0497: "Secretary: Part 4"

[fishyfish777]

Too bad Motorcycles can't fly.

[jevans90]

i did the attached animation
its made of 70 imgs, 3 are .5 long and 67 are 0.08
i actualy have 150, but when i uploaded the other 80 into my animator it crashed, i think it didnt like my size variation...
ill redo sometime, ive actualy drawn (labouriously in paint) up to the point the guns kachunk out

yay for me, the most bored, and possibly only, english dude into XKCD
whoop whoop

I am also English and bored. This comic is the only thing keeping me sane this week.

[ank]

xkcd finally jumps the shark. I guess it was meant to happen

- ank

[roc314]

Am I the only one who's a bit disappointed in this comic? The Tron Paul pun was great, and the alt-text was awesome. But ...

The characters seem to be acting horribly out of character. the Ronpaul and Doctorow fighting? That seems really weird, they have almost the same ideals regarding the internet. And why is the Ronpaul suddenly trying to help main-stream politics? Does he even have influence in the White House? He's not exactly popular in his own party. It's just weirdness. Why is Doctorow supporting BHG? I mean sure they are both bloggers, but c'mon. BHG would certainly bring the internet under totalitarian control (HIS control, not governments, but still). Why would doctorow support that?

But why would BHG bring about totalitarian control? Looking at Secretary 2, he is apparently closely related to /b/. Do you think that /b/ would try to bring the internets under complete control? No! They would work towards less centralized control.

BHG would probably abuse his power, but not like that.

[Sygnal]

Nevertheless, Tron Paul just blows my mind.
Too bad we can't hit B to cancel the evolution...

[Synthuir]

Too bad Motorcycles can't fly.

Who says? They seem to be very near the ground at that point, and we've all seen clips of vehicles flying out of planes, and stuff.

[cnarf]

I think the last panel needs to be a bumper sticker!

[AWA]

Having read through all four pages of posts, I think that I can safely say that there is a definite possibility that Randall will continue this arc past this week (remember Journal?). Anyhoo, this comic was epic, and if you didn't get all the references that made it epic, then shame on you.

[This_is_a_username]

this entire comic was epic

[MuToiD_MaN]

Too bad Motorcycles can't fly.

Nor can penguins, but what's your point, so-emblazoned in needlessly large text?

edit: unless you mean LIGHTcycles?

[JoshuaZ]

When asked about it later he said it was a theory, and was unsure of the methodology behind a creator creating us. I think he knows that a large portion of his support comes from Republicans, and he wouldn't want to alienate them, which is why he tried to stay on the fence on this one.

*snip*

I'm a little lost as to why people get offended to some phrases...

"Evolution is a theory"
"SO IS GRAVITY!!!!!!!"
"Yes... yes it is..."

Notice I can say "Gravity is a theory" without claiming I can fly? Notice the lack of vitriol headed my way for saying it? That's because when evolution is the first word, emotion comes into play, not logic.

Unfortunately most often when people say that evolution is just a theory it is because they don't understand that the meaning of "theory" to a scientist is very different than the meaning of theory in the colloquial sense. When people say "evolution is just a theory" they mean "evolution is some wild guess those scientists dudes have."

Thus, when he said "I think it's a theory, the theory of evolution and I don't accept it as a theory." Paul demonstrated that he had at minimum a serious failure to understand basic science terminology.

[gringer]

I think I'm going to jump in here and point out the obvious, which I don't think has yet been stated in enough explicit detail for a few people to "get".

Cory Doctorow's balloon goes "Boing! Boing!" in this comic. Cory Doctorow is a co-editor of a blog called Boing Boing.

[Carnildo]

Ok. I need to understand. XKCD as well as slashdot and a lot of other nerdy place is filled with the Ronpaul fanboys (and girls). Not being from the US, I just got to read his biography on the wikipedia and can't help but being surprised. I understand that the fact he stands by the constitution makes him a "good guy" and he sounds to have good fiscal policies but surely he can't be the only one ? He also holds views that are generally opposite of what liberal geeks hold : pro-life, pro-privateeing, doesn't believe in evolution...

Why do you like him ? I see the "free market hacker" image he could have but it doesn't seem enough. Anyone care to explain why he is so popular among geeks ?

The thing most people miss is that the Ronpaul's political views aren't Republican, they're Libertarian. Yes, he's anti-abortion and doesn't believe in evolution, but it doesn't matter: those are his personal views, not something he's going to have the government force on everyone. As a Libertarian, the main thing he stands for is keeping the government from interfering with people, and Slashdot readers love that.

[Synthuir]

Plus, the Ronpaul wants to kill your taxes, and gamers and geeks can always use that extra $0.33.

Edit: The discussion will drag on here awhile longer:
"This week XKCD updates every day. Stay tuned!
The comic will be up shortly!"

[glasnt]

Plus, the Ronpaul wants to kill your taxes, and gamers and geeks can always use that extra $0.33.

