Conservation
| Conservation |
| Original blog post on Building a Smarter Planet: http://asmarterplanet.com/blog/2009/06/building-a-smarter-planet-for-squirrels.html |
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Explanation
Two special A Smarter Planet comics were created by Randall after a special request from IBM's blog A Smarter Planet. They are not part of the regular numbered series of comics for xkcd's home site. But they are featured (both of them at the same page) on xkcd under asmarterplanet. Each comic links to their respective posts on the A Smarter Planet blog.
It was once said that America's forests were so dense and continuous that "a squirrel could go from the Atlantic to the Mississippi without touching the ground." As this is no longer true, anyone mentioning this today would use the phrase to highlight the fact that deforestation is such a problem that this once common aphorism is anachronistic. Cueball, however, interprets this literally to mean that squirrel's not being able to travel without touching the ground is a problem - rather than the more general problem the aphorism was meant to illustrate. As a result of his misinterpretation, he invents the Aerial Squirrel Transit Pod, which technically solves the problem of squirrel transportation, but does nothing to solve the problem of deforestation. This is yet another instance of people announcing odd things at conferences, a recurring theme in xkcd.
The other Smarter Planet comic is Prescriptions.
Transcript
- [Trees, with a squirrel flying in-between.]
- They say that 400 years ago a squirrel could go from the Atlantic to the Mississippi without touching the ground.
- [Cueball speaking to an audience, under a banner labeled "Conservation Society".]
- Cueball: I dream of bringing back those days.
- Cueball [pointing to a diagram of a helicopter-like device carrying a squirrel]: Which is why I've developed the aerial squirrel transit pod.
- Audience member [Offscreen]: Okay, back up.
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refresh comments!Discussion
I separated A Smarter Planet into two pages. One for each comic in the series.--17jiangz1 (talk) 12:54, 10 April 2015 (UTC)
Is there a reason for that link in the transcript? --108.162.228.5 15:03, 10 December 2015 (UTC)
"But they are featured (both of them at the same page) on xkcd under asmarterplanet." Now they link to comic 404. (Haha, but seriously) anyone got the comics? Tsumikiminiwa (talk) 22:02, 20 February 2023 (UTC)
