8Jun/1251

Laundry

by Jeff

Image text: During the second semester, the path is briefly routed through the dishwasher.

This comic is all about college laundry habits and how as time goes by, you end up just throwing clothes on the floor and then wearing them again.  Also applicable in real life.

Filed under: College 51 Comments
7May/12122

Every Major’s Terrible

by Jeff

Image text: Someday I'll be the first to get a Ph. D in 'Undeclared'.

I believe 'Undeclared' is called "General Studies".

Here's a youtube video of "I Am the Very Model of A Modern Major's General" for those who need to get the tune.

Here's is Tom Lehrer's Elements.

And here is Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious from Mary Poppins.

I never did find that closed paren....

Filed under: College, Color 122 Comments
28Nov/1128

Privacy

by Jeff

Image text: Eventual headline: 'University Researchers Create Life in Lab! Darkness, Faulty Condoms Blamed.'

Sorry this post was late, but I was still travelling back from Thanksgiving.  Thanks for your patience!

This comic is about a couple, let us call them "Cueball and Megan" attempting to find some privacy to "hook up", which is slang for engage in sexual activity.  Some people argue that "hook up" means to have sex, but I would argue it means any sort of sexual activity, although "to have sex" is still a subset of "hook up".  In the image text, it seems to indicate that sex was indeed assumed in the phrase "hook up".

In the second frame, the female roommate of Megan is currently in a raid, which is a phrase used in World of Warcraft and other Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games or MMORPGs.  A Raid is a large gathering of players that work together to defeat a difficult enemy.

The Rare book collection in the library (frame 3) is usually deserted, so it would be perfect for sexual activity, but instead a tour is going through the area instead.  It is unclear if the tour is visiting Nelson Mandela in the rare book section or Nelson Mandela is visiting the school and is getting a tour through the rare book section.  Is that a stick figure Nelson Mandela with the white hair?

Next they try an accelerator tunnel that is in use, a beaver lodge (pun on the word "beaver", which is slang for the vagina is I assume intended by Randall).  I'm not sure why the current understanding of physics rules out privacy in hyperspace.  Any of our awesomely helpful commentors know?

In the image text, it indicates that the two found privacy for sex in the lab, but inadvertently got Megan pregnant.  The image text is a pun on news titles about scientists who have created synthetic life in the lab.

Filed under: Biology, College, sex 28 Comments
14Oct/1141

Dorm Poster

by Jeff

Image text: I was going to record an album with that cover under the name "PINK FTFY", so it'd come after them on the store CD rack. But at this point music stores are just rooms where CDs are set out to age before they're thrown away, so probably nobody would see it.

This comic is a take on the fact that a lot of college students have the poster for Pink Floyd's album "Dark Side of the Moon" up in their room.  In this case, a new student goes into his new dorm room and takes one look at the poster his new roommate has put up and gets a poster of his own, in this case, it reverses the light coming out of the prism in the Pink Floyd poster and sends it into another prism.

The image text indicates that Cueball also wants to extend this "prank" to the store CD racks, which are pretty much defunct at this time.

Filed under: College, Pranks 41 Comments
21Feb/1113

Major In The Universe

by Jeff

Image text: I hear Steven Levitt is writing a book analyzing A.J. Jacobs' quest to spend a year reading everything Malcolm Gladwell ever wrote. The audiobook will be narrated by Robert Krulwich of Radiolab.

In this comic, several authors are referenced.  Malcolm Gladwell is an American Canadian author who wrote such books as "The Tipping Point", "Outliers" and "Blink". Steven Levitt is one of the co-authors of the book, "Freakonomics" and also the Freakonomics blog on NYTimes.com.

Robert Krulwich is a science corespondent for NPR (National Public Radio, for those outside of the US) and a co-host of the show Radiolab.

AJ Jacobs is a journalist who immerses himself in different ideas and lives them out for periods of time.  For example, he lives a year according to all the moral codes in the bible literally.

The comic is Cueball as a college student, meeting with his adviser or professor trying to decide what to major in.  He decides to major in "The Universe", but when his adviser details the real work required of that major, Cueball scratches his head and tells what he really means.  If you have not read Malcolm Gladwell's books, they all are slightly similar and details Gladwell's different "discoveries" about the world based on things that have happened.  I do not mean to rip Gladwell's books, of which I particularly enjoy.

23Jun/105

Toot

by Jeff

Image text: This is also one of only five identified situations in which a vuvuzela is actually appropriate.

For our international readers, "Toot my own horn" is an expression (possibly only used in America) that means to brag about ones self.

Vuvuzela is a noise maker that is native to South Africa and is featured heavily in any World Cup game.  Many vuvuzelas blown (played?) at the same time make a noise similar to that of a thousand bees.

Filed under: Black Hat, College 5 Comments
18Jun/105

Interdisciplinary

by Jeff

Image text: Replace the pendulums with history students and you'll qualify for a grant!

This is another theme in xkcd.  The ripping of psychology, history and english majors is very common in various comics.

Filed under: College, Physics 5 Comments
14Jun/1011

Southern Half

by Jeff

Image text: Also, if you read his speech at Rice, all his arguments for going to the moon work equally well as arguments for blowing up the moon, sending cloned dinosaurs into space, or constructing a towering penis-shaped obelisk on Mars.

Not much to explain here.

Here's the full text of the speech to Rice.

Here's the full text of the 1961 speech to Congress.

17Feb/109

Honor Societies

by Jeff

Image text: Hey, why do YOU get to be the president of Tautology Clu-- wait, I can guess.

Tautology means to repeat the same phrase twice or two parts of a phrase that means the same thing.  This comic is a take on the repetitive nature of "honor" in the Honor Society.

The answer to the image text would be: I'm the president of the Tautology Club because I'm the president of the Tautology Club.

Filed under: College, Word Play 9 Comments
14Dec/091

Revolutionary

by Jeff

Image text: I mean, what's more likely -- that I have uncovered fundamental flaws in this field that no one in it has ever thought about, or that I need to read a little more?  Hint: it's the one that involves less work.

This comic is a discussion between two characters, the main character and the Philosophy major who has a goatee.  The image text is an additional comment by the character which the goatee.

The character with the goatee is suggesting that the people of science like the main character are holding firmly to their belief of the theory of special relativity.

This is a stereotypical representation of people such as Philosophy majors who thumb their noses at Phyics majors or other scientific ideas, which thinking that they always have the answers and have thought of a new idea that has never been thought of before.  This is referenced in the image text.

Filed under: College, Math, Physics 1 Comment

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