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| Sharing Bacon | [[Ferdinand and a man wearing a jacket, shirt and sunglasses are standing in a field. Ferdinand is holding a slice of bacon]]
/ Ferdinand: Want some bacon?
/ Man: Well, I'm on a "See Food" diet. If I see food, I eat it. / Man: Get it? Ha ha ha!
/ Ferdinand: Yeah, *see* food, ha ha ha! / Ferdinand: Wait, aren't you blind?
/ [[Man holds stomach and frowns.]]
/ Man: Yes, I'm starving. / {{Hover text: Hopefully I haven't offended too many of my blind readers with this comic.}} http://calamitiesofnature.com/archive/?c=512 |
| Sharing Bacon | [[Ferdinand and a man wearing a jacket, shirt and sunglasses are standing in a field. Ferdinand is holding a slice of bacon]]
/ Ferdinand: Want some bacon?
/ Man: Well, I'm on a "See Food" diet. If I see food, I eat it. / Man: Get it? Ha ha ha!
/ Ferdinand: Yeah, *see* food, ha ha ha! / Ferdinand: Wait, aren't you blind?
/ [[Man holds stomach and frowns.]]
/ Man: Yes, I'm starving. / {{Hover text: Hopefully I haven't offended too many of my blind readers with this comic.}} http://calamitiesofnature.com/archive/?c=512 |
| Are We Moral Monsters? | {{ Harold and Ferdinand sitting on a bench. Ferdinand is about to eat a sandwich. }}
/ Harold: Before you eat that sandwich, consider this-- What if a starving child was sitting next to you right now? / Ferdinand: I'd give the child my sandwich of course. What's your point?
/ Harold: We're usually only charitable when directly faced with someone in need. / Harold: There are starving children everywhere, and many are not much harder to reach than handing over a sandwich, but when they aren't affecting our awareness we somehow operate as if they don't even exist. / Harold: Makes you think doesn't it?
/ Ferdinand: It makes me thing, what if there was an unsatisfied woman next to me right now? /
/ {{alt text: Those who refuse to hand a sandwich to a starving child are considered moral monsters. But we feel intuitively that we are not so monstrous, even though we also let starving children die when we could feed them almost as easily. }}
/ {{title: And that's why I never give a staving kid a sandwich, even when he or she is right next to me. I don't want to be a hypocrite! }} http://calamitiesofnature.com/archive/?c=513 |
| Are We Moral Monsters? | {{ Harold and Ferdinand sitting on a bench. Ferdinand is about to eat a sandwich. }}
/ Harold: Before you eat that sandwich, consider this-- What if a starving child was sitting next to you right now? / Ferdinand: I'd give the child my sandwich of course. What's your point?
/ Harold: We're usually only charitable when directly faced with someone in need. / Harold: There are starving children everywhere, and many are not much harder to reach than handing over a sandwich, but when they aren't affecting our awareness we somehow operate as if they don't even exist. / Harold: Makes you think doesn't it?
/ Ferdinand: It makes me thing, what if there was an unsatisfied woman next to me right now? /
/ {{alt text: Those who refuse to hand a sandwich to a starving child are considered moral monsters. But we feel intuitively that we are not so monstrous, even though we also let starving children die when we could feed them almost as easily. }}
/ {{title: And that's why I never give a staving kid a sandwich, even when he or she is right next to me. I don't want to be a hypocrite! }} http://calamitiesofnature.com/archive/?c=513 |
| Electromagnetism | Harold: With the exception of gravity pulling us to the earth, everything around us is due to the Electromagnetic Force.
/ {{ Ferdinand is chewing something-}}
/ < http://calamitiesofnature.com/archive/?c=514 |
| What is Wrong? | {{ Harold and Ferdinand taking a walk. ]]
/ Harold: Consider the statement "Murder is wrong." Most would agree with that sentiment, even though in cases of self defense or war murder may be justified. / Harold: So how do we decide whether to agree with such a generalization? Is something considered "wrong" if it's undesirable more than 50% of the time? 90%? / Ferdinand: I don't know the answer to that, but I think we can all agree that giving away ice cream is _good_. Here, have some!
