xkcd

Why xkcd Creator Randall Munroe Wrote the World’s Most Extreme ‘How To’ Book

While waiting for your flight to board, you look at your phone and realize its battery is at 1 percent. You look around but can’t find a power outlet. There might be practical solutions to this problem. Or, you could follow Randall Munroe’s instructions and attach a paddle wheel to an escalator in order to…

The Most Extreme Way to Take a Selfie, According to xkcd Creator Randall Munroe

The following is an excerpt from How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems, a new book from cartoonist and science communicator Randall Munroe. How To is available on Amazon here. We sometimes think of our eyes as a pair of cameras, but human visual systems are so much more sophisticated than any camera—it’s…

Distorted Map Shows Each Country Forced Into Its Time Zone

A new map from XKCD’s Randal Monroe offers a glimpse into a bizarre alternate world where each country is forcibly squeezed into its respective time zone(s). In principle, time zones are based on the position of the Sun relative to the Earth’s surface, but most countries choose time zones that work best for them. China,…

The XKCD Phone 4: Plenty of Headphone Jacks to Go Around

Now its fourth installment, Randall Munroe’s XKCD Phone series is superb satire on the ludicrous world of smartphone rumors. Following One, Two, and Three, the XKCD Phone Four gives fans what they’ve been craving—headphone jacks, lots of headphones jacks. Oh, and wings because wings are cool. [XKCD]

Lucky High School Students Are Getting XKCD In Their Textbooks

Randall Monroe’s XKCD does a stellar job of explaining scientific concepts while also making people laugh. So, it makes a surprising amount of sense for those comics to find their way into high school textbooks. Publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has agreed a deal to use pages from Monroe’s latest book, The Thing Explainer, which explains…

XKCD has always had best takes on astronomy, and took a fun look at the news that we might actually have a 9th planet in our solar system.

How to go to space, explained in the simplest and funniest way possible

Do you want to know how to go to space? But is the technical explanation way too complicated for you and all those terms and laws of physics and complicated math just too damn confusing? Don’t worry! This truly hilarious video from MinutePhysics and XKCD will explain how to get to space using only the…

This Is How Your Computer Really Works

Really, it’s just a mess of things you’ve managed to force to co-exist and work together that, could all come tumbling down at any given moment. [XKCD]

Go Complete XKCD‘s Random Quiz in the Name of Arbitrary Science

Most surveys are written with the intent of finding something out. The XKCD survey, written by stick-cartoonist extraordinaire Randall Munroe, doesn’t have an end game — it’s just trying to collect random information from as many people as possible, and then find unlikely correlations. It’s about ten minutes long, filled with the weirdest sort of…

What Happens If a Self-Driving Car’s Passenger Isn’t a Passenger?

Presumably someone at Google is making sure that the car knows its driver is actually a human, rather than a rock. Or a particularly large cat. [XKCD]

Just because nobody uses your public key doesn’t mean it isn’t a good idea . It just means your friends don’t really care about security. [XKCD]

The XKCD Phone 3: So Good They Made Another One

Following the huge success of the XKCD Phone 1 andXKCD Phone 2, Randall Munroe has announced the XKCD Phone 3. Featuring wireless discharging, fingerprint randomizer, a magnetic stripe and more, Munroe promises that “if you’re not completely satisfied with the phone after 30 days, we will return you to your home at no cost.” It’s…

XKCD Tips Its Hat to the Microbiome (and so Should You)

When was the last time you thanked the bugs in your belly? Even if the concept of a “healthy” microbiome is flawed, the trillions of microorganisms living in your gut (and mouth, and vagina, and nose, etc.) play a vital role in many of your body’s functions. They’re so essential, many refer to the microbiome…

Get a Sneak Peek at XKCD Creator Randall Munroe’s New Book

We’re big fans of xkcd here at Gizmodo (who isn’t?), and also of learnin’ about things, so we’re pretty excited for Randall Munroe’s upcoming book of explainer drawings, THING EXPLAINER: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words. We’ve got a sneak peek for you, below. The book is a series of annotated blueprints that explain everything from…

This 8 Ball Predicts Your Future in Emojii

Will I ever find true love? How will I die? When will I get a raise? For some life’s biggest questions, the best answers must surely come from an 8-ball that predicts the future via the medium of emojii. Today’s XKCD is an interactive Emojic 8 Ball. Type you question and prepare for enlightenment—though warned…

XKCD’s Randall Munroe Is Publishing A Book Inspired by ‘Up-Goer-Five’

In his comic “Up Goer Five,” Randall Munroe labels a blueprint of NASA’s Saturn V Rocket using only the 1,000 most common English words. Today, Munroe announced he’s giving the Up-Goer-Five treatment to a range of interesting objects—like the Mars Curiosity Rover—in a new book called Thing Explainer. Via Houghton Mifflin, here’s a look at…

Today’s XKCD Finally Takes Physics To Task

To be fair, though, physics has had this coming for years. Had this coming. What do I mean by that? Back in 2008, Randall Munroe published “Purity,” a single-panel comic that characterized sociology as applied psychology, psychology as applied biology, biology as applied chemistry, chemistry as applied physics, and physics as applied math. Maybe you’ve…

How Many Operating Systems Run in Your House?

Between phones, tablets, laptops, media centers, smart home devices and whatever other technology is scattered around your home, there are likely multiple operating systems in your life. But how many, exactly? Yesterday’s XKCD took an amusing look at the past, present and future of Randall Munroe’s OS habits. How do they compare to your current…

A Chart Comparing Publication Dates To When A Story Takes Place

Randall Munroe has really outdone himself with today’s xkcd. The infographic shows when a certain story was published and then compares that date to the length of time — either in the future or past — to when the story actually took or will take place. To understand this chart, called “Stories of the Past…

The ‘Star Wars Tipping Point’ Is At Hand

Are you feeling old this morning? Here, allow xkcd to make you feel old. The passage of time. So predictable. Slow, sneaky, unrelenting, and indifferent, yes. But predictable. [xkcd]