover text:  Every time you email a file to yourself so you can pull it up on a friend’s laptop, Tim Bersers-Lee sheds a single tear.

Comic by xkcd. Described by BlindGadget.