30May/1228

Budget News

by Jeff

Image text: I will vote, no questions asked, for any candidate who describes themselves as \more of a deficit sugar glider.\""

This comic is a pun on the phrase "Deficit Hawk". Wikipedia has a great definition: Deficit hawk is an American political slang term for people who place great emphasis on keeping the federal budget under control. Deficit hawks believe the best way to reduce the deficit, pay off national debt, and balance the budget is by a combination of increasing taxes and cutting government spending.

And obviously, a hawk is a type of bird of prey.  In this case, the prey is politicians.

In the image text, there is a reference to the sugar glider, which is a small gliding possum originating from the marsupial Infraclass.

Filed under: Nature, Politics 28 Comments
28Sep/1128

Development

by Jeff

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

First some definitions, NHC is the National Hurricane Center and the APA is American Psychological Association.

The reference to Piaget Stage 5 in the comic is a reference to Piaget's Stages of Development in which stage 5 is where (to quote Wikipedia and Gruber, H.E.; Voneche, J.J.. eds. The essential Piaget.)

"Infants become intrigued by the many properties of objects and by the many things they can make happen to objects; they experiment with new behavior." This stage is associated primarily with the discovery of new means to meet goals. Piaget describes the child at this juncture as the "young scientist," conducting pseudo-experiments to discover new methods of meeting challenges."

Which is exactly what the comic is describing in sustained interest in objects and their properties and the handy "?"s around the picture behind the newscaster in this comic.

So, with all that out of the way, this comic is a pun on the classification of hurricanes which are also classified in categories from 1 to 5.  Piaget's Stages go from 1-6.  The comic is making a joke that if the APA was on hurricane forecast duty instead of the NHC, that the hurricanes would be classified with Piaget's stages instead of categories.

Filed under: Nature, Weather 28 Comments
26Sep/1126

Sharing

by Jeff

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

The Giving Tree is a book by Shell Silverstein.  Wikipedia has all the spoiler alert you could want. Essentially, the tree gives a boy everything it has throughout the tree and the boy's lives.  Hence "The Giving Tree".

The tree in this comic, has a file share with the eBook "The Giving Tree" in Amazon Kindle format.  (Also, how has Cueball never heard of The Giving Tree?)

But of course, Megan has not purchased the book from Amazon and the tree somehow did not enable lending of the book, so they could not read it.  This comic is a contrast to the book in which the tree gives whatever it has to the child, but in our current times, the tree is not even able to share a book because of DRM.

The last frame is very telling because when the tree cannot share, Megan and Cueball leave the tree very alone, when it is unable to share anything with them.

The image text is also a comment on our current times as every site or new application these days is all about "social" and recommendations to your friends on what and where to buy so the companies can make money on you.

22Aug/1131

Depth Perception

by Jeff

Image text: I've looked at clouds from both sides now.

This comic is very self explanatory as it explains what he is doing every step of the way.  This is one of those xkcd's that is all about emotion and feeling for both Cueball and the reader.

Ancient stargazers though the sky was simply a domed ceiling like the 2rd frame on the top line.

In the first frame of the 2nd line, Cueball puts HD webcams on the tops of football uprights, so "hundreds of feet" apart would be 120 yards apart exactly.

Filed under: Emo, Nature 31 Comments
22Jul/1130

Mimic Octopus

by Jeff

Image text: Even if the dictionaries are starting to give in, I refuse to accept 'octopi' as a word mainly because--I'm not making this up--there's a really satisfying climactic scene in the Orson Scott Card horror novel 'Lost Boys' which hinges on it being an incorrect pluralization.

Let's get this out of the way before it starts a flame war on here: according to Merrian Webster Dictionary online, both octopi, octopuses and octopodes (only if you are English) are all the correct plural of octopus.  It is a pretty funny video, I highly recommend watching it, even if you don't care about the plural of octopus.

So, this comic is a reference to a typical fish and sea-life identification chart.  Like this or the US airforce ID chart parody.  So, its basically a parody of a parody referencing the mimic octopus which is, as the name implies, able to mimic other animals.

The Orson Scott Card novel 'Lost Boys' is (from Publisher's Weekly): "A withdrawn eight-year-old in a troubled family invents imaginary friends who bear the names of missing children in this absorbing thriller."

