Game AIs
by Jeff
Image text: The top computer champion at Seven Minutes in Heaven is a Honda-built Realdoll, but to date it has been unable to outperform the human Seven Minutes in Heaven champion, Ken Jennings.
This explanation got really long, so I'm placing it after the jump.
AAAAAA
by Jeff
Image text: 'ARE YOU TURNED ON YET?' 'I DON'T THINK SO--ARE YOU?' 'MAYBE A LITTLE!' 'OK, FIVE MORE MINUTES.'
Ok, in this comic, Megan and Cueball find out that "this guy's mansion" has a rotating bed (in the last frame, which is a flashback). So, they decide to build one and it appears to be going far too fast as both are holding on for dear life on each side of the bed.
The rotating bed is supposed to be a sexy device, but it appears from the comic that Cueball and Megan have made it rotate a little to fast to be appealing. However, the image text maybe makes us think otherwise.
This Week’s New Explanations
by Jeff
New Comics:
New Archives: (In No Particular Order)
Resonance by Amy
All the below are by Rik 't Hoff:
Poisson
Snapple
Kepler
The Cure
Pillow Talk
Guitar Hero
Su Doku
Iambic Pentameter
Paths
Velociraptors
Escher Bracelet
(I'm still working. Yes, I have yours. Going through them slower than I had hoped. Please, still submit submit submit!)
1000 Comics
by Jeff
Image text: Thank you for making me feel less alone.
This is obviously the 1000th xkcd comic. In this comic, click on the image above to see the large version, Randall has put (almost?) every stick figure character he has used through the 5+ years into the number 1000. Can't know for certain if this is all the characters, but it is an awful lot and I recognize a bunch.
The joke in this comic is Cueball saying at the bottom, "Only 24 more to go for a big round number". First and obviously, 1000 is a big round number, but in binary notation, 1024 is represented as 10000000000, making it a simple round number occurring frequently in computers.
Cougars
by Jeff
Image text: If you're lying in bed tonight and you see yellow eyes glinting in your window, are you being stalked by a puma, a mountain lion, a panther, a catamount, or a cougar? Trick question--in North America, they're all names for the same species, Puma concolor! Isn't learning fun? Anyway, sleep tight!
In this comic, Randall is giving reason 58 why he should not have children. We see fictitious "father Cueball" talking about the wikipedia entry for the list of fatal cougar attacks in North America. Here's the link so you can look for yourself.
And the reason he should not have children is the fact that he can't resist himself when learning and sharing knowledge about the world (from wikipedia). Usually, when you have kids and you learn scary things, you should not share it with them.
2012
by Jeff
Image text: To compensate for this, I plan to spend 2013 doing nothing but talking about Mayans. My relationships with my friends and family may not fare well.
Happy New Year everyone! This comic is in reference to the fact that the Mayans, an ancient civilization in the Americas, created a calendar that ends on Dec 21st, 2012. This date is regarded as the end-date of a 5,125-year-long cycle in the calendar used by the Mayan culture. Some therefore consider that the world is going to end on that date.
Consequently, a lot of people are talking about the Mayans, concerned that the world might end. Once December 21st, 2012 passes, everyone will be less concerned about the Mayans, because the world will not have ended. (Or it will have ended.)
In the final frame, Megan uses a take on the phrase, "Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it." but instead she takes it to the school class of history. In most American schools, a grade point average of 4.0 equals straight A's. However, if you "Fail to learn from History" and "fail" history with an F, they would still get a 3.0 with A's in other classes.
That is a little bit of a meandering explanation, hope it makes sense.
This Week’s New Explanations
by Jeff
New comics:
Coinstar
Making Things Difficult
Wait Wait
New Archives: (In no particular order)
Find You by Luke Simpson
I Am Not A Ninja by Harm
Fiction Rule of Thumb by Harm
Listen To Yourself by Harm
Tones by Harm
The Staple Madness by Harm
One-Sided by Harm
Dating Pool by Aaron Hill
Accident by Aaron Hill
Six Months by Aaron Hill
Boombox by Aaron Hill
2038 by Ricardo
We are still collecting xkcd explanations from back-catalog comics. Keep them coming!
Wait Wait
by Jeff
Image text: You can't stab Karl Kasell. He sounds all slow and stentorian, but he moves like a snake.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! (wikipedia) is an hour-long weekly radio news panel game show produced by Chicago Public Radio and National Public Radio. The show is hosted by playwright and actor Peter Sagal. This comic is making puns on the title of the show based on what Peter Sagal did that was newsworthy.
Carl Kasell, who also served as the newsreader on Morning Edition, is the show's official judge and scorekeeper. (I assume that is who Randall meant in the second paper in the second row and in the image text despite the Karl, Carl confusion. Which I believe is part of the point, that most people spell his name wrong, if this Language blog is to be believed.)
In the 3rd row, first paper, Lakshmi Singh is NPR's national midday newscaster.
In the 3rd row, 3rd paper is a reference to a protest at Occupy Berkley UC Davis (On the campus of University of California, Berkley University of California, Davis) protests earlier this year in which sitting, peaceful protesters were calmly pepper-sprayed in their faces by a police officer. That spawned an internet meme of epic proportions.
In the 4th row, 2nd paper is a reference to the movie, Ghostbusters.
In the 5th row, 3rd paper is a reference to another internet meme in where someone leaves out the verb in the sentence. It is based on the I Accidentally ___ meme. link.
In the 5th row, 3rd paper, all I can find on Eldritch is that it was a Dungeons and Dragons' book, also is used in Terry Prachett's DiscWorld. Generally, it means and evil being.
Also, as always, still looking for back catalog xkcd explanations. Still working through a bunch of them.
Making Things Difficult
by Jeff
Image text: Favorite mastectomy breast prosthesis idea: a fake boob containing a spare rechargable battery, accessed via a nipple USB port. Complete with a ring of LED charge indicators in the areola!
This comic is a reference to the breast cancer surgery that someone in Randall's family recently underwent this year. This comic is the follow up appointment after the surgery. When the doctor asks Megan to take her shirt off, she refuses until the doctor gives her a necklace of beads that in the New Orleans Mardi Gras culture is used to exchange for the exposure of a female's breasts.
So, by Megan saying "You know the rules", that indicates that Megan has stipulated that every time she takes off her shirt for the doctor, a necklace of beads much be exchanged.
Don't forget, we still are looking for submissions for back catalog xkcd explanations. I'll have the list of the comics posted this week up on Friday.
Coinstar
by Jeff
Image text: Plus they take like 9%.
This comic combines the holiday tradition of giving out and consuming chocolate coins, which are chocolate formed in the shape of coins with foil wrappers and the Coinstar vending machines that you see frequently in Grocery stores and shopping malls around the US. The Coinstar machines take all your coins, sort and count them and then give you the amount of money in cash (less 9 or 10% as it says in the image text - but if you get the Amazon gift card, you can keep the whole proceeds.)
Also, just as a reminder, we are still submitting entries for explanations of back catalog xkcd comics. We have got a bunch of awesome entries so far that I haven't had time to go post yet, so don't hesitate to submit!