/ {{ Ferdinand holds up an ice cream cone... }} / Harold: But this is peanut butter ice cream, and you know I'm allergic to peanuts!
/ Ferdinand: You moral relativists don't appreciate anything! / {{alt text: How do we make generalizations about what is right and what is wrong? }}
/ {{title: Besides Harold is wrong about the ice cream flavor, it's actually peanut butter AND razor blades. }} http://calamitiesofnature.com/archive/?c=515 |
| Coming to a Universe Near You | {{ Harold and Aaron take a walk }}
/ Aaron: In the Many Worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics there is a universe for every physically possible reality. / Harold: I guess that means that almost anything we could imagine is happening in a universe somewhere. / Aaron: If you think about it, there's some poetic justice to that fact.
/ Harold: What do you mean? / [[ Caption: Somewhere in the multiverse... ]]
/ [[ Last panel is a view of the front page of a news paper: "The Daily News" ]]
/ [[ Banner headline, Huge type: "BREAKING NEWS" ]]
/ [[ Headline: "BILL O'REILLY AND PAT ROBERTSON ARE GAY LOVERS!" ]]
/ [[ Lines of text below that are partially readable, but trailing off the edge of the panel and below the fold of the newspaper. Text is accompanied by a photo of two people, seated side-by-side with an arm around each other, facing away from the camera. ]]
/ [[ Text: On Thursday nigh... ]]
/ [[ Text: the prominent fri... ]]
/ [[ Text: Pat Robertson an... ]]
/ [[ Text: Bill O'Rielly were ... ]]
/ [[ Text: holding hands on t.... ]]
/ [[ Text: Stonewall Inn in.. ]]
/ [[ Text: Later that nig... ]]
/ [[ Text: ...in the bathroom jacking each o... ]]
/ [[ Text: ... ??? ... ]] / {{alt text: Your average comic about Bill O'Reilly, Pat Robertson, and the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. }}
/ {{title: And when they're looking to spice things up a little, they'll share a threesome with Pat Buchanan. }} http://calamitiesofnature.com/archive/?c=516 |
| Mensa Madness | Aaron: Recently we were contacted by American MENSA and told that one of our shirts violated their trademark.
/ [[ Ferdinand and Aaron are wearing the shirts in question. ]] / Ferdinand: Actually, the shirt was a reference to the German word for "cafeteria.". We were lampooning the low IQ of cafeteria workers.
/ Aaron: Still, we removed the shirt while consulting the Calamities lawyer staff. / Ferdinand: We're excited to announce the shirt is now back.
/ Aaron: Because it'd be amusing to see the argument for why our shirt is an infringement and not a parody. / [[ Scene shifts to a court room setting. We see the judge and a pair of spokesmen representing MENSA. One is standing, holding up one of the shirts and addressing the bench...]]
/ MENSA Attorney: Your Honor, my client believes this shirt will _confuse_ potential customers.
/ Judge: I thought your client had a high IQ. / {{Alt text: A comic about my recent email from American Mensa, Ltd.}}
/ {{title: I hope this comic doesn't lead to me getting a bunch of angry emails from cafeteria workers. }} http://calamitiesofnature.com/archive/?c=517 |
| At Least This is What I Remember | [[ Harold and Ferdinand out walking. ]]
/ Harold: Recent studies show that women have better memories than men. / Harold: Women especially outperform men when it comes to remembering words, pictures, and recognizing faces. / Ferdinand: Were the test subjects asked to recall who was on the July 1992 cover of Playboy?
/ Harold: Uh... no...
