4 ms·
The explanation on the XKCD page says: "This could possibly refer to the March 26, 1997 incident in San Diego, California, where 39 Heaven's Gate cultists comm
by averagewall 10y ago
The explanation on the XKCD page says:
"This could possibly refer to the March 26, 1997 incident in San Diego, California, where 39 Heaven's Gate cultists committed mass suicide at their compound. It is a plausible explanation, since one of them was the brother of Nichelle Nichols (a Star Trek actress), so the event got a big resonance in nerd circles (and Randall often refers to Star Trek in xkcd). However, given Black Hat's strange behavior, it could be anything, even Bill Clinton banning federal funding for human cloning research."