Last week we looked at the amazing news that astronomers had finally photographed a black hole. Or, technically, the shadow of a black hole since the black hole itself cannot be seen. I want to return to that news, because it’s awesome. And because xkcd published a piece that annotated the image to show the size of things by comparison.
I had mentioned that it was a supermassive black hole, some of the biggest of the bigs. And M87 is a beast.
Credit for the piece goes to Randall Munroe.
For some levity given today is Friday, let us get to the really contentious matters of late. Is the percentage sign acceptable in text? According to the AP, it now is. Thankfully, xkcd was on it and took a look at the acceptability of various forms of expressing a percentage.
Credit for the piece goes to Randall Munroe.
Information design has largely settled on a few key forms to communicate data. One is the error bar. But xkcd explores what can happen when we take error bars…to infinity.
Credit for the piece goes to Randall Munroe.
We made it to Friday, everybody. Although for me it, was a short week. I spent the last week on holiday in Ireland to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. And that meant I took a lot of photos. And I mean a lot. But the question when taking a photo is, in which orientation should I take the shot? A few times people would ask me to take their photo and I would take them both vertically and horizontally. Well, thankfully, xkcd has us all set with a guide to shooting video by orientation.
I have to admit, I definitely took one or two diagonal photos.
Credit for the piece goes to Randall Munroe.
Happy Friday, everybody. We made it to the end of the week. And so now we have xkcd going all back to school and teaching us all simple statistics.
For those unfamiliar with statistics, that’s not at all how it works.
Credit for the piece goes to Randall Munroe.
We made it to the end of the week, everybody. And that’s saying something.
Part of my jobs over the last several years has been to work with context experts and help them tell their stories. Sometimes I have to do it through charts and graphics. When that happens, I often need data files to help me create the final piece. I cannot tell you how many times this has happened.
Credit for the piece goes to Randall Munroe.
Last summer NASA’s Martian exploration rover Opportunity went dark as its solar panels, needed to power the golf-cart sized explorer, were covered in dust from a planet-wide dust storm. Everyone hoped that over the following months the light Martian winds and dust devils would wipe clean the dust from the solar panels and the rover could recharge its batteries, turn on its heaters, and resume contact with Earth. It hasn’t. Consequently, on Wednesday NASA called Opportunity’s mission complete. And thanks to xkcd we have a proper little farewell.
Credit for the piece goes to Randall Munroe.
We made it to the end of the week, everybody. And so now we get a look an xkcd take on one of my favourite little pieces: regionalisms. We all use terms that are specific to the areas where we live or grew up. For example, here in Philadelphia we call a cured meat, cheese, lettuce, and tomato on a long roll a hoagie. In other places, they are called a sub.
xkcd’s piece looks at regionalisms for a carbonated beverage.
Credit for the piece goes to Randall Munroe.
We made it to the end of the week, everybody. And to help celebrate, xkcd posted a little comic that contains two of my favourite subjects: geography and politics. In particular, the piece looks at the 2020 election and plate tectonics.
One doesn’t often hear of the Midcontinent Rift System.
Credit for the piece goes to Randall Munroe.
We made it to the end of the week, everyone. And that is worth celebrating. Today’s post is for all the scientists out there and anyone who has ever been interested in the atom. You know, the little things that make up matter. xkcd put together a chronological history of several different models of the atom that attempt to explain its structure.
Credit for the piece goes to Randall Munroe.