/ Ferdinand: Then clearly the study was biased. / {{Alt text: Recent studies show that women have better memories than men, but what are these studies really testing?}}
/ {{title: Protip: make sure your boss isn't looking over your shoulder when you Google "playboy july 1992". }}
/ {{keyword: Pamela Anderson}} http://calamitiesofnature.com/archive/?c=518 |
| The Circle is Complete | [[ Harold and Aaron out walking. ]]
/ Harold: Sometimes I worry when people with high-powered, time-consuming careers, like lawyers, decide to have children. / Harold: These parents often don't have time to devote to their kid's needs when focused on their ambitious law careers. If children don't receive enough love and attention, what happens to them when they grow up? / Aaron: They become lawyers too. / {{Alt text: A comic about lawyers raising children.}}
/ {{title: And if the law thing doesn't work out, they can always become politicians... }} http://calamitiesofnature.com/archive/?c=519 |
| Caption Contest III | [[ Caption Contest III ]]
/ [[ Ferdinand prepares to drive a futuristic vehicle. There's dials and indicators, bulbs, souped up exhaust pipes, some sort of reactor vessel filled with greenish liquid and a strip of bacon, a rocket nozzle at the rear. On the side of the vehicle: symbols for atomic, radiation, and bio-hazard. Ferd sits in the drivers seat, wearing a Roman-Centurion style crash helmet, gritting his teeth, ready to go...]]
/ [[ Aaron (with arms folded), Harold (covering his eyes), and Raymond (hands at his cheeks, appalled) look on as Alp indicates the brick wall which is the apparent target of the vehicle. ]]
/ Alp: Our large Ferd Collider will reveal the existence of the Higgs Bacon! / {{ Alt-Text: I'm sure Ferdinand and Alp know what they're doing here. }}
/ {{ Title: Don't expect any alt-text from me, you're the ones who are supposed to be funny this time! }} http://calamitiesofnature.com/archive/?c=520 |
| Creationist Parenting | [[ In this strip, we see Ferdinand and Little Ferdinand. Ferd Jr is a smaller version of Ferdinand with wide-open eyes, unlike his dad's normal squint-eyed look. ]]
/ [[ First panel: Follow these easy steps and you too can raise your child to be a creationist. ]] / [[ Caption: Make use of Educational TV... ]]
/ Ferdinand: See, this is undisputable proof that people lived together with dinosaurs.
/ Ferd Jr: It's the Flintstones. / [[ Caption: Always emphasize gaps in understanding... ]]
/ Ferdinand: If birds evolved from dinosaurs, where's the fossil that fills the gap?
/ Ferd Jr: There's Archaeopteryx.
/ Ferdinand: Well, now there are two gaps. / [[ Caption: Keep your kids away from a higher education... ]]
/ Ferd Jr: Dad, I want to go to college.
/ Ferdinand: Stay home-- I'll give you all the booze, drugs, and girls you want! / {{ alt text: Follow these easy steps and you too can raise your child to be a creationist. }}
/ {{ title: And if these steps don't work, you can always perform a frontal lobotomy. }} http://calamitiesofnature.com/archive/?c=521 |
| Perseverance | [[ Harold and Ferdinand take a walk. It seems to be winter, with a thin layer of snow on the ground. ]]
/ Harold: As children, we're constantly told that perseverance is an admirable quality. / [[ Now the snow has become a little deeper, about ankle-depth. ]]
/ Harold: But really, recognizing diminishing returns, and knowing when to give up, can be one of the hardest things to do and requires a lot of maturity. / [[ The snow is quite deep now, reaching our character's upper thighs. ]]
/ Harold: You have to weigh the investments that you _know_ you've already made against a payoff that may or may not ever come. / Harold: What do you think?
/ Ferdinand: We should definitely keep going.
/ [[ The snow is very deep-- only the tops of their heads show as they continue to push channels through the snow. ]] / {{ alt text: Knowing when to persevere versus when to give up can be one of the hardest decisions to make. }}
/ {{ title: There's a fine line between perseverance and insanity. }} http://calamitiesofnature.com/archive/?c=522 |
| Three's a Crowd | [[ Ferdinand and Raymond at home. Raymond is watching TV. ]]
/ Ferdinand: Watching "Total Recall"?
/ Raymond: Yup, nothing beats a movie with a three-breasted woman. / Ferdinand: Hey, my girlfriend actually has three breasts too.
/ Raymond: No way, you're making that up.
/ Ferdinand: I'll show you. / [[ Caption: Later... ]]
/ Ferdinand: Ta-Dah!
/ Raymond: Uh Ferd, I've got some bad news for you...
