xkcd

by **Blipo** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 4:01 am UTC

Alt: I'd like to see more damage assessments for hurricanes hitting New York and flooding Manhattan -- something like the 1938 Long Island Express, but aimed a bit more to the west. It's just a matter of time.

As a resident of Vancouver, will I ever see a hurricane? ...

Edit: Crap, Alt text.

by **joee** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 4:02 am UTC

As an Aussie, I think I'm missing most of the humour

Edit: I love "Hurricane cos(x)"

by **dreadfulduck** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 4:06 am UTC

haha!! I actually lol'ed at this one!!! It was great

by **shadowboy** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 4:08 am UTC

This is one of the funniest ones in a while.

As a resident of Florida, I found the Florida one (and by extension, the Illinois one) hilarious.

by **saxmaniac1987** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 4:09 am UTC

Wait, is that a Killer Crayon reference? Please, please let it be. Cause I can't find that game anywhere.

by **nyeguy** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 4:10 am UTC

The Tron hurricanes were my favorite, but after looking at it for a second, I finally understand the Freud one, and have to compliment Randall on the subtle joke there.

Edit: Shouldn't it be Hurricane cos(x)+7 (well, approximately 7), since it is not centered on the equator, what should the the x axis?

by **TheHand** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 4:10 am UTC

Hurricane Blue is screwed.

Sark will be pleased.

by **Swivelguy** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 4:11 am UTC

Hey, we Illinoisians don't have it too easy, we had an EARTHQUAKE!

by **saxmaniac1987** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 4:12 am UTC

Oh. Tron. Damn.

by **asad137** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 4:12 am UTC

joee wrote:As an Aussie, I think I'm missing most of the humour

Edit: I love "Hurricane cos(x)"

Just replace "hurricane" with "typhoon" and it will all make sense

The Freud hurricane is the best.

Asad

by **Ronfar** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 4:13 am UTC

Unlike many other cities, New York has absolutely no natural disasters. All of its disasters are entirely man-made.

by **jHo** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 4:15 am UTC

Kind of reminds me of the game Qix..

by **Steve the Pocket** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 4:17 am UTC

I have very little to say about this, other than... LOL AMPERSAND. And for a second I was trying to figure out how the Hurricane Red and Hurricane Blue related to "Red vs. Blue," Halo, or Unreal Tournament. Ha ha I'm dumb.

by **dreadfulduck** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 4:22 am UTC

yeah i don't get the red blue thing unless he's talking about one fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish.

But I enjoyed all the other ones, including the Freud one...love the joke, and mostly the screw it, let's just hit Florida again! hahaha very funny. Also enjoyed where the hell is Bermuda -- it took me a while to actually finally figure out where Bermuda was...I kept thinking it was more south than it actually is

by **Taerinshar** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 4:23 am UTC

Bwaha, great comic as per usual! Hey and if we ever get the Illinois-has-it-too-easy storm we'd get prairie farmers all across Canada & the US rejoicing at all the newfound rain for the crops. For the first hour or so anyways before the barns start washing away...

And I'd love to see the meteorologists try to explain the behavior of some of these hurricanes if they happened. How many press conferences can you stretch 'We haven't got a bloody clue why its doing that' into?

by **shadow_spork** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 4:28 am UTC

LOL!! This is perfect!

by **SwissArmyAnts** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 4:31 am UTC

Ronfar wrote:Unlike many other cities, New York has absolutely no natural disasters. All of its disasters are entirely man-made.

Well, there is the occasional super-blizzard, and I even recall a minor earthquake or two, but that's about it.

by **RainbowPony** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 4:32 am UTC

dreadfulduck wrote:yeah i don't get the red blue thing unless he's talking about one fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish.

Obligatory Wiki link for Red v. Blue : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tron_(arcade_game)

Hurricane Freud just reminded me of the risque Hurricane Rita.

Lawl, penis.

by **d3c31t** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 4:33 am UTC

i got every single one including the tron one except the freud one can someone please explain that to my insignificant little mind?

by **nyeguy** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 4:36 am UTC

d3c31t wrote:i got every single one including the tron one except the freud one can someone please explain that to my insignificant little mind?

Freud was very into the sexual nature of the human psyche. Look very closely at the shape of the path.

by **thedufer** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 4:36 am UTC

Love the ampersand in Where-the-Hell-is-Bermuda.

For those of you clueless, Hurricanes Red and Blue are blatant references to the classic video game Tron (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tron_(arcade_game)).

Edit: Gahh ninja'd on link.

by **d3c31t** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 4:37 am UTC

nyeguy wrote:
d3c31t wrote:i got every single one including the tron one except the freud one can someone please explain that to my insignificant little mind?

Freud was very into the sexual nature of the human psyche. Look very closely at the shape of the path.

oh god.... thanks for clearing that up.... wow i thought my mind was just in the gutter didnt realize it was intended to look like that... lol

by **vaderdudenator** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 4:38 am UTC

top notch as usual. i was just watching the light bike scene recently. cool stuff. especially pre CGI.

