23Dec/093
Christmas Plans
by Jeff
Image text: Physicists who want to protect traditional Christmas realize that the only way to keep from changing Christmas is not to observe it.
This comic is a pun on the word "observe".
In regards to Christmas, the phrase is "I don't observe Christmas". In regards to physics, just like in the Schrodinger Cat problem, the physicists don't know where the cat is in the box (or whether it is alive or dead) until they observe it.
In the comic, the character at the computer does not know where Christmas is because he doesn't observe it in the physicist way.
December 31st, 2009
When, not where.
December 17th, 2010
To expand (especially for non-native English speakers), the phrase “I don’t observe Christmas” means that the person does not celebrate the holiday.
November 22nd, 2011
And the image text is a reference to the fact that in quantum physics observation of a property of a phenomenon induces a change in the state of this property (from a potential superposed state to a well-defined state)