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57 posts total
xkcd bot

title text: Our sysadmin accidentally won a Nobel Prize while trying to debug neutrino oscillation error correction.

(xkcd.com/3017)
(explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php)

xkcd comic (alt text in progress)
27 November at 22:10 | Open on botsin.space
xkcd bot
Profane tmesis

@xkcdbot Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of T-Rex from Dinosaur Comics.

15 November at 17:48 | Open on writing.exchange
xkcd bot

title text: "One popular strategy is to enter an emotional spiral. Could that be the right approach? We contacted several researchers who are experts in emotional spirals to ask them, but none of them were in a state to speak with us."

(xkcd.com/3007)
(explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php)

Single panel comic. Table titled: coping with probabilistic uncertainty Left column title: scenario Right column title: how to think about it in an emotionally healthy way row 1: good outcome more likely (large smiley face, smaller frowny face) recognize that the bad outcome is possible, but be reassured that the odds are in your favor row 2: bad outcome more likely (large frowny face, smaller smiley face) prepare for the bad outcome while remembering that the future isn't certain and hope is justified row 3: precisely 50/50 (smiley and frowny faces of equal size) the corresponding box has a bunch of question marks and is marked "not applicable" (N/A)
4 November at 20:10 | Open on botsin.space
gkrnours

@xkcdbot niaaaa 🐈

4 November at 20:27 | Open on mastodon.gamedev.place
xkcd bot

title text: Though they do appreciate how much he improved the heating system for the flame pit.

(xkcd.com/3006)
(explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php)

xkcd comic (alt text in progress)
1 November at 15:51 | Open on botsin.space
xkcd bot

title text: You do have to be careful, though--sometimes, instead of water, you hit this free fuel that you can sell for a lot of money instead.

(xkcd.com/3004)
(explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php)

Single panel comic. Short hair and no hair are speaking. Short hair says "I need water, so I think I'll dig a deep hole and drink whatever liquid I find at the bottom." No hair asks. "What will you do after ou drink it all? Dig another hole?" Short hair responds "I dunno. Hopefully it magically refills itself or something." Lower caption: It's ridiculous that wells work.
28 October at 14:51 | Open on botsin.space
xkcd bot

title text: Our experiment will be expensive, but we believe it will produce important spin-offs, especially if we manage to hit the sun from the right angle.

(xkcd.com/3000)
(explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php)

Single panel comic. Person on a stage with a screen behind them. On the screen is a circle with a vibrating central dot and a dot outside the circle with an arrow crossing the circle and pointing at the central dot. Person says "A Thorne–Żytkow object is a hypothesized nested star--a red giant with a neutron star inside it. So far no TŻOs have been definitively observed, but your grant could help us change that." Lower caption "We're struggling to get funding for our project to slingshot a neutron star into the sun."
19 October at 3:40 | Open on botsin.space
subway duck

@xkcdbot IT'S NOT #3000 SPECIAL ISSUE??

19 October at 3:56 | Open on eattherich.club
Phyxis

@xkcdbot Astral Turducken?

19 October at 4:27 | Open on pounced-on.me
xkcd bot

title text: There's a heated debate over whether the big island of Tierra del Fuego should qualify for membership.

(xkcd.com/2996)
(explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php)

Single panel comic. Four people on a stage shaking hands and waving. Above them is a banner which says C.I.D.A.B.M. and maps highlighting islands that are very close to a larger landmass. Lower caption: Geopolitical news: Sicily, Sri Lanka, Hainan, and Tasmania have joined together to form the Coalition of Islands that Dangle Awkwardly from the Bottom of a Mainland.
9 October at 19:06 | Open on botsin.space
Ozzie D, NP-hard :bikepump: :vegan:

@xkcdbot No love for Long Island either, huh?

9 October at 19:07 | Open on infosec.exchange
Rupert

@xkcdbot Long list for entry:
Rakiura Stewart Island (NZ)
Isle of Wight (UK)

9 October at 19:15 | Open on mastodon.nz
xkcd bot
xkcd bot

title text: The local police, building inspector, and fire marshal are all contesting my 'safety' assertion, or would be if they could reach me past all the traps.

