xkcd is a Creative Commons webcomic that focuses on technical issues (Open Source, Perl, etc.). It's unusual because it's inspired some real-life stunts. A small xkcd collection is posted below. These strips are distributed under the following license: Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 2.5.

Note: The author is Randall Munroe (xkcd.com), an engineer with a background in physics.

Note: In response to the preceding cartoon, two xkcd fans purchased a katana for Richard Stallman:

FYI: String Theory is a branch of physics that’s controversial because it can’t be tested. From one point of view, this means that the theory isn't science. It’s actually philosophy or magic.

FYI: Lisp is a respected programming language. It's elegant and focused. However, in practice, most engineers would prefer to use Perl. Perl is messy, but it’s much easier to do things in this language.

FYI: Cory Doctorow is a blogger and author who's involved with the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Creative Commons. He won the 2007 EFF Pioneer Award and the presenters provided him with xkcd-inspired attire, complete with balloon.

FYI: “Backslashes” are a programming feature. They can be used to turn ordinary characters into special characters and vice versa. When you use a backslash to turn a special character into an ordinary character, you’re “escaping” the character.

In Spring 2007, xkcd ran the following strip:

FYI: The numbers shown in the strip include the latitude and longitude of a park in Cambridge, Virginia plus the date September 23, 2007. Not too surprisingly, a lot of people showed up at the park on the specified date:

A chess-related stunt from the same year (2007):