XKCD - (may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors)

[Totally Guy]

This is exactly how if feels to talk to this forum about roleplaying games.

[Kurald Galain]

Originally Posted by Totally Guy

This is exactly how if feels to talk to this forum about roleplaying games.

And this one, too, whenever a new edition is proposed.

[Mewtarthio]

So I just found this. This is awesome.

[Totally Guy]

Originally Posted by Kurald Galain

And this one, too, whenever a new edition is proposed.

Not so much the comic's message but instead the misplaced belief that all games are ways of reaching the same intended experience.

[Yora]

I knew it would be an incredible amount of water. But things getting wet or drowned really is rather irrelevant at the impact point.

[Iruka]

http://xkcd.com/1114/

This sword was forged from a fallen star. Antimony impurities make the blade surpassingly brittle and weak.

Good thing Roy didn't get one of those.

[ChowGuy]

But dude, all blades are made from the hearts of dead stars, 'cause that's, you know, where iron comes from. (Carbon, too.)

[Yora]

That's where pretty much everything except Hydrogen comes from.
But he didn't mean stars but meteories.

[Kato]

Well, you would guess some of it was created at the big Bang what with all the heat and stuff... but small chance of any of that ending up on earth.

Anyway, yeah, the big issue is that asteroid metal is presumably not as pure iron as earth's iron but polluted with all kinds of rarer metal, like Iridium and... stuff. And in fiction that makes it powerful. I guess in the real world... it doesn't.
Then again Sir Pratchett has a star metal sword and that alone is reason enough to get one yourself, guys!

[RebelRogue]

The 1110 strip, now as a playable "game".

[Morph Bark]

Originally Posted by Kato

Well, you would guess some of it was created at the big Bang what with all the heat and stuff...

Your mom was created at the Big Bang.

[ThirdEmperor]

Is anyone else enjoying the weird little science lectures more than the comic itself? Cause, I gotta say, turning the moon into a rocket via laser pointers far outweighs metallurgy jokes in my book.

[Kato]

Originally Posted by Morph Bark

Your mom was created at the Big Bang.

Well, technically, I guess... So was yours and everyone else's and we as well from a certain point of view... what's your point?

Originally Posted by ThirdEmperor

Is anyone else enjoying the weird little science lectures more than the comic itself? Cause, I gotta say, turning the moon into a rocket via laser pointers far outweighs metallurgy jokes in my book.

Yeah, these are pretty nice. I still like the comics but even if some things are a little over the top those are fun to read. Now if only I could come up with a good question...

[Mewtarthio]

Originally Posted by ThirdEmperor

Is anyone else enjoying the weird little science lectures more than the comic itself? Cause, I gotta say, turning the moon into a rocket via laser pointers far outweighs metallurgy jokes in my book.

Those lectures are the best things to come out of XKCD in years.

[Yora]

What if you would try to douse the sun with water?

Adding Hydrogenoxide to a star? This will be interesting.


And I also just now found the previous question about what happens when everyone points a laser pointer at the moon. Since the immediate result is rather disappointing, the initial question is increasingly modified to become more and more hilarious.

[Feytalist]

Originally Posted by Yora

And I also just now found the previous question about what happens when everyone points a laser pointer at the moon. Since the immediate result is rather disappointing, the initial question is increasingly modified to become more and more hilarious.

He just loves crazy-fying "normal" questions, doesn't he? Like the glass-half empty one. That one's my favourite.

The what-if page is collectively the awesomest thing I've read on the internet, easy.

[Yora]

Having been diagnosed with ADD recently myself, I wonder if Randall has it as well? He clearly is highly intelligent, you just has to look at his resumee for that, but starting with an ordinary and simple question and continuing running with it in completely random directions until you are too exhausted to go on, is just how it manifests for me in the most visible way.
I got a suspicion when I had learned more about it and kept reading the comics, but they are short gags because of the medium. But the what-ifs are even more remarkable examples.
And really, I love the Future Timeline comic to no end, probably because I also would spend all those hours on google to make that joke happen if I had the idea first.

Or this: http://xkcd.com/87/
Or this: http://xkcd.com/173/

In response to concerns about the radiation released by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011, and to remedy what he described as "confusing" reporting on radiation levels in the media, Munroe created a chart of comparative radiation exposure levels. The chart was rapidly adopted by print and online journalists in several countries, including being linked to by online writers for The Guardian and The New York Times. As a result of requests for permission to reprint the chart and to translate it into Japanese, Munroe placed it in the public domain, but requested that his non-expert status should be clearly stated in any reprinting.

Actually, I feel like I can stop wondering.

[Feytalist]

The charts are another of my favourites. Like the to-scale deep-sea trenches chart, or the money chart (that thing is so huge, I still haven't actually gone through all of it) or the planets' relative gravity wells chart, or...

Well, pretty much just all of them.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Originally Posted by Yora

Having been diagnosed with ADD recently myself, I wonder if Randall has it as well? He clearly is highly intelligent, you just has to look at his resumee for that, but starting with an ordinary and simple question and continuing running with it in completely random directions until you are too exhausted to go on, is just how it manifests for me in the most visible way.

I don't know if that's a symptom of ADD so much as it is scientist humor. After all, the essence of science is continuously asking the same question with small differences to see what changes, and the What If questions just tend to take that to an absurd (but fun) degree.

He's close to a goshdarn polymath, though, given his extremely dedicated interest to multiple fields of science and creative art.

[The Succubus]

So apparently the world will end because a cat jumped on a keyboard.

Totally called it.

[Feytalist]

Originally Posted by The Succubus

So apparently the world will end because a cat jumped on a keyboard.

Totally called it.

Either that or you turn into Freakazoid.

Stupid cat.

[Kato]

Originally Posted by Feytalist

Either that or you turn into Freakazoid.

Stupid cat.

I would like to be Freakazoid.

I was wondering whether damage to the earth crust in the Trench would be significant... but I guess it's just not enough power to really hurt it. And even if it was, it would just be an underwater volcano.

Today's comic is great again, also.

[Yora]

I really like the new one. http://xkcd.com/1121/

[Yora]

http://xkcd.com/1125/

Oh god, this one had me cracked up!

Took me a moment, I first thought it was about imperfect mirrors in observatories.

Spoiler

He discovered the expansion of the universe by noting the red shift of the light from other galaxies.

[Kato]

Originally Posted by Yora

http://xkcd.com/1125/

Oh god, this one had me cracked up!

Took me a moment, I first thought it was about imperfect mirrors in observatories.

Spoiler

He discovered the expansion of the universe by noting the red shift of the light from other galaxies.

Thanks for explaining. I guess I should know that stuff but... meh. Can't know everything.

[The Glyphstone]

XKCD has now coined the Megayoda as as unit of power generation.

[Yora]

Originally Posted by Kato

Thanks for explaining. I guess I should know that stuff but... meh. Can't know everything.

That's xkcd. Half of the jokes are based on such obscure math or physics knowledge, that provide enough pride when you get them to outweight those that you don't.