Compare and Contrast
by Jeff
Image text: Frankly, I see no difference between thee and a summer's day. Only Ron Paul offers a TRUE alternative!
This comic is a reference to the sonnet by William Shakespeare, which as far as I can tell, is called "Sonnet 18" in which the first line is: "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?". And that is what Randall is attempting to do here in his own way, comparing who I assume is his special lady friend to a "Summer's Day". The first line is a reference to the sonnet itself, which reads:"Thou art more lovely and more temperate". To each their own, I guess. Shakespeare woos women with sonnets and Randall with charts. This certainly seems to be a love letter (love comic? love chart?) to one specific person (Megan?) because not too many people have been arrested for releasing snakes in the library. (At least I hope so.)
The last line in a sexual reference, on the "thee" side, not on the "summer's day" side.
And of course, the image text is a reference to Ron Paul, Republican candidate for President who is currently in the Republican Primary against a few other challengers for the nomination. Ron Paul is frequently represented on the internet using similar language to the image text. Paul is seen as an alternative because he is a strict Libertarian and believes the government should be as small as possible and stay out of people's lives. People who support Ron Paul believe him to be the only true alternative to the other Republican candidates currently in the race.
No politics in the comments please, let's stick to the comic, please! Thank you.
The Carriage
by Jeff
Image text: I learned from Achewood that since this poem is in ballad meter, it can be sung to the tune of Gilligan's Island. Since then, try as I might, I haven't ONCE been able to read it normally.
This is a quote from the first three lines of the Emily Dickinson's poem "Because I Could Not Stop For Death". In the second frame, what seems to be Emily Dickinson is using the "Y" button from Grand Theft Auto to "carjack" Death from its carriage.
Achewood referenced in the image text is another webcomic.
Haiku Proof
by Mike
Image meta text: "After somewhere around 40 hours, there's no academic reason to go to the class. Only go for the hallucinations."
The Greek mathematician Euclid proved there are an infinite number of primes (though not through haiku). Basically, you start by assuming the opposite- that there are a finite number of primes. Multiply all of them together and add 1. Then you ask what are the factors of that new number. It's not divisible by any of the primes because it would yield a remainder of 1... so either there is a prime number you forgot that wasn't in your original set or this new number is prime. In either case, you just proved the set of primes can not be finite.
Also, there's no proof that after 48 hours of sleep deprivation math lectures get ANY more interesting.