1617: "Time Capsule"

[Echo244]

Title text: "Oh no, I changed the future and now I'm disappearing! Wait, never mind, it was just my hat slipping down over my eyes."

Note to self: Remember to include sandwiches in the next time capsule so that nobody eats the newspapers. Or if they do get eaten anyway, future archaeologists can learn of our culture through the sandwiches we left behind...

[Flumble]

His last time machine didn't even have newspapers. Then again, he could get out of his two-seat kayak to get some food any time he wanted.

Cueball's first question doesn't really show intelligence. Everything/everyone you interact with in the present can only be in the present, otherwise you'd be in the past. Only old people can stay in the past; that's why we lock them up in homes for the elderly, so their past only leaks to the outside and doesn't spill all over the world.

[cellocgw]

Well...
As all archaeologists and anthropologists know, there's a lot that can be learned by studying coproliths. If this particular time-traveller ate newspapers for X years, there's gotta be a lot of proto-coproliths in that time capsule. <-- Not to be confused with an herb -infuser (thyme-capsule).

[jc]

His last time machine didn't even have newspapers. Then again, he could get out of his two-seat kayak to get some food any time he wanted.

His next one probably won't, either, since newspaper itself is on the way out. This is a bit of a bother, because newspaper has long been the best paper to use with a charcoal chimney. The replacement ad-only paper that keeps arriving in our mail slot have a much higher clay content, doesn't work as well, and leaves a lot more ash. But that was never the primary function of newspaper, and the publishers are slowly coming to understand that people didn't buy them because they wanted the paper. Paperless news has become much faster and more easily available, as well as not being subject to the "keyhole effect" created by a single supplier. But news is now mostly distributed via electrons or photons, so he'll have to find something else to take along as food on his next time-travel trip.

Maybe he can learn to eat electrons during his next trip.

[cryptoengineer]

Munroe lives in the Boston area, and we just had a 'time capsule' moment here.

During renovations on the Massachusetts State House, the building's original cornerstone was exposed and the time capsule therein rediscovered. They'd known it was there, but not exactly where.

The building's cornerstone was originally dedicated by the Freemasons in 1795 (Paul Revere was Grand Master at the time), and contained coins, contemporary newspapers, and a silver plaque Revere had made, commemorating the event. It was rediscovered in 1855, and more coins, newspapers, and another plaque added, then rededicated by the Masons again.

This year was basically a re-run of 1855, with again, a colorful rededication ceremony by the Freemasons.

ce

[Mahnarch]

His last time machine didn't even have newspapers. Then again, he could get out of his two-seat kayak to get some food any time he wanted.

His next one probably won't, either, since newspaper itself is on the way out. This is a bit of a bother, because newspaper has long been the best paper to use with a charcoal chimney. The replacement ad-only paper that keeps arriving in our mail slot have a much higher clay content, doesn't work as well, and leaves a lot more ash. But that was never the primary function of newspaper, and the publishers are slowly coming to understand that people didn't buy them because they wanted the paper. *snip*

Maybe the paper maker can start selling blank newspaper paper at Walmarts and/or Meijers grocery stores near the charcoal.
Or, maybe, it's the next million dollar idea!

[david.windsor]

Time travel - The long way round

[Echo244]

I'm starting to believe that Beret Guy is really a time traveller. Look at what the shape of his head should be, compared to where his hat lies. I swear his hat is bigger on the inside...

[Fungo4]

Am I to infer that he planned to kill Hitler with a hammer?

[david.windsor]

Am I to infer that he planned to kill Hitler with a hammer?

was either that or a spoon

[rmsgrey]

Time travel - The long way round

And here I thought it was the traveling twin who took the long way round. Now you're suggesting it's the stay-at-home one who did?

[Envelope Generator]

I'm starting to believe that Beret Guy is really a time traveller. Look at what the shape of his head should be, compared to where his hat lies. I swear his hat is bigger on the inside...

For who knows how many years he had nothing to do but eat newspapers and hit himself on the head with a hammer. That does things to your bone structure, y'know.

[orthogon]

Time travel - The long way round

And here I thought it was the traveling twin who took the long way round. Now you're suggesting it's the stay-at-home one who did?

There is no long way. They both went the same distance, one just traveled more through time and the other more through spaaaaaaaace.

ETA: this comic reminds me of a Friday Night Armistice sketch in which Armando Iannucci pretended to dig up the Blue Peter time capsule, replace the contents with porno mags, condoms and drugs, and rebury it ready to be dug up and opened live on children's TV.