Filed under: Language, Nature, books 30 Comments
18Jul/1124

Time Vulture

by Jeff

Image text: In a way, all vultures are Time Vultures; some just have more patience than others.

This comic is about a time vulture, which as far as I can tell is not a reference to anything, but something made up by Randall for the comic.  A Time Vulture as explained in the 3rd frame is a type of vulture that can live for millennia and wait long enough for someone to die of natural causes.  A vulture is a type of animal that preys on other animals (and humans) who are sick or dying.

Because the Time Vulture lives for so long, in its point of view, everyone says "But, I'm not about to die" right before they do.  In our point of view it could be several years, but since the Time Vulture lives for so long, years are mere moments in its view.

In the image text, since all vultures wait for their prey to die, all vultures are Time Vultures, but time vultures are able to wait decades for their prey, whereas regular vultures do not have that kind of time.

Filed under: Death, Nature 24 Comments
22Apr/1141

Turtles

by Jeff

Image text: You're a turtle!

This comic is pretty unclear as there is not a lot of hints here, but here's what I can make of it.  The comic says "Turtles have it figured out, man" because Turtles are never in a hurry to get anywhere because they cannot move very fast (and this one in the comic hasn't moved an inch in 50 years) and they do not have the stresses of a modern human life.

The character offscreen in the comic gets stressed out in the first frame because he or she thinks they deleted a file on their computer.  All the while the turtle only thinks "I am a turtle".

The image text appears to be a reference to comic 231 which represents the graph about Cat Proximity in which the saying is "You're a cat!".

Filed under: Nature, computers 41 Comments
1Apr/1122

Headache

by Jeff

3d

This comic is about 10 images so that it can present the 3D effects, so head over to xkcd if you have not already to check out the comic with the 3d effects. (UPDATE: I have placed a screenshot above.)

Image text: I'm only willing to visit placid lakes, salt flats, and painting exhibits until the world's 3D technology improves.

This comic is probably a reference to the new Nintendo 3DS handheld video game system that has a 3D effect if you put your head in the right place for the handheld device.  Also, it is a reference to the proliferation of 3D movies.  The 3D movies and 3D games make your eyes work harder which can cause headaches in some.

In this comic, Cueball is using the excuse that 3D gives him a headache to get out of going outside, where obviously, everything is in 3D.  Instead he stays inside and looks at his 2D computer monitor.  In the image text, he says he will only go to places with little 3D motion.

On a side note: Megan is wearing her helmet and practicing safe bike riding.  Way to go Megan!

UPDATE: Thanks commenters - because today is April 1st, all of the xkcd comics are in 3D, so go back and check them out.  Which one is your favorite in 3D?

25Mar/118

Beauty

by Jeff

Image text: The best hugs are probably from hagfish, which can extrude microscopic filaments that convert a huge volume of water around them to slime in seconds. Instant cozy blanket!

In this comic, Blondie is the girly girl and Megan is the nerdy girl.  Blondie's statement in the first is proved wrong by Megan's actions throughout the comic and the statement in the image text.

Wikipedia has this on the hagfish - "Their unusual feeding habits and slime-producing capabilities have led members of the scientific and popular media to dub the hagfish as the most "disgusting" of all sea creatures."

Filed under: Biology, Nature 8 Comments
21Mar/115

2009 Called

by Jeff

Image text: 2017 called, but I couldn't understand what they were saying over all the screams.

In this comic, the first reference is to the "Three Wolf Moon Shirt", which was an internet meme back in 2009 and earlier.  Just like most internet memes it became one just out of thin air.  Here's the three wolf moon shirt:

In addition, this comic contains the typical insult "<insert some year> called and they want their shirt/hat/software/whatever back".  And in this comic, Cueball quickly turns the insult on its head by asking Megan why she didn't tell the year 2009 about the upcoming earthquakes in Haiti and Japan in the year 2010 and 2011 respectively.

Although it looks weird, I think in the corner of the first frame is a pile of dirty clothes, which is why Megan finds the shirt in it.

The year 2017 in the image text could be a reference to the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie Running Man, which is set in 2017.  Or it could be a reference to the Bruce Willis movie Surrogates, which was also set in that year.  It is probably an Arnold reference though.

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