4 ms·

Xkcd: Mythbusters and Zombie Feynman

24 points by rglovejoy 19y ago

andr 19y ago
1) Write a script to automatically submit every XKCD and TechCrunch post on News.YC. 2) ??? 3) Karma profit!
- tim2 19y ago
  Blame the system.
  - ROFISH 19y ago
    Can you really blame the system? This site is about submitting awesome links. The second you start limiting sources in anyway, is the second you start limiting awesome.
    - yters 19y ago
      Me posting is about me posting awesomeness. The moment you don't vote me up is the moment Chuck Norris votes his foot through your face. Make sure you vote me up.
      - curi 19y ago
        dear downmodders, please spare yters. take me instead.
    - 1gor 19y ago
      >This site is about submitting awesome links I thought reddit is about that, not HN
    - juanpablo 19y ago
      I visit this site not only for the links but mainly for the comments of intelligent people about those links.
- technoguyrob 19y ago
  Can we hardcode no-karma for any posts with "xkcd" in the title? I honestly think that's really fair. People might want an XKCD once in a while on the front page if it's really good, and comment on it, but I don't think the submitter should get credit since we all read XKCD anyways. P.S. Notice I'm not proposing we set no-karma for xkcd.com related entries. Sometimes a thoughtful and non-comical (literally) entry from the xkcd blag is posted.
  - tac-tics 19y ago
    The good XKCDs deserve karma. Many of them are rather dull comics, but today's is pretty golden.
    - graywh 19y ago
      But everyone will have a different opinion on which ones ARE good. Even this one.
      - brlewis 19y ago
        I've got an idea! We can vote, and only the ones that lots of people agree are good go on the front page.
- ivankirigin 19y ago
  xkcd can actually be quite good. Most of his comics don't reach the top. Today's comic is actually similar to recent posts on being creative and another Feynman quote on good problems. I wouldn't be surprised if the latter inspired today's comic. This means xkcd is part of the serious hacker conversation on the internet. xkcd != LOLcats
  - Tichy 19y ago
    Um, was that a real Feynman quote? I highly doubt it, there was no Mythbusters during his lifetime, or was there? I hate people who think it is OK to put their own stupid quotes into the mouths of famous people to give them more leverage...
    - ed 19y ago
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Feynman http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Feynman http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MythBusters http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MythBusters
      - deleted 19y ago
        [deleted]
    - brent 19y ago
      He said it was similar to the posts about the Feynman quote. So the coast is clear, I don't think you hate anyone in this case.
      - Tichy 19y ago
        If anyone, xkcd would be the offender here, because he put the rather generic quote into Feynman's speech bubble.
  - Zev 19y ago
    I think you took the original comment the wrong way; no one said xkcd was bad. Just that every comic gets posted to every social news site every time.
- Tichy 19y ago
  Why stop at xkcd, try digg and reddit... All those news sites should be synchronized. Presumably they eventually will be.
  - ROFISH 19y ago
    But now you're saying that the best links are available on all the sites... brb, got some coding to do. ;)
    - yters 19y ago
      Yes, and they are available on a reoccurring basis. People like this. Soon the internet will be predictably new.
phaedrus 19y ago
+1 for bashing string theory in the last frame of the strip! Haha!
jamesbritt 19y ago
What, no bongos?
- rglovejoy 19y ago
  The bongos were only a small part of what made him Feynman. When The Feynman Lectures were published, a picture of him playing the bongos appeared in the preface. Feynman was a bit mystified as to why they used that picture, but he let it slide. A few years later, a Swedish publisher wanted to use the bongo photo in an encyclopedia article about him. Feynman was pretty upset by this, saying: "The fact that I beat a drum has nothing to do with the fact that I do theoretical physics. Theoretical physics is a human endeavor, one of the higher developments of human beings - and this perpetual desire to prove that people are human by showing that they do other things that a few other humans do (like playing bongo drums) is insulting to me. I am human enough to tell you to go to hell." (letter to Tord Pramberg, 4 January 1967)
  - jamesbritt 19y ago
    OK,but one of his books, perhaps Surely You're Joking, had an offer to buy a cassette that had a mix of him telling his stories, and him playing bongos. Both pretty cool.
dood 19y ago
I think experimentation is hard-wired into the brain (its partly how we're able to learn so much so quickly as children), but rigor isn't. So is Mythbusters' approach to experimentation without rigor a net win? I spend probably a third of each episode wondering about that. Its very frustrating, but then something blows up, so generally it works out ok.
- ivankirigin 19y ago
  Mythbusters is close to correct, which is good enough. They actively involve their community, which goes the rest of the way. If there is a serious lack of rigor, their audience will point it out, and an experiment will be rerun.
  - dood 19y ago
    I sometimes think the lack of rigor is serious: most Mythbusters' viewers could probably create similarly rigorous experiments if they had the inclination, what is lacking isn't so much holding beliefs to experiment, but interpreting the validity and applicability of experiments. Some of Mythbusters' experiments are reasonable enough, but a lot of others are a little too sloppy for my taste, teaching a lazy habit of confirming beliefs by constructing plausible narratives.
    - brlewis 19y ago
      Key words "if they had the inclination." Imprinting minds with the idea that ideas should be tested by experiment is of tremendous value. Rigor can follow once the inclination is there.
      - mechanical_fish 19y ago
        Agreed, absolutely. You have to motivate rigor. I actually think the show does a fine job of that. Sometimes they'll do a half-assed experiment, bust some myth, and then get viewer mail criticizing their technique. Then they'll revisit the myth, with better controls! This is pretty much exactly how real science works. Nobody does rigorous science because they want to spend enormous amounts of time and money doing the same boring experiment over and over, gradually imposing tighter and tighter controls on everything. They do it because otherwise their half-assed papers will get rejected by their extremely critical peers.
bkrausz 19y ago
From http://xkcd.com/about/ http://xkcd.com/about/ How do I write "xkcd"? There's nothing in Strunk and White about this. For those of us pedantic enough to want a rule, here it is: The preferred form is "xkcd", all lower-case. In formal contexts where a lowercase word shouldn't start a sentence, "XKCD" is an okay alternative. "Xkcd" is frowned upon.
pchristensen 19y ago
C'mon guys, I complained about the xkcd "manual RSS feed" we have here, but this one was good and relevant. Let the pain and backlash die down, then let's submit the appropriate ones. Lots of them get 2-3 upvotes, this one got 24. The system IS working.

