I found this comic through SD as it seems many Dopers are fans.
I thought you might find this interview with Randall Munroe & article on his new book interesting:
What, no link to XKCD? Here’s one
From the article:
The story he’s probably remembering is “My Son, the Physicist”, a short-short written by Asimov (though the story only involved communicating with a base on Pluto, far short of lightyears). It was written for hire from a radio company, who wanted stories from the great authors short enough to fit into a magazine ad, with the only constraint being that the story must involve communication (“Searchlight” was Heinlein’s contribution; I’m not remembering Clarke’s at the moment).
And speaking of XKCD, does anyone else wonder why Thor can throw a car further than he can Mjolnir?
I didn’t until now. His interactive comics don’t seem to work in my usual browsers.
I think he handled the “only the worthy” thing by making the hammer arbitrarily heavy - way heavier than a car, which (depending on the car) could at least be lifted by a real human, if not thrown.
Interestingly, the three shortest distances for things Thor can throw are, in order, a car, his hammer, and a ping-pong ball, which he can only throw a whopping 13 meters. I guess he included wind resistance in the model?
Today’s episode of Science Friday had an amazing interview with Munroe:
Audio at the link (27+minutes) and also some other useful links.
I love that Serena Williams agreed to try to hit a drone.
Brian
This should be the official xkcd of the GD forum.
I am thinking that there was a lost opportunity for a Squirrel Girl joke, though.