[Zylon]

I hate White Beret. I hate him and I want him to die, painfully. He's the Woody Woodpecker of XKCD.

[Djehutynakht]

Well that's a bit... harsh?

[Flumble]

I hate White Beret. I hate him and I want him to die, painfully. He's the Woody Woodpecker of XKCD.

Wanting his death is one thing (hehe, "wanting" and "one thing" are semihomophones), but comparing him to Woody makes me really really angry with you!
White beret guy is a good guy. Maybe a bit daft, but always interested in (the weirdest) things and never obnoxious.
Woody's face alone screams obnoxiousness and egotism, let alone his voice and character.

[Jackpot777]

ETA: this comic reminds me of a Friday Night Armistice sketch in which Armando Iannucci pretended to dig up the Blue Peter time capsule, replace the contents with porno mags, condoms and drugs, and rebury it ready to be dug up and opened live on children's TV.

This is the most British thing I have read since I saw the headline that time they were looking for anyone that saw the close shave outside the gym just southeast of Liverpool. Police Appeal For Witness Of Widnes Fitness Business Near Miss.

[kodiac]

Am I to infer that he planned to kill Hitler with a hammer?

If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like Hitler?
Now that makes me think of the movie Being John Malkovich (the part where John Malkovich enters his own head and sees many people looking like himself).

[Djehutynakht]

I hate White Beret. I hate him and I want him to die, painfully. He's the Woody Woodpecker of XKCD.

Oh, while I still think this is mean....coincidence?

http://xkcd.com/614/

[higgs-boson]

Is that me or ... I mean, time-travelling to kill Hitler, okay, one could justify that more or less easily, but... coming from the past?

Where else has he been before?
Who has he met?
What does he know about Hitler what has not been written down in the history books? Are there, on a time-travelling scope, more than one?

Yuck. Let's send a Mercedes Benz back in time and let an AI fix this.

[Djehutynakht]

I also appreciate how casual he is about killing Hitler. It's almost like an aside. It's not particularly determined or with an intonation of anger or focus or anything. It's like an errand he just happens to be running.

[higgs-boson]

Where else has he been before?

Second thoughts:

When else has he been before?
When else will he have had been before?

[sfmans]

His next one probably won't, either, since newspaper itself is on the way out. This is a bit of a bother, because newspaper has long been the best paper to use with a charcoal chimney. The replacement ad-only paper that keeps arriving in our mail slot have a much higher clay content, doesn't work as well, and leaves a lot more ash. But that was never the primary function of newspaper, and the publishers are slowly coming to understand that people didn't buy them because they wanted the paper. Paperless news has become much faster and more easily available, as well as not being subject to the "keyhole effect" created by a single supplier. But news is now mostly distributed via electrons or photons, so he'll have to find something else to take along as food on his next time-travel trip.

So THAT'S why my fire won't light no matter how many Kindles I put on it.

[Neil_Boekend]

His next one probably won't, either, since newspaper itself is on the way out. This is a bit of a bother, because newspaper has long been the best paper to use with a charcoal chimney. The replacement ad-only paper that keeps arriving in our mail slot have a much higher clay content, doesn't work as well, and leaves a lot more ash. But that was never the primary function of newspaper, and the publishers are slowly coming to understand that people didn't buy them because they wanted the paper. Paperless news has become much faster and more easily available, as well as not being subject to the "keyhole effect" created by a single supplier. But news is now mostly distributed via electrons or photons, so he'll have to find something else to take along as food on his next time-travel trip.

So THAT'S why my fire won't light no matter how many Kindles I put on it.

You should charge it, rip out the safety features and short the battery. That'll burn nicely.

[freezeblade]

Those chimney things are for wussies!

I start my fire with some bits and branches nearby, along with a paper bag that my hunk of meat and fixins came with from the store. No compressed charcoal either, big lumps, ya cheaters!

[Neil_Boekend]

Actually, compressed charcoal is more difficult to get going. It also burns different and needs a BBQ with far bigger air holes. If you try to burn charcoal in a cheap Weber clone you'll burn the anti-stick coating from the grill (experience).

[Eutychus]

Where else has he been before?

Second thoughts:

When else has he been before?
When else will he have had been before?

I'm sure that should have been "wioll haven been"

/doffs hat to Dr Dan Streetmentioner