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.
Dependencies
by Jeff
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Image text: The prereqs for CPSC 357, the class on package management, are CPCS 432, CPSC 357, and glibc2.5 or later.
This is a computer science joke with a possible homage to Fight Club.
The meaning here is roughly "A dependency class depends on a dependency class" as a prerequisite.
The same thing follows in the image text as 357 is required for 357.
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.
Phobia
by Jeff
Image text: Oh God, the tornado picked up snakes!
This is one of those xkcd's that's super emo. These are always a little awkward for me to read.
However, my interpretation of the second frame is that the black haired character is speaking in reference to relationships and dating and the like. She keeps turning away potential suitors with her phrase.
I don't think she keeps saying that every year to keep from becoming a storm chaser.
What's your interpretation of this Friday's emo xkcd? Who is emotional about what to whom?
Swimsuit Issue
by Jeff
Image text: Parents: talk to your kids about popup blockers. Also, at some point, sex. But crucial fundamentals first!
This one is pretty self-explanatory, but always practice safe browsing!
Book Burning
by Jeff
Image text: Of course, since their cautionary tale was reported in a print newspaper, no one read it.
In this comic, the characters want to burn all the copies they can get their hands on of a certain book so they can demonstrate how it contains heresy. In this case, the Kindle edition of the book is much cheaper than the hardcover, so they attempt to burn a Kindle instead. The result of burning the Kindle is death by toxic fume inhalation because the Kindle is an electronic book reader instead of a book made of paper.
Study
by Jeff
Image text: Volunteers needed for a study on transmission of urushiol from digital contact with thin strips of fibrous cellulose pulp.
I'm always wary of these things, especially when they said they will require a 24-48 hour stay at "our facility". Yikes.
The key word in the image text is: Urishiol is the chemical produced by poision ivy.
From there you can probably figure it out, but essentially the image text is a soliciting volunteers for a study in which the volunteers use their fingers or toes to touch poison ivy leaves. Brilliant readers have notified me that fibrous cellulose pulp is not leaves, but in fact the strips of paper that are on the ad in the comic. Thanks for correcting me!
Sounds like fun!
Worst-Case Scenario
by Jeff
Image text: To get serious analyses of hurricanes and oil slicks, see Jeff Masters' blog. To get serious discussions of worst-case scenario thinking, see Bruce Schneier's blog. To get enough Vitamin D, don't read any blogs and go outside instead.
This comic is about the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that is leaking from one of BP's oil rigs. Just in case you have been under a rock for weeks or are reading this from the past.
Michael Bay is the director of the Transformers series amongst other movies that are famous for explosions, explosions and even bigger explosions and of course impossible and improbable situations. Bay has been featured in xkcd before for his potential remake of Harriet the Spy.
James Carville is a CNN political commentator and Louisiana native. He has already said that the govermental response to the oil spill was "too lax and too slow".
Here's Jeff Masters' blog on Weather Underground and Bruce Schneier's blog.
Geeks and Nerds
by Jeff
Image text: The definitions I grew up with were that a geek is someone unusually into something (so you could have computer geeks, baseball geeks, theater geeks, etc) and nerds are (often awkward) science, math, or computer geeks. But definitions vary.
Sorry for the delay, Memorial Day Monday is still a Monday, huh?
I agree with the definition in the image text about geeks and nerds. You can put me square in the intersection of the two as well.
What about you? Do you fall in the intersection? What is your definition of a geek and a nerd?
Birth
by Jeff
Image text: All those GTA marathons during the pregnancy were a bad idea.
This is comic that is a parody of all the studies and news stories about the effect of video games on children. If they play too many violent video games, do they act like the video games in real life? Most of the news stories are based on one case or anecdotal evidence. This comic takes this to the next level and imagines what effects video games have on an unborn baby.
My only question is this: how the heck did the gun get in there?