IBM today announced that Vancouver-based company Fusion Genomics selected IBM’s cloud capabilities to help advance Fusion’s ability to detect pandemics before they happen. Fusion Genomics has developed disruptive DNA and RNA technology that it believes can positively identify infectious diseases and enhance the surveillance of emerging pathogens like MERS, SARS, avian flu, and swine flu.

IBM today announced the findings of a major new study of over 1,900 Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) and senior finance executives from 81 countries and 35 industries worldwide, which reveals that more than 60 percent of CFOs plan major changes to respond to the new economic climate.

IBM annonce aujourd’hui que son nouveau cloud pour les fabricants d’appareils électroniques fournira à la TV connectée de Philips de nouveaux services internet, afin de proposer une gamme de services plus interactifs à des millions de téléspectateurs dans plus de 30 pays en Europe, mais aussi au Brésil et en Argentine.

One hundred IBM (NYSE: IBM) employees from 33 countries – including six from Australia and New Zealand – have been selected to participate in the company's new Corporate Service Corps program. The program is part of the Global Citizen's Portfolio initiative announced by CEO Sam Palmisano to develop leadership skills, while addressing socio-economic challenges in emerging markets.

So, hey, STW alumni, long time no lecture. How are things?

Happy New Year to you all. May 2020 bring you nothing but good, and may we all fight all the monsters together.

Figured I would start running old comics through the RSS feed, so here you go.

In case you missed when Surviving the World ended, we ran a Kickstarter to put together a book collection of some of the best STW comics from the entire 10+ year run. The book came out pretty tremendous - there's 300 comics in beautiful color, all the 'file under' jokes, all the addendum and archive jokes, some new jokes, a soundtrack listing, a foreword by Christopher Moore - it's really nice and most people liked it as much as I did!

Anyway, we have some additional copies that are now on sale at Topatoco if you want an extra copy or a first copy, whatever the case may be. I will eventually get the PDF version of the book up and available for sale as well, if any of you are so inclined.

As for me, I am professoring away, working on some other projects, still doing bad jokes and things on social media, all while still making STEM comics, and hopefully will have some new work to share with you soon.

Other than that, for now, I hope life-long learning continues to bring you new enlightenment and I hope you all continue to get all joy and happiness you deserve.

The STW Book!

This comic was originally posted in 2013.

The STW Book!

This comic was originally posted in 2010.

The STW Book!

This comic was originally posted in 2011.

The STW Book!

This comic was originally posted in 2015.

The STW Book!

This comic was originally posted in 2017.

The STW Book!

This comic was originally posted in 2014.

The STW Book!

This comic was originally posted in 2018.

Thoughts from 2020: If I had ever had an agent, I would have pitched a book of nothing but mazes like this. Maybe I should find an agent and pitch this anyway. This is definitely not the best known STW maze - it's not the one that people kept trying to rip off for their own shirts and designs and companies - but it was a pretty good one to be the final maze of the comic.

Also, this was #3500, and it was a pretty good one for the last big numbered comic. I won't lie, looking back, a lot of STW is only 'just okay', but I can enjoy when some were slightly better than others. I think this was one?

The STW Book!

This comic was originally posted in 2014.

Thoughts from 2020: We still can't keep flowers in the house because of the cat. This is why the aloe plant is now in my office at work. Did you know aloe is poisonous to cats or something like that?

The STW Book!

This comic was originally posted in 2012.

Thoughts from 2020: Sprite the cat is still with us, by the way. She's at least 14 now and we've had her for 13 years as of last October. She is still the greatest cat ever created. And she pretty much always hated being put in the labcoat like this.

The STW Book!

This comic was originally posted in 2014 on the "I Love Charts" Medium site - I was allowed to repost comics on STW but I don't think I ever did, so this is the first time this comic has appeared on STW.

Thoughts from 2020: The worst part about being in every STW means that I get to see how freakishly young I looked even just six years ago. Stupid children stealing my youth.

"Hark" was the four-letter new-slang insult that a reader suggested adopting sometime in 2011, and it remains a stupidly fun curse word for me, especially around the holidays.

I got 2 cents for every view of the comics on the Medium site during the first 3 months it ran, and then got 1 cent for every view during the last 3 months (incidentally, also why I started making 2 additional comics per week for them as opposed to 1). I think I spent most of the income on comics.

The STW Book!

This comic was originally posted in 2016.

Thoughts from 1/14/2020: I developed IBS-like symptoms, or what is essentially an allergy, to caffeine about 8 months ago. Looking back on all the comics that involve coffee like this one, I'm not surprised why. By the way, it's difficult to get through the day without caffeine and caffeine-free tea just doesn't cut it.

The STW Book!

This comic was originally posted in 2008.

Thoughts from 1/15/2020: I don't continue to hold that you will get the same grade in ChemE whether you study all night or get drunk the night before, but I use that line with my students all the time. That said, electrical engineering remains black magic.