/ [[ Let's just say that Ferd's girlfriend is: 1) wearing a form-fitting sweater (and probably shouldn't be); 2) doesn't wear a bra (and probably should); and 3) is probably pregnant (or has a beer-belly). ]] / {{ Alt-Text: A comic about the best scene of the movie Total Recall starring Arnold Schwartzenegger. }}
/ {{ Title: The worst part is that this isn't the first time Ferd's made this mistake... }} http://calamitiesofnature.com/archive/?c=523 |
| Research Inspiration | [[ Ferdinand explains- hands out, palms up, speaking to someone off panel... ]]
/ Ferdinand: Richard Feynmann was a Nobel Prize winning physicist who was known to regularly work at topless bars. / [[ Ferdinand continues, more emphatic gestures... ]]
/ Ferdinand: Erwin Schrodinger, one of the founders of Quantum Mechanics, claimed some of his greatest discoveries came in between sessions with his mistresses. / [[ An arm reaches in from off panel, returning a stack of papers to Ferdinand... ]]
/ Off-Panel: I'm sorry, we still can't accept your NSF proposal.
/ Ferdinand: [[ Hands thrown up over his head ]] But the gyrating bodies are crucial for my research! / {{ alt text: The famous physicists Richard Feynman and Erwin Schrodinger lead interesting lives. }} / {{ title: I guess we'll never find out whether gravity and quantum mechanics can be unified via g-string theory. }} / {{keywords: physics}} http://calamitiesofnature.com/archive/?c=524 |
| Proof for Evolution | [[ This comic presents a sort of "genealogy chart". The chart is titled "PROOF FOR EVOLUTION".]]
/ [[ At the top level: "Creationism", which divides into "Young Earth Creationism" and "Old Earth Creationism". ]]
/ [[ "Young Earth Creationism" begat "Scientific Creationism", which then split into "Modern Young Earth Creationism" and "Neo-creationism". ]]
/ [[ "Neo-creationism" then splits into "Abrupt Appearance Theory" and "Intelligent Design". ]]
/ [[ Moving back up to the top, below "Creationism", the "Old Earth Creationism" branch divides into "Gap Creationism" and "Day-Age Creationism".]]
/ [[ "Day-Age Creationism" splits into "Progressive Creationism" and "Evolutionary Creationism". ]]
/ [[ Finally, "Evolutionary Creationism" becomes "Theistic Evolution". ]] / {{ Alt-Text: Finally, the indisputable proof for evolution that we've all been waiting for. }}
/ {{ Title: It's actually difficult to draw a simple family tree like this because there has been so much intermixing between different forms of creationism. I guess you could say that the history of creationism is full of inbreeding. }}
/ {{key words: atheism, religion, evolution, graph}} http://calamitiesofnature.com/archive/?c=525 |
| Consciousness | [[ Raymond and Harold out for a walk. ]]
/ Raymond: One of the great unsolved mysteries in Science is how this material world gives rise to consciousness. / Raymond: Even after many decades of research in artificial intelligence, the ability to create consciousness seems more elusive than ever. / Harold: The research is interesting, but even before these issues are resolved, I'd just like to know one thing first.
/ Raymond: What's that? / Harold: What _is_ the definition of "Consciousness"? / {{ alt text: Is there an agreed upon definition of consciousness? }}
/ {{ title: Another, related question: Is it possible to know what consciousness is without achieving it first? }} http://calamitiesofnature.com/archive/?c=526 |
| Amazing Technology | [[ Raymond and Harold out for a walk. ]]
/ Harold: Sometimes I think we take for granted all the amazing technology we have around us. / Harold: You know what would be interesting? Take a bunch of famous people from the past, transport them to the present, and see their reactions to our modern world. / Raymond: Wait, didn't Alp already try that the one time he invented a time machine?
