Tag: xkcd

  • No, Your Vaccine Is Now Fully Operational

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in , ,

    Another week is over, and for the past few years I’ve often said we all made it to the end of the week. When in reality, for the last few months, thousands of people were not. We’ve started using Monday to sort of recap the state of the pandemic in a select region of the…

  • Appliance Matrix

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in ,

    Well, it’s Friday. And in the Northeast that means another snowstorm. In normal times, that would mean a nice half-hour walk to the office wherein my overcoat would likely become covered in snow and my trousers soaked in disgusting, salty, slush water. In other words, I’d need to wash and dry my clothes. But what…

  • The Earth Is a Bit Bumpy

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in ,

    Last Friday I shared an xkcd post about the relative smoothness of the Earth. This week he posted an illustration but a slightly different scale. You can see more of Earth’s jagged edges. Gotta love the Star Trek reference. I’m betting he used the length of the Kelvin timeline Enterprise, which I personally dislike, as…

  • The Earth Is Actually Quite Smooth

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in ,

    At scale. Not quite as smooth as a billiards ball, as is often claimed. But still, with the majority of the Earth’s surface covered by water, the highest mountains of Everest and K2 make for mere fractions of differences in height relative to the Earth’s size. But that did not stop xkcd from making a…

  • 2020 Election Results…

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in ,

    Via xkcd. It’s Friday and we’ve made it all to the end of the week. A little while back xkcd posted about the 2020 US election, showing where the votes for both candidates are approximately located. This isn’t quite funny like I normally might post on a Friday, but it felt appropriate after this week…

  • But What About New Zealand?

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in ,

    It’s time for another Friday just for fun posting. I once worked with a guy who could draw a map of the United States or the world on a whiteboard incredibly accurately. He then left it in the break room for the office to try and label correctly. This is kind of that, but in…

  • You Have Mail

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in ,

    Who remembers when AOL used to announce that to you? Old millennials, am I right? Anyway, your humble author is using up some more holiday time the next several days and will be on holiday for Thanksgiving. Not that I will be travelling anywhere to see anybody. And for my American audience, you really shouldn’t…

  • Mask Up

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in ,

    Well, we made it to Friday. But, if you’ve been following me on the social, you’ll know that Covid is beginning to spread once again in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Virginia, and Illinois. I live in a tower block and I can say that many of my neighbours are no longer wearing masks indoors. Yet…

  • Text Me

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in ,

    Well that was a week. Thankfully we all made it to Friday. Now, your humble author is an old millennial, which means I remember a time before the Facebook and the Whatsapp and the internets. I also remember the first carphones and mobile bricks and flip phones. But what’s stayed consistent amongst all these platforms?…

  • Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from…Venus?

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in ,

    If you didn’t hear the news, scientists have discovered a compound in the atmosphere of Venus. They’ve also ruled out a number of the normal ways the compound is created, and we’re left with two possibilities: some kind of unknown chemistry/chemical process or…aliens. It’s got to be aliens. Because it’s Friday. And because it’s Friday,…