XKCD cartoonist Randall Munroe will be publishing a new book in November, but it's already become Amazon's #1 best-seller in two "Science & Math" subcategories, for mechanics and scientific instruments. Inspired by a cartoon describing NASA's Saturn V rocket as "the up-goer V", Randall's created a large-format collection of blueprints describing datacenters, tectonic plates, and even the controls in an airplane cockpit — using only the thousand most common English words. "Since this book explains things, I've called it Thing Explainer," Randall writes on the XKCD blog, trying to mimic the humorously simple style of his book. Randall's previous book of scientific hypotheticals [What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions] — published nearly one year ago — is still Amazon's #1 best-selling book in their "Physics" category, ranking higher than Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History of Time."
(Score: 3, Interesting) by q.kontinuum on Sunday August 16 2015, @03:22PM
Not sure I want what's behind this now, but 'whois nniling.us' does indeed show the information parent posted here, I just tried it in my shell. It also shows
This is not relevant for the exceptional quality of xkcd.com, the great "what-if" stories there, or the book on Amazon. Also I guess while most people do not talk about it openly, many (if not most) people like to give/receive oral, so I don't see how this is worth to try to make a scandal of it.
Also, the query "https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Anniling.us" did return a link
Looks like either someone invested some time in order to perform a childish troll, or Randall did indeed register the domain at that time and decided not to use it.
Registered IRC nick on chat.soylentnews.org: qkontinuum
(Score: 2, Offtopic) by Runaway1956 on Sunday August 16 2015, @03:44PM
You can get a little more info here - http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=23835 [xkcd.com]
It isn't clear to me who is who, or who might be full of crap, or anything else. Combatting domain squatter? Huh?
On my end, I can't get a page to load with or without the cu. prefix, so it's pretty opaque to me. Apparently there are other mirrors as well, but I haven't attempted to explore them.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday August 16 2015, @06:39PM
That's really funny, because Randall was self-righteously whining about how the sciences need more women blah blah blah, and here he is objectifying them with a cunnilingus website so he can grunt and knead his tiny pee-pee because all that sucking up to his female co-workers hasn't yet earned him a date.
What a fucking weenie. Fuck him.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Sunday August 16 2015, @06:52PM
You only know that someone who was familiar with XKCD all those years ago created that web site. Any fan-boy could have used his name to register that site.
And, you might ask some women whether cunnilingus is an objectification of women. In my experience, women like men who don't pull the wham-bam-thankyoumam routine.
Randall is an odd character, as evidenced by his cartoons, but I've never gotten the impression that he "objectifies" women.
What do you have against Randall, anyway? Did he steal your high school sweetheart from you?
(Score: 0, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday August 16 2015, @08:13PM
I liked him until he released this [xkcd.com] strip.
In releasing that he self-identified as a hugbox-loving bitchboy, and became an enemy of mine.
(Score: 2) by q.kontinuum on Monday August 17 2015, @01:36AM
Yes, I can see how that xkcd bothers you somehow. I find it great and to the point :-)
Registered IRC nick on chat.soylentnews.org: qkontinuum
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday August 17 2015, @02:55AM
So - - - - lemme get this straight. The oddball has published THOUSANDS of those silly strips. His strips don't always agree with each other - they are each individual observations of a phenomena, an attitude, an interaction, a moment in time. You liked his odd humor and insight, until he published that one strip? Has Randall ever publicly stated that the strip in question reflects HIS OPINION? Or, did he publish that strip to reflect a common public and legal opinion?
FFS, I've made statements that I don't believe in often enough, just to keep a good argument going. Or to make people think. Or just because I was feeling pissy.
Whatever. You no longer like Randall, because of that one strip. I think that's juvenile, but that is your right. I'd respect your opinion more if you just said Randall is a weird motherfucker, and you don't like him.
(Score: 1) by Absolutely.Geek on Monday August 17 2015, @12:26AM
Ethanol-fueled is the self identified "angry guy on the internet" of Soylent. Do not be surprised if he yells at you.
Sometimes his trolling is semi-insightful.
Don't trust the police or the government - Shihad: My mind's sedate.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Monday August 17 2015, @02:45AM
Sometimes his trolling is semi-insightful.
Yeah, not in this case though. Just a Troll.
(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Monday August 17 2015, @11:54AM
I've never gotten the impression that he "objectifies" women.
Are you kidding? He draws them as featureless stick fingers, the only concession to their gender being a stereotypically female haircut.
He's clearly a misogynist.
^ JOKE
systemd is Roko's Basilisk