/ Harold: Oh Yeah, what was the one aspect of technology everyone found most impressive? / [[ Scene shifts. We see a group of 5 historical figures: Shakespeare, George Washington Carver (Martin Luther King Jr?), an ancient Greek figure (Aristotle? Socrates? Plato?), Albert Einstein, Abraham Lincoln. All are grouped around a computer monitor while Alp watches in the background. ]]
/ Chorus: FREE PORN?!?! / {{ alt text: If you could transport famous people from the past to the present, and ask them what aspect of modern technology they find most impressive, what would it be? }}
/ {{ title: Please note, the dialogue in the final panel was translated to English for ease of reading. }} http://calamitiesofnature.com/archive/?c=527 |
| Yo Mama Jokes: Star Wars Edition | [[ First panel: Calamities of Nature presents... Yo Mama Jokes: Star Wars Edition ]] / Ferdinand: Yo Mama is so fat that when the Stormtroopers fire their blasters they actually hit her. / Ferdinand: Yo Mama is such a slut that her openings are easier to infiltrate than the Death Star's. / Ferdinand: Yo Mama is so dumb that she thinks Greedo shot first. / {{ Alt-Text: For Star Wars Day, a comic featuring yo mama jokes about stormtroopers, the Death Star, and Greedo. }}
/ {{ Title: May the fourth be with you. }} http://calamitiesofnature.com/archive/?c=528 |
| Going to the Movies | [[ Raymond shouts to Ferdinand, off panel ]]
/ Raymond: Ready to go see the movie "Thor"?
/ Ferdinand: Yup!... / [[ Ferdinand appears, holding two cameras, one in each hand. ]]
/ Ferdinand: ... And I'm going to bootleg it to make some money at the same time.
/ Raymond: Wait, why do you have _two_ video cameras? / Ferdinand: It's in 3D. / {{ Alt-Text: This weekend the movie Thor opens, about the popular Mavel comics character, starring Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman. }}
/ {{ Title: This really works. Just use two flat screens side by side, and focus your eyes straight ahead. }} http://calamitiesofnature.com/archive/?c=529 |
| Praying to a Higher Power | [[ Single panel comic today. ]]
/ [[ Ferdinand, in a car, driving along a road. ]]
/ [[ In the rear window of the car, a decal shows a kneeling figure, hands clasped and head bowed. ]]
/ [[ The figure is facing a shadow, cast by what appears to be a Christian cross. ]]
/ [[ On closer inspection, it would appear the cross is actually formed by two crossed strips of bacon. ]] / {{ Alt-Text: A comic about those prayer decals that everyone seems to have on their vehicles. }}
/ {{ Title: Praise the Lard! }} http://calamitiesofnature.com/archive/?c=530 |
| Edwin Hubble | Harold: Edwin Hubble was one of the all-time great astronomers. / Harold: One of his most famous discoveries was that all distant galaxies are receding from the Milky Way, providing some of the first evidence for the Big Bang. / Aaron: A quick Google search indicates that he also had quite an affinity for being photographed with a pipe. / [[ Center strip is a collage of 9 photos showing Edwin Hubble in a variety of poses-- Reading a magazine, looking into a telescope eyepiece, watching Albert Einstein looking into an eyepiece, holding a cat, lighting his pipe, at his desk, and out of doors. In all but one he holds his pipe clenched firmly in his mouth. In the one exception he appears to be speaking, the pipe is held prominently in his hand. ]] / Harold: It has even been said that when Hubble stopped smoking due to Doctor's orders, he still always carried a pipe in case a photograph would be taken.
/ [[ Behind Harold, another view of an older Hubble, still with pipe in mouth. ]] / Aaron: So when the US Postal Service decided to make a commemorative stamp of Hubble, of course they respected the image that this great astronomer wanted to portray... / [[ Aaron and Harold look at an enlargement of the new stamp. There's Hubble, in front of a starry sky with a telescope dome in the background. ]]
/ [[ But no pipe. ]]
/ Harold: D'oh!
/ Aaron: Hubble must be red-shifting in his grave. / {{ Alt-Text: Edwin Hubble was an American astronomer who profoundly changed understanding of the universe by confirming the existence of galaxies other than our own, the Milky Way. }}
/ {{ Title: The first semester of graduate studies in astronomy: how to smoke a pipe. }} / {{keywords: physics, astronomy, cosmology, astrophysics, big bang}} http://calamitiesofnature.com/archive/?c=531 |
| Vermin | [[ A plate with some crusts left out on the table...]]
/ Aaron: Who left this Pizza crust out?! / [[ Harold in an easy chair, reading a book...]]