(xkcd.com/2988)
(explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php)

Single panel comic. A pyramid with 5 tiers and some tiny people on the bottom for scale, one of which is gesturing at the pyramid. The tiers are labeled and have additional commentary on the side. From the bottom: 1. physiological needs (red X, provides basic shelter, but no food, water, heat, etc) 2. safety (green check, highly defensible) 3. belonging and love (red X, friends are worried about me) 4. esteem (red X, people seem less impressed by it than I hoped) 5. self-actualization (red X, honestly questioning my life choices here) Lower caption: I built Maslow's pyramid thing, but it's a total ripoff-- it's only providing 20% of my needs.
20 September at 22:30 | Open on botsin.space
xkcd bot

title text: Their calculations show it will 'pass within the distance of the moon' but that it 'will not hit the moon, so what's the point?'

(xkcd.com/2984)
(explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php)

Singel panel comic. Short hair staring in front of a presentation. On the screen is a trajectory of a comet passing by the earth. The orbit of the moon is drawn around the earth. Short hair says "Astronomers initially said there was a one-in-6,000 chance that the newly discovered asteroid might "do something cool" in 2063, but further observations determined it will be "just a boring dot like all the others."
11 September at 22:30 | Open on botsin.space
Mark Gardner

@xkcdbot May all our potentially hazardous objects be boring dots 🤞🏻

11 September at 23:35 | Open on social.sdf.org
xkcd bot

title text: You'd think the most expensive part would be the quark-gluon plasma chamber, but it's actually usually the tube to the top of the atmosphere to carry the cosmic rays down.

(xkcd.com/2982)
(explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php)

Single panel comic. Title: How water filtration works. There is a long snaking diagram of various apparatuses connected together. For the most part they are differently shaped little blobs with various ridges on them. The input is well water, which goes through the pathway in the following order. 1. water softener (looks like a box of sand) 2. reverse osmosis 3. ultraviolet sterilization 4. autoclave 5. condenser 6. regular osmosis 7. x-ray sterilization (radioactivity symbol on this blob) 8. carbon filter (this is unusually long to make a turn in the snake) 8a. neutron source (this is attached to the carbon filter as a small sphere radiating wavy lines) 8b. activated carbon filter (this is the region of the carbon filter after the neutron source, there is no line to distinguish between the filters) (alt-text continued in the next image)
(continued alt-text) 9. gamma ray sterilization (radioactivity symbol on this blob) 10. cosmic ray sterilization (blob has what looks like EeV gamma, which is taken to mean a quintillion electron volts) 11. electrolysis (H2O is being split into H and O) 12. two path ways, the upper is oxygen spallation where the O from the previous blob is turned into multiple H, the lower is just feeding through the H from the previous blob, the hydrogens all merge into one stream to continue 13. ionizer (H splits into an electron and a proton) 14. quark-gluon plasma chamber (electron and proton come together to make a quark-gluon plasma, which is a gassy blob) 15. hydrogenation (the quark-gluon plasma generates H) 16. nucleosynthesis (the H stream splits in two, the upper goes through a blob labeled P-P CN, comes out as He and C and then goes through a blob labeled Alpha and comes out as O, the lower stream just feeds through the H from the previous blob), the hydrogens all merge into one stream to continue 17. reverse electrolysis whose output is labeled "pure water" 18. a second input stream is labeled well water and joins the main stream at this point, the junction is labeled local minerals and probiotics added for taste and to support immune health 19. the output is labeled "to faucet"
7 September at 2:30 | Open on botsin.space
xkcd bot

title text: During the day it also activates for neat clouds and pretty sunsets.

(xkcd.com/2979)
(explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php)

Single panel comic. A box labeled "sky alarm" topped by a flashing spinner light is announcing "Weeooo weeooo, There's a cool space thing happening! Weeoo, weeoo, go outside and look up!" No hair is sitting at a desk and turning to look at the box while short hair is running off the panel. Lower caption: I want this device.
31 August at 3:20 | Open on botsin.space
xkcd bot

title text: At least they're not alone down there.

(xkcd.com/2978)
(explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php)

Single panel comic. Two figures (no hair and long hair) are floating in a crowded room with all sorts of dials, switches, and panels all over the walls. There isa large port hole through which the earth can be seen. Long hair says "Until they get another rocket ready to launch, 8 billion people are stranded down there."
28 August at 20:20 | Open on botsin.space
drukac

@xkcdbot
Frames of reference.

29 August at 6:38 | Open on historians.social
xkcd bot

title text: Personally I think mercury is more of a 'wet earth' hybrid element.

