Return of the Daily Smile

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This is sooo true. I've always (=the last 15 years) said that the nisse/tomte/gnome(?) that used to harass farmers unless you served them porridge at christmas has moved into our networks and computers.

pibbur who unlike many others doesn't consider the Linux desktop environment an example of this..
 
We have something similar : Klabautermänner (on ships only), Kobolds (that name got somehow into (A)D&D) , and of course the always good willing Heinzelmännchen of Cologne ! But, alas ! they are no more there ...
 
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A coincidence: "Sunshine" the movie hinted at has just been made available on Netflix. I notice that the film has got moderately favourable reviews, but so far I haven't seen it, because I think the whole idea behind it (if I understand it correctly) is … just too silly, and I don't think I could get that out of my head.

pibbur who is not afraid of the dark. Especially if he's alone.
 
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This one is a bit difficult. I do get the humor in the chemistry and number theory equations, but the others remain in the dark.

Anyone?

pibbur

EDIT: It is explained here: https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2034:_Equations In short, it's about using symbols/expressions in rather unusual ways. Like using PI as an integer(!) variable(!) in summation. I THINK THAT IS FUNNY!!!!
 
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pibbur who said:
equations.png


This one is a bit difficult. I do get the humor in the chemistry and number theory equations, but the others remain in the dark.

Anyone?

pibbur

EDIT: It is explained here: https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2034:_Equations
Click to expand...

To me, the humour is simply that everything looks … unspeakable to the normal citizen. You could write letters withmaths signs, it wouldn't matter to normal people. They wouldn't be able to understand it.

Hence the very last equation …

To quote The Alan Parsons Project :
" … it's all psychobabble to me …"

Besides, there once was an article about a professor taken out from a plane by the police, because a woman had believed these signs on his computer were arabic words, and he would be an islamist. They were math formulae instead. True story, as far as I know.

What makes me frightening, though, is that people take this seriously and discuss it on the page you linked.
Edit : Cynically put, this is a learning lesson on how scientists look down on the plebs.
 
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Why do you find it frightening, Alrik? I think you are taking it much too far. Xkcd is a "A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language". It's not about looking down on anyone. Admittedly it's humour that sometimes requires some knowledge about the field to fully appreciate it. Just like humor among people familiar with computers. Or sports. Doctors. Or any speciality.

I like this type of geeky humour,, which is why I've been posting the cartoons. However, I can see that the scope may be a bit too narrow for a general humour thread, so I think maybe I should stop doing it. After all, you'll find all of them here: https://xkcd.com/

pibbur

PS: The discussion forums is AFAIK meant for people to explain the humour, which can be diffiocult to understand. Like the equations cartoon. I had to look it up to catch the meaning of most of it, and I've yet to understand it all. DS.
 
pibbur who said:
Why do you find it frightening, Alrik? I think you are taking it much too far. Xkcd is a "A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language". It's not about looking down on anyone. Admittedly it's humour that sometimes requires some knowledge about the field to fully appreciate it. Just like humor among people familiar with computers. Or sports. Doctors. Or any speciality.

I like this type of geeky humour,, which is why I've been posting the cartoons. However, I can see that the scope may be a bit too narrow for a general humour thread, so I think maybe I should stop doing it. After all, you'll find all of them here: https://xkcd.com/

pibbur

PS: The discussion forums is AFAIK meant for people to explain the humour, which can be diffiocult to understand. Like the equations cartoon. I had to look it up to catch the meaning of most of it, and I've yet to understand it all. DS.
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Keep posting pibbur...
I don't understand all of the things you post but when I do it usually is funny :)

Sent from my SM-A520F using Tapatalk
 
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I like 'em. I didn't see what they were getting at in this latest one, though.

I'm not really sure why anyone would think Pibbur is being a smartarse. I don't see that either.
 
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Yes, I think I'd go with "always gentle and considerate", rather than "arrogant".

I think it's also worth considering what it would look like if pibbur really were here to put people down. Because I'll tell you right now, it would be a massacre.
 
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I'm just quoting what I have just written to pibbur in a personal message, I hope this explains my point of view :

My personal … bitterness … comes from … especially the German "system". Germany is kind of notorious in keeping scientific knowlege "among themselves". It is kind of frowned upon writing scientific books Joe Public is able to understand. To put it more cynically, I read that a scientist is - so to say - "burned" if he or she tries to do that. No scientist can be a serious one if he or she writes for the masses. Here in Germany, scientific knowledge MUST be as non-understandable, complex, obscure as possible so that no-one of the "plebs" understands it - like that "daily laugh" caricature nailed it perfectly down !

Who is arrogant, in my view, are rather those people taking this caricature for serious ( ! ) and discussing it - they completely FAIL to see that these equations are non-understandable for Joe Public and look all the same to him !

I could write a real nonsense equation like ß=4?65" and Joe Public would think : "Gee ! This is the real serious science stuff !" Meanwhile *real* scientists might not even see it's a caricature of an equation.

So, my posting was not directed towards you, not at all, but rather towards the "class" of scientists who believe they are something better than Joe Public, because they live in those closed circles of secret knowledge.

Someone please wake these people up and tell them what the joke in that caricature really is.
Click to expand...
 
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Yes, I've just performed data extraction and Last Rites on another phone that went for a swim with my mother.
 
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pibbur who has never used the word "magnetohydrodynamics" but who has used the word "asymptotic".
 
Not really political, I think - just a bit of Bad Lipreading fun.

 
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