/ Harold: That was me, sorry. Were you worried about getting cockroaches? / Aaron: No, worse.
/ [[ Knock! Knock! at the door. Aaron goes to open the door... ]] / Aaron: Grad Students.
/ [[ We see a horde of student waiting outside ]]
/ Grad Student chorus: Did we smell free food ?!?! / {{ Alt-Text: A comic about cockroaches and other vermin. }}
/ {{ Title: Don't worry, a can of Raid? will still do the job. }} http://calamitiesofnature.com/archive/?c=532 |
| Genghis Khan | Harold: Since the Y-chromosome is passed from father to son, it can be used to follow a family's lineage far back into the past. / Harold: From this we can estimate that today 16 million men share the Y-chromosome of Genghis Khan, making him one of the most prolific men in history. / Ferdinand: That's all the excuse I need to hear, let's start pillaging!
/ [[ Ferd is dressed in "Mongol Horde" style armor, helmet, mustache and beard, and holding a large sword. ]]
/ Harold: Uh, I don't think the genes were passed to non-humans.
/ Ferdinand: You never know! / {{alt text: A comic about Genghis Khan, the founder, Khan (ruler) and Khagan (emperor) of the Mongol Empire. }}
/ {{Title: Breaking news: Online comic Calamities of Nature initiates world-wide pillaging epidemic! }} http://calamitiesofnature.com/archive/?c=533 |
| Mind Control | Harold: The parasite "Toxoplasma Gondii" can only reproduce sexually in the intestines of cats. / Caption: "When the parasite infects a rat, it controls the rat's brain and make the rat feel attracted to cats. This allows the rat to get eaten, so the parasite can reproduce".
/ [[ Image of a round, purple-speckled circle, presumably a microscopic view of the parasite. ]] / Harold: Amazingly enough, one in ten Americans carry this parasite and in some countries the infection rate is seven to eight times higher. / Aaron: I guess that explains the internet.
/ Ferdinand: [[ Sitting at a computer ]] I can't stop looking at these cute cat pictures! / {{alt text: A comic about Toxoplasma gondii, the parasite that cats will use to eventually take over the world. }}
/ {{Title: I CAN HAS TOXOPLASMOSIS?}} http://calamitiesofnature.com/archive/?c=534 |
| Bad Analogy | [[Harold and Aaron are walking through the forest.]]
/ Harold: The right-wing group "Focus on the Family" put out a video arguing against the legalization of gay marriage. / Harold: The analogy they use is that allowing gay marriage is as unnatural as gravity repelling things instead of pulling them together. / Aaron: I guess they haven't heard of dark energy. / {{Alt text: A comic about the recent Focus on the Family video on how gay marriage is like breaking the laws of gravity.}}
/ {{Rollover text: More like GAY energy, am I rite?!}} http://calamitiesofnature.com/archive/?c=535 |
| General Relativity | Aaron: In 1919, Sir Arthur Eddington measured the deflection of star light by the sun during a solar eclipse, confirming Einstein's theory of General Relativity on how mass warps space.
/ [[ Aaron indicates a background photo of a total solar eclipse. ]] / Aaron: [[narrating from off panel ]] The news made Einstein an instant celebrity.
/ [[ Panel shows a yellowed newspaper clipping dated November 7, 1919 ]]
/ [[ Headlines: Revolution in Science" "New theory of the universe" "Newtonian Ideas overthrown" ]] / Aaron: A less known story is that when Einstein first calculated the light bending, he was off by a factor of two.
/ [[ Background shows hand-written calculations in a lab notebook. ]] / Aaron: In 1914, German scientists went to Russia to observe an eclipse, which would have proven Einstein wrong. / Aaron: [[narrating from off panel ]] But when World War I broke out, the scientists were captured by the Russians, and were not able to make the measurement.
/ [[ Panel shows a photo of WW I troops marching in review past a group of officers, headed down a long road. ]] / Aaron: It makes one wonder how things could have been different, especially since Einstein used his fame to warn FDR about nuclear bombs, initiating the Manhattan project.
