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I love XKCD, as do about a billion other geeks like me. But I’ll admit, one reason I’m linking to this particular one is so I don’t get a hundred emails telling me to link to it. I got the joke pretty quickly without having to read the alt text, in case you’re curious. But then, I read a lot about asteroids. And I’m a dork.
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The original BA site (with the Moon Hoax debunking, movie reviews, and all that) can be found here.
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August 2nd, 2009 at 11:34 pm
No snake, no sale.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8mJsgPj1iU
August 2nd, 2009 at 11:48 pm
I don’t read a lot about asteroids, but I read Le Petit Prince when I was a kid.
August 2nd, 2009 at 11:56 pm
What is essential is invisible to the eye…
August 3rd, 2009 at 12:56 am
August 3rd, 2009 at 1:04 am
Yeah! Death to the monarchy!
August 3rd, 2009 at 1:26 am
What no off shore oil drillers?
August 3rd, 2009 at 1:29 am
Love Le Petit Prince!
August 3rd, 2009 at 2:14 am
The Little Prince is one of my favorite books (even still) – thank you! So funny.
August 3rd, 2009 at 2:40 am
Having been forced to read Le Petit Prince in high school, I’ve had this fantasy many times. That flower had it coming…
August 3rd, 2009 at 2:43 am
yea, I still don’t get it.
August 3rd, 2009 at 5:38 am
…and for those of us who look at this blankly and think “Le Petit Prince? is that supposed to help?”
August 3rd, 2009 at 5:44 am
This one hurtbadly .
August 3rd, 2009 at 5:57 am
Well, then you can get one hundred emails telling you to link this MttS gem (also from this morning):
http://www.marriedtothesea.com/080309/homeopathic-research.gif
August 3rd, 2009 at 6:05 am
I don’t get it. Can someone enlighten me pretty please?
August 3rd, 2009 at 6:15 am
I didn’t get the reference either. But Wikipedia is your friend
August 3rd, 2009 at 6:21 am
That can’t be B612. B612 has three volcanoes. I see only one.
August 3rd, 2009 at 6:25 am
Awesome – I always wanted to do that to the little prince.
August 3rd, 2009 at 6:33 am
[...] xkcd plumbs the depths of crossover fanfic — (Snurched from Bad Astronomy Blog.) [...]
August 3rd, 2009 at 6:41 am
For those of you seeking enlightenment on what makes this so funny, please go have a look at the Wikipedia entry on “The Little Prince”
Linkage:
The Little Prince
August 3rd, 2009 at 6:47 am
Ah yes, I get it now. What would we do without Wikipedia?
August 3rd, 2009 at 6:51 am
Weird, I’ve never heard of The Little Prince until just now.
August 3rd, 2009 at 7:05 am
That made me snort my coffee. But then I am easily amused.
August 3rd, 2009 at 8:10 am
25:00
15:00
05:00
6h:00
8h:00
Lh:00
(The ‘h’ is supposed to represent an upside-down ’4′)
August 3rd, 2009 at 8:15 am
This one’s getting a lot of negative comments on reddit. Looks like not everyone is familiar with The Little Prince.
August 3rd, 2009 at 10:16 am
SETI researcher:
“Cool! We just found extraterrestrial life,,,oops, we just blew it up,,,never mind”.
Never having heard of the Little Prince, that was my first thought upon viewing the cartoon,,,
Gary 7
August 3rd, 2009 at 10:26 am
My first thought was that NASA faked the mission, and the rover landed in some kids backyard. I actually laughed at that…
August 3rd, 2009 at 10:26 am
I was about to send you an email about this myself, but then I thought, “Nah, let me see if he already linked to it.”
The Little Prince is one of my favorites as well. I’m surprised more people haven’t heard of it, it should be up there with Alice in Wonderland in my opinion.
August 3rd, 2009 at 11:52 am
ah, i get it now. Thanks for the ‘princely’ tip y’all.
August 3rd, 2009 at 11:59 am
I find XKCD very much hit and miss, but this is definitely a hit (har har).
August 3rd, 2009 at 12:21 pm
Nuclear weapons: the baobab to end all baobabs.
August 3rd, 2009 at 1:24 pm
hahaha! I also got the joke immediately. Poor Little Prince…
August 3rd, 2009 at 5:29 pm
According to Wikipedia, St-Ex also has his *own* asteroid now:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2578_Saint-Exupéry
August 3rd, 2009 at 7:14 pm
He won’t have to worry about cleaning out those little volcanoes anymore.
August 3rd, 2009 at 9:45 pm
Sarah E — there’s also asteroid 46610 Besixdouze. “besixdouze” is basically B-612 in French.
August 4th, 2009 at 5:17 am
Calli Arcale — And B612(hex) = 46610(dec)
August 4th, 2009 at 8:43 am
In the same vein. . . In high school earth science class, we watched a short film called “Mind Slaughter”. It was about a project to terraform Mars. A manned visit to the terraformed planet discovered that there was previously undiscovered subterranean intelligent life on Mars, that had been wiped out by the effects of terraforming. The deceased “intelligent life” was modeled using dryer hose.
I doubt the government would try to “terraform” using nukes. . . but then again. . .
August 5th, 2009 at 12:02 am
I doubt the government would try to “terraform” using nukes. . . but then again. . .
This government – no.
The last govt, OTOH, with Bush Junior in charge … sure would!
August 5th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
Don’t I recall reading somewhere in a book by a certain Mr Plait that nuking an asteroid would likely only make things worse anyway?
Blowing it up would only mean a hail of radioactive metorites all ploughing down and causing even more impacts at multiple locations rather than just a one crater deal. Or so I gather …
Add a coat of paint, or some precise rockets & shift B-612 outta the way instead & everybody wins!
Well, except for those who hate the book (why?) but, frankly, they’ve got issues …