The STW Book!

This comic was originally posted in 2011.

Thoughts from 1/16/2020: I made this comic when I was still 27. What the hell was I focusing on at that point?

The STW Book!

This comic was originally posted in 2014.

Thoughts from 1/17/2020: Considering this now pedagogically ... I'm not sure this is helpful for students at all.

The STW Book!

This comic was originally posted in 2016.

Thoughts from 1/18/2020: This comic was kind of simple and dumb and yet you still maybe learned something from it, so all in all it was kind of the perfect STW.

The STW Book!

This comic was originally posted in 2009.

Thoughts from 1/19/2020: This comic came out in December of 2009, about six months after STW got really popular, and I remember someone shared the image on Twitter and Neil Gaiman retweeted it, and that led to another brief boost in popularity. It's weird to think that STW started at exactly the right time - I don't think it would have made a dent if it started today, and I don't think something like this really could have started today. Anyway, life and history are weird.

Get the STW Book!

This comic was originally posted in 2016.

Thoughts from 1/20/2020: My smile in this one perfectly captures my true delight in this terrible pun. In so many ways, this is one of my favorite STWs. It's also in the STW book. Speaking of ...

Get the STW Book!

This comic was originally posted in 2014.

Thoughts from 1/21/2020: There was a brief period of time when I was being asked to submit various chart jokes to WIRED. One got in - a pie chart showing Vin Diesel's moods were 50% fast and 50% furious. This one was one that got rejected so screw it, I made it into a STW.

Get the STW Book!

This comic was originally posted in 2015.

Thoughts from 1/22/2020: I look ridiculous.

Get the STW Book!

This comic was originally posted in 2012.

Thoughts from 1/23/2020: It's a living.

I only had one newly born baby at the time of this comic. Remember people asking for updates about Cannonball as we were doing our best to keep her from arriving early? Now she's got a sibling and Cannonball is almost 8. Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana.

Get the STW Book!

This comic was originally posted in 2013.

Thoughts from 1/24/2020: One of my students, the semester this comic was released, drunkenly typed this up and submitted it as a comment in my course evaluations, which means the text here has been a part of every promotion dossier I've had to submit.

Oh, look, you can see I'm kneeling, like I was in about 60-70% of all the comics I made. That's just bad cropping, there.

Get the STW Book!

This comic was originally posted in 2008.

Thoughts from 1/25/2020: I did this far more often than I should have and was a terrible example of safety - to be fair, I was following the culture that was set at the time. Now I teach safety and so it's very much a case of "Look at me, kids, do you want to be as pathetic and awful as me?"

Get the STW Book!

This comic was originally posted in 2017.

Thoughts from 1/26/2020: Continues to apply in all things.

Get the STW Book!

This comic was originally posted in 2008.

Thoughts from 1/27/2020: There were three comics of this "Sports vs." theme. This is probably the best of the three? I used to play several sports in high school for my Catholic high school, and they would want us to pray as a team before each game, and then we'd usually follow with someone saying the name of a saint, and then the rest of the team responding "pray for us". Usually someone would say "St. Sebastian", who was the patron saint of sports, so the "pray for us" made sense. There'd be a "St. Bernard", since that was the name of our school, and the "pray for us" was obvious. And since we were terrible in almost all sports, I'd throw in a "St. Jude", and everyone would readily respond with a "pray for us", as a matter of practice ... not knowing that St. Jude was the patron saint of hopeless causes. It is fair to say that St. Jude did not come through for us in most cases, or perhaps he stayed true to his cause and thus did come through? Anyway high school sucked.

Get the STW Book!

This comic was originally posted in 2010.

Thoughts from 1/28/2020: The dumbest thing I did was ending recitations on the site, and I did that just 2 or 3 years in. At that point, I was getting 10 to 20 emails a day from people trying to get a question on the site, and when I ended it, that dropped off completely. Ah well! Of course, I realized this and tried to recapture the connection not long after with 'homeworks' or 'big questions', but it was too late. On the other hand, my actual students would have had a field day with recitations if I was still doing these by the time I became a professor.

Get the STW Book!

This comic was originally posted in 2018.

Thoughts from 1/29/2020: The day after STW ended, my youngest child, Torpedo, lectured the hungry hungry hippos on making sure to share the food. I remain endlessly delighted by this memory.

Get the STW Book!

This comic was originally posted in 2018.

Thoughts from 1/30/2020: I think this came out the day after my joke about Batman and Conditioner Gordon that continues to pop up and send out Google alerts with my last name that continue to irritate my Dad.

A few months after STW ended, I did a way-too-long thread on Twitter that ran with and completely beat into the ground this rhyming wordplay scheme.

Get the STW Book!

This comic was originally posted in 2012.

