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The creator of 'XKCD' is working on high school textbooks
XKCD's Randall Munroe has done a good job of simplifying scientific and technical concepts through his comics, so it only makes sense that he would turn his attention to full-on education, doesn't it? Sure enough, that's about to happen. Thanks to the right people at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt seeing his work, Munroe will integrate segments of his book Thing Explainer (which explains concepts using the 1,000 most-used English words) into high school biology, chemistry and physics textbooks arriving this summer. Yes, the usual dry diagrams will be accompanied by Munroe's signature stick figures discussing "thinking bags" (brains) and "heavy metal power buildings" (nuclear reactors).
XKCD webcomic turns 10 years old today
Combine math, science, romance and crudely-drawn stick figures and you'll get something approximating XKCD, a webcomic that's celebrating its 10th anniversary today. Created by Randall Munroe (a former NASA roboticist and programmer) in 2005, the strip doesn't seem like much -- after all, it's just stick figures -- but it's the combination of smarts, humor and a touch of whimsy that make XKCD one of the most beloved comics on the web. It's even helped Munroe develop a successful publishing career, with his What If book (which offers "serious scientific answers to absurd hypothetical questions") rocketing to the top of Amazon's bestseller list in just 24 hours. Widely shared and celebrated not just among us nerds but also anyone who appreciates a good joke, XKCD has certainly gained cult status on the internet and beyond. To celebrate that, we've compiled a gallery of our favorite XKCD strips, which you can peruse below. If you've got your favorites, let us know in the comments too. [Image credit: XKCD]