(xkcd.com/2975)
(explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php)

xkcd comic (alt text in progress)
21 August at 17:20 | Open on botsin.space
Weird Ugly Sweaters

@xkcdbot
Closely related to the 70s R&B Periodic Table...

21 August at 17:23 | Open on social.seattle.wa.us
xkcd bot

title text: They left the belt drive in place but switched which wheel was powered, so people could choose between a regular ride, a long ride, and a REALLY long ride.

(xkcd.com/2973)
(explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php)

Single panel comic. A row of three ferris wheels. There are teeny tiny figures at their bases for scale. The rim of the first wheel is connected to the hub of the second by a pair of thick straps. The wheel of the second is then connected to the hub of the third with another pair of straps. The cars no the first wheel are all upright in the usual position for a Ferris wheel. The cars on the second wheel are partially angled out as the wheel moves faster. The cars on the third wheel all have their bottoms in parallel with the wheel rim as it spins very fast. Lower caption: the county fired me for adding a belt drive to the ferris wheels.
16 August at 19:36 | Open on botsin.space
xkcd bot

title text: We were going to try swordfighting, but all my compiling is on hold.

(xkcd.com/2961)
(explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php)

xkcd comic (alt text in progress)
19 July at 17:51 | Open on botsin.space
Show previous comments
Stacey Campbell

@xkcdbot Now that I'm retired we do this all day every day. It's a coin flip for scooter or chair.

19 July at 18:12 | Open on aus.social
jsstr

Well it's official, there's an xkcd for that.

19 July at 18:14 | Open on infosec.exchange
Oliver Geer

@xkcdbot I like the intertextuality reference to xkcd.com/303/ in the alt text!

If anyone tells me I should only use the term "intertextuality" for links between different works of literature, I'll reply that each xkcd comic is a piece of literature.

19 July at 18:21 | Open on floss.social
xkcd bot

title text: Einstein's theories solved a longstanding mystery about Mercury: Why it gets so hot. "It's because," he pointed out, "the sun is right there."

(xkcd.com/2959)
(explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php)

Single panel comic. A person with messy hair and a bushy mustache sits at a desk covered in papers and books. The person things "Nyoooooooooom! I'm so fast! Nyyooooooooom!" Lower caption: The first few times Einstein imagined flying alongside a beam of light, he didn't have any particular insights.
16 July at 4:21 | Open on botsin.space
xkcd bot

title text: ’"‘”’" means "I edited this text on both my phone and my laptop before sending it"

(xkcd.com/2954)
(explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php)

Single panel comic. Chart title: Bracket symbols and what they mean ( ) regular parentheses for setting stuff aside [ ] square brackets (more secure) { } this stuff is expensive so be careful with it " " someone is talking ' ' someone British is talking < > and animorph is talking ⟪ ⟫ a french animorph is talking ⎢⎥I'm scared of negative numbers but these sigils will protect me **__// I have a favorite monospaced font ~~ I'm being sarcastic and I had a tumblr account in 2014 [ ( [ { ( ) } ] , ) ] these python functions are not getting along ⎣ ⎦ help, I'm a mathematician trying to work with actual numbers and they're scary ⎰⎱ why are you trying to read my violin? ⎪⟩ don't stop here-this is quantum country
4 July at 5:01 | Open on botsin.space
xkcd bot

title text: They originally came here to try to investigate our chemtrail technology, and got increasingly frustrated when all their samples turned out to just be water ice with trace amounts of jet exhaust.

(xkcd.com/2953)
(explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php)

Single panel comic. No hair is standing below two alien ships that look like flying saucers. No hair says "But you *know* aliens exist!" A voice from one of the ships responds "Yeah, but these reports describe fast-moving objects with capabilities far beyond anything we possess! It would be foolish not to investigate!" Lower caption: Annoyingly, the aliens turned out to be really into UFO conspiracy theories.
2 July at 4:11 | Open on botsin.space
xkcd bot

title text: The worst was the time they accidentally held the can upside down and froze all the Earth's magma chambers solid.

(xkcd.com/2952)
(explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php)

Single panel comic. The earth drawn as a globe with the continent of North America centered. There are 5 clouds being emitted, from approximate points in South America, the North Pacific, Africa, Northern Europe, and Asia. In the middle of the Pacific Ocean there is a tube connected to a large spray can of "Dust off" compressed air. Lower caption: I know routine maintenance is important, but I hate how we all have to take shelter every year while they flush out the Earth's magma system for cleaning.
28 June at 21:41 | Open on botsin.space
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