Thoughts from 1/31/2020: This seems like the totally mature comic that a person would publish just two months before they became a dad. Setting a strong example for the youth of near-tomorrow!

Get the STW Book!

This comic was originally posted in 2008.

Thoughts from 2/2/2020: The first raptor impression on the site! I totally stole the whole raptor thing from a guy I knew freshman year of college, and he was perfect at the noise and movement, but he transferred out after that year anyway.

There was no re-run yesterday because I briefly participated in Hourly Comic Day. Here are eight I made before giving up on it. Not sure I'll do it again, unless I start actually drawing.

Get the STW Book!

This comic was originally posted in 2017.

Thoughts from 2/3/2020: This was very hard to make, given a 10-second timer on the camera, and needing to get the book prepared in-between my monkey toes, let alone raising everything to the right height. Also no one appreciated how clever this was, because, alas, that's the way of things.

Get the STW Book!

This comic was originally posted in 2016.

Thoughts from 2/4/2020: There is a real problem with making endless comics for ten straight years that have your face in them, as you will get set in your mind that is what you look like, and anyway I'm 37 today and I'm now trying to remind myself that that's the way of things. The sad thing is I know I somehow got a little more mature along the way, and that's the real depressing thing. Hurray!

Get the STW Book!

This comic was originally posted in 2016.

Thoughts from 2/14/2020: Westley was a good dog and he was forced into a labcoat far too many times.

The 'roses are red' rhyming scheme joke is my favorite part of this stupid holiday.

Get the STW Book!

This comic was originally posted in 2014.

Thoughts from 2/16/2020: This comic was made in honor of my sixth wedding anniversary. I then self-plagiarized it for when I officiated my friend Ron's wedding this past summer, and then self-plagiarized it again for when I officiated my sister's wedding last fall. And now I'm posting it on the day of my parents' 40th wedding anniversary. I have better comics about love but this one kind of drives the message home better than any of them.

Get the STW Book!

This comic was originally posted in 2017.

Thoughts from 2/18/2020: I just spent my weekend grading 148 exams for two classes and I'm brain numb right now. So here's an old comic about grading.

Get the STW Book!

This comic was originally posted in 2018.

Thoughts from 3/8/2020: It's International Women's Day so let's destroy the old system, if that's okay with all of you.

Both Torpedo and Cannonball seem likely to continue on this path, as most people of their generation will be, I assume.

Get the STW Book!

This comic was originally posted in 2014.

Thoughts from 3/10/2020: I remember making this comic six years ago but I did not remember that 'file under' tag, I must have been feeling particularly blasphemous that day.

Get the STW Book!

This comic was originally posted in 2012.

Thoughts from 4/12/2020: I remember this comic coming out just days before Cannonball was born and even though I was hallucinating to the point that the chair I was sleeping on was literally talking to me, those were certainly simply times than right now.

I hope that all of you and your families are healthy, both physically and mentally. May we all make it through these times as best we can.

Get the STW Book!

This comic was originally posted in 2010.

Thoughts from 4/13/2020: This was originally thought of in 2003 after a bad summer camp experience, and was developed in response to dumb political talking points in 2010. I have no possible idea why I've been reminded of it now ...

I hope that all of you and your families are healthy, both physically and mentally. May we all make it through these times as best we can.

Get the STW Book!

This comic was originally posted in 2017.

Thoughts from 5/8/2020: Hey, it's my mom's birthday! Happy birthday, mom. Thanks for not throwing me into the sun.

Get the STW Book!

One-shot between Harry and Ginny a day before his Auror-training began. Canon, R&R

A friend wrote to me today urging me to read Killing the Rising Sun as, by he said, Bill O’Reilly, since it made the case that the U.S. had to drop atomic bombs on Japan. My reply: You underestimate me, my friend; I’ve already read to Killing the Rising Sun. The key issue out of […]

In my new novel, The Oppenheimer Alternative — coming June 2, 2020, and available for pre-order now — the following exchange occurs between J. Robert Oppenheimer and his wife Kitty (with Kitty employing a racial slur that was regrettably all-too-common during the Second World War): “They … they’ve dropped a second bomb,” Oppie said, holding her. […]

Emmy Nominee Leslye Headland to write, produce, and serve as showrunner for new untitled Star Wars series for Disney+.

Hello everyone! The website has been updated but it's still under construction! Bear with us while we make a few changes, merchandise will be avilable soon! Thank you so much for reading! -HamletMachine

Hey all, this is Thisbe, I helped Hamlet get the new website up and running and I'm also giving her a hand with some of the merchandising stuff. I just wanted to give you all a little more detail about the T-Shirts. We've got one shirt up on the Starfighter Shop already, and you can preorder it if you like, but they won't be shipping out for another two weeks or so.

That's all for now - if you have any questions or notice any bugs on the site let me know at starfightercomic@gmail.com

Hope you like the new look! -Thisbe