24 points by rglovejoy 19y ago

andr 19y ago

1) Write a script to automatically submit every XKCD and TechCrunch post on News.YC. 2) ??? 3) Karma profit!

tim2 19y ago
Blame the system.
- ROFISH 19y ago
  Can you really blame the system? This site is about submitting awesome links. The second you start limiting sources in anyway, is the second you start limiting awesome.
  - yters 19y ago
    Me posting is about me posting awesomeness. The moment you don't vote me up is the moment Chuck Norris votes his foot through your face. Make sure you vote me up.
    - curi 19y ago
      dear downmodders, please spare yters. take me instead.
  - 1gor 19y ago
    >This site is about submitting awesome links I thought reddit is about that, not HN
  - juanpablo 19y ago
    I visit this site not only for the links but mainly for the comments of intelligent people about those links.
technoguyrob 19y ago
Can we hardcode no-karma for any posts with "xkcd" in the title? I honestly think that's really fair. People might want an XKCD once in a while on the front page if it's really good, and comment on it, but I don't think the submitter should get credit since we all read XKCD anyways. P.S. Notice I'm not proposing we set no-karma for xkcd.com related entries. Sometimes a thoughtful and non-comical (literally) entry from the xkcd blag is posted.
- tac-tics 19y ago
  The good XKCDs deserve karma. Many of them are rather dull comics, but today's is pretty golden.
  - graywh 19y ago
    But everyone will have a different opinion on which ones ARE good. Even this one.
    - brlewis 19y ago
      I've got an idea! We can vote, and only the ones that lots of people agree are good go on the front page.
ivankirigin 19y ago
xkcd can actually be quite good. Most of his comics don't reach the top. Today's comic is actually similar to recent posts on being creative and another Feynman quote on good problems. I wouldn't be surprised if the latter inspired today's comic. This means xkcd is part of the serious hacker conversation on the internet. xkcd != LOLcats
- Tichy 19y ago
  Um, was that a real Feynman quote? I highly doubt it, there was no Mythbusters during his lifetime, or was there? I hate people who think it is OK to put their own stupid quotes into the mouths of famous people to give them more leverage...
  - ed 19y ago
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Feynman http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Feynman http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MythBusters http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MythBusters
    - deleted 19y ago
      [deleted]
  - brent 19y ago
    He said it was similar to the posts about the Feynman quote. So the coast is clear, I don't think you hate anyone in this case.
    - Tichy 19y ago
      If anyone, xkcd would be the offender here, because he put the rather generic quote into Feynman's speech bubble.
- Zev 19y ago
  I think you took the original comment the wrong way; no one said xkcd was bad. Just that every comic gets posted to every social news site every time.
Tichy 19y ago
Why stop at xkcd, try digg and reddit... All those news sites should be synchronized. Presumably they eventually will be.
- ROFISH 19y ago
  But now you're saying that the best links are available on all the sites... brb, got some coding to do. ;)
  - yters 19y ago
    Yes, and they are available on a reoccurring basis. People like this. Soon the internet will be predictably new.