Edit: The discussion will drag on here awhile longer:
"This week XKCD updates every day. Stay tuned!
The comic will be up shortly!"

We get daily updates, but they aren't delivered exactly on time.

I'm not sure if this evens out as more awesome than usual, or an average awesomeness rating on my awesomemeter..

[Synthuir]

Yeah, I know, I was just commenting on the fact that he seems to be running behind, despite the fact that he's already got them all finished.

This is truly an amazing comic, yet not my favourite of the arc. If there'd been something after Tron Paul, or something else to make it just that much funnier, I'd be in hysterical bouts of laughter on the floor, right now.

I forgot about Boing Boing, but it was always somewhere in my head....

[1337geek]

Too bad Motorcycles can't fly.

Who says? They seem to be very near the ground at that point, and we've all seen clips of vehicles flying out of planes, and stuff.

Nor can penguins, but what's your point, so-emblazoned in needlessly large text?

edit: unless you mean LIGHTcycles?

I would guess that this is a reference to Harry Potter. You know, when Harry says he dreamed of a flying motorcycle and Uncle Vernon turns around and screams "motorcycles can't fly!"

[glasnt]

There's no such thing as magic. *folds arms*

[meat.paste]

Dire Straits sez, "I want my... I want my...I want XKCD"

Where the heck is part 5?
I wake up, and it's here. Yay, Randall!

[Benson]

Think I'll go start the discussion thread for Secretary: Part 5 now... I know the image and comic URLs, and I can say Title-text: "The comic will be up shortly! (within the hour)"; should be good, right?

Why do I think the mods wouldn't stand for it...

On the bright side, "within the hour" means I won't be sitting here reloading after the woot.

Edit: obviously not. Within which hour, I wonder?

[sargeras0000]

Well, it's past the hour. Personally, I'm dissapointed, even though Randall obviously has no obligation whatsoever to update this site, and provides us with a great service by willingly doing so and providing these comics for free.

[This_is_a_username]

Me Want Part 5 Comic!!!1!

[pyroman]

oh nos! its 1:30 and its still not up... it looks like the tubes really are clogged... Tron Paul was too late....

[saywhatman]

Hey! Its up! You have to go click next on the xkcd homepage though

[Baalthazaq]

Thus, when he said "I think it's a theory, the theory of evolution and I don't accept it as a theory." Paul demonstrated that he had at minimum a serious failure to understand basic science terminology.

At minimum? I think that jus means the minimm you're willing to give him credit for. Personally I think it was a bad attempt at sidelining the evolution issue and remaining on the fence. I also tink the scientific usage of the word theory is consistant with the remainder of his answer.

[JoshuaZ]

Thus, when he said "I think it's a theory, the theory of evolution and I don't accept it as a theory." Paul demonstrated that he had at minimum a serious failure to understand basic science terminology.

At minimum? I think that jus means the minimm you're willing to give him credit for. Personally I think it was a bad attempt at sidelining the evolution issue and remaining on the fence. I also tink the scientific usage of the word theory is consistant with the remainder of his answer.

I'm not following you. Could you expand on what you mean by saying that the remainder of his answer is consistent with the scientific usage of the word?

[MuToiD_MaN]

Too bad Motorcycles can't fly.

Who says? They seem to be very near the ground at that point, and we've all seen clips of vehicles flying out of planes, and stuff.

Nor can penguins, but what's your point, so-emblazoned in needlessly large text?

edit: unless you mean LIGHTcycles?

I would guess that this is a reference to Harry Potter. You know, when Harry says he dreamed of a flying motorcycle and Uncle Vernon turns around and screams "motorcycles can't fly!"

Feh. Harry Potter. No wonder I didn't catch the reference. But I Googled it and the quote is supposed to be "Motorcycles don't fly" if that's what's intended here.

[fishyfish777]

Too bad Motorcycles can't fly.

Who says? They seem to be very near the ground at that point, and we've all seen clips of vehicles flying out of planes, and stuff.

Nor can penguins, but what's your point, so-emblazoned in needlessly large text?

edit: unless you mean LIGHTcycles?

I would guess that this is a reference to Harry Potter. You know, when Harry says he dreamed of a flying motorcycle and Uncle Vernon turns around and screams "motorcycles can't fly!"

Feh. Harry Potter. No wonder I didn't catch the reference. But I Googled it and the quote is supposed to be "Motorcycles don't fly" if that's what's intended here.

Nevermind that.

[Seo]

Come on, nobody said it?

Dr. No v. Doctorow

Also, I love that the Ronpaul carries all his gold around in the blimp.

[CrazyCarl]

Earlier today, the twitter account @RonPaulFlix, an account devoted to posting videos of the congressman, posted the following:

the Ronpaul has always fought for the user... RT! #tcot #ronpaul #obama #gop #tron

Good to see even the the Ronpaul campaign is checking out XKCD!