/ [[ Background shows a copy of Einstein's WW II letter to the president. ]] / Aaron: [[narrating from off panel ]] So next time you're doing a problem set, double check your work. You never know what the consequences may be..."
/ [[ Panel show Harold, panicking, and Alp saying...]]
/ Alp: I just forgot a minus sign.
/ [[ ... against a background of massive atomic explosions. ]] / {{ Alt-Text: A comic about the history of Einstein's Theory of General Relativity and how it relates to the two World Wars. }}
/ {{ Title: On the other hand, for me being wrong by JUST a factor of two would be reason for celebration. }} / {{keywords: physics, math}} http://calamitiesofnature.com/archive/?c=536 |
| How Versus Why | Harold: Even with all of Science's successes, it's fundamentally limited because it only provides descriptions and not explanations. / Harold: For example, Einstein's General Relativity gives a mathematical description of how gravity acts, but it doesn't tell us why. / Aaron: Why did you eat a sandwich today?
/ Harold: I was hungry, and it was lunch time, so I bought a sandwich. / Aaron: Was that an explanation or a description? / {{ Alt-Text: A comic about the criticism that science only provides descriptions of how nature works but not explanations. }}
/ {{ Title: Two comics in two days that reference general relativity... will I make it three for three? }} http://calamitiesofnature.com/archive/?c=537 |
| Cheat Sheet | Alp: The end of the school year is approaching for many of you. / Alp: To help on your final exams, we've created a cheat sheet that you can cut out and sneak into you science and engineering classes. / [[ The third panel is 2 complex equations in a neat cut-out box. ]]
/ [[ According to commenter "Maestoso": ]]
/ [[ Maestoso: ... the first one is a quantum field theory Lagrangian. ... From that equation, you can derive a tonne of stuff in quantum field theory. ]]
/ [[ Maestoso: The other equation is the Einstein equation of general relativity. ...]]
/ [[ Maestoso: Now, if you're really good, you can combine those two equations to derive almost all of physics. ... ]] / Alp: There, now you can derive anything else you need for your tests! / {{ Alt-Text: A cheat sheet for your science and engineering final exams. }}
/ {{ Title: Disclaimer: If you use this cheat sheet, you may need to request a little extra time to finish your exam. }} http://calamitiesofnature.com/archive/?c=538 |
| Spreading Fear | [[ Harold and Aaron take a walk. ]]
/ Harold: No matter where you look these days, there's someone trying to convince you to be afraid of the world. / Harold: It doesn't matter if it's conservative or liberal media, because spreading fear sells better than providing information. / Aaron: Does that scare you? / {{ Alt-Text: No matter where you look these days, there's someone trying to convince you to be afraid of the world. }}
/ {{ Title: Boo! }} http://calamitiesofnature.com/archive/?c=539 |
| Light Pollution | [[Harold and Raymond sit on a cliff looking at a city across the water on a starlit night.]]
/ Harold: It must have been amazing before there was light pollution everywhere. Every night you could see a spectacular star-filled sky, no matter where you were. / Harold: I wonder if astronomy would be more popular with the general public today if this was still the case. / Alp: What if I sabotaged the local city's power supply?
/ Harold: Wow, just think how impressed everyone would be by all the stars. / {{Later at the 911 call center}}
/ < http://calamitiesofnature.com/archive/?c=540 |
| Cell Phones | [[Ferd is talking on the cell phone.]]
/ Fred: Hey Aaron, did you hear that the World Health Organization announced that cell phones may cause brain cancer? / [[Aaron replies over the cell phone]]
/ Aaron: They simply classified cell phones as Group 2B carcinogens, a list that includes pickled vegetables and coffee. / Aaron: The media is making it a bigger deal than it really is.
/ Ferd: Okay? / [[The view pans out to reveal Ferd in a wrecked car that has smoke coming out of it. The car has crashed into a One-Way sign, with the front of the car in the opposite direction as the One-Way sign. It is implied that Ferd crashed his car while talking on the phone.]]
/ Ferd: ?then I guess cell phones aren't that dangerous after all. / {{alt-text: Moral of the story: you can't make cell phones safer by instead making them out of pickled vegetables.}} http://calamitiesofnature.com/archive/?c=541 |
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