phaedrus 19y ago

+1 for bashing string theory in the last frame of the strip! Haha!

jamesbritt 19y ago

What, no bongos?

rglovejoy 19y ago
The bongos were only a small part of what made him Feynman. When The Feynman Lectures were published, a picture of him playing the bongos appeared in the preface. Feynman was a bit mystified as to why they used that picture, but he let it slide. A few years later, a Swedish publisher wanted to use the bongo photo in an encyclopedia article about him. Feynman was pretty upset by this, saying: "The fact that I beat a drum has nothing to do with the fact that I do theoretical physics. Theoretical physics is a human endeavor, one of the higher developments of human beings - and this perpetual desire to prove that people are human by showing that they do other things that a few other humans do (like playing bongo drums) is insulting to me. I am human enough to tell you to go to hell." (letter to Tord Pramberg, 4 January 1967)
- jamesbritt 19y ago
  OK,but one of his books, perhaps Surely You're Joking, had an offer to buy a cassette that had a mix of him telling his stories, and him playing bongos. Both pretty cool.

dood 19y ago

I think experimentation is hard-wired into the brain (its partly how we're able to learn so much so quickly as children), but rigor isn't. So is Mythbusters' approach to experimentation without rigor a net win? I spend probably a third of each episode wondering about that. Its very frustrating, but then something blows up, so generally it works out ok.

ivankirigin 19y ago
Mythbusters is close to correct, which is good enough. They actively involve their community, which goes the rest of the way. If there is a serious lack of rigor, their audience will point it out, and an experiment will be rerun.
- dood 19y ago
  I sometimes think the lack of rigor is serious: most Mythbusters' viewers could probably create similarly rigorous experiments if they had the inclination, what is lacking isn't so much holding beliefs to experiment, but interpreting the validity and applicability of experiments. Some of Mythbusters' experiments are reasonable enough, but a lot of others are a little too sloppy for my taste, teaching a lazy habit of confirming beliefs by constructing plausible narratives.
  - brlewis 19y ago
    Key words "if they had the inclination." Imprinting minds with the idea that ideas should be tested by experiment is of tremendous value. Rigor can follow once the inclination is there.
    - mechanical_fish 19y ago
      Agreed, absolutely. You have to motivate rigor. I actually think the show does a fine job of that. Sometimes they'll do a half-assed experiment, bust some myth, and then get viewer mail criticizing their technique. Then they'll revisit the myth, with better controls! This is pretty much exactly how real science works. Nobody does rigorous science because they want to spend enormous amounts of time and money doing the same boring experiment over and over, gradually imposing tighter and tighter controls on everything. They do it because otherwise their half-assed papers will get rejected by their extremely critical peers.

bkrausz 19y ago

From http://xkcd.com/about/ http://xkcd.com/about/ How do I write "xkcd"? There's nothing in Strunk and White about this. For those of us pedantic enough to want a rule, here it is: The preferred form is "xkcd", all lower-case. In formal contexts where a lowercase word shouldn't start a sentence, "XKCD" is an okay alternative. "Xkcd" is frowned upon.

pchristensen 19y ago

C'mon guys, I complained about the xkcd "manual RSS feed" we have here, but this one was good and relevant. Let the pain and backlash die down, then let's submit the appropriate ones. Lots of them get 2-3 upvotes, this one got 24. The system IS working.