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Eliminating the Impossible

xkcd.com

19 February 2026 at 19:00

'If you've eliminated a few possibilities and you can't think of any others, your weird theory is proven right' isn't quite as rhetorically compelling.

Plums

xkcd.com

17 February 2026 at 19:00

My icebox plum trap easily captured William Carlos Williams. It took much less work than the infinite looping network of diverging paths I had to build in that yellow wood to ensnare Robert Frost.

SNEWS

xkcd.com

15 February 2026 at 19:00

People say setting of fireworks indoors is dangerous, but I looked at their energy release and it's like 10^-40 foe; totally negligible.

Bad Map Projection: Zero Declination

xkcd.com

12 February 2026 at 19:00

'The zero line in WMM2025 passes through a lot of population centers; I wonder what year the largest share of the population lived in a zone of less than 5° of declination,' he thought, derailing all other tasks for the rest of the day.

Installation

xkcd.com

10 February 2026 at 19:00

Do YOU remember the skylight being this big?

Carbon Dating

xkcd.com

8 February 2026 at 19:00

This dating is corroborated by the presence of stone tools at the site, rather than earlier and less effective helium ones.

Dinosaurs And Non-Dinosaurs

xkcd.com

5 February 2026 at 19:00

Staplers are actually in Pseudosuchia, making them more closely related to crocodiles than to dinosaurs.

Binary Star

xkcd.com

3 February 2026 at 19:00

The discovery of a fully typographical star system comes with a big asterisk.

Groundhog Day Meaning

xkcd.com

1 February 2026 at 19:00

Originally, the ceremony used a variety of rodents and mustelids, but over time most people agreed it made sense to standardize on a specific individual ground squirrel in Pennsylvania.

Proof Without Content

xkcd.com

29 January 2026 at 19:00

There's also a proof without content of a conjecture without content, but it's left as an exercise for the reader.

Chemical Formula

xkcd.com

27 January 2026 at 19:00

Some of the atoms in the molecule are very weakly bound.

Early Arthropods

xkcd.com

25 January 2026 at 19:00

'Ugh, I'm never going to be like spiders. My descendants will all just be normal arthropods who mind their own busines and don't do anything weird.' --The ancestor of a bunch of eusocial insects

Double-Pronged Extension Cord

xkcd.com

22 January 2026 at 19:00

'Oh, and can I borrow 50 sacks of loose flour, a pile of lithium-ion batteries, a bucket of bleach, and a bucket of vinega--' 'NO!!!!!!'

Cost Savings

xkcd.com

20 January 2026 at 19:00

Unfortunately, my scheme to trick NASA has now taken over a decade longer than planned and has run way over budget.

Aurora Coolness

xkcd.com

18 January 2026 at 19:00

I've had countless nights where the line never left the bottom zone of the graph, but the few moments where it's climbed all the way to the top have made up for them all.

International Station

xkcd.com

15 January 2026 at 19:00

Welcome to the International Space Station Exclamation Point!

16-Part Epoxy

xkcd.com

13 January 2026 at 19:00

Some surfaces may seem difficult to glue. But if you research the materials, find tables of what adhesives work on them, and prepare your surfaces carefully, you can fail to glue them in a fun NEW way that fills your house with dangerous vapors.

Sailing Rigs

xkcd.com

11 January 2026 at 19:00

I wanted to make the world's fastest yawl, so I made the aft sail bigger, but apparently that means it's not a yawl anymore! It's a real ketch-22.

Planetary Alignment

xkcd.com

8 January 2026 at 19:00

We're going to need to modify the surface to mount it on the test stand. Which ocean basin do you like the least?

Superstition

xkcd.com

6 January 2026 at 19:00

It's important to teach yourself to feel responsible for random events, because with great responsibility comes great power. That's what my wise Uncle Ben told me right before he died; he might still be alive today if only I'd said rabbit rabbit that year!