1924

I've been thinking for a while that the inflection point where it takes more effort to write an XKCD hateblog post than it does to actually write XKCD has long since passed, but this is probably the starkest demonstration since my own short career began*. Isn't it great to have a professional NASA engineer around to tell us things that any eight-year-old child would figure out in less than five minutes?

*Not that it wasn't already true well before I started.

This whole week has been remarkably phoned-in, even by XKCD standards.

1922

First, we've got Randall's cringeworthy take on that godawful pupper meme. Sure did me a h*ckin bamboozle! It also doesn't make sense as written, since you still can't ride a single giant dog. Better to show the dogs becoming invisible through polarized sunglasses, or something.

1923

This one, though, is just depressingly crappy. What's the point of being a pedant if you can't even muster up any excitement about it? Why not use the geometric mean, or any other of the library full of esoteric functions you learn as a NASA engineer? I can feel my will to live being sapped just by thinking about this comic. This is the dementor's kiss of comics.

1921

Too many words. Should just say "Did you know space is visible from the Great Wall of China with the naked eye?"

1920

I couldn't actually bring myself to read all these. Someone let me know if one of them is funny.

1919

The best part about every news story involving telescopes is when Randall waddles up breathlessly to try and tell jokes about it.

1918

LOL DAE 90s

1917

One of the saddest consequences of the sexual revolution has been its diminution of all relationships. Sexual relationships became directed toward sex for the sake of sex, without any real concern for the good of the other person. "I'm lonely," thinks Randall, "I'll go find a girlfriend so I can feel less lonely." Non-sexual relationships have been reduced into a similarly exploitative framework, as this deeply depressing New York Times piece inadvertently illustrates. When going a-courtin', a mature individual understands that desperation is a huge turn-off. Relationships (sexual or otherwise) last when the partners are both directed toward the same truth. If Randall wants to make friends, he should stop pretending autism is a superpower and start trying to share meaningful things with other people.