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| Earth Sized Planets |
 Title text: It probably has an icy mantle over the real silicate geology, but I'm hoping something weird happened to burn off most of the water like with Io. |
Explanation
Cueball and Ponytail are discussing the possibility of the new Vera C. Rubin Observatory discovering an Earth-sized object in the far reaches of the Solar System, as one of several so far unsupported hypothetical candidates as the next Planet Nine, or Ten, that might be on the cusp of being discovered. It would have to be very distant, however, as well as Pluto being smaller than our Moon and discovered a century ago with Earth-based telescopes, the gravitational effects of an Earth-sized object in the vicinity of Pluto should already have been detected.
Cueball is intrigued by Ponytail's initial imagery, of a planet similar to Earth but with internal heat to make up for the limited heat it would be able to receive from the Sun. In his mind, this leads straight to the exciting possibility that it might even harbor life. Ponytail, being a geologist, has another objective in mind. She is more excited by the idea that it might have plate tectonics, which none of the other terrestrial planets have to any significant degree (excluding, perhaps, some of the moons of the gas giants, especially those where there is a possibly mobile ice surface rather than rocky plates such as Earth has).
The title text continues with the geologist's bias towards being interested in rock-based situations (i.e. silicates) by dismissing the presence of water-ice (a possible hint of the presence of liquid water, an assumed prerequisite for life). Though they expect there to be a layer of ice, they would rather that this would somehow go away in order that the 'real surface' could be studied properly. Ironically, based on our current understanding of plate tectonics, the lack of water would prevent "normal" (i.e. earth-like) plate tectonics. Water is needed to lubricate subduction zones, without it oceanic plates could not slide under the continental plates.
This comic may have been inspired by the actual discovery of an "enormous dwarf planet" by the VCRO, although this is still far from being an Earth-sized planet.
Transcript
[Cueball and Ponytail are walking side by side.]
- Ponytail: If there's an earth-sized object in the outer solar system, the Rubin Observatory should find it soon.
[Cueball and Ponytail continue to walk, Ponytail raises her left hand a bit.]
- Ponytail: If it's Earth-sized, it might have a rocky surface and internal heat.
[They stop, and Ponytail turns to face Cueball, raising her arms above her head.]
- Ponytail: If it has a rocky surface and internal heat, it might have-
- Cueball: Life?
- Ponytail: Plate tectonics!
[They continue walking, Ponytails hands are out in front of her.]
- Cueball: You geologists have weird priorities.
- Ponytail: Earth just can't be the only one!
This Week's Explanation for Improvement
As part of the Explanation Improvement Project, each week the community selects one older, stagnant, or otherwise neglected explanation to expand and polish together. This week's pick is comic 1334: Second, you can help us by editing its explanation!
To get involved with the project, you can also nominate an explanation that you think should be improved, or vote on current nominations!
| Second |
 Title text: Let me just scroll down and check behind that rock. Annnnd... nope, page copyright year starts with '19'. Oh God, is this a WEBRING? |
Explanation
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Welcome to This Week's Explanation for Improvement! Anyone is encouraged to help explain comic 1334: Second; click here to get started! If you are new to wiki editing, you can read our editing FAQ for guidance. Here are some suggestions for improving this explanation: .svg){kind=icon} Copyedit the entire explanation!
.svg){kind=icon} Improve the explanation of "webrings", mentioned in the title text
.svg){kind=icon} Maybe we could add the newer developments in the 12 years after this comic was posted, such as the AI summaries and the enshittification of Google results
|
Google is a popular search engine,[citation needed] and its searching algorithms are widely regarded as the most accurate and useful.[citation needed] If your search terms were sufficiently detailed, you will be able to find what you were looking for on the first page. Having to view the second page indicates your search terms were too vague or the answer to your query doesn't exist. When the search results typically number in the tens of millions (or more; in fact, more popular search results are in the billions), only the very first results relate to the user's real query, so the second page is typically not helpful for the issue.
Cueball, after failing to find his query in the first page of results, takes a curious peek at the second page. This is represented by a not-at-all subtle metaphor in which Cueball is about to wander into a sun-baked desert. According to the title text, he finds one vaguely relevant webpage, but the copyright starting with '19' (i.e. from the 1990s or older), means that it's probably too old to be of any use.
The title text refers to webrings. Webrings consist of multiple websites that are connected together through links, usually with a common theme. They connect from one website to the next, eventually leading back to the starting site. They were popular in the 1990s as a form of web directory, popularized by the titular "The Webring" (later WebRing) and typically curated by a 'ringmaster'. Web directories in general fell out of use with the rise of search engines, so seeing a webring could mean a site has not been updated since then. Yahoo acquired WebRing in 1999 as part of its acquisition of GeoCities and rebranded the service to Yahoo! WebRing in 2000, leaving ringmasters "angry" in part because their customizable homepages had been replaced by the design of Yahoo! WebRing. Taking off in the early 2020s, people have been creating new webrings, often in connection to the web hosting service Neocities, launched in 2013 and inspired by GeoCities. At one time, the importance of a webpage was judged partly on the number of pages linking to it; a webring has at least one page (the previous page in the ring) linking to it but often nothing else (if they were notable enough to be otherwise linked, they were less likely to be on a webring), meaning that reaching a webring meant that one had reached the one-incoming-link level of unimportance.
Transcript
- [Cueball in a desert standing before a rock.]
- Rock: Greetings, stranger.
- Rock: Whatever quest drives you, abandon it.
- Rock: You shall find no answers in these desolate wastes.
- Cueball: I knew I wouldn't.
- Cueball: I guess I... just had to see.
- I hate feeling desperate enough to visit the second page of Google results.
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