firstfrost: (Default)
firstfrost ([personal profile] firstfrost) wrote2012-11-12 06:24 pm

Science Poetry

I finally realized what xkcd is doing with strips like today's:

http://xkcd.com/1133/

It's science poetry. Okay, things like xkcd loves the discovery channel were obvious - that was lyrics, it even rhymed. But this is like a sestina - sending a message while laboring under such heavy restrictions that the restrictions are transformative and not just arbitrary and difficult. Like coal into diamonds, so pressurized by what you can't do.

[identity profile] chenoameg.livejournal.com 2012-11-13 12:10 am (UTC)(link)
Yes.

[identity profile] lillibet.livejournal.com 2012-11-13 04:22 am (UTC)(link)
I don't disagree. But today's also seemed to me the outcome of an argument about how complicated the Apollo 5 actually was. I've sat through that argument, or ones very similar, often enough to recognize an obsessive "IS TO!"

Science poetry

[identity profile] merastra.livejournal.com 2012-11-13 05:23 am (UTC)(link)
What a poetic way to put it. :-)

[identity profile] jofish22.livejournal.com 2012-11-13 04:55 pm (UTC)(link)
nice. yes.