Episode Twenty

http://www.ndbag.com/story/comic/20.html

Today's lesson from Ndbag is a surprising one. As we examine his words carefully, we realise that the hidden meaning is, on this occasion, that there is no hidden meaning.

He is telling us that the early boogyman gets the lint.

And therein lies the paradox.

Episode Nineteen

http://www.ndbag.com/story/comic/19.html

Gentle reader, your chronicler is bemused. Has Ndbag turned to the dark side? Tired of his attempts to confer wisdom upon the slack-jawed yokels who comprise his followers, has he had enough? Have we offended him somehow?

Or is there more to this 'ZK' than meets the eye?

Episode Eighteen

http://www.ndbag.com/story/comic/18.html

So the unnamed beastie at last has a name... or does he?

We've already learned that ZK -- let's call him that for now -- tried unsuccessfully to convince us that he had the qualities of a star; now we find that his name is Zerakiel Kwintosz. But it sounds suspiciously like an attempt at subliminally suggesting that he is the long-awaited Kwisatz Haderach. Can it be? Is ZK truly the Shortening of the Way? Much as we'd like to think so, it seems unlikely for several reasons.

Episode Seventeen

http://www.ndbag.com/story/comic/17.html

Where does lint come from? Long dismissed an unanswerable question, in recent decades it has come to the fore again as scientists struggle to meet with mankind's burgeoning energy demands. The quest for an answer, though, is not without peril, and we may find that the answer is not to our liking.

Episode Sixteen

 http://www.ndbag.com/story/comic/16.html

The importance of agriculture cannot be overstated; it surely ranks as one of the greatest innovations of all time. Without it, the human race would still number in the hundreds of thousands, and the sole chance of this planet defending itself from space-borne death -- through asteroids or aliens from Zeta Reticuli -- would never come to pass. But have it we do, and for thousands of years it has served us well. Not just by teaching us to plant cereal; the countless innovations that have come about since then have improved our diet, our knowledge and our capacity to fill the Earth.

Episode Fifteen

http://www.ndbag.com/story/comic/15.html

Can it be true that pandas are never out of season? A worrying prospect, especially for those who've studied the classics, and remember Daffy's pronoun trouble during rabbit season. But there can be little doubt about the fact; after all, it's Pandbag himself that's telling us this.

But wait... isn't the boogeypanda a creature of myth? What, then, are we to make of Pandbag's assertion? Can we believe the word of a creature that doesn't exist? Certainly, we've grown up with an implicit trust of pandas, and none of us has any reason to doubt the word of Ndbag, but what if the two are combined? One is reminded of the clarity of phenolphthalein; when one mixes it with the equally colourless calcium hydroxide, one gets a new liquid; one of a different colour. Can it be that the combined words of a boogeyman and a panda can somehow lead us to an erroneous conclusion? Perhaps there are times of year when it isn't panda season?

The epistemological nature of this quandary is further clouded by the song that Pandbag sings; we're told that it's the season not just to shoot pandas, but to be them. Furthermore, one doesn't become a panda, but pandas. This leads to some confusion; is Ndbag warning us of the dangers of totalitarian societies in which the individual is subsumed into the whole, or is he telling us that those are the very societies least likely to fall through internecine conflict? We aren't told, and therein lies the point.

By refusing to offer us an opinion on the relative merits of different social systems, and by suggesting that it's always panda season, Ndbag is pointing out the necessity of each society to decide for itself. This refusal could well be traumatic for the countless numbers who've learned to rely on Ndbag for guidance, but we soon realise that he's telling us that his purpose is to guide, not to command. By forcing us to think for ourselves, he's giving us the opportunity to grow; as individuals, as societies, as a species.

Episode Fourteen

http://www.ndbag.com/story/comic/14.html

Epistemology has, over the centuries, brought many philosophers and logicians together, and driven just as many apart. To this day the world's greatest thinkers are divided over many aspects of the field, and it's taken until now for someone to come forward with a clarion call to philosophers and logicians both; a clarion call to unite against the common enemy: the statistician.