xkcd

[Quill]

Haha, my headcanon for today's comic is definitely that Cueball is far more disturbed by the thought of yet another launch delay than the potential threat to Santa Claus. I love how xkcd always has special comics for exciting space news.

[theangelJean]

Haha, my headcanon for today's comic is definitely that Cueball is far more disturbed by the thought of yet another launch delay than the potential threat to Santa Claus. I love how xkcd always has special comics for exciting space news.

Well, the Range Safety Officer agreed with you!

[Fyraltari]

As I said, Randal isn't wrong. It just feels like he is setting up a strawman argument to show everyone how clever he is.

Being wrong for Cueball to correct is kind of White Hat's entire purpose in life.

[Lord Torath]

There's a countdown timer on the top right of the website: https://xkcd.com/

Anyone know what's being counted down to? It looks like it's about the end of January.

[Keltest]

Groundhog's day maybe?

[Lord Torath]

No, he's a day off for that. If my math is right, it hits "zero" at 0:00 hours on Feb 1st at Greenwich Mean Time. No, my math is wrong. It will hit at about 15:00 hours on Feb 1st at GMT. Which means it will probably be Feb 2nd in Australia at that point, but Groundhog Day (as I understand it) tends to be a US-only thing.

Nope, still wrong. See Rodin's post below. Sometimes I can do math in my head. Other times...

[Rodin]

No, he's a day off for that. If my math is right, it hits "zero" at 0:00 hours on Feb 1st at Greenwich Mean Time. No, my math is wrong. It will hit at about 15:00 hours on Feb 1st at GMT. Which means it will probably be Feb 2nd in Australia at that point, but Groundhog Day (as I understand it) tends to be a US-only thing.

My math gets me January 31st? I live on GMT, and today is January 12th. 18 days gets us to January 30th, with less than 24 hours left over that puts the time at 15:00 on January 31st.

[theangelJean]

There's been speculation on explainxkcd that it's a book launch. So ... Is it different times in different time zones? Or different dates, even?

[137beth]

Today's is about language development, but it fails to mention programming languages.

[Sermil]

There's a countdown timer on the top right of the website: https://xkcd.com/

Anyone know what's being counted down to? It looks like it's about the end of January.

It's got a line in the image now, which has been slowly move up-and-right. My guess is that it's zooming out and will eventually become a word or stick figure drawing.

[Eldan]

Webb Space Telescope? It was launched after Christmas and should take about a month to get in final position.

[halfeye]

Webb Space Telescope? It was launched after Christmas and should take about a month to get in final position.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_...pace_Telescope

It will take several weeks to cool to its operational temperature, and will then undergo final testing and calibration procedures for around 5 months, potentially including its first images,[40][41] before commencing its planned research program.

My guess is it's not that.

[DavidSh]

Webb Space Telescope? It was launched after Christmas and should take about a month to get in final position.

Final orbital insertion for Webb is 29 days after launch, so that will be about a week before the xkcd countdown completes. (Launch was about a week before New Year's Day.)

[Lord Torath]

The image appears to be shifting to the right, and there's another... line? curve? point?... portion coming in to view at the bottom left of the frame. Current time: 16 D 18 hr 42 min

[theangelJean]

16d 4h 25min now, roughly 14 hours after that post, so unless Lord Torath and I are in the same time zone (AEDST) it's the same everywhere. And yes, there is a second diagonal line come in from the left now.

[halfeye]

15.22.5

now, and it looks sort of like a swept aircraft wingtip or tailplane.

[Lord Torath]

Definitely looking like an airplane, now (10 D 23 H 28 M)

[Maat Mons]

Maybe it's just a countdown to him leaving on a vacation.

[Vinyadan]

Maybe he's on a diet, and those are the days until he can eat pie.

[halfeye]

Maybe it's just a countdown to him leaving on a vacation.

I'm leaving, on a jet plane

Looks likely to me.

[Squire Doodad]

Despite the shifts, I am holding on to the possibility it is, in fact, a very unusual looking cat

[mucat]

Despite the shifts, I am holding on to the possibility it is, in fact, a very unusual looking cat

Whereas I've always suspected that my cat is, in fact, a really weird airplane.

[Maat Mons]

Any ideas what's up with that random tentacle/cape/whatever sticking into frame in the upper right?

[InvisibleBison]

Any ideas what's up with that random tentacle/cape/whatever sticking into frame in the upper right?

My first thought was that it might be a plume of smoke, but it seems too solid for that.

[Radar]

Any ideas what's up with that random tentacle/cape/whatever sticking into frame in the upper right?

To be honest, it looks like an elephant's trunk, but that might be just a coincidence - especially since those animals are not pitch black.

[georgie_leech]

I'm thinking it's a size comparison thingy and that particular tendril is from some sort of eldritch monstrosity.

[The Glyphstone]

Looks like the end of a flag/banner to me.

[Radar]

More importantly, it is actually moving - this is not just the zoom as the bent of that black thing changes over time.

[Mechalich]

With the legs in frame, it looks like the back end of a T-Rex to me.

[The Glyphstone]

Yeah, definitely a T-Rex riding on an airplane so far.