Also can someone explain the freud thing? i was around for floyd, and i know who freud was but IDK where the joke is.

edit: Damn, beaten to the freud question. i saw the shape but for a (generally) high brow comic like this i expected something deeper.

by **nahtanoj999** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 4:43 am UTC

Wow. Chicago and lightbikes. This comic knows how to make me happy.

by **Lunch Meat** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 4:47 am UTC

Blipo wrote:
Alt: I'd like to see more damage assessments for hurricanes hitting New York and flooding Manhattan -- something like the 1938 Long Island Express, but aimed a bit more to the west. It's just a matter of time.

As a resident of Vancouver, will I ever see a hurricane? ...

Edit: Crap, Alt text.

California will probably never see them, but we get these exciting miniature earthquakes every so often, just to keep us on our toes. Very humorous comic. I approve.

Wrong link, btw. Should be 453.

by **GodShapedBullet** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 4:58 am UTC

This was a pretty nice comic. More of these, please.

by **cephalopod9** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 5:00 am UTC

I think Hurricane Screw-It was renamed Scrambles: Dealer of Death.
Also, I feel we should go on purple alert.

by **Twinfire0** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 5:16 am UTC

Did anybody else notice how hurricane Freud not only forms a risque shape, but also appears to "modify" the state of Florida?

Randall needs a vacation... (Not to Florida apparently! Or Illinois!)

by **wxoddball** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 5:17 am UTC

Hurricane cos(x) needs more y-intercept. Not enough Coriolis force that close to the equator.

by **vodka.cobra** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 5:21 am UTC

wxoddball wrote:Hurricane cos(x) needs more y-intercept. Not enough Coriolis force that close to the equator.

Yeah. Mo' like Tropical Bipolar Depression cos(x)

by **smartalco** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 5:24 am UTC

For the record, I got every one of those jokes.

Also, this is one of the best xkcd's in a couple months.

Taerinshar wrote:Bwaha, great comic as per usual! Hey and if we ever get the Illinois-has-it-too-easy storm we'd get prairie farmers all across Canada & the US rejoicing at all the newfound rain for the crops.

Hell we would, you don't farm do you?

by **simX** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 5:33 am UTC

nyeguy wrote:Shouldn't it be Hurricane cos(x)+7 (well, approximately 7), since it is not centered on the equator, what should the the x axis?

This was my first thought when I saw Hurricane cos(x). I was also wondering if it was correctly centered about the prime meridian, because that also matters.

by **sje46** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 5:38 am UTC

Was anyone else surprised when they first learned how north Bermuda is? And it is in the middle of no where. I would have figured it be more down south in the carribean.

by **Dr Zoidberg** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 5:44 am UTC

asad137 wrote:
joee wrote:As an Aussie, I think I'm missing most of the humour

Edit: I love "Hurricane cos(x)"

Just replace "hurricane" with "typhoon" and it will all make sense

Aussies haves Cyclones.

by **minke** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 5:47 am UTC

simX wrote:
nyeguy wrote:Shouldn't it be Hurricane cos(x)+7 (well, approximately 7), since it is not centered on the equator, what should the the x axis?

This was my first thought when I saw Hurricane cos(x). I was also wondering if it was correctly centered about the prime meridian, because that also matters.

Both of these things only matter if you assume that the earth is flat. Calling this function cos(x) also is based on the assumption that at least this section of the earth is flat, but it's a more reasonable assumption because the map is only of one section of a sphere. Bringing the rest of the globe into things only makes them more complicated (and more distorted). Also, just because there's a set of coordinates already in place on the globe doesn't necessarily mean that it's mathematically handy to use them. I'm in favor of setting your axes wherever they're most convenient, in which case cos(x) is a perfectly reasonable equation for the hurricane. Though, given its proximity to freud, perhaps it would have better been called sin(x)

by **Melannen** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 5:56 am UTC

I actually chuckled at this one

Good job Randall

by **Kaiyas** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 6:03 am UTC

I got all of them, but I'm not entirely sure what hurricane freud is doing....

by **ParanoidDrone** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 6:04 am UTC

Living in Louisiana for the vast majority of my life, I grew up with hurricanes. Needless to say, this comic makes me happy. Poor Florida...and Illinois...not that I'd terribly mind if they got hit. <_< I recall reading about a hurricane in the past managing to cross the Appalachian Mountains and get into Canada or somesuch before finally dying out, but I can't remember its name for the life of me.

Slightly OT: I love it when people unfamiliar with hurricanes grossly overreact to them. A conversation between my friend and a friend of said friend after a category 3:

Friend: Hey, it's me.
Friend of Friend: YOU'RE ALIVE?
F: Um, yeah?
FOF: BUT THERE WAS A HURRICANE!
F: It was just a category 3...
FOF: A CATEGORY 3?
F: Yes...
FOF: SO YOU'RE ALIVE?
F: Um, yes.

The FOF was from California iirc, but come on. You only need to really worry once it hits category 4. Anything lower is just a massive thunderstorm for all practical purposes. Goodness knows we need the rain as of now. <_<

Also, I spent more time analyzing the paths of the hurricanes and pondering how likely they were to really happen than actually reading the comic. I'm not sure what this says about me.

by **Rathum** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 6:09 am UTC

A friend of mine just referenced this story.

I figured this thread needed an obligatory "Get out of my head!" post.

Loving the tron hurricanes.

by **Lanjolo** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 6:11 am UTC

I initially thought hurricane red would have something to do with Cuba being socialist

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