In-law Trees

Happy Friday, all. I’ve been busy preparing for a trip to Boston next week where I’ll continue to research my family’s history. But family trees and generational relationships between cousins can be confusing. Over at xkcd, however, it turns out the in-law relationships are more confusing.

It's all confusing…
It’s all confusing…

I don’t think I blame him.

Credit for the piece goes to Randall Munroe.

The James Webb Telescope: Delayed Again

A few weeks ago it was announced that NASA’s James Webb space telescope would see its launch delayed again. The successor to the Hubble telescope was originally supposed to launch several years ago, but now it won’t fly until at least 2021. Thankfully xkcd covered this slipping launch date.

Sad trombone
Sad trombone

Credit for the piece goes to Randall Munroe.

The Brightest Night Lites

Today is Friday. We all made it through yet another week. So let us look up into the evening sky tonight and see the Hertzsprung–Russel diagram in action. Or, we can take xkcd’s expanded version and just enjoy ourselves.

Alas, I too am in the lower right corner…
Alas, I too am in the lower right corner…

Credit for the piece goes to Randall Munroe.

It’s Finally Sunny in Philadelphia (on the Weekend)

Here in Philadelphia, the weekend is forecast to be not rainy, which is a departure from the last several weeks. So this piece from xkcd’s Randall Munroe seemed appropriate.

That gap is also something like 150 million kilometres away
That gap is also something like 150 million kilometres away

Credit for the piece goes to Randall Munroe.

Technical Data Visualisation

I work with economists. And so I get to see working papers and other technical papers on a rather frequent basis. But I still have no way of verifying this premise. Though I most certainly believe in that dip…

I mean all things go downhill when PowerPoint is involved…I'm not bitter, I swear.
I mean all things go downhill when PowerPoint is involved…I’m not bitter, I swear.

Credit for the piece goes to Randall Munroe.

The Next Generation

Last Friday my friend tweeted about the new Pew definition of what a Millennial truly is. I began thinking of a joke about how to define the next generation. Alas, the always spot on xkcd of Randall Munroe beat me to it. (Though his is far better than what I could have imagined.)

You'll get what I wanted to do…
You’ll get what I wanted to do…

Credit for the piece goes to Randall Munroe.