It works, bitches

Okay, I know (only) a little about this stuff - why does energy density peak @ 160.4GHz?

Ah, got it - cosmic microwave background -

When Paul Nelson and William Dembski drive by me on a flying carpet, I'll listen to them. In the meantime, STFU.

I want the t-shirt!

Is there a t-shirt? Please let there be a t-shirt! I want a t-shirt!

Ouch. I hate when science jokes fly over my head like Spinner on warp thrusters.

There will be t-shirt soon, and there are signed prints now!

Feel free to use the comics directly instead of mirroring them; we have plenty of bandwidth and I love to see them being shared! And it makes smile that Bloviator in the comments got that it was the background radiation. You don't know how much email I got asking about that.

This is the kind of place frequented by geeks where a lot of the readers would get it.

I'm not dissing the joke. Just my lack of knowledge.

Baptizing the infidels by hitting them over the head with a Planck. ;)

I like all the little dots that presumably represent the FIRAS data from which the blackbody curve was derived.

I should get a T-shirt version of this for Ryan, my recently-returned blog partner. Sounds like something that fffffffilthy-mouthed human would say.

This dog's mouth is much cleaner than that, though.

PZ:
"This is the kind of place frequented by geeks where a lot of the readers would get it."

I am a laymen on this one too, so I'm not sure I get it either. But my weak analysis thus far leads me to conclude the punchline is in the equation, and that knowing what the terms of the equation represent would reveal said hilarity.

I'm guessing the visual graphing is meant to symbolize some sort of decrease in understanding leading to a correlative decrease in scientific interest?...

I enjoyed Binary Sudoku a great deal.

http://xkcd.com/c74.html

Which of those variables accounts for the number of pirates?

It's not my speciality, but I believe the equation is the energy density of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation predicted by relativity(?), while the graph represents the actual data confirming the equation's predictions. Hence: Science works. (Bitches.)

"Behind the scenes whip boss"

Ah, FINALLY an accurate description of my occupation to fill into that little box on Friendster.

The cartoon is Plank's Law on Blackbody radiation. The graph is usually represented as Intensity v wavelength. The 160.4 just represents the frequency in which we have max intensity. This value is different for different objects and doesn't have some hidden meaning. You learn about Plank's law in intro astronomy or your first modern physics class.

Also, this is not the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation. The CMBR measures the fluxuations in the background. That's all bitches!

Yes, this is the CMBR. Big Bang predicts that the background will fit the black body law and predicts the actual current-day temperature (which is related to the frequency distribution by the black body law). The fit between theory and observations is extraordinary.

"Also, this is not the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation. The CMBR measures the fluxuations in the background. That's all bitches!"

You're thinking of the angular power spectrum of the CMB anisotropy. There is a "monopole term" at 2.725 K represented by the graph in the comic. There's more cosmological information in the angular power spectrum than in the monopole, but they are both part of the CMB.

It'd also look good on a coffee cup

Personally, I am sick of hearing the word bitches used in this fashion. The version where it is spelled beotch is less offensive, but only slightly. Too bad you can't find humor without insulting women indirectly.

Are not bitches female dogs?

A bitch will greet me at the door when I arrive home tonight, and gently lick my legs, before I go outside and throw the ball with her.

She thinks I am da shizzle

oh come on... can't use the word bitch without insulting women... pah. that's just whiney-ass troll bait.

bitch is well beyond a gender specific insult these days.

Bitch:
1. A female canine animal, especially a dog.
2. Offensive.
a. A woman considered to be spiteful or overbearing.
b. A lewd woman.
c. A man considered to be weak or contemptible.
3. Slang. A complaint.
4. Slang. Something very unpleasant or difficult.
5. Slang.Pwn3d!

No offense, but really, I would think that someone who signs as "IHateFundies" would see the irony in complaining about the use of a derogatory word or phrase.

Just sayin'

How bout "I hate those fundie bitches." :)

Just sayin'.

We've been taking back "bitch" for 30 years. Even the mildest-mannered of us in the early 70s had "Bitch" stickers under our names on the mailbox. Outspoken women, women who take no shit, have been bitches forever. Today, we say, "yeah, I'm a bitch - whatcha gonna do about it?" We gotta thank those who were bitches before it became popu7lar.

Because no-one else has mentioned it:

http://bitchphd.blogspot.com/

And just think, some cable channel didn't have to pay the author 50 million to come up with that.

How bout "I hate those fundie bitches." :)

killed me Steve_C

Too bad you can't find humor without insulting women indirectly.

Posted by: IHateFundies

From the local alpha female:

Quit yer bitching, bitch, or I'll bitch-slap you into next week.

PZ, that's one bitchin' graphic.

I have always found that equations like that one suggest a certain inelegance to the universe. I mean, what's with the -1 in the denominator? :)

Have you bitches read the rest of those comics? There's a real slayer in there about Kepler as a janitor...

Yeah, the motivation of the comic is that the CMB has been something of a "smoking gun" (sorry, hate that phrase but it works here) for cosmological theory - the big bang, and later inflation.

Tom, did you go to the U of M for grad school?

I think the equation is there just as a generic reference to science. They could have used any scientific equation or symbol. You don't need to know anything about the equation to get the humor in the tag line.

Its a great Motto.

"Science, it works, bitches!"

Use it every chance you get!

Oh, and accompany it with a picture of the blast cloud over Hiroshima!!

"Science, it works, bitches!"

I love it!

simpler and more widely known equation would be even funnier in reference to "it works":

F = MA

-a Dr. Steve

T-Shirt please.

but FEMA _didn't_ work.....

oh, sorry...F=Ma, my bad.....